New
Arrivals
Author-Lorelie
Titles
Wings of Fate
Part One
by Lorelie
Disclaimer: The Sentinel and all related characters are the property of PetFly Productions.
Blair Sandburg sighed contentedly as he reclined the airplane seat and unfastened his seat belt. For the first time in a long time, things were going smoothly for him. He was on his way to Chicago, having been chosen by the powers that be to represent Rainier University at a three-day seminar "The Role of Social Sciences in the New Millennium". True he hadn't been the school's first choice, that designation going to Doctor Hughes, the head of the department. But the fact that it was February, and Dr. Hughes was not overly thrilled with the idea of visiting a city located on one of the Great Lakes in the wintertime, as well as the fact that the good Professor had come down with a case of the very severe influenza virus that was now running amok in the city of Cascade had dissuaded the older man from going. And Blair had been assured by his advisor that Blair himself really was the best man for the job, and even thought they were sorry Dr. Hughes had fallen ill, they were very pleased with the prospect of Blair representing them at the seminar.
At first, Blair had been apprehensive about telling Jim about the trip. After all, he was suppose to be there to watch Jim's back, and this influenza thing had taken it's toll on Cascade's finest as well. Things had been pretty slow in the police business lately however, it was as if even the criminals had fallen ill, and couldn't be bothered to steal anything, murder anyone, or blow anything up until they were feeling better.
When he looked back on it now, Blair realized that Jim's reaction shouldn't have surprised him. He knew that Jim cared about him, but it was just that Jim Ellison wasn't one to show his emotions very often. So when Jim had expressed nothing but happiness for Blair's opportunity, as well as quite a bit of pride that his best friend had been chosen, Blair had been taken aback.
"You sure it's okay, Jim? I mean I know it's short notice, and I know you guys are pretty strapped for people right now."
"Come on Sandburg, it's not like the crooks are busting down the doors to get in here. You know things have been pretty uneventful around here the past couple of weeks." Jim answered, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Besides Chief, I think it's a great opportunity for you. I know sometimes I act as if your job at the University doesn't count for anything, and the only thing that's important is my job here, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you, and I appreciate everything you're doing both here and at the University."
So here Blair was, secure in the knowledge that Rainier was beginning to recognize him for the work he was doing there, and that his best friend not only appreciated the work he did, but was proud of him as well.
He had moved from his assigned seat to a seat just behind him, in an empty row at the very back of the plane. The early morning flight was not even half filled, and Blair had moved in the hopes of spending the several hour flight catching up on some must needed rest.
The reason for the move was two fold, one, he figured he could stretch out, using the entire three seats. 'Sometimes being short has it's advantages.' he thought. Secondly, the seats two rows in front of his original seat had been taken by a young mother with a toddler and a newborn. Blair had had enough experience to know that children, especially babies, do not always take to flying, and he figured he would try to put as much space between them and him a possible.
He closed his eyes, letting the soothing sounds of the engine lull him to sleep. Suddenly, he was jostled awake by the sound of a loud crash coming from the flight attendant's area just behind him.
He glanced around the corner of the seat, toward the sound. A pretty young brunette dressed in a navy blue pantsuit was standing there, surrounded by cans of soda which had fallen from a shelf. "Are you okay?" He asked the attendant.
She smiled at him sheepishly, brushing her hair our of her eyes. "Yes, I'm fine, thanks. I just forgot how dangerous these storage areas can be." She began picking up the cans.
Blair quickly got out of his seat and began to help her. "Well, you know what they say, items may shift during take off and landing."
The young woman laughed. "Now you know that they're not just making that up." She stood up, taking the cans that Blair was handing her, and putting them in their place. As she took the last can, she looked at him. "Thank you very much."
"My name's Blair, Blair Sandburg." he held out his hand, reading her name tag. "And you are Kim...?"
"Kim Ashton." she answered, taking his hand and shaking it. "It's very nice to meet you Blair."
"Likewise, Kim," Blair answered.
He looked at the cans, now neatly placed in the serving cart along with carafes of coffee, and cardboard boxes containing cereal and muffins. His gaze shifted to the rest of the area around him. "I always wondered what it was like back here."
