Warning Light (A Jake Keller Thriller, Band 1) - Softcover

Ricciardi, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0399585753 ISBN 13: 9780399585753

Verlag: Berkley, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

“One of the best thrillers you'll read this year.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

No one knows what CIA desk jockey Zac Miller is capable of—including himself—until a routine surveillance job becomes a do-or-die mission in the Middle East.

When a commercial flight violates restricted airspace to make an emergency landing at a closed airport in Iran, the passengers are just happy to be alive and ready to transfer to a functional plane. All of them except one...

The American technology consultant in business class is not who he says he is. Zac Miller is a CIA analyst. And after an agent's cover gets blown, Zac—though never trained to be a field operative—volunteers to take his place, to keep a surveillance mission from being scrubbed.

Zac thinks it will be easy to photograph the earthquake-ravaged airport that is located near a hidden top secret nuclear facility. But when everything that can go wrong does, he finds himself on the run from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and abandoned by his own teammates, who think he has gone rogue. Embarking on a harrowing journey through the mountains of Iran to the Persian Gulf and across Europe, Zac can only rely on himself. But even if he makes it out alive, the life he once had may be lost to him forever...

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

A keen outdoorsman, David Ricciardi incorporated many personal experiences into Warning Light. He's backpacked through the mountains of the western United States and Alaska, received extensive training from law-enforcement and U.S. special operations personnel, and once woke up for a 2 A.M. watch aboard a sailboat only to discover that it was headed the wrong way through the Atlantic sea-lanes in heavy weather, with one of the crew suffering from hypothermia. In addition to being an avid sailor, David is also a certified scuba rescue diver and a former ski instructor. Warning Light is his first novel.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

One

"Speedbird 337, maintain heading one-one-five. Contact Tehran Defense Radar on 127.8. Good day."

Inside the cockpit, First Officer Edward Blake responded to the Turkish air traffic controller.

"Roger that, Ankara Center. Speedbird 337 maintain heading one-one-five. Switching to 127.8."

He glanced to his left and caught Captain Sam Allard's eyes for a moment before turning the VHF radio to the new frequency. The British Airways flight, radio call sign "Speedbird," was closing in on Iran's Flight Information Region and needed permission to enter Iranian airspace.

"Tehran Radar, this is Speedbird 337 heavy."

"Go ahead, Speedbird 337."

"Tehran Radar, Speedbird 337 with you at flight level three-niner-zero, estimate crossing your FIR at 15:20 hours."

"Roger, Speedbird 337, squawk 0413 and proceed as filed."

The radio fell silent while the Iranian controller verified the radar contact and flight plan that the British Airways pilots had filed before taking off from London.

In peaceful times, the flight would have followed the great circle route through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan before heading south below the Himalayas on its way to Singapore. For the past decade, however, hostilities in the area led most airlines to divert their jets to the south, over Iran. The detour added a few minutes and several thousand dollars to the cost of each flight, but it was safer than flying through a war zone.

"Speedbird 337, identified, cleared for entry. Contact Tehran Center on 133.4. Good day."

"Roger that, Radar, Speedbird 337 cleared for entry, switching to 133.4."

Captain Allard adjusted the autopilot and the six-hundred-twenty-ton Airbus A380 banked gently to the right before settling onto its new course. He scanned his instruments and cross-checked his flight computer. Underneath the wings of the Airbus, four Rolls-Royce Trent 970 engines were running smoothly, each delivering over eighty thousand pounds of thrust. The radio in the cockpit chirped sporadically as air traffic controllers directed the other planes in Sector Two around Tehran. Most of the flights were domestic, but Emirates, Air India, and other international carriers were not uncommon.

The long-haul flight was on schedule as Allard gazed out the cockpit windows. The late-day sun was starting to form shadows behind the mountains below. It was his first flight over Iran. It was more rugged and beautiful than he'd expected, but his reverie was interrupted by the copilot.

"Captain, we have a warning light on the number-three engine . . . Exhaust gas temperature is spiking and oil pressure is dropping quickly."

