Twister by Chris Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

later they had undone the vest and rolled Brad back over. Ben moved his arms out so that they could take it off more easily.
     
When he stood up, he had the bulletproof vest in his hands. He was just holding it up in front of his body when he heard Angelo speak.
     
'Ben,' the Italian boy said firmly. ' Dammelo . Give it to me.'
     
Ben blinked.
     
'I mean it, Ben. I'm slightly smaller than you, and if this goes according to plan, you don't want to be fighting the hijacker when you should be getting to the controls of the cockpit. And anyway, this should be my job.'
     
'Why?' a woman's voice asked.
     
Angelo didn't reply. He just stared meaningfully at Ben, who nodded slowly and handed the vest over to Angelo.
     
'All right, Angelo,' he said softly. 'If that's what you want.'
     
The two of them turned to look at the cockpit door. Ben couldn't help noticing that everyone had got out of their way and had retreated to the safety of their seats. Only Danny was standing with them.
     
Ben took a deep breath. Now was the time. The safety of everyone on the plane was up to them.
     
 
     
The two striker aircraft – Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs – had taken off from Key West Naval Air Station within minutes of the Code Red being raised. They roared from their island base out over the sea before making a sharp turn and heading through the clear sky up towards their target. Each of the aircraft carried easily enough weaponry to take down a civilian plane in mid-air, and both of them were flown by experienced pilots. Pilots who had been in war zones. Pilots who weren't afraid to carry out difficult orders if the chain of command made them.
     
The two F-35s appeared immediately on Jack Simpson's air-traffic control screen. These military aircraft were a different colour to the civilian planes that filled his screen. They moved faster too. Much faster. It was difficult to estimate these things, but Jack reckoned it wouldn't be more than ten minutes before they caught up with the rogue plane. What happened then would be anyone's guess. He felt his sweat seeping through all the pores of his skin as he tried to keep tabs on all the other air traffic and do his bit to guide them in safely. But it wasn't easy to concentrate when things were going so wrong up there. He wanted to close his eyes and pray for the poor passengers on the plane whose lives were hanging by a thread. But closing his eyes wouldn't have been sensible at all.
     
'Weird kind of day,' Jack's colleague observed. The guy's voice was tense.
     
'You can say that again,' Jack replied.
     
A pause as they both looked at their screens.
     
'They're calling it Hurricane Jasmine,' Jack's colleague continued.
     
'Pretty name,' Jack said.
     
'Not such a pretty storm.'
     
A voice shouted in the background. 'Listen up, everyone. All Florida airports to be closed to incoming traffic. Hurricane's moving quickly and unpredictably. Divert everything up north to Atlanta or Cincinnati.'
     
Jack's colleague snorted. 'Wouldn't mind being diverted up north myself. It's looking nasty out there.'
     
'We're safe here, aren't we?' Jack asked.
     
'Should be. Hurricane should pass to the west of here. Thing's got a mind of its own, though, so don't take my word for it.'
     
But Jack wasn't paying attention to him any more. He was staring again at the two striker planes moving inexorably towards the civilian aircraft.
     
It was just a communications failure, he told himself. Just that. Jack ignored the fact that the plane had changed course and increased its velocity. That was just a blip, surely. Maybe the pilot had been spooked by the approaching hurricane. Jack knew he would be.
     
But if the aircraft had maintained its original course, it would have landed well before the hurricane hit.
     
He put all those thoughts from his head. Any second, the radio frequency would burst into life and the military aircraft could pull away.
     
It was all going to be OK. Surely it