Behind the platform, lights ignited across the ocean.
Hundreds of them.
A floating emergency runway stretched across linked modular sections nearly two miles long.
Maya stared.
Reeves whispered:
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Ethan laughed.
“We’ve been testing emergency ocean landing platforms for six months.”
Maya looked at the runway.
Then at Ethan’s fighter.
“You knew this was here?”
“I positioned the operation near it.”
Her expression changed.
“You planned everything.”
“Not everything.”
“How much?”
“Enough to make sure you had somewhere to go if it all went wrong.”
Maya shook her head.
“You are still in unbelievable trouble.”
“I was hoping we could discuss that on solid ground.”
“Very optimistic.”
Fuel warning.
Torres looked at Maya.
“I’ve never landed on anything like that.”
Neither had Maya.
But she knew unstable approaches.
She knew crosswinds.
She knew what fear did to a pilot’s hands.