Kim looked around. "I know, pretty amazing isn't it." Her attention was drawn to the front of the cabin, where the other flight attendant was trying to get her attention. "I'm sorry Blair, but Brett's waiting for this cart down front." She smiled at him again. "I'd be happy to give you a tour after we get done serving breakfast, if you'd like."
Kim had kept her promise, giving Blair the grand tour. Talking to her, Blair found that they had quite a bit in common. They were about the same age, and Kim was also a student at Rainier University, studying Business. She had gone to work for the airline right out of high school, and had worked for them full-time for several years. She had decided to further her education four years ago, and now only filled in as a flight attendant on a part-time basis, when she had time off from school. She had agreed to fill in on this flight for a friend who had also succumbed to the flu.
As she left the conversation to assist the young mother and her children a few seats up, Blair sighed again. Yup, things were finally going good. The University was beginning to recognize his work, Jim was proud of him, and now he had met an intelligent, pretty woman with a good head on her shoulders, one that he was fairly sure was not going to turn out to be a homicidal maniac.
Things were very, very good in Blair Sandburg's world.
At least, for a little while.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Ellison walked into the squad room of the Major Crimes Division of the Cascade Police Department, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at his desk, yawning. He looked at his watch, seven in the morning. What in the world had possessed him to tell Blair that he would be happy to drop him off at the airport? Normally, he would just be rolling out of bed at this time. Today, he'd already been up for four hours. He smiled to himself, remembering how surprised Blair had been that Jim had been so agreeable to the idea that the young anthropologist was going to Chicago for three days, and even more surprised that Jim has offered to drive him to the airport.
The detective had used the excuse that it would cost Blair a fortune to park the Volvo in the airport garage, but the truth was, that it had never occurred to Jim not to take Blair. After all, it was the least he could do for him after everything the kid had done for him in the past few years.
He knew Blair worried about leaving him alone, afraid that the Sentinel would zone out or otherwise be affected by his heightened senses without the younger man to back him up. But Jim had begun to realize that Blair had been devoting almost all his time to Jim, and possibly ignoring his studies. That fact had been brought home to him not too long ago, when Blair had told him that he had more than enough information to finish his dissertation, but just hadn't done it yet. So Jim had been pleased when Blair had told him that the University had chosen him to attend this seminar. Maybe Blair was making an impression on more than just the criminal element of Cascade. Jim had not grown up in a emotionally demonstrative family, so he had always had a problem expressing his feelings. He knew that was one of the main reason his marriage had failed, but he had tried to let Blair know how he felt about him. The feeling of pride he felt whenever Blair accomplished something, the fear and dread he felt whenever the younger man's life was put in danger. His relationship with his brother Steven may have failed, but Jim knew he had been given another chance with his guide, and he was determined not to blow it. That was why Jim had made sure he had told Blair how proud he was of him, and how much he felt Blair deserved the opportunity. Besides, even though things were calm around Cascade right now, there was no telling when things could heat up, and Jim was glad to get his friend out of the city, even for a few days.
'Chicago may be bigger than Cascade, but there is no way it could be as dangerous, at least not for Blair Sandburg.' Jim thought to himself. 'If nothing else, this will give the kid a rest from fighting the bad guys.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blair smiled at the flight attendant as she dropped in the seat across the aisle from him.
"God, I'd forgotten how tiring this job can be." Kim said. They had been in the air for two hours and in addition to serving the small breakfast to the passengers, the young woman had been kept busy helping the mother of two very tired and cranky children.
"I've done quite a bit of traveling in my life, and I've always marveled at how much the flight attendants have to do." Blair agreed. "I mean, the pilot and co-pilot just have to fly the plane. You guys have to keep all of us happy."
"And this flight's not even full. The worst ones are the intercontinental flights, with hundreds of passengers, who all want drinks or magazines at once. Of course, usually, even on a flight like this, we have more than two attendants, but this flu bug has half our crew down."
"I know, the flu's one of the reasons I'm traveling to Chicago." Blair answered.
Seeing the confused look on Kim's face, he smiled and went on to explain where and why he was traveling.
"I figured that it was something like that." the woman answered. "Most of the passengers we get for such an early flight are business people. But you don't exactly fit that profile."
Blair's response was interrupted by a disturbance taking place toward the front of the plane. The curtain has been drawn, separating first class from coach, only voices could be heard, but it was obvious something was wrong.
Kim stood up, "I'd better check to see what's going on." she said to Blair.
