Flight to the Horizon, page 14
Janine was impressed with this no-nonsense woman, who reminded her a little of Kerri. They weren’t out of danger yet, with the storm churning up the seas, but at least they were alive and on a real ship.
More than anything, Janine needed to talk to Molly and explain why she hadn’t called her. Molly was a very smart girl, and she’d know something was wrong if her mother didn’t phone her as planned. Janine maneuvered across the bay to reach Lieutenant Morris.
“Sir, could you help me find a phone? I really need to call my daughter.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but the skipper said our satellite comm is down right now due to the bad weather. I’m sure you can use our equipment as soon as the system comes back up.”
Janine felt like she might scream. After the ordeal they’d been through, she needed to hear Molly’s voice, and now she had to wait even longer.
“Ma’am, are you all right? You don’t look too good. Have you had any water yet?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Just a little dizzy.” Janine swayed, then saw a sparkly gold tinge around everything. She’d experienced this uncomfortable feeling before, when Ryan had choked her to blackout. “I just need to sit down a minute.”
Lieutenant Morris ran over to Janine’s side as her legs gave out, and then she was falling. She sensed strong arms grab her waist as her vision faded to black. The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back on a metal table with bright lights overhead shining in her face.
“Where am I?”
“In our sick bay, ma’am. You passed out. Please don’t try to get up. The corpsman put an IV in your arm and said you’re very dehydrated. Are you all right? You fought us when we tried to bring you to sick bay.” Lieutenant Morris looked very concerned as he nervously patted her hand.
“Sorry about that,” she said quietly. Bad memories of being choked repeatedly, then revived, flooded back to her. The familiar panic also returned as she frantically looked around the room for an escape.
“You’re not on that raft anymore, ma’am. You’re safe here.” Lieutenant Morris gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Please try to relax and stay here on the bed. After we get some fluids in you, you should start to feel better soon.”
“All right.”
Janine tried to calm her breathing. Logically, she knew she was in the sick bay of a navy ship, but her emotions betrayed her as she battled her old fear and helplessness.
This navy lieutenant was trying to be kind, but she wanted Kerri. Something about Kerri’s presence made her feel calm, despite the ordeal they’d been through.
“Could you please find Captain Sullivan for me?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be right back.” She appreciated Lieutenant Morris’s willingness to help her. And she would be fine as soon as Kerri got back to her. She slid into the dark oblivion of exhaustion, thinking of holding Kerri’s hand.
* * *
Kerri followed Lieutenant Commander Gentry up some steep stairs to the bridge.
“Skipper on deck.” All the bridge staff stood and turned to face their leader.
“Status report.” Stacey Gentry’s voice was clear and direct.
“Aft platform is closed, all equipment on deck is secure, recovery checklist complete. We’re ready, Skipper.”
“Helm, all ahead full. Make the heading one-two-zero degrees.”
“But, ma’am, the standard operating procedure is slow-ahead speed with these seas.”
The entire bridge went silent.
Lieutenant Commander Gentry stood quietly, her hands balled into tight fists at her hips.
“Mister Gonzalez, do you think I am unaware of the SOP speed for rough waters?”
“No, ma’am. I was just asking if—”
“All. Ahead. Full. Now.” Her eyes could melt steel.
“All-ahead full. Aye, ma’am. Heading, one-one-zero, for one-two-zero. Aye, ma’am.”
“Get us out of here, Mister Gonzalez.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Gunny, front and center.” The skipper pointed to a huge marine.
“Captain Sullivan, you need to go with Gunnery Sergeant Blake. He’ll secure your weapon for you.”
“Ah, Skipper. It’s not my gun, and I’m not supposed to relinquish control of it to anyone.”
“I understand. The federal air marshals own your weapon, but on my ship, we have to secure all firearms. Do not fight me on this, Captain.”
“Certainly not, Skipper.” Kerri dutifully followed the gunnery sergeant to the weapons locker.
“Just sign here, Captain, and then you can go sit in the skipper’s office. She’ll be right in.”
“But I need to check on my passengers and crew.” Kerri was growing frustrated.
“Sorry, ma’am. The skipper was very clear. You are to wait in her office.”
“I understand.” Kerri knew better than to try to fight military regulations.
She had to chuckle, remembering her days in T-38 fighter lead in training. As student pilots, they got hammered if they broke a rule, mainly because the rules were in place due to previous aircraft crashes. When she was learning to be a fighter pilot, she was rewarded for her aggressiveness and for bending the rules as far as they would go without breaking. She had learned to fly her jet better than her classmates and made her aircraft do amazing things she never even thought possible. She’d also scared the crap out of herself numerous times, pushing the edge of the envelope just a little too far. She was always able to save her own ass, and her confidence grew. But all her confidence, flying skills, and years of experience meant nothing now. She was not in any position to make demands of a crew who followed their skipper into dangerous waters to rescue them. She was just a powerless stowaway.
This crew wouldn’t bend any rules. Lieutenant Commander Gentry ran a tight ship, and she quashed a moment of insubordination with practiced efficiency.
