Falling(40)
* * *
Jo stared into the little camera on the back of Kellie’s phone. The young flight attendant stood across from her, focusing intensely on the screen, occasionally raising or lowering the device to keep Jo centered in the frame.
“I know the whole world is watching right now, but they’re not who I’m speaking to,” Jo said into the camera. “I’m talking to you—the passengers of Flight four-one-six. I know you’re confused and angry. I would be too if I were you. But from where I stand, things looks a little different. Ladies and gentlemen, you need to know what’s going on. You deserve to know what the crew knows.”
The engines hummed. It was the only noise in the cabin. Every passenger on board wore either their own headphones, or the airline’s complimentary pair passed out by the flight attendants. They all watched the news intently.
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat this,” Jo continued. “Our captain’s family has been kidnapped. His wife, their ten-year-old son, and ten-month-old daughter are being held hostage on the ground back in LA as we speak. The individual who took them has said he will kill them—unless the captain crashes the plane.”
A woman in first class gasped loud enough to startle Kellie. Daddy stood with his arms crossed against his chest, watching the passengers, taking the cabin’s pulse as Jo spoke. He was to monitor for any signs of an accomplice among them; anyone becoming fidgety or looking around suspiciously. Glancing at Jo, he gave her an encouraging nod.
“Now I’ve flown with Captain Hoffman coming up on twenty years,” Jo continued. “I know that man. I know that man. There is not a chance, not a single possibility, that he would crash this plane. None. And that’s all I’m going to say about that because there is nothing else to say.
“But before I go on, I wanna talk to you,” Jo snarled, eyes narrowing, weight shifting. “You, you sick son of a bitch, wherever you are. You think you’ll get away with this? You have no idea the forces that hunt you right now. They will find you, I guarantee you that. And I promise you something else too.”
She adjusted her scarf.
“That family you’ve got? They will live. And this plane? Is not going to crash.”
Kellie stood a little straighter. Daddy clenched his jaw, widening his stance.
“So let’s talk about those masks now. Why did we drop them? So that we can protect ourselves. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. This maniac has involved us in his sick plan as well.”
Jo could feel her heart rate spiking the way it does in the moment before a confession. When you’re scared and want to run or back down, but know you can’t.
“Before we land, he’s going to make the captain release a gas into the cabin from the cockpit. What is the gas? Well, we don’t know. But we’re going to assume it’s pretty bad, and we’re going to plan on it being pretty bad.
“Look,” she continued. “Whatever it is, we sure as hell don’t want to breathe it. That’s what the masks are for. The flight attendants will brief you and prepare you for what’s going to happen. But here is what you need to know most of all, what you must remember from this very moment up until those wheels touch down in New York.”
She stepped forward.
“We are going to get through this. We will work together. We will protect each other. And together—as passengers and flight attendants and pilots of this flight—we will show this monster that we cannot be bullied, blackmailed, or taken down.”
Jo paused. She had no idea where any of those words had come from. She had set an intention, opened her mouth, and the words simply flowed out. Her mind raced. What had she missed? She wasn’t even sure what she just said.
“When I was a little girl, Daddy used to say to me: ‘Sit deep and put your spurs on, girl.’ Ladies and gentlemen, we have one choice. That choice is to trust and to be united. It’s an honor to be here with you, and a privilege to serve you. Sit deep and put your spurs on—here we go.”
Kellie pressed the red button. With a soft ping, the video stopped recording.
* * *
Theo watched Liu lay the tablet in her lap. Outside the van’s window, the scenery passed by in a blur.
“Dehumanize the bad guy,” she said. “Paint the captain as victim and hero. Unite the mob against a common enemy, which distracts them from their potential demise. Rally their warrior spirit into action.” Liu turned to Theo. “This urge you have to disregard authority and piss on protocol? It’s a family trait?”
Theo inhaled through an upsurge of pride that made his cheeks tingle.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, unable to hide a small smile.
“She didn’t— Wait, did she talk about DC?”
“No, ma’am,” another agent said.
Liu shook her head.
Aunt Jo was a thousand miles away and she was able to get under Liu’s skin too. Theo loved it.
“Ma’am? We’re here,” the driver said, pulling into a run-down strip mall. Vacant storefronts with faded outlines of former signage filled the plaza. Small planters with overgrown grass and dry trees dotted the parking lot. A maroon sedan with two flat tires and a windshield thick with dust sat abandoned.
The only other sign of life was at the far end of the lot. Under a burned-out streetlight, shrouded in darkness, a large silver SUV straddled two spots, conspicuous in its newness. In the shortness of a late-fall day, nighttime had already fallen—but the car’s sunshield was up, blocking a view of the inside from Alpha unit’s vantage.