Clark reached his hand forward, enough to shield it from the two in the front of the cabin, and held up three fingers. Al nodded half an inch or so and turned away for a few seconds, allowing John to digest the message. He agreed that there were only three of them. John nodded with appreciation at the confirmation.
How much the better had they been smart terrorists, but the smart ones didn’t try stuff like this anymore. The odds were just too long, as the Israelis had proven in Uganda, and the Germans in Somalia. You were safe doing this only so long as the aircraft was in the air, and they couldn’t stay up forever, and when they landed the entire civilized world could come crashing in on them with the speed of a thunderbolt and the power of a Kansas tornado-and the real problem was that not all that many people truly wanted to die before turning thirty. And those who did used bombs. So, the smart ones did other things. For that reason they were more dangerous adversaries, but they were also predictable. They didn’t kill people for recreation, and they didn’t get frustrated early on because they planned their opening moves with skill.
These three were dumb. They had acted on bad intelligence, hadn’t had an intel team in place to give them a final mission check, to tell them that their primary target hadn’t made the flight, and so here they were, committed to a dumb mission that was already blown, contemplating death or life-long imprisonment . . . for nothing. The only good news, if you could call it that, was that their imprisonment would be in America.
But they didn’t want to contemplate life in a steel cage any more than they wished to face death in the next few days-but soon they’d start to realize that there was no third alternative. And that the guns in their hands were the only power they had, and that they might as well start using them to get their way . . . . . . and for John Clark, the choice was whether or not to wait for that to start ….
No. He couldn’t just sit here and wait for them to start killing people.
Okay. He watched the two for another minute or so, the way they looked at each other while trying to cover both aisles, as he figured out how to do it. With both the dumb ones and the smart ones, the simple plans were usually the best.
It took five minutes more until #2 decided to talk some more with #3. When he did, John turned enough to catch Ding’s eye, swiping one finger across his upper lip, as though to stroke a mustache he’d never grown. Chavez cocked his head as though to reply you sure? but took the sign. He loosened his seatbelt and reached behind his back with his left hand, bringing his pistol out before the alarmed eyes of his six-week wife. Domingo touched her right hand with his to reassure her, covered the Beretta with a napkin in his lap, adopted a neutral expression, and waited for his senior to make the play.
“You!” Number 2 called from forward.
“Yes?” Clark replied, looking studiously forward.
“Sit still!” The man’s English wasn’t bad. Well, European schools had good language programs.
“Hey, look, I, uh, had a few drinks, and-well, you know, how about it? Por favor, ” John added sheepishly.
“No, you will stay in your seat!”
“Hey, whatcha gonna do, shoot a guy who needs to take a leak? I don’t know what your problem is, okay, but I gotta go, okay? Please?”
Number 2 and #3 traded an oh-shit look that just confirmed their amateur status one last time. The two stews, strapped in their seats forward, looked very worried indeed but didn’t say anything. John pressed the issue by unbuckling his seat belt and starting to stand. Number 2 raced aft then, gun in front, stopping just short of pressing it against John’s chest. Sandy’s eyes were wide now. She’d never seen her husband do anything the least bit dangerous, but she knew this wasn’t the husband who had slept next to her for twenty-five years-and if not that one, then he had to be the other Clark, the one she knew about but had never seen.
“Look, I go there, I take a leak, and I come back, okay? Hell, you wanna watch,” he said, his voice slurred now from the half glass of wine he’d drunk alongside the terminal. “That’s okay, too, but please don’t make me wet my pants, okay?”
What turned the trick was Clark’s size. He was just under six two, and his forearms, visible with the rolled-up sleeves, were powerful. Number 3 was smaller by four inches and thirty pounds, but he had a gun, and making bigger people do one’s wishes is always a treat for bullies. So #2 gripped John by the left arm, spun him around and pushed him roughly aft toward the right side lavatory. John cowered and went, his hands above his head.
“Hey, gracias, amigo, okay?” Clark opened the door. Dumb as ever, #2 actually allowed him to close it. For his part, John did what he’d asked permission to do, then washed his hands and took a brief look in the mirror.
Hey, Snake, you still got it? he asked himself, without so much as a breath.
Okay, let’s find out.
John slid the locking bar loose, and pulled the folding door open with a grateful and thoroughly cowed look on leis face.
“Hey, uh, thanks, y’know.”
“Back to your seat.”
“Wait. let me get you a cuppa coffee, okay, I-” John took a step aft, and #2 was dumb enough to follow in order to cover him, then reached for Clark’s shoulder and turned him around.
“Buenas noces, ” Ding said quietly from less than ten feet away, his gun up and aimed at the side of #2’s head. The man’s eyes caught the blue steel that had to be a gun, and the distraction was just right. John’s right hand came around, his forearm snapping up, and the back of his fist catching the terrorist in the right temple. The blow was enough to stun.
“How you loaded?”
“Low-velocity,” Ding whispered back. “We’re on an airplane, ‘mano,” he reminded his director.
“Stay loose,” John commanded quietly, getting a nod.
“Miguel!” Number 3 called loudly.
Clark moved to the left side, pausing on the way to get a cup of coffee from the machine, complete with saucer and spoon. He then reappeared in the left-side aisle and moved forward.
“He said to bring you this. Thank you for allowing me to use the bathroom,” John said, in a shaky but grateful voice. “Here is your coffee, sir.”
“Miguel!” Number 3 called again.
“He went back that way. Here’s your coffee. I’m supposed to sit down now, okay?” John took a few steps forward and stopped, hoping that this amateur would continue to act like one.
He did, coming toward him. John cowered a little, and allowed the cup and saucer to shake in his hand, and just as #3 reached him, looking over to the right side of the aircraft for his colleague, Clark dropped both of them on the floor and dove down to get them, about half a step behind Alistair’s seat. Number 3 automatically bent down as well. It would be his last mistake for the evening.
John’s hands grabbed the pistol and twisted it around and up into its owner’s belly. It might have gone off, but Alistair’s own Browning Hi-Power crashed down on the back of the man’s neck, just below the skull, and #3 went limp as Raggedy Andy.
“You impatient bugger,” Stanley rasped. “Bloody good acting, though.” Then he turned, pointed to the nearest stewardess, and snapped his fingers. She came out of her seat like a shot, fairly running aft to them. “Rope, cord, anything to tie them up, quickly!”
John collected the pistol and immediately removed the magazine, then jacked the action to eject the remaining round. In two more seconds, he’d field-stripped the weapon and tossed the pieces at the feet of Alistair’s traveling companion, whose brown eyes were wide and shocked.
“Sky marshals, ma’am. Please be at ease,” Clark explained.
A few seconds after that, Ding appeared, dragging #2 with him. The stewardess returned with a spool of twine.
“Ding, front office!” John ordered.
“Roge-o, Mr. C.” Chavez moved forward, his Beretta in both hands, and stood by the cockpit door. On the floor, Clark did the wrapping. His hands remembered the sailor knots from thirty years earlier. Amazing, he thought, tying them off as tight as he could. If their hands turned black, too damned bad.
“One more, John,” Stanley breathed.
“You want to keep an eye on our two friends.”
“A pleasure. Do be careful, lots of electronics up there.”