Nickels (37 page)

Niki stood there frozen, unable to comprehend the scene
before her. 
God, no.  Please don’t let this be my fault—my code.  Please
don’t let Melissa die.

Her heart sliced in two as she felt her legs crumble beneath
her.  Someone kept her from making contact with the ground.  She felt herself
being led to a chair in the hangar, though it seemed like her body had
separated entirely from her mind.

“Kyle!” Doug’s voice shouted from somewhere near Niki.

“Put your head down,” Kyle instructed as he gently pushed
her forehead to her knees.

Blackness swirled at the fringes of her consciousness. 
Voices faded and then got louder.  She closed her eyes and waited for the
wooziness to subside.

“Niki.”  Kyle’s voice seemed to echo from some distance. 
“Are you still with us?”

“Niki.”  His voice came again, this time it sounded
whispered near her ear.

She sat up and almost immediately regretted it as the
blackness started to press near again.

“Easy there,” Kyle said.

The threat of the blackness finally subsided.  She sipped
the cup of cold water he handed her.

She still hadn’t looked at him.  She was afraid.  Would he
blame her for this?  Was it her fault?  Did she kill Melissa?  A lone tear
rolled down her cheek as she stared off at some distant point in the hangar.

“Niki, look at me.”

She couldn’t.

He moved until his face consumed her vision.  “This is not
your fault.”

“You…” Niki’s voice sounded gravely to her own ears.  “You
don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.  In here,” he said pointing to his heart.  “I
know it was not your fault.”

She swallowed and looked away.  She wished she could believe
him.

“Niki!” Todd’s angry voice boomed from a few feet away.  She
looked up to see him storming towards her.

She stood, taking a deep breath, hoping she could handle
whatever Todd was about to throw at her.  Kyle moved next to her side.

“Give me your badge,” Todd said, rage clouding his eyes. 
“You’re gone.”

She blinked, not sure she heard him correctly.

Todd reached towards her ID badge clipped to the front of
her blouse.  Kyle’s hand shot forward.  He clamped down hard on Todd’s wrist.

“What are you doing?” Kyle’s voice boomed.

“Give me your badge,” Todd reiterated looking directly at
Niki, holding out his hand palm side up.  “This is your fault.  You’re
dismissed from this project.  I’ve already spoken to your boss.”

She numbly unclipped the badge from her blouse and shoved it
into Todd’s hand forcefully.  She walked over to where she set her laptop and
purse.  Todd followed her and slapped his hand down on the computer.

“You are not taking this until we’ve been able to verify all
of Helitronics materials and access have been removed.  We will return it to
Elite’s office on Monday.”

Niki lifted empty fingers from her laptop—her lifeblood. 
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she ran from the hangar toward her car in
the limited staccato strides her heels would allow.

“Niki!” Kyle yelled behind her, not catching up until she
had her hand on the door handle.  “Wait.”

She stopped as he faced her, avoiding his eyes.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked, concern weighing down
his words.

She snorted.  “I doubt it.”

“Let me take you home.”

She looked up at him now.  Her overwhelming guilt and
failure turned to anger.  “I’m not some helpless female that I can’t manage to
drive myself home you know.”  She yanked the door open and threw her purse on
the passenger seat.

“Just call me when you get home.”

“I guess some dreams really aren’t meant to be realized.” 
She threw Kyle’s words back in his face as she slammed the door shut.

Cranking her music, she backed out of the spot and pointed
her car towards the road out of the Air Park, leaving her dream job behind. 
She stayed angry, knowing it was the only way she would make it home without
drowning in tears.

The second she was behind the safety of her garage doors,
Niki turned off her car and dropped her forehead to the steering wheel.  The
tears came with a raging storm of emotion.  Disappointment and failure sucked
her under.  As she grabbed her purse from the seat, guilt stabbed deep into her
heart.  She killed Melissa.

Slamming the car door shut, she fumbled with her key in the
inner door.  Once it was open she ran to her room and collapsed on her bed into
a heap.

God, this isn’t supposed to happen.  I trusted you.  Now
I’ve killed someone.

Her phone rang seconds before she fully succumbed to the tentacles
of hysteria.  Glancing at the caller ID, she knew she had to pick it up.

“Brian.”  Her voice sounded a thousand times calmer than she
felt.

“Niki, what happened?”

She tried to swallow the enormous lump in her throat, but it
stayed lodged anyway.

“Nevermind.  I’ll talk to Kyle.  Where are you?”

“Home.”

“Good.  If you need a few days off next week, take it. 
We’ll talk on, say, Wednesday?”

“I’ll be in Monday.”

“Don’t push yourself.  Take some time.”

“I’ll be fine.”  She lied, knowing as soon as she clicked
the phone off she would slide into darkness.

“I’m serious, Niki.”

The line went dead.  She threw the phone at the pillows on
her bed.  It rang again, the special ringtone Kyle set for his number when he
was teasing her last weekend about not being able to tell when he called.  She
let it ring.  A few seconds later two short beeps announced a voicemail.

