Chapter 16 - The Aircraft That Remembered Rebecca
“Major Mitchell, do not interfere.”
Adrian Cole’s voice came through the radio.
Sarah stared at the gray aircraft rolling out of the hangar.
Lily was inside.
Colonel Rourke was inside.
And something had just awakened beneath the aircraft’s skin.
Sarah banked the 787 harder.
The damaged right main gear protested with a violent vibration.
Hayes gripped the side console.
“Careful.”
“I know.”
“You’re turning back toward the island.”
“My daughter is down there.”
“I know.”
“And that aircraft is moving.”
“I know.”
Sarah looked at the radar.
The unidentified aircraft approaching from offshore was closing fast.
“Cole.”
No answer.
Sarah keyed the radio.
“You have my daughter.”
Cole replied calmly.
“No.”
“You have the aircraft containing my daughter.”
“That is different.”
“It isn’t to me.”
A pause.
Then Cole said:
“Sarah, you have approximately twelve minutes of fuel remaining.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed.
“How do you know?”
“You already know the answer.”
“Telemetry.”
“Yes.”
“You’re connected to this airplane.”
“Partially.”
“Then disconnect.”
“I can’t.”
“You built Halcyon.”
“I helped build its first architecture.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Cole’s voice hardened.
“Halcyon stopped belonging to its creators years ago.”
Sarah glanced at Hayes.
He whispered:
“He sounds afraid.”
Sarah heard it too.
Not panic.
Something quieter.
A man who knew a door had opened and was no longer certain what stood behind it.
Sarah said:
“Why is Prototype 04 moving?”
Cole did not answer.
“Why?”
“Because it has identified a pilot.”
“Rourke?”
“No.”
Sarah’s stomach tightened.
“Rebecca?”
“No.”
She looked toward the hangar.
“Then who?”
Cole’s voice dropped.
“Lily.”
Sarah felt cold.
“You said the aircraft was using her biometric data.”
“I said it could.”
“You knew this would happen.”
“I suspected.”
“You brought her here.”
“I did not.”
“Then why is she inside?”
“Because the aircraft recognized her before we did.”
Sarah stared.
That made no sense.
Lily was six.
She had never flown.
Never trained.
Never touched military systems.
Never met Ethan.
Yet Halcyon had recognized her.
Sarah asked:
“What did Ethan put in that aircraft?”
Cole answered:
“Not what you think.”
The radio went silent.
Sarah looked toward the island.
Prototype 04 had reached the taxiway.
Its engines were running.
No pilot visible.
No ground crew.
The aircraft was moving by itself.
Rourke’s voice came through.
“Sarah.”
“I’m here.”
“You need to listen carefully.”
“I’m listening.”
“The aircraft is not autonomous.”
Sarah frowned.
“Then who is flying it?”
Rourke hesitated.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“There’s a pilot.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Rourke breathed:
“Rebecca.”
Sarah’s world stopped.
“No.”
“She’s not physically inside.”
“Then how?”
“Halcyon copied her control profile twelve years ago.”
Sarah remembered.
Rebecca’s accident.
The aircraft flying after ejection.
The impossible recovery.
The old reports.
She whispered:
“You preserved her.”
Rourke corrected her.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“We preserved what the aircraft learned from her.”
Sarah stared at the moving prototype.
A machine carrying the behavioral ghost of her sister.
Not Rebecca.
Not alive.
But enough of her to make an airplane move.
Hayes whispered:
“That’s not possible.”
Sarah answered:
“It already happened.”
The prototype turned toward the main runway.
Sarah’s stomach dropped.
“What is it doing?”
Rourke said:
“It’s preparing to launch.”
Sarah looked at Hayes.
“Can it take off?”
“With no pilot?”
“Apparently.”
Hayes shook his head.
“No.”
The prototype accelerated.
Slowly.
Then faster.
Sarah banked toward it.
“Rourke, get Lily out.”
“I’m trying.”
“Break the canopy.”
“It won’t open.”
“Emergency release?”
“Locked.”
“Then break it.”
“I said it won’t open.”
Sarah felt something inside her snap.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Rourke was silent.
“Rourke.”
“She’s at the east bunker.”
