‘Yeah, I love you too, Vince.’
‘What other passengers?’ Gerry asked while trying not to sound irritated at this male bonhomie.
‘Permission to come aboard!’ Gerry turned to the front of the cabin where a man stood with a smile that could have graced an orthodontist’s advert. He was lean and handsome with facial hair that was slightly more than designer stubble and he was dressed like a Ralph Lauren model.
‘Good evening Mr Carson, how are you?’ asked Samms pushing past Vince and holding out his hand. Gerry suspected that his overly polite attitude at odds with his usual off-hand demeanour suggested that he did not much like this newcomer. ‘These are the two friends of mine from London, Gerry Tate and Vince Parker. Ryan Carson.’
He grinned at Gerry and Vince. ‘You guys call me Ryan, though.’
They all shook hands, exchanged greetings and introductions. Then they sat down as Gary emerged from the flight deck and closed up the cabin door.
‘We’re about ready to go,’ said the pilot. ‘You all set? Hey Major Ryan Carson, United States Air Force! Sure you don’t wanna fly the airplane? Then I could just go to sleep!’
‘It’s all yours, Gary,’ Carson replied. ‘We have matters to discuss and anyway I’m not checked out on this one.’
‘Ok suit yourself,’ said the pilot. ‘Now does anyone want a safety demo? There’s a card in the seat pocket. Pay attention to the seatbelt sign and there’s definitely no smoking. There’s plenty to eat and drink in the galley stowages.’ Without waiting for a reply he disappeared behind the flight deck door and fifteen minutes later the aircraft was airborne and heading towards the west.
The seatbelt sign switched off with a sharp ping as the aircraft climbed out through the cloud tops. Ryan Carson took off his seat belt and stood up. ‘I’m happy to say this airplane’s not a dry ship: can I get anyone a drink? Neil, if I remember right, you’ll probably want Bourbon on the rocks and I could do with something to eat; I wonder if they’ve loaded any ice. I’ll have a rummage around.’ He walked up to the galley area at the front of the cabin.
‘I think Ryan sees himself as the Michael Chiarello of the airplane galley,’ said Neil Samms to Vince giving his gold toothed grin and Vince grinned back at him. Gerry lifted her eyes, shook her head and walked after Ryan.
‘Need any help?’ she asked. He turned and smiled at her and she smiled back. He was perhaps a year or two younger than her, he could do with a clean shave, but otherwise he was rather gorgeous … she gave herself a mental ticking off and put on her serious face.
‘Well there’s usually ice in one of these containers, and there might be some meals in foil containers. If there’s anything you fancy, we’ll put it in the oven. Ah… ice; think I’ll have a gin and tonic. You?’ he asked with another smile.
‘I’ll have the same please,’ Gerry replied, smiling back. She then told herself to stop behaving like an adolescent. ‘No, I’d rather have a Scotch, actually.’ She opened up another cupboard. ‘This looks like the meals,’ she announced.
‘Oh well done,’ he said and she just managed to stop herself from thanking him.
‘Hey Ryan, we’re getting thirsty back here,’ Neil Samms called out.
‘Would you mind taking requests?’ Ryan asked, gazing into her eyes.
‘Sure, no problem,’ she replied. She turned round and saw Samms and Vince grinning at her. ‘What do you two layabouts want to drink then?’ she scowled.
‘Bourbon on the rocks,’ Samms replied.
‘Same for me please,’ said Vince.
‘And bring us the menu when you have it, Gerry’ said Samms.
‘Two Bourbon on the rocks, coming right up!’ called Carson from behind her. Gerry resisted telling Samms to stick it up his arse and went back to fetch them.
‘Have you finished with your tray?’ Ryan Carson asked Gerry.
‘Yes thanks,’ she replied. He took it away and then sat down opposite her.
‘I thought this would be a good time to talk to you before I fall asleep’ he said.
‘Ok, go ahead,’ she invited.
‘I work for Felix Grainger, the guy who’s in charge of the prisoner release program,’ Carson said.
‘I didn’t realise,’ Gerry replied, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen your name on any documents.’
‘No, I was placed with him only a week ago. I’d just finished an overseas tour so this is new for me, but I’ve worked for Felix before.’
‘What’s he like?’ Gerry asked. ‘My boss Richard Cornwall didn’t tell me much about him.’
‘He’s a good guy. He’ll be meeting us at the airport tomorrow morning. Friendly, upfront. You always know where you are with Felix.’
‘What’s your background then Ryan, if you don’t mind me asking? I heard Gary say you’re ex Air Force.’
‘Yeah, I used to fly fighters, F16s, but then I hurt my back ejecting when my aircraft caught fire and I changed to transports, C17s and found that a little dull. I decided I didn’t want to fly any longer so I took a career change opportunity. I picked up Spanish from my mom and a little Portuguese, and I‘ve been in Central and South America. Why I’ve been put in this department, I don’t know; I don’t speak any Arabic. I understand you’re fluent.’
She looked at him suspiciously. ‘Did you get that from Samms? Has he been talking about me?’
‘Him? No. I just got a message from Felix. He said you were expert, and that you could read all the interrogation reports without needing them translated. Neil’s just coming home after a two year posting. He’s always trying to get based in Europe; I think he’s got some woman in London. He and Vince are involved in operation Marchwood.’
‘What’s that?’ Gerry frowned.
‘Haven’t you been briefed? That’s a scheme in which we plan to announce the release of certain prisoners held in Guantanamo bay. But instead of releasing those prisoners, we were going to release doubles. These doubles are then going to infiltrate cells back in the terrorist hotspots and report back to us. Then we we’re going to send in teams to take out those cells.’
‘I expect that’s executive operations,’ said Gerry, ‘and I’m not really part of that anymore.’
‘Oh! Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you about it,’ said Carson.
‘Do you think these doubles would be able to infiltrate without being detected?’ Gerry frowned. ‘I’m rather doubtful. It sounds like a high risk strategy.’
‘Yeah well the idea was that they wouldn’t return to their own homelands. We would send say, Syrians to Egypt and Iraqis to Pakistan, Lebanese to London on the basis that their own countries would be too hot for them. Anyway, when Obama announced after his inauguration that all the inmates would be released from Guantanamo bay in one year, it left us a bit short of time, but the year went by and hey, the place is still open. I guess Vince is your lot’s liaison officer. I expect Felix will brief us tomorrow.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Well we’ll be arriving in about six hours. I’m going to get some sleep. Do you want me to get pillows and a blanket for you too? Help you get comfortable.’
‘Thanks, that would be great,’ Gerry replied.
She woke up a couple of hours later with a sore neck. She looked for Ryan but he was nowhere to be seen and in the seat across the aisle from her she saw a man aged about fifty in Captain’s uniform finishing off a meal. He smiled at her when she sat up and held out his hand.
‘Hi, I’m Harvey. You must be Gerry.’
‘That’s right. Pleased to meet you.’
‘Ryan’s prised me away from the controls. All that stuff about not missing flying but he never throws up a chance to do some. Have you done any flying yourself?’