Aviophobia (Flight HA1710 Book 5) by Serena Yates

Author:Serena Yates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diversity Novels

Chapter Seven

Wednesday morning, June 24, 2015

Three days after the crash

Flight HA1710: Black Box Found

Richard stared at the headline of the morning newspaper until his eyes hurt. He blinked until the pain stopped and he could see clearly again. He should have expected this after the news reports on Tuesday afternoon. He’d been so busy looking forward to getting out of the hospital and discussing his plans with Theo that the meaning of it hadn’t really registered in his conscious mind. Half the time he’d done his best to ignore the TV with its seemingly endless repeat of the same information, the same gruesome pictures of the landing site, and the same horror stories from the survivors who’d agreed to be interviewed. He couldn’t take it, so he’d shut it all out.

“You okay?” Camden’s voice from the seat next to his pulled him back into reality.

He looked around. Right. They were on the Liverpool to London train. Camden had insisted on first class tickets, and sharing the coach with only a few quietly working businesspeople had turned out to be a nice way to travel. After the night spent on the ferry from Belfast to Liverpool—as comfortable as the two-berth cabin had been—sitting up and having breakfast was rather enjoyable. Never mind it was a couple of sandwiches, some fruit, and coffee in takeout cups, all easily carried in a white paper bag with the shop’s logo on the outside—anything was better than hospital food.

“Hey, Richard. You okay?” Camden sounded worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Richard looked up and did his best to smile. He was beginning to feel supremely uncomfortable in the basic suit, shirt, and badly fitting sneakers he’d been given by some airline representative so he could leave the hospital.

“Good.” Camden nodded and pointed at his own paper. “Maybe we shouldn’t have bought these. Seeing it all in print is making me more than uncomfortable.”

“You too?” Richard sighed, glad he wasn’t alone. “I guess we better get used to it. Now that they have the black box, well, the cockpit voice recorder at least, they’ll be reporting every single revelation as they dig into the details.”

“On a personal level, I’m not looking forward to that.” Camden grimaced and had some coffee. “But from a professional perspective, it’s not all bad. Once we know what happened, it’ll be easier for us to get some closure.”

“I’m ready to close the case right now.” Richard leaned back, suddenly no longer hungry even though he’d only finished about half his cheese and pickle sandwich. “All those endlessly repeating images make my head hurt. It makes me realize how lucky I was to be unconscious when they got me out. I’m not sure I would have wanted to see and hear the disaster firsthand. Remembering those moments when we went down is bad enough.”

“I know.” Camden shuddered. “I’m having a harder time with it than I thought. I guess my psychology professors were right when they told us never to ignore or to underestimate the effect such emotions can have on victims of any personal or public disaster.

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