Chapter 5: The Woman in Row Twenty-Two
Laura didn't go immediately.
She spent twelve minutes bringing the aircraft back to full stable cruise, documenting the instrument readings, and radioing a calm update to air traffic control.
She told them the captain had experienced a minor health episode, that she was a qualified pilot, and that the situation was under control.
ATC confirmed.
They would have emergency services standing by at Madrid.
She did all of it with the USB drive in her jacket pocket and her brother's photograph folded against her chest.
Then she stood up.
"Stay here," she told Hawkins.
"Don't touch anything."
She walked back through the cabin with the same steady pace she had used walking forward an hour ago.
A few passengers looked up.
Most had fallen back into their movies or their sleep.
The flight attendant near the galley gave her a questioning look.
"Everything is stable," Laura said quietly.
"I need to speak to one of the passengers briefly.
Row twenty-two."
The flight attendant nodded, uncertain but not stopping her.
Row twenty-two.
Aisle seat.
The woman sitting there was in her early fifties, with close-cropped silver hair and reading glasses pushed up on her head.
She had a laptop open and a cup of tea going cold beside it.
She looked up when Laura stopped beside her row.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then the woman closed her laptop.
"I wasn't sure you'd come back here," she said.
"I thought you might land the plane and walk straight past me."
"I thought about it." Laura looked at the empty middle seat.
"Move your bag."
Mara Solano moved her bag.
Laura sat down.
"You booked my ticket," Laura said.
"Yes."
"You arranged the conference invitation."
"Yes."
"You put a man I believed was d*ad on this aircraft and had him drug the flight crew to get me alone in a cockpit."
Mara's expression didn't flinch.
"The co-pilot's sedative was a low-dose sleep aid.
He's going to be fine.
The captain's cardiac episode was real and I'm deeply sorry for the timing of it—that was not planned."
"None of this was your decision to make."
"No," Mara said.
"It wasn't.
And I made it anyway, because eleven days from now Raymond Colt walks into a confirmation hearing and comes out the other side with more power and more protection than he has ever had.
After that point, the case becomes almost impossible to prosecute." She looked at Laura directly.
"I've been working on this for six years.
I have run out of safe options."
Laura looked at her hands in her lap.
"David trusted you," she said.
"David was one of the most careful people I have ever known.
He didn't trust easily." Mara reached into the bag she had moved and produced a slim manila envelope.
"He left this with me.
He said it was only to be opened by you, and only if something happened to him."
Laura looked at the envelope.
Her name was on the front in David's handwriting.
She didn't take it immediately.
"What's inside?" she said.
"I don't know.
I never opened it.
That was the agreement."
The cabin was quiet around them.
A child two rows back had fallen asleep across her father's shoulder.
The overhead lights were still dimmed.
Laura took the envelope.
She turned it over once.
The seal was intact.
She slid her finger under the flap and opened it carefully, the way she had opened his birthday cards when they were children—slowly, like the paper itself was worth keeping.
Inside was a single folded sheet and a small photograph.
The photograph was of the two of them.
She was in her flight suit, standing on a tarmac somewhere hot and bright.
David was beside her in civilian clothes, squinting into the sun, laughing at something she had just said.
She remembered the day.
She remembered exactly what she had said.
She unfolded the sheet.
*Laura—*
*If you're reading this, then I didn't make it back, and I'm sorry for that.
I know what it costs you when people don't come home.*
*I found something that needed to be found.
I couldn't leave it alone.
You know how I am.
You always said I had your stubbornness without your discipline.*
*The intercepts are real.
The channel is real.
The man behind it is real, and he is dangerous, and he will keep being dangerous until someone stops him.*
*I'm not asking you to fight.
I'm asking you to tell the truth.
You were always better at that than me.*
*I love you.
Take care of yourself.*
*— David*
Mara was watching her.
She didn't say anything.
Laura folded the letter.
Placed it back in the envelope with the photograph.
Put the envelope in her jacket pocket beside the USB drive.
"Tell me what you need from me," Laura said.
Mara reached back into her bag and pulled out a second, thicker envelope.
"There's a man in Washington," she said.
"His name is Senator Paul Greer.
He sits on the Armed Services Committee.
He has been waiting for a credible witness with firsthand knowledge of this mission for three years." She held out the envelope.
"His direct contact is inside.
He's expecting a call."
Laura took it.
"When?" she said.
"The moment we land in Madrid."
A pause.
"There's something else," Mara said.
Her voice shifted slightly—careful now, the way Hawkins's voice had been careful.
"Colt knows Hawkins is alive.
We believe he found out approximately two weeks ago.
Which means he also knows someone is moving against him."
Laura looked at her.
"He has people watching the hearing process," Mara continued.
"And we have reason to believe he has identified at least one of my outside contacts." She met Laura's eyes.
"He may already know you're involved."
The aircraft hummed steadily around them.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, thirty-five thousand feet above the water, Laura felt the familiar sensation she had spent six years trying to forget.
The mission was already in progress.
May you like
It had been in progress since she booked her seat.
She just hadn't known it yet.
