Chapter 11 - The Ninth Flight
Avery left Rourke with Olivia at the laundromat. He protested, but she held up Emma's warning and Marcus's message.
“Either you're compromised,” she told him, “or someone wants me to believe you are. I can't gamble on which.”
He looked wounded. “I trained you.”
“You trained me to question the person giving orders.”
Mercer drove Avery and Ruiz toward the old hangar in a borrowed electrician's van. At the guard post, he showed the work order Ruiz had recovered from the maintenance system. Nobody looked twice at the dented toolbox in the back.
Inside Hangar Nine, quiet aircraft stood like enormous sleeping birds. The red walkway crossed a service trench beneath the floor. Avery descended first, flashlight low. She found the archive cabinet behind a steel door whose keypad still had scratches around its edges.
“Card,” Ruiz whispered.
She inserted the plastic key from her boot. The display flashed 21:46. A timer appeared beneath it, counting down from six minutes.
“Emma set it to open at that time,” Ruiz said. “We're early.”
“Then tell me what's waiting on the other side.”
He connected his laptop to a maintenance port. Files surfaced: parts orders, inspection exceptions, insurance payments, names of dead crews. A single document carried the title NINTH FLIGHT, COMPLETE PERSONNEL RECORD.
Mercer pointed to an entry. “That's my brother.”
His voice sounded hollow. The manifest listed his brother as a mechanic present on a flight he had officially never taken.
A door slammed at the far end of the trench. Heavy boots descended the stairs. A flashlight beam cut across the wall.
May you like
“Step away from the cabinet,” a woman ordered.
Major Ward emerged with three armed military police officers. She looked at Avery and said, “I'm sorry. They have my son.”
