Passenger List

by John Scott Dryden

  Kaitlin bristled. ‘I’ve been lied to, I’ve been arrested, tortured. They’ve threatened to deport my parents. And you’re one of them.’

  ‘I’m not. You have to believe me.’ Marianne grabbed Kaitlin’s shoulders, the passion crackling through her. ‘Because I’m going to take you to Conor.’

  28

  The door slid open and Marianne and Kaitlin stepped inside.

  ‘Where is he?’ Kaitlin demanded.

  Her heart was hammering and she felt a rush of desperate excitement. All those months when she thought her brother was dead. All the pain, the tearing herself apart over their last meeting. And now, finally, she could reclaim her life.

  Marianne flicked a switch and lights flashed on in an adjoining cell visible through a large window. One of those one-way observation panels, she guessed.

  All of her thoughts crashed away when she saw the figure hunched on the edge of the bed, head in hands. Tears seared her eyes and she slammed against the glass, pressing her face against it as the sobs wracked her.

  ‘Conor. Oh my God. Oh my God.’

  ‘He can’t hear you,’ Marianne said and flicked another switch. ‘Now try.’

  Kaitlin pulled back from the window and tried to wipe away the tears and snot with the back of her hand. She breathed in, long and hard, steadying herself. Conor was the one who had really suffered here and he deserved more than the gush of her emotions.

  ‘Conor, can you hear me?’ she said in as calm a manner as she could muster.

  Her brother’s head jerked up and surprise burned in his features.

  ‘Kaitlin?’ That look shifted to confusion, then terror. ‘Please, no more. I can’t take this any more. Please. I beg you, no more.’

  Kaitlin turned to Marianne. ‘What have they done to him?’

  ‘I can’t do this any more,’ Conor babbled. ‘I’ve told you everything I know. I’ve told you. Please, please.’ His body juddered as he began to weep.

  Kaitlin felt her heart break. ‘I’ve got to go to him.’

  ‘That’s impossible. They’re all in quarantine. We can’t go in without full biohazard suits. It’s too risky.’

  ‘You said there wasn’t a virus.’

  ‘We don’t know—’

  ‘Look at him – he’s fine. Surely something would have manifested after all these months?’ Kaitlin pressed her hands against the glass. ‘Conor. It’s me, Kaitlin. It’s not Dr Hallin.’

  Conor gaped. ‘Kaitlin? They got you, too?’

  ‘I’m fine. Listen to me. You have to talk. To end all this.’

  ‘I’ve told them everything. It wasn’t me. I was investigating the hacking attempt, that was all. I’ve told them all that. And I don’t know anything about a biological attack. How many times do I have to say it?’

  ‘It’s all right, Conor. I’m here. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. But you have to tell them.’

  ‘There is no virus, Kaitlin. They’re keeping us all here, but there is no virus, and I don’t know why they keep asking me over and over.’

  Kaitlin hated to hear the anguish in his voice. Beside her, Marianne silently urged her to keep pressing.

  ‘Listen to me, Conor. We can go home, all of us. We can save the other passengers. They can all go home, if you tell them everything.’

  Conor reached out a pleading hand, though he couldn’t see her.

  ‘Why would I get on a plane if I thought someone was going to bring it down? It wasn’t about that. It was spyware, that’s what the hackers wanted to install. They were going to infiltrate the whole airport network. The entertainment system was the doorway.’

  Kaitlin pulled back from the glass. ‘I believe you, Conor. It’s OK.’ She turned back to Marianne. ‘He’s telling the truth.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘We’ve never been able to lie to each other. We always know. Always. He’s telling the truth.’

  Marianne frowned. ‘Unless you’re both lying. Maybe you’re part of this, too. Why not? Maybe you always were. Perhaps everything you’ve done, your search, was just an elaborate game.’

  Kaitlin snorted. ‘Not you, too. That paranoia is corrosive.’

  ‘The only way you’re getting out of here is to do what I want. Otherwise, they’re going to shut this down like it never happened. All of these people are dead already. That’s what the world believes.’

  Kaitlin gasped. ‘You’re saying they’d kill them? No, I don’t believe it.’

  ‘If you don’t help …’ The words died on her lips as she looked towards the door.

