Guardian by Catherine Mann

Author:Catherine Mann [Mann, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, General, Suspense, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 0425250997
Google: 1aWmVDEWcukC
Amazon: B007FEFBHQ
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2012-09-03T21:00:00+00:00

NINE

“What do you mean, ‘problem’?” Sophie struggled to push the words past panic. Her fingers dug into the seat, her ears roaring with the mingling sounds of the engine and her heart.

“We have a fuel leak,” David said calmly. “We need to land as soon as possible.”

Sunlight streaked through the windscreen from the wide-open sky. It was a long, long way down to the stark desert below. Although the plane sounded fine, a leak didn’t mean a crash. She needed to stop imagining the worst just because of Lowell.

She swallowed down the fear and dug deep for the warrior calm drilled into her. “Okay, so we don’t see Ricky’s house today. Of course we should go straight back to the airport.”

“Sophie, it’s more pressing than that.” His voice stayed as steady as his hands on the yoke. “We’re not going to make it to the airport.”

She scanned the horizon, empty except for desert and more desert. “Is there another landing strip nearby?”

“We have to land here, now.”

She looked down again, searching for some sign of civilization. No houses, just scrub, cacti, and Joshua trees. Her stomach lurched up to her throat. “We’re going to crash.”

“No,” he said so confidently she almost believed him. “We’re going to have a controlled emergency landing in that dry lake bed ahead.”

She scrounged up her analytical lawyer side and studied the large, flat, circular patch that looked like an alien spacecraft had once landed there. Intellectually, she understood that plenty of planes landed on dry lake beds deliberately.

But this landing was not on purpose, and the leak could have horrific consequences. “How bad is the fuel situation?”

“At best, we’ve got three minutes left,” he said as evenly as discussing how much milk remained in the fridge. “Make sure you’re securely fastened. I need to call in our emergency to the control tower so they can send out someone to pick us up.”

To pick up their remains?

She couldn’t afford to freak out. The last thing David needed was a distraction. She would hold up her end, wouldn’t let him—or herself—down.

Reviewing crash protocol from her survival-school days, she checked her seat belt again, going through the motions by rote, the way training should kick in. And through it all, she reminded herself to breathe. Just breathe.

Dimly, she registered him calling in to the control tower, his voice steady and calm. “Center, this is Cessna five-three-zero-zero declaring an emergency. Have a fuel leak and will be setting down on Delamar Dry Lake. Over.”

After just those few words, he went silent, intently focused on the barren desert stretching ahead.

* * *

Bile burned the back of her throat. She’d stood down Taliban insurgents, ducked through incoming fire to run from tent to tent and write wills for soldiers. But something had happened to her since Lowell’s fatal accident. She’d lost her edge, her nerve, her ability to distance herself from the situation and trust her professional instincts.

One breath at a time, she willed herself to focus. She couldn’t surrender to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.