Page 68 of Shared By the Pilots

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” He wrapped his arms around me. “Veronica, I never meant to put you in danger.”

I didn’t understand why he was acting so reassuring, but then I realized my arms were shaking. So were my legs. Soon my entire body was trembling violently, steadied only by Taylor’s supportive arms.

“Relax. It’s the adrenaline wearing off. I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

It’s not okay, I wanted to reply.They have a key. They can barge back in here at any moment.

Taylor was right: eventually I stopped shaking. But as soon as I did, my trembles were replaced by incredulity. “You’re smuggling drugs?” I said, pushing him away from me.

“Not exactly.”

“Oh!” I shot back at him. “Not exactly! That’s a great answer!”

“Veronica,” he said calmly, “I can explain.”

“I know exactly what you’re going to say. The cartel got some sort of leverage over you, and now youhaveto transport drugs for them. Is that about right?”

“Yes, but you’re leaving out some important details.”

I grabbed my clothes off the ground. “I’m leaving. I can’t believe I trusted you. You told me Excelsior was bad news, but meanwhile you’re smuggling drugs like a—”

“Not drugs!” Taylor snapped. “Antibiotics.”

I paused with my shirt in my hand. “Huh?”

He gestured at the bed. “Will youpleasesit down and let me explain? Or do you want to run off to the airport and sleep there until the first flight out in the morning? Because I can guarantee you’re not finding a pilot who’s leaving at an hour to midnight.”

I was furious. I was terrified. I was shocked and numb and desperate to leave the room as quickly as possible, no matter what Taylor had to say.

I dropped my clothes and sat on the edge of the bed. “Talk.”

“Six years ago. Twenty-seventeen. I was dating a Puerto Rican woman…” He must have seen the look in my eyes, because he quickly added, “This story isn’t about her, but it’s important context. I was dating this woman when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. She had family down there, and I had a plane, so I cleared my schedule and we hopped down to the island. I figured I could find some way to help.

“Well, after a week or two of clearing debris and repairing buildings, we ran into another problem. The hospital down there didn’t have enough antibiotics. Or at least they did, but they ran out. One of the other volunteers, a local guy, had a contact back in Miami who worked for a pharmacy. They basically had an unlimited supply of this stuff, but needed a way to get it down there without going through a bunch of red tape. I’ve always been the kind of man to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, so I jumped at the opportunity to help. I flew up there, picked up a delivery of antibiotics, and flew back. I even checked the bottles to make sure they were all legitimate. No narcotics, nothing that could be abused or anything. I felt good about the whole thing.

“A few days later, they ran out. So I made another flight. This time, they insisted on paying for my fuel. I declined, of course, but when I made the delivery they handed me a bag of cash. They wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Taylor ran his fingers through his hair. “You have to understand, this was at the hospital. I had nurses and doctors hugging me, thanking me for what I was doing. Every time I tried to give the money back to them, I had four sets of hands pushing it back to me. And I was a struggling pilot with a lot of bills to pay, and gas ain’t cheap, so I accepted it.

“Worst mistake of my life. When I got back to my plane, I opened the bag. There was ten grand inside. Which is a hell of a lot more than it cost me to fly down there. I knew something was wrong with the situation, but I didn’t really think about it. I flew home and went on with my life. Me and that woman flamed out after another month. I continued flying. Used the money to make some much-needed repairs to my plane, and give me a little buffer room in case I hit some rainy days. I thought life was good.”

“Until…” I whispered.

Taylor smiled ruefully. “Until about a year later. I get a call from that other volunteer, the one who got me to make the first delivery. He wanted me to do it again. Now, this was long after the recovery efforts were over. Puerto Rico was still hurtin’, but it’s not like they needed someone like me to fly emergency antibiotics to the island. The real adults were in charge. So I turned him down.

“About a week later, I get an envelope in the mail. Inside this envelope were photographs of me down there, delivering the antibiotics and accepting a bag of cash in return. They also included a huge stack of legal documents explaining all the ways in which I had broken the law. It was like a damn college textbook, full of highlighted passages and bulleted notes on all the ways I wasfucked. I was looking at three-to-five years in prison. And even if I somehow got a lenient judge, at a minimum I would lose my pilot’s license.”

All this time, Taylor had been staring down at his feet while explaining everything. Now he looked up at me, and there were tears in his crystal blue eyes. “Flying’s all I know, Veronica. It’s who Iam. Without that… I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn’t let them do it. I couldn’t let them take theskyfrom me.”

I rubbed Taylor’s back. Any anger I had felt had melted away. “Oh, Taylor…”

“I thought I was still in control back then, so I made a deal with them. I’d make six more deliveries whenever I happened to be in Puerto Rico. Then I would be free. Over the next two years, I made those deliveries. Even during COVID. After the sixth one, I thought I was done. But of course, that ain’t how this works. They told me to make one more delivery. Just one. So I did that, this time flying to Cancun. Their operation was spread throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, apparently. But then I had to do another one. And another. And now six years have passed, and I’m still doin’ it. I’m still their delivery boy.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “All of this for antibiotics?”

“Apparently they’re cutting-edge pills,” Taylor replied. “The kind reserved for special cases, not available to the public. They’re re-selling them at a huge markup, I suspect. They actually tried to get me to ship narcotics back into America at one point. Antibiotics south, cocaine north. But I drew the line there. Said I would rather lose my pilot’s license than become arealdrug dealer. I guess they could tell I wasn’t bluffing, because they never asked again.”

Taylor took my hand and squeezed it. “I never meant to get you involved in all this, Veronica. I’m so sorry.”

I gave him a funny look. “You didn’t get me involved in anything. I’m the one who convincedyouto help me stop whatever is happening on Excelsior flights.”

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