Chapter 2
"Visiting the Pan Am Building"
Driving over to the Pan Am building, we soon found ourselves staring at the top of the tall structure as a Pan Am helicopter for their first and clipper classes took off for JFK Airport.
"Is this kind of bizarre, Rally?" May asked. "Going into a corporate office?"
"May, it's no different than going into Haines' political swamp," I answered. "If anything, some of these people may be worse than Haines or that crazy Russian we both remember."
"Oh yeah, her."
Still, we made our way into the Pan Am building and proceeded to find the main offices. Making our way into the building's lobby, we couldn't help but notice the strange glances from the suits that made up Pan Am.
"Excuse me," I asked the secretary. "Is the Chairman of Pan Am available?"
This made the secretary stop whatever she was doing.
"Do you have an appointment?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Naturally, this caused us to take out our respective badges. "Oh, let me just see if he's available."
Picking up the phone, the secretary waited for an answer and a call soon came in.
"Mr. Plaskett?" she asked. "I have a couple of agents here to see you."
"At least she didn't say bounty hunter and…"
Not wanting to have May cause a fright, I nudged her in the side.
"Mr. Plaskett will see you now," the secretary answered, directing us to the elevator. "Top floor."
So we proceeded to the elevator and took part in the long ride up to the top floor. It took a few minutes, but we eventually made our way to the top. Eventually, we came across the office of the CEO of Pan Am. Knocking on the door, a man in a brown suit answered.
"Mr. Plaskett?" I asked, showing him my bounty hunter credentials. "I'm Bounty Hunter Irene Vincent and this is my partner, Minnie May Hopkins."
"Yes, the secretary said you'd be coming up. Please come in."
Making our way into the office, we admired how nicely done the office was. Being a man of high position, Mr. Plaskett had every reason to be respectable. However, we couldn't help but notice he seemed to be hiding something.
"Now, what can I do for you ladies?" he asked.
"First of all," I said politely. "Both Minnie and I are sorry for what happened to Flight 103."
"Yes," Mr. Plaskett sighed, sitting back in his chair. "I was afraid that this was going to happen to us eventually."
This caused both me and Minnie to give each other confused glances.
"What do you mean?" May asked.
Rather than answer us, Mr. Plaskett turned his chair around and looked out to the window that looked down on Park Avenue.
"A couple of weeks ago," Mr. Plaskett explained. "A threat was made against one of our planes that would be flying from Frankfurt to the United States."
"Like a bomb threat?"
"Yes. It came into the US Embassy in Helsinki. The caller said it was a hoax, so we ignored it."
"Hoax or no hoax," I said, feeling slight aghast at the confession. "You need to take these things seriously because the safety of a human life depends on it. What did you or did you not do to combat the threat?"
"I trusted that my people at Alert Management would step up security."
Now it was no stranger to me that Pan Am's new security system wasn't exactly the best. Even though I flew international rarely, I could see the flaws that were displayed in the system.
"With all due respect, Mr. Plaskett," I said, rising to my feet. "It seems like your system is flawed."
This made Mr. Plaskett turn back around to give me a hard stare.
"Um, Rally…" May whimpered as we could see Mr. Plaskett's face turned slightly red.
"I refuse to believe that the system is flawed, Ms. Vincent," he said in an ice-cold whisper. "Myself and my executives have ensured that we have the best system possible at all of our airports here and around the world. Damn it, what do you expect me to do?"
"Supposedly if you had people within your ALERT staff…"
"All my people at ALERT are hardworking people!" Mr. Plaskett retorted, slamming his hands on the desk. "Are you saying that someone within the ALERT staff of Pan Am would have allowed an explosive device to be placed on our Clipper Maid of the Seas? We run background checks and train our staff properly to do the job! I refuse to believe anything you say, now please leave!"
"Mr. Plaskett, let's start over here," I said hastily, trying to calm him down. "About this threat against your planes that came out a few weeks ago. What did your staff in Europe do to combat it? Did you investigate the matter?"
"One of my corporate security staff did and found that the matter was a hoax and nothing more," Mr. Plaskett said, slightly calming down, but I wasn't convinced. "Look, ladies. I didn't want to cause any negative publicity to be brought against Pan Am. We've suffered enough with the crisis in Libya and all. Besides, my predecessor made it his mission to make Pan Am the world's safest airline."
Taking another sigh, Mr. Plaskett looked up at us with a tired look in his eyes.
"Look ladies," he sighed again. "I've been up all night trying to get information on what's happening in Scotland. 259 of our passengers and crew on that flight are dead. This may be the one that does Pan Am in and I will be the one responsible for it."
"In a way," I said. "I think it may have been done long before you took this position. Perhaps we can pay a visit to corporate security and get their thoughts. I want to go through this as thoroughly as possible, Mr. Plaskett. Please understand that."
Saying nothing, Mr. Plaskett showed us out and we made our way down to Pan Am's corporate security offices to see what they really saw with this threat made out of Helsinki.
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