"It was a dark and stormy... Day?"
Jessie turned to see that a tree had come crashing through the windshield and now Jonny seemed to be buried under it. He wasn't moving. She couldn't even see if he was breathing.
"Jonny!" she tried again to get a response from him. Still no answer.
She quickly undid her harness and scrambled out of her seat to see how badly he was hurt, the whole time praying he was still alive and that someone would find them soon. She didn't notice at first the chill temperature of the cabin, how she could see her breath on the air as she looked to see how badly her best friend was hurt.
She had to squeeze underneath the tree branches and reach down between Jonny's legs in order to pull the lever that would move his seat back. With his seat moved back, she had more space to wiggle out from under the tree branches. She moved around to the back of his chair and reached down to the right side for the recline lever and lowered the seat back as far as it would go. Her first impression was that it looked like he had taken a solid hit across his nose and he was going to have two very black and swollen eyes. He had another goose egg forming up in the above his right eyebrow over a profusely bleeding gash.
"Damn head wounds," Jessie muttered. "Why is it that any head wound bleeds like you've cut an artery? Okay, I'll have to clean that up and see if I can stop the bleeding. Sorry, Jonny, I think you're going to end up with a scar from this one."
She looked him over for any other obvious signs of injury and saw none. She stood back up and noticed first, the chill temperatures and then the stench of jet fuel.
"We have got to get away from here, just in case the fuel ignites. But, there's no way that I am going to haul your unconscious butt through the forest in the pouring rain, Jonny Quest!" Jessie complained to the unconscious young man.
She turned and left the cockpit behind for a moment and headed to the lavatory at the back of the plane to get the first aid kit. Another thing the jet had was a first aid kit that one would almost expect a paramedic to carry. It was a standard on every Quest jet and every employee had first aid training. Working for such a high profile company had inherent risks and Dr. Quest liked to try and protect his people.
Grabbing the duffel-bag first aid kit that was velcroed in place under the lavatory sink, Jessie headed back to the cockpit where Jonny was still out cold. Setting the duffel-bag down, she set to work on cleaning his face, hoping he would wake up before she had to break one of the ammonia caplets to bring him round. She figured his nose was broken, but not dislocated as she could tell. She cleaned up the blood that had run down his face from the cut above his eyebrow, before gently squeezing the edges of the slash together and applying a pair of butterfly bandages to keep the edges together as she put a gauze pad over it and secured that in place with sterile tape.
"You don't know just how much I hate the smell of ammonia, Jonny Quest," Jessie said as she broke open the capsule under his nose.
Wheezing, Jonny came to and disoriented, tried to push the capsule away.
"Jonny, wake up," Jessie said, continuing to wave the capsule under his nose.
"Unnnnh," Jonny answered, pushing the capsule away. "I'm awake, maybe."
"Come on, we have to get out of here," Jessie urged him.
Jonny groaned, "What hit me?"
"A tree. How's your vision?"
Jonny opened his eyes and seemed to have a hard time focusing on her, "Blurry."
"Well, you'll have to just follow me then. We need to get moving. The fuel tanks are ruptured," Jessie explained the urgency behind the need to get moving.
"Shit," Jonny said succinctly.
"In a word, yes," Jessie replied. "Let's see if we can get you to your feet."
Jonny's hands fumbled on the harness buckle, seeming to lack his usual coordination. All signs of a concussion.
She undid his harness and helped him sit up, keeping an arm braced around his shoulders as he seemed to wobble and likely to topple over.
"Is it me, or is it getting colder," Jonny asked, wavering on his feet, even with Jess' support.
"We're over a mile up in elevation and it's still pouring rain," Jessie answered, getting him to take unsteady steps with her towards the cabin of the plane. Her mind was planning out their next moves. She figured it would be at least until sometime the next day before the search crews were even out looking for them, that was if the weather cleared up. And that, she thought taking a moment to look outside at the raging storm, was a big if.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw Jonny's head drooping on his chest. No that wouldn't do at all, basic rules of concussion stated to keep the person awake and she was not going to use another ammonia capsule on him.
"Jonny! Stay awake!" Jessie commanded. "Repeat after me, 'The first rule of a concussion is to keep the patient awake.'"
Jonny repeated it, his voice slightly slurred. Knowing Jessie wouldn't let him fall back asleep, he recited the first aid rules while she made her mental list of things they would need.
