Phoenix Rising by Nance John J

Author:Nance, John J. [Nance, John J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller
Amazon: B018YPUQMY
Goodreads: 28600438
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Published: 1994-06-07T07:00:00+00:00

The controlled fall from the electronics bay to the ice, the struggle to reposition the metal box and close the hatch, the trip back to the rear door, and even the painful hand-over-hand climb up the inflated emergency slide, all seemed minor inconveniences now that the comfortable whine of number-two engine running played with the sweetness of a concerto in Brian’s ears.

When he had returned to the cockpit, they decided to start number one as well. It took over a minute to start, but it ran. Brian explained the victory to the passengers, then reinitialized the satellite phone and reported the good news to Seattle, getting Bill Conrad on the other end.

“So it was a monkeyed-with card in the box?” Conrad asked.

“Looks like it to me, Bill. I’m no avionics expert, but this is an amateurish job.” Brian turned the circuit card over in his hand, holding it with a handkerchief. “Whoever put this in didn’t care what it looked like, which tells me he didn’t expect there to be anything left of us but wreckage.”

Conrad was silent for a few seconds. “Maybe, but I’m not convinced that whoever did this intended to kill the engines. You said the first effect was to scramble your display screen, right?”

“Correct.”

“Could be he screwed up the wiring, and maybe even the timing. But you’re undoubtedly right on one point.”

“What’s that?”

“Whatever he was trying to do to our aircraft, it was supposed to happen within days, so that no routine maintenance check of that box would find his modified card. Otherwise he would have taken care to make it look right—y’know, like every other circuit card in the box.”

“I suppose,” Brian said.

Conrad told Brian of the confirmation that Clipper Ten’s engine had been bombed, and of the FBI’s response.

“The FBI is fully with us now, Brian, and we’re having to check every component, compartment, and corner of every aircraft on every departure. Now we’re going to have to check all the rack-mounted electronics as well. This keeps up very long, the delays alone will put us out of business.”

Brian was still cold, and still bundled in the parka, but he sat up suddenly in the captain’s seat. “Bill, get with the FBI agent and find out if he’s finished running the fingerprint checks on my files. There’s got to be a tie-in between whoever screwed around with our pilot files and what’s happening to our airplanes.” Brian laid out the details of his midnight search of the files. Bill Conrad promised to get on it immediately.

“Brian, how’s your fuel holding out?” Bill asked.

“Thirty-two thousand pounds. At present rate of consumption, with two engines running, we’d run out in fifteen hours, but we’re going to shut one down and alternate engines to keep them from cold-soaking. That’ll give us thirty hours.”

Brian ended the call with Bill Conrad’s question ringing in his ears. He snapped on the landing lights and stared into the void ahead. The 767 was now pointing toward the middle of the frozen lake, its far shoreline virtually invisible in the darkness.

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