Accidental Heroes

by Danielle Steel

  * * *

  —

  A passenger rang the buzzer for a flight attendant to ask for a glass of water before they landed, and switched on the news on the screen at her seat, with her own headphones in. She was sitting mesmerized by the report on CNN, as Nancy stood there watching too.

  “Wow, what happened?” Nancy asked her when she recognized the Golden Gate Bridge on the screen.

  “I don’t know. There must have been an accident or something. The bridge is closed and they just said there’s a gas leak. I live in Marin and I won’t be able to get home. I have to pick up my dog from the place where I board him before five o’clock.” They could see the helicopters hovering, the Coast Guard boats, the fireboat, and hundreds of vehicles and ambulances, as they both watched it. Nancy couldn’t hear the sound without headphones but the images were enough.

  “That must be one hell of a gas leak,” Nancy commented and then went back to the galley to talk to Joel. She told him about the gas leak and the emergency vehicles.

  “That sounds like more than a gas leak,” Joel said, concerned.

  “It looks like a war zone,” Nancy told him and described what she’d seen.

  “I guess we’ll hear about it when we land,” Joel said, locking up the last of their supplies.

  Several other passengers had seen the report by then too, and were talking about it across the aisles.

  “Does this mean we can’t get to Berkeley?” Ahmad asked Sadaf, looking worried.

  “I think we get to Berkeley on a different bridge,” she said to reassure him. She took off her abaya then, the long gray garment she wore to cover her clothes, and folded it neatly. She was wearing a sweater, jeans, and running shoes, like other young women her age. And for a moment, Ahmad looked shocked.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t need it here,” she said quietly, and he was instantly upset. Many of his friends’ and relatives’ wives wore ordinary street clothes in foreign countries, but he didn’t like the idea of Sadaf doing it. She still had her head scarf on, which was white and framed her face. She made no move to remove it.

  “You’re still with me. I don’t want men seeing you in jeans.”

  “I’m not going to be a student in Berkeley wearing an abaya like my grandmother,” she said firmly, and he turned away from her and closed his eyes. He was angry at her for breaking the tradition. He didn’t want everything to be different here, or at least not so soon. They had left their familiar world and didn’t know the new one yet. He was feeling lost.

  In the cockpit, they hadn’t heard about the gas leak yet. Connor had woken up. Jason looked anxious and finally asked Helen the question she’d been dreading, although her face was peaceful and showed nothing untoward.

  “When are you turning over the controls? You said I could land,” Jason reminded her in a voice that sounded impatient and harsh. There was nothing casual about the question, and Helen turned to him with an easy smile.

  “I’m sorry, Jason. I don’t know why, but they told me they want me to land. It’s not a big deal. It’s not a thrill on this plane, like the big one. It’s all yours the next time we fly together.”

  “That’s a load of crap,” he said angrily. “They don’t trust me, do they? I give a couple of pilots a hard time, and they punish me for years. I’m so goddamn tired of being in this seat. I can fly anything you can, and probably better. They have no reason to have you land today, except to humiliate me again.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am. We both have our orders. You know how it works.”

  “This isn’t the military. They can’t order us around like that. Why don’t you tell them to get stuffed!” he shouted at her.

  “Because I have three kids to feed and I like my job,” she said quietly. “I’ve been following orders all my life. It’s not personal. Sometimes they have reasons we don’t know about. I’m sorry you’re upset,” she said kindly, trying not to inflame him further, and hoping he’d calm down.

  “You’re damn right I’m upset. I’m fucking furious and fed up,” he said, shouting at her, as he grabbed his flight bag, unlocked the cockpit door, and stormed out, presumably to use the bathroom before they landed. “You don’t need me around if they’re not going to let me land it,” he said over his shoulder and then slammed the door. It locked behind him, as Connor looked at her and sighed. Helen didn’t like the fact that Jason had taken his flight bag with him, but didn’t say anything to Connor. And he wasn’t supposed to go to the restroom right before they landed, but she decided not to make an issue of it and make things worse.

  “You’re a lot more patient than I am. I’d have had him fired on my watch,” Connor said with a look of irritation, as she realized that she had to say something to warn him, and with Jason gone, now was the time.

  “I had a lot of young guys like him under my command in the military. Some of them shape up eventually, others don’t.” And then she spoke to the senior pilot in a soft voice. “Connor, we think we have a problem.”

  “Mechanically?” He looked surprised. He hadn’t noticed anything on the flight, but had dozed off several times.

  “No, with him. Homeland’s been calling me on the satcom. There could be a plan of some kind to take over the plane before we land. No one’s sure. If something happens, I’ll do whatever I can, but I may need your help. I’m sorry to worry you.” She didn’t want him having another TIA or a full-on stroke, but he had to know. “It could be nothing, but that’s why I didn’t let him land. I can handle the plane and maybe him, but I wanted to warn you something may be up.” He nodded thoughtfully and looked at her seriously.

  “I’m not surprised. I know your flying record, Captain. You can bring us down safely. I’m sure you can do it, whatever happens. You’ve been in worse situations.” She nodded, grateful for the reminder and his confidence in her.

