“Can you hear me okay?” Bradley’s voice echoed in my ears, and I realized that the helmet had speakers built into it.
“Yeah, I can.” I nodded.
“Okay, here we go.” Bradley chuckled, and the jet started to move.
Ready or not…
There was a part of me that wanted to beg him to stop, jump out of the cockpit, and run back to the limousine. That option evaporated as the jet picked up speed. It wasn’t like being on an airplane where I got to see a long stretch of runway. The plane accelerated fast, and then I felt it start to lift off the ground. I closed my eyes, tried to control my breathing, and dug my nails into the harness.
“Don’t worry. We’ll be there before you know it.” Bradley’s voice echoed in my ears again.
The jet zoomed into the air, and my head started to spin. I slowly cracked an eyelid and watched the city disappear. I had no idea how fast we were going, but it looked like the entire world was zipping by in an instant. The jet still seemed to be picking up speed, and the engine was getting louder, even with the headphones that were built into the helmet canceling most of the noise.
“You’re going to feel a bump—and hear a noise in a minute, but I need to make a quick call.” Bradley hit a couple of buttons, and I heard ringing.
“Okay…” I held my breath and swallowed hard.
“General Briggs?” Bradley exhaled sharply. “You’re going to get reports of a sonic boom somewhere around Grand Rapids. That’s just me—testing our your new jet.”
“You can’t break the sound barrier over land!” The voice on the other end of the phone sounded very distressed.
“I thought that’s what you wanted me to do.” Bradley chuckled. “Trust me, it won’t be that bad—and after I make this flight, your new jet will be fully tested.”
“Fine…” The voice on the other end growled. “Let me call the President.”
“Too late… Just make sure none of your guys shoot me down.” Bradley hit a button and ended the call—a second later there was a sound that could only be described as an explosion all around us.
Shoot us down!?
“Oh god!” I squealed and nearly broke my nails as I dug them deep into the leather on the harness.
“That’s the worst of it—just a little bump.” Bradley’s voice was reassuring, but it didn’t do much to quell the panic.
Yeah, this is more like a million little bumps.
I started to relax a little bit as I got used to the speed of the jet, but the lingering worry didn’t go away. I was zooming across the entire country faster than the speed of sound in a tin box. It might have been fun if I had more time to prepare myself, but everything happened o quickly that I was still trying to make sense of it all in my head.
Bradley got a call from General Briggs about an hour into our flight, and the President wasn’t happy, but we weren’t going to be shot down—that was a relief. They made arrangements for Bradley to land the jet at an Air Force base in Los Angeles. Once that call was done, Bradley placed a call to his limousine driver and asked him to have a car waiting—one that would take us to a New Year’s Eve party.
He’s going to do it. He’s going to get me to Los Angeles before the clock strikes midnight.
So that he can kiss me…
Holy crap.
I might not have been in love, but I was indeed impressed. Any guy that would go to that much trouble had more than earned a kiss midnight—but then another worry started to rise inside me.
What if he wants more than a kiss?
I don’t know what it was about Brittany that made me act so impulsively, but after I saw how disappointed that she was, I had to do something to try and change it. I wanted to see that beautiful smile on her face one more time—and then I tried to kiss her. I couldn’t travel through time, but I could turn the back a little bit—I just had to get us to Los Angeles before the clock struck midnight on the west coast.
We’re making good time at least. This jet is going to meet the Air Force general’s expectations and then some.
General Briggs would forgive my stunt, and I doubted the President was going to complain too much. He had bigger things on his agenda than a sonic boom over Grand Rapids. It was a mild one at best. I wasn’t even sure the people on the ground would be able to hear it, but w
e hadn’t done enough tests to confirm that we could easily break the sound barrier over land without freaking people out.
At least they were already shooting off fireworks to celebrate the new year. That probably helped.