  Kaitlin spun round.

  Dennison was standing there, that granite face peering out from the hood of a parka. ‘Don’t believe anything she says. She’s part of the clean-up operation. She can’t be trusted.’

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ Marianne spat.

  ‘Jim Dennison. Formerly a government shill, just like you.’ He turned to Kaitlin. ‘We need to get out of here. Fast.’

  Marianne lunged towards the door, yelling, ‘Guards! I need help.’

  Dennison blocked her with an outstretched arm. ‘You’re wasting your breath. There are no guards around.’

  ‘Guards!’ she cried again.

  ‘They’re all investigating an intrusion on the perimeter fence on the westward side. A building on fire.’ He smiled without humour. ‘It’s just us here.’

  Kaitlin pushed her way past Marianne and looked up at the ex-FBI agent. ‘Emily’s alive, Jim. Your daughter is alive! You were right all along. She’s here.’

  For an instant his face shimmered with emotion, transforming those cold features, and Kaitlin could see the man he used to be before the grief settled on him. But he swallowed it just as quickly. This was not the time.

  ‘We can’t get her now.’

  Kaitlin couldn’t believe his self-control. ‘But—’

  ‘There’s no time. Our only option is to get away and blow this open. Otherwise, we’ll see out our days in one of these cells.’ He levelled a scathing stare at Marianne. ‘Open that door.’

  ‘No,’ she cried. ‘He might be infected.’

  ‘You’d do well to heed me.’ His voice throbbed with menace.

  Whatever Marianne saw in his face, it did the trick. She turned round, hit a button, then pressed herself in the farthest corner of the room as the door slid open. Kaitlin darted through the widening gap and threw her arms around Conor, burying her face in his chest. She breathed in his musk, an aroma she never thought she’d smell again.

  Conor pressed his hands on her cheeks and raised her head. ‘God,’ he croaked. ‘I never thought I’d see you again.’

  Kaitlin blinked away her tears. ‘We’re not safe until we’re out of here. You’ve got to come now.’

  She grabbed his hand and led him out of his cell. Ignoring Marianne, who was cowering in the corner, she whispered to Dennison, ‘Thomas?’

  He shook his head. ‘Later. Has to be.’

  Still bewildered from his imprisonment, Conor didn’t seem to understand what they were saying. Kaitlin was thankful for that.

  Dennison flexed his fingers towards Marianne. ‘Get in the cell.’

  She scurried inside without another word and he slammed his hand on the button to close the door.

  ‘How did you get in here?’ Kaitlin asked Dennison.

  ‘Special forces skills. Been doing this since I was eighteen. Snipped through the fence on the eastern side on a blind spot between the cameras.’ He clapped a hand on Conor’s shoulder. ‘Good to meet you, buddy. Heard a lot about you.’

  Conor blinked, then nodded. Kaitlin felt her heart leap when she saw the ghost of a familiar smile. He was going to be all right.

  ‘How long have we got?’ she asked as they hurried out into the corridor.

  ‘A few minutes – five max.’

  A siren screamed out, rising and falling.

  Dennison shrugged. ‘Maybe less.’

  29

  Flames licked up towards the s
tars. In the orange glow, men swarmed around, shouting at each other as they tried to fight the blaze. The siren whined across the entire base, only adding to the air of chaos.

  Keeping low, Dennison raced away from the activity towards the eastern perimeter fence. Kaitlin clutched Conor around his waist, urging him on.

  At the fence, Dennison yanked back a rip in the chain-link so that Kaitlin and Conor could scramble through, then he eased behind them.

  Further out across the snowy landscape, two snow-mobiles gleamed under the light of the moon. A figure paced around them, keeping warm. As they neared, the waiting individual threw up their arms and ran towards them. It was Rory, bundled up in the thickest Arctic-wear Kaitlin had ever seen.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ he gasped, throwing his arms around her and lifting her off the ground.

  Kaitlin prised herself free and said, ‘This is Conor.’

  Rory stared for a moment, then threw his arms around her brother, too.

