by Violet Paige
“Sorry,” she grumbled. “Are you and Travis really doing TV night again?”
I stopped typing and looked up. “I guess so.” We had watched two shows together. It wasn’t as if I wanted to binge an entire season with him. Now that it had started, it just kept happening.
“Maybe I should try to catch up on one of the shows and then I could watch with you.”
“Sure. That would be great.” I didn’t mind the extra company. It was that I didn’t want to get locked into a viewing schedule. I already felt the confines of suburbia latching on.
“Do you think AJ will want to watch too?”
I shook my head. “His schedule is too crazy. I watch everything without him. I learned months ago that we can do movies together, but not TV shows.”
“Does he work like this all the time?” she asked.
“It just depends on the case.” I couldn’t tell her what his assignment was. He was guarded with the information he shared with me and I didn’t want to violate that trust by telling Becca even a small morsel. “It’s been rough this week, but I hope next week is better.”
“Yeah, Travis said he missed practice all last week.”
“What?”
“You know, spring soccer has started up.” The break between their club seasons wasn’t long enough in my opinion.
“Yeah. I know. He told me he was playing.” I didn’t like the way the hair went up on the back of my neck. I remembered last week the two nights he told me he had to go straight to practice from work.
“Maybe he forgot to tell you he didn’t go?” she suggested.
My stomach bubbled uncomfortably. “Maybe.”
“I’ll go back to my cube. I have three shitty clients today.”
I faked a smiled. “Good luck. I’m working through mine too.”
“If AJ works late again tonight do you want to do drinks after work and just ditch Travis? He won’t care if I tell him we need a girls’ night.”
I frowned. “I might have to work late too. These viruses have gotten worse. I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“Why don’t you ask Billy to help you? He’s the best virus defender on the team.”
“Because I don’t want to hear about how amazing his girlfriend is for five hours.” I sighed. I think we had pinned it down to Billy using his relationship to make him seem more interesting than he actually was. Without Dina who was he?
Becca shrugged. “Ok, I would just suck it up and ask him so you can get out of here at a decent hour. He’s not doing anything right now.” She pointed to him on the other side of the room.
I was annoyed. Billy was in the middle of a ping-pong match while I was piled under a virus war I was losing.
“Ok. Maybe I should ask him.”
“Yes, do it,” she urged. “He won’t care. So what if he tells you about Dina’s cold symptoms.”
My eyes darted to his. “Please don’t tell me Dina has a cold.”
Becca laughed. “I’m kidding. I have no idea. I stay away from him.”
“Great,” I groaned. I rose from my chair, flattening the creases in my skirt. “This better be worth it.”
“Good luck. I’ll check on you before I leave.”
“Sounds good.”
I watched as Becca returned to her standing work station. DataCorp considered itself innovative and a creative workspace. Some of us had moving desks on treadmills. Some people hung out at the juice bar. There was foosball, ping pong, and classic pinball games in the open area outside of the cubes. I didn’t know if it made me more productive.
I took a heavy breath. I knew it had to be nothing. Absolutely nothing, but there was no rationale for the way my gut kicked in when Becca told me AJ wasn’t at soccer practice last week. It didn’t make sense. Why would he lie?
I looked at my screen and then up at Billy whacking the ball with his paddle. He was the super nerd on this floor. And yes, his obsession with Dina was a lot to handle, but the guy knew a hell of a lot about programming.
I walked to the common area. “Hey, Billy.”
His eyes jerked to me and he missed the ball. “Shit,” he muttered.
“Sorry about that.”
“What’s up, Sydney?”
“I have a couple questions about a virus I’m trying to eradicate. It’s for one of my big clients, Clarkson Labs.”
He placed the paddle on the table and nodded to his partner. “I’ll be back, bro.”
“Thanks. I’m sorry about your game.” I smiled. “If you could give me some pointers I can handle it. If I keep going at this rate, I know I’ll be here all night.”
“No problem.” He followed me into my cube. “Let’s take a look.”
“See? I can’t get past this wall.” I showed him where I was stuck.
He leaned over my desk. His shaggy hair stuck out around his glasses. He squinted. “Hmm. You skipped a step.” He tapped in a couple of markers. “Voila!”
“Oh my God. What was I thinking?” I stared in disbelief. “I knew that.”
He laughed. “Happens to all of us.”
“Thanks, Billy.” I hesitated. I either had to play this to the end or bail now. I’d already used my damsel card to get him back here.
“Sure thing.”
“Umm, do you think I could ask you something else?”
“Yeah. What do you have?”
I bit my lip. “I know how you love to do things for your girlfriend.”
He bobbed his head. “Dina is the best.”
“I know she is. And when you have to plan something special for her, without her finding out, but you need to look at her work schedule, how do you do something like that?”
He scratched the back of his head. “Dina’s schedule is pretty set. She’s basically eight to five at the library.”
I sighed. “Sure, but girls make plans. Right? Hair appointments. Doctors’ appointments. How do you account for that so you don’t plan a surprise and have it ruined by a mani-pedi she didn’t tell you about?”
If I had written this out in code, he would have understood better.
