Chapter 18 - The Last Flight
I bolted toward the idling cargo van, jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed it into gear, and floored the accelerator, chasing the accelerating jet down the runway.
The Gulfstream was fifty yards ahead, its nose gear beginning to lift off the slick surface.
"Commander, you can't stop that bird from the ground!" the radio crackled.
"Watch me."
I aimed the van directly at the plane's left wingtip, timing the closure rate with cold, detached calculation. At eighty miles per hour, I veered sharply, clipping the trailing edge of the left wing with the van’s reinforced roof rack.
The impact tore through sheet metal with a deafening screech. The plane spun violently, its left wing scraping the runway in a shower of brilliant orange sparks. The pilot killed the throttles, desperately engaging the emergency brakes as the aircraft skidded sideways, plowing into the grass embankment at the far end of the tarmac before coming to a dead halt.
I threw the van into park, jumped out with my sidearm drawn, and moved toward the crushed jet.
The main cabin door hissed open, and Captain Thorne stumbled down the stairs, coughing from the smoke of the blown tires, his uniform torn and covered in soot. He clutched a heavy aluminum case containing the foreign transaction codes.
When he looked up and saw me standing ten feet away, weapon steady at center mass, his eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
"You..." Thorne stammered, his aristocratic composure completely shattered. "You died in the bay. Vance said you were just an administrative nobody..."
"Vance was wrong about a lot of things, Captain," I said, stepping forward. "Drop the case. Hands on your head."
Thorne’s jaw clenched, his hand twitching toward a hidden sidearm beneath his coat.
"Don't do it, Thorne," I warned, my voice flat. "Don't throw a punch you can't win."
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For five long seconds, the traitor stared down the barrel of my gun, the rain washing the soot from his pale face. Slowly, agonizingly, his fingers loosened. The case dropped to the mud with a dull thud. He raised his hands and dropped to his knees.
***