  ‘Sorry,’ he blustered. ‘I get emotional at times like this. I’d convinced myself I’d never see you again. We were at the hotel and the military were searching for us, so we knew they’d be on to you, too. We slipped out by the skin of our teeth, hired these things’—he waved a gloved hand at the snowmobiles— ‘and got out here as quick as we could. Thank the Lord for Jim. I’d probably be halfway to the North Pole by now if it was down to me.’

  ‘Enough jibber-jabber,’ Dennison snapped. ‘We need to put this godforsaken frozen waste of a country behind us.’

  The icy landscape blurred past. Kaitlin clung onto Dennison as the snowmobile roared towards civilisation. It wasn’t long before they were on the flight out that Rory had booked for them, heading towards Montreal, where they’d change for JFK.

  Dennison nursed a bourbon, his gaze fixed somewhere ahead, lost to his thoughts. Kaitlin prayed he’d find some relief now he had the news that his daughter was still alive. But he’d proved himself many times over. He’d even somehow sourced a fake passport for Conor.

  Conor sat between Rory and her. He was staring into space, still trying to come to terms with freedom after so long in captivity. Most of the time he seemed dazed, as if he were emerging from being drugged. His skin was pale and he was far thinner than the last time she had seen him. His dark hair was thick and overgrown, and his eyes carried a haunted look that made her heart ache for him.

  More than anything, she’d wanted to call her parents to tell them Conor was alive – it seemed cruel not to do it immediately. But they had to get away fast. And she knew her mom and dad would want to talk to Conor, but in his current state, he wasn’t up to it. It would only worry them.

  ‘We need to get Conor in front of the media as soon as we can,’ Rory was saying. ‘That’s the only way we’re going to save our necks. Because if we thought they were coming after us hard before, we ain’t seen nothing yet.’

  Conor jolted from his stupor. ‘I don’t want to answer any more questions. Please, Kaitlin.’

  She grabbed his hand. ‘Look at me, Conor. Look into my eyes. Remember when we were on holiday in Louisiana with Mom and Dad when we were kids and we weren’t supposed to go into the swimming hole. Neither of us could swim yet, but we snuck out anyway, and then I fell in. And we thought there was an alligator in there, but it was just a tree trunk.

  ‘We were afraid to scream for help because we knew Mom and Dad would be angry. And we had to work together, you and me, to get out of that pool. We did it together. Do you remember, Kait and Conor, that we could always—’

  ‘Finish each other’s sentences?’

  ‘We’re going to get through this together, too. Do you trust me?’

  Conor hesitated for a moment and Kaitlin’s heart broke at the thought of all he’d endured. Then he smiled at her weakly and nodded.

  Rory leaned back in his seat and sighed. ‘Well, that’s the first bridge crossed. Getting the media to take this seriously may be a tad daunting, what with the whole White Matchmaker debacle and me being a ludicrously unreliable informant, mocked from sea to shining sea.’

  ‘Leave that to me,’ Kaitlin said.

  Rory cocked an eyebrow, but he didn’t question her. It seemed he trusted her, too.

  Closing her eyes, Kaitlin pushed her head back and drifted with her thoughts. As the tension and fear ebbed away, she felt an unfocused anger begin to burn. After months of study, no evidence of a biological weapon had been found. The survivors all professed their innocence and hadn’t shown any signs of sickness, yet their freedom had been taken away with no recourse to any justice. Their loved ones had been denied any knowledge of them, left to suffer in grief.

  And in the end, it all seemed to have spun off from a series of coincidences. An ailing evangelist. The kind of people who had chosen to be on that flight. Random events that suggested meaning, connections.

  Worried people had put two and two together and got five – and all of those on Flight 702 and their families had paid the price.

  The flames of that anger fanned higher. The injustice. The unnecessary suffering. She’d fought so hard and for so long to uncover the truth. She wasn’t going to turn away now, whatever the risks that lay ahead.

  The moment they were back on American soil, that crippling tension returned. Kaitlin found herself peering into every face she passed, weighing up whether they were a potential threat.

  ‘We don’t have much time,’ Dennison said when they emerged from JFK into the chill morning air. ‘There will be red flags going up across numerous systems. They’ll be coming for us soon enough.’

