Six months later, Mara was back in uniform.
It was not the same assignment she had held before.
This time she was part of a specialized unit responsible for handling the kinds of threats she had faced that day—rogue operatives, international incidents, and situations that existed in the uncertain space between civilian aviation and military conflict.
She flew again.
Not combat missions, but protective ones.
Escort operations.
Emergency responses.
Flights meant to protect lives rather than take them.
Sometimes, late at night after returning from a mission, she thought about Flight 417.
She remembered the passengers who had become heroes themselves.
The businessman who had tackled the armed man.