They were preparing the cabin and doing preflight. They acknowledged his presence and that was it.
The reiteration that he hadn’t seen it all happened when he tried to squeeze his larger body into an already crowded cockpit.
Two men in suits stood in there.
“What’s going on?” Captain Scott asked.
“Abram James Scott?” the one man asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m special Agent Staab, Homeland Security. You’re Abram Scott and your brother is Senator John Scott, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.”
“Yes, what is this about?”
“Can I see your right hand, Abram?”
“Abe,” he corrected and extended his hand. “Again, what is this about?”
The other agent placed Abe’s hand on what looked like a tablet and scanned it. “It’s him,” the agent said.
“Abe, I’d like you to meet your co-pilot on the flight,” Agent Staab said,
“My co-pilot?” Abe asked. “I know my…”
The co-pilot turned around. He wore a military flight suit and like every other crew member, Abe didn’t know him.
“What the hell?” Abe barked.
“This is Colonel Ray Carillo, United States Air Force,” Staab introduced him. “He will co-pilot with you until we must relieve you of duty.”
“Is this a joke?”
“This is no joke, sir.” Staab nodded at the other agent.
They closed the cockpit door.
Abe just couldn’t discern exactly what he was feeling and which emotion seemed to encompass him the most in the moments after of getting the news. A part of him was angry, a part sad, and even a part of him still held on to the hope that it just wasn’t going to happen.
“Do you need a moment?” Agent Staab asked as if he delivered some minor bad news.
Abe turned his head and just looked at the agents. “A moment?” He chuckled in disbelief. “I need more than a moment.”
“Take all the time you need. Absorb it. Get your head in the game. We have work to do.” Agent Staab placed his hand on Abe’s shoulder in some sort of attempt to show comfort, but Abe wasn’t buying that.
Was he for real? Was he serious? He has just delivered the news to him as if it were a bullet point meeting memo, or a debriefing. Factual, no emotions, Abe stared ahead as he listened. It wasn’t real, it couldn’t be happening.
“To ensure the continuity of government,” Agent Staab explained. “There is a protocol in effect that required the evacuation of essential personnel and their immediate family. To move such individuals to a secure location in the event that an attack was imminent… a nuclear attack.”
Wait? What? Nuclear attack.
“As part of COGCON 1, you are being evacuated. Because this was a designated flight, per your experience you are mandated to fly this plane until such time that you are relieved of duty.”
“When will that will be?”
“When we land at our desired location, or in the event something else unexpected happens.”
“Jesus Christ,” Abe said. “What the hell is happening? Speak English.”
“We are preparing for attack. You are being moved out to a location in New Mexico,” Stab said. “Intel has told us there will be a full scale attack on the United States at approximately zero six hundred hours Eastern seaboard time.”
“Are they sure?” Abe asked. “Nuclear war.”
“We believe nuclear and biological weapons.”
“Is everyone on this plane part of this evacuation?” Abe asked.
Staab shook his head. “No. About sixty percent of the one hundred and eighty on board are essential personnel, or the immediate families. The remaining ones are just lucky.”
Abe scoffed at that. Lucky? No one was lucky.
“Only twenty know the truth,” Staab said. “That would be the flight crew, United States soldiers and a couple other dignitaries.”
A hand full of people including Abe knew that war was on the horizon? It was speculated, but not proven as fact. They were moving people out as a precaution.
Agent Staab stated that while they were acting on reliable information, there was no way of knowing for sure until they were in the air.
The course of the flight would change without the passengers’ knowledge. The plan was to land the plane, get everyone secure and wait out not only the attack but response of the United States.
Abe had no family other than his brother. Leaving the plane was not an option.
So Abe decided if he was going to be a part, then he was going to make sure his passengers were safe. He was told that the secure location had a runway and he would land safely.
He argued with them about the charted course, there were other ways to go to New Mexico other than through Colorado.
Since the knowledge of the attack wasn’t public, they wouldn’t get clearance to change course early on.
Clearances didn’t matter much, an hour into the flight, all wifi went down and they lost communication with any towers.
Something was happening on the ground.
Shortly after they entered Colorado airspace, the computer systems went down. Staab seemed to have some sort of radio communication. That was their only source of information.
Just after that. Abe saw what he believed was the most frightening vision. The sight of rockets sailing into the air of a clear night. There were hundreds that had been launched.
They jetted toward the sky leaving a bright trail of ominous steam in their path.
Their destination… the enemy.
Did we launch first, or did they? It didn’t matter, devastation was forthcoming.
“Holy Jesus,” Colonel Carillo said. “We won’t make it.”
“Won’t make it where?” Abe asked.
“To our destination. We need to land now. If a nuke goes off we’ll drop from the sky.”
“Land? Where you going to put her down?”
“Where ever we can.”
Agent Staab who had remained in the cockpit stood up. “You are relieved of duty Captain. Colonel Carillo and myself will take over from here.”
“Oh, so you’re a pilot now?” Abe asked sarcastically.
“I am. Thank you for your service. You can stay here, or take a seat in the cabin.”
“What? Are you kidding me?” Abe argued. “Let me land this plane.”
“Colonel Carillo and I will land the plane.”
“Has he ever had to do a forced landing of a 757?” Abe asked. “I have. It’s not easy. You can’t just set her down. We don’t know what’s below.”
“You are relived Captain.” Staab placed his finger to his ear, listening. “We have four minutes to impact.”
Abe’s heart raced out of control. Four minutes to impact. He undid his belt and abruptly stood.
Staab took over the seat, speaking to the colonel as if Abe wasn’t even in the cockpit. “We’ll be approaching a tangible landing area, thirty miles east of Colorado Springs, crews are already en route from Peterson, or Schriever.”
“What about New Mexico?” Carillo asked.
“No go for now. This is plan B. Let’s put her down.”
Abe planned on staying and maybe if needed, helping, but he knew his presence was useless. No one was saving them.
If they had four minutes until impact of the first nuclear weapon. There was no way even as experienced as he was, he could land the plane. Not under that pressure and without being certain what was below. They could hit a mountain range or houses.
They were going to do a forced landing and even if the plane somehow miraculously survived, they were facing a nuclear weapon thirty miles or so from NORAD.
It was a lose-lose situation.