Chapter 1 - The Cockpit Door
Emily followed the flight attendant down the narrow carpeted aisle.
Her heart pounded aggressively against her ribs with every step she took toward the front of the aircraft.
She tried to ignore the terrified stares of the hundreds of passengers watching her pass by.
For eighteen months, she had tried to forget the adrenaline and the crushing weight of military duty.
Now, she was walking straight back into the nightmare she had sworn to leave behind forever.
The flight attendant stopped in front of the reinforced cockpit door and entered a security code.
The heavy door clicked open with a mechanical hum.
Emily stepped inside the cramped flight deck.
The space was illuminated by the flashing red warnings of dozens of emergency displays.
First Officer Evans was slumped over in his seat, completely unconscious with an oxygen mask strapped to his pale face.
Captain Miller gripped the flight yoke with white knuckles, his face dripping with cold sweat.
"I am Emily Carter, former Air Force F-16 pilot," she announced with absolute authority.
The captain did not even turn his head to look at her.
"My co-pilot blacked out from a sudden depressurization issue that I barely managed to contain," Captain Miller explained breathlessly.
He pointed a trembling finger toward the radar screen on the center console.
"But the depressurization was not an accident, and it was not a mechanical failure," he added.
Emily leaned over the console and stared at the glowing green radar monitor.
A small, unidentified object was flying exactly fifty feet above their commercial aircraft.
"We have been shadowed for the last twenty minutes by a military-grade stealth drone," the captain said.
Emily felt the blood drain entirely out of her face.
"It hacked our navigation system ten minutes ago, and the autopilot is completely locked," he continued.
She studied the unique radar signature and the specific jamming frequency displayed on the screen.
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Her breath hitched in her throat as a horrifying realization hit her.
It was the exact same experimental drone prototype that had caused her fatal squadron crash eighteen months ago.
