Flying Too Close to the Sun, George Jehn [freda ebook reader txt] 📗

“What you just dropped on me goes against everything I thought I stood for,” Erik somberly replied.

“Then I guess I’ve already told you more than enough. Think it over and let me know. Let’s join Woody, before he gets suspicious.”

“Now you wait a fucking minute. You’re can’t leave me dangling like a yo-yo at the end of a string again, like at Parkers. You’re asking me to make a life-altering decision.”

“Sorry, but I have to know you’re a hundred percent in before saying anything more,” Christina replied in as blasé tone as she could muster. “Just let me know whatever and whenever you decide. But remember, your time is quickly running out,” not letting on that without his participation her plan couldn’t work.

Inside the dump called the Boston employee cafeteria, Woody was nowhere in sight. Erik wanted to eat alone, his stomach already full—of Christina. After pecking at the overcooked steamed chicken and rice he left to perform his pre-flight inspection. As the day swiftly morphed into twilight, he could feel the penetrating New England dampness Christina had mentioned. The sogginess of the rapidly cooling air made him shiver. Or was it out of fear due to what Christina had said? With fog slithering into every nook and cranny of the field, in the short time it took to check the jet’s exterior, the entire airport became blanketed in a white quilt. Once in the cockpit, Woody informed Erik, “I figured you guys were running late so I did the cockpit preflight inspection for you.”

Erik thanked him, but his mind was elsewhere. During an uneventful flight to LaGuardia Erik brooded over Christina’s offer. He was being corrupted, but didn’t see he had much choice. Staring at the deep indigo sky stretching like a twinkling canopy as far as the human eye could see, even with its open ended vastness, Erik felt trapped, but, if he agreed to go along..? Reality dictated there were no options. His thoughts turned to Carol and what she would think. For now, he was her hero and for the first time he felt close to capturing a unique commodity. What would happen to their relationship if he betrayed everything she believed he stood for? This was tempered by the thought of what would happen if he lost his job and owed a hundred grand.

The big jet commenced its descent toward the New York City lights, powerful beams reaching so high into the pitch-black night, even in a jet it seemed like you were looking up at them. Erik was normally mesmerized by these rays penetrating the polished, silver moon crescent hanging in a starlit sky replete with a few wispy clouds sailing across it like ships on a flat expanse of ocean. This sea of night appeared unsullied, the same as he was, until now; until Christina Shepard had flown into his life. Although rationalizing, trying to justify or deny it, he was traveling into an unknown landscape more akin to the life and death culture below him in the city that devoured everything in its path. Yet, to reach his lifelong dreams and ambitions he had to hold onto this job. Reality grabbed him. He would step into the darkness and release some heretofore concealed inner beast. When done, he would hopefully be able to recapture his personal Doctor Jekyll and seal it away back in the bottle, never to emerge again. He tried to justify this decision by believing it wasn’t the journey, but the destination that counted. Where would this train, in this case plane, take him? Erik felt a sea of change rolling through him as powerful and unstoppable as an incoming ocean tide, believing his life would probably never be the same.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Although Christina wanted nothing to do with David’s baggage rip-off, while taxiing into the gate she saw him lurking in the shadows under the terminal. After parking, Woody and Erik said their goodbyes and she was alone in the cockpit. David had to know the guard was aboard because the armored vehicle was planeside, but she lost sight of him as he drove around the left wing of the 727, careful not to pass under it. Management was adamant about this as any baggage piled too high could damage the wing, making the action grounds for immediate dismissal. She saw him again as he drove off as if to place six or seven pieces of luggage on the carousel, but he stopped in the deep shadows, opened a bag and dumped its contents onto the cart, simultaneously throwing some other items onto the ground. Just then, Christina spotted another man dressed in a jacket and tie headed directly toward David. She immediately sounded the warning horn, but a jet was taking off on the adjacent runway, which must have drowned out the signal. Simultaneously, the cockpit door swung open and a mechanic entered.

.     .     .

David felt a light tap on his shoulder. His heart jumped into his mouth as he wheeled around.

“Can I help you?” a heavyset man with a prominently displayed gold-colored badge hollered to him over the deafening noise.

David was prepared in case something like this happened and was quick on his feet. “Why, uh, yes, if you don’t mind. These items bounced off the cart when I hit that bump,” he said, pointing to a protuberance built into the ramp to keep rainwater from flowing under the terminal building.

.     .     .

“Captain, you don’t have to activate the wheel well warning,” the mechanic declared, pointing to the overhead instrument panel where Christina had her finger poised. “We’ve already plugged in the external power.”

“Oh, thanks,” she sputtered, trying to see what was happening on the ramp. Someone was speaking with David, who kept glancing up toward the cockpit. Was he implicating her? She had already concocted a seemingly plausible explanation about why a pilot wouldn’t be involved in a nickel and