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Tor y

Thick black smoke poured from my left engine as my Twin Otter pitched nose-downward, dropping so fast, the altimeter spun like a top.

The windshield on my plane exploded inward with a thunderous crack, showering me with safety glass. A scream tore from my throat as wind howled through the cabin and my hair whipped around my face in a frenzy.

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Border Force Delta-Seven-Four. I've been hit by bullets. Making an emergency landing!" My voice was steady despite my hands shaking on the controls. The radio had bullet holes punched through it, so I couldn’t tell if it was working.

But I fucking hoped so.

I scanned the horizon, frantically searching for buildings or roads. Nothing but a jagged shoreline with wild vegetation that stretched forever.

The nearest hint of civilization was forty minutes away.

Fuck! I’m not going to make it.

Getting as close as possible to the shore was my only hope, but even as I fought to stabilize the plane, the controls bucked against my grip.

Speed, angle, descent. Everything was slipping out of my control.

My heart thundered in my chest as I grabbed the radio .

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is Border Force Delta-Seven-Four. I’m making an emergency landing at?—”

I froze. If the bastards who shot my plane were meeting someone, I couldn’t risk giving away my location.

I fought the controls, trying to level out, to slow my descent. But Ladybeetle was too heavy, too damaged.

“Come on, Lady, just a little more,” I muttered through gritted teeth, trying to coax the dying Twin Otter to hold on. But she was falling fast, the altitude bleeding away with every passing second.

I dropped the mic and tightened my grip on the yoke until my knuckles bulged white.

The shoreline loomed closer, and the waves glinted like shattered glass below. "Stay with me, Lady. Just a little longer."

In the distance, I spotted a decrepit boat half-sunk in the shallows. My stomach turned. That was the boat we’d pulled those human trafficking victims from just weeks ago.

Deadly territory. And that’s right where I was heading.

It wasn’t just the bastards behind that boat I had to worry about, either. This stretch of coastline was crocodile central.

The shoreline filled my windshield, a jarring collision of shimmering blue water and a tangled, weather-beaten vegetation. Every detail seared into my mind. As Ladybeetle plunged from the sky, my stomach lurched like it was being yanked out of me.

Had Mom and Dad felt this same sensation?

I shoved the thought aside. I am not going to die. Not today.

I braced for impact, gripping the yoke. The water rushed up, too fast, too soon. I clenched my jaw, fighting to level out, but the damaged wing dipped first, catching the ocean surface with a bone-rattling jolt.

Ladybeetle hit the water like a hammer. The impact rammed me into the harness, driving the air from my lungs in a brutal punch. A wall of saltwater burst through the shattered windshield, hitting me with the force of a battering ram.

A scream ripped from my throat as my head slammed into the window, pain detonating through my skull in a blinding flash of stars.

Churning water surged into the cabin, a bubbling, frothing torrent that turned everything into a distorted, frantic blur. Twisted metal groaned and shrieked, locked in a losing battle against the crushing weight of the sea.

Ladybeetle flipped over and seawater poured in like a liquid avalanche.

Up became down. Air became water.

The deafening roar of rushing water filled my ears. Raw adrenaline flooded my veins.

Survival was the only thought hammering through my mind.

“Oh fuck!” I gasped. “I’m upside down.”

I thrashed against the harness, my fingers fumbling with the buckle. Pain throbbed through my head where I’d hit the window, and my hands felt heavy and useless, like they didn’t belong to me.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The water crept higher, filling my mouth.

I coughed and spluttered as the brine burned my throat.

I sucked in one last desperate breath through the dwindling pocket of air above me, filling my lungs just as the ocean swallowed me.

The water surged over my face. Panic exploded in my brain.

My chest tightened as every instinct screamed at me to breathe. But there was nothing but water.

The world plunged into muffled silence. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out everything else.

My vision swam as I fought against the rising tide of panic.

A massive bubble slipped free from the cabin, wobbling and shimmering as it floated upward toward the dim light filtering through the water.

The groaning metal around me was relentless, each creak and pop a reminder that Ladybeetle’s mangled frame couldn’t hold out much longer. The cabin felt like a tomb, growing darker, heavier, with every passing second.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my trembling fingers to work. My nails scraped uselessly at the buckle before it finally snapped free.

The harness released, and as gravity twisted into chaos, I floated upward to the ceiling . . . or what was actually the cabin floor.

I shoved at the door, but the twisted metal made it sealed shut.

Panic clawed at me, threatening to take over the pain in my burning lungs.

Think, Tory. Focus .

The windshield!

As I turned around so I could kick off my seat, the plane jolted violently, and a deep, grinding thud reverberated through the cabin.

The impact knocked me back against the seat.

A muffled metallic groan echoed through what was left of the fuselage.

My ears popped with the pressure, and then, everything went still.

Oh my god! I’m on the bottom of the ocean. And I’m trapped.