Chapter 4 - The Pilot Who Was Erased From History
"Look at the person sitting beside you."
The voice repeated through the cockpit radio.
I turned slowly.
My eyes moved toward the captain.
Then Mark.
Then the empty space between us.
Nobody spoke.
The radio went silent.
The airplane continued shaking, but the silence inside the cockpit felt heavier than the turbulence outside.
Mark looked at me.
"What did he mean?"
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew what the voice was trying to do.
It wasn't giving us information.
It was making us doubt each other.
And whoever was behind that radio knew exactly how to hurt me.
The captain removed his hand from the controls for a moment.
"Mrs. Carter."
I looked at him.
"Who is the third pilot?"
My fingers tightened around the old photograph.
For forty years, I had avoided saying his name.
Not because I forgot.
Because I remembered too well.
"His name was Nathan Cole."
Mark looked confused.
"Why was his face removed from the photo?"
I stared at the damaged picture.
"Because someone wanted everyone to believe he never existed."
The captain looked back at the instruments.
"That doesn't answer the question."
"No."
I placed the photo down.
"It doesn't."
The aircraft suddenly dropped.
Everyone felt it.
The cockpit fell for a few seconds before the engines recovered.
Warning alarms screamed again.
The captain grabbed the controls.
"Altitude dropping."
Mark checked the systems.
"Autopilot is not responding."
I stepped forward.
"Turn it off."
The captain looked at me.
"What?"
"Turn off the automated flight system."
"That's dangerous."
I looked at the screen.
"No."
I pointed at the numbers.
"Leaving it on is dangerous."
The captain hesitated.
Then he switched the system off.
Immediately, the aircraft stopped fighting against them.
The controls became stable.
Mark stared.
"How did you know?"
I looked at the empty autopilot display.
"Because Nathan built the original system."
The name changed everything.
Mark looked at me.
"The third pilot built this?"
I nodded.
"He wasn't just a pilot."
I paused.
"He was the person who understood machines better than anyone I ever met."
The captain looked at me.
"Then why erase him?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Because the answer was complicated.
And painful.
Nathan Cole was the smartest person I had ever known.
He wasn't the kind of person who wanted fame.
He didn't care about medals.
He didn't care about being remembered.
He cared about making airplanes safer.
That was why we trusted him.
That was why I trusted him.
Until the night everything changed.
Project V wasn't created to build better aircraft.
That was what they told the public.
The real purpose was to understand the connection between human instinct and technology.
Nathan believed that computers would eventually become powerful enough to control every part of aviation.
But he also believed something else.
That someone would eventually use that technology for the wrong reason.
He discovered something hidden inside the system.
A weakness.
A way for someone to take control without anyone knowing.
He wanted to expose it.
Commander Hale wanted to bury it.
And I was caught between them.
The captain watched my face.
"What happened to Nathan?"
I looked away.
"Everyone said he died."
Mark leaned forward.
"But you don't believe that."
I looked at him.
"No."
The radio suddenly activated.
A new voice appeared.
This time, it wasn't Commander Hale.
It was Nathan.
"Evelyn."
My heart stopped.
Mark looked at me.
"That's him?"
I couldn't breathe.
Because after forty years, I heard the voice of the man I thought I had lost.
"Evelyn, if you can hear this..."
Static interrupted.
Then his voice returned.
"Do not trust the person flying the aircraft."
The captain immediately looked at me.
Mark looked at the captain.
Nobody moved.
The message ended.
The cockpit became a room full of suspicion.
The captain slowly turned.
"Mrs. Carter."
His voice was calm.
But his eyes had changed.
"Are you accusing me?"
I looked at him.
"No."
"Then why would Nathan say that?"
I didn't know.
And that was the worst part.
Because Nathan was careful.
He never said anything without a reason.
If he warned me about someone, there was always evidence.
I looked at the captain.
I looked at Mark.
Two pilots.
Two strangers.
One of them could be hiding something.
Or maybe Nathan's message wasn't about either of them.
Maybe it was about someone else.
Someone we couldn't see.
The aircraft computer suddenly turned on by itself.
The screen went black.
Then one line appeared.
A message.
Not from the airline.
Not from the military.
Not from the emergency system.
It was written manually.
Three words.
"HE IS HERE."
Mark stepped closer.
"Who?"
I didn't answer.
Because beneath the message, another line appeared.
A name.
Nathan Cole.
The captain stared.
"But he's dead."
I looked at the screen.
My hands started shaking.
Because Nathan wasn't sending us a warning from the past.
He was sending it from somewhere close.
Very close.
The radio clicked again.
A final transmission came through.
A whisper.
"Evelyn..."
I looked at the cockpit door.
The voice continued.
"Open the door."
I froze.
Because Nathan was not asking me to find him.
May you like
He was telling me where he already was.
And then the cockpit door handle slowly began to move.
