Page 27 of Friendly Skies
Where on earth had that come from? They hadn’t served food yet, and their utensils were plastic. She couldn’t have brought it in her carry-on because TSA would have found it. But even as he thought it, Darius realized it must have come from one of the terminal restaurants, which meant it didn’t have a sharp tip, but it was serrated and could cause a nasty cut on human skin. There was no way she could get to the cockpit, if that had been her intention, but there were nearly three hundred souls on board this flight. He needed to subdue this woman for everyone’s safety, including hers.
Time slowed and focus narrowed as Darius glanced at Jason, signaling that the woman had a weapon. Jason nodded, understanding. There were whispers now from the passengers; someone was crying, and then a baby wailed. The sound seemed to unfreeze the woman, and she lunged toward Darius. He stepped backward out of range, hoping the plane didn’t roll and throw him off-balance. Jason closed the distance behind her, and then raised his hand pointing toward the back of the plane, where the few remaining empty seats were located. Darius nodded.
“Ma’am,” Darius said, “can you come with me? We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
In response, the woman waved the knife at Darius. “Stay away from me. You’re not going to touch me. You’re not going to put the electricity in me again.”
Darius took a deep breath. Electricity? His mind started connecting information with lightning strokes of insight while he tried to come up with a way to get this under control.
Electroshock was still used to treat severe depression, which might mean the woman was on medication. And she’d been drinking. So not only was she intoxicated, but it was possible there was a drug interaction as well as mental instability. And she was holding a weapon, which made things much moredifficult since it might be impossible to reason with her, and any perceived threat might turn into a dangerous situation for himself or other passengers.
He glanced at the row number. Thirty-five. There were five rows until the lavatory and another two rows behind that. He heard movement behind him but wasn’t going to risk glancing over his shoulder to confirm what he hoped those sounds were: Michael and Rachel clearing out a row at the back of the plane.
Again, the silent communication between himself and Jason, and Darius prayed Jason understood what he was thinking. Darius took a step backward, and Jason closed the distance between them, which made the woman move toward Darius, exactly as he’d hoped. Between Jason and himself, they slowly moved the woman down the aisle, moving a few feet backward, then losing ground when she turned to wave the knife at Jason. Some passengers gasped when she lunged at him. Jason backed off, both hands raised in a placating gesture.
The plane lurched as they hit more turbulence, and the woman lost her balance, falling against a young boy, who cried out in panic. Darius heard his mother trying to calm him, and the woman seemed confused by the commotion. She reached out, and Darius held his breath, but she only put her hand on the boy’s head before she stood upright again.
“Ma’am,” Darius said. “Please.”
With her focus back on him, he and Jason began their slow movement to the back seats. Row thirty-seven. Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine. Out of the corner of his eye, Darius noticed a cell phone pointed his way, but he had no time to think about that. Behind the woman, Jason nodded and pointed to the left side of the plane.
Darius nodded back with the smallest of movements, hoping again that Jason understood the plan they were improvising andboth of them were on the same page. Jason raised one finger and nodded to the woman.
“Ma’am, we’re trying to help,” Darius said and took another step backward. He was almost even with the fortieth row, which was now empty.
“Don’t touch me,” the woman said again. “I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want the electricity.” Her hand holding the knife trembled.
“I know,” Darius said. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
Jason held up a second finger, and Darius kept talking to keep the woman focused on him. Another half step backward. Another step forward from the woman. Jason closed the distance behind her and raised a third finger.
“Now,” he said.
In the blink of an eye, both of them closed in on the woman. Jason wrapped his arms around her and pinned her arms against her sides while Darius took hold of her wrist with one hand and grabbed the knife with the other. He felt the metal graze his wrist, vaguely aware of it scraping his skin. The woman screamed and struggled as he and Jason did everything they could to wrestle her into the empty row of seats without hurting her.
Once they had her down, Darius was practically sitting on her as Jason took a pair of handcuffs from Rachel and bound her hands. The woman continued to scream and cry, but Jason was able to secure her and fasten the seat belt to keep her seated.
Adrenaline made his heart race, and it wasn’t until Rachel put a hand on his shoulder that he realized she was telling him it was okay. He could relax and stand up. The woman wasn’t a danger anymore.
Darius let go of her and sat up, then stood on shaky legs to applause from the passengers.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the pilot’s voice came over the PA. “As I am sure you are aware, we have had an issue. We are returning to LAX immediately and appreciate your understanding.”
There was more to the message, but Darius couldn’t comprehend it. He was crashing fast as the adrenaline began to ebb, suddenly aware that his right forearm stung. When he looked down, he saw the blood.
“Well, fuck,” he said, his legs starting to tremble.
He managed to make it to one of the jump seats in the galley and sat down hard. Rachel immediately got out the first aid kit, pulled on a pair of gloves, pushed up his sleeve, and started cleaning up the cut. It wasn’t deep; Darius had seen the knife and knew it wasn’t sharp enough to do much damage, but it had abraded the skin enough to cause bleeding. While Rachel worked on his arm, Michael handed him a cup of orange juice, and Jason headed back to business class.
“That was fucking amazing, man,” Michael said as Darius accepted the drink and downed it in one swallow.
Handing the cup back to Michael, Darius tried to smile. “Next time, throw some vodka in there, would you?”
Rachel laughed. “Seriously, Darius, that was incredible work.” She pushed at the skin around the cut, then dabbed at it with an antibacterial dressing. “You’ll need to get this checked out by one of the company docs and file a report, and you also need to talk to the union before you go home since this happened on the job, and it needs to be documented.”
“Yeah.” Darius nodded, slowly becoming aware of where he was and the sounds of an airplane in flight. The woman they’d had to subdue moaned every now and then, but she’d gone limp once they’d gotten her in a seat. One of the other attendants was sitting with her. He was also aware they were descending rapidly. “We’re landing?”
“We’ll be wheels down in about five minutes. As soon as we let the cockpit know what was happening, they notified LAX we had an emergency on board. The tower cleared the airspace for us, so we’ve got a direct line to the ground and a gate. Police and ambulance are waiting, and they’ll take her off first.”