An automated voice in the cockpit called out another warning and a message flashed on the centralized aircraft monitor inside the cockpit. Captain Allard silenced the alarms. He was already looking at the engine data on his own monitors.

"I don't think we're going to be able to keep it running. Give me maximum continuous thrust on the good engines and let's run the engine shutdown checklist."

Blake made eye contact with his senior officer and took a deep breath. "Yes, sir, commencing in-flight shutdown on the number-three engine."

Blake pushed the button for the Fasten Seat Belt sign while Captain Allard switched to the air traffic control frequency on his headset.

"Tehran Center, Speedbird 337 requesting immediate clearance to flight level two-seven-zero. Our number-three engine has lost oil pressure and we're shutting it down."

The radio was quiet for a few long seconds. Allard and Blake shut down the malfunctioning engine and trimmed the aircraft's rudder to compensate for the off-center thrust.

"Speedbird 337, you are cleared to flight level two-seven-zero, understand number-three engine out. Are you declaring an emergency at this time?" asked the controller.

Allard looked at his copilot. "Take her down to two-seven-zero as soon as we hit driftdown speed."

"Center, 337 leaving flight level three-niner-zero for two-seven-zero. That's negative, repeat, negative on the emergency. We don't know the cause of the pressure loss yet but the other three engines are running smoothly."

"Roger, Speedbird 337. Confirm you are an A380?"

"That's affirmative, Center."

"Speedbird 337, nearest capable alternate airport is Esfahan, approximately sixty miles northwest of your position. Would you like vectors to the alternate?"

"Center, 337, negative on the alternate. We are proceeding on course, descending through flight level three-six-zero. We're going to look at restarting our number three once we reach engine-out altitude."

"Understood, Speedbird 337. Maintain heading one-two-five degrees, flight level two-seven-zero, and keep us advised of your status."

"Maintain heading one-two-five, Speedbird 337," confirmed Allard.

When the aircraft started its descent, most of the passengers felt a touch of weightlessness before their seat belts pulled them down. Flight attendants walked down the pitched aisles, waking the sleeping passengers and enforcing the seat-belt rule. Questions from the passengers were politely deflected despite the clearly elevated vigilance on the part of the crew.

Captain Allard picked up the handset for the internal public address system as the aircraft descended.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. You may have noticed that we've slowed down and descended over the past few minutes. Everything is fine. We'll soon be leveling off at twenty-seven thousand feet where we're going to stay for a bit. One of our engines was acting up so we decided to shut it down until we can correct the problem and get it restarted. The A380 is designed to fly quite well with only three engines and can get by with two if necessary. In the meantime, please listen to your flight attendants and remain in your seats. We will keep you apprised of the situation. Thank you."

The pilots spent a few minutes preparing to restart the idle engine but the warning lights flashed again. The mood in the cockpit remained businesslike despite the mounting problems.

Blake spoke calmly. "We've just lost Yellow hydraulic pressure."

The forces involved in moving the control surfaces on such a large aircraft were enormous. Without hydraulics to move the rudder, ailerons, and elevator, the pilots would be unable to maneuver the plane. The hydraulic systems were so critical that the A380 had two systems, Green and Yellow, to prevent a single failure from turning into a catastrophe.

"OK. What's Green system pressure and quantity?"

Blake was already looking at his monitor.

"Green is at 96 percent." He paused for a moment. "Make that 94 percent. Quantity is definitely falling. We may have a leak."

The pilots ran through a checklist to locate the cause of the problem. Years earlier, a Qantas Airways A380 had suffered a hydraulic failure after an engine exploded just after takeoff. The explosion had also been preceded by an oil-pressure loss. Only the skill of the crew, and much good luck, had allowed the aircraft to land safely.

The air traffic controller had just finished handling a domestic Iran Air flight when Blake switched his radio back to the air traffic control frequency.

"Tehran Center, Speedbird 337 . . ."

"Speedbird 337, this is Tehran...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0399585753
• ISBN 13: 9780399585753
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 368
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland