Chapter 7 - The Last Ghost of Nightglass
Sarah stared at the identification code.
RAVEN TWO.
Her old call sign.
"That's impossible."
Marcus shook his head.
"Nightglass cloned your military profile."
"What's the aircraft?"
David worked the console.
"Unmanned."
"Weaponized?"
"I don't know."
Robert laughed from the rear.
Sarah turned.
"You know."
He said nothing.
Sarah walked toward him.
"What did you launch?"
"A contingency."
"Target?"
"Not Madrid."
"Then where?"
Robert smiled.
"Ask Marcus."
Sarah looked at Marcus.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Marcus pulled up the trajectory.
Then understood.
"Torrejón."
A military air base outside Madrid.
Sarah's stomach tightened.
"Why?"
David answered.
"Nightglass archives."
Marcus nodded.
"European backup."
Robert had built redundancy.
Destroying the Atlantic platform wasn't enough.
If the drone reached the backup, it could upload the Nightglass command architecture.
The system would survive.
Sarah returned to the cockpit.
"Can we intercept?"
"In this?" Marcus gestured at the transport.
"No."
"Then we need a fighter."
Daniel contacted military authorities.
This time, with Nightglass offline, communications worked normally.
Spanish controllers responded.
Sarah identified herself.
There was confusion.
Then urgency.
Two Spanish fighters launched.
But the unidentified drone was too close to its destination.
"They won't make it," Marcus said.
Sarah looked at their remaining fuel.
Then at the route.
"What about your fighter?"
"Destroyed with the platform."
David interrupted.
"Not the only one."
Sarah turned.
"There's another aircraft aboard this transport."
"What?"
"Rear cargo bay."
Marcus stared.
"You put a fighter inside a transport?"
"Prototype interceptor."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Of course you did."
They went aft.
The aircraft sat folded inside the cargo compartment.
Compact.
Experimental.
Sarah recognized the control architecture.
Nightglass design.
"No."
Marcus understood.
"You don't trust it."
"I don't trust anything Robert built."
Robert's voice came from behind.
"You trusted yourself."
Sarah turned.
He had been escorted forward.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You designed its manual control system."
Sarah froze.
Memory again.
Years earlier.
Flight tests.
A small interceptor.
Her handwriting across engineering notes.
Robert had used her work.
Sarah approached the aircraft.
"Can it launch airborne?"
David nodded.
"Rear ramp."
Marcus shook his head.
"That's insane."
Sarah looked at him.
"You've said that about most of my good ideas."
He almost smiled.
"You're not doing it alone."
"One seat."
Marcus's smile vanished.
Sarah looked at Lily.
Her daughter stood beside Claire.
Sarah knelt.
"I need to do something."
Lily's eyes filled.
"Do you have to?"
Sarah wanted to lie.
"Yes."
"Will you come back?"
Sarah held her face.
"I will do everything I can."
Lily hugged her.
"Then come back."
Sarah stood.
Marcus grabbed her arm.
"Sarah."
She looked at him.
"I already lost seven years."
His voice broke slightly.
"I can't lose you too."
Sarah touched his hand.
"Then don't."
She climbed into the interceptor.
Systems activated.
RAVEN TWO RECOGNIZED.
Sarah hated seeing the words.
But she understood them now.
Her father had built Nightglass around control.
Sarah would use his machine differently.
David opened the rear ramp.
Wind thundered through the cargo bay.
The interceptor moved backward.
Marcus stood behind the safety barrier.
Sarah looked at him.
Then released.
The aircraft fell into open sky.
Sarah's stomach lifted.
She engaged power.
The interceptor accelerated.
Madrid lay ahead.
The drone appeared on radar.
Eight minutes from target.
Sarah pushed faster.
Spanish fighters were still twelve minutes away.
Only Sarah could reach it.
She climbed.
The drone became visible.
Black.
Unmarked.
Fast.
"Raven Two, Spanish control. Identify intentions."
Sarah responded.
"Intercepting hostile unmanned aircraft."
"Do not engage without authorization."
Sarah watched the drone.
"Then authorize quickly."
The drone suddenly turned.
Toward her.
"That's new."
Warning tone.
Lock.
The drone had targeted her.
Sarah broke left.
A projectile passed beneath.
"Definitely hostile."
Authorization came.
Sarah pursued.
Years disappeared.
She became the pilot she had buried.
But this time she wasn't flying for generals.
She was flying for Lily.
The drone climbed.
Sarah followed.
Clouds swallowed them.
Radar intermittent.
Sarah anticipated its turn.
Right.
There.
She locked.
Fired.
Miss.
The drone deployed countermeasures.
"Smart."
Too smart.
Robert had built it from Sarah's own combat data.
It knew her habits.
Every maneuver she preferred.
Every defensive reaction.
She realized the solution.
Stop flying like Major Mitchell.
Fly like Sarah.
Unpredictable.
Imperfect.
Human.
She dropped suddenly.
The drone followed expected doctrine and climbed.
Sarah reversed.
Came underneath.
Locked.
Fired.
Impact.
The drone exploded.
Sarah exhaled.
"Target destroyed."
Cheers erupted over the transport radio.
Then her cockpit alarms sounded.
Fuel pressure.
Hydraulics.
Engine temperature.
Debris had struck her.
Sarah turned toward Madrid.
Distance too far.
"Transport, Raven Two."
Marcus answered immediately.
"Sarah?"
"I'm damaged."
"How bad?"
"Bad."
Silence.
"Can you eject?"
Sarah checked altitude.
"Maybe."
Then the canopy warning appeared.
EJECTION SYSTEM FAILURE.
Of course.
She laughed.
"Sarah?"
"No ejection."
Marcus's breathing changed.
"Find somewhere to land."
Sarah scanned terrain.
Coastline.
Fields.
Highways.
Nothing good.
Then Spanish control gave her coordinates.
An abandoned military strip.
Barely within glide distance.
Sarah turned.
Engine failed.
Silence.
The interceptor became a glider.
Sarah focused.
Altitude.
Speed.
Distance.
Lily's voice suddenly came through the radio.
"Mom?"
Sarah's eyes filled.
"Hey, baby."
"Claire said I could talk."
Sarah smiled.
"Good."
"Are you scared?"
Sarah looked at the shrinking altitude.
"Yes."
Lily paused.
"That's okay."
Sarah swallowed.
"Yeah?"
"You always tell me brave doesn't mean you're not scared."
Sarah laughed through tears.
"You're right."
The runway appeared.
Tiny.
Sarah aligned.
Landing gear.
No response.
Manual release.
One wheel indicated unsafe.
She had no choice.
"Marcus."
"I'm here."
"If this doesn't—"
"Don't."
"Marcus."
"No."
Sarah looked at the runway.
Five hundred feet.
"I need you to hear it."
"Then tell me after you land."
Three hundred.
Sarah smiled.
"Still stubborn."
"You loved that once."
"Maybe I still do."
One hundred.
The runway rushed upward.
Sarah flared.
The interceptor struck hard.
One wheel collapsed.
The aircraft spun.
Metal screamed.
Sarah's head hit the canopy.
Everything went black.
When she opened her eyes, smoke filled the cockpit.
She couldn't move her left leg.
Fire appeared outside.
Sarah reached for the canopy release.
Jammed.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Flames spread.
Then someone struck the canopy from outside.
Sarah looked up.
A shadow stood in the smoke.
The canopy cracked.
Again.
Again.
Sarah couldn't see the person's face.
May you like
Then she heard a voice she never expected to hear there.
"Sarah! Move!"