Kerri sat in the skipper’s office in a well-worn leather armchair. The weight of fatigue settled on her chest with a heaviness she’d never known. She fought to keep her eyes open, but she was going under the water in the raft again. Fear gripped her throat. What does she mean by “evidence”?
Kerri sensed warmth by her left shoulder and heard mumblings that might be words. She tried to focus, but her eyes wouldn’t open.
“Kerri. Kerri, wake up.” It was Stacey Gentry’s voice.
Kerri sat up abruptly, gasping for air.
“Hey, hey, you’re okay. You’re on my ship.” Stacey sat on the arm of the chair with her arm around Kerri’s heaving shoulders.
Where am I? What time is it? What day is it?
Kerri abhorred waking up disoriented in a strange room, or in some foreign city, not knowing where she was or what time it was. It was an occupational hazard for airline pilots, who forced themselves to stay awake all night flying across the country or crossed eight time zones. Then, exhausted after a minimum time layover, she had to fly back. Even when she got home after a six-day trip, she felt like a zombie for the next two days. Long-haul international flying is not for the faint of heart.
Kerri took deep breaths, looked around the skipper’s office for a clock, then let her shoulders relax.
“Drink this water. You look like hell.” Stacey handed her a big water bottle.
“Thank you.” Kerri chugged the liquid from heaven.
“Do you think you can answer some questions, Kerri? And please call me Stacey.”
“Yes, I think so. Is everyone from my raft all right? My flight attendant, Janine Case?”
“They’re all fine. Only a few minor injuries. We were very lucky today.”
“We sure were, thanks to you. How in the world did you find us?”
“I can’t tell you. Let’s just say it was a combination of navigation skills and dumb luck. Were you using a signal mirror at fifteen-minute intervals?”
Kerri smiled. “That was my captain’s assistant, Mel. She’s a very bright young passenger that I showed how to signal with the mirror. I wasn’t aware she was still able to signal you. We were all in pretty bad shape by then, drifting right into that storm, and would all be dead now if you hadn’t found us when you did.”
“I was just doing my job. Please give my compliments to Mel. We saw her first SOS flashes about two hours from your position. She kept signaling regularly, so you have her to thank. I’d like to meet her.”
“Do you know anything about the rest of my passengers and crew? Have they been found?” Kerri was desperate for information.
“They were all in a group, very near your last reported position, and a cargo ship picked them up about four hours after you crashed. Frankly, I was surprised any of you walked away. I thought we’d be lucky to even find any bodies.”
Kerri exhaled a big sigh of relief. “By the way, it wasn’t a crash. It was a water landing. That’s why we were able to get off the plane and into the rafts.” That distinction was an important detail to Kerri. She did not crash her 767.
“Why were you so far away from the other survivors? Did you know where we were? Were you trying to find my ship? Tell me the truth, Kerri.”
Stacey stared at her, clearly waiting for an answer. She wasn’t the type of commander you withheld information from.
“We drifted away from the other rafts because a dumb-shit passenger accidentally threw our sea anchor overboard. I had no idea your ship was out there, and I certainly didn’t try to locate your position. Do you think we were trying to spy on you?” Kerri was indignant.
“Look. Don’t take offense. I just had to ask, for my higher-ups. I didn’t think that was the case, but I had to know. Being so far away from the other survivors made you look suspicious. If you lost your sea anchor, that would explain how your raft drifted so far away. You were in an area of strong ocean currents. We knew your position from your emergency-locator transmitter, but then we lost the signal. The last transmission was from a position inside the typhoon. I really expected all of you to be dead and that this would be a recovery mission, not a rescue. I’m glad I was wrong.”
“So am I. But how did you find us after we lost our ELT?”
“I plotted your last known position and your ELT pings, then adjusted for the ocean currents and the wind movement from the typhoon. Basically, it was a wild-ass guess. I had to persuade my boss I had a chance of finding you, because they’d called off the search.”
“Really? They gave up?” Kerri was crushed.
“You have to remember, you went down in the middle of the ocean, with a bad storm nearby. They had a search grid of three hundred square miles, and they looked for you for two days without even finding a life vest. I’m not supposed to talk to you about the accident. I’ve briefed my crew, and they won’t ask you any questions. I just needed to know if you were trying to find my ship on purpose, because of our mission.”
“Absolutely not. I have no idea what your mission is. We were just along for the ride, and the raft drifted into that huge storm.” What was their mission? Was it classified? Maybe that was why they took her gun.
“I’ve also been advised to tell you not to discuss the accident with anyone. The NTSB will be waiting to interview you as soon as we land in Honolulu.”
A cold chill moved down Kerri’s spine. She was going from the frying pan right into the fire. As if surviving a water landing, aircraft evacuation, ditching, two days in a raft in the middle of a storm wasn’t bad enough. Now she would have to survive the inquisition from the National Transportation Safety Board.
As the pilot in command, she would be blamed for this accident. The pilots are always blamed first. Kerri had no doubt about this. At least she was alive to give her side of the story.
Chapter Sixteen
Janine heard a door squeak and awoke instantly, alert and afraid, her heart pounding. She searched for a weapon, ready to fight.