As she walked down the aisle, the curtain was suddenly pulled back to reveal a man about Blair's size waving an automatic weapon.
"Okay everyone, just calm down. There's been a slight change of plans here. I know that you all are real anxious to visit the Windy City today, but I'm afraid that's just not going to happen. As I've already instructed the pilot we're going to change course a bit and visit our neighbors to the north."
'Oh great, ' thought Blair, 'only I could end up on a plane that was being hijacked. No one hijacks planes anymore, that 's so seventies.'
The armed man moved down the aisle, still waving the gun. "You see, I'm a pretty popular man here in the States, especially in California, but nobody's gonna know me in Canada, so I think I'm just gonna drop in on them for a while, you know, get away from it all." He laughed at his own joke. "Get it? Get away from it all."
The young toddler sitting a few seats in front of Blair began to cry.
The man swung his attention to the boy. "Shut him up," he told the boy's mother
The woman tried to calm the child, but to no avail. His crying became louder, and the baby with them started crying as well.
"I SAID, SHUT THEM UP!" the man stalked down the aisle toward them. "Or, I'll shut them up permanently." he finished menacingly.
'Oh God, this is not good.' Blair thought. 'This guy is definitely not hitting on all cylinders.'
He slowly stood up, speaking to the crazed man. "Look, man, I know you're under a lot of stress here. But why don't you just calm down, take a few deep breaths. None of us wants anyone to get hurt here. If you want to go to Canada, fine, I'm sure we'd all be real happy to take that little detour, if it means no one gets hurt. But shooting up this airplane is not going to do any of us any good."
The man swung his toward Blair, pointing his gun at him, "Who the hell do you think you are, my therapist?" He turned back toward the mother and children, who were now starting to scream. "Look, I sad shut them up, or I will."
The mother had started to cry herself, "I'm trying to, but you're scaring them."
Other passengers had begun to cry also, and the din was too much for the hijacker, he moved to the front of the plane and let off a round from the gun, spinning around and aiming high.
The lights in the cabin dimmed and then went out, and sparks flew from the short circuits.
The only sound to be heard in the cabin was the crackle of sparks, the whimpers of the two small children. Everyone else sat in stunned silence. The man slung the automatic weapon over his shoulder and pulled out a handgun, moving again toward the back of the plane. "I'll do more than scare them." the man answered.
'So much for airport security,' Blair thought as he watched the man aim the gun at the crying toddler.
Just then, the plane lurched suddenly, and a warning alarm begin to sound. The man was thrown off balance for a second. As he tried to regain his foothold, Blair made his move. Trying to imitate the moves he had seen Jim make many times in bringing down a suspect, he launched himself at the hijacker, grabbing for the gun. The man saw him coming, but not before Blair got his hands on the pistol. As they struggled for control of the weapon, others in the plane stood and came to Blair's assistance, trying to bring the man down from behind. They were successful, but not before the gun discharged.
Blair heard the gun go off, and for a second, wasn't sure exactly where it was pointing. Suddenly, he felt a searing pain as the bullet grazed his left temple. He slowly lost his grasp of the man, now being held down by five other passengers, and lost consciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim swore as his telephone rang, startling him into spilling some of the coffee he had just poured himself. He opened the drawer of his desk and pulled out a napkin, reaching for the receiver with
the other hand.
"Major Crimes."
There was a hesitation on the other end of the phone, then a female voice asked, "Detective Ellison?"
"Yes, this is Detective Ellison." Jim answered. "What can I do for you?"
"This is Ms. Woods, from Rainier University."
'Looking for Blair. God, doesn't anyone communicate over there?' Jim thought, irritated.
Out loud, he said. "Ms. Woods, I'm afraid that Blair isn't here. He left for Chicago this morning. He was traveling on University business."
The voice hesitated again. "Um, well, I'm aware that Professor Sandburg is on his way to Chicago. That's why I'm calling."
An odd feeling began to form in the pit of Jim's stomach. He recognized something in the woman's voice. It was the same tone that he had heard in his own voice, and that of his fellow officers. The tone they took when they had to deliver some bad news to a family.
He took a deep breath. "Ms. Woods, why don't you tell me what's going on."
