Retribution

  ~~*~~

  For David Mason flying was a part of everyday living. As an engineer working for an American oil company he had to travel all over the world on the company’s business. It was exciting at first but it didn’t take long for the novelty to wear off. Knowing no one, staying in hotels where the rooms were all the same design and similar décor; seeing only the inside of meeting rooms, airport lounges and living out of a suitcase wasn’t much fun in his book. In his experience the best way to make the time pass quickly was to work hard.

  As he stood in the check-in queue he began to organize his projected workload. He had a lot to think about. Paperwork that he could deal with on the flight included the checking of calculations on load-bearing members and load-bearing points; there were progress reports to be reviewed and a list of critical components for random audit should be compiled. If he could deal with this on the flight, the list of design change requests from the main contractor and its impact on the critical path planning analysis could be dealt with in a day at the New York office. Then he could fly on to do the site visit. Maybe even take a couple of days off, hire some gear and get out into the Alaskan wilderness, clear his brain and recharge his batteries for a while.

  His mental plan made, he glanced to his left and saw a stunning blonde girl looking directly at him. She gave him the sexiest smile he had ever seen. David Mason was astonished; this sort of thing never happened to him. He smiled back.

  All thoughts of the Alaskan wilderness went completely out of his mind.

  06.10am Terminal 3 Departures.

  Jim Savage was bored; bored and envious of the people he was protecting. Airport protection had to be one of the least exciting jobs he had ever done in the police force. Hitching his Heckler and Koch MP5 to a more comfortable position he stood by a grey painted pillar in zone ‘B’ and surveyed the organized chaos that was the busy departure hall. Queues wound snake like between the tape barriers zigzagging up to the check-in desks beneath the illuminated red and blue double ‘A’ symbol of American Airlines. People of all shapes, sizes, colors and nationalities pushing trolleys loaded with bags, cases, boxes and bundles, all anxious to check in and get the best possible seats, an endless flow of people on the move every day; some tired, some on business, some excited, some going on holiday on a long awaited trip.

  Jim wished he was jetting off to some exciting destination himself and as the thought crossed his mind he noticed a shapely blonde girl standing apart from the winding American Airlines check-in queue. Expensively dressed, she was wearing tight brown leather trousers over high-heeled ankle boots, and a beautifully filled close-fitting pale grey cotton sweater; and obviously no bra. A jacket in long wolf fur was draped casually over her shoulders. Long blonde hair swept down to the middle of her back. ‘Wow, especially if I was with her,’ Jim muttered under his breath, and began to daydream.