Chapter 3 #2
Kasey tipped back the last of her champagne, and no sooner had she set down her glass than a good-looking male flight attendant—how many of these people were there, and were any of them unattractive?—materialized to offer a refill.
“Not now, thank you.”
Her empty flute was swept away by a white-gloved hand.
Better not get used to this, she told herself.
She figured the karmic odds were high that her next posting would be payback, six months in a pure hellhole in some dark and dusty corner of the globe.
The kind of place where no matter how hard you tried, no matter how much the CIA spent, nothing meaningful ever changed.
She got up and walked aft along the main aisle.
Walter was seated mid-cabin, and even from a distance she saw him nodding off.
She couldn’t fault him. Kasey had managed a few hours’ sleep at the hotel yesterday evening, but he hadn’t gotten any rest in days.
The early morning hours had been the worst, transferring Chen to Macau Airport right under the noses of the MSS.
The scheme had worked brilliantly, and after arriving at the airport, the three of them had ignored one another in the terminal in the name of operational security.
Now, with China in the rearview mirror, contact was acceptable.
Better yet, Hemisphere’s roomy cabin layout made it simple to stay out of earshot of other passengers.
As she neared Walter’s seat, she noticed a young pregnant woman she had seen in the terminal seated across the aisle.
The woman appeared too far along in her pregnancy to be traveling, but Kasey couldn’t blame her.
China was one of the last places she’d ever want to be hospitalized, much less give birth.
One of the flight attendants was in the process of making up the woman’s bed, expertly tucking in the thousand thread-count sheets and masterfully plumping the goose down pillows and duvet. It was like watching an artist at work.
Walter, however, was too tired to notice, his head bent lazily to one side.
“We did it,” she said, leaning down next to his seat.
His eyes flicked open with a start. “Oh… yeah. Although we still have to finish this fourteen-hour flight to New York. I’m not sure if I can stay awake that long.”
“I think we’ve earned a little shut-eye. Might be your last chance for a while.” She nodded toward the pregnant woman. Walter’s wife was due in nine weeks.
“Maybe so. Did Chen shut down?” He too had been worried about the laptop giving away their position.
“Yep. Sounds like his diversions went exactly as planned. The guy really knows his stuff.”
He looked up and down the aisle. “Spot anybody who might be an issue?”
“Chinese assassins on our flight? You’re getting paranoid, Walter.”
“Isn’t that what we’re paid to be?”
“Between the two of us, we’ve put eyes on every person on this jet. Nobody stands out. Chen told me he actually downloaded the passenger manifest for the flight—not sure when he found the time, but I don’t doubt him. He ran every name, and not one kicked back as suspicious.”
“He was probably using MSS databases.”
“True. But those would be better than our own.”
Kasey was about to say something else when she noticed that the pregnant woman was trying to reach the overhead compartment to get something down.
Having finished making the bed, the flight attendant had returned to the galley to begin prepping for meal service.
“Can I help you with that?” Kasey asked, crossing the aisle.
“Thank you,” the woman replied. “I’m trying to get my bag down. I thought I’d already taken out my AirPods.”
“No problem at all. The brown one?”
The woman nodded and Kasey removed the expensive, designer suitcase.
“When are you due?” she asked, as the woman opened her bag and retrieved her AirPods.
“Not for another two months,” the woman replied, closing her bag and standing aside so Kasey could place it back into the overhead.
“My doctor didn’t want me traveling in my third trimester, but I promised this would be my last trip.
My husband, not to mention the rest of my family, would kill me if they couldn’t be there for the birth of the baby. ”
“Boy or girl?” Kasey asked, as she hefted the bag back in place.
“We want it to be a surprise. As long as the baby’s healthy, that’s all we care about,” the woman replied.
“Good for you,” Kasey said, putting the bag back and closing the bin.
The two chatted a bit, and nothing the woman said raised an alarm for Kasey. She moved back across the aisle and said to Walter, “She works for a private equity company. Can you believe they sent her to Hong Kong? She’s due about a week before your wife.”
Walter chuckled. “If my wife’s boss tried to get her to take a trip at this point, she’d be in his driveway planting pipe bombs.”
“Hannah’s a tough lady. Probably needs to be in order to put up with you.”
He smiled. “What about you? When are you going to have kids?”
“One thing at a time,” Kasey responded. “I need to find the right guy first.” Shooting a glance up front, she returned to business. “I should probably get back.”
“You worry too much.”
“I can’t help it. It’s the first time he’s been out of our sight in days.”
“I think we’re in the clear.”
Now it was Kasey who chuckled. “Not until we hand him over in New York.”
Walter tapped his display screen, which traced the airplane’s flight path over the North Pole to their eventual destination of John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
“All we’ve got to do is get him there. This is the easy part.
Relax and have a little more champagne. Everything’s going to be fine. ”