by Charles Mead
“I like your attitude, that despite no knowledge of flying you think you have the skill and immense talent to fly a jumbo jet! I might have to suggest to a few people if a vlogger brings out a male fragrance it should be called Arrogance Personified or something like that. Perhaps ‘ArrogPer’ to not be so blatant.”
“I might have to see about my own fragrance when we return,” said James.
“Who says you are going to return?”
“Wait, you just said you weren’t going to kill us!” said Chris.
“I’m not going to kill you, but I am allowed to detain you as long as I like or deem necessary.”
“Time’s frozen, so not much time is passing, and anyway, when you unfreeze time it will look odd that the two of us are no longer in the cabin and have suddenly disappeared,” said James.
“It might look odd, so I will have to let you return.”
“Wait... is the conference we are here to attend even real? I mean, is this whole thing a setup to get DNA?”
“No, your conference is real. I think we are almost done here, but first we need to do something.”
Jensen took a black case from one of the agents’ hands and unclicked the sides, then put on some blue medical gloves.
“What are you doing now?” asked Chris, concerned once more.
“Well, we still need your DNA. I assume you are going to co-operate?”
They both nodded.
Jensen took out two cotton swabs attached to wooden sticks, and held one in each hand.
“Open wide, you two.”
They obeyed and Jensen gently swabbed the insides of their mouths.
“So, you are going to put us back on the plane now?” asked James.
“Oh yes, but we have to do that in a certain way. I mean, I have been blabbing along about our plans, and we can’t have anyone believing you about this, however made-up your story about this event will ultimately sound.”
“Wait, what about the uneaten scones on the plane and the countdown timer?”
“Well sometimes, James, uneaten food is just uneaten food. The countdown timer lets us know how long we have in our frozen time bubble until time unfreezes or unsticks itself automatically.”
Jensen reached into the case again and produced a syringe filled with a liquid. He rolled up James’s t-shirt to his shoulder and wiped a small area of skin with a medical wipe.
James knew he still had his phone recording the audio but thought he should play along for effect.
“No, Jensen, please don’t,” he complained as Jensen plunged the needle into his arm.
Chris gave James a weird look.
“Moron still thinks he is on camera, even now,” said Jensen as James passed out.
Jensen then started to rub a new medical wipe on Chris’s shoulder.
“You really don’t like vloggers, do you?” asked Chris.
“I like most people, this job just tends to mean I meet the worst people. Vloggers, however, especially those who are making silly money from it, have no idea how fortunate they are.”
“I realise I am fortunate, honestly, but this secret programme which you have told us about… I want to know more about it. I am really into conspiracies and shadow government-type stuff.”
“You seem different from James, I recommend you start to distance yourself from him. I have seen people like him many times. He’ll drag you down at some point.”
Jensen plunged the needle into Chris’s arm and he fell asleep in seconds.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Ladies and gentlemen, the jetway has now been connected. We’ll start disembarking Upper Class passengers first. Welcome to Las Vegas.”
James and Chris regained consciousness at almost the same time and looked at the other Upper Class passengers gathering their belongings to exit the plane.
James got up and grabbed his rucksack from the overhead locker and gave Chris a knowing look. Chris returned the look and it was clear that both of them remembered what had happened.
They were the last people off the plane from their cabin and they both thanked the flight attendants as they left and walked up the jetway to the main terminal again.
“You remember, don’t you?” asked James.
“Yes, everything. I wonder if we still have the footage on our phones?”
James got his phone out and had a quick look through the video files.
“Yep, I have got everything, it looks like to me. You?”
“Yes, I have everything apart from the bit in the security room with Jensen. They took my phone off me,” replied Chris.
“I have that part… well, the audio, I think.”
“How come they didn’t take your phone off you?”
“No idea, but between the two of us, we have ridiculous footage. The kind of footage that will probably get us hundreds of millions of views. That Bentley is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality, Chris, I can feel it.”
“Seriously? Your first thought is the views, money and Bentley?”
“What else should I be thinking about?”
“Well, think about it. Jensen told us about the project. Do you think perhaps while we are over here we should try and find out why they need the DNA, what that project is?”
“I suppose we could look into it. Speaking of Jensen, I didn’t see him in the cabin. Did you?”
“No.”
“So what do we do next?” asked James as they continued to walk down the jetway.
“We clear immigration and then we get to our hotel and make multiple back-ups of all the footage, and start editing. Perhaps we do a teaser trailer and then play it to everyone at the conference as an example of what we do. Once we’ve done that, we release the full version on our channels…”
“…and then wait for the cash to flow in,” said James.
“Have you learned nothing from what we just experienced? You need a bit more humility and gratitude…” Chris paused and then added, “We both do.”
“I did learn that I need to speak to management about having my own male fragrance,” said James.
“Christ, I give up. We’re going to have to focus and edit all the footage we have.”
They reached the end of the jetway and turned to go towards immigration, where they saw Agent Jensen waiting for them.
“Gentlemen, welcome to Las Vegas,” said Jensen.
James decided to pretend the drug did make him forget everything that had happened.
“Who are you?” asked James.
Jensen stared at him intensely for a few seconds.
“Well, at least I’ve learned something else about you, James!”
“What’s that?”
“Your acting skills are appalling. I know you still remember.”
“I guess you are not as good an agent as you think you are, Jensen,” said James smugly.
“Oh, I am very, very good at what I do. The decision was made to have you both remember exactly what happened. We just knocked you out.”
“Why?” asked Chris.
“Well, to try and teach you both a lesson or two about life. You’re vloggers. You don’t make a real difference to the world in any real way, but you especially, James, like to think your vlogs are the reincarnated work of Shakespeare or something.”
“Like you, Jensen, I know I am very good at what I do,” said James.
“Are you though? Hasn’t most of your success been down to luck and not much actual talent?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
“Okay, James. You need a reality check. I thought the experience you just went through would make you realise the world is bigger than you think and far more complicated, but clearly that has failed. When you first started as a vlogger, your views and subscribers were where, exactly?”
“I don’t see how this is relevant, but growing slowly,” said James.
“Yes, very slowly. So slowly that a snail taking a nap would beat you easily along with channels filled with rabbits
eating raspberries. Nothing really changed for you until you met Chris, who has the charisma you badly lack. As soon as you started doing videos together, lots more people were interested.”
“Okay, that might be true, but so what? I am very successful now.”
“Yes, because of the circumstances that happened. You didn’t work to meet Chris, it just happened. Circumstance and not talent changed your life, and you are oblivious to it.”
“I don’t need a counselling session from you. Are we free to go?” asked James.
“Just one more thing,” said Jensen.
He tapped his phone against their two phones.
“What does that do? Give us your contact details?” asked James.
“No, I have no desire to be contacted by either of you, really. In fact, if I show up in your life again, I might actually be angry the next time.”
“Do you turn green and rip all your clothes off?” asked Chris.
“Funny, but no.”
“So what did that tap do?”
“Well, James, check your phone to see if you still have all that footage you shot earlier.”
James unlocked his phone and all the footage had vanished.
“How did you do that?”
“We can do a lot of things. You’ve both had the experience and have no evidence of it, so nobody is going to believe either of you.”
“I think this conversation is over,” said Chris.
“It most certainly is, gents. You enjoy your stay in Vegas, why don’t you.” He patted them both on their shoulders and walked off.
James was ground his teeth and stared intently at Jensen as he walked off.
“Come on, James, we need to get through immigration and get our bags. We’re losing our advantage of being one of the first off the plane,” said Chris.
James sighed. “Okay, let’s do Vegas!”
THE END
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