Miller Hiding in Plane Sight

ISBN: 979-8-3509-8178-0
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 272 Seiten

Reihe: Hiding in Plane Sight

Alex and Kat attend the Annual Experimental Aircraft Association Convention in Wisconsin at the same time as an escaped convict who has targeted Alex. The convict forces Alex and Kat to fly him to Canada, but a severe thunderstorm brings the plane down in a heavily forested area in northern Wisconsin. Alex is a Deputy US Marshal who finds himself at the mercy of a violent convict who uses Kat as a hostage.

Pat Miller is a former Colorado State Representative. She has authored nine books and working on another. Pat and her husband live north of Denver, and have made aviation a part of their lives. She doesn't have a pilot's license, but has soloed and can land the plane and use the radio in cast of an emergency. Pat is co-founder of Young Aviators of Colorado. She is a proud mother and grandmother.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miller, Pat

Leseproben

2 The couple enjoyed a leisurely lunch in Junction City, and then Alex suggested that they still had time to visit the airport. It was located on the north side of the city and it would only take ten minutes to get there. The wind had gone down so there was still an opportunity to take Kat on her first plane ride. Turbulence of any kind would not be good for a first time plane ride. The airport wasn’t busy on this Sunday afternoon. Kat saw several business jets lined up on the tarmac along with rows of small planes tied down. Alex drove to a hangar that was lined up with others on the east side of the runway. They watched as Alex pulled a lever and the huge hangar door slowly opened to reveal an airplane that was bigger than Kat had imagined. It was white with blue and gray stripes. She walked around the plane taking in the high wings. Alex watched Kat as she made her way around the plane. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “Well, what do you think?” “I like the color.” Spoken like a typical woman. All she noticed was the color! “Would you like to take a ride? The wind has gone down, and I could take you over the lake to see our house. The sun will be up for hours.” Kat stood quietly. Looking at the plane on the ground was one thing, but climbing in and taking off into the air was another thing. “I promise I’ll take good care of you.” “I know you will. It’s just that there won’t be anything below us. I mean what if the engine stops or we lose a wing.” Alex laughed and put his arm around her shoulder. “I’ve been flying since I graduated from high school and that’s never happened.” But he wouldn’t tell her what had happened once. “Come on, let’s do this. We can go any place in this. It’ll be fun.” Kat didn’t think leaving the ground would be fun, but she wanted to be brave for Alex. She did trust him. “Okay. Let’s get it over with.” Alex frowned. He didn’t like forcing Kat, but on the other hand, he just knew she would like to fly once he got her in the air. After Alex carried out the pre-flight, they taxied to the end of the runway. He handed headphones to Kat so they could talk to each other. The tower radioed that they were cleared for takeoff. The plane started out slowly, but quickly gained speed. The faster the plane rolled down the runway, the faster Kat’s heart beat. When the wheels left the ground, she moved over closer to Alex and put her arm across the back of his seat. “Relax, Kat. You aren’t going to fall out of the plane.” He turned to look at her and saw a pale face and big, round eyes. “I’ll give you something to do while we’re up here. You can see that I have a GPS monitor that tells us where we are.” She looked down at the instrument he was pointing at. He reached into a side pocket on the door and pulled out a chart. As he opened it, Kat pulled even closer to Alex. “Don’t take your hands off the wheel, Alex!” Alex smiled. “This wheel is called the yoke and it doesn’t really turn the plane left or right. I do that with my feet.” He looked down at his feet and Kat followed his eyes. He pushed down on one of the pedals and the plane slipped to the right. Kat anxiously grabbed his arm. Alex smiled warmly at his wife. “It’s okay. That’s what the plane is supposed to do.” He put his hand over her hand and squeezed. “Anyway, here’s the airport where we just took off.” He pointed out the location on the chart. “Do you see it?” “Yes.” “Okay. Now look down and look for a major highway, or maybe you can see a body of water.” Kat looked intently at the chart. She looked out the window and saw Junction City. She picked out the Walmart store where she shopped. She found the road that led up the mountain toward Stony Creek, then looked back at the chart and found the highway. “Yes! I can see it all. Look over here to the left. That must be the lake by our house!” Alex let out his breath. Kat was going to be alright. “You aren’t going to fly over the lake, are