Andy McDermott: The Hunt For Atlantis

Nina reached the rear of the upper hold. None of the containers showed any signs of being connected to the plane’s exterior.

Which meant the virus was on one of the other decks.

She feared she would have to return to the front of the hold and somehow make it past her pursuers, but then spotted a hatch in the rear bulkhead. It opened into a small compartment. She poked her head into the low-ceilinged space. It was an access area, with what looked like large fuseboxes connected to fat skeins of wires on the walls.

And another hatch set into the floor.

She clambered into the cabin and turned the catches on the hatch, pulling it open. Below she saw another metal container, in front of it a pallet onto which was strapped a large, sleek blue-and-silver motorbike. She recognized it as Kari’s, the racing bike she was so proud of.

She dropped down into the middle hold.

The plane now on autopilot, Chase stepped back from the controls. He hoped that would buy some time. How exactly he would get back down to the ground with both pilots dead was another matter…

Running footsteps sounded behind him, and he threw himself against the port wall as shots cracked past him, slamming into the instrument panel. Through the cockpit door he saw a man duck behind the bulkhead, waiting for his companion to give him cover so he could whip around and shoot.

Chase fired first. A single Magnum bullet from his Wildey blew a hole through the bulkhead, and the man standing behind it. Blood sprayed over the cabin, the guard slumping face-first to the floor.

One down. But there was still another man outside.

More bullets slammed into the cockpit, splinters of plastic and fiberboard flying everywhere. The other guard was using the same trick, shooting through the bulkhead. Chase threw himself flat on the deck as shots smacked into the cockpit wall and side panels above him.

He could see the dead man’s pistol on the cabin floor, a SIG-Sauer P226. Presumably the other guard had the same weapon, which meant he had fifteen bullets in his clip, thirteen of which had now been fired, fourteen-

Fifteen!

If his count was wrong, it would get him killed.

Chase rolled, arms stretched out in front of him as he threw himself at the open cockpit door. He saw the second of Frost’s guards frantically loading a new clip into his pistol-

The Wildey boomed. The guard flew off his feet, collapsing at the rear of the compartment.

Chase jumped up and hurried aft, kicking the guns away from the two men in case they weren’t dead. A moment’s experienced examination told him that they were.

Unless there were other crew members he didn’t know about, that just left Kari aboard.

And Nina.

Nina heard the gunshots and ducked down next to the motorbike in case any of them found their way into the hold.

The last shot was from Chase’s Wildey. Which she hoped meant he was the last man standing…

“Eddie?” she called. “Eddie!”

Chase heard the female voice coming from the hold.

Was it Nina-or Kari? It was hard to tell over the engine noise. He went to the door, seeing nothing but metal containers under the cold lights. “Nina! Is that you?”

A head popped up towards the rear of the hold. Chase recognized the auburn hair instantly. “Nina!”

He ran into the hold.

Kari heard Chase shout from below as she went back into the executive cabin. She paused, peering down the stairs to make sure he wasn’t lurking in ambush, then descended silently.

Gun at the ready, she entered the crew room. No sign of Chase, but her two men were dead on the floor. The cockpit door was open. One look told her that both pilots were also dead.

She could lock herself in the cockpit and regain control of the plane. However, the holes in the bulkhead told her that would be a risky option. Chase could shoot her right through the door.

And if she were locked in the cockpit, that would leave Chase and Nina free to locate and sabotage the virus canisters…

She hurried into the cockpit anyway, to check the plane’s status. Several panels had been damaged by bullets, but she was able to find the information she most urgently needed. The autopilot was engaged, the A380 at 12,000 feet and 320 knots. The fact that it was off-course and hadn’t reached its cruising altitude would already have alerted air traffic control that something was wrong, as would the lack of communication. If the plane failed to respond for more than a few minutes, the air force would be sent to intercept. Damn it!

The plane had to be brought back to the ground before the military got involved. If she returned to Ravnsfjord, a private airport, then the events aboard could be covered up, blamed upon human error. A second attempt to release the Trident virus could be made with little delay.

She examined the autopilot controls, which luckily were undamaged. The A380’s computers were state of the art, and the runway at Ravnsfjord had been upgraded with the latest navigation aids; in an emergency, the plane could literally fly itself to a safe landing without any human intervention.

Which was fortunate, because there was no longer anybody aboard capable of piloting the enormous aircraft.

Suddenly sweating, Kari activated the emergency landing sequence.

Chase squeezed past containers until he reached Nina, who was waiting by Kari’s racing bike. He hugged her. “Jesus, you’re okay!”

“I thought you’d died!” Nina cried.

“Not me, love, I’m indestructible.” She kissed him. “Oh, hello! Where did that come from?”

“Just happy to see you!” The smile fell from her face. “Eddie, listen-somewhere on the plane there’s-”

“A virus, I know. Any idea where?”

“No, but it must be hooked to the outside of the plane. There’s nothing in the upper hold.”

“There wasn’t anything like that forward of here,” said Chase, “and I didn’t see anything in the lower hold.”

“Then there’s not much left to check! Come on!” Nina pulled him with her towards the rear of the hold. “You check the ones on the left side, I’ll go right.”

There were fewer containers on Chase’s side of the plane, and none were out of the ordinary. He reached the huge aft cargo door, stopping to check the controls. Maybe if he opened the door-or even ejected it entirely, as closer inspection revealed a warning notice and instructions about firing its explosive bolts-he could force the plane down…

“Eddie!” He looked around, the door already forgotten as he saw Nina waving frantically from the rear of the plane. “Over here, I’ve found it!”

Chase hurried to the back of the hold. Nina stood by a pair of steel hoses leading from the rearmost container to fittings in the aft bulkhead. “Here!” she said. “Any idea how to stop the virus from being released?”

He shook his head. “Normally when I deal with WMDs, I just blow up the whole fucking building!” There was a padlock on the container’s front panel, but a couple of blows with the butt of his Wildey took care of it.

“Oh my God,” Nina exclaimed as she looked inside. What Frost had shown her in the biolab had led her to expect small flasks of the virus; the three containers she saw here were more like oil drums. “Now what do we do?”