Chapter 14
"List of Flights"
Spying on the terrorists at Claridge's gave us all a good indication on what was at stake. The thought of attacking not just American, but Canadian flights as well. While we didn't know just exactly how many flights were targeted, we knew that the components that the men were trying to buy were dangerous, capable of being used to make a bomb.
"So, it appears we know what is at stake," said Mr. Jones at a meeting the day after spying on the men. "These people indeed have murderous intentions and we cannot take this lightly in any way. I want us to start picking up the pace on these murderers."
"If only that would be so easily," I sighed. "From what I saw, they look to be stopping at nothing. Furthermore, they treat themselves like gangsters of the 1920's, seemingly to hide their true identities."
Mr. Barkin took this remark into account very well, for he seemed to notice that I probably remember that one gangster movie we watched when I was still in high school, something about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Jason Robards.
"You seem to be catching on, Possible," he chuckled, before turning his attention towards the entire table. "Terrorists will do anything to hide their true motives, including trying to act like civilized gentlemen. You must never underestimate the true intentions of terrorists. No matter what you do, never believe them for anything that they are meant to be."
"That is correct, Mr. Barkin," agreed Mr. Jones. "As they always say, 'you can't judge a book by its cover.'"
As Mr. Jones spoke, we took in each word that both he and Mr. Barkin were saying. There had been times where I had been believed that someone was who they were. No one was more infamous than Eric, the Synthrodrome or especially Josh, whom I still had feeling for despite his actions against me and Ron.
"Now, we have our assignment for today that I will share with all of you," said Mr. Jones, picking up a piece of paper from his desk. "According to our spies from overnight, the terrorists have reportedly begun the process of selecting flights. I need Agents Possible, Stoppable and a few other people to head to a nearby internet café and download whatever flights, that the terrorists are planning to target."
"But, Mr. Jones," I said, thinking back to the night before. "Shouldn't we be looking into the items that they are buying from Pakistan to use in making these bombs?"
However, Mr. Jones had made up his mind on who should look into where the products were coming from.
"That will be my department, Possible," remarked Mr. Barkin. "I happen to have looked into how bombs are constructed and brought onto commercial airliners in the past. I will head into Heathrow and monitor any bomb components that are coming in from Pakistan or any other country in the Middle East."
"Very well," I said, feeling a sense of defeat. "We will do as you please."
So, we headed into Central London and made our way over to an internet café where one of the terrorists was sitting at a computer, appearing to have access to a computer.
"All right, Wade," I said into the Kimmunicator while we waited in a black van. "We are at the café. Someone that we are targeting is sitting at a computer looking at what appears to be a list."
"I think that he is looking at flights," replied Wade, who was also spying from his home back in the states. "They look to be leaving at around the same time or something."
"What time of day?" I asked.
"From the looks of it," answered Wade. "Some time in the afternoon, just before evening. Right at the height of Heathrow's rush hour. Then again, Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe."
Wade did have a decent point. If terrorists were to attack a series of planes, they would have to have departed around the same time. Furthermore, they would have all had to have departed with a destination of cities in the United States or Canada. But, it was very obvious what cities they were willing to target.
"Kim, do you know of any cities they would target?" wondered Ron. "I know they are flights, but what if they intend to blow them up over land?"
"I don't know, Ron," I sighed. "We'll just have to wait and see on the list of flights."
For the next 45 minutes, we sat and waited. Finally, we saw the suspect leave and once he was out of sight, Ron and I moved into the café while everyone else stayed in the van. Trying to avoid attention, we casually walked into the café and sat down at the computer that the suspect was at.
"All right," I said, radioing into the van, where our comrades were still at, waiting for answers. "We are on the computer now, but it will take a few minutes to find anything."
"Roger that, Agent Possible," replied our comrades. "Good luck."
Knowing that one of the suspects could return, we plugged in the USB drive to copy whatever was on the hard drive.
"All right, Kim," said Wade on another radio. "I've managed to hack into the terrorists' email account and I should be transferring the list of flights to you."
"How many do you think are on there, Wade?" I asked, starting to feel the sweat dripping down my face. What Wade said next sent shockwaves throughout my body as well as Ron's.
"About eighteen flights over a two day period, Kim," Wade said shockingly, causing both me and Ron to gasp and give each other a worried look. "Yeah, they are planning a massacre of epic proportions, something even greater, much greater than 9/11 itself. You should see the list starting to form in front of you now."
So, for the next few moments, we just sat there and waited for the page to download and we couldn't believe what was in front of us. There were two separate list of flight all departing London Heathrow Airport's Terminals 3 and 4 over a two day period. They were all flights operated by four major carriers: United Airlines, American Airlines, Air Canada and British Airways.
"Oh, my God," I cried, doing a sign of the cross in disbelief. "Look at this, Ron. Do you see what we are up against?"
Reading down the list, we carefully look at each set of flights all departing in a certain time frame:
GROUP 1 (FROM LONDON HEATHROW TERMINAL 3):
AIR CANADA FLIGHT 855 FROM LHR TO VANCOUVER DEPARTING AT 2:00PM
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 931 FROM LHR TO SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTING AT 2:15PM
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 135 FROM LHR TO LOS ANGELES DEPARTING AT 2:45PM
AIR CANADA FLIGHT 849 FROM LHR TO TORONTO/PEARSON DEPARTING AT 3:00PM
AIR CANADA FLIGHT 865 FROM LHR TO MONTREAL/TRUDEAU DEPARTING AT 3:15PM
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 959 FROM LHR TO CHICAGO/O'HARE DEPARTING AT 3:40PM
UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 925 FROM LHR TO WASHINGTON/DULLES DEPARTING AT 4:20PM
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 131 FROM LHR TO NEW YORK/JFK DEPARTING AT 4:35PM
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 91 FROM LHR TO CHICAGO/O'HARE DEPARTING AT 4:50PM
GROUP 2 (FROM LONDON HEATHROW TERMINAL 4):
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 175 FROM LHR TO NEW YORK/JFK DEPARTING AT 11:00AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 217 FROM LHR TO WASHINGTON/DULLES DEPARTING AT 11:10AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 213 FROM LHR TO BOSTON DEPARTING AT 11:20AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 285 FROM LHR TO SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTING AT 11:30AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 283 FROM LHR TO LOS ANGELES DEPARTING AT 11:40AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 295 FROM LHR TO CHICAGO/O'HARE DEPARTING AT 11:50AM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 93 FROM LHR TO TORONTO/PEARSON DEPARTING AT 12:00PM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 95 FROM LHR TO MONTREAL/TRUDEAU DEPARTING AT 12:10PM
BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 85 FROM LHR TO VANCOUVER DEPARTING AT 12:20PM
Realizing how valuable this information was, we quickly downloaded the timetables to the USB drive and got out of the internet café without any questions. Now, knowing what was at stake, we could only hope and pray that these terrorists could be stopped. No one knows when the attacks would take place, they didn't put up a date yet. All that mattered was saving lives and by God, that was what we were going to do…