So far, her list had blankets and pillows, dry clothing, the first aid kit, food and water. Well, scratch the food part, she thought. They hadn't exactly packed for an extended stay in the wilderness. Luckily the fridge was fully stocked with all sorts of beverages that Jessie could stuff in one of their backpacks. She grabbed her backpack from one of the forward overhead bins and took it to the fridge to fill it up with the beverages in it.
"Jonny - where'd you stuff your backpack at?" Jessie called to him over her shoulder.
Jonny blearily tried to focus in on her, "I put it away..."
"Yeah, but where?"
"Uhm..." Jonny tried to answer her, but clearly couldn't get his thoughts together. He made a vague waving motion with his hand.
Jessie set her backpack down on the floor next to the first aid kit and headed to the back of the plane to the hatch for the luggage compartment. The more she could do inside the plane the better. She pulled the carpeting back and pulled up on the ring handle to open the small hold. There right in sight was his backpack. She grabbed it and grunted at the weight.
"What do you have in here, Jonny? A ton of bricks?" Jessie grumbled. She emptied out the primary pocket that was stuffed full of various oversized textbooks. She figured the blank notebook pages could be good for kindling and tore them out of the notebooks. Setting the text books and backpack aside, Jessie turned back to Jonny, "Jonny, which bag do you have your clean clothes in?"
"Myblackbag," Jonny mumbled.
"Jonny, don't you dare fall asleep on me here!" Jessie yelled at him.
"Sorry, Jess," Jonny said, clearly enunciating his words this time. "Hard."
"Yeah, well, I know it's hard, but where are your clean clothes at?" Jessie repeated her question, kneeling by the hatch.
"My black bag in luggage hold," Jonny answered, his hand fumbling at the lever to release the lock on his seat to make it swivel.
"Okay, that helps me more," Jessie replied, peering into the dark hold. She couldn't immediately see the bag. She grumbled to herself, of course the bag had to be black and of course there had to be no lights in the hold. With a sigh, she got back to her feet to grab a flashlight. They needed to get moving, but she wanted to be damn well prepared before they did. Grabbing the flashlight from the first aid kit, she headed back to the luggage hold and found the bag she was looking for. She grabbed jeans, socks and shirts, stuffing them into Jonny's backpack.
"Where'd you stuff your coats at Jonny?" Jessie asked him. While the San Francisco region didn't get nearly as cold in winter as Maine, but it still got chilly and damp, making a coat necessary.
"Uhmmmm, green backpack front overhead bin," Jonny answered slowly, trying to gather his scattered thoughts.
"Perfect," Jessie said and strode forward to get them. She intended on wearing at least one herself.
She grabbed the backpack in question and from behind it, blankets and pillows all emblazoned with the Quest Corp logo. Jessie shrugged into the jacket, rolling the too long sleeves up until they no longer flopped over her hands. With brisk and efficient movements, she stuffed the pillows and blankets in the backpack before standing back up with the other coat and backpack in hand and heading back to Jonny's side. She stood Jonny up and got the coat on him and slipped the one backpack on him so he wore it on his chest. She put the backpack with the clothes on his back and then turned to put her backpack on.
"Jessie," Jonny said, swaying on his feet, but making a conscious effort to remain alert. "We need to leave a note."
"Huh?" Jessie had been concentrating on getting them loaded and out of there.
"Rules -" Jonny stated, a frown on his face.
"Argh!" Jessie growled, annoyed with herself. "How could I forget? Rule number five - leave word behind so the good guys can find you."
"I - just remembered," Jonny assured her, leaning against the seat to keep from falling over.
"Gimme just a sec to scribble something out for our dads to decipher," Jessie said, bounding back to the pile of notebooks.
The resulting note was a cross of a multitude of languages, alphabets and misinformation, but their fathers would be able to decipher it and figure out their true heading of Kalispell. Ripping off a piece of medical tape, Jessie taped it to one of the seats as another lightning bolt lit the darkening sky.
"You ready?" She asked Jonny who was leaning against the seat with his eyes closed. He was going to have a hard time seeing as it was and now with his eyes swelling up, it was going to be even worse.
"You'll have to lead, you know," Jonny answered, sounding disgusted with being unable to see.
"I know. Keep a hand on my shoulder and be careful where you place your feet. Footing is going to be crappy and slick," Jessie said, putting his hand on her backpack and leading him to the forward hatch. "I hate the idea of having to go out there, but with the fuel tanks ruptured, we can't stay here."
"Right," Jonny said, leaning against the bulkhead while Jessie popped the hatch and shoved the door open with a groan of stressed metal. The frame of the plane definitely was twisted and stressed beyond repair from the crash.
