Chapter 6 - The Hidden Pull TabThe helicopter shot upward as Ava fell away from it.
Wind swallowed her scream.
Her cream blazer exploded open, snapping around her body as she tumbled through the air.
Sky.
Ocean.
Cliffs.
Helicopter.
Everything rotated violently.
Ava pressed one arm over her abdomen, trying to shield the baby from the force of the fall.
Training overpowered terror.
Stabilize.
Breathe.
Find the horizon.
She spread one arm and forced her legs apart, fighting the uncontrolled spin.
The world slowed just enough for her to see the helicopter above.
Ethan leaned through the open doorway.
His face had become a pale shape framed by darkness.
His watch vibrated again.
The blinking indicator beside his seat flashed urgently.
“What did you activate?” he screamed.
Ava did not answer.
Her right hand clawed beneath the lower edge of her blazer.
The metal pull tab struck her fingertips.
She closed her hand around it.
For months, only three people had known it existed.
The device had never been tested under these exact conditions.
It had never been designed for a pregnant passenger.
It had never been deployed over cliffs and ocean beneath the violent wake of a helicopter.
But it had been designed for one purpose.
To prevent a body from disappearing after an aerial emergency.
Ava pulled.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Her stomach dropped with a terror deeper than the fall itself.
Then something beneath her jacket released with a sharp mechanical crack.
Thin reinforced straps tightened across her torso and hips.
A compact housing at her back expanded.
Ava’s body jerked sideways.
She gritted her teeth and kept one hand over her abdomen.
Above her, Ethan’s watch began emitting a piercing alarm.
Even through the wind, he heard it.
His expression collapsed.
He had expected Ava to vanish silently into the Pacific.
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Instead, every system around him was suddenly announcing that she was still alive.
👉 The safeguard had activated—but Ava was falling too fast to know whether it would fully deploy.
