The detached nose of the Gulfstream tumbled down the short runway as Ba Kuang wrestled with the now useless flight stick. A few brutalizing seconds later and they all came to rest, upside down.

Alice looked 'up' from her chair to the curved ceiling that was now the ground. Blood pooled in her head uncomfortably from hanging inverted. With care she unbuckled her restraint and swung down to land on her feet. She looked in on the cockpit.

The windshield panels were gone, letting in crisp mountain air. Blood splattered the walls, flung from the almost unrecognizable remains of Dimitri. Ba Kuang had removed his own restraints and was looking up at Weizza, still strapped in with Herman. Her eyes were closed, but soon snapped open.

"He's dead," Weizza proclaimed. "I'm sorry Ko Ba Kuang."

"Herman?" Ba Kuang responded. "What good is he, without the plane?"

"No my tha, your father."

Weizza looked down at Alice. "You. I told you to rouse Oliver. Now he is gone. You will pay for your failure."

"Hold up," Alice replied. "I woke up your creepy manservant. He was awake when I left him. If he didn't strap in for landing, that's on him."

"We shall see," replied Weizza, voice heavy with threat.

Ba Kuang helped her down off the ceiling, releasing the pilot in the process. The body of Herman fell to the floor with a thud, inert. Weizza spat on his face, then turned and left the cockpit.

The plane body had separated just behind the galley, which now ended in jagged metal. The other half of the plane was visible in the distance, lit by fires billowing from the engines.

Ba Kuang popped the exit door open and they left their half of the plane. Weizza stormed across the tarmac to the fuselage, every step radiating anger. Alice hurried to keep up.

An acrid smoke billowed out from the cabin. Alice choked on the stench as Weizza plowed heedlessly through, apparently unaffected. Inside were two bodies strapped in to seats, Robert and Oliver.

Oliver clutched one of Weizza's white cases to his chest, though it was now discolored by smoke. One end glowed fiery red; tongues of flame licked out around the hinges.

Half of Oliver's face had burned away from the heat coming off the case. The fire had jumped to the adjacent wood paneling and was slowly spreading across the wall.

Robert stared at the corpse in uncomprehending horror. Alice ran to him, grabbed his face and turned it away. "Robert, it is not safe here," she unbuckled his belt. "Let's go."

Robert stared unresponsive. Alice slapped him. "Robert. Leave. Now."

He nodded distantly and stood. Alice took him by an elbow and guided him away from the fire.

Ba Kuang's head was bowed in silent prayer, a few tears carving lines in the soot covering his face. Weizza stood tall, saying nothing.

"He saved me," Robert murmured. "That case slammed into his chair and popped open. I saw the gun rats - some of them were on fire but others powered on, tried to shoot. He held it closed, even as it burned him."

"Weizza, this plane is on fire, we need to get out." Alice urged.

Weizza sighed and turned from Oliver's flaming corpse. "He was a monster," she said, "but a brilliant one."

Ba Kuang finished his mourning and turned away. The last of the white cases had come to rest on the ground. He picked it up and handed it to Weizza, then made for the back of the plane.

"I will look for any useful luggage," he declared, heading further in to the plane.

The others left through the front as the choking fumes thickened. They went around and met Ba Kuang at the back of the plane. He had just finished his search when they arrived. He tossed down a pair of bags, then jumped to meet them.

"All I could get." He frowned. "The fire is spreading fast."

Four now, they retreated further up the tarmac. One of the engines flared, then there was a loud boom as a fuel tank ignited. The flames roared higher. A siren sounded in the distance.

"We will leave," Weizza instructed. "I do not wish to meet the authorities."

The airstrip wasn't even fenced; Weizza led them across the pavement to an overgrown dirt road that snaked between pine trees into the foothills. They walked in darkness, the light of a full moon dimly illuminating the trail. A short while later they saw a pair of fire trucks arrive to hose down the wreckage of the luxury jet.

"Where are we going?" Alice asked.

"Satellite photos show a cabin up ahead," Weizza answered. "Perhaps it will be empty." She let the alternative hang ominously in the air.

The dirt path met up with a one-lane paved road. Weizza turned up it, then a short while later turned off onto a winding gravel drive.

A mid-sized cabin was built into the side of the hill. The windows were boarded over with plywood, and the screen door had fallen from its hinges. It certainly didn't look inhabited.

Ba Kuang clicked on a flashlight and shined it ahead of them. The path to the door was lined with fist-sized rocks. Alice noticed one of them was paler and quite a bit shinier than the others. She picked it up and a rusty key fell out of the bottom. Maybe the fake rock had looked more convincing before it'd spent years in the sun.

With some jiggling of the key she opened the door and flicked the switch. No light came on. Definitely empty. The room smelled of damp cedar and old rat shit, but at least it was a place to hide out for the night.

"I guess staying at a hotel is out of the question?" Robert asked no one in particular.

Weizza stared through him and he turned away.

Ba Kuang scouted the rest of the cabin. One of the bedrooms had been used by some kind of animal in the past, but the other had stayed shut and still had a functional bed. They decided to sleep in shifts; Ba Kuang and Robert would rest first.

Alice and Weizza sat at the table as the men went to sleep. Ba Kuang's flashlight had a 'lantern' mode that filled the room with dim light. A fitting ambiance for ghost stories.

"What– no, who was he?" Alice asked.

"Herman?" Weizza replied.

"Yes."

"Before, he was a trafficker. He flew human cargo for the British aristocracy. Liked to sample the wares. He was the one who delivered me to Oliver.

"After I... changed Oliver, I decided to dismantle the whole smuggling operation. One person at a time." Weizza smiled as she said this. "I used most of them as subjects for my research. The early experiments were mostly unsuccessful, though a few did pan out.

"Herman was my investigation into tele-operating humans. It turns out to be quite difficult; it is surprisingly hard to pilot a person without the full set of spatial feedback. I was able to mostly solve this with additional implants, but I could never get the eyes right. It ended up being simpler to replace them entirely."

Alice nodded, wondering how much of her unease was visible.

"It was ultimately a dead end. Once you modify a person enough to 'drive' them they really stick out in a crowd. You are better off just using a robot built for the job. But Herman at least knew how to fly a plane, so I kept him around."

"I see." Alice responded, hoping to end the disturbing discussion.

It worked; Weizza closed her eyes and seemed to go somewhere else. Alice wished she could do that.