CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
10:21 p.m. – Eastern Time
Charleston, South Carolina
The pilots called the plane FRED.
It was a military acronym, short for “f*****g Ridiculous Environmental/Economic Disaster.” It was the C5 Galaxy, a fuel hog, and one of the largest airplanes in the world. Luke rode in the cockpit for most of the flight, but he went back to the cargo hold for a little while just to marvel at the amount the plane could carry.
The plane was a resource mover. Its enormous hold was 120 feet long, a foot longer than the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. The hold was full. Four Humvees were parked in there. Thousands of meals-ready-to-eat, packed on pallets. Cots, tents, more hazmat suits. Tens of thousands of pounds of medical consumables—disposable thermometers, syringes, rubber
