And she couldn't stop shaking. And she couldn't stop hearing her own voice from an hour ago. I can't believe they let people like that fly with normal folks. She'd said it about the only person on this airplane who could save her. She pressed her hand over her mouth and prayed not for herself, she realized, but that God wouldn't let a good man die trying to rescue a woman who hadn't deserved his kindness.
Ma'am. Delaney knelt in the aisle beside her pale but composed doing her job because the job was all she had. I need you to stay calm. Can you do that for me? That man, Margaret whispered, the one who went up front.
Is he really? Can he really? I don't know, Delaney said honestly. But he's all we've got. So, I'm going to believe in him.
And I think you should, too. Margaret nodded, tears running freely now. I was so cruel to him. Then when he lands this plane, Delaney said, standing, you'll have a chance to tell him you were wrong. Focus on that.
He lands us, you apologize. Give yourself something to hold on to. It was such a small kindness and it undid Margaret completely. She wept into her hands while the airplane groaned around her. There, Ethan's finger stabbed toward a gauge.
Number two, it's not the engine Kalin. It's the fuel controller. It's hunting. It keeps trying to correct and overcorrecting. If we baby it, it'll hold.
If we demand from it, it'll flame out. So from here on, we treat that throttle like it's made of glass. Nice and slow. Every input. Okay.
Okay. She was breathing again. Actually breathing. What do you need from me? I need your hands on this too because I have not flown anything this big in my life.
I flew fast and light and mean. This is a whale. So you know this airplane. I know how to keep a broken airplane in the sky. And between the two of us, we make one pilot who can do this.
Deal. Deal. Read me the hydraulic pressure. Green systems at She swallowed. It's at 1,400 and falling.
Normal's 3,000. Ethan's jaw tightened. How fast is it falling? About 100 a minute. He did the math without wanting to.
14 minutes until the green system was dry. And when it went dry, half his flight controls went with it. The nice ones. The responsive ones, the ones that made a whale fly like it wanted to be flown. We've got a leak, he said.
Somewhere in the green line. Nothing we can do about it from up here. So, we plan around it. He keyed the radio. Kalin, get me a frequency for anybody.
Shanwick, gander, anybody who can hear us and pull up the nearest field that can take this airplane. I need pavement and I need it long. Her fingers flew across the console. Nearest suitable field is she stopped. Her face fell.
It's Greenland Kanger Lusuakok or the military field at Thuli. Everything else is behind us or too far. We're closest to She checked again. There's a runway. It's long enough.
But it's Thuly. It's a US military installation. It's Arctic. The weather up there is how far? 210 mi.
How long at this speed? 3540 minutes. Ethan looked at the hydraulic gauge again. 14 minutes until the green system died. 40 minutes to a runway.
He'd be flying a crippled airplane handc cranked with half his controls dead for 26 minutes over open arctic water before he ever saw pavement. Okay, he said. And his voice didn't change at all. And that steadiness was the bravest thing Kalin Brooks had ever heard. That's fine.
That's a workable problem. That's not a workable. It's workable because we're going to work it, Ethan said. Get me that radio and Kalin. He glanced at her.
You're doing good. You hear me? Doyle would be proud of you. She bit her lip hard enough to bleed and turned to the radio and she flew. Behind them in the cabin, a small voice, "Mr.
Mister, are we going to crash? " Walter looked down. A boy, maybe eight, in seat 14, C, alone, gripping the armrests with both small hands. No parent beside him, an unaccompanied minor, the kind the airline promises to watch, and then forgets in a crisis. Walter's old knees screamed, but he lowered himself into the empty seat beside the boy. What's your name, son?
Tyler. Tyler. Good, strong name. You flying by yourself, Tyler? The boy nodded, chin trembling.