Chapter 21

Adam sits in the pilot's chair nervously scanning the controls of the boeing 747 jet. He sighs, placing his palm behind his head whilst rubbing the back of his neck.

"So do you think you can land this thing or not?" Floyd queries.

Before giving him an answer, Adam glances back towards the broken doors where Sammy is lying badly injured just outside. He then looks around towards his friends, Estel and his daughter, briefly giving Cherry his eye contact for a moment.

"I'm sorry man, this is a completely different ball game compared to a chopper. I don't think I can land this thing safely without assistance…." Adam shakes his head.

"It's ok. Well, there is another option…"

"What's that then?"

"There's only one person left on board who can safely land this plane…" Floyd worriedly replies as the two of them glance over towards Mr Y who is tied up and laying on the ground.

"Hey! Wake up!" Estel wastes no time in pouring cold water over his face after he was knocked out cold only 15 minutes ago. The young man who first appears disorientated, opens his eyes with a sleazy grin on his face. "Let me guess, none of you smart asses can land us on the ground…"

"Look! Either you pilot this plane or we're all gonna die here!" Estel folds her arms.

"Like I demanded earlier, the only way we make it out of here alive is if Axel and Shiva each die first."

"That ain't happening on my radar!" Floyd shouts back before sending a painful electric shock into Mr Y's arm. He tightly shuts his eyes, stinging in agony for a moment. The aches still shoot through his arms whilst Floyd unties him. "Now land this fucking plane!" Floyd's demeanour turns quickly from calm to impatient.

Mr Y sighs then he rises up to his feet to make his way over to the controls.

"I can see we're only 20 kilometres or so away from the coast…" he analyses.

Suddenly, out of nowhere a loud bang and a blinding light shudders the plane further back. The red warning lights above and in front of them immediately start to repeatedly bleep.

"What the fuck was that!?" Floyd panics.

"We've lost both engines!" Adam frantically looks around at the controls.

"Did you hear that? There's smoke coming from back there!" Cherry runs into the cockpit out of breath. The plane then begins to violently shake from side to side and the smell of burning aviation fuel dominates the cabin.

"It must have been a bomb or someone trying to shoot us down! Either way we're going down. Try and gather up any life jackets, parachutes, whatever's possible!" Estel instructs.

"Hey! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Floyd yells.

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" Mr Y answers, clipping a backpack with a parachute over his long white jacket. Amongst the chaos and distraction, he took advantage to make his escape after reaching for his uzi gun left unattended on the ground.

"It's over son, just surrender" Floyd argues.

"Oh yeah? I'll see you in hell before I do that!" Mr Y smirks.

The team inside the cockpit are forced to duck low whilst bullets fly everywhere once again. He then opens one of the escape doors as the plane quickly descends in altitude. Mr Y then leans backwards, falling out into the sky and making his exit.

"God Dammit! There was only one parachute!" Max slams his fists into one of the chairs.

"We're gonna have to brace ourselves. We're going down fast!" Adam replies, trying his best to control the plane's nose and glide the broken vessel. The noise of the aircraft becomes louder and louder the closer they descend towards the ground.

"Terrain. Pull up!" The flight system repeats again and again as they fast approach the coastline.

"Our only chance is moving to the back of the plane and jumping out just before this thing crashes. Come on!" Axel orders as he and Max carefully carry Sammy together. The young fighter is wrapped up in life jackets to try to stop any more bleeding. The group tightly hold onto each other as well as anything else possible as they make their way to the end of the aircraft, blinded by thick smoke. They are violently rocked from side to side, uncertain when or what the plane is about to crash into.

"Daddy, I don't wanna die!" Cherry shouts through the noise.

"I won't let you die!" Adam promises, cusping one hand at the back of her head with his other arm around her. "We jump when I say, ok?" He instructs.

In those last moments at the back of the aircraft, the seconds feel like hours as they wait together. Each one of their lives flashes before their eyes.

"I just wanna say, there's no one else I'd rather fight and die alongside with" Max remarks to Axel.

"None of us are dying today, you hear me?" He replies, tightly holding onto Blaze's wedding ring in his left hand. "That goes for all of us!" Axel shouts. "When I say jump, we jump!"

