Chapter 9 - The Decoy Flight
A deafening explosion ripped through the crisp morning air, violently shaking the asphalt beneath my feet.
The massive fuel truck parked just fifty yards away from the private jet erupted into a massive fireball.
The sheer concussive force threw me violently backward, slamming my shoulders into the hard runway.
Thick, choking black smoke instantly blanketed the airfield, plunging the entire tarmac into absolute chaos.
Alarms blared from every direction as airport security and emergency crews rushed toward the towering inferno.
I scrambled to my knees, coughing violently, my eyes burning as I desperately searched through the thick smoke for David and the baby.
The boarding stairs of the jet were completely empty, and the heavy cabin door was already sealed shut.
The jet engines roared to life, the massive turbines spinning up as the plane began taxiing rapidly down the runway.
I ran after the plane like a madwoman, screaming my son's name into the roaring exhaust fumes, but it was hopelessly pulling away.
I fell to my knees in the center of the tarmac, completely shattered, watching the plane lift off into the gray sky.
I had failed to protect my child, and the monsters had finally won.
Suddenly, a heavy hand firmly gripped my shoulder from behind, pulling me up from the asphalt.
I spun around, ready to fight to the death, but I was staring directly at Sarah, the CPS investigator from the hospital.
She was wearing a tactical bulletproof vest, flanked by a dozen heavily armed federal FBI agents.
She grabbed my face, forcing me to look directly into her eyes over the chaotic noise of the fire engines.
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She yelled that the plane taking off was completely empty, a total decoy David had hired to distract me.
She pointed toward a rusty maintenance shed on the far side of the airfield, where a black SUV was attempting to discreetly speed away.
