Flashback (The Saskia Brandt Series Book Two) by Ian Hocking Page A

what he might do. But he resumed his chair. The lamp behind his head made an eclipse of his face. From the darkness, he said, ‘I should be down in Munich to identify the body. I guess I’m not brave enough.’
    Neither spoke for a minute.
    ‘What do you think,’ she said, ‘about the idea that Saskia didn’t die? That, if there are survivors, she of all people...’
    The severity of his expression stopped her.
    ‘It was a vertical impact, Jem.’ Cory’s eyes burned low like evening stars. ‘Do you want to watch the television? There might be developments.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘Absolutely not.’
    ‘Did you hear about the pilot’s last message? A code-word. ‘STENDEC’. They were talking about it on the radio.’
    ‘What does it mean?’
    ‘You want me to tell you what they said?’
    ‘I think so.’
    Cory waited a moment. Then he began, ‘In 1946, the Brits set up a South American airline under an old war hero, Donald Bennett. Many of his planes crashed. One, Star Dust , took off in August of 1947, on the last leg of its journey from London to Santiago, and was never seen again.’
    ‘Santiago is in Chile, right?’
    ‘In Chile. The flight involved a journey across the Andes.’
    Jem let her imagination drift with Cory to the past. There was a comfort there. The past had already been; it was fixed and known. One could stand above the past. It contained a solace that, given years, Saskia’s death would be so distant that its hurt could dim.
    ‘That last flight, Star Dust , left Buenos Aires carrying mailbags, movie reels, and several examples of the rich and privileged. ‘Fly with the stars’. That was the motto of British South American Airways, written beneath an Art Deco star man. Each aircraft was given a name beginning with ‘star’.’ Another pause passed between them. It came cold, like an Andean wind. ‘Nobody knows what happened on board the flight prior to the crash. Some minutes before its wheels were due to hit the runway in Santiago, the radio operator on board Star Dust sent the message ‘STENDEC’.’
    ‘‘STENDEC’.’
    ‘ Star Dust repeated the message once and was never heard from again. In the weeks following the disappearance, the Chilean army scoured the Andes together with hundreds of amateur aviators and mountaineers. But Star Dust could not be found. Donald Bennett, the war hero, personally joined the search and continued it, in one way or another, until the end of his life. It was the last crash that the British government was to tolerate. Bennett was pressured to resign. He did, and returned to England under a cloud.’
    Jem puzzled through the letters. ‘What do you think ‘STENDEC’ means?’
    ‘There are many possibilities,’ he said, smiling, ‘from the stupid to the plausible. An anagram of ‘descent’, for instance. Or ‘Severe Turbulence Encountered Now Descending Emergency Crash-Landing.’ Or perhaps Star Dust had already crashed, and the signal was sent by a third party to sow confusion.’
    ‘Why would somebody do that?’
    ‘There was a King’s Messenger on board. Perhaps someone didn’t want his secret documents to reach the British ambassador in Santiago. And there was a Palestinian businessman with a diamond stitched into the lining of his jacket. Perhaps somebody wanted that.’
    ‘How do you think it relates to Saskia’s flight?’
    ‘It’s late, Jem.’
    She nodded. She did not trust this man. He had vast capability that his age only intensified. The net curtains bloomed like a cape and let in the sound of rain on the balcony. Minute upon minute passed and she fell asleep. When she awoke, Cory’s seat was empty, and in its place was the idea that he had never existed beyond a dream. Saskia was in the shower, surely, and any moment now she would return to Jem and the two would make up.
    No, I ran away from her.
    There was a sound from the kitchen. A glass being placed just so.
    I didn’t escape her after all. I ran