Code Black (10 page)

The media pounced on the story that billionaire Robert Huntington had perished. Rumors flew as to whether the crash was an accident, a murder, or perhaps even a suicide. The public was so eager to celebrate his death, no one ever stopped to seriously consider that he might have survived. Huntington Oil released a brief statement that its beloved owner was indeed dead, and quickly named a successor from the Board of Directors.

He’d fled to Europe. Plastic surgery had altered his appearance and with a flawless set of new documents, as well as a carefully constructed past, Donovan Nash began his new life. He’d liquidated his public assets and disguised his fortune in a maze of trusts and foreign institutions. For years, Donovan traveled between continents. He loved to fly and used his passion and money to do some good in the world in Meredith’s memory. He organized and flew relief flights in Asia, South America, and Africa. He employed his vast resources to help rebuild areas decimated by natural disasters. Though the world wasn’t looking for a dead man, Donovan was exceptionally cautious never to reveal his previous life to anyone. At some point, Donovan became frustrated upon arriving after a natural disaster had occurred; it always seemed as if more could have been done to warn the victims. From that frustration, Eco-Watch was born. With an unlimited budget, and using the latest technology, Donovan was now helping science predict and warn of impending disasters virtually unhampered by government red tape. It was an idea that fully embodied Donovan and Meredith’s shared dream. Until Donovan had reveled his secret, Lauren had only known the story from the media side. She’d been in college when Meredith had been killed; she herself had been caught up in blaming Robert Huntington for her death. To this day, Robert Huntington was linked with the worst of the billionaire robber barons, powerful people who decimated and pillaged the country in the name of their own greed. But she knew that Donovan had done everything possible to save Meredith. In her heart, Lauren also knew Donovan had lost, or given up, so much in his life, that he would always do everything in his power to try and protect those closest to him. It was one of the many reasons she’d fallen in love with him.

Lauren looked at Matt; his young, grief stricken expression begged for comfort. She tried in vain to offer him a smile but couldn’t find one. “So, was your mom visiting relatives in Washington?”

Matt slumped ever so slightly in his seat. “No, she went out to interview for a job with some lobbyist or something. It’s been really hard for her since my sister died.”

Lauren crumbled a little inside as she heard the words. There didn’t seem to be a safe haven when it came to Matt. She reached across and put her hand on top of his. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Matt said, bravely. “Megan was four years younger than me and had leukemia. She was sick for a long time.”

“Oh Matt. That’s terrible.” As a mother, Lauren couldn’t imagine anything worse than losing a child She could see the wounded expression in Matt’s face as he spoke of his sister. “We can talk about something else if you’d like.”

“It’s all right. It’s been almost three years. I’m okay.” Matt shrugged, then shook his head as he continued. “My mom will never be the same, though. My Dad wasn’t even there when Megan died. He was out flying somewhere. The worst part is—it’s obvious that my Dad thinks the good kid died, and all he’s left with is me.”

Lauren was both shocked and saddened at the harsh revelation of Matt’s world—a world with which she was fast becoming intertwined. Matt seemed so angry, yet vulnerable. She knew from experience that at times of great stress, it was often easier to talk to a complete stranger than someone familiar. Though her connection to Matt was a potential minefield, Lauren’s heart went out to the young man.

“If my Dad wasn’t like he is, maybe my mom wouldn’t have been on that flight. Maybe she wouldn’t be—” Matt’s voice trailed off and he turned his head away as he visibly fought the tears.

Lauren was about to reach out for him again when her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, expecting it to be either Calvin or Michael. Her hands began shaking and the blood drained from her face when she saw the number. Unsteadily she pushed the button and raised the phone to her ear.

“Donovan,” she said finally, hardly trusting her voice.

“Lauren! Are you there?”

“Donovan?”

“It’s me. Where are you?”

“I’m…I’m at O’Hare, in Wayfarer Operations. Where are you?”

“I took a wild guess that’s where you’d be. I’m in the airliner. We’ve had a little trouble but we’re still flying. We need some help. I’ve been told to ask for Henry Parrish. Do you know if he’s there?”

