Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred
Page 9
“Chop the power!” Dr. Cooper yelled. “Ease off the pressure!”
Jay yanked the throttle back so hard his hand slipped off the knob and his elbow slammed into his seat back. He could hear the engine flutter down to a whispering idle. At the same time he felt a sickening, sinking feeling like an elevator going down.
The Yank nosed down toward the grass, limping, floating through the air.
The stall horn began to wail through the cabin, warning Jay of slow speed, loss of lift, an impending disaster.
“Nose up!” came his father’s voice.
Nose up? I’m about to stall this thing!
Faith. There was nothing else available.
He pulled back.
The Yank nosed up just as it hit the grass again, bounced, floated, bounced again.
Jay froze in his seat, waiting, just waiting, afraid to move anything, just waiting for the wheels to touch again.
THUMP! The wheels hit ground again. Jay winced, waiting, expecting another bounce, another terrible floating.
But then . . . at long last, there followed a blessed rumble and rattle and bouncing and shaking.
The Yank was on the ground! It was rolling along the ground!
As Brock’s airplane flew past, Dr. Cooper turned in his seat and looked out the back window. “I can’t see him! I can’t see him!”
First the fire crew ran after The Yank, then all the emergency trucks and cars gave chase. Laboriously, The Yank rumbled along the grassy strip alongside the runway, clattered and banged and bumped over a runway light, bounced across a taxiway. . . .
Jay finally thought of the brakes and jammed on them hard.
November Seven Five Eight Yankee Tango locked its wheels, dug out two long ruts in the grass, and finally came to a stop.
Lila exploded with a scream of joy and relief, leaping so high in the air she thought she’d never touch down again.
“He made it! He made it!”
She ran to Joyce and yanked her loose from her death grip on Johnny Adair, forcing her to look and believe it. “They made it! They landed!”
No power on earth could contain the roar from the crowds along the fence. Nothing could restrain their shouts, their leaps, their waving arms.
In the control tower there was total bedlam as every member of the staff shouted and waved through the big glass windows at the aircraft resting out there on the grass beside the runway. Even Ben Parker, at long last, broke into a smile, and raised his hands in the air in triumph.
In homes, restaurants, department stores, and everywhere else there was a television or radio, crowds of people cheered, embraced, and cried. The reporters on the scene were crying and shouting into their microphones so loudly they could not be understood.
Brock climbed for safe altitude and circled back over the field for a look. When Dr. Cooper finally saw The Yank sitting on the grass in one piece, now surrounded by fire trucks and rescue personnel, he flopped back in his seat, removed his headset, and let himself breathe again. Brock extended his hand, and Dr. Cooper grasped it firmly and gave it a shake. Neither had to say a word.
Jay felt weary and faint. Absentmindedly, out of habit, out of repeated training from his father, he reached for the mixture control and pulled it all the way back.
With no more fuel coming through its carburetor, the faithful engine finally rested, its black propeller spinning to a stop.
It was the last thing Jay remembered doing in the cockpit of Eight Yankee Tango before he came to the end of his strength and everything went black.
It isn’t over. I’m still in the airplane. I’m still flying, still blind. . . .
Jay awoke with a start.
“Whoa, it’s okay,” came his father’s voice.
He looked around. He was in a hospital bed.
“How are you feeling?” asked Lila.
He gripped the sides of the bed. He was still feeling the weird sensation of being in the airplane, even though he could see the bed was sitting solidly on the floor.
Wait. He could see the bed? His eyes grew wide.
He blinked.
He could see again! He could see the hospital room with its white curtains and clean white walls; the sunlight coming in the window; his father, sister, and Aunt Joyce standing by the bed.
“Wow,” was all he could say.
“How do things look, son?” Dr. Cooper asked.
“They look great! Man, do they look great!”
Dr. Cooper raised his hand for a high five, and Jay reached and gave his palm a slap. Lila leaned over the bed and gave Jay a joyful hug.
“Am I okay?” he asked.
“You’re going to be fine,” Dr. Cooper answered. “The doctors had to operate to relieve the pressure on your brain. Looks like they succeeded.”
Jay’s hand went to his head and felt the bandages.
“What about Uncle Rex?”
Aunt Joyce answered, “Well, he’s—”
A voice came through the door. “He’s still alive and kicking, that’s what he is!” It was Rex, sitting in a wheelchair, pushed along by a nurse. His head was all bandaged, but he was smiling and still had that mischievous glint in his eye. “He’s got a lovely wife, a great bunch of in-laws, a slightly bent airplane that made it back, and a very good God, and he’s thankful.” With the nurse’s help he rolled up alongside Jay’s bed and extended his hand. “You saved our lives, buddy. You’re one crack pilot.”
When the Coopers and Kramers finally made it to the Seattle waterfront a week later, Jay was so absorbed in seeing everything—the sun on the water, the seaweed and barnacles on the pilings, the smooth, effortless soaring of the seagulls—that the rest of the group had to keep waiting for him while he lagged behind to look at it all, study it, and see it as he had never seen it before.
“You know,” Jay said, looking out across the water, “I was ready to leave it all and go home to be with the Lord, but I’m still kind of glad the Lord said, ‘Not yet’.”
“I guess He still has some things for you to do down here,” Dr. Cooper said with a smile.
