Chapter 2: The Voice She Never Forgot
The cockpit door opened—and Laura stopped breathing.
The co-pilot was slumped forward in his seat, unconscious.
The captain was pale, one hand pressed to his chest, the other gripping the controls.
Warning lights blinked across every panel.
"Thank God," the captain rasped.
"She said you'd come."
Laura stepped inside.
"Who said that?"
He didn't answer.
He was already losing consciousness.
Laura slid into the co-pilot's seat and took the controls.
Her hands moved on instinct—checking altitude, airspeed, fuel.
The aircraft was stable but descending slowly.
She could fix that.
What she couldn't fix was the name written on the small folded note tucked beneath the throttle.
Her name.
Her full name.
Her military call sign.
Her hands went still.
No one on this flight was supposed to know that name.
She had buried it years ago along with everything else—the mission, the crash, the three people who never came home.
She turned the note over.
Four words on the back:
*"We need to talk."*
A sound came from behind her.
She spun around.
A man stood in the cockpit doorway.
He was watching her with calm, steady eyes—like someone who had been waiting a very long time for this exact moment.
"Hello, Laura," he said quietly.
"I was wondering when you'd finally wake up."
She had never seen his face before.
But she recognized his voice.
May you like
It was the voice from the radio.
The last voice she had heard before everything went silent on that final mission.
