“We could glide in,” Lance Chalfont said. “To glide, what you do is, you just turn off the engine and glide.”
“That’s an idea,” Max replied. “That would be quiet, anyway.”
“They don’t call me the silent birdman for nothin’,” Lance Chalfont said.
Max pointed. “See that clear space behind that large building?” he said to Lance Chalfont. “Could you glide the helicopter down into that space?”
“Don’t rightly know,” Lance Chalfont replied. “I never glided this crate before. Every time I turned off the engine and tried to glide it just fell right smack-kaboom right out of the sky.”
“Like a rock?” Max asked.
“Yup. Just like a wounded rock.”
“In that case, we better think of something else,” Max said.
“Max, why don’t we parachute?” 99 said.
“Wait a minute! I just had an idea!” Max said. “We’ll parachute!”
“Max-that’s clever!” 99 applauded.
Max and 99 put on parachutes, then stood in the open doorway.
“Hover directly over that clear space behind that large building,” Max said to Lance Chalfont. “We don’t want to land among the students. They might suspect something.”
“I’m hoverin’,” Lance replied.
“Now!” Max cried.
Lance Chalfont tipped the helicopter and Max and 99 tumbled out and hurtled toward the ground. A moment later their chutes opened.
As they floated leisurely downward, side by side, Max opened the black satchel.
“Let’s see what the old fact sheet has to say,” he said, getting out a sheaf of papers.
“Max, I don’t think we’re going to land in that clear space,” 99 said, looking down.
“Oh, we’ll hit it all right,” Max replied, looking at the fact sheet. “Let’s see now… it says here that the KAOS training school is operated by The Professor. He-”
“Professor who, Max?”
“No, not Professor Who. Just plain ‘The Professor’. He has no last name. According to the fact sheet, The Professor joined the faculty of the school when he was a young man. His name then was The Assistant Professor.”
“Max…”
“Yes, 99?”
“Max, maybe his last name is ‘Professor,’ and his first name is ‘The’. Maybe when he was younger he used his middle name, ‘Assistant’. But then when he got the promotion he just dropped the middle name. That would explain-”
“99-if you don’t mind-”
“Sorry, Max.”
“To continue,” Max went on. “Since entering the school as a young man, The Professor has not been off the grounds. As a result, he has no personal knowledge of the changes that have occurred in the outside world. When he is told of those changes, he quite often scoffs. The Professor, in other words, rejects the present, and idolizes the past.”
“Max…”
“No more silly speculation on The Professor’s last name, 99.”
“No, Max. I just wanted to tell you that we’re getting close to the ground.”
Max looked down. “How do you like that!” he said disgustedly. “Somebody moved the school. We’re coming down outside the wall!”
“I don’t think anybody moved the school, Max. I think-”
“99, this is no time to argue details. Get ready to land!”
Max and 99 hit the ground simultaneously. 99 rolled gracefully and came up on her feet and began deflating her parachute, using the shroud lines. Meanwhile, Max rolled gracefully, but a bit too far, and came up standing on his head, after which he landed flat on his back. A second later, his parachute caught up with him and enveloped him. Max struggled to free himself of the yards of nylon cloth. The more he struggled, the more entangled he became.
“Max… are you all right?” 99 called.
“I’ll be with you in a second, 99. I’m repacking my chute.”
“From the inside, Max?”
“No one likes a needler, 99.”
“Sorry, Max.”
A moment later, Max crawled out from under the edge of the parachute. He got to his feet and dusted himself off. “Let that be a lesson to you, 99,” he said. “That was a perfect demonstration of how not to land a parachute. I hope you were paying attention.”
“I learned a lot, Max,” 99 nodded.
“Now then, on to the school,” Max said.
“Which way is it from here, Max? We landed so far away, I can’t see it.”
Max pointed upward. “It’s right below that helicopter,” he said. “Apparently the wind carried us off course. Shall we go, 99?”
They struck out through the underbrush, headed in the direction of the school.
“Max, why don’t we use the road?” 99 asked.
“A secret agent always approaches the objective through the underbrush, 99. Don’t you ever watch TV?”
“Max, couldn’t we use the road until we get a little closer? Then we could cut through the underbrush.”
Max halted and looked thoughtful. “I can’t think of any rule that that would violate,” he said finally. “We’ll do it.”
When they reached the road, they set out again in the direction of the school, using the hovering helicopter as a marker.
Max smiled. “Something very funny just occurred to me, 99,” he said.
“What’s that, Max?”
“I was just thinking that, although we haven’t even reached the school yet, already we’re drop-outs.”
“Pardon, Max?”
“We jumped out of the helicopter in parachutes,” Max explained. “We’re drop-outs.” He chuckled appreciatively.
“Wouldn’t that make us jump-outs, Max?”
“99, you don’t understand. It’s a play on words. Parachutes. School. Drop-outs.”
“But you said yourself that we jumped.”
“Never mind, 99.”
Soon the wall appeared. Once more, Max and 99 scrambled into the underbrush.
“There are guards everywhere,” Max said. “I would say, roughly, that it’s absolutely impossible to get inside the wall.”
“But, Max, we have to. The fate of Control depends on it.”
Max sighed. “Well, maybe something will come alone.”
“Max! Look! That’s it. Those two young men coming along the road.”
Max looked. “I knew something would come along,” he said. “It always does on TV.”
“They’re headed for the school, Max. And they’re walking along the road, in plain sight. That must mean that they’re expected, that they won’t have any trouble getting in.”
Max’s eyes narrowed. “If you’ll look closely, 99,” he said, “you’ll see that those young men are walking along the road in plain sight. I’d go so far as to guess that they’re expected, and won’t have any trouble getting in.”
“Max, I think you’re right.”
“What else do I think, 99?”
“Max, I think you think that if we waylay them we can take their places and get inside the wall without any
