41 FLIGHT 573
The knock on the door made both Erik Recht and Karim Sassi jump. The silence in the cockpit had been almost palpably dense since their last discussion, and Erik was deep in thought. He had to get out, but without rousing Karim’s suspicions so that he would stop him from coming back in. And he had to get hold of his father.
Erik glanced at the small screen and saw Fatima. Karim pressed the release button and Erik quickly opened the door.
‘It’s happened,’ she said, closing the door behind her.
Erik immediately turned around, but it was a few seconds before Karim looked at Fatima.
‘What has?’ Erik asked.
‘One of the passengers switched on his mobile and got a text from his family.’
‘Fuck,’ Erik said. ‘How the hell did that happen? Don’t tell me he’s started talking to the other passengers.’
‘No, he came straight to me. Twice.’
Erik could see that she hadn’t told them everything.
‘What did you say to him?’ Karim wanted to know.
Fatima bit her lower lip.
‘The first time he spoke to me when I was passing his seat, and I lied. But then he came to find me in the galley, and this time he was more upset. He was waving his phone around, and he showed me the message from his mother. I had to be straight with him,’ she said.
‘You told him the truth? You confirmed that the plane is under threat?’
‘What was I supposed to do?’ Fatima said, looking angry and upset at the same time. ‘He didn’t believe it was a coincidence that his mother’s text arrived just after you’d said we were going to be delayed by several hours.’
Erik understood that Fatima had been left with no choice, and he knew that Karim felt the same. However, Karim still looked agitated, as if he hadn’t expected that one of the passengers would eventually begin to suspect that something wasn’t right.
‘We need to make some kind of announcement,’ Erik said to Karim. ‘More people are going to start wondering. You can’t just say we’re going to arrive several hours late because of bad weather.’
If we get there at all, a little voice whispered inside his head.
Erik swallowed hard. He had no intention of dying. He had just become a father, and at long last he had stability in his life. He had a wife whom he loved, and a home they had built up together.
‘No,’ Karim said. ‘We have to avoid unrest at all costs. I intend to wait as long as possible before telling the passengers what’s happened.’
Unrest.
What did that look like in a plane that was flying at thirty thousand feet? People were hardly likely to start fighting to get off first, which would have been the logical aim if they had been on a bus or in a shop that had received a bomb threat.
Erik thought it over, and concluded that he didn’t agree with Karim.
‘People have the right to know,’ he said.
‘The right to know what?’ Karim said.
Erik felt as if his throat was closing up.
That this might be the day when they’re going to die.
‘That we’re under threat,’ he said.
‘And what are they going to do with that information?’ Karim’s voice was so devoid of emotion that Erik broke out in a cold sweat. ‘If you haven’t realised it yet, there isn’t a damned thing any of us can do to change the situation.’
What was it that Karim didn’t want to reveal? What had happened that would explain his incomprehensible behaviour?
‘You have to talk to us, Karim,’ Erik said. ‘What’s going on here?’
Karim turned away and retreated into silence once more.
Erik tried to touch his arm, but Karim moved out of reach.
‘Speak to the passenger and ask him to return to his seat,’ Karim said. ‘And ask him to keep quiet. Tell him he’s endangering his own safety as well as everyone else’s if he starts talking.’
Fatima stared at Karim’s back.
‘It might be a good idea if one of you spoke to him,’ she said. ‘His name is Joakim.’
‘I can go,’ Erik said. ‘I can have a word with the crew at the same time.’
His heart was racing. At last he had a reason to leave the cockpit without it looking odd, but he still didn’t trust Karim.
‘You stay here,’ he said to Fatima, who looked confused.
Erik felt something like fear spreading through his body. If Fatima didn’t stay in the cockpit, he couldn’t risk going out.
‘It will look odd if we both go,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and speak to this guy while you wait here.’
Fatima still looked as if she didn’t understand, but at least she seemed to realise that her co-operation was important to Erik.
‘Okay,’ she said.
Just as Erik unfastened his seatbelt, another call came through. Judging by Karim’s reaction, he was equally surprised; the voice they heard was speaking in English.
‘Flight 573, respond immediately. Over.’
Karim answered as required.
‘Captain Sassi, this is Andrew Hoffman, US military air surveillance. Can you hear me?’
‘We can hear you.’
Erik didn’t move a muscle. Fatima was still standing by the door.
‘I am contacting you on behalf of the US Department of Defense and the US government. It is extremely important that you listen very carefully to what I have to say, and that you obey to the letter the orders I am about to give you.’
Karim’s face was white, his lips compressed into a thin line as he listened to the American voice.
‘You have already been asked to remain outside US airspace. The following conditions apply for the remainder of your journey: you will not be given permission to cross our border at any stage. It is up to you as the captain of Flight 573 to ensure that the plane remains in international airspace, or to travel to an alternative destination outside the borders of the USA. Is that clear?’
The voice died away and waited for a response.
‘Captain Sassi, did you understand what I just said?’ Andrew Hoffman asked.
Karim wiped his brow with the back of his hand. ‘I understand,’ he replied.
‘Good, in that case we don’t foresee any problems.’
It sounded as if Hoffman was about to end the conversation, but both Erik and Karim had a number of questions.
‘Sooner or later, we will run out of fuel,’ Karim said. ‘Will we be given permission to make an emergency landing?’
The loudspeaker crackled.
‘Captain Sassi, you just said you understood the orders I gave you.’
‘Yes, but when the fuel runs out, I have two alternatives: either I crash the plane, or I attempt an emergency landing. Therefore, the latter option seems the most reasonable course of action.’
Erik let out a sigh of relief. He thought Karim had ruled out an emergency landing after the conversation with the police.
‘In that case, you will have to do that somewhere else,’ Andrew Hoffman said.
What the fuck was going on here?
Karim looked almost panic-stricken, and Erik felt the same.
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Karim said. ‘I am the captain of a plane with over four hundred passengers on board. I must have the chance to save them all from certain death.’
‘I’m sure you will have that chance, Captain Sassi,’ Hoffman said. ‘In some other country.’
The alarm bells inside Erik’s head were so loud he thought it might explode.
‘You don’t understand,’ Karim said. ‘I have to land in the USA.’
Why? Erik wondered.
‘I would advise you to change course immediately and prepare for an emergency landing somewhere other than your original destination,’ Hoffman said implacably. ‘I’m sorry, but the United States government does not negotiate with terrorists who are holding American citizens hostage. Unfortunately.’
Karim looked as if he was about to burst into tears.
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ he yelled. ‘I must be allowed to land, surely that’s obvious?’