Serge repeatedly tapped the button.
The attendant maintained poise. “Yes?”
“I can’t go into all the details,” said Serge. “But you really want me off this plane.”
The businessman nodded hard in agreement.
“I’m sorry,” said the attendant. “But they’re just about-”
“This is your captain again. The part from Atlanta fits, and we should be in the air in no time.”
“See?” the attendant said cheerfully. “I told you it wouldn’t be much longer.”
“I still want to get off,” said Serge. “Can’t you just let one person go?”
“The rules are very strict,” she said evenly. “After the doors are closed and cross-checked, absolutely nobody is permitted off the plane.”
At the front of the jet, two men in uniforms stepped out of the cockpit. The main cabin door opened. Sunlight streamed in. The men left. The door closed.
Serge looked up at the attendant. “What the hell just happened?”
“The pilots got off the plane.”
“Why?”
“They reached their FAA limits of how long they can work in a twenty-four-hour period. We’re flying a new crew in from Cleveland.”
“How long is that going to take?”
“Hard to tell because they’re de-icing in a blizzard.”
Serge rocked manically in his seat. “You don’t understand. I really need to get off this plane.”
The businessman leaned forward. “Please let him off the plane.”
“I already told you that’s forbidden. No exceptions whatsoever.”
The attendant began walking away.
“Wait!” Serge called after her. “I’m not finished. I need to-”
“I’m sorry,” said the attendant. “I can’t talk to you anymore. I’ve also reached my twenty-four-hour limit.”
She got off the plane.
Chapter Four
South of Miami
Squawking green parrots in flight.
Other bright feathers.
Thousands. Macaws, cockatoos. Ninety-eight percent humidity. A higher number on the mercury.
The Metrozoo was known for its birds. Plus 1,200 other critters covering 740 acres on the distant underside of Miami, near the end of the turnpike. Hurricane Andrew was a jailbreak, tying up traffic with flamingos and zebras and the so-called AIDS monkeys. It was the oldest such attraction in Florida and the only subtropical zoo in the country.
Three animals started it in 1948.
Just past the zoo’s entrance: an unassuming road with guard gates at intended intervals. The pavement leads through brush, past something called the University of Miami Institute for Human Genomics, before finally reaching what is now the Richmond Naval Air Station.
A smattering of widely separated buildings designate the secure area, some distinctly old by Florida standards. One of the earlier wooden structures was quite the scene from 1961 until it closed seven years later, although there was little fanfare.
Building 25.
Headquarters of Operation Mongoose, otherwise known as the CIA’s campaign to overthrow Fidel Castro.
Sitting quiet for decades.
Until now.
“Let’s take it round the horn,” said field-station chief Gil Oxnart, striding hard into the room without waiting for the screen door behind him to bang shut. “Dazzle me.”
The room used to have a conference table during the Johnson administration. Today, a square grid of penknife-scarred school desks.
A junior agent in the front row went first. Pages flipped in a single-spaced surveillance report. “Subjects departed primary location 0730, took Biscayne to Flagler, where said parties parked for secondary observation. Departed 0948, for safe house.”
Oxnart flipped through a stack of telephoto eight-by-tens. “These aren’t shit.”
“Sorry, sir. Nothing happened,” said the junior agent. “Except that last photo.”
“What’s this picture of a dead shark in the street?”
“Three guys threw it in front of the Costa Gordan consulate. I think someone was sending a message.”
The chief tossed the photos back. “Ship them to Langley, computer section, but be discreet. Tell them it’s personal business on company time… What else?”
“Departed safe house, 1820; Subject Alpha arrived home 1847. Subject Bravo, 1901.”
“Keep up the good work, Huff.”
“Sir?” asked the agent.
“What?”
“Why is our CIA station conducting surveillance on the other CIA station?”
“Because they’re our biggest threat.”
Call it the current climate. A long, depressing streak of revelations, press leaks, and congressional hearings. Waterboarding, rendition, black-box prisons, false-flag interrogations, Gitmo, naked human pyramids. The clandestine service had become a reality show. Rumors of war crimes trials, politicians outing agents. An already paranoid culture became even more compartmentalized and firewalled with career preservation. And since they now knew even less about what the rest of the Company was up to, the biggest worry wasn’t overseas but the agent next door.
Station Chief Oxnart picked up an overlooked surveillance photo. “What’s this?”
“Station Chief Lugar eating dinner,” said a junior agent.
Oxnart handed him the picture. “Find out what this means.” Then he clapped his hands sharply and addressed the rest of the room. “Look smart, everyone. We got the Summit of the Americas, and I want to be all over Lugar’s men. Start with the airport. Make sure every inch is covered.”
Meanwhile…
“This is Monica Saint James with Action News Eyewitness Eight, reporting live from Tampa International Airport, where, as you can see behind me, a Miami-bound flight has been stranded on the runway now for almost seven hours. Our station has received numerous cell-phone calls from passengers begging to be let off the plane…”
The camera zoomed on the window of row 27, where someone was clawing at the glass.
“… Our own calls to the airline and transportation officials have all been met with ‘no comment’…”
Serge hyperventilated with his head between his knees in the crash position. He stood up and tapped the businessman, then slid into the aisle.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting everyone off this plane.”
Serge walked to the back, went in the restroom, and closed the door.
A minute passed.
The restroom door opened. Serge peeked outside. Nobody looking. He quickly slipped back into his seat.
Soon a squat woman in polyester waddled to the back of the plane. She went inside the restroom. And came right back out, running up the aisle.
The woman grabbed the first flight attendant she could find and pointed frantically toward the rear of the plane. The attendant hurried toward the restroom.
Back inside the terminal, TV crews continued filming.
“… Sources tell us there is a heated, backroom disagreement over the airline’s handling… Wait a minute. Something seems to be happening. It looks like the emergency doors have opened…”
The cameraman focused on yellow slides inflating. Passengers jumped from the doors and zipped down to the runway. Rescue vehicles raced across the tarmac.
“Thank God!” said Coleman, entering the terminal through their original departure gate and heading for the monorail to the parking lots and taxis.
“Hold up,” said Serge. “There’s one more thing I have to do…”
The last passengers exited the aircraft, which was the signal for a standby tactical unit in body armor to rush aboard. They swept the plane and reached one of the restrooms. On the mirror, drawn in soap:
A bowling ball with a lit fuse.
Back in the airport, total chaos. News crews surrounded passengers getting off the monorail for firsthand accounts. “… You wouldn’t believe the smell!..”
And at the departure gate, calm was finally restored. A woman with four-inch nails headed back to her desk. She stopped and gasped. On the ground, a clean rectangle indicated the outline of a missing Elite Club doormat.