A Work of Fiction: Chapter 1

Reagan National, one of the many gateways to the world. And, like usual, very busy. Being an FBI agent, I hated that phrase. Very busy usually meant high security risks.
I made another sweep of the terminal; I knew he was going to be here, my gut had told me he’d come back. I have been an agent for two years now, and very rarely was it ever wrong. It got me in a lot of trouble most of the time, but it was rarely wrong.
“Edwards? What the hell are we doing here?”
That whiny, staticky voice in my ear would be that of Mr. Daniel Mountebank. He’s my partner, and my best friend. Those two titles kind of have to go together when you’re dealing with gun toting whackos for a living.
“We’re going to get Njego,“ I said into my jacket’s lapel, as I sat down in one of the terminals. My eyes never stopped moving. Anything that resembled him at all stopped the movement only for a moment. Some one’s head, a tree, a dog. Why the hell was a dog out of its cage? Never mind, not my problem.
“Yeah, Jeff, I wanted to ask you about that. How do you know he’s going to be here?” Danny asked over the earpiece.
“He’ll be here, Monty. He’s probably just stuck in traffic. Trust me on this one.“ I answered.
Danny never believed my instincts. He had no faith that maybe someone could just know what’s going to happen. Now granted, I wasn’t a telepath or anything, my guesses were very educated, but they were still guesses. Anyone we followed I studied harder than anyone else. So many people fall into the trap of studying past, similar cases, instead of studying past actions by the person who is doing them.
“That still doesn’t answer my question of how?“ Danny called back.
There’s just no convincing some people. So I just let a slow, unseen smile form on my lips. But Danny knew me all to well.
“You’re smiling at me aren’t you?“ He said through the radio.
I had to chuckle, what? It was funny. I had to cut it short though, because I thought I saw something familiar.
“Jeff, you can’t keep trusting your gut like that. One of these days, you’re going to be wrong and we’ll have another…“
“Contact.” I said, cutting off his speech that I still have never heard the end of. I heard his breath leave his lungs, giving him just enough to get one shot in on me.
“…I hate you so much right now.”
If I were not working, I would be smiling again. That kind of Cheshire grin that, when you see it on people, you know something is up. Anthony Njego had slipped from our hands too many times, however, so I was all business.
Anthony Njego wasn‘t your typical terrorist. Yes, he did hate America and all that it stood for. But that wasn’t the reason he was a terrorist. Religious wars, and death to the infidels were too trendy for him. He was in it for the money.
Think of him as a sort of contract bomber. Various terrorist organizations would hire him to do various jobs. We had been tracking him for six months now.
We knew each other rather well, and our last meeting left Danny in a neck brace. That being said, however, he walked past me, not recognizing me in my civilian clothes. I was right; it had to be going down today otherwise he would have been looking for me.
I stood up from my chair and let Njego get a little further ahead of me. I joined the herd of people walking to their various gates and planes, and acted normal. As soon as he got out into the open, though, I put my plan into action.
“Hey, hold up the plane!” I called out in the most obnoxious voice possible then took off running towards Njego. I slammed my shoulder into his back, causing us both to fall.
“Watch where you are going!“ He said in a heavy Serbian accent.
“Dude, I am so sorry, I’m really late for my plane.  Here, let me help you up.” I acted, as I slyly reached for my handcuffs in my back pocket. “You know you look really familiar.”
“As do you, my friend.” He concurred as he reached out for my hand. Four metallic clicks later...he was mine.
“I’m not your friend Njego.” I said with a laugh.
Anthony looked down at his now handcuffed wrist, and smiled.
“You finally caught me, Mr. Edwards. I congratulate you.” He said with a smirk.
“Hey, hate to say I told you so…but.” I responded.
“Hmmf…so, where’s Mr. Mountebank?” Njego asked.
“Waiting outside…you do know you have the right to remain silent, right?” I said as I turned Anthony around to walk him out to the car waiting outside. Luckily, no one really asked any questions. That was good, because I wanted to get him out of there as soon as possible. You never know who’s a civilian, or who’s a conspirator.
“I’ve seen your American films.” He scoffed at me.
“Well, I have to give them to you anyway.” I shot back. I always liked getting the last word.
I finished reading his rights as we got outside. Danny was waiting by the squad car, neck brace and all, and was laughing.
“Hello, Njego…How are you today?” He asked. It actually sounded sincere. Makes me proud.
“The cuffs are a little tight. How’s your neck?” He answered with a sarcastic bite.
I, of course, didn’t have to say anything. I just slammed his head into the truck of the patrol car and held it there as Danny frisked him, pulling out a boarding pass.
“Think that’ll do it Monty?” I asked Danny.
“Try it again; he hit me pretty hard back there.” He answered with a smile.
I always like to please my audience. So I obliged, and I think I actually left a dent. Oops.
“It probably feels like that Njego.” I yelled.
I pulled him up, and walked him to the back seat. He adjusted his jaw a bit, then spit out a couple of teeth. He then looked at us and smirked.
“I deserved that.”
“That’s the understatement of the year.“ I said as I pushed him into the car. “By the way, how does it feel, knowing you aren’t going to be getting the nice paycheck you would for this little stunt?”
Njego chuckled evilly at the two of us.
