“What?” Jake tried to jump to his feet but his seat belt restrained him.
“The airport people found the regular pilot unconscious in the hangar’s locker room,” Piazza was saying, his words spilling out fast, in a torrent.
“Billy’s flying the plane by himself?”
“He doesn’t know how to land it!” Piazza repeated.
“Jesus!”
“He hasn’t answered my calls and he won’t reply to the traffic controllers. Let me talk to him!”
Glancing at Tami, who looked stricken, Jake unclicked his seat belt and hurried up the aisle to the cockpit door. It was locked.
Pounding on the door, Jake yelled, “Billy! It’s Nick! He wants to talk to you!”
“No deal,” came Trueblood’s muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Tell him I said good-bye.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Jake yelled.
Down the aisle, Tami’s face looked ashen. She sat in her seat as if petrified.
“What do you think I’m doing?” Trueblood replied. “I’m gonna crash this bird into the Spaceport America building, wipe out Astra Corporation’s control center. Put an end to this rocket launching business.”
“But you’ll kill us!” Jake hollered. “You’ll kill yourself!”
“That’s right. More publicity. Author of the space plan dies in Spaceport America crash. We’ll get plenty of publicity.”
“Why?” Jake shrieked. “Why the hell do you want to do this?”
“To get back at Nick. Get back at all you palefaces. First you took our land. Then you took us, took me. Now you’re going out to take everything in the solar system. The Moon. Mars. It’s got to stop, man. I’m stopping it. Now.”
“That’s crazy!”
“So I’m crazy. So was Sitting Bull, and Red Cloud, and Geronimo. And Crazy Horse, he was the craziest of them all, I guess.”
Jake glanced at the window. The plane was flying straight and level, okay so far, but Trueblood was rushing toward death and he was going to take Jake and Tami with him.
“You said you wanted to get back at Nick. Why? He’s been like a father to you.”
“More than that, man. A lot more than that.”
“He took you in when you were an orphan, for god’s sake. He’s made a good life for you.”
“Yeah, sure. He loves me to death.”
Even through the locked cockpit door, Jake heard the bitterness in Trueblood’s voice.
“Loves you to death?”
“Yeah. Whenever he wants to. Whenever he gets the urge. Only now I’m too old for him. Now he wants a younger kid.”
Tami came up beside Jake, wide-eyed with fear and sudden understanding. “Nick’s molested you?”
Trueblood laughed shakily. “That’s the polite way of saying it. He’s been fucking me since I was eight years old.”
“Oh my god,” Jake gasped.
“And now he wants to dump me. I don’t know if I should be glad or sad.”
“Nick is a pedophile?” Tami asked.
“Does a camel have humps?” Trueblood countered.
Desperate for anything that might change Trueblood’s attitude, Jake asked, “But why should you kill yourself?”
“Why not? Sorry to take you with me, Jake, but it’ll make an even bigger story.”
“Nick’s the one you’re mad at,” said Tami.
“Yeah. And the one I love. Crazy world, isn’t it?”
“Don’t do it, Billy,” Jake pleaded. “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”
“That’s not a helluva lot to look forward to.”
Jake and Tami argued with Trueblood through the locked cockpit door as the plane flew smoothly toward New Mexico. The clouds that had blanketed the eastern states petered out and they could see the great Midwestern farmlands, green and fertile, stretching from horizon to horizon. Then the mountains started to rise, with pockets of snow still visible here and there. Rivers flowed, glistening in the sun, until the land turned dry and brown.
Jake’s throat felt raw from shouting at Trueblood. Tami looked truly frightened, her eyes darting here and there, seeking a way out, an escape.
Trueblood refused to talk to Piazza, or anyone. “I’m finished talking. I’ve made up my mind,” he said.
Even in the cell phone’s minuscule screen Piazza looked frantic. “I never intended to hurt him! I didn’t think it would come to this!”
But it has come to this, Jake replied silently. This kid’s going to kill himself and Tami and me with him. A new thought popped into his mind: Has Nick told the launch crew to get the hell out of the launch center? And the other people in the building?
“Better get back to your seats,” Trueblood’s voice commanded over the plane’s intercom speakers. “Strap in.”
What the hell for? Jake asked himself. But he took Tami by the hand and led her back to their seats.
“He’s going to kill us,” Tami half whispered, her voice trembling.
Jake nodded. Then, instead of getting into the seat, he marched back to the cockpit door.
“So you’re going to let Nick win,” he said.
“What?”
“You’re going to let Nick win. You’re going to show the world that the Zunis are just another bunch of dumbbell terrorists with nothing better to do than slaughter innocent men and women.”
Silence from the cockpit for a few heartbeats. Then, “We’re not terrorists.”
“That’s not what the news media will say. I can see the headline, ‘Native American Terrorist Kills Himself and a Few Dozen Others.’”
Trueblood did not reply.
“And Nick Piazza finds himself another playmate,” Jake continued. “Crashing into the spaceport’s control center won’t stop Nick from going ahead with his life. All you’ll be doing is removing a problem that neither one of you knows how to resolve.”
“I know how to resolve it,” Trueblood shouted. “Now get back in your seat and strap in.”
“Did you write Nick a farewell letter? Disappointed lovers are supposed to write farewell letters before they commit suicide. And murder.”
“Shut up and get back in your seat!”
“Why should I? I’ll be just as dead standing up.”
“Just get back in your seat.” Trueblood’s voice was almost beseeching.
Jake looked through the plane’s nearest window. Spaceport America’s scattering of buildings and launchpads was coming into view, off on the horizon. He could see the Astra Super standing on its platform, waiting for tomorrow’s launch. A cluster of technicians was swarming around its base.
Jake shook his head and headed back toward Tami. He sat down, dutifully clicked on his safety belt, then reached out and took her hand in his.
She was trembling, her eyes wide with fear. But dry. She wasn’t shedding any tears.
Jake squeezed her hand. “Together,” he whispered.
Tami had to swallow before she could reply, “Together.”