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permission, anyway. Let’s just hope nobody’s trying to land as we’re trying to take off.”
    Fairbanks slid past the windows, even more quiet and empty now with the oil gush on, as the plane rolled into position on the runway. Betty leaned close to the glass, and Eleanor wondered what she must be thinking and feeling, leaving the only home she’d known all these years. It didn’t seem likely she would ever be able to return after what she’d done to help them.
    â€œHere we go,” Luke said, and the plane heaved forward, pulling Eleanor deep into her seat.
    They hadn’t gone far when Luke shouted, “Blast! It’s the other one!”
    â€œWhat?” Eleanor’s mom shouted back.
    â€œThe other G.E.T. agent!” Luke said. “He’s on the runway!”

CHAPTER
4
    E LEANOR LEANED INTO THE AISLE AGAIN AND COULD JUST see through the windows of the cockpit that out on the runway, in the distance, was a snowmobile.
    â€œWhat do we do?” Dr. Powers asked.
    â€œCan you lift off before we hit him?” Betty asked.
    â€œMaybe,” Luke said. “If not, this guy is about to lose this particular game of chicken in a pretty big way.” The plane picked up speed, the engines at full roar. “There!” Luke said. “He’s moving out of the way! He . . . Oh no . . . Everyone get down! He’s got a gun!”
    An explosive popping sounded above the plane’s engines. Eleanor ducked forward, as low as she could, and felt her mom throw her weight over the top of herback. More popping, the sound of a hammer on metal, and then
Consuelo
lifted a little from the ground. A moment later, Eleanor sensed the loss of contact with the earth as the floor of the plane ceased trembling beneath her, and they were airborne. A few more pops followed them into the sky, but they soon stopped.
    Eleanor felt her mom’s frantic hands all over her, touching her back, her chest, her legs.
    â€œMom, I’m fine,” Eleanor said.
    â€œOh, thank God,” her mom said.
    â€œEveryone okay back there?” Luke called.
    â€œWe’re okay,” Dr. Powers said, his hand on Julian’s back.
    â€œRattled,” Betty said. “But free of holes.”
    Eleanor remembered Finn was behind her and turned around to peer at him between the seats. “Are you okay?”
    Finn nodded, but he was looking over at his father and brother. “Yup. Just fine.”
    â€œThis old bird can take a beating!” Luke said. Eleanor saw him stroking the flight console as if he were smoothing it out. “Her skin is made to stop Arctic hailstones.”
    â€œHe really shot at us,” Betty said, her eyes wide.
    â€œWhat did you expect when they showed up on your doorstep with guns?” Dr. Powers asked.
    â€œI guess . . . I thought they were for show,” Betty said. “Intimidation. But he
shot
at us.”
    â€œThose agents only know what they’ve been told,” Eleanor’s mom said. “And back at the hangar, with that one who got away, I don’t think he knew anything about what the G.E.T. is really doing.”
    â€œWatkins can’t possibly trust every employee,” Dr. Powers said. “Probably only a select few know the whole truth. That might actually give us an advantage, if we can find allies within the company.”
    â€œNo one will give us that chance if they believe we’re terrorists,” Finn said.
    â€œYeah,” Julian said. “They’ll just shoot at us again.”
    Eleanor wanted to agree with her mom that Skinner would not have actually killed them. But now that a G.E.T. agent had fired at their plane, that hope seemed to have been a bit naive. This secret was literally as big as the whole world, and everything was at stake. Skinner had made it clear, before he died, that anyone who learned of the threat to the earth had to agree to the Preservation Protocol, a secret UN plan