“Yes!” Lauren could hardly contain the sheer joy at hearing Donovan’s voice. “Michael had me come to Operations after we lost touch with your flight. I’m with Henry’s son Matt right now.”

“Tell Matt his mother is fine. She’s here with me,” Donovan said. “I really need to speak with whoever is in charge down there. This airplane is pretty banged up and we’re going to need some help.”

“I have to get to the other room. It’ll just take me a minute. Hang on!” Lauren put her hand over the phone and looked at a wide-eyed Matt. “It’s them! They’re still flying. Your mom is fine. But we have to get to your father, now!”

Matt burst from his chair and frantically unlocked the door. He pushed past a startled David Tucker and motioned for Lauren to follow him.

“What the hell?” Tucker exclaimed as Lauren raced past in a dead run.

“It’s them!” Matt hollered as he ran interference for Lauren.

“We’re going to find Henry.” Lauren was so elated to hear Donovan’s voice she welcomed the tears of joy that ran freely down her face. “I’ve been so worried.”

“I know. I’m fine. Hopefully I’ll see you in a little while.”

Lauren could tell from the inflection in Donovan’s voice that the situation was anything but fine. She followed Matt through Operations, all eyes trained on them as they rushed past. She had to stop as Matt opened the door to the war room and shoved it open.

“Matt! What are you doing?” Henry’s voice bellowed as the young man held it open for Lauren.

“We’re talking to them!” Matt shot back at his father.

“What?” Henry stood abruptly. The two other men at the table looked equally puzzled.

“Here’s Henry.” Lauren placed her phone in Henry’s hand.

“Henry Parrish here. Who is this?” Henry ran his hand through his hair. “Hello…hello?”

“Are they there, or did you lose them?” Lauren asked. Henry brought the phone down and checked the connection. Lauren could see they’d lost the signal. “It was them! They’re still flying!”

Henry handed Lauren her phone, then yanked a desk phone closer to them. “Use the land-line! Can you dial them back?”

Lauren nodded and quickly punched in the numbers to Donovan’s cell phone. In what felt like an eternity the call began to go through. On the second ring, he picked up.

“Donovan,” Lauren exclaimed with obvious relief. “Thank God! We lost you for a moment.”

“Tell him we’re going to put him on speaker.” Henry’s finger was poised above the phone. He pushed the button and turned up the volume.

“This is Henry Parrish. Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you fine.” Donovan’s voice was clear, despite the background noise coming through the speaker.

“Who is this?” Henry demanded.

“My name is Donovan Nash. I’m up here in the cockpit giving John a hand. I’m also with Audrey Parrish. She’s the one who suggested we ask for you. As you probably already know, we’ve been in a midair collision. We’re going to need some help to get this thing on the ground.”

“Where’s the copilot?” Henry glanced at the crew names up on the big board. There were five crew listed.

“He’s dead. He was killed in the impact,” Donovan replied. “I’ll be honest, we’ve suffered a great many casualties. But our bigger problem is that we have no electrical power whatsoever. Everything in the cockpit is dead. The only way we can communicate with anyone on the ground is through cell phones. We’ve also been flying for a while now, and we have no idea where we are.”

Lauren cringed at what Donovan was telling them. She’d spent enough time with pilots and in airplanes to have a fair idea of how critical their situation was.

“Have you tried doing anything to restore your electrical system?” Henry pressed.

“Yes,” Donovan replied. “We tried to reset a generator circuit breaker and immediately started a fire. We were lucky to get it out before it spread.”

“Hang on a second, Mr. Nash.” Henry turned toward where Glen stood. “Call the tower; explain our situation. I want a dedicated phone number for the tower that I can give John and Donovan. Then tell them I’m on my way up. We’re going to need their help in finding 880.”

“Good idea,” Donovan responded. “So far we don’t have another phone except this one. We’ll look for more, but nearly everything that wasn’t bolted down was sucked out when we depressurized.”

“Can you tell us what happened?” Henry said.

“We were hit by what looked like a military KC-135. From what I can tell, their wing sliced into us starting right behind the flight deck. It ripped a hole that’s perhaps eighteen feet long by six feet wide. The overhead panel and the bulkhead directly behind us in the cockpit are destroyed. We’ve got exposed wire bundles and smashed equipment junction boxes. We haven’t had time to do much of an inventory, but we both agree there must also be damage to the tail. The good news is both engines are working and John says we’ve got fuel for now, that is unless we’ve sprung a leak somewhere.”

