Chapter 2

The aircraft started to shudder, and the engines came up into a roar.

We were already being prepared for takeoff.

Reyes's chest was rising and falling fast.

"Everyone stay calm.

"I'm going forward to ask the captain to hold departure."

She'd barely finished when a man in a suit a few rows up frowned.

"I have somewhere I need to be.

"You're going to hold an entire plane because of this?"

A woman near him agreed.

"Seriously. You're going to take two kids running their mouths at face value?

"Where would a couple of teenagers even get a bomb?"

The man sitting next to Ryan simply took both of their carry-ons, pulled the zippers open and tipped them out onto the floor.

Chargers, snacks, the whole lot of it scattered across the aisle.

"There's nothing. Two kids with a bad case of main-character syndrome.

"I don't know what any of you are so worked up about."

The cabin breathed out.

Somebody swore under their breath.

"Can the parents handle their own children, please?"

"Doing it for attention. It's embarrassing."

Ryan's face soured. He gave a short laugh, unwilling to be the one who backed down.

"You think I'm joking?"

He pointed at Daniel. He didn't raise his voice, but every word landed clean.

"My dad runs the blasting crew at a mine.

"You think it's difficult for me to get hold of that stuff?"

Sophie pulled a tablet out of her bag, swiped it open and held it up for the whole cabin to see.

A university staff directory page, with Laura's photograph in the middle of it.

"My mom does research in a university chemistry lab.

"I can walk into that lab and take whatever I want. It's easy."

Someone looked her up on their phone and made a noise out loud.

"It's real."

Sophie was enjoying herself now. She pulled up a video and lifted it over her head.

"We've been working on this for three years. The whole experiment log is in here.

"You think we're playing?"

On the screen were bottles turned label-out to the camera, chemical names printed across them, and the two of them holding what looked like detonators.

Every face in the cabin changed.

A second later the wheels left the runway and the aircraft climbed hard.

The cabin came apart immediately. People kept getting up. Everyone crowded together.

The flight attendants called for order and not one person listened.

Ryan looked out at the mess of it and smiled.

He turned to Sophie.

"How long left?"

Sophie called out the count, loud enough for half the plane.

"Two minutes gone.

"Three minutes until it goes off."

Ryan ran his tongue over his lip.

"I can't wait.

"Let's all go together, everybody.

"Going out inside fireworks like that — honestly, you're getting a bargain."

An older woman a few rows up, Eleanor Pike, put a hand flat against her chest and began to cry.

"I have a heart condition.

"My heart can't take this."

Ryan was grinning.

"Don't be scared, ma'am.

"If it comes to it, you won't even feel anything. It's over in a second."

Sophie chimed in.

"Right. Much more comfortable than a heart attack."

Her son had heard enough. He came down the aisle and took Ryan by the collar.

"Say one more word. Go on."

Laura was up out of her seat and in front of her son.

"What do you think you're doing! He's a child!"

Daniel came over and shoved him back.

"My son just got into Hartwell.

"You put a hand on him and see what happens."

The man was shaking with it.

"Your whole family is insane."

I sat by the window and never said a word, start to finish.

In my previous life I'd been exactly as frantic as Doug Pike was now — arguing, denying, throwing myself in front of it.

And Ryan and Sophie had turned straight around and played the victim for the camera.

Said their aunt was unstable. Said she had to control everything.

When they held me under the water, Daniel and Laura were standing a few yards up the beach, watching their children with that fond look on their faces.

Three minutes in, when my lungs filled and I fought hard enough that the two of them couldn't keep me down, my brother came over and helped.