"Detective Ellison, we've just received a telephone call from the airline. It appears that there's a problem with the plane that Professor Sandburg is on. They contacted us because we're the ones who made the flight arrangements. But I thought that since you're listed as the emergency contact for Professor Sandburg, I should call and let you know, also."
"Problem with the plane, what do you mean problem with the plane?" A sense of dread had come over Jim. He was almost afraid to ask the next question. "Has it crashed?"
"No, they did confirm that, but they wouldn't give me any other information. They said they would keep us informed. I just figured that since you and Professor Sandburg are close, you should know. I also thought that since you are a police officer, you may be able to get more information than they are willing to release to us."
"Thank you for calling Ms. Woods, I really appreciate it. If you hear anything else, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll see what I can find out."
Jim let out a long breath as he hung up the phone. At least the plane hadn't crashed. Maybe it wasn't anything to really worry about, maybe. Au, hell, face it, Blair was on that plane, Murphy's law, Sandburg style. If anything could go wrong, it would, as long as Blair was within a thousand feet of it. The pit in Jim's stomach began to grow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Captain Simon Banks smiled as he caught sight of his best detective through the doors of the squad room, just getting off the phone.
'Son of a gun,' he thought, 'he really did get up in time to get Sandburg to the airport.' The black man had spent the last few days razzing Jim and Blair about how early they would have to get up in order to be on time for the flight. Jim had been insistent on dropping Blair off, however.
There had been a time when Simon had worried about Jim Ellison, well, come to think of it, he still worried about Jim, just as he did all of his men. But there had been a time when he had begun to doubt that Jim was going to make it. Of course that was before Blair had come storming into their lives, like a curly, long haired tornado. Now that Simon was aware of Jim's Sentinel abilities, he realized much of the problems that Jim had experienced was because of them. But Blair had done more than just help Jim accept his enhanced senses. Sandburg had helped to humanize the detective. Simon had considered Jim a friend for a long time, but had to admit, he was a lot more fun to be around since Blair had shown up.
With these thoughts still on his mind. He walked into Major Crimes and started toward Jim's desk, planning to make some smart remark on the earliness of the hour.
The look on Ellison's face brought him to a quick halt.
"Jim, what's wrong?" the captain asked. Simon couldn't even describe that look. It was one of fear, shock, and sadness. It looked as if Jim had lost his best friend. Suddenly he knew that whatever was wrong, it involved Blair.
When Jim didn't answer, he placed his hand on Jim's shoulder, shaking him. The last thing they needed right now was a zone out. He sure as hell didn't want to have to explain one to the entire Major Crimes Division, and more importantly, if Blair was in trouble, he needed Jim fully cognizant.
"Come on Jim, stay with me here. What's happened to Sandburg?"
The mention of his guide brought Jim back. He looked up at Simon.
"Jim, is Blair okay?" Simon tried again.
"Simon, oh God, Simon, I don't know. That was Rainier on the phone." He took a shaky breath and ran his hand through his hair. "The airline just called, there's something wrong with the plane Blair's on."
Simon drew a quick breath. "You mean it's crashed?" he asked quietly.
"No, at least not when they spoke to the University. They aren't releasing anymore information to them at this time." Jim dropped his head. "God, Simon, I can't believe it. I mean, how could this happen? I..." Jim's voice trailed off, at a loss for words.
Simon grabbed Jim's arm, "Well, first, let's see if we can get some more information. I mean what the hell, being a Police Captain must have some advantages."
He walked in to his office, with Jim following close behind. Simon moved to his desk and hit the speaker button, instructing the switchboard to connect him with the FAA.
Ten minutes later, he hung up the phone. He had been transferred several times, but had finally ended up with the person in charge of spin control for the incident. The spokesperson hadn't had much more information than what had already been given to Ms. Woods, but she had advised that a command center had been set up at the airline's headquarters at Sea-Tac International Airport.
For the second time in less than five hours, Jim made his way toward the airport.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first thing Blair sensed as he regained consciousness was pain. His head was more than throbbing, it felt as if any moment, it may explode.
"Oh man," he moaned. "What the hell happened?"
A female voice answered him. "Oh, thank God, Blair, I was beginning to think you weren't going to regain consciousness at all."
Blair opened his eyes, to see Kim Ashton, a worried smile on her face. The face became fuzzy, then cleared up again. The events of the past hour or so came rushing back to him, and he struggled to sit up.
