Chapter 5 - Three Hundred Lives and One Impossible Choice
Claire could hear nothing except her own heartbeat.
“You did this?”
Evan's voice came through the radio.
“I initiated the first systems breach.”
Captain Reeves stared at Claire.
Thomas whispered something under his breath.
Claire gripped the microphone.
“You endangered three hundred people.”
“No.”
“Look around me, Evan!”
“I created a controlled failure designed to force the network to reveal itself.”
“You used a civilian aircraft.”
“I chose an aircraft with redundant systems.”
“You chose my aircraft.”
“Yes.”
The admission hurt more.
Claire lowered her voice.
“Why?”
“Because Hale would follow you.”
She looked toward Marcus Hale, now restrained by crew members.
“You used me as bait.”
“I needed the decryption key.”
“My necklace.”
“Yes.”
Claire's eyes hardened.
“Then you knew Evan's pendant contained it.”
“I put it there.”
Four years collapsed into one answer.
Claire touched the empty place at her throat.
“You gave it to me before the mission.”
“I needed someone I trusted.”
“And you never told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Apparently nobody could tell me anything.”
Evan's voice softened.
“Claire, I am sorry.”
“Save it.”
The aircraft jolted.
Reeves shouted from the cockpit.
“We're losing control response!”
Thomas grabbed the black device.
“Hale's system is still connected.”
Claire turned back toward the crisis.
Personal betrayal could wait.
Again.
“Can you stop it?”
Thomas examined the device.
“I need access to the electronics bay.”
“Go.”
“You're coming.”
“Why?”
“The pendant.”
Claire looked at Hale.
He was smiling.
She grabbed the necklace from the floor.
“Move.”
They hurried toward the rear.
Elena stayed with Hale.
Passengers watched Claire pass.
She could see terror now.
Some whispered prayers.
Some cried quietly.
Some simply stared.
A small girl reached out from row twenty.
Claire stopped.
The girl couldn't have been older than six.
“Are we going to crash?”
Her mother immediately pulled her hand back.
“I'm sorry.”
Claire looked at the child.
For an instant, she saw Lily.
Same frightened eyes.
Same trust.
Claire crouched.
“No.”
The girl's mother stared.
Claire spoke gently.
“We have very good pilots flying this airplane.”
The child looked toward the cockpit.
“You too?”
Claire hesitated.
Then nodded.
“Me too.”
“Promise?”
Claire had learned never to promise outcomes in combat.
But this wasn't combat.
This was a child.
“I promise we're going to fight very hard to get you home.”
It wasn't exactly what the girl asked.
But it was the truth.
Claire stood.
Thomas was waiting.
“Ready?”
“No.”
They continued anyway.
The electronics access was near the rear galley.
Thomas opened the panel.
Hot air rushed upward.
A warning smell filled Claire's nose.
Burning insulation.
Instantly she was back in her fighter.
She froze.
Thomas noticed.
“Claire?”
Evan's aircraft.
Fire.
Static.
No.
She forced the memory away.
“I'm fine.”
Thomas climbed down first.
Claire followed.
The bay was cramped, loud, filled with equipment racks.
Thomas located a small unfamiliar unit attached behind a communications module.
“There.”
Wires led into existing connections.
Claire stared.
“Can we pull it?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“If it's carrying the command stream, disconnecting it suddenly could freeze the flight controls.”
“Then what?”
“We need the key.”
Claire handed him Evan's pendant.
Thomas twisted its tiny wing.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a micro-storage chip.
Claire stared.
For four years, she had carried evidence around her neck.
Evidence people had killed for.
Thomas inserted it into the device.
Lights flashed.
“What are you doing?”
“Using Evan's key to override Hale's authentication.”
“Will it work?”
“Ask me in thirty seconds.”
The aircraft pitched downward.
Claire slammed against the equipment rack.
Above them, people screamed.
“Thomas!”
“Almost.”
Evan's voice came through Claire's portable radio.
“Raven!”
“Busy!”
“You're descending.”
“I noticed.”
“I can guide Reeves.”
“Do it.”
Thomas typed commands into a maintenance terminal.
Sweat ran down his face.
