“Jailhouse Rock,” a novelette by James P. Hogan

Thanks to a recent post by Tinkoo of the blog Variety SF, I had a chance to browse “Jailhouse Rock” (2004),
a novelette by British SF author James P. Hogan that was first published in the anthology Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System (2004).

Set on Mars and its smaller moon Deimos, here’s a summary of
"Jailhouse Rock," taken directly from Variety SF:

“A plane is carrying arms. It's being escorted by an armed military plane. A young soldier, Kieran Thane, is on-board the plane carrying sensitive cargo, & is in constant radio contact with the military escort plane. But hijackers have planned well. Soldier in cargo plane is overpowered & made hostage; escort plane is disabled; cargo plane hijacked. Soldier hostage accidentally learns of destination of hijacked plane because of loose talk among the 5 hijackers. So he's become a liability -- to be killed. An argument among hijackers, & he gets an option to live. He's deplaned enroute, at a place where he can reach civilization in a few hours. On his way to safety, he realizes something is amiss. Lot of drama, & ultimately hijackers are arrested.”

Tinkoo rates “Jailhouse Rock” an “A.”

James P. Hogan is the author of the novel Martian Knightlife (2001).