Skid

Lucy nodded as Hank cleared the passengers and headed to the cockpit, and the captain ordered everyone to their seats.

  “First we’re going to make an announcement for everyone to fasten their seat belts,” the captain said.

  Lucy stood and yelled, “Everyone! Fasten your seat belts!”

  “We have an intercom system.”

  Lucy smiled. “This was faster.” She glanced toward the cockpit. “They’re getting ready. Can I get you anything? Water?”

  The captain shook her head and leaned against the seat she was tied to. “This is my fault.”

  “Your fault? A madman is onboard.”

  “I should’ve never left the cockpit.”

  “You couldn’t have known this was going to happen.”

  “Nobody ever knows anything is going to happen. That’s why we have protocol.” She looked at Lucy. “This is my final flight.”

  “No, don’t say that. You’re going to get us down safe and sound. You hear me?”

  The captain looked toward the cockpit. “You ready, Lucy?”

  Lucy saw Hank sitting in one of the pilot’s seats. She watched him place a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. There was a real guy. Not because of a Rolex. Not because of fancy shoes or spiky hair. Not because of anything except his character.

  “I’m ready.”

  Danny watched Anna Sue make her way to the back of the airplane like her feet were made of lead. She clutched the seatbacks so hard her knuckles turned white.

  “Anna Sue, focus on me,” he said. “You can do it. Just look at me.”

  She nodded and locked eyes with Danny, stepping slowly but surely. Finally she reached him and dropped to the floor.

  “Anna Sue, I have to get out of these plastic zip ties and get to the cockpit.”

  “Okay,” she said, her voice trembling.

  “I need your help.”

  “What can I do?”

  “You told me that Chucky likes to chew on plastic. He’s always chewing up his plastic toys, right? And eating them sometimes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think you could get him to chew on this restraint?”

  Anna Sue gazed at the zip ties. “I-I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “We have grape jelly. We could smother it with grape jelly as an incentive. What do you think?”

  “He prefers strawberry.”

  “Anna Sue, work with me here.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I think so. I think he would do grape.”

  Jake reappeared, out of breath. “The captain wants me back here, helping you. She’s going to talk Eddie and Hank through it all, but she wants me to try to get you undone.”

  “All right, Anna Sue,” Danny said. “Go get your pig.”

  Nervousness stirred in the air.

  “Danny, are you sure this is a good idea?” GiGi asked in the kind of tone that already said it wasn’t.

  “No. But unless you’ve got wire cutters on you, it’s all I can think of.”

  “What if he goes crazy?”

  “He’s not a crazy pig!” Anna Sue said. “I swear it. He’s a good pig. I don’t know what got into him.”

  “Anna Sue,” Danny said, “I know he’s the one who’s supposed to be helping you, but I need you to help him. Soothe him. Make sure he’s feeling good, and then bring him back here.”

  She looked at the plastic restraints. “He usually likes them if they squeak, like a dog toy.”

  “Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, okay?”

  Anna Sue nodded and pointed behind her. “Now?”

  “Yes.”

  She crawled up the aisle and eventually reached the bathrooms. They could faintly hear her talking to Chucky. Soon, they heard the heavy breathing of the pig as it rounded the corner and faced Danny’s direction.

  Danny braced himself, but there was something different about Chucky’s demeanor. He waddled like he had nothing better to do—like a regular pig. Anna Sue went to her seat and got his leash, then hooked it on to his collar.

  “He doing okay?” Danny called.

  “I think so.”

  “Okay, bring him this way.”

  They both walked slowly, Anna leading, Chucky following with the manners of a trained dog. Danny shivered at the thought of looking this animal in the eye again, but as he did, the pig blinked back without animosity.

  In a gentle, steady voice, Danny said, “All right, now, Anna Sue, do you think you can get him interested in this plastic around the steel right here?” That was a better pick than the one around his wrist. He couldn’t fathom having a pig nibbling at him.

  “You can’t make it squeak?”

  Danny sighed. The closest option was having Mrs. Kilpatrick get hysterical, but he figured that was pushing it.

