[MD1, 2:20PM, flight 313, somewhere over New Jersey]

>"Excuse us, but we seem to be having some turbulence problems.
>They should be corrected in a few minutes. For the time being,
>please sit back and..."
>
>A gunshot stopped the announcement. Sharlyn ripped off her
>headphones & looked around.

A moment of stunned silence descended on the plane, but the silence quickly gave way to excited confusion, and panic wouldn’t be far behind. Kate leapt to her feet, and seeing that Sharlyn was about to do the same thing, put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. A surge of adrenaline brought all her old instincts to the fore. Rule number one - conceal as much of the attack force as possible. But someone had to take control of the situation. ID in hand, she intended to do just that before things got too far out of hand. Quickly scanning the cabin, she saw no one who looked like a gun-toting terrorist. Of course, that didn’t mean there wasn’t one in their midst, and she was about to present herself as a prime target, but something had to be done. With more authority than she was feeling, she held up the ID and delivered six of the most ominous words in the English language. "Federal agent. Everyone, please remain calm."

At that, a small child at the very back of the plane began to cry loudly. Smart kid, Kate thought. Even though she had trained extensively for just this sort of situation, it was by definition unpredictable. She had given some thought to running the team through some of the HRT drills, but had decided against it. When they got out of this one, though, it was going to be the first order of business.

Kate spotted a nervous looking flight attendant near the front of the plane, and she turned to Flynn. "Keep everyone here until I tell you otherwise," she whispered to him. "I don’t want anyone to know how many of us there are until we’re ready to act."

He nodded but looked a little dismayed. "What are you going to do."

"Just find out what’s going on," she said. She then caught the flight attendant’s eye, held up her ID again and motioned to the back of the plane. The stewardess glanced nervously over her shoulder before heading back.

It was just a commuter plane, and not a particularly large one at that, so there weren’t an abundance of private nooks for carrying on urgent conversations, but fortunately it also wasn’t very full. Kate cleared a couple of rows in the very back, ushering the passengers to other vacant seats, and sat down with the stewardess, who she noticed was not handling the emergency too well. Her name tag said her name was Kerrie.

"Kerrie," Kate commanded, "take a deep breath, calm down, and tell me what happened."

Kerrie nodded slightly. "The pilot… He, uh, he’s been shot."

"How bad?"

"I don’t know," she said apologetically.

"That’s okay. Do you know who shot him?"

She nodded emphatically. "It was the co-pilot. He’s locked the cockpit door. And, uh… And he said if anyone tries to get in, he’s going to … going to put the plane down on the side of a mountain."

Kate patted the girl’s arm reassuringly. Kerrie was on the verge of collapse already, and there was still a long way to go to get the plane to safety. "Listen to me," Kate said. "I’m going to need your help. You’re going to have to be strong. How many on the crew?"

"There’s one other stewardess, but she’s in the cockpit. He has her guarding the door."

"Do you think she’s working with him?"

Kerrie shook her head. "No, I know her. She’s my best friend. We… try to arrange flights together whenever we can. She didn’t have anything to do with this."

"What about the co-pilot? What do you know about him?"

"It’s his first flight with the airline. His name is Jerry. That’s all I know."

"Can the door be unlocked from the outside?"

"Well, yes, and I have a key in case of emergency, but he said…"

"You just never mind what he said. Give me the key. Your job right now is to stay calm and reassure the passengers. Okay?"

*****

A few adjustments to the controls, and the plane veered to the south. It felt good to be back at the controls of an aircraft. He hadn’t had the opportunity for a while. He just hoped that his skills weren’t too rusty. Not that it really mattered. He just had to get them off course, and his job here was done. Whatever happened after that was someone else’s responsibility.

Damn this turbulence, though. That hadn’t been part of the plan. Well, it shouldn’t take too long to get through it, and then he could turn his attention to more important things, like the parachute he had stashed under the controls and locating a safe place to make his escape.

"You’re never going to get away with this," the captain said. He was huddled in the corner of the cockpit, out of the way, clutching his wounded shoulder and trying to force his mind, clouded by the pain, to make sense of what was happening around him.

"You don’t think so?"

"No, I don’t. You have to land this plane sooner or later, and there will be someone waiting for you. Maybe if you gave up now, they’d go lighter on you."

Brave man, the hijacker thought. He could almost respect that. Unlike the whimpering stewardesses on this damned flight. He glanced back at the trembling girl standing in front of the door, tears rolling down her cheeks. Weren’t they supposed to be trained to handle emergencies? Well, maybe these little no-account commuter operations weren’t as picky as, say, United or Delta. He laughed at his own joke. "Hey, captain, think Team Delta will ‘love the way we fly’?" Of course, the pilot had no idea what he was talking about, just that it was further evidence that the man was deranged.

*****

Key in hand, Kate returned to the team a moment later. "Here’s the deal," she told them, keeping her voice low so as not to alarm the other passengers. "We’ve got an incapacitated pilot, an inexperienced co-pilot-cum-hijacker who’s threatening to crash the plane if anyone tries to stop him, one emotionally distraught stewardess, and another stewardess being held captive in the cockpit. First order of business, Dinah and Newt, I want you to find out if there’s a doctor on board, and while you’re at it, you might discreetly inquire if there’s anyone who’s qualified to fly this thing. Sharlyn, I seem to remember from your bio that you have some medical training. Right? Can you handle a gunshot wound."

"If it’s not too serious. I can do some basic first aid, but…"

"Good, then that’s our back-up plan. Flynn, you’re with me." She started toward the cockpit with Flynn right behind her. Although nothing about her demeanor would suggest it, she was terrified. If the co-pilot meant what he said, there was likely only one way out of this, and though she’d been given the shoot-to-kill order a few times in the past, this was different. This time, she was in charge of the team, ultimately responsible for their safety, and by extension, the safety of everyone on the plane. And she was the one giving the orders. Whatever the outcome, good or bad, she was the one who would have to answer for it.

"You’ve got a plan," Flynn said. It wasn’t quite a question.

Kate nodded curtly, her cold, ultra-professional facade securely in place. "We go in fast and hard and neutralize the target by whatever means necessary." She unholstered her weapon and checked the safety.

Flynn followed suit, but he didn’t seem to like the idea. "You don’t mean that we just go in and shoot him?"

Kate was tempted to say yes, but choked back the instinct. "Don’t fire if you don’t have to, Flynn. We need him alive if we can manage it. If not, one body more or less on my conscience isn’t going to make a difference." She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Was this pure tactical planning, or was she trying to protect him? Or both? "The plan is, you follow me in. If I go down, or if you see something I don’t, do what you have to do. Clear?"


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