While the next few hours passed, Rob dozed in his seat with the airplane on autopilot. The rabbi entertained Taylor and Rock with stories about his life and the war in Korea. He showed Taylor how to make course corrections as they checking the charts. It was more than just amusing listening to him, it was enchanting.
Logan found Marie toward the back of the airplane where she had managed to create a nest for her children. He noticed she had spread a few small blankets across the floor and had gotten them to sleep peacefully. She was leaning against the wall looking out the window, lost in her thoughts.
“Mind if I sit here?” Logan indicated a spot beside her.
She looked at him blankly at first, then nodded. Most of the other soldiers and civilian passengers were grouped together further forward, talking with each other while she was here by herself.
“Is this your punishment for having children?” Logan grinned.
She understood that he meant it in fun, but she was not amused. It was true that she appeared to be a social outcast for having children, but she cared little about what other people thought about her when it came to her children.
“It’s a free country. You may sit wherever you want.”
Her answer was less than enthusiastic, and not what he had hoped to hear. He wanted desperately to be liked by this beautiful lady but found himself almost perpetually the source of her anger.
“Can’t we have a truce?”
“I guess then you’d have it all, wouldn’t you?”
“What is that supposed to mean? I just can’t understand how can you still be angry with me. Haven’t I tried to help? I’ve been doing my part. I’ve even blown my cover! What more do you expect from me?”
Marie whipped her head around to glare directly at Logan. “You want to know what I expect?”
“Yes, I do! What more do you expect of me?”
“I’ll tell you exactly what I expect of you. I expect you to go back to your country as soon as we get back and tell them all about how you watched us crack the security system in Iraq. I expect you’ll tell them you’ve discovered who Sy VanCopeland is. You’ll become a hero in your country, something you’re dying, or should I say we’re dying, for you to become. You’ll become a hero, and my family will become dead. That’s what I expect from you.”
“You really think I’d do that?”
“Yes, I really do. I’ve gotten to know you, Mr. Logan. I’ve gotten to know you well enough to know that you have a distorted sense of what honor is all about. Giving your country an edge is not heroic or honorable if you sacrifice the innocent in the process, Mr. Logan. Now if you’d be so kind as to leave me alone, I would really appreciate it. I’m not fond of the idea of conversing with the person who’s conspiring to have my family killed.”
Logan was taken aback by her directness, and at the same time, he wasn’t sure he completely disagreed with her assessment. He had no idea how he was going to explain to his superiors how he was able to break the security system to launch the missiles. Once that came out, his superiors would want to know every detail. He wasn’t sure how he managed to get himself into this predicament, but he did know that she had an uncanny knack for putting things into perspective. Maybe he wasn’t cut out for field assignments after all. Maybe he should stay behind a desk doing what he did best. Maybe she was right about everything. “Does Rob share your feelings?”
“Rob?!” She shook her head. “Rob believes the best about everyone, and I’m sure he probably trusts you, too. He’s just a dumb-country-boy-come-to-the-city. If you smile at him, he’ll instinctively trust you, right up to the time you thrust your knife into his back. You’ll do that to him, too, Mr. Logan, won’t you? You’ll be stepping on him on your way up, won’t you?”
He didn’t know what to say or think. He wondered if his life was so transparent to everyone or just to her. She could be so stressful, he thought. But was she right?
He stood up to leave, but she caught his arm. “I’m sorry. Don’t go yet.”
He stood there for a moment puzzling over this sudden change in Marie’s disposition. Reluctantly, he sat back down.
“It occurs to me,” she stared back out the window, “that I don’t even know your first name. I think you told me once, but I don’t remember. It seems like ages ago.”
“Jonathan.”
She looked at him then, piercing him with her gaze. “Is it really Jonathan, or is that an assumed name?”
“It’s, uh, well... I guess...”
“I’m sorry.” She turned away. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”
He didn’t respond.
She leaned back against the wall to face him.
“I know I’m constantly keeping you at arm’s length, but to use your words, what do you expect of me?”
He thought about his answer carefully. He didn’t want to mess this up as he had done so many times before. “I can understand your reservations about me, and I guess I really can’t blame you for your feelings. After all, we didn’t exactly get started out on the right foot.”
“Now that’s for sure.”
He paused to stare at her, silently saying you’re doing it again. “As I was saying, I can understand your reservations, but all I can do is assure you, Marie, that I will not give any information away that could possibly endanger you or your family. I can’t make you believe me. All I can do is to ask you to trust me. As I have trusted you with my identity.”
She was quiet as she again looked out the window. Maybe he was right. Maybe she could trust him. For the sake of keeping peace, she would at least pretend to try.
