Falling(61)

Theo’s eyes watered profusely but gradually his vision was coming into focus. Pulling at his waist, Theo untucked his shirt to wipe his eyes clean. His hand grazed his holster.

It was empty.

His vision sharpened and Theo saw the danger for himself.

Five FBI agents, minus himself, stood with guns drawn in front of the suspect.

The suspect faced them, pointing Theo’s gun directly at the suicide vest.

Theo’s stomach dropped. If the man pulled the trigger, every one of them was dead.

“Put down the gun and we’ll bring you in without further harm,” Theo said, his voice far more steady than he felt.

“Further harm,” the suspect repeated, a small smile on his lips.

“That’s right,” Theo said. “You have my word.”

The man chuckled, his increasingly crazy smile showing bloody teeth. His weight slumped to the right, favoring his left leg, the one Theo had shot. He turned his head to the ocean for a moment before looking up at the stars with a deep, relaxed inhale. “Your word…” he said. “You know, where I come from, we have a saying. ‘No friend but the mountains.’ Do you know what that means?”

“I do not know what that means,” Theo said slowly. “But why don’t you put down the gun and we can talk about it.”

The man laughed. He mumbled something under his breath.

“Sorry?” Theo said.

The man’s face erupted with rage and he began to scream, “I get why you’re doing this but it doesn’t justify what you’re doing!” He shouted it again and again until his voice grew hoarse. Tears had filled his eyes and they began streaming down his face.

Theo didn’t reply. No one did.

The suspect looked around at the agents and then down at the vest he wore and the gun in his hand. It seemed to be dawning on him for the first time where he was, what was happening. A look of regret flashed across his face, just for a moment, before he seemed to mentally pivot again, like something else had just occurred to him. He laughed again, but not in the same maniacal way. It was a soft, disbelieving huff.

“All this, and I’m the one with a choice.”

His brow furrowed as he considered the situation. After a moment, he let out an amused sigh. He looked up, his eyes locking onto the stars, and carefully placed the barrel of the gun under his chin and pulled the trigger.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


THE PILOTS COULD HEAR THE chaos and commotion in the van from the other side of the call, but could see nothing, the phone’s camera still angled up at the ceiling.

“Ma’am. Are you hurt? Are the children hurt?” a voice said. A body climbed over the camera.

“We’re fine,” Carrie said. “We’re okay.”

The camera jostled and filled with light as someone outside the van picked it up off the floor. A woman appeared, her grimly triumphant smile taking up the whole screen.

“Captain Hoffman? I’m Michelle Liu with the FBI, sir. Your family is—”

The faint sound of a single gunshot rang out, and she broke off as Bill flinched.

The camera angle dropped as Liu scrambled to figure out what was happening. There was confusion and commotion, boots running. The scratchy sound of a radio broke in with a breathy voice. “Suspect is dead,” a man reported. “Self-inflicted gunshot.”

The phone moved and the woman’s jubilant face returned.

“It’s official! We got him, sir. It’s over.”

She breathed heavily with excitement into the camera before squinting for a better look at the scene in the cockpit, her smile fading.

“Is that a gun?” she asked.

“Cut them off,” Ben said, his voice shrill. “Cut them off!”

Bill heard Carrie scream his name as he slammed the laptop shut, the call disconnecting.

Bill didn’t move a muscle. He could sense the gun beside his head. But the threat barely registered and a warmth spread through his body.

His family was safe.

Slowly turning, he looked at Ben.

The young man’s blank expression betrayed nothing. Tears flowed freely from his vacant eyes as he stared at the closed laptop. His best friend was dead. He was alone in the world. It seemed as though Ben had stepped out of who he once was into something entirely new. The paradigm had shifted and Bill was afraid of what that could mean.

Bill didn’t want to speak first, and he needed to tread lightly. His family might be safe but the barrel of the gun told him this was far from over. Bill still needed to get the plane on the ground.

Without taking his eyes off the computer, Ben finally spoke.

“Actions have consequences, Bill. We told you…”

He trailed off, turning to the right of his seat. Bill heard a zipper open. Ben rummaged through his shoulder bag for a moment before turning back to the captain.

Bill looked down at the man’s hand and felt his nostrils flare with the sharp intake of air. It was another canister.

Bill couldn’t speak. Finally he found a single word: “No.”

Ben leaned over. The gun almost touched Bill’s head.

“No?” Ben said. “I don’t think ‘no’ is an option anymore.”

“I am not gassing them again. This wasn’t part of the deal.”