Pan Am – "We'll Always Have Beirut"

Two Parises

v1.0.0 (=v0.6.2, June 03, 2013)

Beirut – 'The Paris of the Middle East'. Sitting in this nightclub, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere and watching happy young locals and tourists dancing to the lively mixture of western and oriental music, and after roaming the crowded streets of the city for two hours, Kate could understand why people compared the Lebanese city to her new home town. But in many ways, Beirut was even more fascinating than Paris. The unique blend of traditional oriental culture and modern western way of life, accomplished by the hospitality and openness of the Lebanese people, made it one of most popular destinations with tourists from all over the world.

But not only tourists came to Beirut. Just as its capital was compared to the French metropolis, Lebanon was known as the 'Switzerland of the Middle East'. Even though there were no petroleum occurrences or any other resources worth mentioning in the small country, its booming banking industry had made it one of the richest in the region. Businessmen and representatives of corporations from the whole Arab world, the Western hemisphere, and Africa and Asia came to Beirut to conduct all kinds of financial transactions. The money they left in Beirut fueled a building boom, and all the new and glamorous hotels, restaurants, and casinos attracted more and more tourists. Beirut was a buzzing city, and Kate could feel that it had a great future ahead of it.

There was a third kind of people that came to Beirut. As a so-called 'nonaligned country', Lebanon was proud of being part of neither the Western free world, nor the Eastern Soviet bloc. Being open for everyone, no matter from where they came and in which currency they paid, was part of their formula for success. As a result, it wasn't uncommon for an American banker to find himself drinking at the same bar with a Russian engineer, or for a French literature professor to teach a class of students from Poland, Hungary, and many other states that lay behind the Iron Curtain. As seen from Beirut, there was no Iron Curtain, and that attracted persons in the same business Kate had joined only recently. The Paris of the Middle East was a nest of spies.

Kate had learnt that she would serve as a stewardess on a flight to Beirut even before she knew what she was supposed to do when she would get there. Pan Am's Paris base manager had called and told her that one of the stewardesses had contracted food poisoning and that he wanted Kate to fill in for her. It had been the first time Kate received a call like this after her return from New York, and on her way from her apartment to Orly airport she had been wondering whether this was just a regular Pan Am job, or an assignment from her other employer. She had reminded herself of Richard telling her that they wouldn't poison a stewardess, but could she trust him in this?

She already had been introduced to her crew for this flight when Kate had been called to the telephone in the lobby. A call from her father – Kate knew what that meant. The brown envelope had been waiting for her in the phone booth, and Kate had taken the time to open it before returning to her crew. It contained a second, smaller envelope and a short handwritten note with directions for Kate. All she had to do was meeting a contact in a nightclub and hand him over the envelope. A simple courier job, just as Richard had promised.

The flight had been far more challenging for Kate. For more than six months, she hadn't been working as a stewardess, and the one flight from New York to Munich and back three weeks ago hadn't been enough to get her back into the old routines. Furthermore, she had to work with a crew she didn't know. She had met one of the stewardesses before, but only off duty, in a bar in London. Kate knew nothing about this team, and how they organized their work. She had been really nervous when the plane took off.

As it had turned out, it seemed that all crews did the same work in a similar way, and Kate had found back to her old work flow unexpectedly quickly. The other stewardesses were all very kind and nice, and Kate did her best to be them a good coworker. Kate saw her special position as an opportunity to meet a lot of her fellow stewardesses she wouldn't have met otherwise, and as an opportunity to make new friends. The last thing she wanted them to think of her was that she was a lazy freeloader, enjoying life in Paris and avoiding the work a stewardess was supposed to do. When the other women had invited her to spend the evening together, Kate had been very happy to accept the invitation, even more so when she learnt that her crew for the flight planned to go to the very same nightclub she was supposed to meet her contact at.

The club, that was also a restaurant, was located in the Avenue des Français, the most prestigious boulevard of Beirut. At first, they all had occupied a table on the street and enjoyed a light Mediterranean dinner. It was August at the Mediterranean, but with a gentle evening breeze coming from the sea directly across the street, the climate was just perfect. Music not only from this club, but also from other bars and restaurants filled the air that smelled for the sea and the spicy oriental food that was served all around them. They had watched the people strolling along the promenade at sun set and listened to their cheerful laughs and chatter in languages from all over the world. Kate had found perfect companions for the evening in the three stewardesses she had spent the day with. Much to her relief, she had learnt from them that the woman she was filling in for really wasn't suffering from food poisoning – or any other form of poisoning – at all. Just the day before, after they had arrived in Paris, she had met a young man and spent the night with him. She had called in sick to win two more days with him before she had to return to New York.