Sarah frowned.
“She’s not with Lily?”
“No.”
“Then who is?”
“Ethan.”
Sarah stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Ethan is inside the bunker.”
Hayes turned toward her.
Sarah whispered:
“You said he wasn’t.”
“I said I didn’t know where he was.”
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You let me fly back here.”
“Because you needed to hear him.”
Sarah’s anger rose.
“You could have told me.”
“Then you would have gone directly to him.”
“Yes.”
“And Halcyon would have followed you.”
Sarah stared ahead.
The prototype accelerated.
“Where is Lily going?”
Rourke answered:
“Nowhere.”
Sarah looked at the runway.
The aircraft had stopped.
Its nose pointed toward the ocean.
Then the cockpit lights came alive.
Sarah’s heart pounded.
“It’s going to take off.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it has identified a valid flight objective.”
“What objective?”
Rourke hesitated.
“To intercept your aircraft.”
Sarah felt the blood drain from her face.
Hayes looked at the prototype.
“It’s targeting us.”
“Yes.”
Sarah looked at the 787’s fuel.
Eleven minutes.
Damaged landing gear.
No reliable brakes.
Hayes still recovering.
Passengers stranded on the island.
Lily in an unmanned military aircraft.
And a second aircraft preparing to intercept them.
Cole returned to the radio.
“Sarah.”
“What?”
“There is still a way to stop it.”
“Tell me.”
“You have to give it what it wants.”
Sarah laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“It wants you.”
“No.”
“It wants your behavioral profile.”
“You’ve been trying to get that for years.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“Now it wants the original.”
Sarah understood.
Rebecca’s profile had been copied.
Ethan’s had been modified.
But Sarah’s remained incomplete.
Halcyon needed her to finish the model.
“How?”
Cole said:
“Land.”
Sarah looked toward the runway.
“You know I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Not with this gear.”
“Then you will have to find another way.”
“Cole.”
“Yes?”
“If Lily is hurt—”
“She won’t be.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Halcyon.”
Sarah’s voice became ice.
“I know my daughter.”
She cut the radio.
Hayes looked at her.
“What now?”
Sarah looked at the prototype.
Its engines had reached full power.
The aircraft began accelerating.
“Now we stop it.”
Hayes checked his instruments.
“With what?”
Sarah looked at the island.
“Rourke said there’s an east bunker.”
“Yes.”
“Can we land somewhere near it?”
“Not safely.”
“Can we ditch?”
Hayes stared.
“You want to put this aircraft into the ocean?”
“No.”
“Because that sounded like—”
“I want to get low enough to force the prototype away from the runway.”
Hayes looked at the fuel.
“That’s dangerous.”
“Everything today is dangerous.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Sarah descended.
Five thousand feet.
Four.
Three.
The prototype lifted from the runway.
Sarah watched.
No pilot.
No visible control.
Just a gray military aircraft climbing toward them.
Hayes whispered:
“Rebecca’s profile is flying it.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Rebecca wouldn’t do this.”
“You don’t know what Halcyon copied.”
“I know my sister.”
The prototype climbed.
Then its nose turned toward them.
Sarah felt the aircraft respond before she touched anything.
A small correction.
Automatic.
Halcyon was already interacting.
The 787’s left wing dipped.
Sarah corrected.
It dipped again.
She looked at the flight-control display.
Commands were being introduced.
“Someone is fighting me.”
Hayes checked his side.
“I see it.”
Sarah took manual control.
The response lagged.
Then surged.
She corrected.
The prototype remained on an intercept course.
Cole’s voice returned.
“You cannot outrun it.”
Sarah shouted:
“Stop talking.”
“You need to understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No, you don’t.”
“What am I missing?”
Cole’s voice became quieter.
“Prototype 04 isn’t trying to destroy you.”
Sarah frowned.
“Then what?”
“It’s trying to recover you.”
Sarah looked at the approaching aircraft.
“Recover?”
“Just as it recovered Rebecca.”
Sarah’s blood chilled.
“You’re saying it wants to land us.”
“No.”
Cole paused.
“It wants to force you to eject.”
Sarah’s eyes widened.
“And then?”
