Adding to Justin's discomfort was a nagging alarm, beeping in his ear, telling him that the rear door was open. The door, and the hanging stairs, were making the plane handle weird. Justin was worried about the landing in Freeport. If they made it to Freeport.
Please, he thought—although he was not sure to whom he was beaming the thought—please send some help.
12:26
The two F-16s had used rockets to accelerate their takeoff from Homestead Air Reserve Base in South Dade County. The instant they were airborne, they turned sharply toward the northeast, and in under a minute, they were approaching the speed of sound, closing on the civilian plane over Miami Beach as though it were moving no faster than the freighters out in the Gulf Stream. The fighter pilots' orders were to stay behind and above the civilian plane, out of sight but nearby. They were not to arm their missiles. Yet.
11:49
As Greet, Seitz, and Baker trotted through the crowd, they saw a man in shorts and T-shirt running in their direction, looking upset.
'POLICE!' the man shouted.
Greer and Seitz ignored him; whatever this guy's problem was, they weren't interested. But Baker stared at the man's face. He'd seen this guy, but he couldn't remember where. Then he saw the woman running behind the upset man, and it clicked.
'Mrs. Herk!' he shouted. The man and woman both stopped, looked at him.
'I'm Detective Baker,' he said, 'Miami PD.'
'Oh, thank God!' Anna said, grabbing Baker's arm. 'You have to ... '
'Hold it,' said Baker. He shouted ahead to Greer and Seitz, who were disappearing in the crowd ahead, 'Agent Greer! Back here!'
Greer turned and trotted back, impatient. 'What?' he said.
'This is Mrs. Herk,' said Baker. 'It was her house. Where the suitcase was.'
In an instant, Greer had his hand on Anna's arm.
'Mrs. Greer,' he said, 'I'm with the FBI. I need you to ... '
'My daughter,' said Anna. 'She's in the plane with that man, and he shot at us, and you have to ... '
'Listen, Mrs. Herk,' said Greer, now gripping her arms with both his hands. 'We're concerned about your daughter, but we have to know, where is that metal suitcase now?'
Anna shook her head. 'I don't know,' she said. 'They had it, they took it when they left the house ... '
'Is it on the plane?' asked Greer. 'Did they take the metal suitcase on the plane?'
'I don't know,' said Anna, starting to cry. 'I don't know about the suitcase.'
'Mrs. Herk,' said Greer, shaking her, 'you have to ... '
Eliot pulled Anna away and stepped right in front of Greer. Their noses were a half inch apart.
'She says she doesn't know where the goddamn suitcase is, OK?' Eliot said. 'She wants her daughter. She doesn't care about your fucking suitcase.'
'Who're you?' asked Greer.
'I'm her friend,' said Eliot.
'Well, friend,' said Greer, 'if you want to help her daughter, you better care about the fucking suitcase.'
'She wasn't with the suitcase,' said Eliot. 'She was with me. This guy was with the suitcase.' Eliot pointed to Puggy, who had just trotted up.
Greer turned to Puggy.
'Who're you?' he asked.
'Puggy,' said Puggy.
'You were with the suitcase?' asked Greer. 'A metal suitcase? You saw it?'
'I carried it,' said Puggy. 'It's heavy.'
'You carried it?' asked Greer. 'Where? '
'To the plane,' said Puggy.
'It's on the plane?'
'Yeah,' said Puggy.
Greer thought for a second, then said, 'Did anybody open the suitcase?'
'Over there,' said Puggy, pointing toward the security checkpoint.
'They opened it there?' asked Greer.
'Yeah,' said Puggy. 'They made him turn it on.'
Greer's face went pale.
'How did he turn it on?' he asked.
