Missing in Flight

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ANNA

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A NNA

Anna slides her phone out of her pocket while Miguel verifies that the correct LaGuardia arrival and instrument approach is loaded in the Multipurpose Control and Display Unit, which casts a green-and-magenta glow over the dimly lit cockpit. Seeing that she still hasn’t gotten a reply to her last text, she checks the time. Feeling Miguel’s eyes on her, she tucks her phone back into her blazer pocket.

She wonders how things got to this point. At first, she told herself she wasn’t doing anything wrong. But now ...

She hears Minneapolis Center calling an aircraft on the radio and realizes she hasn’t been paying attention.

“Was that for us?” she asks Miguel.

Miguel looks up from pushing the buttons on his MCDU. “I didn’t hear it. If it was, they’ll call us again.”

Through the cockpit windshield, a bright flash of lightning momentarily lights up the sky.

Anna glances at her map display on the instrument panel. “I thought our route was going to be too far northeast to be seeing that storm. But now it looks like it is just south of our track ahead.” She points to the red and yellow patches on her map display.

“Me too.” Miguel zooms in on the nav screen. “It must be moving north of where they predicted. Although that lightning seemed to be pretty far south.”

He’s right, she thinks, relaxing against her seat. It wasn’t that close.

Her thoughts drift to the mother in the main cabin, still without her baby—and no trace of him anywhere on board.

“Did the mother say anything else when you spoke to her besides asking to divert?” she asks Miguel.

Miguel nods. “She wanted us to check the luggage compartment beneath the cockpit for her baby. And asked for us to send her a photo of it.”

“A photo?”

“I’m assuming for proof that we actually checked it. But I told her there’s no way her baby could be down there.”

“Right,” Anna agrees.

“Maybe you should go down there. I don’t want the mother causing a big disturbance in the back, and it might appease her if we tell her we checked.”

Anna cocks her head toward Miguel, surprised by his request. “We don’t need to go down below to assure the mother her baby isn’t there. The only access is through the cockpit. Plus, it’s an FAA violation for either of us to leave our seats, except for physiological reasons, when there’s only two of us. I’m not risking my pilot’s license or the safety of the flight to go below when we already know the baby can’t be there.”

Miguel stares out the windscreen, appearing to consider what she said.

“And I don’t think you should either,” she adds.

“You’re probably right,” he finally says.

She presses her lips together, studying Miguel’s expression. “You think the baby is really on this plane?”

His deep voice fills her headphones. “It seems hard to believe they wouldn’t have found him already if he was. I suppose we won’t know for sure until—”

A buzzer sounds. Anna sees the amber “ATT” light flashing on her intercom panel. She punches the “ATT” button and moves the transmit lever forward. “Yes, it’s Anna.”

“Hi, it’s Aubrey; I’m outside the door with your drinks.”

Miguel moves the door-locking lever to the unlock position. Behind them, the door unlocks with a click.

“Okay, door’s unlocked,” Anna replies.

“You guys want anything else?” Aubrey asks, holding two cups of black coffee in between the pilots’ seats.

The pilots reach for their drinks as the nose lurches upward. Hot liquid spills over the side of Anna’s cup and onto her pant leg.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Aubrey says. “I only poured them two-thirds full, hoping that wouldn’t happen.”

Anna slides one of her headphones behind her ear and turns to the attendant. “Don’t worry about it. Not your fault.”

Miguel reaches up and turns on the seat belt sign as Anna wipes her leg with a napkin.

“You guys want anything else? Food?”

“No, thanks.” Anna sets her now half-full coffee in her cup holder.

“Me neither,” Miguel says. “Thanks, though. If I eat too much, I’ll fall asleep.”

He winks. But with a baby missing on board and the most turbulent flight any of them has had in a while, his joke falls short of a laugh.

The fuselage vibrates as they fly over a patch of rough air. Aubrey leans forward, placing a hand on Anna’s seat back to steady herself. “One of the passengers discovered the missing infant’s mother is the daughter of Lydia Banks.”

Miguel turns toward her. “The actress?”

“Yep.”

“Didn’t she die in a car accident?” Anna asks, thinking it was about a decade ago when she saw the news story of her death.

Aubrey nods. “After losing her memory. She had a condition called transient global amnesia. It’s some sort of memory disorder.”

Anna twists in her seat to meet Aubrey’s gaze. She glances at Miguel. “That must be why the FBI asked if the mother was acting confused.”

“And is she?” Miguel asks Aubrey.

A bright flash of lightning, much closer than the last flash, fills the flight deck. Aubrey shifts her focus out the windshield. “She’s definitely distraught. Which is understandable, but twice she’s thought someone else’s toddler was her own, so I’m not sure what to think.”

Both pilots fix their attention to the red and yellow patches of weather depicted on their nav displays.

“Thanks for the update,” Miguel says.

Anna hopes things don’t escalate further in the back before they’re able to land. Looking at the weather, they could have their hands full for the rest of the flight.

“Let me know if you change your mind on the food,” Aubrey says before turning toward the door. After she leaves the cockpit, the door automatically locks with an audible click.

“We need to adjust our route to the north to avoid that weather.” Miguel keys his microphone. “Minneapolis Center, Pacific Air Flight 7038, we need to deviate about twenty miles north for weather.”

“Roger, Pacific Air Flight 7038, deviation to the north as necessary is approved. Advise when you can resume direct to Rockdale.”

“Okay, we’ll let you know, Flight 7038,” Miguel replies as he types in the commands to turn the airplane to the left to parallel their course twenty miles to the north. When he presses the last button, the magenta course lines on their map displays jumps twenty miles to the north, and the airplane starts a gradual left turn.

“You should ask your husband about that memory disorder,” Miguel says as Anna takes a drink from her coffee. “If it’s hereditary.”

Her coffee burns the back of her throat at the thought of Carter saving lives later today at Manhattan General while having no idea what his wife is about to do.

Seeing the look on her face, Miguel waves his hand dismissively through the air. “Never mind. I forgot what time it is. I’m sure he’s asleep.”

“Yeah, probably.” She forges a smile, recalling what Miguel said at the start of their flight. Hard to see what’s right in front of you sometimes.

Am I really going through with this? But she knows the answer. While she’s struck by a tinge of guilt at what she’s about to do, she also feels powerless to stop it.