Chapter 16
Arctic
Crash Site
Chen was alive, but just barely. Upon finding him unresponsive, Kasey had immediately checked his vitals.
He had a thready pulse, his breathing was shallow, and his skin had a chalky, gray pallor.
A large welt above one ear suggested head trauma.
His right leg was trapped between a seat and the sidewall, and he’d obviously been thrown across the cabin, meaning there was also a chance of internal injuries.
Kasey, however, couldn’t deal with any of that until she extracted him from the wreckage.
She enlisted the help of the young couple who’d appeared minutes earlier escorting the disoriented man she’d seen wandering outside.
That man was now sitting calmly and wrapped in blankets in a seat.
The couple, who had introduced themselves as Nick and Sofia, a pair of graduate students, seemed eager to help.
Nick salvaged a long cushion from one of the passenger beds, and together they carefully worked Chen free of the wreckage and lifted him onto it, taking particular care to stabilize his head and neck.
They carried the makeshift gurney forward to minimize his exposure to the cold.
Once they had him settled, Kasey sent Nick and Sofia to look after the badly injured man across the cabin.
Kneeling down, she took Chen’s hand and said to him once again, “Dr. Chen, can you hear me?”
She tried three more times but received no reply.
On the last attempt, however, she thought he might have lightly squeezed her hand.
Or was it only her mind playing tricks on her?
A sudden weight descended upon her. Half an hour ago, she’d thought they were home free.
Now Chen was unconscious, seriously injured, and dozens of people were dead.
Her thoughts abruptly pivoted. What about Sky Fire?
She walked toward the back of the cabin, to the spot where she’d found Chen, and began searching for the familiar black case.
Given the scale of destruction, she was elated to have simply found the man she and Walter had been charged with protecting.
But if she could find Sky Fire as well? That would mean her mission was still fully viable.
And it would be the ultimate f-you to China—especially if the Chinese had a hand in the crash.
Her spirits soared when she caught a glimpse of the matte-black case.
It had tumbled beneath a broken seat but appeared undamaged.
Ever the professional, Kasey tamped down her excitement as she weighed what to do.
Since there was nowhere secure to conceal the case, she decided to leave it where it was for the moment.
Nevertheless, a bit of camouflage seemed in order.
She spotted a bloody sweater on the floor—whose it was and how it had gotten in that state she had no idea, but the matted garment wasn’t something that would be scavenged for warmth.
She bent down and pulled it over the case.
“How many have you found?” said a voice from behind.
Kasey stood abruptly and saw the first officer approaching. He looked frostbitten. There was snow in his brown hair, and ice had encrusted around his nose and lips. His hands were thrust deep into the pockets of a heavy full-length coat.
She edged away from Sky Fire. She had not yet performed a head count, but with everyone more or less gathered, it wasn’t hard. “Nine. Ten including you.”
He considered this for a long moment. The pilot looked at the others around them, who were in varied states of consciousness, and beckoned her to the back. Kasey got up and followed him. He paused where the cabin ended, clearly wanting a bit of privacy.
She said in a muted voice, “Did you find any others?”
He drew in a deep breath. “They’re gone.”
“Gone? You mean—”
“I mean the rest of the airplane sank.” He pointed to the deep groove that disappeared into the storm.
“I followed that to its end, about six hundred yards back. Our landing was almost blind, and at the last second there was a ridge of ice. We hit it hard, and the jet broke into two sections. All the weight—the fuel tanks, the engines, the tail—was in the back. The ice was never going to hold against an impact like that.” He looked up at the surviving section.
“This section of the fuselage was lighter and broke off. It was stupid luck, but a handful of us made it.”
She tried to wrap her head around what he was saying. “So that’s it… there are only ten survivors?”
“I searched all around where the rest of the aircraft sank. There was no one. So yeah, ten of us made it.”
Walter was dead. As was the pregnant woman across the aisle from him. Fate had reared up in all its random cruelty. Kasey tried not to show any reaction, but failed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, seeing her anguish. “Did you know someone in back?”
She nodded. “A work associate. A close one. His wife is pregnant.”
He allowed her a moment, then said, “Look, this is beyond horrible. I lost colleagues as well. But right now, we have to concentrate on the living. There’s a lot to be done and I could use some backup. Can I count on your help?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. You should understand that our situation is… complicated. Normally, when an airplane goes down, first responders are all over it. Minutes away, hours at the most. But this is different. By now the authorities will know we’ve gone down, but this is one of the most remote places on earth.
It’ll take at least a day for help to reach us, maybe more in this weather. ”
“That’s going to present challenges.”
His voice lowered yet again. “And there’s another problem.”
“Things can be worse?”
“Maybe. I tried a number of times to send a mayday, but I don’t think it went through.”
“Any idea why?”
“No clue. It was chaos on the flight deck, all kinds of systems losing power. But the distress calls should have uplinked. On top of that, the tail of the airplane sank. That means our black boxes, which contain our emergency beacons, are gone with it. There was one handheld ELT on board, but it was stored mid-cabin so that’s been deep-sixed as well. ”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yeah… I doubt anyone knows exactly where we are.”
“Do you know?”
He looked at her curiously, as if put off by the question. “Of course. I checked the lat/long right before we hit, even marked it in the nav computer. That’s the one thing I wish I could have transmitted in a distress call.”
Kasey recalled her suspicions when things had first gone south. “Tell me what happened,” she said. “Why did we go down?”
“Dual engine failure—virtually unheard-of. We tried to restart them, but nothing worked.”
“Of course it didn’t,” she whispered under her breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. So we can’t expect help anytime soon?”
He looked out at the storm-driven world around them. “Like I said, at least a day. Probably more like two or three.”
“That’s going to be a challenge in these conditions.”
“Agreed. Cold like this is life-threatening.”
“Okay. Then we start with the basics. We need to get everyone warm, make the injured as comfortable as possible.”
“Are there any serious injuries?”
“Two that I know of. One man has multiple leg fractures. He also suffered from heavy bleeding, but I don’t think it’s arterial, so we can probably control it. Another suffered head trauma and may have intra-abdominal damage.”
He looked at her quizzically, almost as if seeing her for the first time. “Are you a nurse or something?”
“No, no. But I’ve had some first aid training.” She didn’t want to explain her extensive knowledge of combat medicine.
“We should ask the survivors if any of them have medical training. If not, you and I will do our best with what we’ve got. There’s a medical kit in the galley. Hypothermia is going to be our biggest problem.”
“What about building a fire?”
“The nearest tree is about a thousand miles away. So, we’re going to need to figure out an alternate source of fuel. In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out some way to protect us from this wind.”
“Sounds like a start,” Kasey said, suddenly distracted.
The weight of losing Walter, of so much death around her.
The tenuousness of Chen’s condition and having to care for so many others.
The fact that her off-rail mission might be the source of so much agony.
All of it came crashing down in a torrent.
Sharpe turned back toward the front, then paused. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Kasey,” she blurted.
A chill went down her spine. One that had nothing to do with the frigid temperature.
She had given her real name and not the false one from her CIA legend.
Never in her professional life had she made such a basic error, and she chastised herself for it.
In spite of all that had happened, she had to stay wired. Had to keep her act together.
“Good to meet you, Kasey. Brett Sharpe.”
Their handshake was quick. The cold demanded it. Lives were at stake, and there was no time to waste.