  Anna Sue said, “Okay, but I need to turn around.”

  “Turn around?”

  “I think it’s better that I face the front of the plane.”

  Danny tried not to look irritated. After all, she was doing very well for being an emotionally challenged woman. She turned and gripped the seatbacks on either side, then nudged the pig toward Danny. “Chucky, look! Squeaky toy! Look!”

  Danny waved his hand and smiled.

  Chucky blinked, not amused.

  “Come on, Chucky,” Anna Sue urged. “You love plastic. It’s okay. You’re not going to get in trouble this time. I promise.”

  Chucky just stood there.

  “Okay, what about jelly?” Danny asked. “What if we smear the jelly all over it now?”

  “We could give it a try.” Anna Sue glanced over his shoulder. “But I think he’s full.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “He ate all those eggs in the bathroom. I can tell by the way he’s walking that he’s really full.”

  “Anna Sue, he’s a pig. Surely if there’s anyone prone to overeating, it’s a pig.”

  “That’s a myth. They eat just like any other animal—until they get full. Also, they’re not voracious or dirty.” Danny had about had his fill of pacifying the woman, but he tried a small smile. She smiled back. “We can try.”

  “Great. Thank you.” Danny couldn’t believe his life depended on whether or not a pig liked jelly. “Jake, get those jelly packs. Open them and start smearing them on.”

  Jake took a handful from GiGi, who was using her one hand to fish them out of the cabinet. “You um…want me to smear it all over your…uh, body?” Jake asked.

  “No! No, just on the plastic and maybe my hand. Maybe part of the seat. The idea is to get the pig interested in chewing through this zip tie.”

  “Right.” Jake peeled open the first packet. “Here we go. Smuckers, don’t let us down.”

  Chapter 27

  Lucy had an awful lot of information to convey back and forth—particularly considering she nearly flubbed a rather simple coded plan earlier.

  She had the good idea of running back to her seat to get Hanks notebook and pen. That way she could jot down notes from the captain.

  As she grabbed it, Jeff stood. “Lucy.” She looked at him. Maybe it was because her adrenaline was at an all-time high, but she felt nothing as she stared at him. “Yeah?”

  “Do you know that guy? That guy you were sitting with who’s up in the cockpit?”

  This would’ve been the perfect opportunity to announce he was her boyfriend had she not already used Neil.

  “He’s just a great guy,” she answered honestly.

  “Wish him luck, okay?”

  “He’s got more than luck on his side.” Lucy rushed back to the captain. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  “Tell them to turn on the speaker switch,” the captain said. “It’s located above them. Look at the approach plate. It will have the frequency they need to dial in to contact the tower.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell them to contact the tower. Say: ‘Schipol Tower, this is Atlantica Flight 1945. We have an emergency onboard. Do you read me? Over.’”

  Lucy nodded. “Got it.?
??

  “Go. Then come back.”

  Lucy wrote as legibly as one could with chewed-up fingernails and the sense that life could end very soon. Running into the cockpit, she felt overwhelmed by the enormity of her surroundings. Hundreds of switches, lights, and sounds threatened to swallow them all. Eddie and Hank turned, awaiting their instructions. Lucy read from her notepad everything the captain had told her.

  Eddies fingers twitched as he keyed the speaker. “Mayday, mayday. This is Atlantica Flight 1945. Over.”

  Lucy was about to interrupt and explain the right way, but the radio crackled overhead.

  “Nineteen Forty-Five, this is Schipol. Where have you been?” The English was proper, with a Dutch accent.

  “Um…this is… My name is Eddie. I’m, um, I’m a passenger. The pilots were…well, there was a man…a gun…”

  Hank set his hand on Eddie’s shoulder and said, “This is Hank Hazard. I am a passenger on the flight. We’ve had an incident onboard. All three pilots are incapacitated. Two are conscious but restrained. They’re trying to wake the third pilot up at the moment. We had a man onboard with a gun, but he has been restrained and we are safe. However, we’ve got to figure out how to land this plane. The captain is able to speak with us and is giving us directions, but she said we need to make an emergency landing at the airport.”