The first gust of the cold wind took Jessie's breath away with a surprised gasp. "Man, that wind is cold!"
"Yeah. Are you sure we can't stay here, Jess?" Jonny asked, putting a hand out for her to put on her backpack and lead him from the plane.
"There's still the risk of an explosion," Jessie said, leading the way out of the plane and out into the weather.
Jonny could feel her step down to the forest floor and a moment later she told him over her shoulder, "It's about a six inch step down, so take it easy."
"Gotcha, Jess," Jonny answered, finding Jessie taking his hand to lead him out of the plane. The cold air helped to clear his head more than the ammonia capsule and Jess' talking to him. The problem with being more alert was that it served to tell him just how much his head hurt now. He found it easier to keep his eyes closed, since he was dizzier with them open and his vision was completely impaired right now. "Jess, do we have an ice pack in that first aid kit?"
"Huh?" Jessie asked, keeping her eyes trained on the forest in front of them.
Visibility was next to nothing between the driving rain and dark storm clouds overhead and as Jessie had predicted the footing was treacherous.
"Do we have an ice pack in the first aid kit?" Jonny repeated his question.
"I think so. Why?"
"When we find a good stopping place, I think I'm going to need it to bring the swelling down on my eyes," Jonny answered. "I'm useless helping you otherwise."
"Remind me when we get to a good stopping place," Jessie answered, dodging to the left to avoid a root cluster sticking up out of the ground. "Step to the left, Jonny. Big root cluster in front of you."
"Right," Jonny answered, moving in the direction Jessie told him to.
That was how it went for the next thirty or so minutes. Jessie plotted a careful course that kept them moving west-northwest to Kalispell, by checking the digital compass in her watch. It was when she was looking at her watch and not at the ground that she took a misstep.
"Okay, we're still heading in the right dir-" Jessie was cut off as she lost her balance and went sliding. She didn't have time to warn Jonny to stay where he was as she went tumbling head over heels down the mud slick and leaf strewn hillside.
"Jessie?" Jonny called out, feeling her backpack suddenly ripped from his grasp and hearing the sounds of someone going crashing down what sounded like a steep hillside. "Jessie! Answer me!"
Jessie came to a sudden stop at the bottom of the hill with a thud against one of the trees. She ended up on her side with her chest wrapped around a large pine tree and wheezing for breath.
"Jessie are you all right? Answer me!" Jonny called out, unable to open his eyes now, they were swollen shut.
Jessie laid there for a few moments, concentrating on just breathing first. She took stock of her body, checking for any injuries. All right, she didn't seem to be desperately hurt, but now she was covered head to toe in mud and leaves and her jeans were soaked through to the skin now. Finally she could breathe and she called out to Jonny, "Jonny! Don't move! There's a steep slope down right in front of you."
"Jessie, are you all right?" Jonny repeated his earlier question.
"Yeah," Jessie wheezed. "I just got the wind knocked out of me."
"Are you sure?" Jonny doubted her answer, but with his eyes swollen shut, he had to listen to her voice to tell him what was wrong.
"Yeah, yeah," Jessie said irritated with herself as she got to her feet and winced.
"I'm going to be bruised all over, but I'll live."
"What happened?" Jonny asked, finding a tree to put a hand against as he waited for Jessie.
"I didn't watch my step and went tumbling down the hill," Jessie answered him, in a thoroughly disgusted voice.
Jonny made a move to come down the hill towards her until Jessie sharply ordered, "Just stay right where you are, Jonny Quest!"
"But Jess -" Jonny tried to protest.
"No! You can't see and it's not exactly a smooth path," Jessie was not taking chances.
"But, Jessie -"
"No buts, Jonny! My legs are soaked through and I'm bruised head to toe now. I will come get you," Jessie said, looking down at her legs in disgust. She would definitely have to borrow a pair of Jonny's jeans when they finally found shelter.
With aching slowness, she climbed back up the hill to where Jonny impatiently waited. The temperature had dropped into the 40's and Jessie could see her breath on the air as she puffed her way back to Jonny's side.
"Are you sure you're all right, Jess?" Jonny asked, hearing her huffing in front of him.
"Just winded," Jessie replied, bending down for a moment to keep her sore muscles from tightening up. "Come on, we still need to find a good overhang or something that we can wait out the rest of this storm under."
"Lead on, Jess," Jonny said, putting a hand out and finding her backpack again.