"Oh man," he said again, as his head protested.
"Take it easy Blair," Kim said, helping him into a sitting position. "How are you feeling?"
"Other than having a monster headache, okay I guess." He looked around the cabin, only a few emergency lights were illuminated, but, along with the sunlight streaming through the windows lit the inside of the plane cabin.
"Is everyone okay?" Blair asked. "Where's the hijacker?"
Kim smiled again and motioned toward the front of the plane. "Locked in the first class bathroom, believe it or not."
Blair gave a slight laugh. "Well, any port in a storm I guess." He continued. "So everyone else is okay then, no one else got hurt?"
The flight attendant's expression turned grim as she sat down opposite Blair. "No, no one else was hurt. But there's another problem." She explained that the burst of gunfire from the automatic weapon had caused quite a bit of damage to most of the plane's controls, from the radio to the landing gear.
"Right now, the pilot's trying to get through to the ground to figure out how to proceed. We haven't told all of the passengers yet, but I figured you had a right to know. After all, you risked your life to save the rest of us." she finished, as she gently checked the bandage on Blair's forehead.
'A hell of a lot of good I did anybody if we crash.' he thought to himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What do you mean, I can't go in there?" Jim asked, his voice rising. Simon had dropped him off at the main entrance to Sea-Tac International and had gone on to park the car. Jim had fairly sprinted through the airport, toward the airline's offices. Now that he had arrived, an armed guard was barring his entrance into the suite of offices.
"I'm sorry sir, but my orders are no one gets in unless he has the proper pass."
Jim's patience was wearing thin. He dropped his voice to a menacing growl. "Look, I don't care who ordered you to do what, I need to get into that room, now."
The guard stood his ground. "I can't allow that. I really am very sorry, but you'll have to wait in the assigned area." He gestured down the hall.
Just as Jim was trying to decide whether to haul off and sucker punch the guard, or just pull his gun and demand to be admitted, Simon came up behind him, placing a restraining hand on his arm.
"Jim, calm down, it's okay." He looked toward the guard, "I have to apologize for my detective here. He, well, we have a friend on board that plane."
Simon pulled out his identification. "I'm Captain Simon Banks, Cascade Police Department, this is Detective Jim Ellison. I spoke with a Ms. Grey at your company headquarters, who assured me that she would take care of all the clearances. We are suppose to meet David Packard of the FAA here."
The guard gave them a slight smile. "Of course, let me check." He pulled out a radio and then a few moments later said, "Please come with me."
The two officers were ushered down a long hallway, which opened up into a large conference room, the two large tables in the room covered with papers and a row of telephones.
As they walked into the room a harried looking man, fiftyish or so walked up to Simon and held out his hand.
"Simon, long time to no see. They told me you were coming down here."
"Good to see you too, David." Simon responded then introduced Jim.
Shaking Jim's hand, David said. "So what are two of Cascade's finest doing here?"
The captain looked at the muscle in Jim's jaw clench, then turned his attention to the government official. "One of my men is on board that plane, Dave. Actually, Jim's partner. We weren't getting any answers going the official route, so I figured maybe we'd be able to find out more by going to the horse's mouth, so to speak."
David smiled, "Well, you never were one to sit back and wait patiently, Simon." His smile faded. "Let's see, I think all we've released officially is that there is a mechanical problem with the plane."
When both Simon and Jim nodded, he went on. "Well, that is pretty much what's happened. Unfortunately, we really don't know the extent of the problem, so far. We have very limited communication with the plane, but from what it sounds like, everything from the radio to the lights are on the fritz."
"Does anyone know what happened?" Jim asked.
"From what we can piece together, it appears that somehow, an escapee from a California prison named Oscar Winters ended up on the plane. He tried to convince the pilot to reroute to Canada.
Apparently things weren't going quite the way he wanted though, and he shot up the plane. That's what caused the system malfunction."
Simon felt the man standing beside him tense.
"Is Winters still in charge? Jim asked.
Packard gave a small laugh. "No, one of the passengers, a college professor of all things, managed to subdue Winters. They have him locked in the first class bathroom right now."
"Has anyone been hurt?" Simon asked.
"So far, we only have one injury. I guess the guy who took Winters down somehow ended up getting shot, but the pilot says it's not serious, just a graze. Pretty lucky, though, considering the fire power the man had with him." Packard's attention was drawn to the sound of his name being called. "Excuse me for a moment." he said.
