Chapter 9 - Brooks Over the Radio
The controller came back with a different tone.
More voices moved faintly behind him now.
Coordination.
Urgency.
People gathering around screens, maps, transatlantic tracks, weather, fuel, altitude, aircraft systems, and the impossible fact of a twelve-year-old voice carrying Flight 782.
“Malachi Brooks, stay with me.”
“I’m here.”
“Good. We have your aircraft. We have you on radar. You’re doing exactly what we need right now.”
Malachi stared ahead.
“My dad used to say controllers are the other half of the cockpit.”
The radio went quiet for half a beat.
Then the controller answered, voice rougher.
“He was right.”
Grace glanced at Malachi.
The boy’s eyes shone but did not spill tears.
“Did you know him?” he asked.
The controller did not answer immediately.
“Everybody in our world knew Captain Brooks.”
Malachi’s grip tightened.
“That doesn’t mean you knew him.”
Another pause.
“No,” the controller admitted. “But I knew what he did.”
Malachi looked at the bronze pin again.
Grace saw the weight of it shift inside him.
His father’s heroism did not fly the aircraft.
But it reminded Malachi that terror and action could exist in the same body.
The controller continued.
“Right now, I need you to be Malachi. Not Isaiah. Malachi.”
That reached him.
His breathing steadied.
“I’m Malachi.”
“Yes, you are.”
The aircraft leveled slightly more.
Passengers behind them felt the change and exhaled almost together.
Grace did not relax.
Her eyes remained on the panels, then the cup, then the doorway.
The emergency had layers.
Altitude.
Pilots.
Passengers.
Mystery.
A child with a headset too large for his head.
A flight attendant holding a secret she could not yet speak.
The controller said, “Next step, we keep you steady.”
Malachi nodded.
“Steady.”
Grace placed one hand lightly on the back of the captain’s seat.
Not controlling him.
Anchoring him.
Outside the windshield, darkness stretched endlessly over the Atlantic.
May you like
Inside, the cockpit lights flashed on.
Read Chapter 10 👉 Because ground control knew the father’s legend, but only Malachi’s hands could keep Flight 782 alive in the present.
