Ribblestrop Forever! Read Free Page B

Millie doing her very best not
to scream. She played the joystick back and depressed one of the pedals. The curve grew dangerously tight. In the next minute they completed three-hundred and sixty degrees and were heading for the
water again. Millie pulled the nose back up and everyone sighed with relief.
    ‘Are we back on course?’ said Sanchez.
    ‘What is the course?’ said Millie. ‘Where are trying to get to? Are you sure we shouldn’t just ditch? We can all swim.’
    ‘Listen carefully,’ said the voice in Miles’s ear. ‘I’m going to teach you how to decrease your speed. You have to do it very gently, and you keep your eyes on the
air speed indicator. That will tell you if there’s any danger of a stall. ’
    ‘Right,’ said Miles.
    ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about if—’
    There was a silence.
    ‘Hello?’ said Miles. He could hear a strange pulsing noise.
    ‘—in the first instance, can you do that?’
    ‘What?’
    There was silence again.
    ‘Tell me what to do, Miles!’ said Millie.
    ‘I’m not hearing you,’ said Miles. ‘Can you repeat what you just said? Over, please.’
    The pulsing turned into a crackling and, when it returned, the voice was furred over in static.
    ‘—indicator to the top of the control . . . intensify all exification . . . can you . . . hello?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Are you there, Miles? Come in, Miles – are you there? Over.’
    ‘I’m here. You’re breaking up!’
    ‘Is somebody using a cellphone? If someone—’
    Sure enough, he could hear the ringtone of Millie’s mobile, getting louder and louder. The voice of the controller disappeared in static and some of the needles seemed to be flicking
abruptly backward and forward.
    Millie snatched out her phone and clicked it open. ‘Sam?’ she said. ‘Where are you?’
    ‘It’s Oli, actually. We’re in a car on the motorway. Where are you?’
    ‘Oh God, Oli, we’re in a bad situation. We’re in a plane. We’ve lost the pilot. We’re about to run out of fuel and we don’t know what to do.’
    ‘Millie!’ said Miles. ‘The phone’s screwing up the controls!’
    ‘What kind of plane?’ said Oli.
    Millie pressed the phone to her ear. ‘What?’ she cried. ‘What do you mean, “What kind of plane?”? A little plane, with wings, and a tail, with us inside
it—’
    ‘Are you red and white, by any chance? One propeller, just going over a river?’
    ‘Yes! Shut up, Miles! Oli, I don’t know—’
    ‘You’re just to our right. We can see you. I’ll tell Sam to wave.’
    Millie looked down, trying frantically to remember her right from her left. The river ran next to a dual carriageway and, though the vehicles on it were small, they were getting larger every
second. Again, Millie realised that, through no fault of her own, the plane was descending. She eased the joystick back and this time nothing seemed to be happening. There were more pylons ahead
and a great spider’s web of cable. A power station was looming with red, winking lights.
    ‘We’re going down,’ she said.
    ‘Turn the wretched phone off!’ shouted Miles. ‘Turn the bloody phone off!’
    ‘No!’
    A little red car was speeding along in the outside lane, and Millie fixed her eyes onto it, easing the plane closer. It was hard to be sure, but something black appeared to be flapping out of
the rear window and a tiny face was gazing up at her. There was a new sound now in the cockpit – and it chilled everyone to the very bone. A bell was ringing, one urgent chime at a time, as
if sounding the ominous arrival of midnight. It didn’t stop at twelve, though; in fact, it showed no sign of stopping at all.
    ‘Fuel!’ shouted Miles. ‘Oh my God, look at the fuel gauge! Help us, Sandra! Where are you?’
    He put his finger over the needle and the three children saw that it was well into the red It twitched as they stared, and dropped further to the left.
    ‘We’re going to have to land,’ whispered Sanchez. ‘Swing