She steeled herself, forcing back tears, longing for his strength to give her the fortitude she needed to carry through with the mission.
The engine stuttered, drawing her attention back to the cockpit. A quick scan of the instrument panel showed the engine coolant temperature was rising into the red, and the oil pressure was falling quickly. The engine coughed and missed. The plane seemed to buck as engine power alternately fell off, then came back online again, only to fail completely. With a grinding of metal on metal, the engine seized, the result of overheating and loss of lubrication.
She hadn’t quite reached three thousand feet. Now, without power, she was forced to glide to a landing. But where? She swiveled her head, but for as far as she could see, the terrain was a mix of hills and valleys dotted with sage brush and rocks. Not good for a landing.
Air drag was reducing her speed, and with it came a reduction in altitude. The ground was approaching quickly. No time to be choosy—not enough speed and altitude to keep flying in hopes of finding a more suitable place to put down. She crossed a hill, barely clearing the top, and turned the yoke to line up with the valley and avoid flying into the side of the next rise.
Her thoughts turned to her unborn child. She knew the date that the conception had occurred, two months earlier. She could almost feel Leonard’s strong but soothing caress again. His musky scent seemed to pervade the cockpit. Time seemed to slow—a gift—as once more she placed her hand on her belly, certain she could feel the tiny fetus growing inside her. In only moments, two lives would be lost. One guilty of the most horrible of crimes, while the other was perfectly innocent. Polar opposites—yin and yang.
With that realization, Sacheen wished she could turn back time and choose a different path. Now, all she wanted was to give life to her child, to hold and nurture the newborn. It was a vain wish, one born of desperation and regret.
As tears ran down her cheeks, she gripped the yoke and flared, trying to soften the landing. Maybe, with luck she didn’t deserve, she could still live and become the mother she so desperately yearned to be.
The wheels hit harder than she’d wanted. Following a brief bounce, the Mirage was still speeding forward. A waste-high clump of sage took out the front landing gear, and the nose slammed down. The propeller and front of the aircraft dug into the soft dirt, while momentum flipped the tail of the aircraft over. The fuselage slid forward until a wing tip also snagged on the ground. With a terrifying rent of metal, the wing snapped off.
High-octane aviation fuel dripped from a ruptured fuel line onto the hot exhaust manifold, creating an invisible cloud of flammable vapors. A spark ignited those vapors even before the wreckage stopped moving, and a fireball engulfed the cockpit.
Sacheen never felt the flesh burn from her bones. She was already dead from head trauma, the result of the initial impact. In her final thoughts, she pictured being held in Leonard’s arms while she nursed a swaddled infant.
Chapter 35
Black smoke billowed into the clear sky, marking the crash location.
Flynn frowned. He’d wanted to capture and question Sacheen, not kill her.
“One of you two had better fill me in. Attack on what city? And how?”
Danya opened her mouth to speak, but Toby cut her off.
“I overheard them—Sacheen and Leonard. After he hit you.” She told Flynn the details of their plan to dust the Las Vegas Strip with radioactive powder.
Flynn said, “Mary, mother of Jesus. If that was for real, we just avoided a major disaster.”
“Twice in two days,” Danya said.
“Yeah, well, my office is going to be buried in paperwork for weeks. I have to get agents in here ASAP. If there’s dangerous material at that crash site, we’ve got to get it secured.” He looked at Danya. “Don’t suppose you have a cell phone? Mine and hers,” he indicated Toby, “were on that plane.”
“Nope. Confiscated when Leonard’s men picked me up.”
Flynn nodded. “There’s a radio in one of those pickups.” He pointed over his shoulder, where two other vehicles were parked beside the hangar. “I’ll see if I can raise some help.”
He trotted off, leaving Danya and Toby in the middle of the dirt runway.
After a long silence, Toby said, “I thought we were dead. Why didn’t she kill us back there, in the hangar?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she finally realized it was wrong.”
“Really? That simple?”
Danya shrugged. “It was for me.”
“What now?”
“I’m going back to Sheep Creek Reservoir. That’s where I left my truck. Then I’m going to do what I always do.”
Toby cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I have this thing with government officials. Especially law enforcement. I avoid them. It’s better for everyone that way.”
“Will I see you again?”
“I don’t think so, Toby.” Danya’s face reflected the sadness she felt.
Being on the run carried many burdens, including not having regular contact with friends and family.
“I’ll retrieve my trailer from your barn before you get home. The FBI will take you to their office in Reno or Las Vegas, for questioning. Do you have money to get home after they’re done?”
Toby nodded. “Still have most of the cash you gave me. It’s enough for a bus ticket.”
Danya turned and took a step toward the SUV, but stopped midstride when Toby said, “Thank you.”
Danya looked over her shoulder and nodded.
“Sure thing.” She turned fully and squared her shoulders to her friend. “You opened my eyes to an injustice I never thought could exist in this country. Not at this time. Take care of yourself, okay?”
In silence, she strode to the Ford Explorer and plopped behind the wheel. She was fairly certain
