Chapter 14
Three weeks later, Steve and Catherine say goodbye to Tim and Sara at the airport. Tim has also quit the agency, but wants to stay in Senegal. Steve has the feeling that he has fallen in love with Oise, he has probably visited her a few times.
Danny and the others already flew back a week ago. Steve was not allowed to get on a plane because of the lung contusion and had to wait until it was healed.
Steve is pleased to see that Fred is their pilot again. He had visited his father and Steve and he had met a few times in between after Steve was out of the hospital. Now he greets them warmly at the airfield.
Catherine and Steve wave once more to Tim and Sara before boarding the plane. Then they finally hit the runway.
Steve loves the feeling in his stomach when the plane loses contact with the ground and slowly climbs into the sky. He's a little worried about his damaged lungs, and Catherine has worry written all over her face.
As they reach cruising altitude, the tension eases and Steve breathes a sigh of relief. He feels completely normal. Relieved, he grins at Catherine. He stretches out across several of the seats and makes himself comfortable with his duffel bag under his head. Catherine does the same and after a short time they both fall asleep.
They wake up when all of a sudden they almost fall off the seats. The plane seems to be having problems. Steve looks at his watch; they've been on the road for about six hours. Concerned, Steve and Catherine join the pilots in the cockpit.
An alarm rings out to them as they approach the cockpit. "What's going on?" With frantic spots on his face, Fred explains. "I don't know what's going on. Two of our engines are down. Everything was okay until just now, and suddenly nothing went left." "Maybe it's the electrical system, do you want me to go take a look?" "Charles has already gone, but you're welcome to help him." Steve nods to him and leaves the cockpit again. Catherine sits down with Fred. He shakes his head. "I've never had that before."
Steve opens the hatch in the floor of the Boeing to get to the electrical system. He can't find Charles anywhere. As he moves further back, he feels a draft; one of the inspection hatches at the rear of the plane seems to be open. Charles must have taken off. Steve heads back toward the bow. Then he also sees what caused the engine failure. Someone has placed a mini-explosive charge that has literally shredded part of the electrical system. He's about to go and see if there's anything he can do when another charge explodes and the panel blows up in his face. Something hits him in the head. There is a whistling in his ears and the Boeing tilts uncontrollably in the other direction. He is just able to hold on. Then Steve climbs back towards the nose, climbs back up and returns to the cockpit. Two pairs of eyes look at him questioningly.
Catherine jumps up when she sees Steve's forehead bleeding. "Steve, what happened?"
"It's all right. It's just a scratch. Someone sabotaged the electrical system with two charges, the second one went off just as I was about to look. And Charles chose the emergency exit." Horrified, Fred looks at him. "Now we have no engine at all, and the radio is gone, too. Does that mean there's nothing we can do?" "Unfortunately not, everything is shredded there."
The young man turns pale. Steve puts a hand on his shoulder. "We're still in the air, now it's sail and ditch. We're still too far from the mainland."
He sits in the co-pilot's seat and Catherine sits in the emergency seat behind them. The Boeing continues to sink steadily. Steve estimates about 20 minutes, then they will hit the water.
What concerns him in the meantime, however, is why someone would sabotage a Navy transport flight. And why sabotage? And if explosives, why don't they just blow it up altogether? "Tell me Fred, what have we actually loaded that makes it worth sabotaging the plane?" Confused, Fred looks at him. "We're probably about to die and you want to know what we loaded?" Steve grins, "Well, if I'm going to die, I at least want to know why." Catherine just shakes her head. Steve just can't get out of his skin. Fred hands Steve the papers.
"Peanuts? Seriously now? We're going down for peanuts?" Steve passes the papers to Catherine, then unbuckles his seat belt and exits the cockpit. "What, Steve? What are you doing?" "I'll be right back."