“See,” I tried to explain. “I’m trying to do this crazy surprise for AJ, that’s my boyfriend, but he’s so busy, I’m afraid I’m going to screw the whole thing up.”
He hesitated and then it was as if the lightbulb went off. “Oh shit. I know exactly how I would do it for Dina.” He turned around and opened a private VPN on my screen. I watched over his shoulder, recording every move he made. It was perfect. It was brilliant.
“Wow.” I blinked. “That was amazing, Billy. Thank you.”
He nodded. “He’ll be surprised I think if you can coordinate with his schedule like this.”
I blushed. “I don’t want him to know what it is. You get it. I knew you would.”
“I do. I love surprising Dina.”
“Where does he work?”
I froze. I hadn’t given up that piece of information. If Billy knew he had just helped me figure out how to create a backdoor into the FBI he would freak out.
“Oh, I think that’s my phone. Probably him.” I tried to shoo Billy out. “Thank you. I appreciate it. And with the Clarkson Labs virus. You saved me hours,” I lied.
He loped out of the cubicle. “I’m headed back to the match. Just shout if you need me.”
I pretended to answer my phone.
I waited until he picked up the paddle before I faced my computer. I swallowed hard.
It was the stupidest thing I could have done. The most reckless. I should have trusted AJ. I should have trusted our relationship. I should have trusted that he loved me. That we had something I was never going to find with anyone else. I knew that in my blood. I knew it in my bones. He was it. The man I wanted. The man who could be a partner. Someone who respected me. Worshipped me. Loved me.
So why I breached all that trust for meaningless curiosity, I didn’t know. All I could tell myself was that the fear of losing him drove me to it. The idea that he
could slip away from me terrified me.
It wasn’t going to be something I could hide. I couldn’t pretend or lie. I had to take control of this before it controlled me. Billy had just given me the keys and I was about to dive.
It was the first time I hacked.
Chapter Twenty-One
There was something significant about the false sense of safety hiding behind a computer screen. It was easier to be brave. It was easier to be brazen and bold. What AJ wanted me to do now took me away from the one super power I had. Without the internet I had been crippled.
I listened while he explained the setup for how I was going to give him a cover so he could go below to the cargo area under the passenger level. There were flaws in the plan. The flight crew knew who I was. They knew I was the package that had to be delivered. Deceiving them seemed impossible. I was their focus. I was the cash cow.
“Are you sure this is the way we should play it?” I questioned AJ.
His eyes bore into mine. “Can you trust me on this, Syd? If I thought we had another option, I’d use it. I don’t want to show our hand, but the longer we’re up here, the worse off things are for you. We’re out of choices.”
I bit back the bile rising in my throat. “I do trust you on this.”
“Good. Because up here, we’re all we can rely on. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I saw his determination. I could feel his confidence. I wanted it to wash over me. To seep into my pores. To steel my resolve that we had made the right call.
I nodded. “All right. When?”
“Now.”
“Now?” I squealed.
I wasn’t prepared when he leaned over and kissed my cheek. His lips brushed over my skin with a heated breath and were gone again. “I know you can do this.”
I closed my laptop and shoved it in the bag with my recording gear.
I climbed over AJ and walked to the first-class galley. Jeff C met me before I was able to cross over the line. He puffed his chest out.
“The fasten seatbelt sign is on. We’re in the middle of a mechanical issue.” His tone dripped with annoyance.
“I know,” I whispered. “This is important. Really urgent. I need to talk to someone. Someone I can trust about the plane’s emergency.”
His well-crafted eyebrows rose. “About what?”
“The emergency,” I repeated. My palms were clammy. I had to stop myself from shaking or he would never buy this act.
I looked behind me to check if the other passengers noticed us. “Do you think it would be possible to call the flight crew together?” I asked. “I know this sounds crazy, but I think…well, I know the pilot is acting on some kind of orders. I know this sounds crazy.” I bit my lip. “Can you get them? Can we talk to everyone together?”
Jeff C had a choice. He could either reveal to me in that moment that he was a part of the conspiracy and knew exactly what Beechum was up to, or he could pretend to be shocked. AJ and I were counting on him to be appalled.
“You’re not serious.” He threw his hands on his hips. “This is unhinged. You are probably unhinged.”
“I know it sounds that way. I have access to some information,” I shared. “Can you get them together, please?” I stopped. “Wait, is there an air marshal on the flight? I could talk to him. Maybe I should do that before we scare everyone”
Jeff’s lips pressed together. “Are you trying to cause some kind of drama? Because we have enough of that if you haven’t noticed. This entire flight has gone to hell.”
“I see that, but what I’m trying to tell you is that there’s nothing wrong with the plane. It’s being used as a bartering tool. Please, let me talk to the marshal and the rest of the crew. We can figure out what to do together. I’ll tell you everything I know about it.”
He exhaled. “All right. But you wait here.” He pointed to one of the jump seats in the galley. “Don’t move until I come back with everyone.”
I nodded obediently. “I won’t.”
“And don’t say a word,” he warned. “If anyone hears this they will panic. We can’t have that.”