  Eddie nodded. “Yeah.”

  They could hear talking in the background. Then: “Nineteen Forty-Five, stand by.” There was a long pause. “Are you declaring an emergency?”

  “We just said that!” Eddie said.

  “Stand by. You are going to squawk 7700 on the transponder.”

  “Okay.” Hank patted Eddie on the back. “You’re doing great.”

  Eddie laughed weakly. “This is when that ‘God is my copilot’ bumper sticker would come in handy.”

  “Yes, well, I think in this case we need Him to take over completely,” Hank said.

  “I believe so.” Eddie’s laugh faded.

  “Do you see the throttles?” the controller asked.

  “Yes,” said Eddie.

  “Follow them down, past the two black rectangles.”

  “You mean the ones that say DISCH?”

  “Don’t touch those!”

  Eddie’s hand flew straight up, and his other hand grabbed his heart.

  The controller said, “They shut off the engines and shoot fire retardant into them. Don’t touch the fuel control either.” They heard some whispering. “Okay, tell you what, don’t touch anything on that throttle quadrant. Just under the two black rectangles is a digital number. There are two round pegs that you turn to change that number. Turn the pegs so the number reads 7700.”

  Eddie’s hand shook as he turned the numbers. “All right.”

  “Now we need the number of souls onboard.”

  “Souls onboard?” Eddie looked at Hank.

  Hank turned to Lucy. “Lucy, find out how many passengers we have onboard, okay?”

  Lucy returned to the captain. “Okay, we’ve contacted the tower, and they want to know—”

  “Two hundred and three souls onboard.” The captain held up a hand. “Don’t write. I’m thinking out loud here.”

  “Okay.”

  “We’ve already programmed the runway into the FMS. We’re on a short runway. I know the airport, and this is not a long runway.”

  “Okay…”

  “Autopilot won’t be able to stop the airplane in time, especially on a wet runway. It needs a long runway. They’re going to have to set the…”

  Lucy felt like she needed to write something down.

  The captain glanced up at her. “Okay. One step at a time. They’ve got to manually put the flaps down. This is to slow the airplane down to landing speed.”

  Lucy started writing.

  “First, they will need to find the Autopilot Speed Select knob.”

  Jake’s seat belt stretched so tightly across his lap that his legs were going numb, but he hardly noticed. He was more interested in talking with the old man—Leendert—who thought Jake wanted to kill him. Judging by the guy’s expression, he still thought his life might be in danger.

  “Look, I don’t want to hurt you,” Jake said. “I’m just curious about something.”

  “Why would I do such thing? Because that is who I am. Every time I have a good opportunity, I blow up it. I began eying your grandmother, and I liked her very much. Then she told me of the diamonds, and my old ways got the best of me.” Leendert paused. “I am much happy she is having them to return.”

  Jake tried to tune out what was happening all around him, because it was just too weird. He’d smeared jelly on the pilot’s zip ties and wrist, and now the pig woman tried to coax Chucky into licking the jelly and chewing the plastic.

  If this was his best chance at getting off this plane alive, he wasn’t optimistic about it. In fact, he was pretty sure he was going to die, so he figured before he went, he’d like to know more about Idya.

  “You said she had pictures? Of me?” he asked.

  Leendert’s eyes brightened. “Everywhere! All over the house! Any small picture. School picture. Whatever your parents were kind to send.”

  “But she doesn’t even know me. I mean, we’ve talked a couple of times on the phone about getting the diamonds back to her, but…”

  Leendert smiled. “Oh, young boy. Listen to Leendert on this. I know I am a thief and a liar, but I tell you the truth of this matter. She does no care about these diamonds. If she did, she would no have put them under mattress. When she learned they were in America, she knew it was her chance to get you to come over the ocean to see her.”

  Jake looked down and smiled to himself. He knew it. It hadn’t been about the money for her, and it wasn’t for him either.

