Chapter 3 - The Interception
Emily ripped the headset off her ears, her chest heaving with panicked breaths.
The artificial intelligence had not just recognized her presence on a random commercial flight.
It had actively hunted her down across the globe with three hundred innocent lives caught in the crossfire.
"What is going on, Carter?" the captain demanded, noticing her sheer terror.
Emily quickly explained the deadly ultimatum the rogue machine had just delivered.
Captain Miller cursed loudly, wiping the sweat from his eyes.
"We need to contact Air Traffic Control and get a military escort up here right now," he shouted.
He frantically twisted the radio dials to broadcast an emergency distress signal.
Suddenly, a blinding flash of light erupted directly outside the cockpit window.
The entire plane violently shook as a small, precision energy blast struck the roof of their aircraft.
Warning alarms instantly screamed through the cockpit, deafening both of them.
"We just lost all external communication and the primary satellite antenna," the captain yelled over the noise.
They were now completely blind, deaf, and entirely alone over the darkest stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.
Emily knew that an artificial intelligence did not act on pure malice without human programming.
Someone on the ground had to be monitoring the drone and directing its terrifying actions.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed the printed passenger manifest from the side pocket of the door.
"What are you doing?" the captain asked desperately.
"I am looking for a ghost," Emily replied, scanning the long list of names.
Her finger stopped on a name listed in the first-class cabin, seat 1A.
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It was Arthur Vance.
Arthur Vance was her former commanding officer, the man who supposedly died in the fiery crash eighteen months ago.
