Chapter 9 - The Voice in the Warehouse
Martin searched the walls for the speaker controls.
“Who are you?”
The distorted voice gave a low laugh.
“You already know.”
A row of security screens activated along the far wall. The first displayed aircraft 417 continuing toward the weakened taxiway. The second showed Director Crane inside the hangar. The third showed Daniel Ross kneeling beside a drainage channel with two armed men standing behind him.
Daniel was alive.
His earlier escape had been staged.
The countdown dropped below four minutes.
Ethan moved closer to the screens.
“Why show us this?”
“Because your father never understood the value of obedience,” the voice replied. “He believed evidence could defeat people who owned the system.”
Martin’s expression darkened.
“You killed Samuel.”
“We offered him a choice.”
Ethan stared at the defective engine parts around him.
“My father refused to help you sell these.”
“He designed a method to detect the flaws. That made him dangerous.”
One of the officers found an emergency control panel beside the magnetic door. He removed the cover and examined the wires.
“The locks are connected to the demolition circuit. Cutting the wrong cable could trigger the explosives.”
Ethan opened his toolbox and studied the wiring.
Most of the cables were modern, but one thin copper line had been added later. It ran from the door controls into the ceiling.
“This line carries the timing signal,” he said.
Martin crouched beside him.
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe, but stopping the timer could activate the backup trigger.”
On the screen, aircraft 417 approached the marked section of taxiway.
The pilots still did not respond to the tower.
Ethan noticed the aircraft’s front wheel turning slightly left, then correcting itself.
“It isn’t being controlled from the cockpit.”
Martin looked at him.
“What?”
“The steering movements are too exact. Someone is using the automatic ground-guidance system.”
The airport’s underground network was directing the plane remotely.
Ethan traced the added copper wire.
It was not only connected to the explosives.
It was also connected to the terminal’s guidance system.
The same signal controlled everything.
The locks.
The charges.
The aircraft.
The voice returned.
“You have three minutes, Ethan. Open the central crate and you may understand why your father had to disappear.”
A single crate in the center of the warehouse unlocked automatically.
Martin stepped toward it, but Ethan stopped him.
“It could be trapped.”
The lid slowly lifted on its own.
Inside was not an aircraft component.
It was a portable video terminal.
The screen showed a recording of Samuel Hale sitting inside his workshop on the night before the explosion.
May you like
He looked directly into the camera.
“If Ethan ever sees this, then Project 417 has begun again.”
