Chapter 15 - HANGAR NINE
At 11:47 p.m., Sarah stood outside the abandoned Edwards Air Force Base hangar.
The desert wind moved across the empty runway.
Hangar 9 looked exactly as she remembered.
Massive.
Silent.
Dead.
Sarah had not been there since the night her career ended.
She stepped from the vehicle.
Mercer had ordered her not to come.
Sarah had ignored him.
She knew something Mercer didn't.
If Daniel wanted her alone, he would have planned for surveillance.
And if Emily was truly in danger, every second mattered.
Sarah carried the notebook beneath her coat.
The brass key was in her pocket.
She approached the hangar.
The doors were unlocked.
Inside, darkness swallowed her.
"Daniel?"
Her voice echoed.
No answer.
Sarah walked deeper.
Then the lights flickered on.
A long row of old aircraft components appeared beneath white fluorescent lights.
At the far end stood a man.
Gray hair.
Straight posture.
A familiar face aged by three decades.
Daniel Hayes.
Sarah stopped.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Daniel smiled sadly.
"You look exactly the same."
Sarah's eyes narrowed.
"I nearly died because of you."
"I know."
"You let them destroy me."
"I tried to stop them."
"You disappeared."
"I was ordered to."
"By Vance?"
Daniel looked away.
"Not Vance."
Sarah's blood ran cold.
"Then who?"
Daniel stepped closer.
"There's a reason the government buried Phoenix Protocol."
Sarah said nothing.
"It wasn't designed to save pilots."
"What was it designed for?"
Daniel looked toward the enormous hangar doors.
"Control."
Sarah frowned.
"The technology wasn't only for emergency flight."
Daniel nodded.
"It could remotely alter an aircraft's flight-control system."
Sarah felt sick.
"You're saying someone could hijack a plane?"
"Thirty-two years ago, the system was primitive."
"And now?"
Daniel's expression darkened.
"Now it's almost perfect."
Sarah remembered her flight from Las Vegas.
The sudden bank.
The complete hydraulic failure.
The pilots' inability to control the aircraft.
She whispered,
"The plane I was on..."
"Was a test."
Sarah stared at him.
"They deliberately caused it?"
Daniel nodded.
"They needed to know whether Phoenix Protocol worked on modern aircraft."
Sarah's anger exploded.
"You put 188 people on a plane just to test a system?"
"No."
Daniel's voice broke.
"I didn't."
He pulled a folder from beneath his coat.
"The people who did are already inside the government."
Sarah took the folder.
Inside were photographs.
Officials.
Military contractors.
FAA executives.
Senators.
And one name appeared repeatedly.
Evelyn Cross.
Sarah recognized her.
"Deputy Director of the FAA."
Daniel nodded.
"She has been running the program for eleven years."
Sarah turned another page.
There was a photograph of a secret facility.
Underneath it:
PROJECT PHOENIX — FINAL PHASE.
Sarah looked at Daniel.
"What happens tomorrow?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Tomorrow, they activate it."
"On what?"
He looked directly into her eyes.
"Every commercial aircraft in North America."
Sarah felt the air leave her lungs.
Daniel continued.
"They don't need to crash every plane."
"Then what do they want?"
"To prove they can control them."
Sarah's face hardened.
"And then?"
"They demand whatever they want."
Suddenly, a red laser dot appeared on Daniel's chest.
Sarah saw it.
"DOWN!"
She tackled him.
A sniper round shattered the wall behind them.
More shots followed.
Daniel grabbed Sarah's arm.
"They found us!"
Sarah pulled the notebook from her coat.
"Where is the system?"
Daniel pointed toward a sealed laboratory door.
"Behind there."
Sarah ran.
The door required a key.
She pulled out the brass key.
It fit.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Inside was a massive control room.
Hundreds of screens displayed aircraft across the country.
Sarah stared in horror.
Every screen was marked with the same symbol.
A black phoenix.
Then one screen turned red.
PHOENIX PROTOCOL: ACTIVATION SEQUENCE
Sarah looked at the countdown.
00:19:42
Daniel whispered,
"We're too late."
Sarah shook her head.
"No."
She rolled up her sleeves.
The scars on her hands caught the light.
"Phoenix has been late before."
May you like
She looked at the control panel.
"But she has never missed."
