Little did they know as they were talking and teasing that there was drama unfolding in the cockpit. Behind the pilot and co-pilot, the navigator had surreptitiously pulled out the telescoping handle of his carry on and removed the two hypodermic pens hidden inside. Before either of the other two men could react, he swiftly pressed the pens to their necks and injected them. The effect was instantaneous as both men collapsed. He jerked them out of their seats and dropped them to the floor in a lump as he took over pilot's seat. The plane shuddered a little during his maneuvers but he soon had it smoothed out, hoping that the passengers would believe it to just be turbulence.
The odd shuddering did not go unnoticed by Isabel. She felt it and her brow furrowed for a moment until the plane settled down. Tony stopped teasing her for a second when he saw the look on her face and asked, "That was normal turbulence right?"
She answered him honestly, "I don't know. I don't think so."
She looked over to Jack and he just shrugged, but he had felt it too. But since the ride smoothed out they just let it go. But there was something giving her goosebumps and Tony dug her sweat jacket out of the overhead compartment for her. She just had a nagging feeling something wasn't right, little did she know, Jack had that same gut feeling. He was about to ask a flight attendant to just do a quick check on the pilots when all hell broke loose.
There was a muffled gun shot and a scream from the coach compartment, but before Jack or Tony could even react, a man with a submachine gun stuffed in the spine of the terrified flight attendant burst into first class. He beat on the door of the cockpit and shouted, "It's done." Then he turned and shoved the flight attendant into an empty seat pointed the weapon at each of the in turn, warning them not to try anything.
There was crying and the sound of near hysterical passengers as they realized they had been hijacked. Jack could make out at least two men shouting at the coach passengers to sit down and shut up.
The hijacker in first class's attention was drawn to someone speaking to him from the cracked cockpit door, Jack couldn't make out everything they were saying, but he caught bits of Arabic. While the man's attention wasn't fully fixed on them, Jack's eyes flashed to Tony's, both men assessing the situation. Jack subtly pointed to Tony then made a "gun" with his hand and Tony nodded once. He hadn't flown anywhere since 9/11 without a weapon. And although the .38 revolver strapped to his ankle wasn't his normal service weapon, it would get the job done. Jack also had a snub-nosed revolver on his ankle, in his particular position, being unarmed had the potential to be unhealthy, even on vacation.
Jack was willing to bet that the shot they had heard had been the hijackers eliminating the air marshal. He was trying to ignore the part of his mind that was screaming at him that this sort of thing wasn't supposed to be able to happen anymore and focus on what to do. Obviously the cockpit was compromised, but was it one or all three of the men in it? And how many hijackers were actually in the coach section. The only upside that Jack could see at the moment was that he knew for a fact that had at least two people he could count on.
Isabel was also assessing the situation. She knew Tony and General O'Neill would act, and she was ready. But she also thought ahead a little, and pretending to be cold and afraid to not draw attention to herself, she zipped up her jacket the rest of the way, hiding the Navy logo,. She also subtly managed to unhook her dog tags and slip them off as she pretended to scratch her neck. She wasn't hiding her military status out of fear, knowing that terrorists like to target American soldiers, but rather as a tactical advantage, if they thought she was just an average tourist they would underestimate her.
Jack saw her do it and almost had to keep from smirking once he realized why, she was good.
A moment later another of the hijackers came through the curtain from the coach section. He paused and looked around, fixing the faces of each of the four passengers in first class in his mind. He waved his gun at Jack and demanded, "Tell me your name and why you are going to Miami."
Jack answered calmly, "Jack O'Neill. And I'm just going fishing on a buddy's boat down in the Keys."
"What do you do in Washington?"
"Middle management for a conglomerate. I push a lot of paper."
That seemed to satisfy the hijacker and he turned his attention to Tony and Isabel. "What about you two?"
Isabel plastered a nervous and frightened expression on her face and said, "Tony and Isabel DiNozzo. We're on our honeymoon."
The hijacker's eyes flashed to their hands, and said, "You are not wearing wedding rings."