“That’s why I came to you,” I explained. “You have one of those faces. I thought I could trust you. I didn’t know what else to do.” God, I hoped he believed me. I hoped he bought my distressed act.
“I’ll be back.”
He walked away, passing AJ on his way to the rear of the jet.
AJ nodded at me as if to say I’d completed the first phase. I had to keep going. There was more to do.
A few minutes later, I glanced over his shoulder and saw the flight crew marching toward me in a single line. I scooted into the corner of the galley. AJ only had a quick second to disappear beyond the curtain once the last attendant filed past him. I was out of his line of sight, and felt the nervousness hit me. I was on my own. He depended on me to get this right so he could unjam the scrambling device and get back to his seat before anyone noticed.
Jeff tilted his head toward me as the others gathered around. “Here they are. I gave them a quick rundown of what you told me. I’m not sure that they believe you, honey.”
“Thank you. I really didn’t know what to do. But we have to figure out a way to stop the captain. Do any of you have any ideas? Do you have a way into the cockpit? Is that even possible?”
I saw the way they exchanged glances.
It was then I noticed a man in plain clothes step forward into the circle. He had a long face and sandy brown hair. He was mostly non-descript except for a wide scar on the top of his left hand. I had a strange feeling he didn’t get it from an accidental cooking incident. The look in his eyes was chilling.
“Ma’am, I’m the air marshal for this flight. Agent Hancock. I think you and I should talk privately. This sounds like something that might need to be addressed at a different level. It’s beyond what the flight attendants can handle.”
My throat closed in. I felt the panic ripple through me. There was no air marshal assigned to this flight. AJ and I knew that. And this man wasn’t on the flight crew. Did that mean there were others disguised as passengers?”
“But-but we need everyone’s help,” I protested.
He took a step toward me and the crew moved out of his way.
“Ouch,” I whined when he gripped my upper arm. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you to your feet.”
“I can stand on my own,” I argued.
He turned to the circle. “I’m going to escort Ms. Miller to the rear of the cabin so I can get a full understanding of her story.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to talk to everyone.” I dug my heels into the hard linoleum. This wasn’t how the plan was supposed to unfold.
Jeff sighed. “Honey, just go and talk to him. He’s the air marshal.”
I looked in Hancock’s vapid eyes. “I know you’re not an air marshal. There is no air marshal on this flight.” I didn’t know if I expected someone in the crew to help me. To stop the fake authorities from taking me away.
He chuckled. “Then you should be even more concerned about doing what I say.” His grin was terrifying. “Come on. Don’t do anything stupid on the way to the rear or I’ll put a knee in your back and cuff you in front of everyone. There’s nothing to keep me from identifying you as a terrorist.”
“Fine,” I spat. Causing an uprising on the plane still wasn’t an option. There were far worse consequences if I made a scene. If everyone feared me I’d lose any chance of escaping. The entire flight would turn against me because of one single word—terrorist.
As soon as I emerged past the galley and into first class, I spotted our row. Both seats were empty. AJ wasn’t back from the cargo hold. My stomach dropped.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My eyes darted everywhere. It was as if my head was a water sprinkler, pivoting and scanning every face on every row, searching for AJ as I shuffled along the aisle. I hoped he had slipped into an empty seat or even his old seat. I wanted
him to be anywhere but in the place we were headed.
I tried to smile at a mother soothing her baby. I saw the worry lines on her forehead.
With every step I took, the hope that AJ was safe faded. He wasn’t here. He was still in the cargo hold. I had no way to warn him. No way to tell him the plan had imploded in my face. The man looming behind me had fucked everything up.
I thought about kicking him in the crotch and making a run for it. I thought about screaming. I thought about yelling for help. But I knew those were all the wrong decisions. The young mother’s face said everything—she was worried about a fussy baby. Throwing my crisis on everyone else wasn’t going to solve anything. Instead, it only increased the risk that more people would be hurt. I couldn’t do that to them.
We reached the galley at the rear of the plane. It was empty. The flight crew was milling about in first class and the rest of the cabin. I understood they were giving Hancock time to deal with me. Only, I didn’t know how far he was going to take things to keep my silence. Was he going to hurt me?
He knocked on both the lavatory doors. The lights glowed with the unoccupied signs. Was he going to shove me in the bathroom?
He pulled a set of tri-fold doors closed behind us, keeping a rough hold on my arm. We were now partitioned from the passengers.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Shut up. You don’t want to risk someone hearing you.” He opened the galley door. The same one AJ had told me was the inner entrance to the underbelly of the plane.
I shook my head in defiance. “Oh no. I’m not going down there.”
“I didn’t ask.” He pushed me forward so that half my body was wedged inside the passageway.
I noticed a set of metal steps that were steep enough to be considered a ladder. There was no way I could descend walking forward. I’d fall straight to the floor.
“Keep going.” He pushed something hard into the middle of my back.
Oh shit. Was that a gun? I was afraid to turn around.
I grabbed the railing and carefully maneuvered so that I was now facing Hancock. I lowered myself one rung and then another. I took my time, finding small ways to stall.