Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 20:00:11 -0700 From: Pete McDonald <bajabudfan@hotmail.com> Subject: TIME-TO-SEE-54- TIME-TO-SEE-54 The four guys just stood there on the sidewalk amid the scurrying people exiting their cars, checking baggage, and rushing into the Terminal. Traffic noises were loud and disconcerting, and the valets encouraged everyone to hurry along to keep the whole show moving. Kevin looked at Hugo and said, "I guess this is it, Babe! It's a little more intimidating than I expected..." Hugo leaned over and gave Kevin a little kiss of reassurance on his cheek. "I think we might as well see what's next." Then he turned and addressed the boys: "And when we're finished processing through security, we can all sit down together for a bite to eat before we board the plane." "Yeah. That'll be good. I'm hungry," Jilder said. "Me too," Nicky added. The boys were nearly holding hands and both kept only a step or two behind Hugo and Kevin. They had no intention of getting separated from them in THIS place... The group mounted a huge staircase which consisted of perhaps 100 individual steps seemingly suspended in the air with no supports. When they got to the very top, signs directed them to the security processing area. They went single file: first was Hugo carrying the tickets and passports and important documents in his black satchel; then came Jilder clutching his laptop, with eyes wide open in amazement, looking all around him but keeping very close to Hugo; and coming up next was Nicky, also keeping the whole group together pretty tightly and watching for things happening behind them; finally, Kevin was right behind the boys, barely a step after them. "Sir, how many are in your party?" a TSA agent asked as Hugo approached. "Four. Two adults and two children." "Do you have anything to declare? Do you have any firearms, drugs, or flammable items?" "No, no, no, and no," Hugo answered. "Please put everything here on the table in front of you." Everyone was listening to Hugo's conversation with the TSA agent; so they complied in unison, placing the laptops and the satchel and Kevin's bag on the table. "Now, will you all sit down and remove your shoes and then return to the processing line?" the agent asked. Hugo initiated a query to the agent about their unique traveling situation. "Ah, the boys have steel bars surgically implanted in their ribcages for medical reasons. I have documentation from the surgeon, x-rays, and photographs to document the extent of the implants." Hugo said. The TSA agent looked at Hugo like he'd announced they all had the Ebola virus. He stopped moving the line of travelers along and came up to Hugo. "Yes sir, we'd like to see the documentation, especially the x-rays and photographs." Hugo complied and the agent took the sizeable folder of medical documents to another agent, presumably a supervisor or the like. Together they shuffled through the x-rays and documents and spoke to each other out of earshot of Hugo, Kevin, and the boys. In a moment they came over to Hugo and Kevin and said, "We'd like to see the boys and "wand them." (That is, they wanted to pass a portable x-ray machine over the boys to substantiate the presence of the metal retainers where the x-rays indicated.) "Huh." Hugo said. "We will request a pat-down for the boys; they've already had an inordinate number of x-rays for medical reasons. As you can read in the documentation, our surgeon calls for NO X-RAYS or similar imaging of the boys." And Hugo looked the TSA agent in the eyes, not blinking even once. He clearly meant business. "I have the surgeon's cell phone number. He has made himself available should you need to speak with him. He is making rounds at the San Diego general hospital about now," Hugo said. "I don't think that will be necessary," the supervisor answered. In a moment the agents had patted down both boys. They looked at each other, but remained silent. "Hummm? I never seen anything like this before," the agent said to his supervisor. "It's a life-threatening condition that has to be treated by the insertion of the retainer bar for 2 or 3 years," Hugo volunteered, trying to put the agents at ease by giving them a little more information. "Don't that hurt?" the agent looked at Nicky and asked. "Yessir, sometimes. But mostly now it's tolerable. Just when I'm trying to sleep. But before I got it, I couldn't breath and nearly died; so it's better than dying," Nicky's child-like honesty brought truth in Capital Letters to the agents skeptical ears. "Yeah! I bet." the agent replied. The supervisor pronounced, "This will be no problem. I can see these boys is completely natural and honest about this irregularity; so we don't have no reason to doubt you." "Now we got to look at them laptops," the agent proceeded with his job. "Ah, not quite," Hugo said. "What's that?" the agent answered as the supervisor stood nearby. "Well, I have medical records too that document that I have been the recipient of stem-cell implants to restore my hearing. The researchers, Dr. Kavanaugh of Dublin, Ireland, provided me with documentation requesting that no x-rays be beamed on my neck or head in the vicinity of my ears. They don't know how vulnerable my new hearing may be to direct x-rays; so they don't want me receiving any," Hugo explained to the two TSA agents staring at him incredulously. "So I'll be taking a pat-down too." Hugo went on, "Uh? Will that be a problem?" "You mean you was deaf until you got some special operation?" the agent asked. "Yes. I had been totally deaf since I was a very small boy. And only because of this break-through use of stem-cell implants was Dr. Kavanaugh able to re-grow my auditory nerves