Once inside she saw that there was a row of rearward facing seats at the front of the passenger cabin and rows of tatty looking economy class seats in standard three abreast on each side of the aisle, but instead of being crammed together for cheap air travel the rows were spaced six feet apart.
She was ushered half way down the cabin and told to sit in the seats on the right. Trying to overcome her dispirited lethargy she inspected her surroundings with more interest. The first thing she noticed was that her seat had a five point harness of the type fitted to a rally car or to a pilot’s seat. The buckle was fitted with a keyhole instead of the usual rotary release knob. Down on the floor by each seat there were steel rings for shackles. The aircraft was plainly used for the transportation of dangerous criminals, part of the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, JPATS, more commonly known as Con Air.
She looked up when another figure was escorted on board. It was Ali Hamsin! She called out his name. He did not seem to recognise her but merely stared at the floor as he was prodded down the aisle until he was shoved into a seat three rows ahead of her.
She heard new voices talking. She looked up and saw General Robert Bruckner talking to Ryan Carson, Vince Parker and Mark Stafford. They all four stared towards her and she stared back towards them hoping she appeared defiant rather than bewildered. Then Dan Hall stepped through the doorway. Here was the man who had told her to place her trust in him; she must have been a bloody idiot to have given him any credence.
She closed her eyes and tried to organise her thoughts. Why was she being sent back to the UK as a prisoner? If she was to be arrested for the murder of Dean Furness, they could have done that in Florida. Were they actually going back to the UK, or were they heading for some country where human rights were routinely disregarded, including waterboarding and imprisonment without trial?
‘Ok Gerry, I’m going to have to strap you in.’ She looked up; it was Dan Hall.
‘What the fuck are you doing Dan? I thought I was meant to trust you, but I’m just one of your bloody prisoners.’ His steady gaze carried no hint of the emotions he had expressed yesterday.
‘I’m sorry Gerry; I’m unable to answer any of your questions. Please sit back in your seat and allow me to fasten these straps.’ He reached for the harness and began to fasten it. She grabbed his wrists.
‘What the hell are you doing to me?’ she demanded.
‘Does she need a jolt?’ someone called out. Gerry saw Stafford standing in the aisle with his Taser ready. Hall turned back to Gerry and frowned at her.
‘No, she’s not going to be a problem.’ Hall gazed into her eyes for a moment and then twisted his hands free and fastened the five point harness in place with a series of sharp decisive clicks. Next he ran his hands down her leg and Gerry suddenly froze as she felt a hard object being pushed down inside her shoe. ‘It’s a key to the buckle,’ he whispered. Then he reached under his jacket and briefly showed her a Smith and Wesson Chief’s Special, a small but effective handgun, and began to push it behind her. She eased her lower back forward to make room. Finally he showed her a card which he pushed under her thigh. ‘Contact me if you can. I’ll be on the run. It’s the best I can do… good luck.’
‘Thank you,’ she whispered back.
He straightened up. ‘That’s not too tight, is it?’ he announced.
‘You fucking bastards,’ she snarled. Carson, Stafford and Bruckner glanced briefly at her but then resumed their conversation as Hall re-joined them. Bruckner stared down the length of the aircraft until his eyes fastened briefly on hers and then he turned and said something to the other three men who chuckled in response. Then he clapped Dan Hall on the shoulder and the two of them disappeared through the entry door. Vince Parker said something to Ryan Carson and they shook hands, then Parker looked towards her, gave an ironic salute and then he followed Bruckner and Hall out of the aircraft.
Ryan Carson opened the flight deck door and disappeared inside. Stafford sat down in the rearward facing seats at the front of the aircraft and looked at her and Ali briefly. Gerry heard the engines being started. A couple of minutes later she felt the aircraft begin to move. After a few minutes taxying, it turned onto the runway and as it accelerated Gerry was pressed back into her seat and the gun pushing into her lower back seemed to give her a surge of adrenaline as the aircraft roared into the night sky.
Gerry forced herself not to act too quickly. She waited until the aircraft had reached its cruising altitude and another two hours had elapsed and Stafford had relaxed and stopped watching them closely. While keeping a careful eye on him she felt down inside her shoe and pulled out a metal shaft with some projections. She tried pushing it carefully into the harness buckle where it fitted neatly.
Next she called to Ali in Arabic. ‘Ali, how are you feeling?’
‘Er… I’m alright. I feel I’ve been drugged up for a couple of days. I have a headache but otherwise I’m not injured.’
‘I’m trying to see if that bastard speaks Arabic at all.’
‘I doubt it Gerry, he doesn’t seem to have been recruited for his intelligence.’
She watched Stafford; he was reading a magazine and did not appear to be taking in what was said.
‘Hey you ugly bastard!’ she said quietly in Arabic, ‘my harness has come undone and I’m about to come over and rip your head off.’
‘No reaction,’ said Ali, ‘I think we can assume he doesn’t understand, and he’s not paying attention.’
‘Ok Ali, now try not to react to what I tell you. I have a key to unlock the harness and a gun. I’m going to free myself and then when I tell you, I want you to have some sort of fit, so that Stafford comes over to you.’
‘What will you do then?’
‘I’m going to kill him.’
As she expected the pilots heard the sound of the shots. The flight deck door opened. It was not Carson, but the other pilot who stepped out. The first thing he saw was Gerry lying down on the floor with blood on her face and chest and her arms flung out. The gun was hidden under her head. He saw Stafford sitting in a seat next to Ali, and stepped over Gerry to talk to him. She climbed silently to her feet and hit him under his back ribs and he crashed to the floor. She knelt on top of him, ground the muzzle into his ear and snarled ‘You’re going to do exactly what I say or I’ll blow your brains out you piece of shit!’
‘Yuh..ok,’ he mumbled.
‘Ok what’s your name?’
‘Reece, Carl Reece.’
‘Ok Carl, the first thing you’re going to do is release Ali… ok? This key should probably work. And in case you’re wondering, before I killed him, Stafford handed me his gun, his knife and his Taser, so you behave yourself.’
She watched him unfasten Ali who grinned up at her.
‘Ok Carl, back to the cockpit, at the double.’
Carson turned round as the door opened. ‘Hey Carl, what the hell’s happened? What was the problem with…’ he broke off as he saw Gerry come into the flight deck behind Reece. ‘Fuck!’ he said.
‘Ok Carson, I want a headset so I can hear what’s going on,’ Gerry demanded.
‘Er… I don’t think there’s a spare one,’ he said.
‘Wrong answer. From now on for each wrong answer I’ll cut off one of your fingers,’ she replied.
‘Ok behind you there’s one on a hook. I think it’s already plugged in.’ She gave a quick glance, saw the headset and put it on.
‘Good,’ said Gerry. ‘Now you’ll carry on across the Atlantic as normal. Later on I’ll give you some new instructions. And I warn you, I’m in a hell of a bad temper. As you remember I’ve got a pilot’s licence and enough experience to know if you do something unusual with this aircraft.’ She waited until the atmosphere had settled down and the two pilots were looking less tense.