“I wanted to thank you for what you did back there.” Emmett gestured behind them toward the crash site. “You brought those people home and that means a lot.”
Donovan studied Emmett. In the yellow glow from the snowplow’s flashing lights, Donovan caught a sadness in Emmett’s eyes, dampness on his cheeks. Donovan was about to ask Emmett if he’d known someone on the flight when the cell phone in his hand sprang to life.
“Hello,” Donovan answered, but he made a mental note to ask Emmett later about his comments. He also wanted to find out how instrumental Emmett had been in their being safely on the ground. Judging by the conditions and the fact that Lauren hadn’t hesitated in bringing him up, Donovan had a hunch that Emmett had played a key role in getting Henry and Michael into the air.
“It’s me.” Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, I’m in the back of the airplane where no one can hear me. Where are you now?”
“I’m with Emmett. He’s taking me to the terminal. What you and I need to discuss is this phone call Cyrus made. I know he wanted us to crash—do you have any idea who he might have been talking to?”
“Not a clue, but it had to be someone from another airline. Oh, Donovan,” Lauren said, her voice trailing off. “I’m so sorry I allowed this to happen. It’s all my fault.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Donovan checked the time on his watch. “Did you by chance call and let anyone know that Abigail might be in danger?”
“Yes. Just now. Without going into a lot of detail, I called William and told him what might be happening. Knowing him, he’s probably already putting an escape plan into motion until this blows over.”
“Good.” Donovan nodded his approval as he thought of William, his closest and most trusted ally. The elder statesman knew every facet of Donovan’s life and had been by his side since he was a boy. William was almost like a father to him. “Hopefully, I can persuade Leo to act on this, but the fact is, this is just our word against Richtman’s. We’re holding a pretty weak hand.”
“If it doesn’t work, if somehow Cyrus can’t be convinced to stay quiet, you know I’ll support whatever it is we need to do. You and Abigail mean everything to me. I’m with you whatever happens.”
“I feel the same way.” Donovan loved her more right now than he ever thought possible. “I need to go. I’ll do what I can to get us past this.”
“I know you will. I hope to see you soon.”
Donovan ended the call and studied the keypad on the phone, trying to decide what he could do with what little evidence he had. He glanced over and saw Emmett studying him.
“I couldn’t help but hear what you were saying. Let me see if I got this right. The reason your friends had to steal a jet was because there was someone at Wayfarer who wanted you to crash?”
“You heard right,” Donovan said, and nodded. “He was going to sacrifice a lot of good people in the process.”
“He threatened someone named Abigail?”
“My daughter.” Donovan thought again about Emmett’s earlier reaction as they left the crash site. He lowered his voice. “Emmett, did you know someone on board the plane?”
Emmett’s jaw tightened and he banged his hand on the steering wheel. All the big man could do was tip his head forward and back as his thick chest shuddered.
Donovan reached over and put a hand on Emmett’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Emmett managed to say after he gathered himself. “He was my nephew, coming home from Georgetown University. I didn’t even know he was on the flight until a little while ago. My sister called when she heard about the emergency on television. I found him before I came over to find you. He didn’t make it.”
Donovan pictured a young man who’d been seated near a window, close to the rear. He was about college age, and hadn’t been wearing a mask. He was among the dead rather than the near-dead.
“This whole thing is pure bullshit!” Emmett once again slammed his huge fist against the steering wheel—this time with far more force, and the reverberation rippled through the entire vehicle. “Who is this guy?”
“His name is Cyrus Richtman,” Donovan said calmly. “From what little I know, he’s going to try and oust the chairman of Wayfarer Airlines and take over the top spot.”
“So he was doing this for money?” Emmett asked, his voice filled with rage and grief. “Is he going to get away with it?”
“Maybe. Right now I don’t have any proof. It’s a long shot, but if I can get Leo Singer, the chairman, to listen to me, then maybe I can intervene before it’s too late.”
Donovan caught Emmett mumble something beneath his breath. He was about to ask him to repeat himself, but stopped. The cold look in Emmett’s eyes told him whatever it was, it was private.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Lauren sat down in one of the aisle seats. It occurred to her that she’d never before been the only passenger on a commercial jet. The empty airliner made her feel isolated and alone. The more she thought about what she’d done, the worse she felt. She’d let Donovan’s deepest secret fall into the hands of someone despicable. Cyrus had already used the knowledge to threaten them. What would come next—blackmail, or a public announcement that Donovan was actually the late Robert Huntington? What would happen to the three of them if that happened? Lauren gazed out the small window. To the east, the first star of the evening hung brightly in the heavens, and she wished she were doing anything besides sitting here, helplessly circling above Chicago. She raised herself up to join the others in the cockpit, when a faint idea glimmered in her mind. She sat down and tried to put it all together. Moments later she fumbled for her cell phone while staring at the distant star. She hoped what she had in mind was possible, and more importantly, that she wasn’t too late.
“Calvin. It’s Lauren. Donovan’s on the ground, he’s safe, but I need a huge favor.” It only took her a few minutes to outline what she needed. She was careful not to divulge the real reason she was asking Calvin for his help.