"Right," Jessie exhaled and slowly moved forward, taking more care now to watch her step.
Jessie continued to lead the way, hoping to find a stream that she could clean up by. She didn't know how long it would be until the search crews would be able to find them, but realized that their fathers would be frantic. Of all the times to forget her cell phone at home! At least their watches had tracking beacons that she had activated and Iris, the Quest Compound AI, should be able to track their movements and lead the search crews right to them.
It was early evening in Germany and Hadji was just sitting down in front of his laptop when Iris flashed up on his screen.
"The emergency beacons for Jonny and Jessie have been activated," the AI said, flashing a red icon on the screen.
"Oh, this is not good," Hadji commented with a frown. "Iris, can you give me their location?"
"Working on it," Iris calmly answered.
Hadji's cell phone rang and without looking at the caller id, he knew it was going to be Race. "Hello, Race."
"Hadji, where's Benton?" Race said urgently.
"He is currently at dinner with Doctor Fujimora," Hadji answered.
"Does he have his phone on him?" Race asked.
"I don't know, let me look, Race," Hadji replied, maintaining his calm. He got up from in front of his computer and went to look in the other bedroom of their hotel suite to see if Dr. Quest had taken his phone with him. There, sitting on the dresser was Dr. Quest's phone. Hadji sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry, Race, but he forgot his phone."
"Fur on a catfish!" Race swore with heat. "Where is he at, Hadji?"
"He is at the Blue Rose Restaurant five blocks from here," Hadji told Race, shaking his head.
"It's Jonny and Jessie, their emergency beacons on their watches both went off," Race said, trying to explain his urgency.
"I know, Race," Hadji answered, moving back to his laptop to see if Iris had located his two friends yet. "I have Iris trying to find them now."
"Have you tried their phones yet?" Race asked next.
"I was just going to try when you called me." Hadji was doing his best to remain calm in what appeared to be a bad situation.
"I'll call - you see if Iris can find their position and I'll call you right back." Race said tersely.
"Yes, Race," Hadji replied, sitting back down in front of his laptop.
"Oh, and Hadji - don't go anywhere yet," Race ordered and abruptly ended the call.
Hadji allowed himself a moment to complain, "I am not the one who goes out and finds trouble. No. That is Jonny and Jessie. Why does he think I am going to go off half-cocked before I know what is going on?"
He sighed, rolled his shoulders and said, "Iris, do you have a location on the Quest jet that Jonny and Jessie were flying today?"
"Negative, Hadji," Iris answered.
Hadji frowned, "Iris, have the emergency beacons on the jet been activated?"
"They are not active," Iris replied almost immediately.
"That does not make sense," Hadji commented more to himself than the AI. "Iris, can you track the jet?"
"Negative, Hadji. The GPS unit appears to be non-functional."
"This is not good. Not good at all," Hadji shook his turbaned head and frowned. He picked up the phone and answered it before it had barely begun to ring again.
"Did you get through to them, Race?"
"No. I hit both their voicemails. What have you found out?"
Hadji told him what he had learned from Iris and questioned, "Do you want me to go get Dr. Quest?"
Race sighed and said, "Yes, I think you'd better, Hadj. This looks to be a bad situation."
"I will have Iris check to see what else she can find while I go get Dr. Quest," Hadji said, standing up to go get his shoes.
"You do that, Hadji. Call me back when you get Benton," Race said and again, abruptly ended the call.
Hadji looked at the phone for a moment before shaking his head. This did not bode well at all. Time to put his computer skills to work. "Iris, see what you can pull up on their flight plan."
"Working," Iris answered. A moment later the flight plan was displayed with a red dot indicating where Jonny and Jessie were in relation to the flight path.
Hadji studied it for a moment, "Why are they are off course like that?"
Iris provided the answer, "There are severe storms over the northern plains and Rockies."
The map of the flight path shrank to one side of the screen and a satellite image showing the storm systems that had combined to just cover the states that the two were flying through on their way home.
"So that explains part of the problems, maybe," Hadji remarked. "Iris, are Jonny and Jessie moving?"
"I calculate their speed to be no more than four miles an hour," Iris said.
"They are on the ground? This is not good. Not good at all." Hadji answered.
There was more work to be done, but he had better go get Dr. Quest first. He would go get Benton himself in order to give himself a few minutes to think about what he wanted Iris to search for next. He picked up the hotel phone and dialed the concierge desk.
"Concierge Desk," was the precisely spoken answer with an Oxford tint to it.
