Falling(30)

“But there’s a backup on board. If they know we know—”

“If they know we know?” Daddy repeated, his voice rising. “Jo. The plane is filled with masks. We’re refusing to answer questions. There’s a viral picture all over the internet. I think the cat’s out of the bag.”

“But Bill’s family—”

Daddy slapped the galley counter and the women jumped. “And what the fuck do you think we’re flying here? Cargo? There are people on this plane, Jo. And every single one of them is someone’s family too. You don’t get to say their lives aren’t as important as Bill’s family.”

Jo’s lip trembled in the stunned silence that followed Daddy’s outburst. She knew he was right. She’d known it the whole time. That was the little nudge of dread in her gut. She knew it would come to this, it had to. But it made her responsible. If they told the passengers the truth, it felt as though she was making the choice for Bill. Like she was choosing the plane over his family. The weight of the betrayal to not only Bill, but to Carrie and the children, was crushing. She would live the rest of her life knowing their deaths were on her. Jo struggled to breathe against the choking lump in her throat.

“Jo, think about it. Bill told you,” Daddy said. “He told us. He wasn’t supposed to do that either, but he knew he had to. He knew we had to know. It was a risk, a calculated risk. Just like telling the passengers will be. But we have to. There’s no other way. It’s Bill’s duty to take care of the airframe. It’s our duty to take care of the passengers.”

Bill’s command floated around in her head: This is your cabin.

“This is our cabin,” she said softly.

Daddy nodded.

No one said anything for a few moments and in the silence Jo knew they’d reached an unspoken agreement.

Jo buried her face in her hands for a few breaths. She took one final inhale.

“They don’t need to know about DC.”

Daddy put a hand on her shoulder and gave a little squeeze. “Agreed.”

“And am I wrong,” Kellie said, finally contributing, “or should we also not tell them that the oxygen only lasts for twelve minutes?”

Jo and Big Daddy both nodded vigorously.

“I say we don’t tell them anything that is totally out of their control,” said Daddy. “Nothing about DC and nothing about the oxygen running out.”

Something connected in Jo’s mind. “That is the truth, Daddy. That’s exactly it. What you just said about things being out of their control. That’s what they need to know. They need to know there is literally nothing they can do.”

The hum of the engines accentuated her point, a steady, incessant reminder of where exactly they all were, and what exactly the situation was. When the passengers boarded the plane, they placed their lives directly into Bill’s hands. And once the plane was airborne it became a choice they couldn’t go back on. Bill would decide what happens to the plane. That’s what they agreed to. So now the only thing the passengers could do was trust that the captain would uphold his end of the bargain and land the plane in one piece.

“What, they’ll want to storm the cockpit?” said Jo. “Even if they could, to what end? No one else can fly the plane.”

She waited for a retort.

“To take down the terrorist? Guess what. He’s not here!” Jo wiped her mouth, the full realization of how little they controlled sinking in. “Our best chance of surviving this is to trust Bill. The passengers need to understand that. Hell, the whole world needs to understand that. Because you’re right, Daddy. This isn’t just us anymore. Thanks to that picture on the internet, it’s not just the terrorist and whoever the hell his backup is who know what’s going on. The whole world does. So everyone needs to understand that trusting Bill is the only way this plane makes it out alive.”

Big Daddy and Kellie nodded in agreement. They were all on the same page. They knew what they were going to say.

But one problem still lingered: How?

They couldn’t make a PA. But the plane was too big for them to just stand in the middle and yell. If they went row by row, the confusion and misinformation that would spread by that kind of disorganized communication would stoke a sense of panic. If they had any hope of a unified passenger response to the situation, it would only come as a result of an articulate, streamlined message. But Jo had no idea how they could accomplish that.

Kellie made a strange squeaking noise with a little gasp. When she didn’t say anything else, Big Daddy snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Grasshopper. Do you have something to say?”

Kellie studied the floor. Looking up to Daddy, her face opened into a sort of bewildered and childlike surprise. She smiled broadly. “Actually, yes. Guys, I know exactly how we can tell them.”





CHAPTER TWELVE


THE NOISE IN THEO’S HEAD was a high-pitched trumpeting sound, rolling up and down the scale. A full-body ache intensified as the sound grew louder. A horn blared. Behind his eyes was a throbbing so intense that the feeling became a color.

Confused by a wet, earthy smell, he realized he was facedown on the ground. Cool blades of grass tickled his lips when he opened his mouth. Breathing was almost impossible. He let his mouth gape open and hoped that would be enough.