They passed the waypoint RTT (Rattenberg). The valley narrowed. The terrain warning—that dreaded “TERRAIN TERRAIN” from the EGPWS—did not sound. Yet. Version 1.20 had tweaked the sensitivity. Markus knew that if he heard that voice, he was already dead.

“Retard, retard,” the synthetic voice called as the radio altimeter counted down through twenty feet.

They were both staring at the NAV display. Ahead, the Austrian Alps were no longer a flat, beige contour line on a map. Through the FSX cockpit window, they were real—jagged teeth of granite and snow, lit orange by the October sunset.

The first thing Captain Markus Richter noticed was the silence.

He didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Lena let out a slow breath. “The East transition. Of course.”