Chapter 18 - THE LAST TEST
The aircraft climbed into the night sky.
Sarah immediately felt the system fighting her.
The controls became heavy.
The aircraft began banking right.
Exactly as the passenger jet had.
Sarah didn't panic.
She had lived this nightmare before.
"Come on," she whispered.
The aircraft rolled farther.
Thirty degrees.
Forty.
Fifty.
Warning alarms screamed.
Sarah reduced power on the right engine and increased power on the left.
The aircraft responded.
Its nose began turning.
Across the emergency network, pilots listened.
"Follow her!"
Sarah's voice remained calm.
"Don't fight the aircraft."
A pilot responded.
"We're losing control!"
"Use differential thrust."
"That shouldn't work!"
"It does."
Sarah pulled gently.
The aircraft stabilized.
One by one, other aircraft began responding.
Hundreds.
Then thousands.
Mercer watched the control screens.
"She's doing it."
Daniel, pale and wounded, smiled.
"She always could."
But then Sarah saw something on her display.
A second signal.
Hidden inside the Phoenix Protocol.
She frowned.
"There's another command."
"What kind?" Mercer asked over the radio.
"Navigation."
Sarah studied the coordinates.
Every aircraft had been programmed to redirect toward one location.
"Where are they sending them?"
Mercer checked.
His face changed.
"Washington."
Sarah's stomach tightened.
"All of them?"
"Yes."
Daniel suddenly understood.
"They don't just want control."
Sarah looked at him.
"What?"
"They want chaos."
If thousands of aircraft suddenly converged on Washington's airspace, the nation's aviation system would collapse.
Emergency landings.
Collisions.
Military interception.
Panic.
Cross didn't need bombs.
She had built a weapon from the sky itself.
Sarah grabbed the controls.
"Then we redirect them."
Mercer said,
"Can you?"
Sarah looked at the map.
"It's like flying one aircraft."
"How?"
"You just have to know where you want it to go."
She began issuing commands.
"Flight 221, turn west."
"Flight 708, descend to twelve thousand."
"Flight 119, maintain heading."
One by one, aircraft separated.
The network fought her.
Sarah fought back.
Her scarred hands moved over the controls.
Then the system displayed a new warning.
PHOENIX AUTHORITY REVOKED.
Sarah stared.
"No."
A voice came over the radio.
Evelyn Cross.
"You really thought you could beat us?"
Sarah recognized the voice.
Cross continued.
"The system isn't yours anymore."
Sarah looked at the sky around her.
Thousands of aircraft.
Millions of lives.
Then Cross said something that froze Sarah's blood.
"Your daughter is still inside our facility."
Sarah's eyes widened.
Emily.
She had thought Emily was safe.
Cross laughed.
"You didn't rescue her."
Sarah's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Where is she?"
"Ask Daniel."
Sarah looked down at the hangar.
Daniel's face had gone pale.
Sarah realized the truth.
Daniel had known.
"Daniel..."
He looked away.
Sarah's heart shattered.
"You knew?"
"I was trying to protect her."
"You lied to me."
"I had no choice."
Cross's voice returned.
"Bring the notebook to the old control tower."
Sarah looked toward the desert.
The tower stood several miles away.
Cross continued.
"Come alone."
Sarah tightened her grip.
"What happens if I don't?"
A scream came through the radio.
Emily.
Sarah's blood ran cold.
Then the transmission ended.
Daniel whispered,
"I'm sorry."
Sarah stared ahead.
For thirty-two years, she had survived betrayal.
But this one hurt differently.
Because this time, she had something to lose.
Her daughter.
Sarah took a breath.
May you like
Then she pushed the throttle forward.
"Phoenix is going back in."