Jim's face had paled when David had told him of the injury. Both he and Simon had not doubt that the college professor was Blair.
Simon placed a comforting hand on Jim's arm. "You heard him, Jim, Blair's fine, it was only a graze."
Jim smiled at him, "At least that's one small miracle." Now if only the plane could make it down in one piece.
David had rejoined them. "Sorry about that, guys, but we've just had another transmission from the plane." He sighed. "It doesn't look too good. It appears that just about all of their instruments were effected, along with the landing gear. There going to have to make an emergency landing, but right now, we've got to figure out where."
At Simon's and Jim's puzzled looks, he continued. "You see, right now, they're about halfway between here and Chicago, so we have to decide where we want them to land."
"Why don't you just have them land at the closest airport to where they are now?"
"We have thought about that too, but with the flight pattern they're flying, there really aren't any large airports in their flight path, at least not any with enough emergency equipment available. Right now, we're thinking the best thing is to turn them around and have them head back here, providing their instruments can handle it."
"Any idea how the hell Winters got a weapon on board the plane?" Jim asked.
David shook his head. "No one knows for sure. But I can assure, we're checking into it. The only thing that anyone has come up with is the fact that they only have about half the usual security staff here, because of this flu epidemic. It's not an excuse, but..." His name was called again, and he walked back toward the bank of phones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kim Ashton sat down quietly in the seat opposite from Blair and placed a hand on his arm.
"Blair, are you awake?" she asked. "Come on, don't fall asleep on me. I don't think it's a good idea. You must have a pretty good concussion from that bullet."
Blair stirred and open his eyes. He knew that the young woman was right, but God, how his head hurt, and his eyesight kept blurring, another sign of a concussion, he was sure, so whenever he opened his eyes, he just felt nauseous.
"I'm not sleeping, just resting me eyes." He smiled at her, then sobered. "How's everything going? Any news?"
"We were just briefed by the captain. They've decided to turn us around, we're heading back to Seattle. The captain will be making an announcement to everyone soon."
Just then, the pilot emerged from the cockpit.
"Can I have everyone's attention please?" he asked, loudly. "I'm Captain Stewart, as you may have already guessed, we're experiencing problems with some of our flight systems. We've been in contact with the FAA, and they have recommended that we turn around and return to Sea-Tac International."
"Are we going to crash?" someone asked.
Captain Stewart sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you people, several very important systems have malfunctioned, including our landing gear. We are going to try everything possible, however, to bring this airplane down safely When any other news becomes available, either myself or one of our flight attendants will let you know."
Blair watched the pilot return to the cockpit, the pain in his head not stopping the thoughts that were racing through his mind at a mile a minute. He was sure by now that Jim was aware of the danger the plane was in. He was pretty sure he knew how Jim was feeling. Blair knew how he would feel if the roles had been reversed. The feeling of desperation and hopelessness. He sighed. No matter how much Blair did not want to be here right now, he thanked God that it was him up here instead of Jim.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Banks watched Jim as he stood looking out the window over the vast expanse of airport runways. He could see the muscle twitching in his jaw. The police captain sighed. He could see the look of frustration on his detective's face.
'This has to be killing him.' he thought. Simon knew how important Blair Sandburg had become in Jim's life. Becoming more than just a partner, or a friend, it was as if Jim saw Blair as the kid brother that he had never had a chance to know before. He had seen Jim in action on previous occasions, the never tiring determination that came over Jim whenever Blair's life was in danger. But that was just it, before, Jim had always been able to do something, track down the person or persons who had threatened Blair. This time there was no action to be taken, just sit tight and wait.
Jim turned from the window when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Simon."
"How are you holding up?" the black man asked.
Jim sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Okay, I guess. I just wish there was something I could do."
Simon smiled. "I was just thinking the same thing. This waiting around is driving me crazy too."
"Simon, what if he doesn't make it? I mean what if the plane crashes and he dies. I don't know what I'll do if I loose him." Jim's voice began to shake with emotion. "I mean he's my best friend, you know?"
Simon squeezed Jim's shoulder. "I know Jim, I know. He's come to mean a lot to all of us. You've just got hang in there, okay. I know it's hard. But they're doing everything they can to bring them down safely."