“It will recover you.”
The same way it had recovered Rebecca.
The same way it had taken control after her sister left the aircraft.
Sarah looked toward the emergency equipment.
A terrifying realization settled in.
Halcyon did not need to kill pilots.
It needed to separate them from the aircraft.
Then it could take the machine.
The pilot became unnecessary.
Sarah said:
“Hayes.”
“Yes.”
“If we lose control, do not eject.”
He looked at her.
“That’s not a normal instruction.”
“Nothing about today is normal.”
The prototype closed distance.
Five miles.
Four.
Three.
Sarah descended further.
Two thousand feet.
The ocean stretched beneath them.
Kilo-Seven-Nine remained to their right.
Sarah looked toward the east bunker.
There.
A narrow concrete strip beside the cliff.
A service road.
Maybe long enough.
Maybe not.
“Can we land there?”
Hayes stared.
“Absolutely not.”
“Can we?”
He sighed.
“Technically, yes.”
Sarah turned.
“How?”
“Angle.”
“What angle?”
“Twenty degrees.”
“Gear?”
“Damaged.”
“Flaps?”
“Partial.”
“Brakes?”
“Unknown.”
“Then?”
“Use the slope.”
Sarah smiled faintly.
“You sound like Rourke.”
“I dislike that.”
The prototype appeared in the windshield.
It was close now.
Too close.
Sarah could see the cockpit.
Empty.
No pilot.
The aircraft rolled slightly.
Its nose aligned with them.
Then something unexpected happened.
The prototype slowed.
Sarah slowed too.
For one second, the two aircraft flew side by side.
Sarah stared into its empty cockpit.
Then the radio crackled.
Not Cole.
Not Rourke.
A woman’s voice.
Sarah froze.
“Sarah?”
She knew it.
Every syllable.
Every breath.
Every tiny pause.
Her sister.
Rebecca.
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“Rebecca?”
The voice answered:
“Don’t land.”
Sarah stopped breathing.
Hayes stared at her.
The voice continued.
“Whatever Cole tells you, do not land at Kilo-Seven-Nine.”
Sarah keyed the microphone.
“Rebecca, where are you?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you inside Prototype 04?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
A pause.
“I’m inside the system.”
Sarah’s hands went cold.
“You’re alive?”
“No.”
The word broke something in Sarah.
Rebecca continued:
“But Ethan is.”
Sarah looked toward the island.
“What did Cole do to him?”
“He didn’t.”
“Then who?”
Rebecca’s voice dropped.
“Sarah, Ethan asked me to hide him from Halcyon.”
Sarah whispered:
“How?”
“By making everyone believe he died.”
“Why?”
“Because if Cole ever found the real location of the core, he would come for it.”
Sarah looked at the prototype.
“Where is the core?”
Rebecca hesitated.
Then:
“Inside Lily.”
Sarah felt her heart stop.
“What?”
“The encryption key isn’t data.”
“Then what is it?”
Rebecca answered:
“Memory.”
Sarah stared at the aircraft flying beside her.
“Whose memory?”
Rebecca’s voice trembled.
“Yours.”
Sarah froze.
“Mine?”
“Ethan built the key from a memory you don’t remember giving him.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
“Rebecca—”
The radio suddenly filled with static.
Then Cole’s voice cut through.
“Sarah, disconnect immediately.”
Rebecca shouted:
“Don’t listen to him!”
Cole shouted back:
“She is not Rebecca!”
Sarah stared at the two aircraft.
Cole continued:
“Sarah, your sister died twelve years ago.”
Rebecca’s voice screamed through the interference:
“Sarah, ask him what happened at 02:17!”
The same time.
The same hidden minute.
The minute everything began.
Sarah looked at Hayes.
“What happened at 02:17?”
Hayes stared at her.
“I don’t know.”
Cole’s voice returned.
“Sarah, you already do.”
Then every cockpit display went black.
The prototype disappeared from the windshield.
And a single message appeared on the center screen:
02:17 MEMORY RECOVERY AVAILABLE
Sarah reached toward it.
Then stopped.
May you like
Because beneath the message was a name.
SARAH MITCHELL — ORIGINAL SUBJECT
