Maybe I can explain the whole thing without explaining the crazy parts. Somehow.
Someone knocked very hard on the door. "Lucy, get out of there," Hendricks said. "Or we'll make you come out."
Lucy yanked open a door to a small compartment that was just large enough for two extra rolls of toilet paper. No, she couldn't possibly fit in there.
"Lucy!"
She was rapidly running out of time. The knocking stopped, probably because her uncle's goon squad had gone to buckle themselves in for the landing, but that wouldn't last long. The plane jolted again, and she clutched at the safety handle mounted to the wall beside the sink. That had been the wheels hitting the runway.
They continued to shudder and sway through a surprisingly rough landing.What's this runway made out of?Lucy thought,clinging to the handle as the jet braked.Gravel?Then she realized that it might actually be. They could be anywhere.
Maybe, she thought, clutching at straws, she could Do The Thing.
Doing The Thing was far from reliable. Sometimes it seemed to her that it only worked at the most inconvenient possible times. But it was the only thing that she could think of to save her now from whatever waited for her at the end of this ride.
She clung to the safety handle and closed her eyes.
I'm not here,she thought.I'm not anywhere. I'm part of the wall. I'm not here.
Her head was still achy from the drugs, and she had to struggle to concentrate. But she could feel the distinctive falling-backwards-inside-her-own-skull feeling that meant Doing The Thing was working.
The jet finally came to a full stop.
On the other side of the door, the handle rattled.
"Lucy!" Hendricks bellowed.
Lucy felt herself coming out of the calm state that she had managed to sink into, her heart hammering with fear.No, she thought, and eased herself back down.No, I am not here. I am part of the wall. There is no Lucy Copeland here. The bathroom is empty.
Very dimly, she heard the door rattling again, and then a thump as someone very large and strong slammed into it. She forced herself to imagine that these sounds were nothing to do with her.
I am not here.
The door slammed open.
"What the heck?" Hendricks's voice said. "Where'd she go?"
Lucy allowed herself a tiny smile and opened her eyes a crack, trying to keep herself in that hazy not-here-not-there state.
Hendricks was looking wildly around the tiny interior of the bathroom, no doubt thinking exactly what she had been thinking a minute ago, that there was nowhere to hide. Shock and bafflement were written all over his face. He reached a hand inside and waved it around. It narrowly missed hitting Lucy's chest, and she shrank back against the wall, sucking her stomach in.
"Where did shego?" Hendricks bellowed. He moved away a little, out of her sight, and it sounded like he was taking out his anger on the rest of them. Lucy couldn't think of a more deserving bunch. "Did she get out while we were landing?Who was watching the door?!"
Lucy dared to take a few quiet footsteps forward. She peeked out of the open lavatory door. Hendricks had his back to her and was giving a good reaming to the other guys, all of whom looked worried and guilty.
Looking around, Lucy spotted the emergency exit over the wing. She had never used one, but she had heard enough airline safety lectures to have a pretty good idea of how to use it. They were supposed to be easy to open on purpose.
"Well, find her!" Hendricks shouted.
The men scattered to search the plane. The one place they didn't look was the lavatory, which of course Hendricks had just looked in and determined that she wasn't there.
Except for how she very much was.
She pulled quickly back inside as Hendricks passed by the open door, then peeked out again. The problem was that she had no idea how well Doing Her Thing would still work if she was moving and trying not to make noise. She wished now that she had done more practicing with it, but how could she have done that?Excuse me, can you see me now?She had made that mistake before, with some of the few friends she'd had as a lonely and privately tutored child—spoiled rich kids of her parents' friends, who had just laughed at her. After that, she had stopped trying.
She risked poking her head out of the lavatory door for another look. Everyone was somewhere else; one of her uncle's goons had gone up to talk to the pilot, Andy and another guy were poking around the storage compartments, and Hendricks was looking around the tail of the plane.
Lucy gathered her courage in both hands and sprinted to the emergency exit.