“What you’re asking is extremely difficult,” Calvin said, finally. “I don’t need to remind you that the political, as well as the legal implications are pretty much off the chart.”
“I know. But this man needs to be stopped,” Lauren said, waiting for Calvin to decide what he could or couldn’t do.
“This individual, the one you overheard, you’re positive he was conspiring with another party in regard to the outcome of today’s events?”
“Yes, he was not only going to use the crash to gain control of the airline, but he was going to place as much of the blame on Donovan and Eco-Watch as he could.”
“If I do this—and believe me when I tell you I’m not sure I can even pull it off,” Calvin said. “There is no way this can ever be made public, and it could never be used in a court of law.”
“I understand.” Lauren prayed that Calvin had heard enough to help.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Calvin said, as he exhaled heavily. “But I’m going to need a few things from you first.”
Lauren returned to the flight deck and ignored the questioning expressions of both Henry and Michael. Calvin had promised he’d do his best, but he’d offered no guarantees. It remained yet another item on her growing list of uncertainties.
“How soon can we land?” Matt asked, turning the attention away from Lauren. “Are we going to be able to land at O’Hare?”
Henry shook his head. “The airport is closed. We’ve got some fuel left. We can hold here for a little while longer, but we’ll have to divert somewhere else if the weather doesn’t improve.”
A frown crossed Matt’s face. “But if we divert we wouldn’t be able to get home until later tonight or even tomorrow. We have to land here. Mom needs us.”
“We’ll hold here for as long as we can. Trust me, son. I’m just as frustrated as you are. We have to be patient.”
“You don’t care, do you?” Matt muttered under his breath.
“What
was that?” Henry snapped his head in Matt’s direction.
“You did this for your precious airline, didn’t you? Mom’s right, it’s all you’ve ever cared about, isn’t it?”
“Matt! Knock it off. This isn’t the time or the place.”
Without another word, Matt flew up out of his seat and stormed from the cockpit.
Lauren resisted the urge to confront Henry, to get in the middle of this escalated dispute between father and son. She rose from her seat and went back to find Matt. She walked down the aisle in the empty cabin until she reached the very last row of seats. He had his head buried in his hands.
“Matt, I’m sorry all of this is so difficult.” Matt turned further away from her as she spoke. Not to be ignored, Lauren continued. “ I want to thank you for everything you did today. From helping us escape from the first jet, to recognizing there was another airplane we could use, to the laser idea. You made the difference. Everything you did gave your mom a fighting chance.”
Matt raised his head. His eyes were filled with tears and he took in a deep breath to try to hold them in. He shrugged and looked away.
“I won’t make excuses for him, but your father is just as stressed as you are.” Lauren wasn’t sure what she could do to make the young man feel better. “Everything that we did today happened amazingly fast, and you are a huge part of why we succeeded. You should be very proud of what you did. I know I’m proud of you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Matt said, then sniffed. “We’re stuck up here and I need to be on the ground. I have to get to my mom.”
“I think it matters a great deal.” She wanted to keep Matt talking, try and diffuse his frustration and rage. “If it weren’t for you they would have been forced to land in the lake. You gave everyone on that airplane a chance to survive.”
“Yeah, well.” Matt shrugged wistfully as he looked down at the floor. “I wish it were him down there. Not her.”
Lauren crumbled a little inside at Matt’s sad disclosure.
“I wish it were me, too,” Henry said. “I’d trade places with your mother in an instant.”
Lauren turned, startled by the sound of Henry’s voice behind her.
“I’ll leave the two of you alone.” Lauren slipped past Henry.
“No. Stay here,” Henry, said quietly, as he put his hand on Lauren’s arm to stop her. “You’re a part of this. I need you to hear some of what I have to say.”
Lauren looked into Henry’s eyes. She expected to see the same angry expression to which she’d become accustomed. But instead, she found a softening around the edges, as if the tremendous weight he’d been carrying had finally caved in a small part of the facade.
“Matt.” Henry waited to see if his son would turn and face him. When it didn’t happen, he continued anyway. “I’m sorry, son. You didn’t deserve to be yelled at, and I want to apologize.”
Matt sat rigidly in his seat, his attention focused somewhere outside the gently turning Boeing.
“I know we’ve had some problems lately.” Henry lowered his head. “I’m sorry if you feel as if you’ve been caught in the middle of the issues your mother and I are having. You know we both love you, and we want only the best for you. But when you came aboard this airplane, you were putting yourself in harm’s way, which, as a father, is the last place you want your child to be. Can you understand that, can you understand why I was angry?”
“I’m not a child,” Matt muttered. “You treat me like I’m a little kid. You’ve never bothered to notice I’m not ten years old anymore.”
Henry started to say something in return but no sound escaped his lips. A look of profound sorrow flashed across his face, as if he’d been charged and found guilty by his own flesh and blood. At that moment, Lauren didn’t know which of the two of them was the more wounded.
“I know you’re not a child anymore. Which is the hardest thing imaginable for me right now.”
“Why is it so hard?”