Before Isabel could reply Tony did with an exaggerated sigh, "The jeweler lost them. We had to borrow rings for the ceremony. Between that and wrong cake being delivered, she cried for hours yesterday."
Isabel muttered under her breath, "Had to use your cousin as a wedding planner..." And Tony added a sigh to lend more credibility to the story.
The hijacker seemed to buy it and asked, "What do you do in Washington?"
The next lie came too easily to Tony, having lived it so long, "I teach film study at an online university."
Isabel's answer was almost as creative, "I work for my uncle, he's into boats."
The hijacker nodded and went on to interrogate the portly businessman, who turned out to be in textiles. The poor flight attendant was almost catatonic with fear. The hijacker glared at all of them one final time and went back through the curtain to the coach section, leaving them alone with just the one hijacker near the cockpit.
It was subtle, but Jack and Isabel both felt it the moment it happened, the plane was banking gently, changing course. And they were both aware of what that meant, and sure enough, five minutes later jets were being scrambled to intercept the airliner as those on the ground realized that it was no longer under friendly control.
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The hijacker near the cockpit barked at the flight attendant, "You. Go get me a coffee."
When she couldn't move, still frozen in fear, he leveled his weapon at her and Isabel piped up, "I'll get you your coffee."
He nodded once and she stood and made her way past Tony, but when she went to go to the forward galley he wouldn't let her near it, not willing to chance anyone coming that close to the cockpit, "Use the middle kitchen."
She held her hands up submissively and went through the curtain. Jack and Tony could hear her tell the other hijackers that she was just getting coffee for the other one. A minute later she came back through with a steaming cup in hand.
Jack and Tony tensed, both ready to move knowing that Isabel was up to something. And sure enough, when she reached him and he took the cup from her both of her hands moved at lightening speed, one crushing his windpipe with a chop and the other grabbing his weapon which she then proceeded to clock him upside the head with, knocking him out completely with a minimal amount of scuffle or noise. Jack and Tony were out of their seats a heartbeat later. In short order he was secured and gagged.
Isabel whispered that there were two in the coach section, plus the cockpit to worry about.
Jack really wanted to get into the cockpit. They needed to let the ground know about the situation, preferably before they were shot out of the sky by the scrambled fighter jets.
Seeing the overturned coffee cup on the ground gave him an idea. With Tony watching the curtain to coach for activity with his weapon drawn Jack and Isabel took up positions on either side of the cockpit door. Jack knocked and doing his best to impersonate the other hijacker asked the cockpit accomplice in Arabic if he wanted a coffee. When he cracked the door to get the supposed coffee Jack caught a glimpse of the other two men on the floor and he didn't hesitate to quickly put a bullet in the navigator's forehead.
Isabel quickly climbed over the navigator and sat at the controls while Jack and Tony in what was a picture perfect scenario, with one high and one low, flicked open the curtain and took out both remaining hijacker's before they could get a shot off.
Jack left Tony to deal with the situation in coach and ran back to the cockpit. He arrived to hear Isabel broadcast, "Control this is Flight 219 broadcasting on all open frequencies. This is Lieutenant Commander Isabel West of the United States Navy, I have the stick. Friendlies now have control of the aircraft, repeat, friendlies now have control of the aircraft."
There were whoops of relief in control towers up and down the east coast, and Dulles control took point, "Flight 219 what is your situation?"
Jack slid in the seat next to her and grabbed the other headset, "Control, this is Major General Jack O'Neill, U.S. Air Force. Three hijackers have been eliminated one of which was the flight navigator, the fourth is incapacitated. The pilot, co-pilot, and the air marshall are all dead. Be advised that West and I both wear wings and we are assessing the status of the aircraft now."
Isabel was checking instruments, the plane was on autopilot, which she couldn't get to disengage. Feeling something tickling her leg she looked down and groaned, the hijacker had wired a block of C-4 into the autopilot system. Jack heard her, "Son of a..." and looked down.
Jack let out a deep breath, "Control, we have a little issue..."
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tbc...
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.