"This is Hadji Singh, I need a taxi right away," Hadji said, knowing that by calling ahead, he would have a taxi as soon as he hit the lobby.
"Of course, Herr Singh. One will be waiting for you as soon as you arrive downstairs."
"Thank you," Hadji said and didn't wait for the concierge to reply before hanging up the phone.
Grabbing his keycard for their suite, Hadji hurried from the room and impatiently waited for an elevator to arrive to take him down to the lobby. He hit the lobby at a fast walk with barely a nod to the concierge desk and headed out the door where the doorman was holding a taxi for him.
"Wo gehen Sie, mein herr?" the taxi driver asked. (Where to?)
"Das Blaue Rose Restaurant, bitte," Hadji responded. (The Blue Rose Restaurant, please.)
"Blaue Rose?" the taxi driver echoed. (Blue Rose?)
"Ja, bitte," Hadji answered, using his limited German. (Yes, please.)
"Ja, so," the taxi driver said, putting the vehicle in gear and pulling out of the hotel drive.
Race paced the living room at the Maine house. He wanted to get in the air now to go start looking for the kids. Damn it, he knew it was a bad idea for them to fly home by themselves.
The house phone rang and he snatched it up, "Hello?"
"Hello, is Doctor Benton Quest there?" was the response from a deep male voice.
"No, this is Race Bannon, can I help you?" Race asked, dreading what this call was going to be.
"My name is James Whitmore and I'm with the FAA incident team in Helena, Montana. I need to speak with..." Whitmore paused, making Race's heart beat quicker. "Race Bannon?" he repeated. "Are you by any chance related to Miss Jessica Bannon?" The man's words confirmed Race's fears.
"Mr. Whitmore, Dr. Quest is out of the country and my daughter, Jessie, was piloting the jet. Their personal emergency beacons have already gone off. Tell me, what went wrong?" Race said, running a hand worriedly through his hair.
"Mr. Bannon, as near as we can figure, they went down somewhere between Helena and Kalispell," Whitmore answered.
"What happened?" Race bit out.
"They were requesting a clearer flight path out of the storms when they reported engine trouble. They were told to head to Kalispell because Helena is just being hammered with massive thunderstorms. They contacted Kalispell and got clearance to head there, but never made it." Whitmore relayed the sequence of events as he knew them.
Race swore again, "Fur on a catfish!" He paced the living room and exhaled heavily. "Tell me, do you have a fix on the emergency transponders of the plane yet?"
There was a long pause and Race questioned, "Don't tell me they're not transmitting."
"We haven't been able to get a fix on the black box transmitters at this time. We don't know if the electrical storms are interfering with that or not," Whitmore was hesitant in his answer.
"I'm a pilot myself, Whitmore," Race said, dropping down to perch on the edge of the couch. He didn't add what else he was in addition to being a pilot. It was unnecessary right now. "Cut to the chase and tell me what's going on."
"We don't know yet, Mr. Bannon," Whitmore answered. "The weather is still preventing us from getting search crews up and looking for them at this time. It's not expected to let up until well into the night tonight."
"The plane didn't explode," Race questioned, but making it more of a statement. He didn't believe that the plane had exploded in mid-flight. Not if the kids personal emergency beacons were going off.
"No, Mister Bannon. We have no reason to believe the plane exploded in mid-flight. Not if, as you said, the personal emergency beacons for Jonathon and Jessica were going off. We don't know the reason why we can't get a fix on the emergency transponders, but we've got the best techs between here, Kalispell and Seattle working on it," Whitmore assured Race.
"I'll have Hadji run it through Iris to see what he can come up with," Race said.
"Mister Bannon?" Whitmore was confused.
"Doctor Quest's adopted son. Like Jessie and Jonny, he's a whiz at computers. Between him and Iris, the Quest computer system, he can damn near figure out anything," Race briefly explained.
"Ah," Whitmore answered, not sure what to make of Race's answer.
"Look Whitmore, Dr. Quest is out of the country and I can't get a hold of him at the moment. What news do you have for me other than the plane went down with engine problems?"
"We will have search teams up at first light tomorrow looking for the plane and young Mister Quest and your daughter, Jessica. Rest assured, Mister Bannon, we are going to do all we can to find them," Whitmore stated.
"As soon as I can get Benton back here, we'll be heading out there. Between Hadji, Benton and I, we have the best chance of finding those two," Race stated, trying to think of how long it would take for Benton to get back.
