Airborne Spy

(Cezanne's plot thread, the Time Weapon's plot thread—they'll all be resolved in the end. Panda definitely won't forget.)

The sea of clouds churned beneath the deep night sky.

A massive Boeing airliner skimmed along the clouds, its tiny lights blinking on and off.

But if one looked closely, they would find four pitch-black figures clinging to the white underside of the plane.

"We're almost at Lop Nur. How's everyone feeling?" the captain asked in fluent American English.

"Number Two is fine. It's a little cold, but completely bearable."

"Number Three is fine! I'm incredibly excited! This is my first time entering a target area this way!"

"Number Four is fine."

The other figures clinging to the belly of the plane answered in turn.

No one in the world knew that four people were stuck beneath this aircraft. They had devised the plan themselves and had not revealed it to the buyer. There was even less chance of it leaking out.

Each of their suits had cost three million dollars. They were the pinnacle of high technology. From the outside, they resembled slightly thicker one-piece swimsuits, but their interiors were full of hidden mechanisms, including pressure regulators, oxygen supplies, and temperature-control systems. This way, when the plane climbed several thousand meters into the sky, they would not be unable to breathe because of the low pressure and high winds, nor would they freeze into ice sculptures in the frigid upper air.

The parts of their suits pressed against the plane's underside were covered with densely packed suction cups and electromagnets. No matter how violent the airflow, they could remain firmly fixed to the fuselage.

"Captain, we're about to make the drop. Can you tell us the mission now?" Number Two said over the comms.

"I heard we aren't the only team