Chương 6
Now the bay rushed toward me in dark folds.
I tried to remember the landing position.
Feet together.
Knees slightly bent.
Protect the abdomen.
Do not lock the legs.
I had practiced it while technicians watched with clipboards.
None of them had been seven months pregnant.
A wave flashed beneath me.
I hit hard enough to lose every thought.
Cold water closed over my head.
The harness dragged sideways.
The canopy settled across the surface and pulled.
My eyes opened to darkness filled with bubbles.
I kicked.
Nothing happened.
The lower restraint had twisted around my left thigh.
Panic arrived clean and immediate.
I clawed for the release.
My fingers found fabric.
Then metal.
Then nothing.
I swallowed water.
The baby.
The thought cut through everything.
I forced my hand downward again.
There.
The emergency buckle.
I pulled.
It resisted.
I pulled harder.
The harness released so suddenly that my shoulder struck something rigid beneath the water.
I surfaced coughing.
"Victoria!"
A voice came from somewhere beyond the darkness.
I turned.
A white searchlight swept across the water.
The extraction boat was farther away than Marcus had promised.
Or perhaps distance had lost meaning.
"Victoria!"
"I'm here!"
My answer came out as a broken rasp.
The searchlight found the collapsed canopy first.
Then me.
The boat surged closer.
Two recovery divers went over the side before it had fully slowed.
Hands reached me.
"Don't pull my abdomen."
"We know."
"My baby."
"We've got you."
"My baby."
"Victoria, look at me."
One of the divers lifted his mask.
I recognized Caleb Morris from Calder's emergency systems team.
His face was pale beneath the floodlight.
"Keep breathing."
"I can't feel her."
"Keep breathing."
They fitted a flotation collar behind my neck and moved me toward the stern platform.
Every bump of the water hurt.
My left hip burned.
My back felt as though someone had driven a steel bar through it.
I kept one hand pressed against my stomach.
Nothing moved.
"She's not moving."
Caleb looked toward the paramedic on deck.
"Get the monitor ready."
"She's not moving."
"Victoria."
"Do something."
"We are."
The response irritated me with its calmness.
I hated everyone for being calm.
They lifted me onto the deck.
A paramedic cut away the torn lower half of my dress.
The ruined silk stuck to my legs.
Someone draped a thermal blanket over me.
Another person pressed adhesive sensors to my chest.
I pushed their hands away.
"The baby first."
"We need both of you."
"The baby first."
A woman knelt beside me and opened a portable fetal Doppler.
"Victoria, I'm Dana."
"I don't care."
"Good."
She squeezed gel onto the probe.
"You can hate me after we find the heartbeat."
The probe touched my abdomen.
Static filled the small speaker.
Nothing else.
My chest locked.
Dana moved the probe.
Static.
She changed the angle.
Static.
"Come on."
I did not know whether I was speaking to her or my daughter.
Then a fast, uneven thudding burst from the speaker.
I started crying before I understood why.
Dana did not smile.
"Heartbeat present."
"Is she okay?"
"I can't tell you that from this."
"Is it normal?"
"It's elevated."
"How elevated?"
"We're going to the hospital."
That was not an answer.
I almost demanded one.
Then something moved beneath my palm.
A small push.
Weak, but unmistakable.
I covered my face.
The boat engine roared harder.
Marcus appeared from the cabin wearing a life jacket over his suit.
His tie was gone.
His expression was the most frightened I had ever seen it.
"You."
I pointed at him.
He crouched beside me.
"Me."
"You said four minutes."
"It was six."
"You lied."
"I estimated."
"Badly."
"Apparently."
I started laughing.
The laugh turned into a cough.
Marcus caught my shoulder before I rolled sideways.
"Careful."
"Owen."
His expression changed.
My laughter stopped.
"What happened?"
"He's alive."
"That's not what I asked."
"Jonathan struck him again after you went out."
"Again?"
"With the gun."
Marcus glanced toward Dana.
"Pilot managed to trigger the emergency code and turned back toward the airfield."
"Jonathan?"
"In the cabin."
"Armed?"
"We believe so."
"You believe?"
"Our feed cut for seventeen seconds during the struggle."
I tried to sit up.
Pain tore across my lower back.
Dana pushed me down.
"No."
"Marcus, is Owen flying?"
"Yes."
"Then Jonathan still has the gun."
"Federal tactical teams are waiting."
My heart began hammering again.
"At the airfield?"
"Yes."
"He can't know I'm alive."
"He doesn't."
I stared at him.
Marcus leaned closer.
"Your canopy deployed below his line of sight after the push."
"And the boat?"
"Lights stayed off until the aircraft moved beyond visual range."
"He thinks I hit the water."
"Yes."
"Does he think Owen saw me survive?"
"Owen couldn't have."
I looked toward the black water behind us.
The collapsed Zephyr canopy had been recovered and shoved into a storage bin.
One corner of emerald silk fluttered from beneath the lid.
"Give me my phone."
Marcus did not move.
"My phone."
"It's wet."
"The backup."
"Victoria."
"Give it to me."
Dana shook her head.
"She needs to stay still."
"I can stay still with a phone."
Marcus took a ruggedized device from his jacket and handed it over.
The screen showed the helicopter's telemetry feed.
Altitude decreasing.
Speed falling.
Heading northwest.
Returning to the airfield.
A second pane displayed an audio waveform.
"Do we still have sound?"
"Intermittent."
"Play it."
Marcus hesitated.
I looked at him.
He tapped the screen.
Static filled the speaker.
Then Jonathan's voice emerged.
"You touched the controls again."
Owen answered, strained and breathless.
"I have to fly the aircraft."
"Don't play games with me."
"I'm not."
"You're going to land normally."
"That's what I'm trying to do."
"If police are there—"
"I don't control who's at the airport."
More static.
Jonathan's breathing came through.
Then his voice dropped.
"She jumped."
I closed my eyes.
Owen said nothing.
"You heard me?"
"I heard you."
"She opened the door herself."
May you like
Silence.
"You tell them she panicked."