Kate was pretty sure that it was no random coincidence that the man had shown up just when the agency needed someone to fly to Beirut. She had been told about the dangers of falling for a Russian 'Swallow' or an East German 'Romeo' during her time in Langley, and she also had been taught some techniques so that she herself could act as a 'Honeypot' if it should become necessary. She felt a little bit sorry for the poor woman. She was probably really in love with a man who was considering her nothing more than a job, but then, at least she was having a good time for two or three days. After all, it was better than a poisoning.

Thinking about what had brought her to Beirut, she remembered that there was still work to do. She checked her watch: ten minutes to twelve o'clock. By the time, the four woman had exchanged their table with beach view for a table right next to the dance floor inside of the club. Kate excused herself and left her three new friends, who were far more interested in the men around them than in Kate anyway.

Kate left for the restrooms, but as soon as she was out of sight, she changed her course for the upper floor where she was supposed to meet her contact. This room was just as crowed with people as every part of the popular club, and there were four women and five men sitting at the bar. That was kind of unfortunate. Kate hadn't received any information on how her contact looked, just that it was a man, and the short note had added that the other agent didn't know more about her either. The contact procedure had been specified as the well-known hour-of-the-day exchange, but who should Kate ask for the time?

Four of the men at the bar were accompanied by women, but the fifth man was alone. It was worth a try. Kate stepped over to the bar and placed herself directly next to the single man. She invitingly smiled at him, and he smiled back. But he didn't say anything.

"Pardon me, could you please tell me what time it is?" Kate eventually initiated the contact herself.

"Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas anglais. Parlez-vous français?"

The man smiled at Kate, and for a moment she thought about repeating her question in French. It wasn't totally unreasonably that her local contact didn't speak English. But then, another man that hadn't been sitting at the bar stepped right behind Kate.

"It's close to twenty-four hundred hours." he said.

"That's eleven o'clock, isn't it?"

"No, it's already twelve o'clock."

"Thank you for saving me, I don't speak any French." Kate said, and it didn't matter that this was a blatant lie. "May I return the favor by inviting you for a drink?"

"I'm sure I'd really enjoy it, but I'm afraid my date would prefer me to spend my time with her." The man pointed at the table behind him. A young Lebanese woman answered Kate's look, and her facial expression was hostile like no other on the whole room.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't want to disturb your evening. But then let me at least buy the two of you some drinks." Kate said and turned to the barman. "Two glasses of champagne, please!" she ordered.

When the bartender had prepared the two glasses, Kate opened her purse to take her money from it, and at the same time, she hid the folded up envelope in her left hand. After paying for the champagne and taking the two glasses, she handed them over to the man that had turned out to be her contact. She felt his fingers carefully grasping not only the stem of the glass, but also the piece of paper.

"That's very nice of you, and I'm sure she thanks you, too." he said. Looking at his girlfriend, Kate wasn't sure about that. "And who knows, maybe we'll meet again soon." the man added, and then he left Kate and returned to his table.

Kate smiled at the woman for a last time, and then she turned towards the stairs to return to her own companions. Half way down, she paused and panned the lower floor of the club. Only two of her friends were sitting at their table, watching the dance floor, and when Kate looked closer she saw the third stewardess dancing with a young man. The band played on of Kate's favorite songs, a modern classic she knew from the clubs of Paris. On the other side of the room, where larger tables stood, people were still occupied with the last course of dinner. The long bar down here was just as crowed as its smaller counterpart upstairs.

Just when Kate wanted to move on, she stopped again. There was something, or rather someone who caught her attention. She focused at the man that was sitting at one of the most distant bar stools. He was talking to the barkeeper now, and Kate could no longer see his face, but just one second ago, she had. It had looked familiar. Kate slowly stepped down the last few stairs, her eyes fixed on the man. He was handing the barkeeper some money, obviously paying his drinks, and then he raised from his stool. He slipped into his jacket, and again, Kate wasn't able to see his face when he looked down to put his wallet away. When he turned around, and Kate could finally get a clear view at his face, her heart skipped a beat.

