Chapter 9 - The Blind Runway
Emergency vehicles raced toward the abandoned runway.
They lined both sides of the cracked pavement with headlights facing inward.
Rain began striking the coastal section of the base.
Wind pushed across the strip.
Inside the control room, Hannah guided Ellis by magnetic heading and altitude.
“Lower landing gear manually.”
“It’s not responding.”
“Pull the mechanical release beside your left knee.”
A pause.
Then metal clanged through the radio.
“Gear down.”
The aircraft’s digital instruments still displayed false terrain.
Ellis covered the screen with a clipboard.
He flew using Hannah’s voice.
Pike watched her with growing disbelief.
“How do you know that aircraft?”
“I evaluated its emergency systems before the Resolute mission.”
The work had been credited to another officer after her death.
Like everything else.
Calloway positioned portable transmitters near the runway.
The real aircraft finally appeared on coastal radar.
Low.
Unstable.
Running on fumes.
Hannah spoke slowly.
“Grant, when you see two lines of white lights, align between them. Ignore every alarm.”
The pilot’s breathing came through the speakers.
“Commander, if this fails—”
“It won’t.”
“You can’t know that.”
Hannah’s eyes stayed on the altitude data.
“No. But you need to believe I do.”
The first visual report came from the runway.
Aircraft lights over the ocean.
Too low.
The left wing dipping.
Hannah ordered a slight correction.
Ellis followed.
The aircraft crossed the seawall and struck the runway hard.
One tire burst.
The plane swerved.
Emergency crews scattered.
Hannah gripped the console.
“Right rudder. Hold it.”
The aircraft spun partially sideways.
Then stopped near the end of the strip.
No explosion.
No fire.
Six people alive.
A cheer began in the control room.
Hannah did not join it.
The intercom had gone silent.
The video feed of the prisoners disappeared.
Sloane had traced the emergency transmission.
He now knew Hannah was inside the base command network.
A new message appeared on the main screen.
MERCER FOR THE CREW.
Calloway looked at her.
“You are not surrendering.”
“They will kill them.”
“They may already be dead.”
Hannah turned toward him.
“They were alive.”
“You cannot know where they are.”
Hannah pulled a small metal tag from inside her torn uniform.
A shipping code was etched into it.
“I found this on the supply vessel I escaped.”
Calloway read the destination.
A decommissioned naval fuel depot on an island off the Oregon coast.
Hannah had not entered the base merely to expose Nightglass.
She had come for access to a submarine capable of reaching the island undetected.
Pike stared at her.
“You planned to steal a Navy vessel.”
“I planned to borrow one.”
Despite the crisis, the military police officer almost smiled.
Then the screen changed.
A countdown appeared.
Thirty-four minutes.
Beneath it were the words:
May you like
AFTER ZERO, THE CREW DISAPPEARS FOREVER.
👉 To rescue the survivors, Calloway would have to trust a woman officially listed as dead with one of the Navy’s most classified submarines.