  They split up in three Ubers to try to throw off any pursuit: Dennison in one, Rory in another, and Kaitlin and Conor in the third. It wasn’t long before they were heading into Downtown Manhattan. At a building on Vesey Street, just east of Rockefeller Park, Dennison waited in the lobby to keep watch while the rest of them travelled up to the twenty-first floor and a bright modern office with clear views of Jersey across the water.

  They were ushered into a side office, where Rory paced relentlessly. Kaitlin clutched Conor’s hand, giving it a squeeze. When the door swung open, Kaitlin jumped to her feet.

  ‘So, it is you,’ Valarie Vennix said as she walked in. The New York Magazine investigations reporter looked around at the people waiting to meet her, bemused.

  ‘I need your help,’ Kaitlin blurted. ‘I’ve got a big story, bigger than the human trafficking one.’

  ‘And that was huge. That whole ring is staring at serious jail time.’

  ‘We’re in a lot of danger. This one has to be done quickly or you probably won’t see us again.’

  ‘I can move quickly.’ Valarie eyed Rory. ‘Hang on a second, don’t I know you?’

  Rory held up his hands. ‘Just pretend I’m not here. This is all Kaitlin – and Conor.’

  Valarie’s eyes narrowed. She was starting to make the right connections, Kaitlin could see.

  ‘That’s right. This is about Flight 702,’ Kaitlin said. ‘My brother was on board. As you can see, he’s alive. So are many of the other passengers.’

  ‘It didn’t crash in the ocean?’ Valarie said.

  Kaitlin rested a hand on her brother’s shoulder. ‘Everything you’ve been told about Flight 702 is a lie.’

  The New York Magazine photographer moved around the studio, snapping Kaitlin and Conor as they perched on chairs opposite Valarie. The sound recordist checked the levels while the cameramen adjusted the focus ready for the broadcast to begin.

  ‘A live stream is definitely the way to go,’ Valarie said. ‘We can reach a global audience instantly. Much harder for anyone to shut it down.’ She smiled at Conor. ‘You ready to be our cover boy for this weekend’s magazine?’

  ‘Not really.’ He looked exhausted as he shifted in his seat, his mouth twisted as if he’d swallowed sour milk. ‘But Kaitlin says it’s got to be done. So …’ He shrugged.

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ Valarie comforted. She turned to Kaitlin. ‘Before w
e start, I just want to say you’ve done an amazing thing here. The courage. The diligence. That relentless pursuit of justice. Ever thought about being an investigative journalist?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘You should. After this, you can write your own ticket.’

  ‘I didn’t think about anything big. I just wanted to find out about Conor. That’s all.

  ‘That’s all?’ Valarie grinned. She turned back to the technicians. ‘OK, guys, you ready? Let’s do this.’

  Kaitlin felt a weight lift from her shoulders. After so long, it was almost over.

  ‘Hello, I’m Valarie Vennix and I’m here reporting live from New York City with Kaitlin Le and her brother, Conor. In this exclusive story, we’re going to reveal to you a shocking tale of corruption and cover-up that implicates some of the most important people involved in the defence of the US.

  ‘This is the story of Flight 702, the lost flight that vanished somewhere over the Atlantic. A devastating tragedy with a mystery at its heart. One that was supposed to have been solved when wreckage was found in the ocean.

  ‘But it was all a lie. Many of the passengers are still alive. And Conor Le is living proof of that. Conor, tell me your story.’

  30

  News Report

  NEWSCASTER: Though many in the defence and security establishment described the Kaitlin and Conor Le revelations as so-called fake news, we’re now receiving reports of a whistle-blower from the ranks of the military coming forwards to confirm the story. More witnesses are expected to break rank in coming days …

  News Report

  NEWSCASTER: … scenes of heightened emotion as the surviving passengers of Atlantic Flight 702 were reunited with their families at the airport terminal building they were supposed to have arrived at six months earlier …

  News Report

  NEWS ANCHOR: Kaitlin Le, the college student who busted the Flight 702 case wide open, gave evidence today at the formal inquiry.

  REPORTER: Also at the court was former FBI Agent Jim Dennison with his daughter, Emily, one of the surviving passengers, and Maria Elian, who was aboard Flight 702, who was today reunited with the son she was forced to leave behind at Heathrow Airport. The court heard explosive revelations, which the judge summed up as ‘malfeasance that goes to the very top of government’.