Niko! It was Niko! Niko was here, in the same room with her! Kate rushed down the stairs and tried to meet him. The floor was swarming with people, and Kate struggled to force her way through the tide of incoming patrons before she eventually stepped aside and took the passage through the field of tables. All the people around her were sitting, neither blocking her way nor her view, but the short moment in the midst of the crowd had been enough to lose track of Niko. When she reached the cloak counter at the exit, she made the mistake to stop and look out for Niko, but then she remembered that he already had slipped into his jacket, and that the weather outside was far too warm for a coat. She rushed on, outside, and then she stood on the street. She looked to the left and to the right, searching for Niko in the crowd. She couldn't find him. He was gone.

– – – –

"I've never been to Beirut, I wonder why." Laura took a sip from her coffee. "I mean, it's been more than one and a half year since I started working as a stewardess, 17 months, you'd think that by now I'd have been to all the places Pan Am serves."

"Pan Am flies to cities in the whole world. Most of us stewardesses retire without having been to all of them."

"Just one more reason for me to envy you." Laura sighed. "At first you are selected for this special training, then you move to Paris, and now you got to see Beirut and all those other exciting and beautiful cities."

"Oh, come on!" Kate laughed at her sister's gratuitous self-pity. "You are a Pan Am stewardess, too. It's not like you never leave New York! As a matter of fact, you actually get to see more of the world than I do! You fly to South America, Asia, and Europe, but I'm restricted to flights from Paris, and maybe London, Rome, and so on."

She took a sip from her own coffee and looked around. They were sitting at a coffee shop just one block away from Maggie and Laura's apartment, and were enjoying the warm sunny day. Summer could be terrible in New York, but this August was just perfect. It was only the second time Kate was in New York in the whole year, but it still felt like home. Which reminded her of yet another virtue Laura enjoyed.

"And most importantly, I have to deal with a new crew on every of this flights you envy me. I don't have a own crew. You have Maggie, Colette, Sanjeev, Dean, and Ted."

Laura looked down at the her coffee and sighed again. She was obviously feeling the same as Kate did.

"I wish I could have been with you last week." Kate continued.

Ted had called her from New York just the day before her departure for Beirut to tell her the news about the birth of his son, Teddy Junior. He had asked her to come over to see him, but Kate hadn't been able to accept the invitation. Her base manager hadn't been willing to give her some days off just two weeks after she had returned from her vacation.

"I would have loved to see Ted and Amanda's son. I know Ted for such a long time, he has always been a lady's man. And now he's happily married and father of a little baby boy! I've already missed his and Amanda's wedding, and now they're a family of three."

Laura was still staring at her coffee, and when she looked up now, her smile seemed odd to Kate. But she could tell why.

"Well, as I told you, Maggie can't be here with us today because Captain Broyles is in town." Laura said before Kate could ask her about it. "I told her that you would come to New York, but Broyles is in New York nearly as seldom as you are, and Maggie spends every minute with him when he is here."

"I don't resent her, I'm glad that I can be with you." Kate reached across the table and petted Laura's hand. "I really missed you when I couldn't be with you because of my training. Flying with you, getting to see the world together, that was the best time of my life."

"I missed you, too, and I'm so glad that all this turned out so well for you." Laura grasped her sister's hand and hold it tight. "I promise you, we'll see each other every time when I'm going to come to Paris."

"That'll be great. And who knows, maybe the next time we'll meet will be in Beirut."

Both Kate and Laura laughed out loud. Being with her sister felt just good, and Kate enjoyed it very much. And she was also happy to see that her sister seemed to have become an independent and strong woman. At the time they had been flying together, Kate had always felt obliged to take care of her inexperienced little sister, and when she had been forced to leave her, she had worried how she would do, being on her own for the first time in her life. She still remembered Laura in her bunny slippers in Jakarta, when she had told her to grow up. Now, eight months after leaving her, Kate saw Laura going her own way, and she no longer worried.

"So, Maggie and Broyles are a couple?" Kate asked her sister.

"Who knows, I don't really understand what is going on between those two." Laura shook her head. "Every time he's in town, he's at our apartment, and all the time they are whispering to each other like high school students in first love, and then they head out for dates and don't come back before next morning. But then, when he is away – and Broyles is out of town a lot, even by the standards of a Pan Am pilot, I have never met a man who travels so much –, or when Maggie is on a flight, she never seems to miss him. She never talks of him, she never calls him, she never does anything that would make you think that she has a boyfriend. And when Colette once asked her about Broyles, Maggie just denied that he even is her boyfriend at all."