  “Yes, I have. I hate to scare the passengers, but I may have to. Homeland thinks he may be armed, possibly with a homemade plastic gun. Be careful. Don’t do anything foolish. Just keep an eye on him. We’ll get the plane down. And you’re right, I’ve been through worse.”

  “Just remember that.” He smiled at her, and saluted her. He was an old Navy pilot. She had read it somewhere.

  They both fell into an uneasy silence then, waiting for Jason to return. He took a long time, and Helen wondered what he was doing, and if he had a gun on him, if Homeland Security was right, or if it was all a fuss over nothing.

  Jason was gone for fifteen minutes, using the first-class restroom, much to the flight attendants’ annoyance, and came back as Helen was circling the bay and getting ready to make her approach. She had no reason not to allow him back in. He had done nothing threatening yet. It was all guesswork for now, and maybe wrong.

  The tower wanted her to stand by for five more minutes, so she didn’t have to wait on the ground for a gate, and she was ready to take the plane in as soon as they told her to do so. She glanced at Jason, and he was smiling. All signs of his anger were gone. He looked happy and relaxed, and she wondered what he had done in the bathroom to calm down and what he had in his flight bag, guns and maybe drugs. She concentrated on what she was doing, as Jason continued to smile at her as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “It’s been nice flying with you,” she said to him, and he nodded. She saw him pat something in his pocket, and prayed it wasn’t a gun. They were almost home. Just a few more minutes and they’d be down.

  “Nice flying with you too, Captain,” he responded. “This might just be the best flight of my life,” he said and then he laughed.

  Chapter Nine

  Tom was acutely aware of the motions of the plane as he chatted with Catherine. She was infinitely more relaxed, knowing that the flight was almost over. And she was excited about her meeting. He could tell that she had no sense that anything wa
s wrong, while Tom wondered why they were circling and hadn’t been brought in yet. He didn’t want to go back to the cockpit and ask. It could have been normal maneuvers dictated by the tower due to traffic into SFO, or maybe there was some other reason to keep them circling, while emergency vehicles on the ground got ready. He knew that Homeland Security wanted to keep it quiet, in order not to start a mass panic and in case it all turned out to be nothing. But he thought their approach to the airport was taking forever.

  He had seen Jason leave the cockpit, looking annoyed, a while earlier, and saw that he was gone for quite some time. He used the first-class restroom, but he seemed happy when he came out. There was no sign of anything odd happening, or Tom would have gone forward. In the meantime, Catherine was easy to talk to, and he actually liked her. She had told him something about her job on Wall Street, and how hopeful she was about the interview in venture capital. And he decided to ask her the question on his mind before the end of the flight. If he didn’t he might not see her again.

  He apologized before he even began. “I hope you don’t think me rude for asking.” He smiled at her, and she liked the way his eyes lit up when he did. “I assume you’re not married since you talked about breaking up with a boyfriend recently.”

  “No, I’m not.” She smiled at him. “And now that you mention it, are you?”

  “Not lately.” He was relieved when he heard the landing gear grinding, and they came down in altitude slightly. He thought it was a little early for the landing gear but not alarmingly so. He was finely attuned to the plane, and for once she wasn’t. “Actually, I haven’t been married in a long time. I’m divorced,” he confirmed. She was happy to hear it, so the absence of a wedding ring had been an honest statement of his status, not merely an oversight or a hoax. “Do you have kids?” he asked her, sincerely interested in knowing more about her. They had both worked on their computers for so many hours that they hadn’t had more time for conversation.

  “No, I don’t. I kind of missed that opportunity. I’ve never been married, not that that seems to matter these days. I have a lot of friends who aren’t and have children, their own or adopted. Being single is no longer a reason for not having children. I’ve just been too busy with my career for the last twenty years, and dating people I didn’t want to marry, or who didn’t want to marry me. I turned forty this year and I suddenly realized that I was kind of over it. So I decided to do the things I’ve wanted to do but never got around to, like this job in California. I have no reason to stay in New York. I have no family there, no kids in school, no husband or boyfriend. I’m a free woman,” she said, and she looked like she enjoyed her life.

  “I was thinking that I’d like to see you again before you go back to New York. Would you have time for lunch or dinner, or a drink?”

  She looked pleased by the invitation but qualified it. “I’d like that, but I’m going to be staying down in Palo Alto.”

  “I think I can manage to get down there,” he said, undaunted. “It’s about forty minutes out of the city. Or we could spend the day in San Francisco on Saturday, and I’ll drive you back. Whatever you can manage.”

  “I’ll be free after tomorrow. I left time for a second interview if they like me. I’m free on Friday and Saturday. I’m flying back on Sunday.”

  “That works well for me. Why don’t I come down to Palo Alto for dinner on Friday night, and if all goes well, we can spend the day together on Saturday? I’ll pick you up if you like,” he offered.

  “ ‘Goes well’ as in if I don’t slurp my soup or start a food fight in the restaurant?” She was in good spirits, having survived the flight without incident. She always expected the worst to happen whenever she got on a plane, but it never had, and her fears were always unfounded.

