8:58am
Lindsay and Anton talked in the back seats. Matt was driving the company Ford Expedition to the airport where they were scheduled to be in half an hour. It was Friday morning, and they were off to Hawaii.
9:19am
"We're here!" Matt announced while driving into the underground long-term parking lot at the airport. "And we made good time, too."
Anton and Lindsay got out of the back while Matt opened the trunk to get the few suitcases they had packed. Lindsay had her carry-on luggage plus one suitcase. Matt had the same, but Anton had only a carry-on. They took their bags into the terminal and waited for their private jet to arrive.
"Wow, this is nicer than any other jet we've been in," Lindsay commented after entering the small craft. "Look, it even has a fridge!"
Anton and Matt put their bags away and joined her in the main seating area. Anton pulled out a book and started reading while Matt and Lindsay observed what happened on the tarmac. They were both thinking about the days ahead, of what they could possibly do to figure this out. Soon after Matt fell asleep with his head against the window.
Peter arrived shortly after 8:00 on Saturday morning. He practically danced around the airport when he saw Lindsay, Matt, Anton and Cooper coming to pick him up. He was enjoying the freedom of pants again. They were waiting in the lounge part of the building, standing and talking quietly. He picked up his suitcase and went with them to the parking lot, where they had left the rental. It was a Chrysler minivan, like the ones they had had under the management of Doyle. Matt took his place in the driver's seat, Anton sat in the front, Cooper sat in the middle, and Lindsay and Peter sat in the back seat. It didn't take long for most of them to fall asleep. Anton reclined his chair and fell asleep looking at the scenery, Cooper just plain fell asleep, and Peter was obviously tired, having stayed up a lot of the night in anticipation of the days ahead to be spent in Hawaii.
Matt slammed on the brakes in the parking lot, waking everyone up. They moaned groggily and fell out of the van, figuratively speaking. They left their bags in the van and went to the cabin where they were staying until the Mobile Lab was airlifted to where they were.
Everyone went into the living room to watch TV, seeing they couldn't do anything without their equipment. They were halfway through watching Total Recall 2070 when a knock came at the door.
"Great, it's the welcome wagon," Peter commented sarcastically, having been woken by the knocking. Matt got up and answered the door. A teenager stood on the other side of it, holding a plate of hot cookies in her mitten-clad hands.
"Welcome wagon," she announced in an all-to-cheerful voice.
"Hey Peter, you were right," Lindsay pointed out to him.
"Whoopee. What prize did I win?" he replied, again sarcastically.
"A smack on the head," she got up and smacked him across the back of the head. He immediately took his pillow and hit her with it, starting a pillow fight.
"Children!" Matt yelled at them. "We have a guest."
Lindsay and Peter put down their pillows apologetically.
"Matt Praeger." Matt held out his hand to the girl. She shook it, introducing herself as well.
"Jillian Derby. I work at the restaurant next door." She looked around the room at everyone; Anton, who was reading in a corner after narrowly escaping being hit by a pillow, Cooper, who was writing something down in a book, and Lindsay and Peter, who had moved from having a pillow fight to insulting each other.
"Uh, I heard you guys were here to see about the snakes." Peter looked up at the door at the mention of snakes, ignoring Lindsay when she called him a nincompoop.
"Yeah. We'll be talking to everyone later, when our stuff gets here," Matt told her. "That shouldn't be too long from now."
"Speak of the devil," Cooper said, letting the curtains fall back in place.
Two large white 18-wheelers pulled up in front of the house. Their engines cut off and the assembly team came out. The driver of the first truck came up to Matt. "Where do you want them?"
Peter got up and went to the door. He smiled at Jillian before speaking to the driver. "I'll go with you to find a place," he volunteered. He, the trucker and the assembly team got back into the spacious trucks and left. |
