Chapter 19: Hostage

Both a sheriff’s deputy and the regular gate guard checked Alice into the Circle property at the main gate. Instead of going home she went up the slight rise in the land and turned left onto Airport Road. She slowly drove down the narrow lane towards the private landing strip. Her intent was to fly the Cessna Citation to the larger airport where it would blend in with dozens of other corporate jets rather than remain a potential target for destruction by Reverend Angus Morton. She could get an Uber back to work.

She parked beside the hangar, and then opened the large hangar doors and surveyed the inside of the hangar. The two small planes that might have blocked the larger plane’s ability be rolled out were gone, most likely at Sky Ranch with Doug or Pete for lessons or charters.

Alice closed the stairway to the jet and then attached the motorized tug to the front wheels of the sleek jet. In less than a minute she had it rolled out onto the tarmac in front of the hangar in a place where it could be started and the initial taxi completed without doing any damage from the exhaust.

Alice redeployed the stairway and then went up into the plane. Just as she turned to go into the cockpit, she heard a commanding male voice. “Good morning, Mrs. Prentiss, I believe. Come in and have a seat.”

Alice jumped at the presence. She turned and there was an old but familiar face from when she grew up – a face she hadn’t seen in nearly twenty years. Reverend Angus Morton sat in the first plush seat in the passenger compartment. He had a handgun pointed at her in one hand and gestured with the other to the seat on the other side of the small aisle from him.

Behind the man was a mess of a pillow and blankets. Morton had been sleeping in the jet, amazingly close by to the Circle.

Alice challenged “Why have you been harassing us?”

“Because you hurt me badly and you are also violating God’s laws.”

“How did I hurt you?”

“You took my job away and cost me millions of dollars I was in line to receive in the way of deferred compensation.”

“I did no such thing. Your pastor and church did that for you.”

“Your sister did. That’s close enough for me.”

Alice retorted, “You and others in the church conspired to kidnap my niece and nephew. The men that tried to abduct them are in jail.”

“My friends ... wrongly imprisoned. All they were trying to do was put the children in a home that abided and taught God’s laws. They were paid for it, but even that money is now gone. We had to pay hundreds of thousands to the lawyers to defend your sister’s lawsuit. What a waste of money.”

“So, your God believes in kidnapping, spite, and malice? That’s kind of funny, because my God believes in love, tolerance, and understanding.”

“Don’t be impudent young lady. I have figured out that you are one of the main disbelievers. You are an opinion leader and have led many others into a morally corrupt and obscene lifestyle.”

“And who chose you to be the judge and jury? Some of my friends are more spiritual than you could ever dream of being.”

“I am one of God’s children that actually listen to and ACT on His word,” Morton insisted vehemently.

“And He told you to harass everyone in the Circle including Owen Bennett?”

“I must apologize to Mr. Bennett sometime. I had the wrong house. I thought that home belonged to the Simon family – your sister – the one that won the count judgment. I only realized my mistake a few days ago. I did, however, come to believe that her family had decided to overnight in the highly secure Zenith building downtown.”

“So, what was your plan for today – this seemed to be the last day in your harassment plan somebody told me.”

Morton laughed somewhat diabolically. “I had many options, but taking you hostage didn’t come to mind until you appeared at your little airport. Now, I have a whole new plan to get back at your sinful lot and even at your sister. How will she feel if she’s to blame for your death in an aircraft fire or a spectacular crash into some icon of society? Originally, I expected to burn all your planes, at least that would put us on more of a similar economic basis in terms of our losses. What’s this plane worth? Fifty million?”

The two sparred for a few minutes. Alice said, “May I use the plane’s toilet. There’s no place to go from there – only one door.”

Morton waved the gun and Alice moved to the rear of the passenger compartment. She went in and locked the door, making some noise as she dropped the toilet seat. She had her cellphone in her hand and instantly texted Dave, Julie, Karen, Dev, and Dale that she was a hostage in the plane at the Circle Airport. She made sure to mention the handgun. She ended with ‘DO NOT REPLY TO ME. Come save me.’

After her ‘tinkle’ she flushed and came back out. Morton and she talked at each other a bit more, and then he asked, “Can you fly this plane?”

“Kind of. There has to be a second pilot and a number of other things done.” The white lie about needing a second pilot did not appear to be detected. The thought of flying off did appeal to Angus Morton, but he was still modifying his plan.

Morton went to the door on the plane with Alice in front of him. He ordered, “Fold up the stairway.” Alice touched the right buttons and a few extras by the door to retract the stairway. She didn’t want him to understand the mechanics of the plane. As she did, she saw a shadow on the ground under the plane. Maybe there was already some help nearby.

Alice said, “If I start the auxiliary power unit, we’ll have some air conditioning in here. It’s apt to become really hot and stuffy in a couple of minutes without that.”

“Do it,” Morton ordered.

