Status by D.W. Maroney

Author:D.W. Maroney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: aviation, thriller, military, espionage, political, international, cyber terrorism, terrorism, war on terror, action/adventure, hard-boiled
Publisher: State of Mind
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Liam Donovan

Gulfstream G650

Saturday 23:05 Zulu (Sunday 11:05 WKT)

Liam’s hand tightened on the back of the pilot’s seat. “Exactly what kind of situation are we talking about?”

“It seems we’ve lost control of the aircraft.”

Liam’s attention shifted from the pilot to the first officer who had delivered the bad news. His gaze swept the console awash with colorful digital displays. At first glance, everything appeared perfectly normal. “What are you talking about?”

“About ten minutes ago, we drifted twenty-two degrees off course,” Captain Davis said. “I disengaged the autopilot in order to make a correction, but the aircraft didn’t respond to my commands. We tried reprogramming the FMS, the Flight Management System, but it seems we’ve been locked out.”

“You’ve been on autopilot for how long?”

“Since we reached cruising altitude about ten minutes after clearing Honolulu tower.”

“You’re sure the correct flight plan was fed into the computer?”

“Checked and double checked. We were headed for Guam up until a few minutes ago.”

Liam wiped his sweating palms on his pant legs. “Where are we headed now?”

“North Korea,” Major Wilkerson said.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“I wish we were.” Captain Davis pointed to a longitude and latitude displayed on one of the computer screens. “Those coordinates are for Pyongyang.”

He wouldn’t call what he felt fear—more like dread. What the hell? Choi Min-ho really had gone off the deep end if he thought he could get away with hijacking a plane full of United States officials on a diplomatic mission. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“And you can’t change course?”

Both pilots shook their heads. “We’ve tried, and we’ll keep trying,” Davis said. “What we want to know is what to tell the passengers, and who’s going to do the telling.”

“Well, shit.”

“My sentiments, exactly,” Wilkerson said.

Liam studied the console. It had been a while since he’d occupied a cockpit, and he’d never flown a Gulfstream. Davis and Wilkerson were excellent pilots or they wouldn’t be flying congressmen around. Instinctively, he sought out and scrutinized the various instruments pilots relied on for accurate data—data that meant the difference between life and death. As best as he could tell, everything was normal except for those damned coordinates.

“What’s the fuel situation?”

“It’s pushing the envelope, but if we remain at cruising altitude, we should make it.”

The Air Force had taught him to fly anything with wings or rotors, all part of their version of spy training, but he’d spent more time on the ground than in the air. Most of Liam’s ground time had been in various desert countries. His experience with oceans amounted to flying over them, and those times had been few and far between. “If we can override the computers, is there anyplace to land this thing?” He knew shit about the Pacific.

“Wake Island,” Davis said. “We overflew their airspace about an hour ago.”

“Did you contact the tower there?”

“We did, but we tried to hail them just before you came in. Either no one was in the tower or our radio is out of commission.”

“Don’t they have someone in the tower around the clock?”

“Not on Wake.

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