"But when they are together, do they…" Kate paused, wondering how to finish her question without embarrassing Laura. Talking about this issue had always been a little bit awkward for Laura. But to Kate's surprise, Laura knew exactly what she was referring to, and she didn't hesitate to answer:

"All. The. Time!" she sighed. "At first, I left them alone every time Broyles came over, but I wasn't very keen of spending the whole month of February wandering the cold streets, and it's my apartment, too! But don't you think my presence would in any way bother them! Believe me, there have been nights at which I've thought about getting my own apartment, or at least talking to Maggie about moving to a new one with thicker walls."

Another moment of shared laughter confirmed to Kate that Laura really had changed a lot over the course of the last six months. She finished her coffee and looked at the clock, and her high spirits faded.

"I'm sorry, Laura, but I have to leave now." she said. "I have yet another appointment."

"An appointment?" Laura asked. "With whom?"

"Just an old friend, you don't know her." Kate answered. "We haven't met in a long time, and in contrast to you, she is no stewardess, so she can't just jet across the ocean to meet me in Paris."

"When will your flight to Paris departure?" Laura asked in a disappointed, but understanding voice.

"I'll take the evening flight. Are you going to be at the airport to say goodbye?"

"I have to be at the airport in just two hours for my flight to London." Laura smiled at her sister. "We're going to Tehran from there."

"Tehran! You are going to Tehran, and you envy me going to Beirut?" Kate answered, laughing again. "Oh little sister, I'm pretty confident your ways will lead you to Beirut, soon. And maybe they'll lead you to Paris even sooner."

Kate stood up, and Laura did so, too. The two sisters hugged each other on saying goodbye.

"Give all the others my best regards." Kate told her sister, and then they parted.

Kate didn't like lying to Laura. She and Laura were sisters, they had been growing up together, and it certainly hadn't been the first time she had lied to her. But since that day she had met Richard Parks, since she had started working for the CIA, lying had become a regular part of her life to an extent that frightened Kate. She didn't like the dishonesty that came with her second job, and she didn't like how easy it had gotten for her to lie to her sister and to everybody else she met. She wasn't going to meet an old friend, she had an appointment with Richard. Kate had asked for this meeting, and it had been the main reason for her to come to New York. Seeing Laura was just a side effect, a benefit she could only earn by lying to her sister.

When Kate arrived at the restaurant she had asked Richard to meet her at, he was already there, waiting for her. They greeted each other like old friends and then sat down at the table.

"Kate, what is all this about? Why did you ask me to come here." Richard asked when the waiter had left them alone after they both had ordered a light salad for dinner. His voice was calm and friendly, and he smiled at her, but she knew him well enough to tell from the undertone in his voice that he wasn't happy to see her at all. "We can't meet in a public place like this."

"Do you remember the time we met at the Worldport lobby – just one of the many times we did?" Kate retorted. "Or the one time we practiced pickpocketing in the middle of Central Park?"

"All that was when you were just a courier." Richard explained, still smiling for anyone who was watching them. "Things have changed, you can't just ask for a meeting with your case officer. You're a full-time operative now."

"Good that you tell me, I didn't really noticed." Kate paused when the waiter brought their drinks and the salad, but then she continued: "I wish I had had my postal uniform when I was in that club in Beirut, it would have made identification much easier for my contact."

"Is it that you want to talk about?" Richard picked at his salad as if he had just found out for the first time that a tuna salad contained fish. "Listen, I told you that there would be a lot of courier jobs in the beginning, and I thought that would be in your own interest. Besides, we can't really create custom missions just for you, 'Miss Bond'."

In stark contrast to his calm articulation before, Richard had hissed the last part at Kate, and even the smile disappeared from his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to complain." Kate looked at him to let him read her eyes, and she hoped he saw that she was honest. "I was just teasing you a little. Really, I don't have any problems with the Beirut job, and I didn't ask you to come here just because I want more action. I still have enough of that from my encounter with our German allies."

Richard looked at her, and then he nodded.

"I asked you for this meeting because I wanted to talk to you about someone I met in Beirut." Kate noticed the subtle changes in Richard's expression. His smile hadn't changed since he had greeted her, but the anger in his eyes had made room for puzzled curiosity. "I saw Niko Lonza in that nightclub, right after I had completed the exchange."

"Niko Lonza?!" Richard's fork stopped hovering in mid air. "Did you talk to him?"

