Chain of Vengeance: Chapter Five - Parts Twenty One & Twenty Two

 

Sam ran into Terminal 1 at Heathrow.

He slowed down, jogging through the crowds, moving as quickly as he could without calling too much attention to himself. Too many people and he didn’t know what Catholic even looked like beyond the blond hair. It was useless.

Passport control was across the arena. He ran toward it, weaving either way between men and women getting ready to depart. The gun was in his pocket. His sister was dead. The man who’d done it was somewhere beyond there. He reached into his coat. He was almost at the gateway. Suicide to threaten his way through but there was no other choice. He closed the remaining distance across the floor, then stopped exactly where he was.

There were two armed guards either side of passport control: one man, one woman; dressed in black; bullet proof vests, the word “POLICE” printed on a label at the front, Heckle and Koch sub-machineguns held forty five degrees up from the horizontal.

Sam’s fingers were touching the grip of his pistol inside its holster. The woman looked at him and then so did the man. The girl on passport control said, “Can I help you sir?”

For a second Sam tightened his grip on the pistol; then he withdrew his hand and took a step backwards. The male guard glanced at two children squabbling over to the right. The woman kept her eyes on Sam.

He drew his sunglasses up onto his face and turned on his heel.

 

 

22

 

 

Sam spotted an information desk with a young black man behind it. He walked up to it and smiled thinly. “Could you tell me the destination of planes leaving to the United States in the next two and a half hours?”  

The young man nodded. “Whereabouts?”

“I’m not sure. My friend didn’t tell me the exact location he was going to.” Pressure at his temple. “But there can’t be too many planes leaving for the states in the next couple of hours can there?”

He tried to laugh, to lighten the conversation, but it came out empty and false. There was a slight withdrawal in the young man’s demeanour.

“There are two flights for America within the next two and a half hours,” said the young man. “San Francisco and New York.” He put his finger on the computer screen. “The San Francisco one is starting to board already.”

Sam didn’t bother to thank him.