Chapter 1 - The First Class Curtain
Eighty-seven minutes into the flight, the baby in first class was still screaming, and every adult on board had already given up.
The father had tried three bottles, four blankets, a private doctor on the ground, and a security detail that made grown men look away.
He was still failing.
Then a ten-year-old in borrowed sneakers walked past the curtain and told him to stop feeding his son.
She told him the baby was not hungry, but afraid.
He almost had her removed from the cabin by his massive security guard.
That was until she lifted the edge of the cashmere blanket and found the small black disc pressed against his son's ribs.
The father went entirely white.
He did not look confused.
He recognized the device immediately.
It was the kind of recognition that ends with a locked cabin and names being taken.
"How did you know to look for it?" the father asked, his voice shaking with a terrifying rage.
Leah could not answer him.
She could not tell him that her own kitchen had been hiding one for four days.
The father stood up abruptly and shoved the screaming baby into Leah's arms without a second thought.
He turned to his towering security guard and pulled a suppressed pistol from inside his tailored jacket.
Before Leah could even blink, the man pressed the barrel of the gun directly to his own guard's forehead.
"Lock the cabin doors," the father ordered, his eyes dead and cold.
The giant guard slowly raised both of his hands in surrender.
"Do it now, Marcus," the father commanded, cocking the weapon.
The guard backed up and pressed the emergency lockdown button on the wall.
Heavy electronic deadbolts slammed shut with a sickening click, sealing the three of them inside.
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Leah stepped back, clutching the quieted baby against her chest.
She looked down at the blinking black disc on the infant's ribs and realized she was trapped in a metal box with a bomb.