and restore my ability to hear." While the boys' surgical implants stretched Hugo's credibility, this cockamamie stem-cell story snapped it! "You ain't trying to say you was deaf and now you can hear... like in the bible?" the agent said with an edge of sarcasm in his remark. "Yes. That's it exactly. Here, please read these medical records from Dr. Kavanaugh. We're going to Ireland to visit him right now. He is taking me to several medical conventions to demonstrate what he was able to do with his stem-cell work." The TSA supervisor stepped over again and took the medical records directly from Hugo. He required a few moments to read them; then he returned them to Hugo saying, "OK. I believe you. We'll give you a pat-down too." Then the supervisor turned to Kevin and said: "Is there something wrong with you?" betraying a bit of unnecessary sarcastic impatience. Which remark cracked Kevin up and he laughed out loud at the agent saying, "Yep. I'm pretty much normal... I could tell you some weird stories about my stay in the hospital recently, but that wouldn't make any difference with getting through this security check." "Hummm." the supervisor registered wariness. "No. No. No." Kevin reiterated. "I'm just fine, and I'm looking forward to getting our family through this security stop. But I'll opt for a pat-down too, just to keep the family together." The TSA Agent patted Kevin down so briefly Kevin wondered that he'd have found anything tucked in his crotch... "But thank God this is all over," he thought. "Alright," the Supervisor said. "You gentlemen can move along now. You're finished here." "Oh, thank you very much," Kevin said. "Yeah! Thanks" Nicky and Jilder added. "We appreciate your patience," Hugo said. And everyone gathered their carry-ons; Hugo collected all the medical reports and stored them safely in his satchel once again; and the boys picked up their laptops, and Jilder asked, "Can we get somethin to eat now? I'm starvin..." Jilder was also a bit of a drama queen. He loved to exaggerate the extent of his distress, even if it were only being hungry. But they all loved him anyhow. (Funny, when he was in the hospital, though, he never complained-- not even once.) ***** Hugo, Kevin and the boys had almost two hours before scheduled boarding time. Leaving the security area, passengers were channeled across a dramatic little in-door bridge, perhaps 40 feet above the main floor, from one side of the mezzanine to the other; and one could look through three stories of window glass out onto the tarmac where magnificent air vehicles, capable of moving 700 people at a time across the continent in 5 hours, rested in elegant repose. A score of humans were scurrying about attending to their every need. "Dad! Are we going to fly on THAT airplane?" Nicky asked in awe merely of its colossal size. "Yes, son," Kevin replied. "That's our airplane. We'll go as soon as the men finish servicing it." "What are they doing to it?" Jilder asked. "Oh, my goodness," Kevin said... His mind whirling back twenty years ago when he boarded a similar aircraft that took him to Iraq. That was another lifetime, another wrinkle in a time warp; could it possibly have happened, Kevin thought? "Dad! Did you ride on one like that when you were in the Air Force?" Jilder asked Kevin. "Yes, son. One very much like that one." "How come you never talk much about being in the Air Force, Dad?" Nicky queried. "Oh, I don't know? I just don't think about it much. My life is so full of interesting things happening now, and I have Hugo and you guys to talk to and think about; that doesn't leave me time to dwell in the past," Kevin said. The little group had come to a halt in the middle of the bridge across the mezzanine; they stood hypnotized by the sight of the magnificent jet that would whisk them to New York City, and then, very likely, on across the Atlantic Ocean to Dublin. "See, Nick, Jilder... those guys driving the little yellow truck that's towing a big silver cart: they're loading the plane with food. Everyone will get a full dinner later tonight, and you'll have your choice of two in-flight movies..." "Man, that's cool..." Nicky said "What are those guys in the white doing, the one's with the face masks and big gloves, Kevin?" Jilder asked "Humm? I suppose they're loading oxygen into the aircraft. We'll be flying so high the cabin will be pressurized and the air will be filtered and augmented with oxygen. The pilot and co-pilot will need oxygen in case the cabin pressures fail," Kevin replied. "Gosh. That sounds like a spaceship," Jilder observed. "Yes. These aircraft are remarkable machines. We'll be flying at 700 miles an hour (that's about 5 miles every 30 seconds); we'll be carrying 700 people; we'll feed them all and provide entertainment for everybody, keep them all at just the right temperature; it's really remarkable," Kevin said from some distant time and place of personal reverie. His eyes focused on nothing really, but he looked with everyone else out the big windows at the gigantic parked aircraft. "Do you wish you were back in the Air Force now, Dad?" Nicky asked, holding Kevin's hand and leaning his head on Kevin's arm. Kevin looked down at that big billowy mop of red hair and said with considerable assurance, "Not for one second, Nicky. I am in love with you guys, and I don't want to be with anyone else but you. Certainly I don't want to be a half a world away from you...". He looked over them all with a very contented smile. Hugo listened to the conversation and added, "I'm glad you're here with us now too, Kev." And he returned Kevin's with his own knowing smile. Just up ahead, under an arbor trellis covered with bright fuchsia bougainvillea, a