31. Wynn
WYNN
One of us was a traitor.
The words settled over the medical jet.
Adam stood near the mission table.
Hawk sat beside the communications equipment.
Lucas remained next to me.
Captain Aras was alone inside the cockpit. His copilot had supposedly been reassigned to the military transport before takeoff.
Four possibilities.
Only one made sense.
Lucas moved first.
He pulled Ghost’s black wafer from the sealed pocket beneath his vest and closed his fist around it.
Adam reached for his weapon.
Hawk disconnected the aircraft’s radio from the private channel.
The cockpit door locked.
A small metallic click.
Almost too quiet to hear above the engines.
Everyone in the cabin froze.
Lucas looked toward the front.
“The pilot.”
Adam raised his radio.
“Captain Aras, unlock the cockpit.”
No answer.
“Captain, respond.”
Silence.
The aircraft banked.
Not sharply.
Not enough to throw us from our seats.
But the sun moved from one side of the windows to the other.
Hawk checked the flight display.
“We changed course.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
He enlarged the navigation map.
“Southwest.”
“Geneva is northwest.”
Adam struck the cockpit door with the side of his fist.
“Aras!”
The pilot’s voice came over the cabin speakers.
“Place the black wafer inside the medical-transfer box.”
A compartment opened beside the cockpit door.
Small.
Steel-lined.
Designed to pass medication between the cabin and cockpit during an emergency.
Lucas stared at it.
The pilot continued.
“Do it now, or General Kane begins killing the civilians.”
The live feed from Garrison Eighteen remained on the terminal.
Kane stood beside Samir’s bed.
Janice’s face was pale.
Boone, Russ, and Ghost were less than twenty minutes away.
Kane didn’t know about the old tunnels.
At least, we hoped he didn’t.
Lucas moved toward the transfer box.
I caught his arm.
“No.”
“Kane has Samir.”
“And the moment you surrender that sequence, he’ll kill them anyway.”
“He might.”
“He will.”
Lucas looked at the screen.
Kane raised his pistol.
The barrel touched Samir’s temple.
“Thirty seconds,” Kane said.
My stomach twisted.
Lucas opened the transfer compartment.
I stepped between him and the door.
“You are not giving it to him.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Wynn.”
“You told me I don’t get to decide whose life matters more.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my decision.”
“And Samir’s life. Janice’s life. Every civilian inside that bunker.”
“Exactly.”
“So why would we hand Kane the only thing keeping them alive?”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“He wants the encryption sequence.”
“He needs it. That gives us leverage.”
“He has a gun against Samir’s head.”
“And he hasn’t fired.”
Not yet.
Kane looked into the camera.
“Twenty seconds.”
I turned toward the screen.
“You won’t kill him.”
Kane’s smile disappeared.
“You’re very confident.”
“No. I’m paying attention. You’ve had dozens of opportunities to kill those civilians, and you haven’t. Why?”
He didn’t answer.
“They aren’t only hostages. They’re witnesses. You need their deaths to look like part of something larger.”
“A biological attack,” Adam said.
“Yes.”
I kept my eyes on Kane.
“If you kill them before the Geneva attack, their deaths become executions. Investigators look for a shooter.”
“But if they die after Geneva…” Lucas began.
“They become casualties of a coordinated attack,” I finished.
Kane lowered the gun slightly.
I had guessed correctly.
Samir was still in danger.
But not within thirty seconds.
The real threat was a clock.
Not a trigger.
“Captain Aras,” Kane said through the aircraft speakers. “Proceed.”
A warning alarm sounded.
The cabin-pressure display flashed red.
Hawk looked toward the ceiling.
“He’s depressurizing the aircraft.”
The pressure dropped.
My ears popped.
Pain stabbed behind my eyes.
Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.
Lucas grabbed one and pressed it over my face.
“Breathe.”
“What about you?”
He pulled another mask toward himself.
Adam and Hawk secured theirs.
The aircraft began climbing.
Higher.
Where the thinning air would incapacitate us faster.
The medical-transfer box remained open.
Waiting for Ghost’s duplicate key.
The pilot believed we would lose consciousness before he did.
The cockpit had an independent oxygen supply.
“How long?” Adam asked through his mask.
Hawk checked the display.
“Four minutes before impaired judgment. Six before unconsciousness.”
Lucas raised his weapon toward the cockpit lock.
Hawk stopped him.
“Don’t shoot.”
“Why?”
“Medical oxygen lines run behind that wall. One spark could ignite the cabin.”
Lucas lowered the pistol.
“We need another way inside.”
Adam examined the door.
Reinforced.
Electronic lock.
No exposed hinges.
Hawk opened the panel beside the transfer compartment.
“Lock controls are routed through the cockpit.”
“Can you bypass them?”
“Not before we pass out.”
Boone’s voice crackled through the encrypted headset.
“Adam?”
Hawk had disconnected the aircraft radio, but our private unit operated independently.
Adam answered.
“We have a compromised pilot.”
Boone sighed.
“Of course you do.”
Ghost’s voice followed.
“What’s your altitude?”
Hawk checked.
