Chapter 8 - The Severed Strings
The heavy fire axe felt awkwardly unbalanced in my unpracticed hands, but adrenaline fueled my grip.
I swung the blade hard into the decorative wood paneling beside the cockpit door.
The wood splintered instantly, revealing the thick bundle of multicolored hydraulic cables beneath it.
These wires controlled the plane's automated leveling system, which the pilot was relying on to keep us steady while he prepared to jump.
I raised the axe again and brought it down with devastating force, cleanly severing the entire bundle.
The jet immediately violently banked to the left, tossing me hard against the cabin wall.
The artificial gravity shifted, sending luggage and loose debris flying dangerously through the air.
Adrian screamed in pure panic as his chair threatened to rip straight out of the floorboards.
Over the intercom, the pilot began shouting angry curses in Spanish as alarms blared incessantly.
Without the automated leveling system, the pilot had to use both hands to physically wrestle the control yoke.
He couldn't leave the cockpit to retrieve his parachute without sending the plane into an immediate, fatal nosedive.
I had successfully trapped him in the very cage he meant for us.
I dragged myself along the tilted floor, fighting the overwhelming G-force pressing down on my chest.
I made it to the emergency exit door near the back of the plane.
If I could manually trigger the emergency depressurization protocols, the cockpit door's electronic lock would automatically disengage.
It was a safety feature designed for firefighters, but it would suck all remaining oxygen out of the cabin.
I secured a portable oxygen tank over my shoulder and strapped the mask tightly to my face.
I grabbed the heavy red lever on the emergency exit door and pulled it downward with all my strength.
The mechanical seals released with a deafening boom.
The door blew violently outward into the dark night sky, instantly violently sucking all the air out of the cabin.
The sudden depressurization created a terrifying vacuum tornado inside the small space.
Anything not bolted down was immediately sucked out into the freezing void.
Adrian's frantic screams were completely silenced as the oxygen was ripped directly from his lungs.
I held onto a metal railing for dear life, my feet lifting off the ground as the wind battered my body.
Just as I predicted, the electronic lock on the cockpit door flashed green and clicked open.
The sudden loss of cabin pressure hit the cockpit, and the pilot was violently violently thrown backward through the open doorway.
He didn't have an oxygen mask on, and his head struck the cabin ceiling hard, knocking him instantly unconscious.
He tumbled past me and was sucked cleanly out of the open emergency exit door into the night sky.
I carefully pulled myself hand-over-hand along the seats, fighting against the freezing wind toward the empty cockpit.
I crawled into the pilot's seat, grabbing the violently shaking control yoke.
I was not a pilot, but I had spent hundreds of hours in flight simulators preparing for the day I might need to escape Adrian's private island.
I pulled back hard on the controls, desperately trying to level the diving aircraft.
The altimeter was spinning dangerously fast, showing the ocean rapidly approaching in the darkness below.
I planted my feet on the rudder pedals, straining every muscle in my body to pull the nose up.
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Through the front windshield, the dark, churning waves of the Atlantic Ocean filled my entire field of vision.
I closed my eyes and braced for a catastrophic impact.
