"No."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to look at the evidence."
"You were the only person who knew exactly where it was."
Jake's expression hardened.
"Then you already decided."
Victoria hesitated.
She remembered the messages.
The blind spot.
The transmitter.
The strange maintenance problem.
Something wasn't right.
She turned to Daniel.
"Search the aircraft again."
"What for?"
"Everything."
An hour later, technicians found a hidden compartment beneath the avionics floor.
Inside was the missing prototype.
Victoria stared.
Jake hadn't stolen it.
Someone had planted it.
And beside it was a small digital recorder.
Victoria pressed play.
A man's voice filled the hangar.
"Phase Two is active."
Another voice answered.
"Harper doesn't know."
"She doesn't need to."
Then:
"What about Miller?"
A pause.
"He's exactly where we want him."
Victoria looked at Jake.
His face had gone pale.
The recording continued.
"Let him protect her."
"Why?"
"Because when she dies, he'll be blamed."
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Jake whispered:
"They're coming."
The Night the Hangar Burned
The attack began at 11:47 p.m.
The first explosion came from Hangar Two.
Flames erupted through the roof.
Emergency alarms screamed.
Victoria woke inside the security residence and ran outside.
Smoke filled the valley.
Jake was already there.
"Get underground!"
"What?"
"Now!"
Another explosion shook the ground.
Glass shattered.
Victoria ducked.
Men in dark clothing emerged from the smoke.
They weren't firefighters.
They carried rifles.
Jake grabbed Victoria's arm.
"Move!"
They ran toward the maintenance tunnel.
A bullet struck the metal door behind them.
Jake shoved Victoria inside.
Then he turned.
"Keep going."
"What about you?"
"I'll be right behind you."
"No."
Jake looked at her.
"Victoria."
She had never heard that tone from him.
Command.
Absolute.
She obeyed.
They moved through the tunnel.
Behind them came footsteps.
Jake stopped.
He pulled a small pistol from his jacket.
Victoria stared.
"You carry a gun?"
"I told you I used to work for the government."
"That's not an answer."
"It'll have to do."
The footsteps grew louder.
Jake raised the weapon.
A man appeared.
Jake fired once.
The man dropped.
Victoria gasped.
"He's alive," Jake said.
"How do you know?"
"I aimed low."
They kept moving.
At the end of the tunnel was an abandoned control room.
Jake locked the door.
Victoria was breathing hard.
"Who are they?"
"People who want your prototype."
"Why?"
"Because it can override aircraft safety systems."
"How?"
Jake pulled up a schematic.
"The system was designed to detect failures and automatically compensate."
"And?"
"Someone added a hidden command layer."
"Remote control."
"Exactly."
Victoria stared.
"How many aircraft?"
"We don't know."
"Commercial?"
"Possibly."
She covered her mouth.
"If this gets out..."
"It won't."
"You can't guarantee that."
Jake looked at her.
"No."
He opened an old terminal.
"But I can stop them."
Victoria watched as he typed.
His fingers moved incredibly fast.
"Where did you learn to do that?"
"Black Horizon."
The system came alive.
A map appeared.
Victoria recognized several locations.
Denver.
Chicago.
Dallas.
Washington.
Los Angeles.
Five aircraft.
Five targets.
"What is that?"
"Live flight data."
Victoria felt sick.
"They're already testing it."
Jake nodded.
"We have less than an hour."
Suddenly the door shook.
Someone was trying to break through.
Jake looked at Victoria.
"When I tell you to run, run."
"What are you going to do?"
"Buy us time."
He opened a hidden panel.
Inside was an old military communications unit.
Victoria recognized the design.
"That's classified."
Jake smiled.
"So am I."
He activated it.
A signal went out.
Seconds later, a voice answered.
"Black One, identify."
Jake froze.
Victoria stared.
"Black One?"
Jake pressed the transmitter.
"Black One to command. We have an active Horizon breach."
The voice became urgent.
"Confirm personnel."
"One civilian principal. Victoria Harper."
"Status?"
"Alive."
"Can you extract?"
"Negative."
A pause.
Then:
"Understood."
The voice changed.
"Black One, authorization granted."
Victoria didn't know what that meant.
Jake did.
"We're going to end this."
At midnight, military helicopters appeared over the mountains.
The attackers tried to flee.
They never made it past the perimeter.
By 12:23, the airfield was secure.
But the real battle had only begun.
Because the person behind the attack had escaped.
And Jake knew exactly who it was.
"Who?"
Victoria asked.
Jake looked toward the burning hangars.
"Someone inside Harper Aeronautics."
The Man Behind the Curtain
The investigation lasted three days.
Victoria's board wanted answers.
Government agencies wanted control of the prototype.
Federal investigators wanted access to company records.
And the press wanted a scandal.
Victoria gave them nothing.
She refused to resign.
She refused to blame Jake.
And she refused to surrender the prototype until she knew exactly what it contained.
Then Daniel Cross came to her office.