“Twenty seconds.”
The descent steepened.
Claire imagined the ocean beneath them.
Dark.
Cold.
Unforgiving.
“Ten seconds.”
The lights flickered.
“Five.”
Everything went black.
Claire held her breath.
Then systems restarted.
Thomas stared at the screen.
“Got it.”
The aircraft's nose began rising.
Claire almost collapsed with relief.
Captain Reeves came over the radio.
“Flight controls restored!”
Passengers cheered faintly above.
Claire looked at Thomas.
“You did it.”
“Temporarily.”
Of course.
“What now?”
Thomas pointed.
“The external attacker still has another pathway.”
“How?”
“Hale wasn't working alone.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“Someone else aboard?”
“Almost certainly.”
They climbed back into the cabin.
The passengers looked exhausted and terrified.
Elena approached.
“Hale says nothing.”
Claire looked toward his seat.
“Where's his bag?”
Elena found it beneath row eighteen.
Inside were clothes.
A passport.
Laptop.
And one photograph.
Claire picked it up.
Her daughter Lily smiled back at her.
Claire stopped breathing.
On the back was written:
SHE WILL BE HOME FROM SCHOOL AT 3:40.
Claire's entire body went cold.
Hale watched from across the aisle.
“You understand now?”
Claire walked toward him.
“Who took this photograph?”
“No idea.”
“If anyone touches my daughter—”
“You'll what?”
Claire's face became frighteningly calm.
Hale's smile faded.
“You picked the wrong leverage.”
“Everyone has leverage.”
“Not like mine.”
Claire leaned closer.
“My daughter is why I stopped being a soldier.”
Hale said nothing.
“She is also the reason I remember exactly how to become one.”
For the first time, Marcus Hale looked uncertain.
Thomas called from behind.
“Claire.”
She turned.
He held Hale's laptop.
“There's an encrypted live feed.”
“From where?”
Thomas opened it.
Claire saw a suburban street.
Her sister's house.
Virginia.
The image appeared to come from a camera across the road.
Her chest tightened.
Then the front door opened.
Lily stepped outside.
Claire grabbed the seatback.
“No.”
A dark SUV was parked nearby.
Its door opened.
A man stepped out.
Claire couldn't see his face.
“Call the police!” she shouted.
Elena rushed for the satellite phone.
Thomas looked at the feed.
“Claire…”
The man approached Lily.
Then suddenly stopped.
Because another vehicle appeared behind him.
Black.
Fast.
It blocked the SUV.
Two men jumped out.
The live feed cut.
Claire stared at the blank screen.
“Who were they?”
Hale smiled again.
“You'll never know.”
The cockpit radio crackled.
Evan.
“Claire.”
She grabbed it.
“My daughter.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I sent protection.”
Claire went still.
“You what?”
“I've had a team watching Lily since you boarded.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because if you knew, you would have canceled the flight.”
Claire almost screamed.
Instead she whispered, “You manipulated everything.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I trust you?”
A long silence followed.
Then Evan said quietly:
“You shouldn't.”
The words surprised her.
“But you can trust this: Lily is safe.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Her knees weakened.
She leaned against a seat.
“Claire,” Evan continued, “the people behind this aren't finished.”
“What do they want?”
“The original KM-41 evidence.”
“Thomas has the key.”
“The key only decrypts it.”
“Where is the evidence?”
There was a pause.
Then Evan answered.
“On this airplane.”
Claire looked around.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You put three hundred people at risk for something you can't even locate?”
“No.”
“What does that mean?”
“Claire, I wasn't the person who hid it.”
“Who did?”
Evan's voice became strange.
Almost gentle.
“You did.”
Claire froze.
“No.”
“You just don't remember.”
Then he said three words that opened a door in her past she had spent four years keeping locked.
“Think about Lisbon.”
Claire's breathing stopped.
Lisbon.
A hotel room.
Blood on her sleeve.
A memory she had always believed was a nightmare.
And suddenly Claire realized the tragedy of KM-41 had not ended with Evan's crash.
Something had happened afterward.
May you like
Something her own mind had buried.
And whatever she had forgotten was hidden somewhere aboard Flight 217.
