Chapter 9
"Meeting Fred Ford"
Arriving at an apartment complex not far from the Pan Am building, we were directed to the home of the man who supposedly was fired for speaking his mind, Fred Ford. Pressing a buzzer, we waited for a response to come through and much to our surprise, we managed to get one.
"Yeah?" the male voice asked. "This is Fred Ford."
"Mr. Ford?" I asked into the speaker in a clear voice. "Can we speak to you? It's about the Pan Am 103 disaster."
After a brief hesitation, he told us to come up and we naturally complied. As we got on the elevator, all three of us were wondering why someone like Fred Ford would want to talk so quickly.
"Seems like a man who is in much pain as I am," remarked Ivan. "Can't say I blame him for it."
"Well, he did try to make things safer like you, Ivan," said May as the elevator stopped on the sixth floor. "Only to be blindsided by corporate greed and terrorism."
Soon, we came to the door of apartment 608 and after I briefly knocked on the door, a middle aged man with glasses on opened the door.
"Are you the people who wanted to speak with me?" he asked.
"Yes, Mr. Ford," I replied, showing him my credentials. "I'm Rally Vincent, bounty hunter. This is my assistant and bomb specialist, May Hopkins. This is Ivan Nureyev, who runs a Pokemon League Admissions Academy in West Germany."
"Yes, Mr. Nureyev, I remember speaking to you over the phone. Care to come in?"
So we did go in and entered Fred's apartment which seemed like it had seen better days. From the looks of it, it seemed to me like Fred had never gotten over being fired from Pan Am.
"Sorry if my place doesn't look it's best," Fred apologized. "Didn't really do a lot of cleaning lately."
"Right…" I remarked with a slight drawl. "Anyways, Mr. Ford…"
"Call me Fred," he interrupted. "Have a seat, Ms. Vincent."
Sitting down, I could tell from Fred's body language that the Pan Am 103 bombing had a lot on his mind. 259 people, possibly more on the ground, were killed and Fred felt like he was partially responsible.
"Now, uh, Fred," I said, crossing my pantyhose clad legs. "I just want you to know that we are trying to find everyone responsible for what happened to Flight 103. Part of the blame it seems lies on Pan Am itself from the current ownership. Do you agree?"
Without hesitation, Fred responded.
"Yes," he said firmly, lighting up a cigar. "I strongly believe that Pan Am is partially responsible if not fully responsible for what happened in Scotland. I tried to convince my ex-boss, Ed Acker, to become like El Al. If he, Harry and Marty agreed with me, all these bombings and hijackings against Pan Am would never have happened."
The confirmation in Fred's voice made it clear that the bombing of Flight 103 was taking a massive effect on him.
"I told them that El Al had a strong model for aviation security and yet, they didn't listen to me. For two months, I tried to convince them. It's as Harry Ditson said to me when I first brought it up, that this was an American airline and let's do it our way."
"They knew of all the dangers that were out there," Fred continued, taking out his cigarette and blowing out smoke from his mouth. "But did they listen to me? No. As head of security, my job is to protect the passengers and crew on Pan Am's planes. If they wanted me to be head of security and the Alert program at that, then why couldn't they let me do my job?"
Fred then extinguished the cigar in an ashtray while sighing heavily.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Fred," I sympathized. "Um, do you know of any specific threats that were made against Pan Am over the past few years? I'm pretty sure you are aware of the threat from Helsinki…"
"Oh yeah, there were plenty of threats against Pan Am," said Fred, sharply. "Two months after I was fired, Pan Am 73 was hijacked in Karachi because our Alert program wasn't installed there. Another example of why the idiots at the top failed to take notice. We don't live in a perfect world, you know. Danger is everywhere from the Palestinians, Iranians, Libyans who harbor and support terrorism."
"Um, I think what Rally is trying to say is," said May. "Was Team Rocket part of any threats made against Pan Am?"
"Absolutely, both Pan Am and TWA were targeted by Team Rocket because they are symbolic targets of the United States. I actually know of a security officer for TWA that lives on the same floor as me. Why don't I bring him over?"
And Fred got up to phone in his friend leaving all of us wondering what exactly who this friend of his was that once worked security at TWA.
…
Back in Detroit, Becky arrived at the headquarters of one of the many automotive companies headquartered in the Motor City. Eventually, she found herself in the offices of Volkswagen, who had its American Headquarters in Detroit. From the moment she stepped into the lobby, Becky saw that all of the employees were solemn and seemed to be in mourning.
"Excuse me," she asked the secretary. "Why is everybody so sad?"
"One of our employers was on Flight 103," the secretary answered in a sad tone as she wiped away tears from her eyes. "Larry Bennett."
So it appeared that the Pan Am 103 bombing was affecting Volkswagen as well and Becky set about the task of wondering if this Larry Bennett was targeted by Team Rocket in any way. Could he have been targeted by Team Rocket because he was a high ranking executive or was he targeted because he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Those were the questions Becky would have answered soon enough.
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