Rex nodded. “I wouldn’t mind a few more years with Joyce; I really wouldn’t.” Then he smiled that same teasing smile. “And besides that, one of these days I’ll get to see you finally get your pilot’s license.” Then he looked concerned. “Uh, that is, if you haven’t had the idea scared out of you by now.”
People dining at a nearby seafood bar were sharing their meals with the seagulls, tossing bits of fish and French fries high into the air where the gulls would catch them in mid-flight. Jay was fascinated.
“Boy, nothing can fly like a seagull, you know that?”
Rex thought it over and responded, “Eh, I’ve come close.”
Jay didn’t take his eyes off a snow white seagull as it swooped down in a wide, graceful circle to intercept a thrown French fry. “So will I.”
“God willing,” said Dr. Cooper.
“God willing,” Jay and Rex said together.
The Cooper Kids
Adventure Series®
by Frank E. Peretti
Now that you’ve read Flying Blind, the eighth book in the Cooper Kids Adventure Series®, you won’t want to miss any of the exciting books in this fiction series by master storyteller Frank E. Peretti. Each volume tells a story about the challenges faced by biblical archaeologist Dr. Jacob Cooper and his children, Jay and Lila, as they travel the world together.
Books 1–4 in the Cooper Kids Adventure Series® are available from Crossway Books. Books 5–8 are available from Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Turn the page for a sneak-peek
at the other adventures that await you in
The Cooper Kids Adventure Series®!
Book 7—The Legend of Annie Murphy
In 1885, Cyrus Murphy struck gold in his Bodine, Arizona mine. According to town legend, his wife, Annie Murphy, murdered him out of greed. Just before she was to be hanged for the murder, she made a run for freedom and was shot trying
to escape. Now, more than a hundred years later, some people in Bodine have reported seeing Annie Murphy’s “ghost.” The Coopers interrupt their vacation to investigate the stories and stumble across a truth that is even stranger than they could have guessed. The Coopers unwittingly become involved in a mystery that spans a century, finding themselves caught up in a puzzle whose solution lies hidden somewhere between the past and the present.
Book 6—The Deadly Curse of Toco-Rey
Lila and Jay Cooper have joined their dad on a mission to the jungles of Central America, where a group of American treasure hunters have already become the victims of the deadly curse of Toco-Rey. How did these explorers really meet their end? In their search for answers, the Coopers come face to face with the many dangers that the jungle holds— natives armed with deadly darts, traps set by an ancient civilization, and swarms of poisonous flying slugs. Before Dr. Cooper can solve the mystery, his children are kidnapped and his integrity is put to the test. What price will he pay to get his children back? Is the treasure in the burial tomb of Kachi-Tochetin really worth more than gold?
Book 5—The Secret of the Desert Stone
Biblical archeologist Dr. Jacob Cooper and his children, Jay and Lila, arrive in the African country of Togwana with one goal—to discover the secret behind the two-mile-high Stone that has mysteriously appeared overnight. Who could have excavated, carved, and transported such a colossal Stone without leaving any evidence of their work? What does the Stone mean? Is it the evil omen that many of the people of Togwana believe it to be? The Coopers’ uneasiness soon turns into dread as they realize they are being kept in the watchful eye of the country’s new government and its brutal dictator, Idi Nkromo. Nkromo wants the Stone removed and will not tolerate failure. Will the Coopers get to the bottom of the mystery that has put their very lives in danger? The answers to their many questions may come in unexpected places.
Book 4—Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea
Returning early from one of her father’s expeditions, Lila Cooper is aboard an Air Force plane that is hijacked. Now she is a prisoner in a top-secret weapons pod—trapped at the bottom of the sea with no escape. Meanwhile, Lila’s father, Dr. Cooper; her brother, Jay; and daring journalist Meaghan Flaherty travel to a remote corner of the Pacific in search of the missing plane. With a cannibal tribe ahead of them and a band of angry terrorists in hot pursuit, can they reach Lila before it’s too late?
Book 3—The Tombs of Anak
When Jay and Lila Cooper and their archaeologist father enter the tombs of Anak, they hope to find Dr. Cooper’s missing co-worker. Instead, they stumble onto a frightening religion and new mysteries that soon plunge them all into incredible danger. Who or what is Ha-Raphah? Why do the local villagers fear him? Will the Coopers understand the truth in time to avoid disaster, or will they be swept away by Ha-Raphah’s desperate last attempt to preserve his evil powers?
Book 2—Escape from the Island of Aquarius
Odd things are happening on the exotic South Pacific island of Aquarius—and those things are raising some unusual questions. Could the tyrannical leader of the island colony be the missing person Dr. Jacob Cooper has been sent to find? If so, why is he acting so strangely? Deadly perils lie in store for the Coopers as they seek to solve the mystery. The only hope for Jay, Lila, and their father is to find a way to overcome the evil that holds the colonists in its grip before the entire island disintegrates.
Book 1—The Door in the Dragon’s Throat
Making their way through a dark and mysterious cavern, Jay and Lila Cooper can’t help wondering what really lies behind the Door in the Dragon’s Throat—riches from a lost kingdom . . . or an ancient evil? As they seek to unlock the truth about the sinister legends, they find comfort in the certainty that God has protected them from danger many times before. But will Jay and Lila be able to conquer the force that lurks behind the Door in the Dragon’s Throat?