Chapter 6 - Eleven Minutes
Passengers screamed as the jet plunged.
Khloe hit the floor.
Silas grabbed Matteo before the boy slammed into the table.
“Cockpit!” Victor shouted.
He ran forward.
The reinforced cockpit door wouldn’t open.
“Captain!”
No answer.
Silas punched the access code.
Rejected.
Again.
Rejected.
Khloe secured Matteo into a seat.
The boy’s eyes were huge.
She signed with shaking fingers.
Plane is moving fast. We are fixing it.
Matteo signed back.
Are we dying?
Khloe’s heart broke.
She forced herself to smile.
Not tonight.
Behind her, Victor tore open an emergency panel.
“The attacker must have known the override.”
Silas slammed his palm against the cockpit door.
“Open it!”
Nothing.
Gemma stared at the flight display.
“We’re at twenty-three thousand.”
Descending rapidly.
Khloe looked toward the rear.
“How did he get from the cabin to the cockpit?”
Victor stopped.
He looked beneath the carpeted aisle.
“Maintenance access.”
Silas stared.
“There’s a crawl route?”
“For avionics. Barely wide enough.”
“For a small man.”
Victor’s face hardened.
The attacker had been thin.
Silas dropped to his knees.
“Where?”
Victor pulled up a concealed panel.
Cold air rushed out.
Dark wiring disappeared forward beneath the floor.
Silas started climbing in.
Victor grabbed him.
“You won’t fit.”
Silas shoved him away.
“My son is on this plane.”
“So are you!”
“I noticed.”
Khloe grabbed Silas’s arm.
He turned sharply.
She didn’t flinch.
“Matteo needs one parent alive.”
His face changed.
Khloe continued.
“Victor is smaller. Let him go.”
Victor almost smiled.
“First time anyone’s called me small.”
Silas ignored him.
“Go.”
Victor disappeared into the access channel.
The plane dropped through eighteen thousand feet.
Gemma was crying silently.
Khloe stayed with Matteo.
The child signed:
Dad scared.
Khloe looked at Silas.
He stood rigidly near the cockpit.
“Yes,” she signed.
Matteo looked surprised.
Adults weren’t supposed to admit that.
Khloe added:
Brave people get scared too.
Matteo watched his father.
Then signed:
He never looks scared.
Khloe thought about the kind of life Silas had built.
Maybe looking afraid had once been dangerous.
Maybe that was why he hadn’t noticed fear in his own child.
A violent crash came from beneath the floor.
Then another.
Silas reached for the maintenance hatch.
“Victor!”
No answer.
The jet dropped to fourteen thousand.
The cockpit intercom suddenly came alive.
Heavy breathing.
Then Victor’s voice.
“I’m in.”
Silas grabbed the handset.
“What happened?”
“He shot the captain.”
Khloe covered her mouth.
“Alive?”
“Yes. Shoulder. Copilot’s unconscious.”
“Attacker?”
Silence.
Then Victor said, “Not anymore.”
Silas closed his eyes briefly.
“Can you fly?”
“No.”
Khloe almost laughed from pure terror.
Victor continued.
“But the captain can talk.”
The aircraft began leveling.
Everyone breathed.
Eleven thousand feet.
Ten.
Then steady.
Silas leaned against the wall.
Khloe looked at Matteo.
He was staring at the clouds outside.
Alive.
The cockpit door finally opened.
Victor emerged covered in blood.
“Captain stabilized us.”
Silas asked, “Where are we going?”
Victor looked grim.
“He says our nearest safe runway is forty miles away.”
“Where?”
Victor hesitated.
“Pittsburgh.”
Silas stared.
Exactly where Helena wanted them.
Victor wiped blood from his face.
“And we don’t have enough fuel to choose somewhere else.”
Khloe felt cold.
Silas looked at his son.
Then at the floor.
Then at Victor.
“Whoever planned this…”
Victor finished the thought.
“Knew we’d have no choice.”
The jet turned east.
May you like
Straight toward the trap.
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