A Summer With a Thief

Preface

     The last day of winter had finally come. The lights of the city flickered down below, as if welcoming the solstice.

"This is your pilot speaking." I looked up. "We are about to begin landing. Please make sure your seats are to an upright position and your trays are put away. Thank you for riding Little Passiac Airlines, come again soon." The mechanical voice crackled to oblivion and I frowned. Zarahan was another two hours away from the Passiac Airport, another two hours into the already late night.

The woman seated in the chair next to mine grimaced and gripped the edges of both of the armrests. She sheepishly glanced at me.

"Sorry, I'm terrified of taking off and landing... and climbing, and falling..." She shuddered. "And turbulence." I forced a smile in her direction and turned away, although I couldn't exactly ignore, her muttering.

"And to be flying on the eve of the solstice, on the night of both full moons. The brightest night. Oh, I should have stayed in the Canada Empire a few extra days, but honestly, when are they going to join the Unity?"

I looked up, surprised. "You were in the Canada Empire?" She blushed, apparently thinking she had been talking to herself.

"Yes, I'm Reagan Spires, the Unity Ambassador of Freedom. They refused to join the unity, but they signed a peace treaty." I stuck out my hand.

"Elliot Wakefield."

"The pleasure's all mine, I'm sure." She said, sizing me up.

"I've been on more planes than can be counted, and I'm still here. There's hardy a chance in the world we'll crash, so you don't have to worry."

"Why have you flown so many times?" She asked.

"I was security." She nodded slowly and looked down. I drew my eyes away, and they locked on a girl sitting four rows ahead of me. She had her hood up and was looking down, seemingly alone. I prod the Ambassador and gesture to the girl.

"How old would you say she is?" I ask.

"Sixteen, if I had to guess." She looked at the bulky man sitting next to the girl. "Why, is the father a criminal?" I grimaced. Was I the only one who noticed the way the girl was sitting as far away from the man as possible? Either she and her father had a really bad relationship, or she knew the man just about as well as I did.

I watched as the girl pushed her tray up into the seat, and the books on the man's tray tumble to the floor. She bent down to pick them up for him, and I lost sight of her. When she sat up again, her hood was down and her tawny hair was spilling down around her shoulders.

The plane began to descend, and the wings tilted upward. I knew the practice, to slow a decent that was dysfunctioning or unintentional. I looked at the ambassador, and decided not to let on what was happening.

"This is your pilot speaking. We are experiencing mild turbulence, do not panic, we will have the plane under control as soon as possible." I shook my head. Mild turbulence was very mild a word for what the plane was doing. It rocked back and forth like a small dingy tossed on high-tide waves.

Passengers were pale and the ambassador wasn't the only one to be gripping her seat so tightly. She gave me a grim smile. I stood up and fought my way to the front of the plane, balancing despite the rocking of the large aircraft.

I made it to the door to the captain's quarter and looked back. The ambassador avoided my eyes, so I looked towards where the girl was sitting, surprised to see the seat empty. I glanced over the plane to see if perhaps she changed seats, but she was gone, and I was running out of time. I tore my eyes away and moved towards the door, not bothering to knock before bursting inside and slamming it behind me.

"You're not supposed to be in here!" The copilot growled.

"And you're supposed to be keeping the plane in the air." I mutter through gritted teeth. I flash the security badge. The date was expired, but the copilot didn't know, and I figured I was the only one who could do anything about the "mild turbulence".

"What's going on?" I asked. The copilot glared at me, but the pilot answered, voice shaking.

"The landing gear is stuck. The light is on. The steadying mechanisms are defective. It all happened at once, we're not sure why."

"Someone used the PTAO to hack into your system.

"Wha-what's that?" The captain stuttered. I rolled my eyes.

"PTAO post-takeoff-administrative-operations." The captain blinked once, his blank expression unchanging. "The access point to the plane's emergency energy, landing, fueling, essentially anything that is needed to keep this plane up. Or in our unfortunate case, to bring it down."
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but what's the point if we don't know how to bypass the PTA operations?" The copilot murmured.

"The only way to stop it..." I paused. "Would be to find where the access point is and, of course, defuse it."

"Like a bomb."

"Well, it's most likely a devise attached to the main power rig, which can be accessed though the baggage area. And we're nearly out of time, so I'll need a key." The copilot stood up and shuffled around, sifting through papers and LTD's.

"Get the key!" I shouted.

"I can't find it!" The copilot repliee, flustered. "Papers and Locational Transmitting Devices by the twenty if you're in need of those, though." I reached for the intercom mic and flicked it on.

"Hello? My name is Elliot Wakefield. I don't know if the pilot and copilot would have me tell you this, but I think you need to know." I paused, and then went on, choosing to ignore the copilot's complaints, since no one moved to stop me."The plane has been hacked." I said. "We are attempting to override the system, but we may not succeed. Call your loved ones. Explain to them what's happening. Tell them you might not make it back."

"Might not?" The copilot exclaimed. "These people are all going to die!" I spun around on my heels.

"Then I will die with them!" I shouted, matching his tone. I lowered my voice. "I will die with them."

I calmly opened the door and stepped out slowly. Dozens of eyes were immediately on me. I looked to where the ambassador sat, and was dismayed to find her gray eyes piercing into mine. She swallowed hard and tried to give me an encouraging smile. I nodded once, drew my eyes four rows ahead, and started when I saw the girl sitting there, her hood up and head down, carefree and happy as if she had just one the lottery.

Her lips moved with speed as if having an exciting conversation with someone, but everyone around her was still speaking with family on their phones. I narrowed my eyes. She looked up and looked hard at me. She had deep brown eyes, and for a moment a thought I saw a glimmer of confusion flash across them.

The plane rocked once, and jerked upward. I kept my balance, but turned towards the back of the plane to check on the ambassador she was smiling and I realized why immediately. The plane hadn't jerked because it was still falling, it had jerked as it turned sharply upward. The pilot had gained control once again. I spun around, expecting to see the girl, but again I saw an empty seat.

I started walking towards the pilot's cabin. I wondered what they had done to stop our decent and regain control.

"Ah!" A high-pitched familiar female voice screamed. I turned on my heels, fists up and balled. "My briefcase is gone!" The ambassador cried. I didn't need to hear her next shout to know what was in the case. "The treaty document." She met my eyes. "Without it, we'll have war in less than three months!"

The plane erupted into chaos.