Page 20 of Strictly Business

‘He’s collapsed.’

She stared in horror at Liam’s shocked expression and the pilot’s pale form. Oh, God. Flicking open her seat belt, she jumped to her feet. ‘Have you tried to wake him?’

‘Of course. He won’t respond.’

‘Is – is he breathing?’

‘Hard to tell. I don’t think so.’

They were going to crash! She struggled beneath another slam of panic. ‘Is there a pulse?’

Liam flashed her a quick, worried frown and then touched his fingers to Joe’s neck. ‘I – I can’t feel anything, but I’m not sure if I’m on the right spot.’

She tried to remember what she’d learned in various First Aid courses. ‘Feel to the left of his Adam’s apple.’Please, Joe, have a heartbeat!Her own heart was a sledgehammer.

Liam tried and shook his head. ‘I’m not getting anything.’ He struggled with Joe’s harness. ‘I’ll have to get him out of this seat.’

Alice sent a hasty, terrified glance out the nearest porthole to the grassy paddocks and bush below. Miles and miles below. At least the plane wasn’t doing anything dreadful like spiralling downwards the way they did in war movies.

‘Do you think he’s had a heart attack?’ She knew she sounded panicky.

‘How the hell would I know?’

She remembered seeing the antacid Joe had taken earlier. Had he taken it because he’d felt chest pain and thought he had indigestion? If he’d had a heart attack, they would have to get help fast or he would die. Oh, God, what was she thinking? They were all going to die if their pilot couldn’t land the plane.

In the confined space it was a terrible struggle but at last Liam managed to drag Joe and together they set him in the tiny aisle, on his side in the recovery position.

‘You’ll have to look after him, while I try to get help on the radio,’ Liam told her.

‘Okay,’ she said, thinking she would need to be a contortionist to attempt CPR in the available space. ‘I’ll do my best.’

‘Good girl.’

She looked up quickly. Liam’s face was pale, his expression grim – just this side of terrified – but he managed a reassuring smile.

‘I don’t suppose you know how to fly a plane?’ she asked.

‘‘Fraid not. But the plane must be set on auto pilot. We don’t seem to have lost altitude, so that gives us a bit of leeway while we try for some help.’

She gave a brief nod, an even briefer smile. ‘Good luck.’

He was already climbing into the pilot’s seat, and she turned her attention to the unconscious man. He needed CPR and she hoped like mad that she could remember the procedure she’d learned in a long ago first aid class.

Quickly, she settled Joe onto his back, placed her hands together on his chest and began to pump. Steady and hard, steady and hard, hard, hard, hard.

‘Mayday! Mayday!’ Liam was shouting.

How scary those words sounded. But at least he’d figured out how to work the radio.

Alice wished she was braver. She knew she mustn’t think about the plane crashing. She had to concentrate on getting Joe’s heart pumping and ignore the horrific images her brain flashed up of their tiny cabin smashing into hard earth.

Don’t let your mind go there!

Focus on Joe. On the pumping.Steady and hard, steady and hard.

As she worked, she could hear Liam shouting to someone, explaining about their pilot’s collapse. Thank heavens he’d made contact. She felt a tiny bit calmer. And remembered to pray.

‘We’re close to Redhead Downs,’ Liam was saying, and then he gave their position from a control panel monitor and reeled off a string of numbers – something to do with the plane.

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