Chapter 6 - Skyward Leverage
Marcus commandeered a private conference room on the fifth floor of the hospital, setting up his laptop and dual monitors. Outside the room, an armed guard stood watch over Evelyn and Maya, while another guard remained posted outside Nia’s ICU door.
Marcus entered his biometric credentials into the Vance Logistics fleet mainframe. A real-time global map illuminated the screen. A single red triangle was blinking across the Caribbean airspace, traveling southeast at 480 knots at thirty-two thousand feet.
Tail Number: VNC-409.
Marcus clicked the transponder communications relay. Beside him, Detective Miller and Special Agent Harris from the FBI watched in tense silence.
""You can actually ground the plane remotely?"" Agent Harris asked, leaning over Marcus’s shoulder.
""I can't force the stick down, that's illegal under FAA protocols,"" Marcus replied evenly, typing lines of command script into the terminal. ""What I can do is lock the fuel mixture valves into an emergency landing pattern and redirect the auto-pilot flight directory to the nearest international runway with federal jurisdiction: San Juan, Puerto Rico.""
Marcus linked the onboard satellite communications system directly to his laptop’s audio feed. He keyed the mic. ""Julian. Can you hear me?""
A five-second delay hummed over the static before Julian’s voice crackled through the speakers, surprised and sharp. ""Marcus? How are you on this frequency?""
""Nia survived,"" Marcus said flatly. ""Vanessa is in federal custody facing attempted murder and corporate conspiracy charges. And your joyride is officially over.""
""You're bluffing,"" Julian snapped, but a trace of panic crept into his tone. ""I’m in international airspace. The Cayman banks don't extradite easily, brother. Once I wire those funds through the shell network, you won't have a company left to fly.""
""Check your primary navigational display, Julian.""
Silence hung over the channel. Then came the sudden sound of warning chimes echoing from the cockpit in the background.
""Autopilot Override Engaged,"" an automated synthetic voice chimed over the radio. ""Heading adjusted to one-one-zero. Destination: Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport.""
""What did you do?!"" Julian screamed over the radio. ""Disengage this! I can't override the yoke!""
""The avionics firmware has a failsafe for corporate hijackings,"" Marcus said calmly. ""The cockpit controls are completely locked out until wheels touch down in San Juan, where two dozen federal marshals are waiting on the tarmac. You have approximately forty-two minutes of flight time left. If you want any hope of avoiding a federal penitentiary for the rest of your life, you will transfer those authorization codes back to my screen right now.""
May you like
A long pause stretched over the radio, filled only by the roar of jet engines and the steady chime of the locked flight computer.
Then, Julian uttered a chilling laugh. ""You really think this was just about money, Marcus? Check your daughter's medical records from last month. You have no idea who Vanessa really was, do you?""
