Huge thank you to everyone that reviewed, followed, or favorite this story! I'm finally out of school and done with all major commitments until late August, so I hope to update more often.
I never found time to reply to most of the reviews, so if you didn't get a response, I still loved the feedback!
Cookiejunkie: Thank you so much! I hoped that the difference in Cammie's personality came across. Glad to see that it did. No worries though, we'll find out why soon enough… Not too soon though ;) I've actually never seen the Sherlock tv series… But the fact that their friendship reminds you of Sherlock and Watson still makes me happy!
ButteryHighlights: She does seem to be killing herself, doesn't she? You'll find out soon!
Smirk and Walk Away: The confrontation is coming, but it will be a while before everything is completely laid out on the table…This stuff takes time They weren't in a relationship yet, but they were definitely more than friends. That awkward stage where nothing has actually been decided, kind of how they were in the books. I think it comes along with being spies. Relationships take longer to happen.
GallagherGirls13BYE, Captain Hook the ninja, Lmb111514, Stronger-Than-Fear, CodeBlue19, Crazy-For-Goode, Eldas2002, espia, MackyWacky17, Lollipops101, The Productive Purple Princess, and Guest: Thank you so much for reviewing!
Zach's eyes widened. "Imagistics is going to take down the plane they're on. Take down the plane we're on."
-:-:-:-
Cammie blinked. "No, they wouldn't need to take such drastic measures. They could also use a sniper in the crowd, but the airport security cameras and the number of witnesses would make that difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. Or they could spike the drinks here, but there'd be no guarantee that both targets would drink at all, much less order the same one. Unless they had a flight attendant on board do it."
Zach shook his head impatiently. "Too much trouble to go to."
Cammie raised an eyebrow. "And taking down a plane isn't?"
"Taking down the plane would leave no doubt that the targets were gone," Zach reasoned. His eyes narrowed in concentration. Cammie stared at him, the look so familiar and so… Zach that it made her chest hurt. She shook off the feeling as quickly as she could.
"It would also ensure that there would be a nationwide manhunt on their tails. The easiest play would be having a hit man on the plane. Maybe one on the plane, and one at the gate to ensure that the witnesses never got off." It came out colder than she had intended.
Zach said nothing.
She turned her focus back to the problem at hand, pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag and pulled up the file off of her AEGIS3 flash drive.
"Why are they paying off the product reviewers? I mean, other than the obvious, that the products aren't safe and they don't want anyone to find out. But an employee finding out about some large payments shouldn't throw up this many red flags."
"I'm looking," Cammie said absentmindedly. She scrolled through what little they had on the company. There was a sound bite they had collected on the CEO of Imagistics. She slipped earphones into the computer and passed one half to Zach. All they heard for the first few moment was static and beeping before they finally heard a voice louder than the background noise. It was a one way conversation between the company CEO and whoever he was talking to on his phone.
"-when the subpoenas get executed, it's going to…well, if I don't do something now, I'm going to lose the company! ...I put the assets on a flight to somewhere…Well, I don't know where, the idiot who placed them on the flight was supposed to send them to the Cayman's, but he somehow managed to mess everything up, and send them to Utah, or Vegas, or something…It doesn't matter. Everything is on that flight. The rest is up to you."
The sound slowly fizzled out and then stopped with a click.
"He's liquidating," Zach said slowly.
Cammie nodded. "The assets must be the two employees. But why is it so important that they get rid of the evidence like this? Why would this cause him to lose the company?" She scrolled down through the small case file. "All this says is that there was a….wait a minute…"
"What?" Zach tried to peer over her shoulder.
She slowly put the computer down and tried to make sense of everything as her mind raced through facts faster than she could put them together.
"What?"
"There's an ongoing case against Imagistics. Apparently a little 6 year old girl was seriously poisoned by one of their frozen dinners. And she wasn't the first one, but she's the first to sue the company. The girl's mother is claiming that the food is old and expired, and she also apparently suspects that there are some dangerous ingredients in the dinners that were put in there to save money and says that everything she bought from the company was spoiled."
