The Devil's Triangle by Mark Robson

this lever . . . Come on, baby. Don’t let me down now.’
    There was a clunk from underneath their seats.
    ‘Three greens!’ he announced triumphantly, pointing at the undercarriage position lights. He reached to his left and opened the storm window. ‘We have wheels. Now for the tricky bit.’
    ‘Do we have to go down so steeply?’ Niamh asked, edging as far back in the seat as she could.
    ‘Yes, honey,’ Matthew replied, his voice steady and reassuring. ‘We have to keep our airspeed up or we’ll stall. Can you take your feet off the rudder pedals, please? You’re making it hard for me to move them. Thanks.’
    From the little Niamh could see out of the side windows and the smeared front screen, the ground was rushing to meet them now. It appeared that her father was wrestling with the controls as the turbulent air bounced them around in the final moments of the approach. The aircraft bucked and rocked like a mad bronco all the way down to the ground. Niamh couldn’t really see much, but she had the feeling that the aircraft was sliding to the left and her father flew the entire approach with his head all but stuck out of the little storm window he’d opened on his side of the cockpit.
    In the final seconds, just as a crash seemed inevitable, Niamh shut her eyes, tucked her chin against her chest and tensed her body in anticipation of the impact. She couldn’t help herself. Her insides churned as the aircraft gave a sudden surge at the last second and twisted like a roller coaster entering a sudden climbing turn to the left. They thumped onto the ground, bouncing twice before they settled. Even then, Niamh could feel the gusting wind pushing at the machine – testing and flexing its invisible muscles as it sought to flip them over.
    The familiar rumbling sensation of the wheels on the runway as they rolled to a stop left her feeling weak with relief as she cracked her eyes open. They were on the ground. Safe. Matthew let out a long sigh.
    ‘Well, that was entertaining!’ he said, removing his headset. He unclipped his harness and leaned across to give her a quick hug. ‘Geoff’s not going to be best pleased with the state of his aeroplane, but at least we’re down safely. Are you OK? You look a bit green around the gills.’
    For a moment, Niamh was lost for words. Even had she not been reeling from the intensity of the experience, ‘entertaining’ would not have featured in her choice of descriptive words. Alarming. Terrifying. Even heart-stopping, but not ‘entertaining’.
    ‘I’m fine, Dad,’ she said eventually. ‘Or at least I will be when my heart and stomach get round to realising we’ve landed.’

 
CHAPTER NINE
    ‘Niamh’s in trouble!’ Sam yelled over his shoulder.
    ‘And we’re not?’ Callum called back, wearily heaving another bucket of water over the side of the boat.
    ‘She’s terrified. I can feel it,’ Sam added, ignoring his sarcasm. ‘I think she’s with Dad. They’re looking for us, but something’s gone wrong. They’re in danger.’
    ‘Well, unless you’ve been holding out on me and you’re really Superman in disguise, then I don’t see there’s much we can do about it.’
    To Sam’s frustration, Callum was right. It was all he could do to keep them alive, and he would not have been able to do that if his friend had not been bailing out the boat continuously for what now seemed to both of them like forever. Callum looked worn out, but they could not swap places. There was no way he was fit enough to control the boat, even if he had known how.
    For about the next ten minutes, Sam felt tightness in his chest that was nothing to do with his battle for survival. When the sense of fear turned suddenly to relief, he nearly fell over with the shock of the change.
    ‘She’s OK,’ he announced. ‘They both are. Whatever the danger was, it’s gone.’
    Callum was busy retching over the side. ‘Whoopee!’ he replied lamely.
    Sam gritted his teeth in a