“We’re over a national forest, what’s a good place to land?” Daniel shouted, the fear causing his voice to crack.
“This is Atlanta Air Traffic, we see you on radar. You are one hundred and seven miles from the airport. Can you make it?”
Reagan shook her head and tightened her grip on the controls. “We’re not going to make it. We’re gliding, but based on my altitude and speed, I can only glide for about eighty miles.”
“What’s going on?” Carter asked as he stood in the open doorway. Reagan couldn’t turn to look at him, she was too busy looking for someplace to land a plane in the middle of nowhere. Somehow she had to force the fear that was trying to strangle her back into the pit of her stomach. She had a job to do and the lives of everyone on the plane to try to save. “We’re going to make a crash landing. Try to help Diego secure Miss Mambo the best you can. Pack her in with hay, blankets, and anything you can find. Then buckle up and prepare for a crash landing.”
“Shit,” Carter cursed as the reality of the situation set in. He placed a quick kiss on the top of her head and Reagan felt like crying. She wanted to shout at him to come back and hold her, but she was stronger than that. She had a job to do and she was going to do it. “You can do this. I love you.”
Reagan’s throat tightened. “I love you too,” she said, forcing the words through her constricted throat. She hoped to God this wasn’t the last time she told him those words.
“We’re in contact with Chattanooga and Knoxville airports. Based on the calculations you’ve given us, you won’t be able to glide to either airport. There’s a small private airfield thirty miles from your location,” air traffic control told her as he gave her the location. The airfield was for small, single-engine planes, but it was better than nothing. “Emergency services, on the other hand, will not be able to meet you there in time. This airfield is on the top of a mountain and not near any real city. The closest fire and ambulance have been notified and will be there in forty-five minutes.”
Reagan looked out over the mountains in the direction of the airfield. She was coming in on a deadstick landing, on top of a mountain, and on a runway that was going to be too small. It was every pilot’s worst nightmare. She’d practiced this, but it was something she wished she’d never have to do.
“We can’t land there!” Daniel almost yelled in fear.
“Stay calm. Remember your training. I can land this plane anywhere that’s flat. Just keep looking for the freaking runway,” Reagan ordered as she white-knuckled the controls. She thought in a situation like this her life would flash before her eyes, but it didn’t. Instead, every ounce of brainpower was focused on how best to land the plane.
Reagan ignored Mrs. Bristol’s fearful screams. She ignored Miss Mambo’s nervous whinnies as the ride became rougher. Reagan ignored everything as she kept scanning the mountaintops for the landing strip.
“There it is!” Daniel shouted. “One o’clock,” he told her as Reagan locked onto it. Relief flooded her as she saw that the end of the runway ended in a heavily wooded forest heading slowly downhill and not a sheer rocky drop off. The trees would hurt, but they’d stop the plane. That is, if they could make it to the end of the runway without flipping. The runway was awfully narrow for a plane of this size and one wrong hit of the wing or a tire could send the plane tumbling.
“Diego and I got Miss Mambo packed in like a china doll,” Carter said from behind her. She hadn’t known he was there. “Is that the airport? It looks small.”
“That’s because it’s more of an airstrip than an airport. We’re going to land hard and hit some trees to stop. Is everyone buckled up?” Reagan asked as she lined up for her landing.
“Yes,” Carter said, taking the small seat behind Reagan. She heard him buckling up as he continued to talk to her in a very calm voice. “You’re the best pilot I know. You’ve got this.” His confidence in her had her nodding to herself. She could do this. She could do this. Reagan let out a breath and didn’t know if she remembered to take a new one as the ground came fast and hard toward her.
* * *
Carter’s heart was beating out of his chest in fear. The runway Reagan was approaching was small. Even he could see the plane wouldn’t fit on it. Prepare for a crash landing. He’d never wanted to hear those words. The idea that their lives could end very soon made him feel like vomiting. Just when everything in his life was looking up, it could be snatched away in a split second.
“Brace! Brace! Brace!” Reagan yelled at the top of her lungs.
Carter covered his head with his hands as he saw Stewart, his back facing him across the small cockpit grabbing onto his desk with both hands. Carter turned his head to the side briefly to check on Mrs. Bristol through the flapping cockpit door. It hadn’t really closed when he’d taken his seat and now swayed open. In the last moments before the plane hit the runway, he saw Diego make the sign of the cross and he saw Mick reach for Suzanne. Except he didn’t reach over to hold her. Mick’s hand slipped into Suzanne’s lap, unbuckled her seatbelt, and shoved her forward out of the chair and head first into the metal wall of the cockpit moments before the plane attempted to land.
“Suzanne!” Carter yelled and Mick looked right at him as the plane hit the runway with a jarring thump that slammed the door shut. The plane skidded, the wing hit something, sending the plane spinning, the door flying open, and Suzanne’s body tossed around the narrow entranceway of the plane. Suddenly there was another jarring hit as the spinning plane hit something else on its trip down the airstrip, dipping the far side of the plane toward the ground.
The last thing Carter saw before the breath was knocked out of him was Suzanne’s limp body sliding past the door. He was able to notice she was no longer screaming, but then the plane slammed into something, probably the trees, and everything went black.
15
“Is anyone alive?”
Carter blinked his eyes open at the unfamiliar voice yelling from somewhere off in the distance. The cockpit was fuzzy as it slowly came into view. They were leaning heavily to the far side, leaving Carter slightly elevated in the air. There was movement and noise coming from inside the plane. Miss Mambo was alive. She was screaming in panic and possibly with an injury. But it was the movement just outside the cockpit door that caught Carter’s eye. He turned his head and blinked, trying to focus on it.
Mick was reaching to feel Diego’s pulse. Then he opened up the bag he had been carrying and pulled a metal crowbar from it. In one quick motion, he swung a metal crowbar like a bat and slammed it into Diego’s head. The fear Carter felt when they crashed was nothing compared to the feeling he got when Mick turned and their eyes locked.
Carter frantically battled his seatbelt. He was in pain, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to remain a sitting duck for this man to kill him. He had to get free and he had to protect Reagan.
“Reagan!” he yelled as he unlocked his belt and crashed to the floor of the cockpit. “Reagan! Mick is a killer!”
“I’m a businessman,” Mick said as he stalked toward Carter. “A businessman who can’t afford anyone looking too closely at the claim I’m making for Miss Mambo.”
“You did all this for an insurance payout?”