Concorde Flight
Northern Mariana Islands
Philippine Sea
Rob awoke after several hours of sound sleep to find the rabbi sitting beside him at the airplane controls.
“Did you have a good nap?”
Rob smiled and sat up in his seat. “Not long enough. Where are we?”
“We’re about a thousand miles outside of Hawaii, headed right into nightfall. That gray area ahead to the right is a large storm system. We’re going to try avoiding it by staying to the north. At our current speed, we should be getting to California just before sunrise tomorrow. Let’s just hope our hydraulic pressure holds up.”
The Concorde continued to streak toward the American coastline through the night. Leaving the airplane on autopilot, Rob was able to take short naps as the night wore on.
Early in the morning, Taylor woke him. “We’re coming up on San Diego, sir.”
He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and stretched. A sharp pain in his neck caused him to wince as he turned his head to look out the window. He rubbed his neck and carefully turned to look out. “I don’t see anything.”
“I know, but according to the charts, we’re several hundred miles out.”
Rob put on his headset. “Are we tuned to the right channel?”
Taylor stared at Rob for a moment. “I wouldn’t know, sir.”
With no help from anyone, he went ahead and keyed the microphone. “San Diego, this is the Concorde flight. Mayday. Mayday.” He paused briefly before repeating his broadcast to wait for a response. After several minutes, he got an answer.
“What is the nature of your emergency, Concorde flight?”
Rob didn’t know where to start. He keyed the microphone and opened his mouth to answer, then paused as he tried to gather his thoughts. “San Diego, our flight left Great Britain about two weeks ago and was hijacked enroute to Israel. We’ve escaped with American citizens and servicemen and are now trying to get back to the U.S. safely.” Rob paused to wait for a response.
“Is this Rob Anderson?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Mr. Anderson, this is Operations at North Island Naval Air Station. We are familiar with your situation. We will be bringing you in.”
Rob was a little perturbed that the man did not address him by his rank. He did not take his command lightly. “To whom am I speaking?”
“Ensign Josh Martin.”
“Ensign, you are speaking to a colonel, and you will address me accordingly, is that understood?”
“Yes, sir! I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know.”
“That’s quite all right. Now tell me, how is our course?”
“Sir, you need to come left to zero-six-seven degrees. Make your altitude ten thousand feet and your speed three hundred miles per hour.”
“Roger that, Ensign.”
Rob could see the lights of the bay area coming into view. They continued to grow in size and brilliance until the lights of the bay area filled the windows around him. Ahead, he could see the runway lights as he steadily approached. He flip the switch to lower the gear and heard the landing gear lowering, interrupted by an alarm sounding from the console. “What’s that?”
The rabbi leaned forward to look. “It’s an alarm telling you that your landing gear has not locked into place.”
“Can we land anyway?”
“Not unless you want to kill everyone.”
“Blast!” Rob keyed the microphone while Logan struggled to find the source of the alarm and turn it off. “North Island, we have a problem. Our landing gear will not lock into place. We are leaking hydraulic fluid as a result of gun fire, and we need to make an emergency landing.”
Silence. Finally, the ensign answered. “Colonel Anderson, do you have nuclear weapons aboard your flight?”
“Yes.”
“Sir, I am instructed to inform you that you cannot make an emergency landing here. I’m sorry, sir.”
Rob could not believe what he was hearing. “Where do you suggest we land?”
“Over the ocean, if possible, sir.”
“Just a minute...” Rob said as he reached over to the console and hit the switch to raise the landing gear, but nothing happened. “Just what I thought.” He looked back at Taylor and Wright. “We can’t raise the landing gear either, so a water landing would be suicide! This airplane drops out of the sky like a rock at speeds under a hundred seventy-five miles per hour. If we try to land on the water at that speed, our landing gear will catch the water and tear us apart.”
Rob continued to stare at out the window until the radio sounded.
“Sir, you cannot continue on your present flight path. We cannot allow you to attempt a landing!”
Rob was confused. He needed time to think, to figure out what to do, but there seemed to be no answer. He understood that he couldn’t try to land in a populated area when he knew he would crash, but he didn’t seem to have any other alternatives.
The rabbi looked at Rob. “If I understand this alarm, it seems to indicate that the front and the back right landing gear are not extended all the way. The other back gear seems to be down and locked in place.”
“Is that good?”
“No. It’s the worst possible situation to be in. If we could raise the gear, we could belly land, but with one rear gear not locked, it could collapse, causing us to spin, roll, and tear ourselves apart upon landing.”
The controller’s voice sounded louder and more determined. “Sir, you must abandon your current flight path. Are you receiving me?”