“Twenty-eight thousand and climbing.”
“Cabin pressure?”
“Falling.”
“Aircraft model?”
Hawk gave him the designation.
Ghost answered immediately.
“There’s an emergency cockpit release beneath the forward medical stretcher.”
“Where?”
“Floor panel.”
I moved toward the stretcher nearest the cockpit.
Lucas caught me.
“I’ll do it.”
“You need to keep the wafer away from the transfer box.”
“Hawk can hold it.”
“I’m smaller.”
“Why is that suddenly the answer to everything?”
“Because you’re built like a wall.”
Adam pulled the stretcher from its mounting brackets.
Beneath it, a narrow panel sat flush with the floor.
No handle.
Four screws held it in place.
Hawk searched the medical equipment.
“I need a screwdriver.”
I grabbed a pair of surgical scissors.
Lucas stared at them.
“That isn’t a screwdriver.”
“It is today.”
I dropped to my knees and forced one blade into the first screw.
The scissors slipped.
Metal cut into my palm.
Blood appeared.
Lucas crouched beside me.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m busy.”
He took the scissors.
“I’ll turn them. You hold the mask.”
Together, we removed the screws.
The first.
Second.
Third.
The pressure alarm screamed faster.
My thoughts began to feel slow.
Heavy.
Lucas’s movements lost some of their precision.
“Stay with me,” he said.
“I’m here.”
“Keep breathing.”
“I am.”
The final screw fell.
Adam lifted the panel.
A recessed handle rested beneath it.
Ghost spoke through the radio.
“Pull once to disengage the electronic lock. Pull twice and you activate the cockpit’s fire-suppression system.”
Adam grabbed the handle.
“Which do we want?”
“Once,” Ghost answered.
Boone’s voice followed.
“Definitely once.”
Adam pulled.
The cockpit door unlocked.
Lucas handed the wafer to me.
“Keep this.”
Then he moved beside Adam.
The pilot fired through the opening.
The bullet struck the medical cabinet inches from my head.
Lucas dragged me down.
The pilot tried to slam the door, but the lock no longer held.
Adam and Lucas drove into it together.
The door flew inward.
Captain Aras sat behind the controls with one hand on the yoke.
The other held a pistol.
Hawk struck his wrist before he could fire again.
The gun fell between the seats.
Aras yanked the controls hard.
The aircraft dropped.
I slid across the floor.
Lucas caught my ankle before I struck the wall.
Inside the cockpit, Adam fought Aras while Hawk climbed into the copilot’s seat and seized control of the aircraft.
The pilot drove an elbow into Adam’s injured ribs.
Adam grunted but held on.
“Lucas!”
Lucas entered the cockpit.
Aras saw him coming.
His expression changed.
Not fear.
Desperation.
He released Adam and reached for a red switch on the center console.
Hawk grabbed his arm.
“Emergency fuel cutoff!”
Lucas ripped Aras from the seat.
The pilot struck his wounded shoulder.
Lucas didn’t even flinch.
He drove Aras against the cockpit wall.
Once.
Hard.
The man collapsed.
Adam secured his wrists while Hawk steadied the aircraft.
“Cabin pressure is stabilizing.”
The aircraft leveled.
Oxygen began returning.
I pulled off my mask.
Lucas came toward me.
His eyes dropped to my bleeding palm.
“You cut yourself.”
“We nearly fell out of the sky.”
“You’re still bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“It never is when it’s your blood.”
He took my hand and wrapped gauze around it.
The tenderness of the gesture didn’t match the violence of the last few minutes.
That was Lucas.
A weapon to everyone else.
Gentle with me.
Always.
Adam dragged Captain Aras into the cabin.
The pilot’s face was bloody.
One eye had already begun to swell.
He looked toward the wafer in my other hand.
“You don’t understand what you’re carrying.”
Lucas stepped between us.
“Then explain it.”
Aras laughed weakly.
“The code doesn’t only unlock Fate.”
“What else does it do?” Hawk asked from the cockpit.
“It authorizes deployment.”
Ghost’s voice came over the private radio.
“Don’t listen to him.”
The pilot looked toward the speaker.
“Ghost. So Kane hasn’t killed you yet.”
“Disappointing, isn’t it?” Ghost answered.
Aras smiled.
“You still haven’t told them.”
Lucas looked toward the radio.
“Told us what?”
Ghost didn’t answer.
The silence said enough.
“Ghost,” Adam warned. “What does the key authorize?”
“The original Fate program required two levels of approval,” Ghost said. “One to access the predictive system and another to activate operational responses.”
“What operational responses?” I asked.
“Meridian assets. Bank accounts. Satellite networks. Weapons. Assassination teams.”
Aras laughed.
“All of it. Whoever activates the second key doesn’t merely open Fate. They control Meridian.”
Every person looked toward the black wafer in my hand.
Something so small.
So ordinary.
Powerful enough to start wars.
Lucas took it from me.
“Then we destroy it.”
“No!” Ghost shouted.
“Why?”
“Because the second key also controls the shutdown protocol. If you destroy the original tag and that one-use copy, you can never disable Fate permanently.”