“What?” I ask.

“I have landed at the International Airport.” Maude says.

“Hold up, you’re in Hungary already?”

“Yes. Does that pose a problem?”

“No. No. It’s great– it’s fantastic. Thank you–thank you so much!” Maude just saved my life.

“It was a lot of work, Oliver. Don’t waste my time.” She says sternly. So we don’t. We make sure we have all of our stuff and leave. We call for a city taxi and head to the airport.

My paranoid self keeps checking behind us.

We’re almost there, and not to my surprise, we are followed, as if the Bureau has nothing better to do than follow a band of young adults to the airport – and it’s not just by one vehicle, but three. “How far to the airport?” I query, uneasy about what might happen.

“Not far. A few miles.” The driver says. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing by telling him we’re being followed, but I do.

“Are you sure?”

“Dead sure.”

“Do you want me to lose them?”

“No. The faster we get to the airport the better.”

As rapid gunfire shatters the back window, I pull Neave down, shying from the few flying bullets. “Drive!” I yell. Neave’s eyes are fearful but not full of tears. “We can make it.” I convince her in my hopeless whisper. We can make it. We just need to stay alive. The taxi speeds up, and yet, we are still followed by the three vehicles. The driver makes a sharp right in an attempt to lose them, throwing us against the door. He is not entirely successful as two cars still follow. It really becomes dangerous– more dangerous than before and he weaves his way between cars in fast traffic on the bridge. We can’t make it. We’re going to die.

“We’re still going to the airport, right?”

“This is a detour.” I can just hear his words. Something about my driver strikes me as odd. He’s overly helpful and dauntless. “I’ll pay a lot more for everything.” I say to him. No doubt I will.

I look back to Neave. “We can make it there. Just be patient. We’ll be there soon enough.” I say and two more shots fire from the back into the car, just missing the driver’s head. We all scream and speed up. There’s a thud as we hit another car, one of the cars that was following us.

“Drive! Go now!” Command. We shift into reverse and then shoot forward, losing the Bureau’s vehicle. I think we have lost them.

We drive for a long while without danger. We lost them, hopefully forever. “We’re safe now.” I tell Neave. “Listen, I’ll pay for the damages, okay?”

I make a quick call to Maude and tell her to be ready for takeoff when we get there.

“You’re in quite a hurry, aren’t you?”

“Just be ready.” I say and hang up.

We get to the airport without any more trouble and follow standard procedure before we’re cleared to board our plane. I don’t think I have ever appreciated Maude this much in my life.

“There,” I point to a plane smaller than the rest. I take Neave’s hand in mine. We did it. I exhale loudly as if it’s a relief. It is a relief.

A young man in his thirties, with cold blue eyes, dressed in black, emerges in front of us. My heart sinks. The plane is literally right in front of us– a few meters away. I know he’s from the Bureau. I can see it on everything about him. I can’t stop the words from cascading down my tongue. “Why can’t you let us go?”

He parts his lips. “Because I can’t let the secret leak.”

“What if we vowed never to tell?”

“We can’t be sure of that.” He says and pulls out a small gun. It’s the same kind I saw get shot onto the rental car Mendes and Lily were in. He plans to explode us into nothing. I lift my hands in surrender. We were so close. “I’ll come with you. If that’s what you want.”

“I will not.” Neave interjects and steps in front of me, so powerfully. “I’ve come too far,” she says, and grabs the man by his neck. He holds the gun to her stomach and fires.

“Neave!” I yell. I wait for her to fall down but she doesn’t. Did it not fire?

I look at the defiant light in her eyes. She’s suffocating the man, breathing the air out of his lungs like she did to me the first time.

“I will kill you if you dare cross me again,” She says, flinging him across the runway as if he weighs absolutely nothing.

“Let’s go, Oliver.” And we march to the plane.

“I can’t let you get away.” Says the man breathlessly. He lies on the floor, unable to get up.

“I can’t let you live.” Neave says. “Oliver, run to the plane.” I back away slowly.

I don’t even see how she does it, but the ground cracks and breaks, and like a sinkhole, everything disappears. People scream in terror as a part of their airport becomes victim to this pit, as well as a few of their planes.

The agent tries to crawl toward us out of the sediment grave. He’s too slow, because just when he makes it to his feet, he falls backward. This is dangerous. She is dangerous.

Neave is much too close to her own device of destruction and once more, she’s frozen in fear. It’s havoc now. The sinkhole grows too big. “Neave!” I yell to her and she looks at me.

I see something on her face. She’s contemplating joining him.

No. you said it yourself. You have come too far. “Neave!” I shoot into action and run toward her, fearful that time will beat me. I extend my hand to her when she loses her footing. No.

I reach my arm out and tug her away toward my body just in time– just as the sinkhole stops growing and we tumble to the floor. She had complete control this time, I realize, she just had to be stopped.

“What is wrong with you?” I yell at her as we both lie on the floor, panting. “You scared the hell out of me!” I yell into her face. She looks entirely guilty.

“I don’t know, Oliver. I’m sorry.” She says, letting free a stream of teardrops. I gaze at her, upset and confused and so frightened that I would lose her the second time. “You can’t do that!” I yell again.

“I know.” She says. “I won’t.”

I get myself to my feet and offer her a hand. “Let’s go. You’re reckless. Get going!” I command. I’m mostly angry at her because she was going to leave me. I take her hand firmly in mine. We ignore the fearful faces behind us. The ones who have only came this close to death at least once stand there while Neave and I, who have seen death’s grin so often, make haste for the plane.

I have had enough of Budapest for a lifetime.

***

Tell us: They have had a lucky escape. Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to do something drastic to another person so that you could get away?