Final Winter

More discussion and Janwick raised his hand. ‘All right. Our place isn’t to find all the answers. Just the right one. And the right answer is that the evidence is showing that something is going to hit the airport in Memphis. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. My recommendation is a priority contact to Memphis Airport. Ground and seal, until that missing tractor-trailer unit or the Russian is located. BOLO for the Russian dispatched a hundred-mile radius from Memphis. Any questions?’

No questions.

‘Good. Let’s start making the calls.’

Jason Janwick looked at the clock. It was 10:10 p.m. -1:10 in the morning in Memphis.

CHAPTER THIRTY

At the AirBox dispatch center at the Memphis Airport, Carrie Floyd looked up from her early-morning paperwork to see her co-pilot approach. ‘Looks like we’re going to the Great Northeast today, lady.’

‘Really? Where?’

‘Boston, Massachusetts. It’s not London, but it’ll do.’

‘Sure will,’ she said with a smile. ‘If we’ve got time, I’ll buy you lunch at the waterfront. Fresh Maine lobster.’

He looked around the room, as if to see if they were being watched. They weren’t.

‘Is this a regular lunch, or I-plan-to-say-yes-to-your-offer lunch?’

She smiled, went back to her paperwork. ‘You’ll see when we get there.’

‘Fine, Carrie. Looking forward to it.’

She checked the time. It was 1:25 a.m. Just over a half-hour to takeoff.

~ * ~

Adrianna unlocked the door of her hotel room, stepped inside, and froze.

Brian Doyle was sitting in a chair, arms folded across his chest.

‘Hey,’ he said

‘Hey yourself,’ she said. ‘How did you get in?’

‘Through the door.’

‘Don’t be funny, Brian.’

‘Wasn’t,’ he said. ‘It’s amazing what you can do with an NYPD detective’s shield, a Federal ID, and a convincing story.’

‘What kind of story?’

‘That you were my fiancée. And that I wanted to surprise you.’

Adrianna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘That’s a hell of a story.’

‘Sure is,’ he said, his face expressionless. ‘And speaking of stories, Adrianna, why don’t you tell me yours?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Talk to me about Cincinnati. Why your school records are missing. Why your neighbors were paid off to help spread a cover story about you. And how your aunt was murdered.’

~ * ~

The phone call from the Homeland Security Office in Washington State to have the Memphis Airport shut down and to prevent any entry from outside traffic was routed to a communications office at the main Homeland Security Office in Washington DC. Due to the nature and classification of the phone call, it had to be approved by the overnight communications supervisor before being sent along to Memphis. The overnight communications supervisor had been on the job for three days. Uncertain of her authority for shutting down the Memphis Airport, she started making phone calls to numbers on her contact sheet, each phone call taking approximately five minutes.

~ * ~

Brian could tell that he had scored by the way Adrianna’s eyes seemed to flinch. But she was good, the way she recovered so quickly. ‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

‘I mean this,’ he said. And I’m probably violating a half-dozen regulations by telling you this, but it has to be said. One of my roles within the Tiger Team was being a rat, Adrianna. Someone who investigates the squad. A duty assigned to me by the Director. “Who will guard the guardians?” was his motto for me, and my job was to look at the background of the members. I checked out Victor and I checked out Darren, and except for a few odds and ends they were clean. But not you, Adrianna. There are questions. Questions that bugged me so much I came back tonight to figure it out. Like Mamma Garrity. Your neighbor. Who claims she was paid a hundred dollars a month by you, to pass on a cover story to those doing background checks when you applied to the CIA. Care to explain that story, Adrianna?’

Adrianna’s expression seemed shaky. She rubbed at her eyes with both hands and said, ‘I’m sorry…this is coming at me so fast… I… I have to go to the bathroom, Brian. Honest. Please wait for me. I’ll… I’ll tell you everything when I get out.’

And she turned her back to him, and went into the room’s bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Brian stood up, waited.

~ * ~

Once the permissions had been granted and accepted, the phone call from the Homeland Security Office in Virginia went out to the night-shift manager at the Memphis Airport. At the time the phone call was made, the night-shift manager was off on the flight line, overseeing an accident investigation that had begun an hour earlier when a United Airlines flight had clipped the top of a catering truck. He had left strict instructions with his administrative staff that he was not to be disturbed, ‘even if the goddamn governor calls’.

The administrative aide who took the phone call wasn’t sure if an urgent message from Homeland Security was as important as the governor’s office, but he didn’t want to face the wrath of the manager twice in one shift.