The rest of the team say their own internal prayers, hanging onto every word, hoping that he is right.

"Take them into the building now!" Steffan orders whilst Blaze and Leon are dragged off the runway as soon as they step off the plane. The three of them as well as the officers pause in shock for a moment. They stare up at the sky, noticing another plane in the distance not too far off the coast. It appears to be in trouble with dark smoke and fire emitting from both engines.

"I SAID, TAKE THEM INSIDE NOW!" He insists, this time releasing his inner rage.

Leon is easily carried away kicking and fussing with his hands now tied once again whilst Blaze shrugs off any officers who try to grab her arms.

"Are they on that plane?" She anxiously asks Steffan. Instead of giving her an answer, he turns away, ignoring her question.

"Are they on that fucking plane?!" Blaze raises her voice this time, but he still can't look her in the eye. "You sick piece of shit! Do something to help them!" Her tone turns more and more frantic as the noise of the aircraft and severity of it's damage become clearer.

"Oh my God…. no, no ….. No!" Three guards try to drag her away kicking and screaming but they struggle until Steffan finally breaks his silence.

"Let her go…." he calmly orders. His agents stare back feeling shocked. "Do it!" Steffan insists. They immediately loosen their grip on her arms then they push her forward, still with her hands tied up.

"Now you have three choices here, Blaze. You can either wait and watch that plane crash, try to escape or attempt to kill me. But believe me, all three of those options will end up with you dead. There is nowhere for you to go and once Ms Y and her fighters know you are on this island on your own, they will find you and they will kill you. That's if you don't starve or freeze to death first. So I'd suggest you follow my guards inside that building where they've taken Leon and you wait this out….. Dr Dahm has his own medical team on standby. We will scan the wreckage if there are any survivors," he formally explains.

Blaze pauses in front of him, lost for words in disbelief as tears roll down her cheeks.

"Go on. My medics will do what they can to help any survivors. Just go inside before Leon realises what's really going on…"

She takes a deep, worried exhale then Blaze swallows her pride.

"Promise me you'll help them?"

"I give you my word" he nods.

With reluctance, Blaze complies. She at least has some hope left in her that if, and that's if the others are on that plane, they'll have a fighting chance of survival even though the odds are stacked up against anybody on that aircraft right now.

"Why did you tell her we'll help any survivors? We were the ones who planted that bomb" Officer Ralphy queries once Blaze and the other officers are out of sight.

"Listen and listen well. If anything happens to her or if Blaze loses that baby, that's half of our source of power gone for good! So if that means having to make false promises, weighing on her hand a foot 24 hours a day, or putting up with her bullshit when she tries to escape, then that's what we're going to have to do until that infant is born. Understood?"

"Yes Sir". He agrees before leaving.

"Now go and find that other twin and kill her!" Steffan demands.

He stands next to his own plane, staring up at the sky as the doomed aircraft draws in closer. He tries to acknowledge every emotion and train of thought going on inside his mind, but he feels nothing. Part of Steffan wonders, will he ever regret the drastic action he's taken if Axel ends up dying? Or is this just plain and simple justice for what happened to him inside that vault two decades ago? He already gave Axel the chance to have anything he wanted and to join him in taking over the syndicate, but he refused.

Steffan can't help but think of the past, all the way back to Axel's first fight. That last uppercut to his opponent's head was enough to stop the man's heartbeat. He remembers every part of their conversation that night together following the match…..

"You've been through war and have killed others before. The only difference is this time it's with your fist and not your gun!" Steffan approaches Axel who is sitting on the ground, bruised and bleeding after his first major fight. He sits with his back against the wall full of regret.

"Yeah but this is different! That guy didn't even wanna fight, he was forced into this in order to feed his family. War is different…we have to fight"

"Is it? From where I'm standing, you ALWAYS have a choice!" Steffan answers. "We chose whether we live or die, at all costs. You never forced your opponent inside that ring and he knew what the risks were. Every man is responsible for his own death. Remember that…."

The memories of that conversation send shivers down Steffan's spine as he watches the plane crash down and fall apart in the distance.