She studied the dials and buttons, pleased that some of them did seem familiar. Though Josef’s experience with planes dated back nearly two full decades, the basics appeared to be the same.
Behind her, Li and Cedric were discussing the betrayal that had put them into this situation. She felt somewhat flattered by their apparent faith in her ability to save them all. It was obvious that they were more concerned with the fact that Tamaki had foreseen their pursuit and paid off the airport clerk, making sure that the only plane available to them was going to be mostly crewed by assassins.
“You can do this.”
Charity felt Mitchell’s reassuring touch on her shoulder. “Josef’s piloting experience isn’t going to be much help. They sabotaged the fuel tank,” she whispered. “We’re running on fumes.”
“Is there anyplace where you could land us?”
Charity’s eyes were already scanning the countryside. “They timed this just right. We’re almost to D.C., we’re out of fuel and there’s not a safe place to land anywhere. I don’t want to set down in the middle of a street if I don’t have to.”
Mitchell heard a loud clunking sound and looked around. “That can’t be anything good.”
“It’s not. The engines are cutting out.” Standing up, Charity raised her voice and shouted, “Everyone, get to the exit! Now!”
To their credit, everyone did as she asked, questions unasked. By the time they were all assembled next to the door, the entire plane was dropping like a rock and they could all feel it as the air pressure began to change.
“Now what?” Cedric asked, eyeing the door. With no parachutes, it would be certain death to jump now.
“Wait here,” Charity said. She moved past them all into the rear part of the plane. It was here that their luggage was stored along with emergency supplies. As Cedric had said, there were no spare parachutes to be seen. Her eyes came to a rest on an emergency life raft which was wadded up into a huge yellow pile. Snatching it up, she returned to the others.
“We’re going to need to form a human chain. Mitchell, get behind me and hold on tight. Li, you do the same to him. We keep doing that until everybody is hooked on to the person ahead of them — and for God’s sakes, don’t let go!”
Cedric kicked open the emergency exit and the wind whipped inside, buffeting all of them. Charity held the wadded up canvas in front of her, holding it protectively.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Mitchell whispered in her ear. “We’re falling from the sky, not drowning in the water!”
“Trust me,” she replied and the tone of her voice gave him hope. If she believed in this crazy plan then that was good enough for him.
Leaning out of the doorway, she saw the ground below rushing up to meet them. She wanted to wait as long as she could because if her plan didn’t work, the higher the distance, the more pain they were going to be in for.
“Let’s go!” she yelled, leaping from the plane. She held on to the raft with all her strength, aware of the chain of people behind her.
Thirty feet to go. Twenty. Ten.
She couldn’t wait any longer. She grabbed hold of the inflation cord and yanked.
The raft billowed open to its full size, bulbous and unwieldy. Charity heard screams coming from above her — Li and perhaps Cedric, too. But the plan seemed to be taking on its proper shape — the raft was acting as a spoiler, pushing back against the rushing air, slowing their descent.
Still, they were falling fast.
The plane from which they had escaped flew past, slamming into the middle of a busy road heading into the heart of the city. Drivers yanked their vehicles off the street but several of them failed to get enough distance between them and the oncoming aircraft. A tremendous fireball engulfed those poor souls, sending them on to the afterlife.
At that same moment, the life raft skidded across the grasslands on the side of the road. It bounced and flew, nearly toppling over as Charity and her friends crashed into the middle of the makeshift craft.
With a string of curses and groans, the heroes held on for dear life, knowing that at any moment they could be tossed off, suffering the loss of limbs or worse.
The life raft finally slowed, coming to a stop less than thirty yards from the burning wreckage of the plane.
Charity turned to face her friends, making sure that they were all okay. She found that Cedric was staring at her with a slack jaw. “Cedric? Are you okay?”
“How the hell did you know that would work?”
“I didn’t,” she admitted. “But Josef told me a story about a friend of his named Doctor Jones. He escaped from a similar situation using a life raft and, well, we didn’t have a whole lot of choices at the moment.”
“If I ever meet this Doctor Jones, I’ll know he’s just as crazy as you are.” Cedric’s grin took the punch out of his words and promptly set everyone to laughing.
It was Charity who brought them all back to the seriousness of the situation. She had looked over to the plane, which was burning terribly, and had realized that at least a half dozen people, maybe more, were now dead. Those that had survived the near disaster were gathering in small groups, some of them venturing towards the flames to try and help anyone who might be trapped within.
To Mitchell, she said, “Scour the area and look for our supplies. If you find any, collect them.” Looking at Mortimer and the others, she ordered, “The rest of you come with me. We need to see if there’s anybody over there who needs help.”
The team jumped to their assigned tasks and Charity swore that Hiroshi would pay for this. It was one thing to attack her and her allies but to bring about the deaths of innocents? That was unforgivable.
In all, the injury toll would end up numbering close to thirty. Charity’s initial estimation about the number of people killed — a half dozen — was actually slightly below the real tally, which ended up being ten.
Thankfully, most of the group’s luggage had somehow managed to survive the inferno. While the men would have all been fine with replacing their clothing at a later time, Li found her wardrobe to be of much greater importance. Charity, of course, was concerned only with the arsenal that she had brought along still being functional.
After helping as much as they could, the majority of the group took off into the countryside. Cedric stayed behind since he’d been the one to charter the plane and the authorities would understandably wonder where he had gone.
An attempt at murder had failed on the part of Hiroshi Tamaki and The Gravedigger was now even more dedicated to bringing about his downfall!
REGINALD VAN DRAUGHT was a distinguished looking Southern man with silver hair and horn-rimmed glasses. His gray pinstripe suit fit him perfectly and helped cultivate an air of upper-class gentility.
Sitting in a chair across from Hiroshi, Van Draught seemed very pleased with the cognac he’d been offered. “I have to say, Mr. Tamaki, that I almost didn’t accept this invitation of yours.”
Looking surprised, Hiroshi set down his own glass and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “And why was that?”
“Your reputation… Shall we say, it’s less than sterling?”
Both men laughed and Hiroshi gave an understanding nod. “Great men make many enemies, as I’m sure you know. There are those who would accuse me of a great number of things.”
“Are they true?”
“Some of them.”
Van Draught smiled. “I’ve had dealings with men like you, Mr. Tamaki, so I understand how all this works. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to just skip to the chase.”