Dance Moms Bodyguard (14) Collide

Chapter 8 : Calling Home

Under Chloe's direction, the jet flew to the Dyer Country Club. Chloe remembered her father used to play golf there when she was little, and sitting next to the club was a small airstrip, often she saw small planes taking off and landing.

"One-G-Eight. This is Dassault Falcon E414FS. We have a malfunction at our starboard engine. Request emergency landing immediately." Captain Amer lied on the radio, an emergency could get them land anywhere, with or without permission.

When there was no response, Amer repeated his message.

"Are you sure it's still there?" the co-pilot turned to Chloe.

"I haven't been there for a long time." she bit her lip, praying it's still in service.

"A strip is a strip. So long as we can land." Amer tried the radio again.

The sun was about to set, under the orange light they spotted the club, significant by the odd shapes of grassy land only found on a golf course, and a straight long strip by its side.

"Grass strip, no landing light." the co-pilot observed.

"Is it going to be a problem?" Chloe worried looking down the land below, the airstrip slowly losing its visibility under the setting sun.

"This is a strip for single engine planes, too short for a jet. For commercial pilots this is suicide." Captain Amer answered, then he smirked. "But watch how the Air Force does it!"

Chloe almost scream when the plane banked sharp, descending so fast her heart almost fell out.

Amer aligned the jet nose to the airstrip, yanked the yoke hard, pitching the plane to a steep angle, using the entire body like a giant flap, cutting their air speed in short distance. Chloe knew nothing about aviation, but this drastic approach would slam the jet tail into the ground no doubt.

Seeing they almost meet the runway, Amer pushed the nose down, just enough room for the tail to lift, before the wheels slamming to the ground.

The whole cabin shook as the jet traveling down uneven grass, out the window Chloe watched the wing raising every flap, desperately dragging the air to reduce speed.

At the last quarter of the runway, Amer twisted the yoke, spinning the jet to an angle, using the side of the wheels to create more drag, pulling the aircraft to a complete stop.

"Don't forget to give us a good review!" Captain Amer joked.

"Five stars!" Chloe grunted.

She quickly picked up her things, and her soul, half expecting she couldn't live out of this crazy stunt.

She quickly got off the jet and ran to the office building, it hasn't changed all these years. The windows were dark but there were cars parking outside, indicating there were people inside. She pushed through the door and found half a dozen customers complaining over the front desk. Two workers were struggling with papers on their desks, sharing a single flashlight, apparently unaware of a giant Falcon jet just landed on their backyard.

"Please! I need a car!" Chloe went up to the old lady behind the desk.

"Wish I can, Darling." the old lady shook helplessly. "Everything went down. No power, no phone, everything just died."

Chloe checked her own phone, it was still using the SIM card from UAE, but it covers roaming, and such work everywhere in the world, but it had no signal.

She quickly ran back to the jet, Amer and the co-pilot were discussing how to take off on the short runway.

"Please! Can you check your phones?" asked Chloe entering the cockpit.

They each took out their phones and try, recalibrated the setting and tried again.

"Strange. It was working before we land." one said.

"Maybe the network is down."

"Try the radio."

Amer put on his headset and dialed a switch, read out their tail number and asked for a response. He tried several frequencies, minutes later the radio cracked.

"This is Lansdowne. Do you need assistance?"

"We are low on fuel and need to land. We're flying into Pittsburgh but they are not responding." Amer lied again.

"Their systems are down and so are their radios. All flights are directed to nearby airports. We can direct you to us. Do you have enough fuel?"

"Radio still working." Amer turned to Chloe. "Try the satellite phone."

His co-pilot took out the phone and unfolded the fat antenna, dialed a number and listened, then spoke Arabic to report their status.

"Satellite is working." he confirmed.

"May I borrow that?" Chloe asked.

Receiving the phone Chloe dialed Paige, then Kendall, none of them got through, then she dialed JoJo.

"Chloe!" JoJo's voice came yelling. "Where are you now?"

"We just landed outside Pittsburgh, the whole place is blacked out, I can't reach anyone!"

"Listen to me very carefully. What I'm going to tell you is highly classified. You must not say a word of this."

Chloe stepped out of the cockpit and moved to the back of the plane, where there was a private bedroom. She went inside and closed the door behind her.

"JoJo. What's going on?"

It took a second for JoJo to put her words together, and then she spoke.

"Do you remember Nicholai Komarov? The extremist you took down in the helicopter?"

"He's still alive?"

"Yes, he faked his death in a Siberia prison two months ago, then they caught him and a group of people on CCTV raiding a military storage facility in Omsk."

"And he is here? In Pittsburgh??"

"It is what the FSB believes. His motive so far unknown, but he has a troop of no less than twenty men, and they have military grade weapons."

"Oh My God! What should I do?"

"You stay right where you are. They're sending a team of Spetsnaz to eliminate Komarov and his men, before the news have him."

"But I can't just sit here! I'm just outside the city, I need to know if Paige and Kendall are okay."

"You wait for us."

"What?"

JoJo turned to her team, behind her Tilly was recalibrating her new arms, Brooke and Camryn were checking their wing suits, Masha was inspecting the parachute on their cargo, all inside the belly of an Antonov freighter.

"We're already in the air. We will reach you in four hours."

"But JoJo, Pittsburgh is sealed off, I couldn't even get a landing spot! And I couldn't reach anyone!"

"Komarov launched an EMP, it kills all running electronics."

"But my phone is still working." Chloe checked her phone again.

"EMP killed the network, cell phones cannot work without it. Keep all your electronics turned off unless you need to use them. We don't know if there will be another burst."

"I'll try."

"And Chloe," JoJo added. "Don't let Komarov find you, he may get personal."

"I know." Chloe nodded, remembering their last confrontation.