The Mind Man

Chapter thirty seven

From where he stood on a concourse at Dallas's Love Field Airport Adam could observe the pilots seated in the cockpit of Texjet Airlines Flight 913. They were completing their preflight checklists for the run through to Phoenix later that morning. It was the man in the left seat of the narrow-body aircraft who was of most interest to him. He stood watching for a sufficient period of time to allow the image of his face to be well etched into his consciousness. Then he turned and looked towards the gate. There were still a dozen or so people shuffling towards two female flight attendants who were scanning boarding passes. He was close enough to hear the attendants wishing each of them a pleasant flight before they disappeared down the aerobridge to board the airplane. He couldn't help but notice that the two young women looked striking in their cobalt blue liveries. 

The flight was only minutes away from its scheduled departure and Adam checked his watch. It was 7:23 a.m. - all indicated that the flight would leave on time. 

He waited at his vantage point until the last of the passengers were called and the gate was closed. The two flight attendants were the last to join the flight before a ground staff member closed and locked the door to the walkway. The pilots completed their paperwork and the airplane was pushed back away from the terminal. Adam waited until the plane was turned and commenced moving forward under the power of its own engines before walking off towards the end of the concourse to find a restroom. 

He walked swiftly past a man standing at the urinal to find an empty cubicle. Once inside he closed and locked the door. He removed his cashmere coat hanging it on a hook fastened to the cubicle's partition and then sat on the toilet seat placing a briefcase on his lap. The opened case revealed a boarding pass for Southwest's 9:35 a.m. service between Dallas and Fort Lauderdale. The Gulfstream would be waiting there to return him back to Benjamin which had returned to the Caribbean. It was a scheduled one and three quarter hour flight for 913 to Phoenix so that gave him enough time to complete his immediate task and then reach his flight. His decision to fly commercially was a calculated one. It was intended to alleviate the attention that private jets provoked. He was sensing spiraling levels of unwanted attention directed towards him. Particularly disturbing was an article in a London newspaper aiming to expose his activities. He wasn't concerned unduly as it was impossible for anyone to make any form of tangible connection but the article was unsettling nevertheless. He decided on taking precautions - he still had a lot more work to do. 

Beneath the boarding pass were several photographs. He shuffled through them and carefully isolated one, placing the others back in his case. He studied it for a moment, reassuring himself that the middle aged man looking at the camera was in fact the person who he had just seen in the Captain's seat of Flight 913. He removed a roll of masking tape from his case and leaned forward attaching the photo onto the back of the cubicle's door. Then after closing and placing his case on the floor beside him he endeavored to make himself as comfortable as his predicament allowed. Removing his watch from his wrist he set the alarm for 9:20 a.m. and placed it on his lap and then he commenced staring at the photo - never taking his eyes off it and rarely blinking. He quickly succumbed to a meditative state, clearing his mind and becoming focused. He was totally oblivious to the small but steady stream of male patrons entering the restroom. He was prepared to remain in that state until the alarm on his watch 'woke' him. Then he had fifteen minutes to reach his flight to Florida.