Chapter 17 - THE DAUGHTER WHO CAME BACK
"Mom!"
Sarah turned.
Emily stood behind the federal agents, pale but alive.
Sarah's heart nearly stopped.
"Emily?"
Mercer looked equally stunned.
"I told you to stay at the safe house."
Emily shook her head.
"I wasn't going to let you face this alone."
Sarah rushed toward her.
They embraced.
For one brief second, Sarah forgot everything else.
Then a gunshot cracked.
Evelyn Cross fired.
Mercer pushed Emily down.
Agents returned fire.
Cross disappeared through a side door.
Daniel collapsed.
Sarah dropped beside him.
"Daniel!"
He was conscious.
Barely.
"I've had worse."
Sarah pressed her hand against his wound.
"You always did lie badly."
He smiled.
"I learned from the best."
Mercer rushed over.
"He's alive."
Sarah looked toward the countdown.
00:04:12
"How do we stop it?"
Daniel struggled to sit.
"We can't."
Sarah stared at him.
"What?"
"The activation is already distributed."
"Then we stop every aircraft individually."
Daniel shook his head.
"There are thousands."
Sarah looked at the screens.
Thousands of aircraft.
Millions of passengers.
She remembered her own flight.
The terrified faces.
The child screaming.
The captain saying goodbye to his wife.
She couldn't let that happen again.
Sarah stood.
"How many aircraft are currently airborne?"
Mercer checked.
"Approximately six thousand."
Sarah nodded.
"Then we have six thousand chances."
Emily stepped closer.
"What do you need?"
Sarah looked at her daughter.
"For you to trust me."
Emily smiled through tears.
"I already do."
Sarah returned to the console.
"Mercer, connect me to the FAA emergency network."
"That's restricted."
Sarah stared at him.
"Then tell them Phoenix is requesting clearance."
Mercer smiled.
"That might work."
Within seconds, Sarah's voice filled the emergency network.
"All aircraft currently receiving abnormal control commands, this is former Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mitchell."
Operators across the country listened.
"I know what is happening."
Pilots began responding.
"Phoenix, this is Flight 221."
"Phoenix, Flight 708."
"Phoenix, Flight 119."
Hundreds of voices.
Sarah closed her eyes.
Then she gave the command.
"Disengage automated control."
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
"Manual flight authority. Now."
The system resisted.
OVERRIDE DENIED.
Sarah stared.
"No."
Daniel whispered,
"They anticipated that."
Sarah looked at him.
"What didn't they anticipate?"
Daniel pointed toward the old notebook.
"You."
Sarah opened it.
There was a handwritten diagram.
A manual control sequence.
The original Phoenix Protocol.
It required something impossible.
A pilot physically flying an aircraft through the failure.
Sarah understood.
"The system needs a live demonstration."
Daniel nodded.
"Exactly."
Mercer looked confused.
"What does that mean?"
Sarah looked toward the airport runway visible through the hangar windows.
"It means I have to fly."
Emily's face went white.
"Mom..."
Sarah touched her cheek.
"I promised you I'd come home."
Emily grabbed her hand.
"Promise again."
Sarah smiled.
"I promise."
She turned toward Mercer.
"Get me an aircraft."
Mercer stared.
"Sarah, you're fifty-eight."
"I know."
"You haven't flown professionally in thirty-two years."
"I know."
"You could die."
Sarah looked at the burning countdown.
00:01:17
"I've died once already."
She walked toward the hangar exit.
Emily followed.
"Mom!"
Sarah stopped.
Emily hugged her.
"I just got you back."
Sarah held her tightly.
"And this time, I'm not disappearing."
She pulled away.
"Stay here."
Emily nodded.
Sarah climbed into a waiting military trainer aircraft.
The engines started.
The cockpit came alive.
Sarah placed her scarred hands on the controls.
For thirty-two years, she had tried to forget the feeling.
Now it returned instantly.
The smell of fuel.
The vibration.
The roar.
The impossible freedom.
A voice crackled through her headset.
"Colonel Mitchell, you're cleared for takeoff."
Sarah looked at the runway.
The countdown reached zero.
Across North America, thousands of aircraft suddenly rolled sharply to the right.
Passengers screamed.
Pilots fought their controls.
May you like
And Sarah pushed the throttle forward.
"Phoenix is airborne."