  “Something like that. I was thinking more along the lines of if you don’t think I’m a jerk by the end of dinner. You never know how first dates will go.”

  “I’ve had a lot of them,” she said, “I’m a pro.” He laughed at her and noticed that they were coming down slowly from their cruising altitude. Helen was handling the plane smoothly, which was to be expected, although some military pilots had rougher styles than others. Tom was fervently hoping that their concerns would turn out to be needless. It was beginning to look that way. The flight was almost over and nothing had happened.

  Catherine jotted down the name of her hotel then, and handed him her business card so he would have her cellphone and email, and he gave her his. Nancy saw the exchange as she walked past them and smiled to herself. She was right. Something was starting between them. They had both been easy passengers, despite Catherine’s nervousness in the beginning.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow to see how the interview went,” Tom promised, and he looked out the window to see how they were doing.

  * * *

  —

  Nancy was checking that all the passengers’ seats were in the upright position and they had their seatbelts on, and she stopped to see that the two children, Nicole and Mark, were strapped in and doing fine.

  “We’re going to see our grandma soon,” Nicole said to her with a big smile, minus her two front teeth. They had been angels on the flight, unlike the screaming baby in coach. “She’s meeting us at the airport, and then we’re going to call our mom.” Her brother was looking out the window, as Nancy moved on to the seat in front of them, where the Saudi couple was seated. He appeared not to be speaking to his wife, while she tried to reason with him about something. Nancy saw that she had taken her long gray coat off, and was wearing jeans and Nikes. She was talking to him, but he was not responding. He seemed to have other things on his mind as he looked out the window with a pensive expression, and Nancy went back to the galley. She could hardly wait for the flight to end, and for her husband’s flight to land from Miami. They had a lot to talk about that night, plans to make, and a decision to face about the two-year-old girl in China. Nancy didn’t know what she wanted to do about it. And Joel was reading a Martha Stewart wedding planner he had taken out of his flight bag as they got ready to land. Their workday was almost over, and their private lives were waiting for them at home.

  And when she glanced into first class, Nancy could see that Susan Farrow had put on a big straw hat and dark glasses. She had told the flight attendants she’d chatted with that she hated to be recognized when she traveled, because she liked to wear comfortable old clothes and didn’t want to have to wear makeup and look glamorous. Nowadays anyone could snap your picture with a cellphone, and it would turn up on the Internet, and she’d look awful. She had already put her little dog in his carrier, ready to deplane and make a quick exit. A representative of the airline was meeting her at the gate, to accompany her to her car. The flight attendants had gotten a confirmation on it, and she would be first off the plane, as a VIP traveling with them.

  And in the cockpit, Helen got clearance to make her final approach to SFO. She dropped their altitude for a smooth descent and noticed Jason staring at her. He indicated the controls on his sidestick next to his seat. They each had one to fly the plane.

  “That’ll be it, Captain. Thanks for a nice flight. You can turn the controls over to me now, and switch off yours.” For a minute she thought he was kidding the way he said it, or hoped he was. She almost thought they had escaped the problems that Ben had feared.

  “I’m landing the plane, Jason,” she reminded him quietly in a neutral tone.

  “Actually, you’re not. I am,” he said, and switched the controls over to his seat. As he did, she flipped a small switch on her sidestick he didn’t notice, which would allow air traffic control to hear everything that was happening in the cockpit on an ongoing basis. He didn’t see her do it, he was so intent on taking over the plane, and she didn’t fight him for the controls, so as not to destabilize the plane, as he made a sharp turn and headed north, in the opposite direction from the airport.
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  The tower came on instantly and asked her what she was doing, but they had already been alerted that any change in flight plan was to be reported immediately to Homeland Security. It was the only warning they’d been given, and controllers on duty noticed the change as soon as Jason took control.

  “What do you want me to tell them?” Helen asked Jason, and he thought about it for a minute, and she knew that the tower could hear her ask the question, which would alert them to the fact that she was not flying the plane and someone else was.

  “Tell them you’re doing another loop around, and you aren’t ready for landing.”

  She did as she was told, as she saw Connor get up from his seat out of the corner of her eye, and wondered if she’d been wrong to warn him about Jason. But Jason saw him too, as he set a straight course for the Golden Gate Bridge, and then turned toward the senior pilot and took a gun out of his pocket, where he’d concealed it. It had taken longer to assemble than it had when he’d practiced before, but it was functional now and had a silencer on it. He pointed it at Connor and spoke to him in a harsh voice.

  “Get back in your seat, and don’t do anything stupid.”

  “You’re a lunatic. You know that, don’t you? You’ll never get away with it.”

  “Really?” Jason said in an icy voice. “Watch me.” And with that, he shot Connor in the chest and stomach. Air traffic control could hear a pop, but not loud enough to be heard outside the cockpit. Jason lowered their altitude considerably. Connor Gray dropped to the floor instantly after he’d been shot, his uniform quickly soaked in blood.