Talk to me, he said. Kayn Brooks was still crying, but her voice had changed the instant he took the controls like a drowning person who feels a hand close around their wrist. Number two, engine surging. It's been surging for 6 minutes. I can't get it to stabilize.
We've got a green hydraulic system. Caution pressures dropping. Captain Doyle had a heart attack. I couldn't I couldn't do compressions and fly at the same time. I had to.
Her voice broke. I had to let him go. I let him go. You flew the airplane, Ethan said. Flat, certain.
That's the job. He'd have told you the same. He did. A wet laugh, half a sob. That's exactly what he told me.
He said, "Fly the airplane, Kalin. That's always the answer. " Right before he then you honored him. Ethan's eyes were moving across the panel, fast hungry, drinking in numbers and needles like a starving man. You keep honoring him by not quitting. Can you do that?
Yes. Say it like you mean it. Yes. Steadier. Yes, I can.
Good. What's your name? Kalin Brooks. First officer. Kalin.
I'm Ethan. I flew F-16s for the United States Air Force and I once put a jet on the ground with less than what we've got right now. So, I need you to believe me when I tell you we are not dying today. You believe me? She looked at him.
Really looked at the scarred hands and the leather jacket and the eyes that had gone somewhere cold and clear and absolutely without fear and something in her chest unclenched half an inch. I believe you, she said. Then let's go to work. The plane bucked again hard, and a fresh chorus of screams bled through the cockpit door from the cabin behind them. Walter Hensley stood in the aisle where Ethan had left him.
One hand braced on a seatback and he didn't sit down. He was 76 years old and his heart was hammering but 31 years of training. Don't leave a man just because his hair went white. Everybody listen to me. His voice cracked out over the panic like a whip.
Look up here. Look at me. A few faces turned, then more. Terror wants a leader almost as much as it wants an exit. And Walter had the bearing of a man who'd led frightened people before.