The Ghost of Africa by Don Brobst

Author:Don Brobst [Brobst, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503933224
Published: 2016-04-25T16:00:00+00:00

When Jim entered the hangar, his neck hair bristled. Something was wrong. Every light in the building was out, even the desk lamp in the office. Jarrod always left that one on. Jim opened the door to the small cubicle and switched on the lights. The desktop was neat and clean. Not a paper to be found. He opened the top drawer of the file cabinet, then the next. Nothing seemed out of place there.

Walking to the metal box on the wall, Jim slid the latch, opened it, and threw the hangar and warehouse breakers on. As the rooms burst with light, the silent orderliness disturbed him. The wings of his plane reached practically from wall to wall since the hangar had been built for smaller aircraft. Slowly Jim walked onto the varnished concrete floor. What was missing? What was wrong with this picture?

“Jarrod?” No response. Jim called again. Still nothing.

Jim suddenly noticed that Jarrod’s toolbox was gone. So was his footlocker, but the utility closet where Jarrod kept his flight gear was still padlocked.

Jim noticed the microphone tethered to the console, picked it up, and keyed the control tower.

“This is Captain Jim. Did Jarrod Vincent fly out today? He should be back if he did. It’s late.”

The question was followed by a pause, then the control tower responded. “Jarrod flew out two days ago. Said he’d be gone for a week. Left you in charge.”

“Me? In charge?”

“Sounds like you don’t know much about it, Cap’n. Everything okay?”

“I’ve been working on some other things and haven’t been here for a few days. I knew nothing about this.” Jim thought for a moment. “Listen, guys, don’t worry about it. I’ll do some checking and get to the bottom of it. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. You never know what’s on that guy’s mind.”

“Ten four, Cap’n. Let us know if you need anything. You had us scared for a minute there.”

Jim looked around the hangar again as he collected his thoughts. He stopped when he spotted the bolt cutters in his own toolbox. Retrieving them, he snapped the lock off Jarrod’s utility closet. Jim stared at an empty three-by-three-meter cubicle. He glanced around the room once more and noticed that several of the maps were missing from the wall.

Jim paced around his Cessna turboprop. This didn’t add up. The last conversation he’d had with Jarrod was about the delay in Juba that had kept Jim from being there for Paul. Jarrod hadn’t seemed to care, which was unlike him. Or was it?

Jim pulled the records of the flight plans they were required to log. There was nothing listed for Jarrod. He walked outside and checked the hangars one by one. Jarrod’s SR22 was gone.

“Okay, Jim. Your best friend’s missing, the FBI says your niece was kidnapped, and now Jarrod Vincent is mysteriously AWOL,” he said out loud as if speaking to someone in front of him.

Quickening his pace back to his hangar, Jim continued his conversation. “I don’t know what all this means, but I’ve had just about enough.

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.