control. The disabled craft’s maddening tendency to turn endlessly to
the right was now to be incorporated into a breathtakingly conceived
plan that would let it find its way into the barn like a stubborn bull
determined to resist the herder and follow its own route home. If the
radius of each turn was carefully calculated and matched to an equally
precise rate of descent, they might eventually be able to bring head-on
to a runway and all the way in.
Impact in five minutes.
Jim twitched in shock and almost spoke those four words aloud when they
came to him.
Instead, when the captain finished talking to the tower, Jim said, “Is
your landing gear operable?”
“We got it down and locked,” Delbaugh confirmed.
“Then we might make it.”
“We will make it,” Delbaugh said. “Unless there’s another surprise
waiting for us.”
“There is,” Jim said.
The captain glanced worriedly at him again. “What?”
Impact in four minutes “For one thing, there’ll be a sudden windshear as
you’re going in oblique to you, so it won’t drive you into the ground.
But the reflected updraft from it will give you a couple bad moments.
It’ll be like you’re flying over a washboard.”
“What’re you talking about?” Anilov demanded.
“When you’re making your final approach, a few hundred feet from the end
of the runway, you’ll still be at an angle,” Jim said, once more al
lowing some omniscient higher power to speak through him, “but you’ll
have to go for it anyway, no other choice.”
“How can you know that?” the flight engineer demanded.
Ignoring the question, Jim went on, and the words came in a rush: “The
plane’ll suddenly drop to the right, the wing’ll hit the ground, and
you’ll cartwheel down the runway, end over end, off it, into a field.
The whole damn plane’ll come apart and burn.”
The red-haired man in civilian clothes, operating the throttles, looked
back at Jim in disbelief “What crock of shit is this, who the hell do
you think you are?”
“He knew about engine number two before it blew up,” Delbaugh said
coolly.
Aware that they were entering the second of the trio of planned degree
turns and that time was swiftly running out, Jim said, “None of you in
the cockpit will die, but you’ll lose a hundred and forty-seven
passengers, plus four flight attendants.”
“Oh my God,” Delbaugh said softly.
“He can’t know this,” Anilov objected.
Impact in three minutes Delbaugh gave additional instructions to the
red-haired man, who manipulated the throttles. One engine grew louder,
the other softer, and the big craft began its second turn, shedding some
altitude as it went.
Jim said, “But there’s a warning, just before the plane tips to the
right.”
“What?” Delbaugh said, still unable to look at him, straining to get
what response he could from the wheel.
“You won’t recognize what it means, it’s a strange sound, like nothing
you’ve heard before, because it’s a structural failure in the wing
coupling, where it’s fixed to the fuselage. A sharp twang, like a giant
steel-guitar string. When you hear it, if you increase power to the
port engine immediately, compensating to the left, you’ll keep her from
cart-wheeling.”
Anilov had lost his patience. “This is nuts. Slay, I can’t think with
this guy here.”
Jim knew Anilov was right. Both System Aircraft Maintenance in San
Francisco and the dispatcher had been silent for a while, hesitant to
interfere with the crew’s concentration. If he stayed there, even
without saying another word, he might unintentionally distract them at a
crucial moment.
Besides, he sensed that there was nothing more of value that he would be
given to tell them.
He left the flight deck and moved as quickly as possible toward row
sixteen.
Impact in two minutes Holly kept watching for Jim Ironheart, hoping he
would rejoin them.
She wanted him nearby when the worst happened. She had not forgotten
the bizarre dream from last night, the monstrous creature that had
seemed to come out of her nightmare and into her motel room; neither had
she forgotten how many people he had killed in his quest to protect the
lives of the innocent, nor how savagely he slaughtered Norman Rink in