thirty wakeup call at the front desk and slipped under the coarse olive-drab G.I. horse blankets.
McLanahan awoke with a violent start to the furious sound of impatient knuckles rapping on wood. He felt as if he had been asleep for hours-perhaps it was the billeting clerk pounding on his door because he got no answer on the wake-up call. McLanahan glanced at the clock on the dresser. Nope, he'd only been asleep for an hour.
He slipped on a pair of gym shorts from his bag, smoothed down his blond hair, and opened the door. Two black men, one in a civilian suit and the other an Air Force security guard, were standing impatiently in the doorway.
'Captain McLanahan?' the guy in the suit asked. He did not even look at McLanahan-he was scanning up and down the hallways.
'Yeah,' McLanahan replied irritably, scratching his head.
'Patrick McLanahan?'
'Yeah, yeah. 'McLanahan wasn't in a conversational mood, but his gruff attitude didn't faze these guys.
The guy in the suit looked immensely relieved. He put a finger on the security guard's chest as if driving his commands into the guard's body.
'We got him. Notify the gate guards. Then get an unmarked car and have it sent over here pronto. No Air Force or DOD crap on the doors.'
'We got one. 'The guard trotted away. The guy in the suit pushed his way into McLanahan's room and closed and locked the door.
'I need your ID, Captain McLanahan,' he said brusquely.
Like hell,' McLanahan said, finally beginning to wake up.
'I want to see your ID right now or I'll call back that sky cop you just chased away.'
The guy muttered a 'Jesus H. Christ' under his breath, but pulled out a wallet and held it up. McLanahan turned on the room light and squinted sleepily at the card and badge.
'Staff Sergeant Jenkins, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, ' the man said, snapping the wallet closed. 'Now, sir, if you don't mind 'Yeah. Okay. 'McLanahan fumbled through his jeans and produced the card. Jenkins already had a walkie-talkie in his hand. He studied the card, nodded, and thumbed the mike.
'Control, seven-seven,' he said as softly as he could.
'Seven-seven, go,' came the reply.
'I've located our subject. I'll be escorting him back to the main rendezvous point.'
'Copy, seven-seven. 'Jenkins returned the card.
'Captain McLanahan, please get dressed and get your gear together.' 'Hey, wait a minute,' McLanahan protested. 'What's going on?'
Jenkins was frowning impatiently, his fists on his hips.
Apparently he didn't like anyone, even officers, asking him why' and 'what.'
'Sir, we are going back to meet Major Miller,' he said in short, clipped words. He glanced down at his walkie-talkie and clicked it off. 'You were supposed to wait at the airport for further instructions, were you not, sir?'
'Yeah,' McLanahan said, feeling his ears redden. Shit, he thought. I screwed up. He reached for the jeans, wondering if Jenkins was going to stand there and watch him dress. 'Ten o'clock. Nobody showed up.
I thought I'd get a room at the base and wait… ' 'Why the base, sir?' Jenkins interrupted.
'What do you mean, 'why the base'?I get orders to Spokane. It's gotta be… ' 'Sir. 'Jenkins was obviously holding in check the massive urge to lash out with a 'you dumb shit officer, who the hell told you to assume anything?' but he said instead, 'That was an unfortunate… misjudgment. You were to meet Major Miller at the terminal. He was delayed, but he expected you to sit tight until you received further directions. 'The spitting emphasis on misjudgment was too obvious.
'Okay, okay. Yeah. You're right, sergeant,' McLanahan replied. 'I'll be ready in a minute.'
Obviously, Jenkins had no intention of leaving.
'Where are we going?'
Jenkins did not reply, but he looked more exasperated than ever with every question. McLanahan glared at him as he finished repacking the gym bag and pulling on his jacket. It really did take McLanahan only a minute to get ready because he carried so few items.
McLanahan retrieved his key, stepped out into the hall an turned toward the lobby.
'This way, sir,' Jenkins said, grabbing McLanahan's arm and swinging him around toward a dimly lit hallway to the back.
'But my room… 'Will be taken care of, sir. This way' Jenkins led him to a side door that opened up to a laundry delivery dock and a dumpster in the rear of the building. A blue sedan, its engine idling, was waiting. As McLanahan headed for the steps leading down from the dock to the pavement below, Jenkins grabbed the gym bag off McLanahan's shoulder.
'I'll take this, sir,' he said quietly 'Get in and we'll leave. 'He trotted down to the sedan, knocked on the window, and trotted around to the trunk just as it popped open. He hid the gym bag under some blankets and then slid quietly in the back seat next to McLanahan.
As they drove out the gate and onto the highway leading back to Spokane International, Jenkins picked up a device from the front seat and clicked it on.
'Bear with me, sir,' he said, passing the device quickly over McLanahan's body. He repeated the sweep once more, then clicked it off and set the device next to the driver.
'Now, Sergeant Jenkins,' McLanahan said, 'can you tell me what the hell's going on?'
'As far as I'm allowed, sir,' he replied. 'Major Miller was supposed to meet you at ten o'clock at the airport. He was delayed arranging for secure transportation. When he wrote your instructions he assumed that, when your printed instructions left you off at the airport, you would stop at the airport. A bad assumption on his part, apparently.'
'Well, since we're admitting to poor assumptions tonight, I've got a few more,' McLanahan asked. 'I assumed that my final destination was Fairchild-why else would I be sent to Spokane?Now I'm assuming all this to mean that Fairchild is not my final destination.'
'I don't know anything about your final destination, Captain,' Jenkins replied. 'You were sent to Spokane for one reason only ' 'Which was?'
— Because they only had eight people booked on that flight,' Jenkins said, as if that explained everything.
'Say again?'
'They needed to know if you were being tailed, Captain McLanahan,' Jenkins explained. 'They knew who had reservations on your flight, who signed on after you checked in, who arrived at Spokane, and where everyone went and A what everyone did when they got off your flight.
They could do this because of the small number aboard. They simply picked a time, date, and location with the fewest passengers and had you get on that flight. It just happened to go to Spokane, Washington.
It had nothing to do with Fairchild at all-as a matter of fact, it will probably take some fast explaining to someone when the billeting folks find you gone suddenly.'
'Tailed!Me?Why would anybody tail me?'
Jenkins let out a half laugh, half snort in the car's darkness.
Shee-it, ' he said, chuckling humorlessly again. 'If you don't know, Captain, it must be bad news. 'And, at that, the hairs rose on the back of McLanahan's neck. Jenkins' words echoed through his head as the lights of the airport grew larger and brighter.
If you don't know, Captain, it must be bad news.
Jenkins' monotone voice finally penetrated McLanahan's reverie as the car bypassed the main terminal and headed for a row of hangars adjacent to the taxiways, away from the jet parking ramp. The car's driver had already doused the headlights.
'Your bag will catch up with you, Captain, don't worry,' he was saying.
'Remember now-walk away from the car about ten steps then just stop and… wait. 'McLanahan had to smile at Jenkins' emphasis on the word 'wait,Chr(34)+ but apparently Jenkins didn't notice. 'Someone will meet you and tell you what to do.
The car pulled to a stop in the middle of a deserted parking ramp, far from the brilliantly lit terminal. The door