Alice went through a checklist for the APU, taking a lot of extra time to make the job look more complex than it was. She started the unit, and then adjusted the climate controls for the cabin. Morton held his gun on her the whole time. She thought, ‘At least now there’s a lot of engine noise allowing things to happen outside the aircraft without detection.’ She recalled the obvious that anything going on beneath the wings or behind the aircraft could not be observed from inside the plane.

As she went back to her seat, she felt the slight shift of weight of the plane. Somebody was underneath the plane or under one of the wings doing something. Alice sat in the passenger compartment still covered by the handgun and Morton’s menacing face.

Over the course of a half hour Alice became aware of a lightening of the plane on one side. She wisely kept quiet but did notice the nearly infinitesimal tilt to the starboard side of the plane.

Alice taunted Morton. “I thought you believed in the fundamental messages of the Bible and Jesus? Were you always the biggest hypocrite in the country or was that more of a recent phenomenon?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he yelled at her.

“The fundamental message in the Bible and from Jesus was to love your fellow man. Yet, YOUR church – the one I grew up in – taught only CONDITIONAL LOVE. You only get God’s love IF you belong to THIS church, and believe what THIS minister tells you. That sure isn’t very Christian, is it? That’s about as narcissistic as you can get.”

“You don’t understand?”

“Oh, I understand hypocrisy very well, Reverend Angus Morton. Your picture is next to the definition in the dictionary.” She continued to beat him up with how un-Christian the Bible Church had been, and how the church’s teachings and actions were purely sinful as measured against the Bible and Jesus’ teachings. Alice remembered her Bible classes well, and could still quote chapter and verse to him to make her points.

The theological argument went on for forty-five minutes. Alice invoked all the spiritual principles about love, unconditional love, empathy, support, caring, gratitude, equality, achieving one’s potential, and harmony that served as the basis for the Circle and for her lifestyle. She often quoted statements she’d learned from Ross Buchman, the Circle’s spiritual guru.

Alice threw questions are him: “Where in the Bible does it say to use a mortar to bomb those that you Reverend Morton are unhappy with?” “I must have missed the reference in the good book about where it said to spray paint thy neighbor’s house or bomb it with colorful paint.” “Could you tell me the verse that told you to try to harm my sister and her family?”

Several times Morton pointed the gun at her as though to shoot her, but Alice just laughed in his face and taunted him with more provocative statements. During that time, she was aware of how the plane was rising up slightly on the hydraulic landing gear and returning to level as it got lighter. Alice realized that somebody was quietly sucking the fuel from the plane’s tanks. This was good because it would prevent the plane from leaving Circle Airport.

After a while the APU started to sputter occasionally. Alice pointed out, “We’re low on fuel for the power unit. Maybe I should switch to the other fuel tank?”

“Do it, and no funny stuff,” Morton said. “Stay away from the radios.”

Alice went to the cockpit and after a brief check of the instruments she noted that both fuel gauges indicated empty. She switched the APU over to run off what was left in both tanks, knowing that soon that would stop.

Alice went back to the passenger compartment again after the small adjustment. As she sat, she realized she was getting groggy. Her eyelids were heavy and she just wanted to sleep.

Alice threw out another jab at the good reverend. “So, Morton, what are you going to do now that you can’t sew your seeds of the devil any more? You really are the devil incarnate. You made a shitload of money off that Bible Church – off those mostly poor people. Are you going to some tropical paradise to spend your ill-gotten gains or will you give it back in a flush of charitable repentance?”

Alice heard Morton arguing back with her, something about not caring what happened or where the money was or something strange. The words were garbled and even his voice was slurred almost like he was drunk. Alice slowly closed her eyes but kept trying to listen to his voice that kept getting further and further away.

Alice felt all warm and safe. She was in someone’s arms and they were kissing her. She knew those lips. It was Dave. He was her husband and he loved her. She loved him more than anybody in the whole world.

“Is she all right?” someone else asked in an excited tone.

She heard other voices say, “Yes. She’ll be fine.”

Alice’s eyes blinked open. She was lying supine on a gurney beside the Cessna Citation. She was going to fly the plane away from the Circle so it would be safe. But she could see the plane beside her.

“What ... where ... Morton? Morton is on the plane ... he’s armed.” She was still recovering from her groggy experience.

Dave said in a comforting tone, “No. Morton has been captured. He is also returning to consciousness in the back of that police car over there.”

“What happened?” Alice asked as she struggled to sit up.

Lt. Hotch appeared in her field of view. He explained, “We gassed the plane as we were taking the fuel out of it so it couldn’t fly. You both went to sleep due to the methyl propyl ether we pumped into the plane through a hole we made into the passenger compartment. The gas is odorless and undetectable. We put a tube into the passenger compartment and started the flow of gas. We were watching what was happening in there with a small camera on a long tube. We waited for over a minute after you both seemed to pass out before we cranked open the plane door and immediately took control of Morton. We got you both outside out of the gas as soon as we could. There should be no side effects.”