Death's Twilight

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Zhullany Airport, Kiev December 6, 2308 07:14:19 (T-Minus 06:22:45:41)

  Hotaru walked the ramp from the plane to the terminal at Zhullany Airport. Her travel time from Moscow had been just under an hour. She had already made arrangements for a hover to be at her disposal, and her first move was going to be The Agora in Crimea. No matter how hard she tried, she could not find any other way to get to Crimea than driving. That meant another eleven hours. Almost half a day gone, and she would be no closer to 0247893.

  She walked through the doorway at the end of the ramp and into the terminal proper. People walked by her on their way to and from flights. She pulled out her Tablet, and accessed the picture of 0247893. Was he at the airport? Trying to get away? Raising her Tablet to her eye level, she scanned the crowd, using its retinal recognition program to find him. After a few minutes with no results, Hotaru headed to her waiting hover.

  As she stood on the terminal's moving sidewalk, she scanned her Tablet for information that might prove useful in tracking her Target. Following standard operating procedure, she downloaded all current copies of the local newspapers for reading on the way to Crimea. In a separate window, she called up the pictures of the people associated with 0247893 - Kozel, Herman and Principal McDonald.

  Committing Herman's picture to memory would be useless since he was already dead. The other two, however would be very useful in finding him. McDonald was first on her tablet, and Hotaru studied her features, her eyes, the set of her jaw. Being a public official would help also, as Hotaru could ask for a meeting upon her arrival in Crimea. Next came the picture of Kozel. A chime indicated the upcoming end of the sidewalk, and Hotaru lowered her Tablet in preparation of changing sidewalks.

  Stepping off the first sidewalk, she took five strides, and hopped on the next, the last one before she would reach the terminal's outer ring, and her hover. Placing her left hand on the railing for support, she looked at her Tablet again. The picture of Kozel stared back at her. She committed his face to her memory, and placed her Tablet back into her bag. Kozel was probably on his way back from Crimea. She would have Control track him down once she got to the-

  Wait. Up ahead. Was that...? Hotaru quickly grabbed her Tablet and flipped to Kozel's information. The guy up ahead sure fit the info she had on Kozel. She pushed ahead on the moving sidewalk, carefully nudging people out of the way in her quest to reach the man.  She could see his leather jacket, his dark, close cropped hair. It had to be him, but she couldn't use her Tablet's retinal scanning program because he had his back to her.

  He turned left at the end of the walkway, heading for the departures level. She ran after him, no longer caring for the rules and decorum of the moving walkway. Hotaru rounded the corner, and spied him about one hundred meters ahead of her, just passing into the open concourse. She angled toward the wall, where there were less people, and took off into a full sprint.

  She closed the distance - less than fifty meters now. He was approaching one of the desks, reaching into his pocket to show his ID. Hotaru closed the distance in seconds, and grabbed the man's left shoulder, spinning him toward her. She raised her Tablet, activating it and bringing it beside his face. She stared in shock. They didn't match.

  "I'm sorry, sir. I thought you were someone else."

  The man glared at her, and then turned back to the woman at the ticket counter. He retrieved his ID card and picked up his briefcase before walking through the gate to catch his flight. Hotaru was dumbfounded. She had been sure that he was Kozel. Shaking her head in annoyance, she headed off to find her exit, and the hover that waited for her