Free Eden by David Holley

thoughts and makes his way to Evelyn who is crouched at the edge of the ocean, washing her hands and face. Water rushes past her naked ankles.
    He crouches next to her. “The man’s pulse is weak. What do you think his chances are?”
    Evelyn stands, shaking her hands of the excess water and turns to face her husband. “I would say fifty-fifty at this point; he has lost a lot of blood. I guess it all depends on how quickly we are rescued.”
    Noah nods. “The sooner the better.”
    “You said yourself we are in a remote location. It may be awhile before that happens.” Walking past the ocean’s reach, she gives him a sideways glance. “There’s something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
    “There is something else,” Noah concedes. “Something that we must keep to ourselves.”
    This stops Evelyn in her tracks. She frowns and sighs. “Go on.”
    “Before the crash, I reached the shuttle’s cockpit. The door was already open and before we went into free fall, I caught a glimpse inside. It was a crime scene, Eve. There was blood everywhere, and the pilot and copilot were dead. From my vantage, I couldn’t see the third pilot but I can only assume that he was killed too. There was someone else inside with them.”
    “Someone else? Who?” she asks, hanging on every word.
    Noah pulls out a black leather wallet and flips it open, exposing a gold badge engraved with the Great Seal of the Realm. “According to his identification, his name is Leonard Whatley and he is a British Air Marshal.”
    “An air marshal? Christ,” she mutters.
    “That’s not all,” Noah adds.
    “There’s more?”
    “Unfortunately,” he nods. “When I went through the air marshal’s pockets I found this.” He hands her the broken electronic device.
    Evelyn turns it in her hands. “It’s a COM, right?”
    “That’s what I initially thought, but from what I can tell it was programmed for one purpose.”
    “And that was?”
    “I can’t be certain, but I think what you are holding is an electromagnetic pulse emulator.”
    “Electromagnetic pulse emulator?” Her eyes light up. “But that’s what —”
    “The KOP used before my squadron was ambushed,” he finishes.
    “Wonderful. So what do you think happened on the shuttle?”
    “That’s a good question. I can’t be entirely sure, but this is what I suspect: The air marshal broke into the cockpit and a struggle ensued, and that’s when the ship started to go down the first time. The marshal killed one, or possibly two, of the pilots before forcing the remaining pilot to stabilize the shuttle so that he could sabotage it. He then enabled the EMP that disabled the power grid, which in turn shut off the emergency response protocol. With his mission complete, he killed the last pilot and then himself, with a bullet to the head.”
    “My God,” Evelyn blurts.
    He continues. “If this was a KOP attack, which seems likely, then it’s plausible they have made a series of attacks around the world, as they have done in the past. And if that is indeed the case, it may be some time before we are rescued.”
    The revelation is met with cold silence, as Evelyn stares off into the darkness, trying to process the information. “This is all conjecture,” she states. “We can’t be certain about any of this… although you do have a terrible knack for being right.” She sighs. “So, what now?”
    “We say nothing, to anyone. If this was a terrorist attack, it is possible that one of the saboteurs is still among us. We need to evaluate everyone and go from there.”
    Evelyn nods. “Alright, has anyone piqued your interest thus far?”
    “No,” he says flatly. “However there was one person who struck me as odd.”
    “Who was it?”
    “The teenage girl. Before the crash, as I was making my way to the cockpit, we made eye contact and she looked at me as if I was familiar to her. But I can assure you, I had never seen her before. And quite frankly, she has a look that