False Horizon - Alex Archer [25]
Tuk froze as Mike questioned Annja about it.
If they stopped to look in the back, he would be discovered!
His heart thundered in his chest. Perhaps there was a better way to make a living. Tuk knew that Annja and Mike wouldn’t do him harm, but the prospect of discovery set his nerves on edge.
But Mike ignored his instinct and got the plane airborne. In the back of the plane, Tuk felt the water he’d just sucked down loll about his insides. Twice he had to bite back the surge of bile in his throat.
And the worst was yet to come.
After they’d climbed to a staggering height, Tuk felt his ears pop. The roar of the engines made his ears hurt and he buried his head down amid the bags. Then, without warning, Mike threw the plane all over the sky, twisting it this way and that. The engines whined in protest, but complied with Mike’s directions.
Tuk and the bags in back, however, slid and tumbled everywhere. Tuk halfway expected Annja to turn and look back only to see Tuk’s arms and legs akimbo as he sprawled from one side of the plane to the other while Mike engaged in his acrobatics.
But she didn’t.
Gradually, Mike leveled the plane and Tuk gathered the bags about him again, trying his best to wedge them in around him so he could be reasonably secure. The last thing he wanted was to have to go through that again.
He caught snippets of conversation.
A missile?
Tuk gulped. Now he was facing the very real threat of being shot out of the sky, all because he’d had the brilliant idea to stow away on this plane.
He saw the dreamy visions of his retirement life evaporating before his eyes. This will teach me to get myself into these situations, he thought.
That was when he happened to look out the right side of the plane just as the second missile struck and exploded. Tuk jerked back reflexively as the explosion sheared the right wing off just short of the engine. Smoke and fire erupted and he heard the barrage of alarms sound inside the plane.
Annja and Mike shouted at each other. The plane started to spin and, from the sinking sensation, Tuk knew they were going down.
He grabbed at the cell phone in his pocket. Secrecy be damned, he had to let the man on the phone know what was happening. With his fingers a quivering mess, he managed to press the two and hold it long enough for the speed dial to kick in.
After what seemed an eternity, during which time Tuk had to close his eyes to keep from passing out, someone answered the phone.
“What’s going on?”
“We’ve been shot down over the mountains! A missile!” Tuk whispered.
“Where are you?” The man’s voice betrayed no real sense of emotion and Tuk realized that, as a professional, he knew exactly what he was supposed to do in this situation.
Tuk steeled himself. “We are north of Jomsom. The closest mountain is Dhaulagiri. I think we are going to crash there.”
“Is anyone hurt at this moment?”
“Not that I can tell.”
“All right, listen to me very carefully. You will most likely go unconscious when you crash. As soon as you regain consciousness, try the cell phone and see if you can reach me.”
“I will.”
“Stay with the plane if it’s possible. I will find you. I promise.”
Tuk gulped. “I am scared.”
“You should be.” The man paused. “I am coming for you right now. Stay alive and I will find you.”
The line disconnected.
Tuk reached down to put the phone back in his pocket but then the plane impacted the side of the mountain. The cell phone skittered away from Tuk’s grasp, sliding out and away from him across the aisle toward the cockpit.
“No!”
The airplane filled with the roar of the crash. Tuk heard the screech of twisting and tearing metal as the snow and ice crashed in through the cockpit window.
They were sliding across the snowfield. Tuk hoped they weren’t going to careen all the way to the edge and topple over into some giant chasm. If they did, no one would ever find them again.
Certainly not the man on the phone.
But even as Tuk screamed, he had hope in his heart that what the man on the phone said was true. That he was coming for them now.
Tuk clutched at