Henry took a slow measured breath as he searched for the right thing to say. “You might be right.” He shook his head sadly. “I’ve already lost one child I couldn’t protect. I couldn’t bear to go through that again. Which is why I wanted you to stay out of this today—it’s why I was angry about your putting yourself at risk.”
Matt wiped at his tears. “Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Why did you risk everything to save Mom?”
“I did it because it was the right thing to do. Leo and Cyrus couldn’t see it—but I felt in my heart it was what had to be done.”
“So Mom wasn’t part of it?” Matt said, a wounded tone in his voice. “You were just doing your job?”
“Of course your mother was part of it. She’s always been a part of what I do. We may be having our problems—but I still love her. If I’d only focused on her, I wouldn’t have been able to function. I can’t bear the thought of losing either one of you. What if something had happened to you today? What would that have done to your mother—or to me? It’s why I tried so hard to keep you out of all this.”
“You weren’t going to lose me,” Matt said. “I knew what I was doing. So did you.”
“I don’t know son.” Henry shook his head slowly. “There were a few times today I wasn’t sure of anything.”
“No way.”
“Really,” Henry said, and nodded. “Today was nothing but one big gamble. If anything had hiccupped, if one set of events had turned out differently, we might not be sitting here having this conversation.”
“So what happens now?”
“Well, we can circle for a little while longer,” Henry began, but Matt cut him off.
“No. I mean what happens now. With you, Mom—and me?”
Lauren slid sideways and let Henry get past her to be closer to Matt. She moved forward as Henry sat down next to his son. She loved this new beginning, words spoken in honesty instead of anger. She sensed it was time for her to leave them alone.
“Come get me if you need me,” Henry said, then tilted his head in Matt’s direction. “And thank you.”
Lauren smiled and made her way forward. She went through the open cockpit door and sat heavily in the jump seat.
“How’s it going back there?” Michael asked as he joined her. “You get them calmed down?”
“I hope so.” Lauren pulled a stray hair away from her eyes. “Anything happening up here?”
“Nothing. Kate keeps giving me the latest weather, but so far nothing much has changed.”
“What do you think our chances are of making it back into O’Hare?”
“Not great.” Michael leaned forward and in the waning light looked down at the carpet of solid clouds beneath them. “It might not be a such a bad idea for us to go somewhere else. I don’t think they’re all that happy with us down there. What do you think about us diverting to, I don’t know, maybe an airport where a bunch of high-powered attorneys could meet us. Or, what if we arranged our own little press conference from up here? Then we could go somewhere and find legal counsel. We’re not far from Canada, maybe they’d take us?”
Lauren smiled at Michael’s scheming.
“No wait! I have a better idea!” Michael turned and smiled. “Let’s go to Florida. We can lie on the beach and wait for everyone else to arrive for the wedding. I can work on my tan. Maybe even play a little golf.”
“I’d love that.” Lauren let out a small laugh. “You have no idea how much I’d love that.”
“Boeing 31 Whiskey Alpha, this is O’Hare Tower.”
Lauren’s smile dissolved at the ominous tone in Kate’s voice. She braced herself for bad news, word that something terrible had transpired.
“Go ahead tower.” Michael, too, frowned as he replied.
“Uh. There’s been a slight change in plans. You’re about to be joined by two Air Force fighters. You are now under their jurisdiction. I’m officially out of this loop. Contact them on 121.5. They’re using the call sign Blackjack
Zero-One.”
“Michael!” Lauren put her hand on Michael’s arm as she peered out the left side of the airliner. The dark silhouette of a fighter was visible alongside them, missiles hanging menacingly under its wings.
“We see him,” Michael radioed to Kate. “We’re switching frequencies now.”
“What in the hell is going on? When did they get here?” Henry burst into the cockpit. Matt followed close behind.
“We’re about to find out.” Michael keyed the microphone. “Blackjack Zero-One, this is Boeing 31 Whiskey Alpha. What can we do for you?”
“Boeing 31 Whiskey Alpha, this is Blackjack Zero-One. Be advised we have new instructions for you. You are to change course and divert immediately. We will escort you to Scott Air Force base.”
“Let me talk to them.” Henry slid into the left seat and found his microphone. “Blackjack Leader, we prefer to wait here until the weather at O’Hare improves.”
“Negative,” the fighter pilot replied sharply. “You will turn to a 220 degree heading at this time and leave the area. Any deviation and we are under orders to open fire. Do you copy?”
“This is Cyrus’ work!” Henry slammed the microphone into its cradle. “The son-of-a bitch is behind this, I can feel it!”
“I see his wing-man.” Michael had turned and found the other fighter poised above and behind them. “I think they’re serious.”
“Dad. We can’t leave—do something!” Matt cried out.
“I’m afraid we don’t have any choice.” Henry shook his head in defeat. “We have to do what they say.”
“Start your turn now,” the F-16 pilot said firmly as he banked away to give them room to maneuver. “I repeat. Start your turn now.”
Henry reached up and put his hand on the knob that controlled their heading. With one angry twist, he commanded the autopilot to turn the Boeing to the new course.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
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