Chapter 5 - What Sergeant Mercer Was Hiding
Nine minutes.
Evelyn ran.
Marcus followed.
Mercer followed despite being ordered to remain behind.
They descended into the maintenance tunnel beneath Hangar Three.
OSI agents waited near the bunker.
The countdown showed 00:07:11.
Evelyn studied the door.
"Any way around?"
"Secondary ventilation shaft," an agent said. "Too narrow."
"Controls?"
"Inside."
Mercer stepped forward.
"There may be another entrance."
Everyone turned.
"You said you'd never been inside," Evelyn said.
"I haven't."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because I helped build the access tunnel."
The countdown reached 06:42.
"Show me."
Mercer led them eighty feet down the corridor.
Behind an electrical cabinet, he removed a panel.
A narrow maintenance passage appeared.
Marcus stared.
"You hid this?"
"Nolan told me it was for emergency access."
"Convenient."
Mercer looked at Evelyn.
"I know."
They crawled through.
The passage ended behind a steel grate.
Beyond it lay the bunker.
Rows of shelves.
Crates.
Computer terminals.
And a man tied to a chair.
Martin Kessler.
Alive.
Barely.
Major Nolan stood beside him.
He held a pistol.
Mercer whispered, "Damn."
Evelyn watched through the grate.
Nolan was speaking into a camera.
"This could have been simple, Evelyn."
His voice echoed through the bunker.
"You were supposed to take command, smile for photographs and accept the numbers everyone gave you."
He checked his watch.
"But you needed to investigate."
Kessler raised his head.
"Nolan..."
"Quiet."
Nolan struck the chair with the pistol.
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
Marcus whispered, "We need a clear shot."
No angle.
Nolan moved constantly behind Kessler.
Mercer pointed toward a maintenance latch.
"If I remove that, the grate drops."
"Noisy."
"Yes."
Evelyn looked at him.
"You distract him."
Mercer stared.
"How?"
"You created part of this problem. Start fixing it."
He nodded.
Mercer crawled backward.
A minute later, pounding came from the main bunker door.
Nolan turned.
"Who's there?"
Mercer's voice came through the speaker.
"It's me."
Nolan smiled.
"Daniel."
"Let Kessler go."
"Now you grow a conscience?"
"Open the door."
Nolan laughed.
"You don't give orders anymore."
Mercer continued.
"You lied to me."
"About what?"
"Everything."
Nolan walked closer to the main door.
That gave Marcus an angle.
Not enough.
Evelyn waited.
Mercer said, "You told me the stolen parts were going to training programs."
Nolan stopped.
"They were."
"No. Some went overseas."
Nolan's smile vanished.
"So Blake talked."
"You knew he was alive?"
"I suspected."
Mercer's voice tightened.
"You tried to kill him."
"I tried to solve a problem."
Evelyn watched Kessler.
His hands were loosely tied.
Not loose enough.
"Keep talking," she whispered.
Mercer did.
"You used all of us."
"No, Daniel. I understood you. There's a difference."
"You threatened my family."
"I protected your career."
"You owned my career."
"And you benefited."
Mercer went silent.
Nolan walked closer to the door.
"Do you know how many promotions you received because our readiness numbers looked exceptional?"
Mercer answered quietly.
"Three."
"Exactly."
"And do you know how many people almost died because those numbers were fake?"
Nolan's face hardened.
"Nobody died."
"Yet."
That single word changed the room.
Nolan raised his pistol toward the door.
Marcus whispered, "Now."
He kicked the grate.
It crashed inward.
Nolan spun.
Marcus entered first.
"Drop it!"
Nolan fired.
The bullet struck a shelf.
OSI agents breached the main door simultaneously.
Nolan grabbed Kessler.
Gun against his neck.
"Back!"
Everyone froze.
Evelyn stepped into the bunker.
Nolan stared.
"There she is."
"Let him go."
"You have no idea what you're destroying."
"I know exactly what I'm stopping."
Nolan laughed.
"You think this is about parts?"
Evelyn didn't answer.
"Falcon Ridge is one base. One node."
"Then help me find the others."
His smile faded.
"You'd offer me a deal?"
"I'm offering you the chance to put that gun down."
Nolan looked toward Mercer, now standing behind the agents.
"Daniel, tell her."
Mercer shook his head.
"Tell me what?" Evelyn asked.
Nolan smiled again.
"He knows why aircraft 417 flew."
Evelyn looked at Mercer.
"I know why. You wanted to hide a cracked coupling."
Nolan laughed.
"No."
Mercer looked sick.
Nolan continued.
"The coupling was never the real problem."
Evelyn's gaze hardened.
"What was?"
"The flight-control computer."
Marcus frowned.
"The report showed no failure."
"Of course it didn't."
Nolan looked delighted to finally reveal something.
"Because we replaced it before the investigation."
Evelyn thought back through the report.
Hydraulic warnings.
Control instability.
Emergency landing.
A corrupted flight-control computer could produce similar symptoms.
"What was wrong with it?"
Nolan stared at her.
"It wasn't ours."
Silence.
Evelyn understood the implication.
"Foreign hardware?"
"Experimental."
"From where?"
Nolan didn't answer.
Kessler suddenly moved.
He threw his head backward into Nolan's face.
The gun shifted.
Marcus fired.
Nolan screamed.
The pistol fell.
Agents rushed him.
Within seconds Nolan was on the floor, bleeding from the shoulder, handcuffed.
Kessler collapsed.
Evelyn caught the back of his chair.
Medics entered.
The countdown reached 00:00:31.
"Suppression system!" Mercer shouted.
An agent grabbed the control panel.
Locked.
Nolan laughed from the floor.
"Thirty seconds."
Mercer ran toward a red service box.
He punched through the glass.
Pulled a mechanical lever.
Nothing happened.
"Twenty."
Kessler was carried toward the door.
Agents moved.
Evelyn stayed.
There were crates.
Computers.
Evidence.
Marcus grabbed her arm.
"Colonel, move."
Nolan laughed again.
"Run."
Ten seconds.
Mercer tore open an electrical panel.
"Go!"
Evelyn didn't.
"What are you doing?"
"Manual cutoff."
"Can you stop it?"
"I don't know."
Five.
Mercer ripped two wires free.
Sparks exploded.
Three.
Two.
One.
Nothing.
The Halon system remained silent.
Mercer sank against the wall.
Everyone breathed.
Nolan stopped laughing.
Evelyn looked down at him.
"You're done."
He smiled weakly.
"No."
"Yes."
"You still don't understand aircraft 417."
"What don't I understand?"
Nolan looked toward one particular crate.
Evelyn followed his eyes.
OSI opened it.
Inside were six flight-control computers.
Each marked with a serial number.
Five matched Falcon Ridge aircraft.
One did not.
Evelyn leaned closer.
A handwritten label had been attached.
SHAW.
Her name.
Marcus looked at her.
Nolan whispered from the floor:
"Ask your father where that one came from."
Evelyn froze.
Her father had been dead for eleven years.
May you like
Then Nolan added:
"Because he was the first pilot who flew it..."