"No, I didn't. I was a little imprecise when I said I had 'met' him. I saw him from across the room, and I don't think he saw me."

"So, you didn't see him from close, you didn't hear him speak, you didn't talk to him?" Richard waited for Kate's confirmation that came as a nod. "Then it wasn't Lonza, it was someone else. Someone looking like him, or someone you thought was looking like him."

"Why are you so sure that it wasn't Niko?" Kate inquired.

"Because I know that he wasn't there." Richard didn't seem bothered anymore. "I know for sure that he was in Belgrade on this day, just as he was in Belgrade on every single day since we sent him there. Lonza reports every step he makes to us. I'm no longer his principal case officer, but I still receive his reports. You don't need to know what he is doing in Belgrade, and what he is writing about in his reports. To be honest, that's above your security clearance. But I know, and I can assure you that Niko Lonza has never been in Beirut in his whole life, and especially not on the day you are talking about."

"Are you really sure about that?"

"Yes, I am."

Now it was Kate who as picking at her food while Richard had already finished most of his salad. Could it be possible that she had been wrong? The man she had seen had been standing at the far side of the room. Most people had been smoking, the air had been filled with smoke, and the lights had been low. And Kate had already had one or two glasses of wine, she couldn't even remember how many. She hadn't been drunk, but she hadn't been sober, either.

"Is everything okay?" Richard asked. He look genuinely concerned now, and Kate hurried to nod.

"I'm alright, it's just… I was really sure that the man I saw was him."

"Kate, please don't understand this wrong, but I have to ask you some questions." Richard took the napkin and cleaned the corners of his mouth. He paused before he went on: "Has something like this ever happened before? Have you ever been seeing people that weren't there, have you ever been hearing voices…"

"Do you think I'm crazy?" Kate's mouth nervously twitched into a insecure smile. "I'm not crazy!"

"Kate, I know about your history with Niko Lonza, the relationship you had. I remember how it ended, how he reacted on learning about you, what he said to you… I remember how hard all this was for you. And now, you were on your first mission, you were in a foreign country, alone, on your own… You were insecure, maybe even afraid…"

"I wasn't afraid." Kate interrupted him again. "I had already completed the exchange, there hadn't been any problems, everything was alright."

"Well, then maybe you were euphoric about your success." Richard used his fork to pick up the last piece of tuna and ate it. "It's perfectly normal to experience signs of emotional stress when you are in a situation you've never been in before."

"Nothing about this situation was new to me, nothing was particularly stressful." Kate had to restrain herself to keep talking calm and slow. She placed both her hands on the table and looked Richard in the eye. "I was trained for situations like this. And I had already been in situations like this many times before I even completed my training. I did not experience emotional stress, and I am not crazy."

Richard looked at her and didn't say a word. Kate didn't speak either, and for several seconds they just sat there in silence.

"I see." Richard finally said. "So, what happened?"

"I'm not sure." Kate lost the tense posture she had been holding. "It was dark, the room was crowded, I only saw him from far away, I had had a few drinks…"

Her voice trailed off and eventually faded when she herself was no longer sure what or who she had been seeing. She wasn't crazy, she hadn't been overwhelmed by the situation, but she had to admit to herself that the man she had seen had almost certainly not been Niko. She felt stupid for even bothering Richard with this. And after what she had told him, he most probably thought that she was stupid, too. Or even worse…

"Listen, Kate," Richard broke the silence that had fallen on them again. "I know you, I know you very well, and I trust in you and your capabilities as an operative. That's why I recommended you for admission to the agency in the first place. I know that you get emotional at times, but I also know that you do great work even under stress, even when you are emotional, and maybe especially then. You saved my life, you busted Anderson, and you've never failed us."

Richard paused for a moment to make sure that Kate understood that he really didn't think that she was crazy.

"And you have to understand that all your actions in matters of Niko Lonza were just another example of the great work you are doing. Don't be in doubts about it, don't blame yourself for anything in this regard. Don't let yourself be haunted by it, but draw strength from it! It was the right thing to do!"

Kate looked down at her plate and let Richard's words sink in. She could very well remember her feelings when the agency's agents had come for Niko, when she had tried to explain it to him, and when he had congratulated her on being a 'professional'. Back then, it had felt like the meanest and most insulting thing he could have possibly said to her. And now, Richard was telling her to take it as a compliment, to draw strength from it. Intellectually, she knew that he was right. But she wasn't sure she could ever accept this emotionally.