Chapter 8
Richard ordered the city’s emergency management office notified.
Sterling engineers worked to override the stolen codes.
The unmanned aircraft carried no weapons.
It did carry thousands of pounds of fuel.
If Daniel sent it into downtown Charlotte, hundreds could die.
Sophie stared at the countdown.
“I should go.”
Richard knelt in front of her.
“No.”
“If I go, he stops it.”
“He may be lying.”
“What if he isn’t?”
Richard looked into his daughter’s frightened eyes.
Daniel had made a six-year-old believe she was responsible for an entire city.
“You did not launch that aircraft,” Richard said. “You did not steal the codes. Adults will stop it.”
“What if they can’t?”
“Then the blame still belongs to Daniel.”
The countdown reached forty-three minutes.
Maya studied the message.
“He expects you to contact him.”
Richard typed a response.
Show me you can control it.
The aircraft banked sharply.
Its camera activated.
Live footage of the city appeared.
Daniel replied.
BRING HER.
Sophie gripped Richard’s hand.
An engineer shouted from the operations center.
“We regained the secondary navigation channel.”
“Can you land it?” Richard asked.
“Daniel still has primary control.”
“Can you confuse the system?”
“Possibly, but it may crash.”
“Send it away from the city.”
The team transmitted false positioning data.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the aircraft turned west.
Daniel corrected the course.
The countdown continued.
Thirty-nine minutes.
Richard called Eleanor.
“Tell me about the old mill.”
“It has tunnels beneath the river.”
“Exits?”
“One leads to the rail yard. Another collapsed years ago.”
“He chose it because he can escape.”
Maya began planning an approach through the tunnels.
Richard would appear to obey.
Sophie would remain at the operations center.
A child-sized figure wearing her coat would sit in the back of Richard’s vehicle.
Sophie objected.
“He’ll know.”
“Not until I am close enough to keep him talking.”
She took off her silver heart pendant.
“Take this.”
“It belongs to you.”
“Mommy protected me with it. Now it can protect you.”
Richard placed the necklace around his neck.
“I will bring it back.”
Sophie looked at him sternly.
“Only promise today.”
He nodded.
“I will do everything I can to bring it back today.”
Richard drove toward the mill.
An officer disguised as Sophie sat beneath a blanket in the rear seat.
Maya’s team entered the river tunnel two miles away.
The aircraft was twenty-eight minutes from the city.
Daniel called.
“Show me the girl.”
Richard aimed the phone toward the back seat.
The small figure moved.
“Land the aircraft.”
“When I have Sophie.”
“You get access to her after it lands.”
Daniel laughed.
“You still negotiate as if you hold power.”
“And you still confuse cruelty with strength.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Emily said things like that.”
“You killed her because she saw what you were.”
“She chose you.”
“She loved me.”
“She pitied you.”
Richard forced himself not to react.
The mill appeared ahead.
Its brick walls rose beside the river.
He stopped in the courtyard.
Daniel stood on an upper platform.
A rifle hung from his shoulder.
Graham was tied to a chair beside him.
Richard stepped from the car.
“You took the wrong traitor,” Richard called.
Graham lifted his bruised face.
“I tried to stop him.”
Daniel aimed at the vehicle.
“Bring Sophie out.”
“Land the aircraft first.”
The countdown showed twenty-one minutes.
Daniel fired into the ground near Richard’s feet.
“Now.”
The disguised officer opened the rear door slowly.
Daniel looked through a rifle scope.
He immediately saw the tactical boots beneath the coat.
He fired.
The officer rolled behind the car.
Richard ran into the mill.
Bullets struck the brick doorway.
Daniel shouted into a radio.
The aircraft accelerated.
Maya’s team reached the lower tunnels.
Richard climbed a rusted staircase.
Daniel dragged Graham toward the platform edge.
“One more step, and he falls.”
Richard stopped.
“Why should I care?”
“Because he knows how to stop the aircraft.”
Graham shouted.
“The override is tied to Daniel’s heartbeat!”
Daniel struck him.
Richard understood.
A biometric monitor on Daniel’s wrist transmitted a continuous signal.
If Daniel died or removed it, the aircraft would enter an uncontrolled descent.
“We need him alive,” Graham said.
Daniel smiled.
“Now you understand.”
The countdown reached seventeen minutes.
“Where is Sophie?” Daniel demanded.
“Safe.”
“No one is safe from me.”
“You sound like Malcolm.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Malcolm is dying.”
