Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

on secure phones in secure locations and would be able to speak freely. But at least his coded message would get Taber moving in the right direction. Weldon Donald Chapman stood for Washington, D.C.
    Lars hung up the phone and got up from behind his desk. He opened his office door and spent a moment chatting with the young lady named Bridget. This one was pretty. Very pretty. Too bad the odds of her occupying that chair the next time Lars Karlsson showed his face in the London office were practically none.

Chapter 58
    Danny checked his watch. It had been four hours since they snuck onto the U.S.S. Monitor . Their hiding place, a cramped sleeping compartment that contained a bare, double mattress on top of a plywood platform, had forced the two of them to lie as still as possible next to each other. Their only communication was in the form of smiles, playful touching of arms, and pats of reassurance on each other’s shoulders. Danny would have given anything for four more hours of that interaction with Sydney in this claustrophobic space but then reality invaded their tiny world. The boat was finally being loaded on the plane.
    They were still moving twenty minutes later. From the time the transfer started, Danny had heard nearly constant cheering, garbled words echoing from a loudspeaker, and even music blasting from a marching band. He looked beyond the open doorway that separated the sleeping compartment from a larger storage room. Their only light source had been a small, opaque skylight in the storage room’s ceiling. But now, as the ship edged further into the 747’s belly, the light grew dimmer until it was completely extinguished.
    They finally came to a stop. Danny felt whatever machines they used to move the Monitor unhook from the ship’s hull. The drivers gunned the engines to move the machines out of the plane. More muffled words from the loudspeaker were followed by a wave of enthusiastic cheers. A heavy hum emanated from the plane, followed by the whine of working hydraulics. Danny pictured the plane’s nose closing, like some futuristic whale swallowing the ship in one gulp. A Moby Dick quote would work well here , he thought. Unfortunately, he had never taken the time to pick up the classic tale of man against beast that, from what his dad had told him one time, was really a story of man against himself.
    Suddenly, Danny felt Sydney’s hand on his thigh. He was going to say something but then held his tongue as she began moving her hand higher. The message she was sending made Danny’s body reply. His muscles tightened, he began to bulge inside his pants. The shady thoughts stirring in the back of his mind since meeting Sydney Dumas were about to become sweaty reality. Yes , he thought . They didn’t find us. We’re safe. It’s okay that this happens now. She wants it to happen now.
    Danny put his hand on her shoulder. He was about to pull Sydney to him when she grabbed what she was looking for. His flashlight. She pulled it from his pocket, switched it on, and angled it toward her face.
    “Is it okay to talk now?” she whispered.
    Danny went limp all over. The bland words reminded him that his male fantasy had almost got the better of him. He chuckled to himself about how bad he and the rest of his gender were at reading women’s minds.
    “I think so,” he whispered back.
    “So what now?” Sydney asked.
    Danny pictured the heavy police presence at Reagan National Airport. He would be surprised if they even let a cargo plane approach the terminal without being searched first.
    “Now we have to figure out a way to get off this plane without getting caught.”
    “Easier said than done.”
    “Much,” Danny replied. As the jet engines fired, a wave of nausea crashed into Danny’s gut.
    “What’s wrong?” Sydney said, reading his face.
    Danny sighed. He had given a fleeting thought about it as he concocted their plan, but he was able to distract himself with the mountain of other details. But now, Danny’s fear grew, as the noise from the jet engines got louder.
    “There’s something I forgot to tell you, Sydney.”
    “What is it?”
    “I have a huge fear of flying.”

Chapter 59
    Stefan Taber exited the jetway and fell into stride with the rest of the passengers headed toward the baggage claim area. The plane’s stale atmosphere slowly flushed out of his lungs as he breathed the humid terminal air. Taber had only to worry about a black carry-on packed with the normal