“As soon as you can, we’ll need you to take a look at that,” Henry said. “If you’re losing fuel it could definitely shape some of our options.”

“We’ll get to that,” Donovan said. “But for now, where should we head this thing? We need some decent weather. With all the damage, I’m not sure we’re going to get any of these instruments back.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem,” Henry replied. “The weather is down almost everywhere. How much fuel do you think you have on board, barring any leaks?”

“I don’t really know. We’ve been down at 10,000 feet for a while. John says with what we had at takeoff, he’s guessing we have a little less than two hours until dry tanks. Give or take fifteen minutes.”

Henry shook his head in frustration. “The closest good weather is now south of Memphis, or as far west as central Kansas. This is turning into the biggest system any of us has ever seen. I don’t think you have the fuel to make it to either place. We’re going to have to figure out a solution from this end. There has got to be a way to get some of your instruments back. I think that’s what we should focus on right now.”

“What’s the weather at O’Hare?” Donovan asked.

“Standby.” Henry looked down as someone slid both the tower phone number and the latest weather report in front of him. “The weather right now is, wind 290 degrees at 18 knots with gusts to 26 knots. Visibility is a sixteenth of a mile in blowing snow. The runway visual range for 27 right is 400 variable 600 feet.”

“That’s not good,” Donovan said after he passed the weather and the RVR information to John. “How is it to the south? Are those thunderstorms still in our way?”

“Yes, the line is solid and hundreds of miles long. I don’t think you’d be able to top the thunderstorms to the south. Plus, without power you don’t have any weather radar. If you have structural damage, it would be far too dangerous. Can you give us any idea as to the status of the passengers?”

“After the collision the airplane stayed at high altitude quite a bit longer than we would have liked. We lost a few people during the decompression. Some were killed from flying debris. The rest…well, the rest went without oxygen for a long time. As far as we know, there are only four people who survived.”

Lauren’s hand shot to her mouth. She looked at the board and saw that there were eighty-one people listed on the manifest. It dawned on her that the bodies reported outside Fort Wayne could well be passengers from 880. Only four out of eighty-one, the fact that Donovan was still alive was nothing short of a miracle.

“Did you copy that information?” Donovan asked.

“Yes, I copy.” Henry cleared his throat. “So what you’re saying is that the condition of most of the passengers is unknown? You think they might be—” he searched for the words. “Incapacitated by lack of oxygen, perhaps damaged in some way?”

“Yes,” Donovan said as a matter-of-fact. “It would seem so at this point. But it’s still possible more could be waking up now that we’re finally down at a lower altitude.”

“I’ve got a number here for the O’Hare tower.” Henry said. “This should ring directly in the cab. I think we need to transfer this operation up there. With their radar, we should be able to pinpoint your position. After that, we’ll start working on a way to restore some of your systems.”

“I’m ready to copy,” Donovan replied then waited as Henry read them off. “Got it. How long until you’re there?”

“Give me fifteen minutes.” Henry said. “Let’s not run down the battery on that cell phone.”

“I agree. Fifteen minutes it is,” Donovan said, then paused. “Lauren, are you still there?”

“I’m here.” Lauren focused on the lone phone sitting on the table. Donovan sounded so close it nearly broke her heart.

“Work with Henry, but don’t forget about Michael, and all of our resources in Washington.”

“Michael is on his way here,” Lauren said. “Calvin is also in the loop.”

“Good. I’ll talk to you soon,” Donovan said and the connection was broken.

Lauren immediately missed him. Her heartache threatened to crush her. Carefully, she looked into the drawn faces of the others around the table.

“What did he mean by resources in Washington?” Henry asked. “Who is Michael?”

Lauren took a measured breath. “As you already know, I work for the Defense Intelligence Agency. I know a great many people in Washington who would be willing to help. Michael is Donovan’s business partner and best friend. He’s at Midway Airport, hopefully headed this way. There are some very capable people and organizations that we can pull on if we need to.”