Phoenix Rising by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

Wednesday, March 15, 9:00 P.M. EST

Clipper 40

Brian Murphy sat with the opened electronics box in his lap, feeling helpless.

Working by intercom with Tyson, who in turn was relaying instructions coming over the satellite phone from the team in Pan Am’s Seatac hangar, he had located the “black box” that controlled the engine instrument displays and opened it—but found nothing out of place.

“Tyson, tell them I see nothing unusual in here.”

With the difficult lighting and only a pocket flashlight, it had taken Brian some time to analyze the myriad circuit boards in the black box. It took even longer to relay the questions and answers back and forth to Seattle about strange wires, odd clips or connectors, or other obvious signs that someone had tampered with it. He could see nothing out of place.

“Did they check out the overall serial number on the case?” Brian asked.

Tyson had relayed the serial number a half hour earlier. Now he was back on the intercom.

“That box, Brian, was stolen from United’s bench stock in San Francisco. They want you to read the serial numbers of each circuit card.”

One by one, Brian pulled the electronics-laden cards and relayed the numbers.

The sixth one held the key.

“Tyson! Tell them this one looks funny. There are marks all over it, as if things have been resoldered sloppily. There’s also a tiny device that doesn’t look like anything else wired to the card. I couldn’t see it before.”

He read the serial number. It didn’t match United’s records.

They were discussing it when the lights went out for the seventh time.

Brian waited for the APU to start again and the lights to come on. Instead, Tyson’s voice rang in his headset, battery power alone keeping their connection alive.

“It’s not starting, Brian! I’ve tried it three times. If I keep on, I’ll be out of battery.”

“Okay … okay, let’s think this one through. I’m going to plug this box back in without the bad component.”

“Yeah, but we still can’t even try an engine start without an APU.”

“I know. But hold off any more start attempts. If we can get it running just once more, I want to be ready to fire off an engine.”

Working by failing flashlight, he pushed the box back into place, carefully checking the connections—and then stopped. They might have only one chance to start. As long as the APU was down, the satellite phone was dead and there would be no way to check the theory with Seattle. But if they could restart the APU and keep it running for just a few minutes with the box out, they might get an engine started even without readings for oil pressure and engine speed.

It would be a gamble.

“Tyson, why don’t I stay here? You try to fire off the APU again. If you get it going, immediately try to start engine number two. If she doesn’t start in forty-five seconds, I’ll yank this box out of here. You’ll keep your finger on the switch in the meantime. That should give us the best of both possibilities.

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