Saving Faith By: David Baldacci

sudden feeling of guilt for not having trusted her. He edged over to a

corner and waited.

At the counter, Faith displayed her new ID and purchased three tickets.

Two tickets were in the name of Suzanne Blake and Charles Wright. The

woman barely looked at her photo. Thank God for that, although Faith

supposed people rarely looked like their ID photos anyway. The flight

to Norfolk International left in about forty-five minutes. The third

ticket she purchased was in the name of Faith Lockhart. It was a

flight heading to San Francisco with a stopover in Chicago. It left in

forty minutes. She had spotted it on the monitors. West Coast, big

city. She could lose herself, drive down the coast, maybe even sneak

into Mexico. She wasn’t sure how she would accomplish that, but she

just had to take it one step at a time.

Faith had explained that she was buying the ticket to San Francisco for

her boss, who would arrive shortly.

“She’ll have to hurry,” the clerk said. “She still has to check in.

And they’re going to begin boarding in about ten minutes.”

“It won’t be a problem,” Faith assured her. “She doesn’t have any

luggage, so she can check in at the gate.”

The clerk handed her the ticket. Faith figured she was safe using her

real name on the ticket because she paid for all of them with her

Suzanne Blake credit card. And the only other ID she had to check in

with was her real one. It was Faith Lockhart or nothing. Everything

would be okay.

She could not have been any more wrong.

As Lee watched Faith, a thought jolted him. His gun! He had to check

it before going through security or all hell would break lose. He shot

across to the counter and next to a startled Faith.

He put his arm around her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Hey,

babe. Sorry, the phone call took longer than I thought.” He looked at

the ticket agent and said casually, “I have a pistol I need to

check.”

The ticket agent raised her eyes slightly at this.

“You’re Mr. Wright?”

Lee nodded. She went about processing the necessary documents. He

showed her his fake ID and she stamped his passenger ticket

appropriately and entered the information in the computer. He turned

over the gun and ammo, and filled out the declaration form. The agent

tagged the container and they left the ticket counter.

“Sorry, I forgot about the gun.” Lee looked up ahead to the security

gate. “Okay, they’re going to have people posted at the gate. We’ll

go through separately. Be cool; you don’t look anything like Faith

Lockhart.”

Although Faith felt her heart in her throat the entire time, they went

through the security gate without incident.

As they passed the flight information monitors, Lee spotted their gate.

“Down this way.”

Faith nodded as she noted how the gates were configured here. The

departure gate for the San Francisco flight was close enough to easily

get to, but far enough away from the Norfolk gate. She hid a smile.

Perfect.

As they walked along, she looked over at Lee. He had done a lot for

her. She wasn’t feeling good about what she was about to do, but had

convinced herself it was for the best. For both of them.

They reached the gate for the flight to Norfolk. The plane would be

boarding in about ten minutes, they were told. There was a good crowd

waiting.

Lee looked at her. “You better call that commuter service for the

flight to Pine Island.”

Lee and Faith walked over to the phone bank and she made that call.

“All set,” Faith said. “Now we can relax.” “Right,” Lee said dryly.

Faith looked around. “I need to use the rest room.” “Better hurry.”

She hustled off while Lee looked after her thoughtfully.

CHAPTER 22

“BINGo!” THE MAN SITTING IN FRONT of the computer screen said. He was

in a van outside of the airport. The FBI had a designated liaison with

the airlines to monitor the travel of persons the Bureau was looking

for. With more than one airline sharing reservation systems and data

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