He turned as Packard came up to them. "Any news?" he asked.
"Well,. David answered hesitantly, "We've decided to bring them back. Their guidance system is in some working order, as is the radio, so they've turned around and are on their way back. Their estimated ETA is two hours, thirty minutes."
Jim could hear the man's heat rate elevate as he gave them the news, and knew in an instant something else must have gone wrong.
As David turned toward the phones, Jim grabbed Simon's arm.
"Simon, he's not telling us everything, I can tell."
"You sure?" the captain asked.
"Yes sir, I'm sure." Jim walked up to the FAA man. "Listen, I can tell there's something else. Come on, you have to level with us here." he pleaded.
Packard suddenly seemed very interested in his shoes and lowered his eyes toward the floor.
"Come on David," Simon interjected, "you're not dealing with some civilian here. If there's something else, please..."
"Well, yeah, I'm afraid there is something else. You see, the reason we've decided to have them return here, instead of trying to land in Chicago is to try to limit the causalities. O'Hare is in a pretty populated area, and with the instruments going on and off, we can't guarantee a safe landing on the runway. There's a chance for too many people dying if something goes wrong and the plane crashes in downtown Chicago."
"But aren't you going to run into the same problem here? I mean, this is a pretty populated area also." Simon asked.
"We're well aware of the population here Simon, and you're right, there is just as much risk having them attempt an emergency landing at Sea-Tac."
"But then I don't understand, why have them come back?" Simon asked.
The answer had become alarmingly clear to Jim, and he felt the gnawing fear growing in the pit of his stomach.
"Don't you get it Simon," he said, his voice quiet. "The one thing that we have here that Chicago doesn't have is an ocean." He looked at Packard, "You're bringing them back here so you can have them ditch them in the Pacific aren't you?"
David nodded, "I'm sorry, I know you have a friend on that plane, but it's the only way we can try to control the casualties. It's just too much of a risk to have them try to land at any airport large enough to handle that aircraft. They're all located in populated areas."
"Control the casualties?" Jim said, his voice rising. He moved so close to David that the older man had to take a step backwards. "Control the casualties. You mean it's okay if all sixty people on that plane die, just not anyone on the ground. Well, that's bullshit, Mr. Packard, total bullshit!"
"Detective Ellison, I really am sorry, but it's the best alternative we can come up with. And there is every possibility that there will be survivors on that plane. Obviously we will have emergency crews ready to move in once the plane is down."
"Right, and if it sinks like a stone, no one will have a chance to get to them before they drown.
No, no way are you going to let them crash in the ocean. Find another way."
"Come on Jim, it's not our call." Simon said. placing a hand on Jim's arm and him pulling out of Packard's face.
Jim looked at the captain, pleading, "Simon, please, you can't let them do this. There has to be another way."
"Jim," Simon answered, pulling him toward a chair, "let's sit down for a minute. I know this is hard for you to understand, but I'm sure they're doing the best they can. You know as well as I do that this wasn't an easy decision for them to make."
"But Simon, we both know the chances of anyone surviving a crash in the ocean is unlikely." panic began to overtake Jim and he started to stand up. "I can't let them do this, I just can't."
"Jim," Simon said, perhaps a little to loud, since everyone else in the room turned to look at the two of them.
Jim sat back down. "Oh God, Simon, I can't believe this is happening."
"Jim, you have to calm down. This is not doing anyone any good. Now believe me, I am not happy about the idea of this plane going down into the Pacific ocean, neither is anyone else in this room. I know that right now the only important thing to you is Sandburg getting out of this in one piece, but these people have the safety of thousands of people to worry about, including Blair. They're just doing the best they can."
Jim took a couple of deep breaths and started to calm down. Simon was right. As much as Jim was worried about Blair, these people had to be concerned about everyone on that flight, along with everyone else on the ground. He wasn't being fair to them.
He stood up and walked over to David. "Um, I'm sorry. It's just that, well Blair's like a brother to me, and I just don't know what I'll do if something happens to him."
David gave him a small smile. "Jim, it's okay, I really do understand. I want you to know that Simon's right, this was not an easy decision to reach, but we had no choice, there just is no where else we can have them land that isn't going to jeopardize people on the ground."
Jim nodded, a feeling of hopelessness coming over him. "I know that. I just wish there were some other way."