Part 3/8:
As the inexperienced flight attendant repeatedly recounted the passengers, the discrepancies persisted. Each time she returned to the front of the plane, the numbers were steadfast but inexplicable. The final piece of the puzzle emerged when she identified the six additional "passengers" as crew members traveling for different assignments—except that they were not there in the usual sense. In a chilling twist, the commander who had perished in the earlier accident was among those she counted.