Niki kicked off her heels and fell face down on her bed,
sobbing.  She lost her dream client.  She lost her project.  Worse yet, Melissa
could be dead in some hospital somewhere.  All because of her.  Because she
failed to find a problem with her code—with her team’s code.

Kyle was wrong.  It was her fault.  Her fault alone.

“Come on.  Pick up.”

Kyle paced back and forth while he waited for Niki to answer. 
Another call beeped through.  He took it.

“Hello.”

“Kyle?  It’s Brian from Elite.  What’s going on over there?”

His jaw tightened.  “There was an accident.”

“I got that much from Todd.  Niki sounded pretty distraught
so I’m in the dark here.”

Hope welled in his chest.  She probably had made it home
safely.  “You talked to her?”

“Yeah.  She was at home.”

Relief washed over Kyle.  At least she kept it together long
enough to make it home.  He wished he could leave this chaos and follow her
home to comfort her, but he had responsibilities to see to first.

“So what’s going on?” Brian asked.  “Was it the code?  Is
the pilot okay?”

“Melissa is fine.  She’s at the hospital being treated for
minor injuries.  They’ll probably keep her overnight for observation.”

Kyle balanced his phone against his ear and walked over to
the video recordings being reviewed by Helitronics’ staff.  “The early reports
look like it was pilot error.  Your team is still checking the code.  Our team
is investigating everything else.”

“Okay.  Let me know the final results.”

“Will do.”

Kyle punched the end button on his phone and immediately
redialed Niki’s number.  He got her voicemail again.

“Niki?  I wish you would pick up so I can talk to you. 
Look, the initial findings are that it was pilot error.  Melissa is going to be
okay.  Please call me back.  I need to know you’re okay.”

He hung up the call.

Lord, please be with her.  Help her to know it’s not her
fault.

He walked over to where Todd stood silently.  His boss was
giving Todd an earful.  He stepped away.  He couldn’t be responsible for what
he might do to Todd if he started slandering Niki.

Moving back to the video monitors, he heard one of the
analyst say, “We got it.  Pilot error.”

The words were a double-edged sword.  At one time he feared
hearing those same words about his accident.  Now, they were a
godsend—exonerating the woman he loved.

The sobs still wracked Niki’s body an hour later when Marcy
arrived home.  Marcy tried to comfort her, but she refused to talk.

Marcy stepped from Niki’s room at the sound of the
doorbell.  Voices filtered down the hallway getting closer.

“Did you do this, Kyle?” Marcy asked.

“No.  There was a horrible accident at work.  That’s all I
can tell you.”

The door creaked open.  “She’s been like that since before I
got home.”

Niki heard Kyle suck in a deep breath.  He was there.  At
her side.  Lifting her to a sitting position.  Leaning her head against his
chest.  Stroking her hair.  Strong arms cradling her.  Whispering her name.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Can I do anything?” Marcy asked.

Niki couldn’t see her, but she heard the door click softly
behind her.

“I killed her.”  Niki spoke the words burdening her heart. 
“I killed her.”  The sobs hit with renewed fervor.

“Oh, no,” Kyle said, rocking her back and forth.  “Melissa’s
not dead.  She’s just bruised—maybe a broken leg.  That’s all.”

“How…  Are you sure?”

“Positive.  She was responsive before the ambulance took
her.  And I called the hospital to get an update before coming here.”

“It’s still my fault.”

“No.  It’s not.”

“How can you know that?”

“I told you before you left.  I just know it.”

“I’m sure that’s why Todd fired me—because he just
knows
it’s my fault.”

Kyle sighed.  “Todd has been looking for any excuse.  No one
else believes the accident was your fault.  Doug double checked everything from
Elite’s side.  Everything checked out.”

She stared at the desk in her room, not making a sound.

“Look, I don’t know what Melissa thought she saw in that
cockpit, but the readings on our video monitors did not jive with whatever she
thought was going on.”

He moved her away from his chest and looked into her eyes. 
“There will be an investigation, of course, but the early signs point to pilot
error or mechanical defect.  Nothing even remotely suggests there was an issue
with the code.”

She looked away.

“Please trust me.  Haven’t I earned it yet?” he begged.

Niki pulled away and stood turning her back to him.  He
stood and wrapped his arms around her but she shrugged them off.

“Please don’t retreat.”

“I’m tired,” she said as she dodged his second attempt to
hold her.  “Please go.”

“Niki—”

“Go.”

He dropped his hands to his side and walked to the door.

Once he was gone from her room, she closed the door.  She
changed out of her work clothes and threw on a t-shirt.  She shoved her purse
and phone onto the floor in a heap, spilling the contents of her purse.  She
crawled under the covers, shut off the light, and begged sleep to claim her.

Chapter 34

“Rise and shine, beautiful!”  Kyle’s voice boomed through her
nightmares.