Rob looked around at the faces in the flight cabin. “Do we attempt a landing anyway?”
The rabbi answered. “Not unless you want to kill us all and risk contaminating this area for miles around with radioactive material.”
The runway was becoming larger, and the nervous voice of the air traffic controller was repeating faster and louder. “Abandon your landing, Concorde flight. You must abandon your approach immediately!”
Rob knew they were in grave trouble again. Fuel was low and hydraulic fluid was lower. It was just a matter of time before he lost flight control as well. When that happened, the airplane controls would freeze, and he would no longer be able control his turns or altitude. For now, he had no choice. He had to gain altitude and find a solution. At the very least, he had to take the airplane away from any populated areas.
He gently pushed the throttle forward and felt himself sink back in his seat as the four big jet engines thrust the Concorde forward. They climbed gently, soon crossing the Naval Air Station heading for the mountains beyond.
It was getting close to dawn now. The sun would soon be rising, and the mountains were a silhouette in the glowing sky. The morning sky is too beautiful to die in, he thought. “There must be something we can do!”
“I saw a movie once where they hooked the water to the hydraulic lines and used water pressure,” Taylor volunteered.
The rabbi shook his head.
Logan added, “Even if something like that were possible, we don’t have the tools to do it.”
Rob looked to the rabbi for help. “What would you do?”
“Well, whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it quickly. We’re running very low on fuel.”
Taylor thought for a moment. “Why don’t we take it out to the ocean while we still have pressure and try to ditch it there? The air frame would probably tear apart, but some of us might survive. I know this sounds repulsive, but it’s better than nothing.”
Rob shook his head, staring straight ahead. “No, I will not accept crashing as an option. There’s got to be a better answer that we’ve not yet considered. Now what is it?”
“How about a glacier?” Logan asked. “We might still tear apart, but at least we wouldn’t have to worry about drowning if we’re thrown free. I mean, even if we lose some limbs in the wreck, we wouldn’t have to worry about sinking.”
Everyone looked at Logan. No one could believe he was serious. He must have realized how he sounded. “Well, I guess that was a little morbid, wasn’t it?”
Rob closed his eyes for a moment, then turned to the rabbi again. “The only thing preventing us from landing at North Island is the fact that the landing gear is not all the way down and locked, right?”
“I would agree with that.”
“Okay, then it seems to me that what we need to be considering is how to get the landing gear down and locked, not where and how to crash. Isn’t that right, also?”
“Well, I suppose, but...”
“But nothing! How do we get them down and locked? Think! There has to be a way!”
The rabbi turned and looked forward out the windshield for a moment. “Well, we need to take the wind resistance off the landing gear. Apparently, we still have some pressure, or you wouldn’t be able to control the airplane. So, if we can remove the wind resistance, there might be enough pressure to get the gear down and locked.”
“Could we just slow it down until it stalls?” Logan asked.
“No, because it’ll stall at a hundred seventy-five miles per hour, and then it drops from the sky. Even the fall from the sky will put wind resistance on the gear. No, I’m afraid the only way to get the wind resistance off the gear is to bring the airplane to a standstill.”
Rob whipped his head around to look at the rabbi. “That’s it! That’s what we’ll do, then.”
Taylor looked confused. Had Rob misunderstood the rabbi? He hadn’t given a solution; he had merely stated a fact. “I’m not following you.” He watched as Rob pushed the throttle forward, increasing the airspeed. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking the wind resistance off the landing gear.”
“But he just told you that you’d have to bring the airplane to a standstill...” Taylor suddenly realized what Rob had in mind. It was crazy! It would never work! “Now, wait a minute! Have you thought this through?”
“He’s right,” the rabbi agreed. “You’d be solving one problem but creating several others!”
Logan was alarmed by their outbursts. “What are you talking about? What is he going to do?”
The rabbi smiled. “He’s going to try bringing the airplane to a standstill. He going to stall it out.”
Logan looked back and forth between Rob and the rabbi. “But you told him that stalling out wouldn’t necessarily bring us to a standstill. Becau
se once we slowed to a hundred seventy-five miles per hour, we fall from the sky.”
“Ask him!” The rabbi smiled.
Rob seemed lost in his thoughts as he concentrated on the console gauges.
“Colonel,” Logan asked, “what do you have in mind?”
Rob turned, looking each man in the eye. “I told you before: crashing is not an option. So I’m going to try to take the wind resistance off the landing gear the only way possible. I’m going to bring the airplane to a halt...” He paused, trying to muster the courage to continue. “I’m taking this thing straight up until it comes to a complete stop.”
Ron Schwartz - The Griffins Heart.txt Page 38