Chapter 17: Into The Fire

The next morning we were barely up and dressed when Keith came banging on our door. "Everyone's waiting at the airport, even our two new, very unexpected passengers. Ambassador Heatherton has requested he and his wife be permitted to accompany us. We have to change our flight plans to include a drop off at the DC airport. As soon as you are aboard, he wishes to confer with you. He said it is of the utmost importance."

Mystified, I turned to Bobbie and asked her, "What do you think?"

"I think we had better get to the airport immediately." She looked worried again. I nodded in agreement.

"I'll ask the hotel to gather up your belongings and send them immediately to the airport so we can take them with us. Let's be off then, I have a limo waiting." Keith nodded and waved us through ahead of him.

"Wait," I said and pointed to the brief case. "Take that with us," I said

We all hurried to the elevator and waited impatiently to go down. Suddenly I was hungry. "Do they have a galley on the plane?" I asked.

"I don't know," Keith answered, "I assume they do."

"Call ahead and find out, please. I'm starving. We didn't have dinner last night and you came for us before breakfast. If there is nothing on the plane, I want a couple of roast beef sandwiches and a pot of coffee to go. We can stop at the hotel restaurant and order them."

Keith seemed put out I wasn't in a hurry like he was to plunge headlong into the future. What with all we had happening lately, I had missed too many meals and it was beginning to show. Keith found himself with a new job that went way beyond anything he had ever dreamed of. He was anxious to get on with it. As for me, I was hungry. Keith made the call as soon as we were free of the elevator and turned to me. "The plane galley is well stocked. Would a New York steak and a frozen vegetable suffice?"

"Yup, let's go." Keith led the way and I followed right behind him.

"Hey, you two, slow down," Bobbie called at us. "The plane won't leave without us, I promise." The two men from hotel security Keith had assigned to protect us followed along at a leisurely pace.

"I am officially separated from my old job as head of security here at the hotel. What with all the recent events, I don't believe they were too sad to see me leave early. My number two man has already taken hold of the reins and is firmly in charge." He grinned a very Irish smile and said, "Whether you are aware of it or not, I'm quite excited about this new position." That, I thought to myself, was the understatement of the year. He looked about ready to explode with excitement any second now.

The chauffeur stepped smartly out of the limo and opened the back door for Bobbie. Keith handed her in and then helped me to enter. He was oh-so-very-British as he observed the hierarchy of rank. The driver stored the wheelchair in back. We pulled out into the heavy London traffic and slowly wended our way toward the Airport.

Halfway into our trip to the airport Keith's cell phone rang, "Yes," he said as he turned it on. His face became a thundercloud of anger. "The hell you say. You tell those bloody buggers..." He paused a moment. "If that plane moves one inch onto the runway I shall have you arrested for air piracy. You will wait until we get there. I don't give a shit what that damned fookin' yank son of a bitch says nor how many fookin' papers the barstid has. You wait until we arrive. I am the one in charge of Hundley Great Britain, not some mindless cunt from America. Call airport security and have them held." He was livid as he disconnected.

His voice squeaked with anger as he turned to Bobbie and I and said, "They had the effrontery to try to steal a plane, my plane. They'll play bloody hell getting away with that."

"I assume someone tried to steal your jet plane?" Bobbie asked, placing emphasis on the word "your."

"Perhaps I misspoke," Keith blushed as he answered. "But you have given me the chance of a lifetime and I'll be damned if I permit those two, Katherine with a K and her erstwhile companion Side Kick Henry steal that aircraft out from under us." He rapped on the window between the driver and ourselves. "Fifty quid if you halve the time getting us to the airport."

The driver nodded once and we sped up to a dangerous rate of speed and kept going faster. I have seen it done in the movies, but never in real life, the way we shot off the street, across a park, down some stone steps and onto another road. Our driver had seen the same chase scenes and remembered them well. We pulled up to the first security fence and slammed to a stop amidst a shower of gravel. We showed our IDs and were directed to the private sector of the airport.

Henry and Katherine stood at the bottom of the boarding ramp to block our access to the plane, a sleek Boeing executive jet. It was as large as a small commercial airliner. We barely stopped when Keith jumped out ran forward and drop kicked Henry in the nuts and backhanded Katherine with a K in the same motion.

Henry's father, the senator, appeared at the top of the ramp with a small revolver in his hand. With a bull like roar, Keith charged up the steps in a rush, grabbed the senator's gun hand and squeezed. With his other hand made up into a fist he slugged the bloated politician three times in the face as he twisted the gun hand. The senator screamed and fell from the plane to the tarmac. He landed beside his son in a crumpled heap. As Keith stormed inside, another shot sounded and I heard a woman's scream. The female part of the Watkins bunch came flying down the ramp to land at Bobbie's feet. I hurried to the boarding ramp as fast as I could in the wheelchair.

Another yell erupted and a stranger flew down the ramp. Our new chief of security called down, "Come on up. The area has been sanitized." Warren Woods, dressed in civvies, still looked every inch the Marine. He saw I was waiting to be helped up into the plane and said, "They got the drop on us and the senator tried to order the pilot to take off without you. That was a very dumb stunt."