"Mr. Bannon, I don't think -" Whitmore began.
"Look, Whitmore, you don't understand. I know how to track those two on the ground and between Benton and Hadji, they'll be able to track their emergency beacons and get a fix on their locations and lead the search crews right to them." Race said firmly.
There was no doubt that he was heading out to Montana to retrieve Jonny and Jessie. Just as he knew that there was no doubt about Hadji and Benton going with them. It would be better to keep everyone together right now, since this would be the perfect time for someone to make an attempt to kidnap and/or murder Dr. Quest while his attention was so focused on Jonny.
That certainly set Whitmore back on his heels. Race could hear him spluttering on his end, unused to someone just coming in and taking charge of his search and rescue operation.
"But you just can't -" Whitmore tried to protest.
"Let me explain something to you, Whitmore, I am Jonny's bodyguard. It is my job to be out there looking for him," Race decided to set Whitmore straight before he got out there.
"Oh, oh..." Whitmore said, beginning to understand that he was outranked and outclassed.
"Look, I've got to get word to Doctor Quest and let him know what's going on so he can get back here. Be prepared for a lot of agents showing up on your doorstep, Whitmore. My boss, Phil Corvin, is going to be very interested in discovering why that plane went down and why the emergency transponders for the black boxes aren't working." Race decided it would be better to let the man know what he was in for now before the horde of agents descended upon him and his team.
There was another moment of stunned silence on Whitmore's end and this time Race could hear the storm raging outside in Montana.
"I'm not saying they're going to take over your investigation nor will I say they aren't going to because I'm not the one on site making the calls," Race told him.
"The only thing I care about is finding Jonny and Jessie."
Whitmore finally said, "I appreciate your honesty, Mr. Bannon, and I thank you for letting me know what's headed my way."
"Keep me posted, Whitmore. Keep me posted. I will be headed your way as soon as I get Benton back here," Race said, ending the call before Whitmore could say anything else. "He probably got his job through political connections," he said to the empty house a moment later.
Race took a deep breath and punched out another number and waited for an answer.
"Phil Corvin's office," a smooth, female voice answered the phone.
"It's Bannon, get me Corvin. It's an emergency." Race was blunt and to the point.
"Just one moment," the female said and put Race on hold and a moment later it was picked up by Phil Corvin.
"Corvin here, what's wrong, Race?"
"Phil, Jonny and Jessie's plane went down somewhere between Kalispell and Helena Montana with engine problems. The plane's black box emergency beacons aren't transmitting, yet the kids' personal ones are going off," Race told his boss.
"Damn," Corvin said exhaling heavily.
"I know," Race answered with a wry twist to his mouth. "I knew I shouldn't have let them talk me into this scheme of theirs. I should have flown out to San Francisco to bring Jonny back myself."
"Who's to say that this wouldn't have happened if it had been you in the plane?" Corvin questioned. "Where are Doctor Quest and Hadji?"
"They're in Germany. I'm sure they'll be flying back first thing," Race answered, still running a hand through his hair.
"Great. Get them back here and then you get out to Montana and lead up the search for the kids. This could be a move against Doctor Quest. Have you had any threats lately?" Phil gave the go ahead to what Race already had planned on doing.
"No, I haven't seen anything. I'm sure Benton would tell me if he had gotten any direct threats lately, as would Jonny."
"Right, well, I'll mobilize the troops and see what we can find out until you get out there."
"Not much to find out right now. Helena is socked in with severe storms right now and Whitmore, the FAA guy there, told me they aren't expected to let up until nightfall," Race all but growled at how everything seemed to be working against him from getting out there and taking the lead on the search for the kids.
"Damn," Phil said in a heartfelt tone. "I'll call the local FBI office and have them get rolling on this. The sooner we can get a hold of the tapes from the air traffic controllers, the sooner we can start to figure out what went wrong and where to look for the kids."
"Right, just keep me in the loop until I can get out there and take the lead on the search for the kids." Race told his boss.
"Don't worry, Race, I know better than not to keep you in the loop," Phil said wryly. "Call Doctor Quest and get him started back to the states now."
"Thanks, Phil. I'll let you know when we take off for Montana," Race said on a sigh.
"Take care and try to take it easy for now, Race," Phil said by way of dismissal.
"You too, Phil, you too," Race sighed and hung up the phone.
He sat down on the couch and exhaled heavily. He didn't think he'd get a good night's rest until he had Jessie and Jonny back safely. He picked up his cell phone and waited for Hadji's call.