“Hey, Janine. It’s me, Kerri.”
“Kerri?”
“Yes. I wanted to check on you. Lieutenant Morris told me you weren’t feeling well. How are you?”
Kerri stepped into a cone of light, illuminating her beautiful smile. Janine sat up and reached for her, opening her arms wide. Kerri sat on the edge of the metal bed, pulling Janine into a tight hug. They held each other for a long minute.
Kerri caressed her back, and the tears of relief came. This time she didn’t try to hold them back. Kerri held her, and rocked her, and said nothing as Janine shuddered into Kerri’s uniform jacket.
After she caught her breath, Kerri murmured into her ear, “We’re all right. We’re safe. I’ve got you.” Kerri repeated her reassurances softly until Janine pulled her head up.
“I’m okay now. Thank you. Oh, look. I’ve made a mess of your jacket.” Janine touched a big smear of makeup.
“What? My jacket’s dirty? Well, you’ll be getting a cleaning bill for that, miss.”
“Oh, yeah? Just look at my uniform dress. It’s in tatters. You owe me a new uniform.”
“I guess we’re even, then. I’m starving. Let’s go find some food.”
They lurched through the corridors of the ship, holding on to the handrails because of the rough seas, and found the noisy mess hall. It was a compact, utilitarian room packed with her passengers, all of them stuffing their faces. As Kerri and Janine got in line for the food, the noise level in the room lowered to dead quiet. Mr. Shapiro, who was discussing something with a group of passengers crowded around his table, glared at them and stopped talking. Janine was very conscious of being stared at, which was another uncomfortable feeling from her past. Panic started to rise in her throat.
“Kerri, let’s come back later, when it’s less crowded.”
“No. We’re both hungry, and we need to eat. They can just make room for us.” Janine heard an edge of anger in Kerri’s voice. The thought of Kerri unleashing a torrent of anger against their passengers made her shiver.
“Please, Kerri. I don’t feel comfortable here. Let’s go.” Janine stopped, unmovable.
“All right. We’ll leave and try again later.”
Lieutenant Morris came up to them. “Oh, here you are. The skipper told me to find you and take you to her quarters. Please follow me.”
He led them to a relatively quiet part of the ship, up a deck, then down a corridor ending at a door with “Lt. Cmdr. Stacey Gentry” on it.
“Oh, good. You’re here. Come on in.” Stacey opened her door for them. “It’s not too big, but it’s all we have left. There’s a single bed over here, and the chair lays flat into another bed. There are sheets and towels on the desk. I left you both some clean dungarees, and this is the only stateroom with a private head. I’m also sending some food up for you, so enjoy, ladies.”
Stacey pulled the door closed behind her and was gone in a flash.
Janine sat down in the chair, and Kerri maneuvered to the bed.
“I can’t believe she gave us her room. This crew is amazing.” Kerri looked around the tidy space.
“Do you mind if I shower first? This is the dirtiest I’ve ever been.”
“Go right ahead. I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute while you’re in the shower.” Kerri lay back on the bed and immediately started snoring.
Janine took the longest, hottest shower of her life. When she returned to the room, Kerri was dead asleep. She took a moment to stare at Kerri’s smooth face, with only a few lines across her forehead. A couple of strands of gray at her temples stood out in her otherwise dark, silky hair. Her face is beautiful when she’s relaxed in sleep.
She would let Kerri rest on the bed and, hopefully, sleep through the night. She carefully removed Kerri’s shoes, then draped a blanket over her.
Janine wolfed down a ham-and-cheese sandwich, a chocolate-pudding cup, and another big bottle of water. She reclined the chair and made it up as a single bed.
“Well, it’s more comfortable than the 767 crew bunk,” she said to herself and looked over at Kerri. “Sleep well, my captain.”
Janine pulled the blanket over her shoulder and muttered the silent prayer she said every night. Please, God, keep Molly safe, and no dreams for me. Amen.
* * *
Kerri felt something next to her. “Move over.”
“What?” Kerri’s head was throbbing, and she was disoriented.
“Move over, Kerri. I’m freezing.”
Kerri complied, rolled onto her side, and pressed herself against the wall. Janine snuggled in next to her, pressing her backside into Kerri’s lap. Oh, my.
Janine took Kerri’s hand in hers and pulled Kerri’s arm across her body.
Kerri didn’t resist, because she really liked it, but she was confused. Everything Janine had told her about Molly, her ex-husband, and her refusal to return her calls didn’t match up with Janine’s actions now.
Maybe she really is cold and only wants to be close to stay warm. But it didn’t feel that way to Kerri. Janine sought out Kerri to touch her, to physically connect with her. Kerri’s desire for Janine was probably misplaced, as it had been before. Janine was very clear that she didn’t care for a relationship, or even a date, with anyone. Kerri resisted the urge to pull her closer, even though she craved her. She wouldn’t make any unwanted overtures. They both needed sleep, so Kerri kept her arm around Janine’s waist, enjoying the feel of her body, and let herself fall back asleep. If anything happened between them, Janine would have to make the first move.
