“Yes, how dare I stop a hysterical woman from taking down the plane. Good point. I should have let us all die. Can we go now?”
He turned and walked off the plane, not bothering to help with the luggage or anything.
“I’m through with this job,” Scottie muttered. “You can get your own ride home.”
“I can’t just get another ride,” I argued. “We have weapons!”
He turned and got in my face, hissing at me through clenched teeth. “Up until Cash started making me fly for the company, I had a stellar flight record. Sure, I threw up occasionally, but I never lost a plane. Now, we’ve lost three planes and I almost crashed again, all because your woman couldn’t keep her shit together!”
I stared at him as I slowly wiped the spit from my face. “And how were you planning to get home if not in your plane?”
He opened his mouth to argue, but instantly realized his problem. “I’ll hire someone else.”
“Yeah,” I snorted. “Like you’d ever let anyone touch your plane.” I clasped him on the shoulder and squeezed slightly. “It’s okay to admit you like the thrill of it.”
“I do not,” he bit out. “Do you know many pilots that enjoy throwing up when flying?”
I thought about that for a moment. “Well, since you’re the only pilot I know, I would have to say yes. You wanna help with the luggage?” I asked, jerking my thumb over my shoulder.
Before he could answer, I turned and walked away from him. I was going to have to have a talk with Cash. Scottie was quickly losing his grip on reality. We needed a few wins under our belt in the flying department if we were going to convince him to keep flying for us.
I desperately wanted to just unload and move on, but I had Sarah to deal with. She was slightly less hysterical, but I needed to calm her down if I wanted her to behave on this trip.
“You ready?” I asked as if we just had an extremely pleasant flight.
She slowly looked up at me with a scowl. “Ready? Ready to get off this plane? Yes. Ready to go home? On a train. Ready to never see you again? Absolutely.”
I nodded in understanding, but I couldn’t really fulfill her requests. “We can definitely get off the plane, but going home on a train isn’t possible. We’re not exactly in the United States anymore. And—”
She stood suddenly and marched into the aisle. “What do you mean we’re not in the United States? Of course we are!”
I really hated when I had to keep repeating myself. And with Sarah, it was clear I was going to have to do it many times. “The radar went out. We’re in the Caribbean.”
“The—but that’s part of the United States!”
“Only two of the islands. Yeah, we’re not on one of them. But don’t worry. We just need to hop off, get the plane fixed, and then we’ll be on our way.”
She pursed her lips at me. “I’ll take a boat.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because technically, you’re under my protection.”
“I don’t need your protection.”
I cocked my head at her. “Just earlier today, you had a bomb strapped to your chest. The evidence points to you needing all sorts of protection.”
She uncrossed her arms, stomping her foot in frustration. “I was a victim of circumstance!”
“Yes, and until we figure out what’s going on, you need someone to watch your back.”
“I refuse,” she said indignantly.
“I refuse your request.”
Her jaw dropped, but I ignored it, turning and grabbing my bag. Since I hadn’t been back to OPS yet, I still had clothes that would at least keep me somewhat cool in the warmer weather. At least we had the ocean breeze down here.