"Why is a company that makes frozen dinners named Imagistics?" Zach mused aloud.
"They make other things. The company changed markets and kept the name," came her absentminded reply. "That's it."
"What?"
"The case," Cammie turned to face him as her words came faster. "There's been such a huge uproar. All the parents, blogging soccer moms, they're all posting negative reviews about the company. The blogger mom's kids are a part of the target consumers, and the blogger mom is no longer buying these dinners for her kids. If word came out, specifically from these two employees and anyone they told, that would just add fuel to the fire. There must already be a pretty strong case against the company. Imagistics can't lose this case, and-"
"-and they're going to do whatever it takes to keep that from happening." Zach finished.
Cammie pulled a pair of comms from her pocket and tossed one to him as she stood up. "I'm heading to the luggage hold to check it out."
"Okay, I'm going to go talk to Sally Bennett." Zach reached into his wallet and pulled out a badge.
Cammie squinted at it. "Is that an Air Marshal's badge?"
He nodded.
"What if there's already a Marshal on this flight?"
"There only one Air Marshal for every 100 flights," he shrugged. "My odds are pretty good."
She shook her head, stood and headed towards the galley. The wall to her left had an access panel screwed into the wall near the floor. She bent over and was starting to remove the panel when she heard someone come up behind her and clear their throat.
Cammie turned just enough to see one of the stewardesses standing behind her.
"Excuse me, what are you doing?"
Cammie paused just long enough to pull an FBI badge out of her pocket and flash it at the lady, handing her the wall panel at the same time. "FBI Medical emergency. My partner left his asthma inhaler in his luggage." She crawled through the opening, pulling with her a small flashlight that she had stolen. "Oh, and by the way! I think coach is out of peanuts."
The first bag her flashlight hit had a tag on it that read "CHRIS DAMIAN" in thick bold letters. "Well, hello."
She quickly rifled through the bag, slipping her hands around the seams and every other suspicious looking spot. Nothing.
Cammie turned her attention back to the conversation in her ear just in time to hear the end of Sally Bennett's conversation with Zach.
"-a dark red one. The handle is duct taped because it broke right before I left. But I don't understand. Why do you need to know what kind of bag I have?"
The cargo hold was dark and cramped and Cammie stumbled over the luggage as she crawled around in the deep space. "Got it. Dark red, duct tape."
She shined the small beam around the hold and spotted Bennett's suitcase right in front of her. After going over this bag, much like she had with the other one, she finally at up and sighed. "It's not here. There's nothing in it."
"You sure?" Zach muttered under his breath.
"Positive." Suddenly something dawned on her. "Oh no."
"What? Cammie, we don't have time for any 'oh no's."
"I think I know what it is." Cammie turned around as best she could and began climbing back to the other end of the cargo hold. "Liz was telling me the other day…about a…thing…just like this." She reached the wall and stopped short at what looked like a computer interface in a small cubby. Quickly pulling out her phone, she dialed Liz's number, and explained the situation as best she could in 30 seconds.
"…and there's nothing in their suitcases. This sounds like that case with the-"
"Yeah, I remember…" Liz sounded worried. "Okay, did you find what looks like a computer-"
"-Already looking at it," Cammie interrupted.
"Okay, but does it look like it's hooked up to the plane's electrical system?"
Cammie studied the wires and screens. "Yeah, I think so."
"Okay, find an A.V. adapter and connect your phone to one of the USB ports. I'm going to hack into your comms so you can use your phone."
There was a short burst of static as they worked.
Liz giggled. "I can't believe I'm remote accessing a plane's electrical system from 3,000 miles away. Jonas is gonna be jealous that he missed this one."
"Focus Liz."
"Right, I- Oh, no."
"Oh no?"
"I'm reading an electrical spike. Quick, Cammie, do you see anything that could be interfering with the signal?"
Cammie moved the flashlight around, stopping as the beam hit a black box that had cords running up past her line of vision. "I think so. This looks like it might be running into the conduits."
There was an uncomfortable radio silence.
"Liz?"
"Cammie. The device you found- is it anywhere near an orange box?"
"Yeah."
