Falling(63)

Carrie thought the woman seemed slightly hesitant as she explained that the first officer was involved. Theo’s face twisted painfully as he realized the plane was still in danger. Carrie was confused by how personally the young agent seemed to take the news. He put his hands on his knees for a moment before shooting upright, reaching into his pocket.

“She doesn’t know,” he said, typing furiously on his phone.

“Who doesn’t know?” Carrie asked.

Liu ignored Carrie’s question. “Do you know the specific location in Washington that’s the target?”

Carrie shook her head. “They never said.”

“And the gas attack,” Theo broke in, pausing his typing. “Did it happen?”

Carrie dropped her gaze and nodded. “The camera was in the cockpit, so we couldn’t see what happened in the plane. But we could hear it.”

He stared vacantly for a moment before turning back to his phone. “They need to know about the FO,” he muttered, frantically resuming his typing.

“Who’s he texting?” Carrie asked, growing impatient.

“The crew,” Liu said. “The flight attendants. His aunt Jo is one of them. She texted Theo. That’s how the FBI got involved.”

Carrie turned to Theo in disbelief. “Jo Watkins?”

He looked up.

“You know my aunt?”

Carrie couldn’t believe it. She told him that Bill and Jo had been flying together for years, and that she and Jo were friends. A new degree of anguish washed over her at the realization that Jo was on the flight. “Bill’s never going to be able to live with himself,” she said. “He gassed his own cabin, he gassed Jo…”

“With all due respect, ma’am,” Liu said, “we don’t know that’s all he’s going to do.”

Carrie’s head tilted slowly, her eyes narrowing.

“You think he’ll crash the plane.”

Carrie said it not as a question or a statement, but as an accusation. Liu looked up.

“He’s got a gun to his head, I don’t think we can—”

“And I had a gun to my head,” Carrie said. “I knew exactly what Bill would do.”

“You don’t know what—”

“I know exactly what choice my husband would have made, and will make.” Carrie’s body shook with rage. “You don’t know my husband. I do. He will land that plane.”

Liu studied Carrie. Flicking her head to Theo, she said, “Get her out of here.”

Theo guided Carrie away, his arm wrapping around her shoulder. As they walked off, they were almost out of earshot when Carrie heard Liu say quietly to another agent, “Get me the Situation Room. I’m recommending secondary protocol.”

Carrie whipped around before Theo could grab her.

“What’s the secondary protocol?” she demanded.

Liu refused to make eye contact. None of the agents would.

Carrie wheeled around to Theo. “Tell me. What’s the secondary protocol?”

Theo held her gaze, but didn’t speak. She could see the muscles on the side of his neck twitching.

Carrie was the wife of a seasoned airline captain, a pilot who’d been flying on September 11th. She understood the situation at hand; she knew what the military’s response was supposed to be.

She knew. She wanted to hear them confirm it.

Theo looked away, toward Liu, his eyes burning with betrayal.

Carrie understood.

“You are not going to shoot down that plane,” she said, her voice rising with each word.

“Ma’am, you need to let the professionals handle this. Ma’am—” Liu indicated to agents to restrain her.

“You have to give him a chance!” Carrie screamed, hysterical now. Two agents fought hard to pull her away. “You don’t know him! He’ll land the plane! I swear on my children’s life, he’ll find a way!”





CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE


JO STOOD AT THE FRONT of the plane, surveilling the cabin.

The businessman in row one, the first to go after the canister, was fiddling with his mask. He tightened the straps and adjusted the cup before taking it off his face entirely. Putting it back on, he took a deep breath and his eyes widened in alarm.

Jo’s pulse raced. The twelve minutes was up.

She could feel the air still flowing in her own mask and it brought a twinge of guilt. She reminded herself it was simply protocol. Put your mask on first before assisting others. She preached it every day, in every safety demo. She’d even driven it home to Daddy and Kellie: You two know this plane and you know what to do in an emergency. The passengers are going to need you alive for this. Jo knew she was of no use to anyone if she was dead, but it was impossible not to feel ashamed at having a tool the passengers didn’t.

“My mask broke,” the businessman said, his panic evident. “I’m not getting any air.”

“Sir,” Jo started cautiously, “I think that—”

She didn’t hear the cockpit door opening behind her. It was the sight of a silver canister sailing over her head into the main cabin that told her a second attack was underway. Jo spun on her heels just as the cockpit door slammed shut.

Turning back to the cabin, she watched the container land with a puff of white residue mushrooming above before it rolled down the aisle toward the back. It was now well beyond the bulkhead, nearly to the overwing.