Chapter 4 - The Traitor on Board
Emily threw the manifest onto the dashboard and turned toward the heavy cockpit door.
"Keep the plane perfectly level, I will be right back," she ordered the bewildered captain.
She punched in the security code and stepped out into the chaotic passenger cabin.
People were crying, praying, and clutching emergency oxygen masks that had partially deployed.
Emily pushed past the frantic flight attendants and marched directly into the luxurious first-class section.
Sitting in seat 1A, sipping a glass of champagne with eerie calmness, was a man in a tailored gray suit.
He had a distinct silver scar across his left cheek, a permanent reminder of his military service.
Colonel Arthur Vance looked up from his drink and smiled warmly at her.
"It has been a long time, Captain Carter," Vance said smoothly.
Emily grabbed him by the lapels of his expensive jacket and slammed him against the plastic wall of the cabin.
"You killed my entire squadron, and now you are hijacking a passenger jet?" she snarled through gritted teeth.
Vance did not even flinch at her aggressive physical threat.
"I did not kill them, Emily, the AI simply proved its superiority in combat," he answered coldly.
He calmly adjusted his tie and looked at the terrified passengers watching them.
"The military shut down my project, so I had to prove to international buyers that my drone can defeat the best human pilot alive," he explained.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, metallic detonator switch with a blinking red light.
"I planted a localized electromagnetic pulse device in the cargo hold before takeoff," Vance revealed.
Emily stared at the device, realizing he was holding all three hundred people completely hostage.
"If you do not return to that cockpit and defeat my drone in a dogfight, I will trigger the EMP," Vance threatened.
May you like
He smiled ruthlessly, his eyes devoid of any human empathy.
"If the EMP goes off, your engines die, and you will drop right out of the sky into the freezing ocean."