"Oh God." Liz sounded truly scared. "They tapped into the black box."
"No, it's orange." Cammie corrected.
"The black boxes are orange. Makes them easier to find if the plane crashes."
"Oh. Oh." Cammie's eyes widened.
"What does that mean?" Zach spoke up for the first time.
"Means they've hacked into the flight's computer, which means they have access to the system, which means they can spoof the black-Box data all at the same time."
"So they can crash the plane without anyone knowing?" Zach asked.
Liz sounded pre-occupied. "Uh-huh."
Cammie looked over at the screen as it began to flicker. "Uh-guys… Zach, get to the cockpit! Now!"
-:-:-:-
Zach opened the door to the cockpit, startling the pilots.
"What are you doing?" the first one yelled. "You can't be in here!"
"Listen to me! I'm a U.S. Air Marshal-"
Zach was cut off as a shudder ran through the plane and the nose of the plane began to dive. He grabbed the back of the nearest chair and held on.
"They're in! They're bringing it down!" he heard Cammie yell.
-:-:-:-
Cammie grunted as she was thrown backwards into a stack of luggage. "LIZ!"
"I'm working on it," came Liz's terse reply. "Okay, Cammie, cut all the wires between the device and the black box."
"Got it." Cammie began the frustrating crawl over the luggage and back to the control panel.
-:-:-:-
"It's non-responsive. We've got to reset!" The pilot said as he surveyed everything in front of him.
"No not yet!" Liz yelled.
"Not yet!" Zach relayed.
The pilot looked at him.
"Trust me! On my mark!"
The man nodded. "Okay!"
"Okay, Cammie, I've got a lock on the virus! I just need to-"
"10,000 feet and dropping." The pilot grabbed Zach's attention.
-:-:-:-
"Okay, Cammie," Liz said. "I've got a lock on the virus! I just need to get ahead of it, and stop it. Cammie, don't clip the last wire until I say!"
"Got it." Cammie continued to cut the wires with a pair of little haircutting scissors she had found in the nearest suitcase.
"Okay! Clip it!"
Cammie snipped the last wire.
-:-:-:-
"It's clean!" Liz yelled.
"Reset now!" Zach ordered the pilot.
"Regaining control. It's back!" The pilot grinned as he grabbed the steering column, attempting to pull the plane up from its nosedive.
"C'mon..." Zach muttered as he watched the altitude drop. Suddenly the numbers slowed as the pilot regained control of the plane.
-:-:-:-
"They've got it." Zach's voice came over the comm. "We're safe."
Cammie collapsed against the luggage with a sigh as Liz's shriek reverberated through their comm links.
It was finally over. She slowly breathed out, a relief filling her that only came from an extremely close call.
Cammie slowly picked herself up and headed back towards the entry panel. Once out, she stood up and looked straight into the eyes of the flight attendant.
"Did you find your partner's inhaler?" The woman raised an eyebrow, as if she didn't quite believe Cammie's fictional story.
Cammie smiled and held up the little plastic device in her left hand. "I did, thank you." She tossed it at Zach as he exited the cockpit and walked towards them. "Here you go."
"Thanks."
-:-:-:-
Cammie collapsed in her seat and leaned her head back against the waiting headrest. She listened as the pilot's voice was broadcasted over the intercom, explaining that the plane would be landing at the nearest airport due to some complications, and that they would be put on a different flight that would take them to their destination.
"Hopefully the rest of the flight will be less chaotic." Zach said as he resumed his place next to her. "Next time, let's do one case at a time."
Cammie gave a noncommittal noise in response. She saw him shift slightly out of the corner of her eye, but he said nothing.
She knew that the talk was coming, and coming fast. The one where he would demand answers, she would demand them back. She knew that they would both eventually explode under the pressure they were placing on themselves and on each other, and that the result was not going to be pretty, but necessary. She knew that all of this was inevitable, and that if they were ever going to work comfortably together again, it was all going to happen soon.
But she was going to prolong it as long as she possibly could. Because once it did happen…
Nothing was going to be the same.
First ten reviewers get a preview from later in the story :) (A really important part of the story, too!)