Normally Palmer allowed no intrusions during his nightly replenishment, preferring instead to use the time contemplatively. But this was a call he had been expecting. He accepted the telephone from Mr. Fitzwilliam, and waited for him to dutifully withdraw.
Palmer answered, and was informed about the dormant airplane. He learned that there was considerable uncertainty as to how to proceed by officials at JFK. The caller spoke anxiously, with self-conscious formality, like a proud child reporting a good deed. "This is a highly unusual event, and I thought you'd want to be apprised immediately, sir."
"Yes," Palmer told the man. "I do appreciate such courtesy."
"Ha-have a good night, sir."
Palmer hung up and set the phone down in his small lap. A good night indeed. He felt a pang of anticipation. He had been expecting this. And now that the plane had landed, he knew it had begun-and in what spectacular fashion.
Excitedly, he turned to the large-screen television on the side wall and used the remote control on the arm of his chair to activate the sound. Nothing about the airplane yet. But soon...
He pressed the button on an intercom. Mr. Fitzwilliam's voice said, "Yes, sir?"
"Have them ready the helicopter, Mr. Fitzwilliam. I have some business to attend to in Manhattan."
Eldritch Palmer rang off, then looked through the wall of windows out over the great Chesapeake Bay, roiling and black, just south of where the steely Potomac emptied into her dark depths.
Taxiway Foxtrot
THE MAINTENANCE CREW wheeled oxygen tanks underneath the fuselage. Cutting in was an emergency procedure of last resort. All commercial aircraft were constructed with specified "chop-out" areas. The triple seven's chop out was in the rear fuselage, beneath the tail, between the aft cargo doors on the right side. The LR in Boeing 777-200LR stood for long range, and as a C-market model with a top range exceeding 9,000 nautical miles (nearly 11,000 U.S.) and a fuel capacity of up to 200,000 liters (more than 50,000 gallons), the aircraft had, in addition to the traditional fuel tanks inside the wing bodies, three auxiliary tanks in the rear cargo hold-thus the need for a safe chop-out area.
The maintenance crew was using an Arcair slice pack, an exothermic torch favored for disaster work not only because it was highly portable, but because it was also oxygen powered, using no hazardous secondary gases such as acetylene. The work of cutting through the thick fuselage shell would take about one hour.
No one on the tarmac at this point was anticipating a happy outcome. There had been no 911 calls from passengers inside the aircraft. No light, noise, or signal of any kind emanating from inside Regis 753. The situation was mystifying.
A Port Authority emergency services unit mobile-command vehicle was cleared through to the terminal apron, set up behind powerful construction lights trained on the jet. Their SWAT team was trained for evacuations, hostage rescue, and antiterrorism assaults on the bridges, tunnels, bus terminals, airports, PATH rail lines, and seaports of New York and New Jersey. Tactical officers were outfitted with light body armor and Heckler-Koch submachine guns. A pair of German shepherds were out sniffing around the main landing gear-two sets of six enormous tires-trotting around with their noses in the air as if they could smell the trouble here too.
Captain Navarro wondered for a moment if anyone was actually still on board. Hadn't there been a Twilight Zone where a plane landed empty?
The maintenance crew sparked up the torches and was just starting in on the underside of the hull when one of the canines started howling. The dog was baying, actually, and spinning around and around on his leash in tight circles.
Captain Navarro saw his ladder man, Benny Chufer, pointing up at the midsection of the aircraft. A thin, black shadow appeared before his eyes. A vertical slash of darkest black, disrupting the perfectly smooth breast of the fuselage.
The exit door over the wing. The one Captain Navarro hadn't been able to budge.
It was open now.
It made no sense to him, but Navarro kept quiet, struck dumb by the sight. Maybe a latch failure, a malfunction in the handle...maybe he had not tried hard enough...or maybe-just maybe-someone had finally opened the door.
JFK International Control Tower
THE PORT AUTHORITY had pulled Jimmy the Bishop's audio. He was standing, as always, waiting to review it with the suits, when their phones started ringing like crazy.
"It's open," one guy reported. "Somebody opened up 3L."
Everybody was standing now, trying to see. Jimmy the Bishop looked out from the tower cab at the lit-up plane. The door did not look open from up here.
Calvin Buss said, "From the inside? Who's coming out?"
The guy shook his head, still on his phone. "No one. Not yet."
Jimmy the Bishop grabbed a small pair of birders off the ledge and checked out Regis 753 for himself.
There it was. A sliver of black over the wing. A seam of shadow, like a tear in the hull of the aircraft.
Jimmy's mouth went dry at the sight. Those doors pull out slightly when first unlocked, then swivel back and fold against the interior wall. So, technically, all that had happened was that the airlock had been disengaged. The door wasn't quite open yet.
He set the field glasses back on the ledge and backed away. For some reason, his mind was telling him that this would be a good time to run.
Taxiway Foxtrot
THE GAS AND RADIATION SENSORS lifted to the door crack both read clear. An emergency service unit officer lying on the wing managed to pull out the door a few extra inches with a long, hooked pole, two other armed tactical officers covering him from the tarmac below. A parabolic microphone was inserted, returning all manner of chirps, beeps, and ring tones: the passengers' mobile phones going unanswered. Eerie and plaintive sounding, like tiny little personal distress alarms.
They then inserted a mirror attached at the end of a pole, a large-size version of the sort of dental instrument used to examine back teeth. All they could see were the two jump seats inside the between-classes area, both unoccupied.
Bullhorn commands got them nowhere. No response from inside the aircraft: no lights, no movement, no nothing.
Two ESU officers in light body armor stood back from the taxiway lights for a briefing. They viewed a cross-section schematic, showing passengers seated ten abreast inside the coach cabin they would be entering: three each on the row sides and four across the middle. Airplane interior was tight, and they traded their H-K submachine guns for more manageable Glock 17s, preparing for close combat.
They strapped on radio-enabled gas masks fitted with flip-down night-vision specs, and snapped mace, zip cuffs, and extra magazine pouches to their belts. Q-tip-size cameras, also with passive infrared lenses, were mounted onto the tops of their ESU helmets.