“I assure you, if you knew what we were up to, you wouldn’t be calling this a stunt.”
Danny did a double take. “We?”
Njego smiled at us. “Oops, I must have let it slip.”
Oh boy. I looked at Danny, and he looked at me. Our jaws were slack. Anthony never worked with anyone else, before then.
“Aw, hell!” I said, as I slammed the door on Anthony. He was laughing like a hyena. “You have my gun?” I asked Danny.
With a nod, he tossed it to me. I tucked it into my belt behind my back, and ran back into the terminal.
“He was on flight 2647, Gate 15.“ Danny called to me, reading the boarding pass as he ran. “It’s supposed to be leaving now!”
“Let’s hope it’s delayed!” I yelled back as I kicked in the afterburners. Very quickly, I came to security and flew over the velvet rope separating the passengers from their family. I managed to see the security instantly react to that. Good for them, they actually do their jobs.
“Sir, Freeze!” One of them called out, I could hear his gun being cocked. .357 Magnum, he had good taste. Please be right behind me, Danny. I prayed.
“He’s with me, get as much security as possible to Gate 15, now, we have a suspected terror plot about to be put into action.” He said to Magnum man, probably flashing his badge.
I like to call those moments, Moses moments. As soon as the thousands of people within earshot heard me say those words, they all parted, giving me a clear path to the terminal.
“Thank you!” I yelled to them. Hey, at least I’m nice.
Danny managed to catch up to me, after getting the guard to call in the situation on his radio.
“Jeff, we got to get them to stop the plane.” He said, still running.
“No time. When and if we found the people with the authority to do so, the plane would be miles away.” I called back to him, eyes still forward.
“We are FBI you know.” He said, actually believing that would help.
“And since when has just flashing a badge ever gotten anything done quickly.” I said as I hopped a cart full of luggage.
“Point taken.” He reluctantly shot back.
We got to the terminal wing that housed Gate 15, just as security began pouring out of the stairwell.
“FBI! Hold the plane!” I yelled at the people manning the counter at the gate.
“We got the call from security, it’s been held up.” The girl at the counter said.
“Do the passengers know why?” Danny huffed in as he ran up behind me. I snatched the boarding pass out of his hand.
We followed protocol.” She said, in a somewhat condescending tone.
“Give him a ticket.” I snapped.
“Sir the flight is booked sol…”
“It doesn’t need to be for this flight, just give him something official looking.” I interrupted as I made sure my shirt covered my gun, I didn’t want to tip off any one once we got in there.
“You don’t know who this man is, do….” She started to ask a question that would make us look really dumb, even if it was true.
“Look, honey…if the person on this plane is tipped off to us being FBI, everyone on it will die.” Danny snapped back, finally catching on to my plan. “Just give me something.”
A few keystrokes later, and the woman handed over the counterfeit.
Danny took it and we made our way to the gate, Danny motioning to airport security to sit tight.
“Here we go,” I whispered to Danny, as we got on the plane. I had my badge hidden by my ticket, just enough so that when you saw it up close, you could tell it was a badge. I flashed it to the first flight attendant I saw, and held a finger to my lips. When, we boarded, and I knew the wall to First Class blocked me, I started one of my infamous improvised speeches.
“Hey thanks so much for holding the plane, Pokey over here missed his alarm this morning.” I motioned to Danny, who without hesitation held up his PDA he had been typing in as we walked down the ramp, with the message: Show us seats, Act normal. Can you tell that we have done something like this before?
The flight attendant, hesitated, I’m guessing because we were the first team that took the subtle approach. But soon she acted accordingly.
“It’s no problem; let’s see if we can find your seats.”
‘‘Thank you.”
As she walked us down the aisle, Danny and I began scanning. Part of our training was to find the little things that are out of the ordinary on someone’s face. Sweating, crinkled noses, furrowed brows, anything that conveys nervousness or twitchiness. It was harder in this situation, though, seeing as how all the passengers seemed pretty ticked that they weren’t getting off the ground in time.
I was caught off guard, however. In row 4 sat the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her jet-black hair with a shine like a mirror fell just past her shoulder blades. Her facial features exuded a confident demeanor, albeit a very mysterious one. I could have sworn that I had seen her somewhere before.
But what threw me off the most were her eyes. They were emerald green with a touch of yellow, the kind of eyes that seemed to glow in the dark. She looked at me, and I felt her glance pierce my soul. It was almost as if they were warning me of something.
Note to self: Stop reading Shakespeare.
It took Danny practically punching me in the back to realize that two rows behind her a man was struggling with his seatbelt on the aisle seat.
“So much for the element of surprise” I said under my breath.
No sooner than I did say it, the man won the battle and leapt out of his seat, screaming curses in some language I could not place at us. Instantly our weapons were drawn, to a few screams and whimpers around the plane.
“Hold on there, buddy, calm down, it’s over. You’re not going anywhere.” I said in my best soothing, yet forceful voice. The soothing part was there only to comfort the mother cradling the child next to the lunatic.
He wasn’t buying. He burst into the middle of the aisle, ripping open his shirt to reveal a homemade bomb. How the hell did that get on here?! I thought to myself, not that I really had the time.
One of mine, and one of his hands went for the trigger simultaneously. We struggled for a while, until…
Beep…..click….ka-…………..