Chapter 8 - High-Altitude Confrontation
Wind screamed in my ears as I pulled myself up onto the steel ramp, hauling my body into the lower cargo bay of the ascending jet.
The plane banked sharply to the left, climbing rapidly into the dark, storm-filled clouds above Gary.
In the dimly lit cargo hold, surrounded by crates of illegal hardware and offshore currency, stood Victor Vance. He had drawn a heavy revolver from his coat, his face twisted in desperate rage as the plane leveled off at ten thousand feet.
"You should have stayed on the ground, David!" Vance screamed over the roar of the engines, raising the revolver to aim at my chest.
I didn't give him the chance to pull the trigger. I lunged forward, grabbing his wrist and slamming it against a structural steel beam. The revolver discharged with a deafening report, the bullet tearing a hole through the side cabin wall, causing an immediate, violent drop in air pressure.
Wind howled through the bullet hole as oxygen masks dropped from the overhead panels.
Vance struck me across the jaw with his heavy silver cane, sending me crashing back against a row of wooden cargo crates. Pain exploded across my face, but the image of Lily’s terrified eyes burned through the haze.
I kicked Vance’s leg out from under him, sending him crashing to his knees on the steel floor. I scrambled up, grabbed the heavy walking stick from his hand, and tossed it into the open gap near the rear ramp release mechanism.
"It's over, Vance!" I shouted, holding him down against the floorboards with my forearm across his throat. "There's nowhere left to fly!"
The cockpit door flew open, and the pilot stepped out with his hands raised, seeing the federal air marshal badges flashing on the chest of the off-duty operative who had stowed away in the forward cabin.
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"Plane's under federal control, Vance," the operative called out, locking the cockpit doors and setting the autopilot to return to Chicago O'Hare under military escort.
Vance sank back against the floor, gasping for air, his eyes wide with the realization that his thirty-year criminal empire had finally come to a crashing, absolute end.
