Chapter 5 - THE FATHER IN THE DARK
Natalie stood in the aisle as her father's voice echoed through the aircraft.
“Dad?”
No response.
Only static.
Then his voice returned.
“You always were the stubborn one.”
Natalie felt twelve years of anger rise inside her.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough to see you.”
Michael grabbed her shoulder.
“Don't answer him.”
Natalie pulled away.
“You knew this was happening.”
“I knew they might try.”
“You brought me onto this plane.”
“No.”
Michael looked at her.
“I came because I knew they were coming for you.”
The distinction didn't matter to Natalie.
“You should have warned me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
Michael looked at her daughter.
“Emma.”
Natalie froze.
“What?”
Michael's voice softened.
“I contacted Emma six months ago.”
Natalie's face hardened.
“You went near my daughter?”
“I needed to know if she had inherited—”
Natalie grabbed him by the collar.
“Don't you dare finish that sentence.”
Michael looked toward Mara.
“Tell her.”
Mara whispered:
“Emma has the same neurological pattern your father discovered in you.”
Natalie released Michael.
“What pattern?”
Mara explained.
“When you were a child, your father tested your ability to process complex visual information. You could recognize flight patterns faster than trained adults.”
Natalie remembered.
The strange tests.
The flashing lights.
The puzzles.
The hours her father spent watching her.
She had thought they were games.
They weren't.
“He trained me.”
Mara nodded.
“He was preparing you.”
“For what?”
Michael answered.
“To become the human override.”
Natalie stared at him.
The system could control an aircraft.
But it still needed one thing.
A human mind capable of recognizing whether its commands were valid.
Her mind.
Her instincts.
Her training.
Everything that had made her a fighter pilot.
Everything she had tried to forget.
The aircraft suddenly lurched.
Daniel shouted from the cockpit.
“We're losing altitude!”
Natalie ran forward.
The navigation display showed a new destination.
A private airstrip.
Daniel fought the controls.
“It won't let me change course.”
Natalie sat beside him.
“Give me the manual controls.”
“I can't.”
“Then disconnect the automation.”
“I already tried.”
Natalie studied the panel.
There.
A hidden access point.
She recognized the architecture.
“Your aircraft has a maintenance override.”
Daniel stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because I helped design the military version.”
She pulled a panel open.
Inside was a physical connection.
Michael entered the cockpit.
“Natalie, don't.”
She ignored him.
She connected the override.
The aircraft jolted.
The system fought back.
Warning alarms exploded.
The captain shouted.
Natalie gripped the controls.
For the first time in years, her hands remembered exactly what to do.
“Come on.”
The aircraft responded.
Barely.
Then the system spoke through the cockpit speakers.
Not a recorded voice.
A live transmission.
Her father.
“If you take control, Natalie, you'll kill everyone aboard.”
Natalie looked at the instruments.
She smiled coldly.
“No.”
She pushed the aircraft into a controlled climb.
“You're the one who's about to lose control.”
Her father went silent.
Then he said something that made her blood freeze.
“Natalie…”
May you like
A pause.
“Ask your mother who Emma's real father is.”