  “You will enjoy her,” Leendert said. “She has a sense of funny, and has very interesting stories to tell about the World War. She barely escaped the concentration camps herself because she was hiding Jews.”

  Jake put the back of his hands to his eyes. He had no idea. About any of it.

  “He’s licking! He’s licking!” the pilot said. Sparse clapping came and went.

  “I need a pen and a piece of paper.” Jake tapped the seat.

  Leendert shrugged. “I can’t help you.”

  Jake looked at the agent, who still seemed dazed and barely aware she was on a plane. He reached over the seat and lowered the gag.

  “You have a pen? Paper?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Pen? Paper?”

  She nodded. “In my blazer. It’s over by the undead woman.”

  Jake found them and wrote the date at the top of a sheet of paper. Then he wrote, I love you, Idya. My Oma. —Jaap

  He folded it and pulled out his wallet, then stuffed the note between a credit card and a McDonald’s gift card one of the guys had given him on his birthday. He figured it had the best chance of surviving a fire there.

  Beside her, Sandy, Kim, and Gloria clung to each other, crying. GiGi didn’t feel a single tear. She watched with half interest as the pig licked Danny up and down his arm, taking his sweet time about it.

  Ordinarily that would’ve brought her great delight, but she felt nothing. Not even glee at a pilot being licked by a pig.

  So this was how it would all end for her. Three marriages, three divorces. Nine months from retirement with nobody to look forward to spending time with.

  What a completely ordinary, ridiculous life. She tried to think of some good memories, but nothing came to her. Her childhood was too long ago, and besides, her parents had divorced, so after the age of six, all she remembered was hoping they’d get back together.

  And this is what her job gave back to her: a retirement package cut in half thanks to 9/11 and now death in a fiery crash while zip-tied to half her crew.

  If she’d had access to a cell phone, she wondered who she’d call. Her friend Cora, maybe, but she was probably at the gym. Maybe her neighbor who alw
ays watched her dog. If her other friend Lynn hadn’t died from breast cancer last year, she’d call her.

  GiGi smiled a little. She was probably going to meet up with Lynn real soon.

  Except…Lynn told her heaven wasn’t a guarantee. On her deathbed, moaning from pain and too frail to grip GiGi’s hand, Lynn told her there was only one way to heaven.

  Now the tears came. GiGi covered her face with her free hand. She couldn’t remember the prayer. Her friend had told her what to pray if she decided she needed it. A year ago, she sat by her friend’s bed and thought to herself that if that’s what her friend needed to say to comfort herself before death, who was she to discount it? She’d pretended to pray with her, just to give the situation some much-needed peace, but she never meant it.

  Now she couldn’t remember it. Now she was staring death in the face just like Lynn.

  She had nothing, nothing to cling to. No hope of anything beyond being erased from this earth.

  Suddenly a voice came through the cabin.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Hank, one of two temporary pilots up here. We’re in contact with the tower at the airport, and Captain Brewster-Yarley is giving us step-by-step directions on how to get this plane on the ground. But there is no guarantee we’re going to pull this off.”

  Crying swept the cabin.

  “So while we’re awaiting further instruction,” Hank continued, “I’d like to talk to the two hundred and three souls onboard.”

  Chapter 28

  Danny opened his eyes. He always thought that if he was about to die, he’d repeat the Lord’s Prayer. He knew it only because his grandmother used to make him repeat it before every Sunday lunch. But this was the sinner’s prayer. Danny looked at James, still unconscious on the floor. Maybe in his own way, this was what James had been trying to say. He was a sinner. Sin had consequences. Sin was death.

  Danny thought of Maya. Maybe he’d messed her up. Maybe she’d never felt secure. They lived together, but there was nothing keeping him from walking out the door at the drop of a hat. At least from her perspective. Danny loved her, but he didn’t cherish her. He didn’t do what was right.

  It was hard to admit moral failing. And even if Maya had been his only mistake, she was still a mistake. Yet his life was marred by mistake after mistake—big ones, small ones. All were there.