Chapter 6 - The Secret Mission Hidden In The Sky
The cockpit door opened.
Nobody moved.
The person standing there was not a flight attendant.
Not a military officer.
Not a member of the crew.
It was impossible.
Because the person standing in the doorway was someone who should have disappeared forty years ago.
Nathan Cole.
For a few seconds, I forgot how to breathe.
My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing.
The same face.
The same calm expression.
Older.
Changed.
But alive.
Mark stepped back.
The captain reached for the emergency button.
I lifted my hand.
"Don't."
They both looked at me.
Because they knew from my voice that I wasn't afraid of him.
I was afraid of what his return meant.
Nathan looked at me.
"Evelyn."
Hearing my name from him felt like hearing a voice from a dream.
A dream I had spent four decades trying to forget.
"You look exactly the same," I whispered.
A small sadness crossed his face.
"You don't."
The words hurt more than I expected.
Because he was right.
The woman he knew was gone.
The woman standing there now was someone who had spent forty years hiding from the sky.
Nathan stepped inside the cockpit.
The door closed behind him.
Mark stared.
"How are you alive?"
Nathan looked at him.
"I asked myself that question every day."
The captain remained cautious.
"You're not supposed to be on this aircraft."
Nathan looked at the controls.
"No."
His eyes moved toward me.
"Neither was she."
Nobody spoke.
I held the metal container from my bag.
Nathan noticed.
His expression changed.
"You still have it."
I looked at him.
"You knew I would bring it?"
"No."
He shook his head.
"I hoped you wouldn't."
That confused me.
"What?"
Nathan walked closer.
"The container isn't the solution."
The cockpit became silent.
"Then why did everyone try to take it?"
"Because they think it contains the solution."
He looked at the locked case.
"But it only contains proof."
The captain frowned.
"Proof of what?"
Nathan looked at the fighter jets outside.
"That the accident that destroyed Project V was never an accident."
The words landed heavily.
I already knew.
But hearing him say it made everything real.
Mark looked between us.
"Then tell us what happened."
Nathan stared at the floor.
For the first time, I saw something I had never seen in him.
Regret.
"Forty years ago, Project V was close to changing aviation forever."
He looked at the screens.
"We created a system that could predict aircraft failures before they happened."
The captain nodded.
"That sounds revolutionary."
"It was."
Nathan paused.
"Until people realized prediction could become control."
The room went quiet.
Mark understood first.
"You mean someone could force an aircraft to fail."
Nathan nodded.
"Or make everyone believe it failed."
I looked at the warning systems.
"The engine problem."
Nathan looked at me.
"Was artificial."
I felt anger rise inside me.
"You knew."
His eyes dropped.
"I suspected."
"People died."
"I know."
His voice became quiet.
"And that's why I disappeared."
The captain looked at him.
"Explain."
Nathan walked toward the window.
"When we discovered someone inside the program was manipulating the system, I tried to expose it."
"And Commander Hale stopped you."
Nathan looked at me.
"No."
My heart stopped.
"No?"
Nathan shook his head.
"Commander Hale tried to help me."
The world seemed to shift.
I stared at him.
"What are you saying?"
Nathan looked at the silver pin.
"I'm saying the person who betrayed us was someone neither of us suspected."
The cockpit became colder.
I remembered the years after the crash.
The investigation.
The accusations.
The silence.
I remembered believing Hale had destroyed everything.
But Nathan was saying I was wrong.
"Who?"
Nathan didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at Mark.
The young first officer immediately noticed.
"Why are you looking at me?"
Nathan said nothing.
That silence frightened me.
Because Nathan had always been direct.
If he hesitated, it meant the truth was worse than expected.
The captain stepped between them.
"What are you implying?"
Nathan looked at the aircraft controls.
"The person who restarted Project V is not outside this plane."
My eyes moved toward Mark.
The warning from the radio returned.
Do not trust the person flying the aircraft.
I hated that a part of me had already suspected it.
Mark looked angry.
"You think it's me?"
"No."
Nathan answered quickly.
Then he looked at the cockpit systems.
"I think someone wants us to think it's you."
The tension changed.
Because suddenly nobody knew who to trust.
The military transmission interrupted.
"Flight 718."
Everyone turned toward the radio.
The voice returned.
"You have one minute."
Nathan walked toward the communication panel.
He pressed a button.
The military signal disappeared.
The captain stared.
"How did you do that?"
Nathan looked at him.
"I built this system."
Mark looked at the controls.
"But you said the system was changed."
"It was."
Nathan looked at me.
"By someone who had access to the original code."
My face changed.
Because only a few people had that access.
Nathan.
Me.
Commander Hale.
And one more person.
The third name.
The one erased from history.
I looked at the old photograph.
The damaged face.
The missing pilot.
"Who was he?"
Nathan looked at me.
"You really don't remember."
My stomach tightened.
"I remember everything."
"No."
Nathan shook his head.
"You remember what they allowed you to remember."
The aircraft suddenly shook.
A violent impact.
Not from turbulence.
Something hit us.
The captain checked the radar.
His face changed.
"We have another aircraft approaching."
Mark looked outside.
"That's impossible."
Nathan walked to the window.
I followed his eyes.
A small aircraft was flying beside us.
No identification.
No radio signal.
No military markings.
Just a dark shape moving through the clouds.
Nathan whispered:
"They found us."
The captain grabbed the radio.
"Who is that?"
Nathan didn't answer.
Because the aircraft beside us moved closer.
A light turned on.
It illuminated the cockpit window.
And then a message appeared on the glass.
Not on the computer.
Not on the radio.
On the window itself.
Three words.
"EVELYN, LOOK BEHIND YOU."
My blood turned cold.
Slowly, I turned around.
Because someone was standing behind us.
May you like
Someone who had been inside the cockpit the entire time.
And when I saw the reflection in the glass, I realized the third pilot had never been missing...
