Kat flex-cuffed the pilot and carefully frisked him, taking his wallet and leaving him facedown in the aisle as she moved forward and flashed the landing lights twice. She looked through the wallet quickly, memorizing the name on the various licenses.
“Is this jet fueled?” she asked.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Range?”
“Ah… over six thousand miles.”
“Where are you planning to take the others when they get back?’
He was trying to shake his head, rubbing his chin on the floor in the process. “I… don’t know. The captain ordered me to put on a full load of fuel, coffee, and ice, and then stand by.”
“You leave from Hong Kong last night?”
There was a long hesitation and Kat kicked him hard. “Answer the question.”
“Ah… yes. I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you anything.”
“You’re going to tell me anything I ask. For instance, did you take off in front of a Meridian seven-forty-seven?”
“I don’t recall.”
Kat kicked him harder.
“Hey!”
“Remember, Pollis, if that’s your real name, I’ve got the option of killing you right here, right now. The ACLU is six thousand miles away. They can’t help you. You have three seconds to answer.”
“Look… yes. Probably.”
“And why did you turn off your transponder and fly in front of that jumbo?”
“Because I had a guy as mean as you ordering me to shut up while he did the flying. I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to play chicken with a jumbo jet.”
The answer stopped Kat. Clever, she thought. Fiction writing under pressure. “What are the names of the men you were with?”
“I… only know two of them. Arlin Schoen. He was the boss. The captain’s name was Ben Laren.”
“And the others?”
“Honest. I don’t know the other names. Ma’am, why are you doing this? I’m on your side.”
There were sounds outside and Kat turned to see Dallas and Robert helping the others up the stairs. She pointed to the prisoner and explained the situation. “Just step over him, and when we crank up, I’ll need one of us to cover him.”
“Excuse me,” the pilot said.
“What?” Kat snapped.
“Are you qualified on this type of jet, Ma’am? Or do you have a pilot?”
“No. I’m it, and all I can fly are little Cessnas,” Kat told him, watching the reaction. “This is going to be on-the-job training.”
“Ah, look, if you’re planning to… to… fly off with me on board, then let me help you do it right. I don’t want to get shot, but I also don’t want to die in a plane—”
A crushing blow from Dan Wade’s right shoe slammed into the midsection of the man, causing him to gasp and cry out in pain. “WHAT? WHAT DID I DO?” he yelped, gasping.
Dan leaned down, following his voice, and yanked him halfway off the floor by his hair, speaking millimeters from the back of his head. “I’m the first officer of Meridian Flight Five, you fucking murderer! You and your henchmen killed my captain, you’ve probably blinded me for life, and you’ve murdered over two hundred passengers and crew members, some of them my dear friends. I want you to know that you’re never going to reach a jail, because I’m going to dismember you alive.”
The cuffed pilot was frantic, his eyes huge. “I DIDN’T KILL ANYONE! I was just hired to fly this trip, and then… they were doing something back there, I don’t know what.”
Dan let the pilot’s head thud to the floor. “When we get airborne, I’m going to take a small knife and start removing your favorite body parts until we get the truth.”
Dallas put a firm hand on Dan’s arm and her mouth next to his ear. “Danny, I feel like killing him, too, but it’s probably not the best of ideas to do it or even threaten it in front of the FBI, know what I mean? They make pretty devastatingly honest witnesses when you have to explain why someone ended up in a couple of plastic garbage bags.”
Kat was studying the instrument panel as Robert leaned close to her. “You can only fly little Cessnas?”
She shook her head. “Actually, I’m typed… qualified… in Learjets and Cessna Citations, just not something this new and fancy.”
He exhaled and smiled. “I was hoping you’d say something like that. I’ve seen quite enough on-the-job flight training for a lifetime.”
CHAPTER 28
There was a flurry of activity at the rear of the cabin. Dallas turned to look as Robert emerged from a curtained area with a large metal box.
“Look what I found!” he said. He set it on the floor and opened it, pulling out a heavy object that resembled a couple of diminutive scuba tanks with a telescopic sight on one side, along with a small liquid-crystal control panel. He turned it around, finding an aperture on one end, and a handgrip on the other.
“What the heck is that?” Dallas asked.
“I don’t know,” Robert said as he moved to the prisoner to yank his head up, aiming the object’s small aperture directly at his face. The man didn’t flinch.
“What is this thing?” Robert asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” the pilot said.
“Then you don’t mind if I fire it at you?”
“Hell, man,” the pilot replied, “I’m apparently dead meat anyway. Frankly, I think you’re all crazy as loons. First I get hired by the guys you apparently have a beef against, and now I’ve got the paranoid agents from hell. Do whatever you want. I’ve never even seen that thing before.”
Kat had reappeared. “Do you normally fly captain or copilot, Pollis?”
“Uh, copilot. Right seat, but I’m a qualified captain on this bird.”
Kat nodded as she pulled out a knife and cut the flex cuffs. “Well, now you’re going to upgrade. And Mr. MacCabe here is going to have a gun with orders to kill you if you so much as raise an eyebrow, understood?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Get up there in the left seat and get this machine started. Do NOT touch the radio, and do NOT put on a headset.”
She repeated the instructions to Robert and passed him her 9mm pistol.
“Oh, and Pollis? Understand this. I can fly this thing if I have to without you, so don’t think for a moment that you’re indispensable.”
“Ah, Agent?” Steve Delaney had been looking out the left windows.
“I’m Kat,” she said.
He nodded. “Kat, some cars with armed soldiers are coming out there.”
“What are they doing?” she asked.
“They’re standing and pointing, and I think they’re talking about us.”
“Which means,” Kat concluded, “at best we’ve only got a few minutes.” She glanced at the others. “Buckle up. We’re getting out of here.”
Kat turned and moved to the entryway to say good-bye to Pete, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. She stowed the stairs and closed the door before moving into the cockpit. Pollis was already running the prestart checklist in the left seat as she slid into the right-hand copilot’s seat and fastened her seat belt. He started the auxiliary power unit and clicked it on-line for electrical power, as he read the checklist items aloud and began starting the left engine.
Kat adjusted the headset she’d found on the copilot’s side and checked the frequency for Da Nang Ground Control on the approach plate still clipped to the yoke. She dialed in the frequency and pushed the Transmit button on the control yoke. “Da Nang Ground, Global Express Two-Two-Zulu.”