you?” “Sure. It would be hard to really see our house without going over the lake.” “But I don’t know how to swim!” Alex let out a big laugh. “We aren’t going to go down in the lake. Trust me.” Sometimes, Kat hated the word trust. Trust had been hard to achieve in the past, but she was working on it. Kat looked down and saw Big Foot’s Lair, the huge building where she worked for Howard Beckley. The store was so well stocked that she even had found curtains and curtain rods there. The warehouse was the best place to pick up what you needed if you were heading into the mountains to camp. But the shelves also held groceries for the locals. Howard kept the store open during the summer months, but she wasn’t required to work on Sunday or Monday. The parking lot was full so Howard must be busy. He sometimes called on friends to help if needed. She could see people standing around the Big Foot statue, probably getting a picture to send back home. Kat had never known her father so Howard had walked her down the aisle yesterday at the wedding. Was it only yesterday? “Look ahead, someone’s fishing. Wonder if it’s Buddy. He said he might take the boys out today.” Alex was happy that Buddy and Alice were together. It was good for the boys to have a man in their lives. Alex had stepped in whenever he could, but his job could take him away from his nephews at any time. Now that they were nearly over the lake, Alex wondered if Kat would venture a look out the window. Kat looked down to see the tiny boat in the middle of the lake. Three figures waved at them. “Look, they’re waving!” Alex swooped down low to acknowledge that he saw them, and then waved the wings as he left the area. He glanced over at Kat who was now sitting back in her seat staring at the aeronautical chart. He knew he had to tell Kat what was going on. He cleared his throat. “There’s something I have to talk to you about.” Kat looked over at him. “Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.” “Remember last fall when I had to go out of town on a major case?” She nodded. “We put away a very bad guy. He was the head of a human trafficking gang called the TEAM. The marshals got involved when it became apparent more help was needed. When I went undercover with TEAM, it was all I could do to stay there when I saw what was going on. And it’s not just going on here in the States; it’s all over the world.” Kat refolded the chart waiting for Alex to continue. “When we arrested him he told me that when he got out he was coming after me.” “Oh, no, Alex!” What Alex had said took her breath away. He didn’t talk about his work, and Kat didn’t ask questions. “Well, I wasn’t worried because there was no way he was ever going to get out of jail.” Kat was waiting for what he would say next. “Prison guards were transporting him to a more secure facility and he got away. TEAM must have planned all along to find a way to get to him. They must have an inside man to have pulled it off. Anyway, there’s investigation going on. Two security guards were killed. I knew one of them personally.” “Alex, how awful. I’m so sorry.” As she reached out and put her hand on his arm, she thought for a minute about what his escape would mean for Alex - and her. “So what happens now?” She was almost afraid to hear what the answer would be. Alex cleared his throat again. “Well, right now, we don’t know where he is. I was warned last week that Lancaster was on the loose, but I didn’t want to tell you because of our wedding. We don’t have any knowledge that he is coming this way; my boss was worried and wanted to alert me.” It must have been so difficult for Alex to get the news about Lancaster in the middle of planning a wedding. Kat sat stiffly in her seat. “I appreciate that you didn’t tell me before yesterday. I knew you were keeping something from me. When you told me you had bought a plane, I thought that was the secret. But this is scary. I try not to think about what you do. You’re around most of the time working with the local authorities, and I’ve tried to skim over the danger you must face.” Alex reached over and grabbed Kat’s hand. “I’ve been warned and now I’ll be watching. I worked a lot of undercover jobs before you came to Stony Creek. It’s because of that work we were able to put Lancaster away. But now, my cover has been compromised and TEAM knows who I am. But I know who they are too.” Kat had forgotten that she was flying through the air. The news Alex had just reported made her stomach clench. Please put a hedge of protection about Alex, Lord. There was nothing more that Alex could say. He didn’t want to worry Kat, but they had promised each other to be honest and not keep secrets. She understood there were some things about his job that he couldn’t share with her but other than that - no secrets. He hoped Kat had learned her lesson from all she went through last year. “What does TEAM stand for?” “I haven’t got a clue.” “What if he comes to Stony Creek? What will we...