“And he still called you inferior.”
“Shut up.”
“He used you to kill Emily. He planned to kill you at the pier.”
“I said shut up!”
“You spent your life begging cruel men to tell you that you mattered.”
Daniel raised the rifle.
Richard continued.
“Father did it. Malcolm did it. Now you are using Sophie because a child is the only person you think you can control.”
Daniel fired.
The bullet grazed Richard’s arm.
At the same moment, Maya’s officers emerged below.
Daniel seized Graham and dragged him into a control room.
Steel doors closed.
Richard reached the platform.
A computer showed the aircraft’s path.
Fourteen minutes.
Graham’s voice came through the intercom.
“The system has a manual abort phrase.”
Richard searched the console.
“What phrase?”
“Daniel changed it.”
Inside the control room, Daniel hit Graham again.
“Tell him and I kill you.”
Graham laughed weakly.
“You were going to kill me anyway.”
He looked through the glass at Richard.
“The phrase is something Emily said before the crash.”
Richard’s mind raced.
Daniel had recorded Emily’s final moments.
He had turned her words into a key.
“What did she say?”
Daniel grabbed Graham’s throat.
Richard remembered Emily’s video.
She had been followed.
She had called him before the crash, but the connection failed.
A voicemail arrived hours later.
It contained only wind, tires, and Emily’s voice.
Richard had listened to it hundreds of times.
At the end, she whispered five words.
Sophie must know she was loved.
Richard entered the phrase.
ACCESS DENIED.
Daniel smiled.
“You never listened.”
The countdown reached eleven minutes.
Richard closed his eyes.
He remembered another sound in the voicemail.
Emily had shouted at the driver behind her.
You will never take my daughter.
Richard typed the words.
ACCESS DENIED.
Graham struggled free long enough to strike Daniel.
The biometric monitor tore halfway from his wrist.
The aircraft shook on the screen.
Engineers shouted through Richard’s earpiece.
“Signal instability!”
Daniel stabbed Graham in the side.
Graham fell.
Richard slammed a chair against the control-room glass.
It cracked.
Nine minutes.
Daniel reattached the monitor.
“You always arrive too late, Richard.”
The phrase.
Emily had accused Richard of always arriving too late during their final argument.
Daniel had heard it.
Richard typed:
YOU ALWAYS ARRIVE TOO LATE.
The console flashed green.
MANUAL ABORT AVAILABLE.
Richard pressed the command.
The aircraft turned away from the city.
Its landing gear lowered.
Engineers guided it toward an empty field.
Daniel saw the screen.
He opened the control-room door and attacked Richard.
They crashed against the railing.
Below them, the river rushed through broken machinery.
Daniel punched Richard’s wounded side.
Richard nearly fell.
“You stole my life!” Daniel screamed.
“You destroyed your own.”
Daniel pulled a knife.
Richard caught his wrist.
The blade hovered inches from his chest.
Graham crawled from the control room.
He struck Daniel’s ankle with a metal bar.
Daniel lost his balance.
He fell over the railing but caught the edge with one hand.
The biometric monitor slipped free.
The aircraft began descending too fast.
Richard grabbed Daniel’s wrist.
“Put the monitor back on!”
Daniel laughed.
“Let it fall.”
“It could kill people.”
“That is your problem.”
Richard pulled him upward.
Daniel tried to stab him.
Maya reached the platform and kicked the knife away.
Officers dragged Daniel over the railing.
They secured the monitor to his wrist.
Seconds later, the aircraft landed hard in an empty field.
Its landing gear collapsed.
It slid through the dirt and stopped.
No one was hurt.
Daniel lay in handcuffs.
Richard knelt beside Graham.
Blood covered Graham’s shirt.
“I’m sorry,” Graham whispered.
Richard pressed cloth against the wound.
“Save it for Sophie.”
“I closed the door.”
“Yes.”
“I heard her crying.”
“Yes.”
Graham began to sob.
“I was afraid.”
“So was she.”
Paramedics carried him away.
Daniel watched Richard.
“You think this ends with me?”
“It ends with Sophie being safe.”
Daniel smiled.
“Vanessa has her.”
Richard’s phone rang.
Nora screamed through the speaker.
“She came through the service entrance!”
Richard felt the world stop.
“Where is Sophie?”
A different voice answered.
Vanessa.
“She is finally eating at a proper table.”
Richard heard Sophie crying in the background.
Vanessa continued.
May you like
“Come home, Richard.”
The line went dead.