cafe inside of the terminal with an adjacent rotisserie beckoned the hungry travelers with it's lovely ambiance, savory aromas, and enchanting soft guitar music. "Look, Dad. Over there. That looks like a place to eat!" Nicky announced and took off ahead of the rest of the group. "Yeahhh! Wait for me, Nick" Jilder called, and he too ran ahead to catch up with his brother, both of them locked in on the possibility of food ahead. Hugo walked up behind Kevin and put his arm around Kevin's shoulders and said, "I know that you had a life before I met you, but I want you to know that I am so grateful that you decided to join me in my life." Kevin looked over at Hugo and still in his reverie he smiled calmly, lay his head on Hugo's shoulder, and spoke. "My life didn't begin--really--until I found you, Hugo. It was a dream all that time before... the Air Force... Now it's real, and you are the cause of my waking up, and the boys are my promise to the future that I will send nothing but happiness and hope to you. Thank you so much for coming into my life, Hugo." And they walked across the bridge to the other side, knowing that although the future is never to be predicted, they would go into it with each other, and the love that they carried inside assured their peace at any uncertainty. ***** "Dad, Dad! Hurry up! We wanna eat before we have to get on the airplane," Jilder yelled back to them as they walked into the cafe. "Yeah!" Nicky joined in. "I think we can walk past the grill and order stuff when we pass by. Then those guys in the red shirts and white aprons will take it to a table for us.... Coooool" "Okay, boys. Just be polite and don't order anything you won't be able to eat. At these airport prices I don't want to be feeding anybody's doggie bag," Kevin said. "Can we order a beer," Jilder yelled back at his parents. Hugo and Kevin both rolled their eyes and Hugo answered, "In your dreams! Lemonade, Jilder... Lemonade!.... Until you're 21 (or maybe 25, if I have my way...)" Jilder, laughing and happy that he'd 'rattled his dad's cage', as they say, placed his order at the grill and then ran over to join Nicky at the table Nicky occupied. Lunch was $80. ***** "Alright boys, make a quick 'pit stop' at the bathroom, and then meet us back here in front of the cafe as soon as you're finished. We'll wait right over there for you in those white chairs. AND DON'T SCREW AROUND AND BE LATE-- OH YEAH! AND DON'T GET LOST. "OK. Dad," Nicky yelled as he and Jilder headed off across the mezzanine toward the back of the building, away from the bridge over which they approached the cafe. "We'll be right back." And Nicky motioned to Jilder to join him as he turned and started running toward the restroom. "Nicky, wait up! Why are you in such a hurry?" Jilder said. "Cause I gotta pee--- BAD!" Nicky answered not looking back at Jilder at all. In just moments they both entered the restroom finding a dozen or so men standing at the urinals, washing their hands at the sinks, or waiting for the facilities to be free; so they could be used. Nicky went hurrying down the long row of shiny grey doors, maybe fifteen or so of them, bending to look under each one in his search for a private place where he could pee. "Here, Jilder, this last one's not being used. Let's go in here," Nicky said as he pulled the door to the stall open and without waiting for Jilder to follow, went in, dropped his laptop to the floor, pulled his penis from his jeans, and cut loose with a fire hose stream, a torrent of urine like only a young male can generate. Meanwhile, outside the restroom, Kevin and Hugo talked quietly in some comfortable chrome and white leather seating that gave them a breath-taking view of the lower level of the terminal, the vast windows over-looking the tarmac with the waiting aircraft, and the elevators with their glass fronts, shuttling passengers from the mezzanine up and down three stories to the loading gates. They could see the restrooms to which Nicky and Jilder both ran and disappeared within as well. ***** "Oooooooh....Boooooy, I really had to go..." Nicky said to Jilder. Jilder closed the door behind them and wiggled up between the white porcelain toilet and the partition separating their stall from the one next to them. As he squeezed into the small space between the toilet and the partition, he noticed someone on the other side bumping up against it. He looked down to see men's shoes, some dark trousers, and a white robe that the man must have been wearing on top of his regular clothes... Nicky noticed that, next, the man pulled his pants down and let them fall around his shoes, and pulled his robe up." Nicky looked over at Jilder and smiled and pointed at the adjacent stall, motioning with his hand two or three times, And Jilder was curious about what the guy was doing now; so before he took his penis out to pee, he got down on his knees and looked under the stall, being very careful to avoid detection in his spying. In the very next moment, Jilder sat up and put his hands over his mouth trying to cover up his amusement and disbelief; then Nicky whispered, "Jilder, what's goin on?" Jilder thought it was hilarious because the really fat guy right next to them...(And Jilder leaned over and whispered what the man was doing into Nicky's ear...) Clearly it was so funny-looking to Jilder that he exploded with laughter, and then he turned and told Nicky, "Wait! I still gotta pee." Jilder whispered. Jilder went ahead and peed too; together they couldn't do anything except laugh and try to keep their laughing quiet, but-- surprise, surprise-- there was little chance that those two could keep quiet after witnessing such a sight ***** Still waiting, Hugo and Kevin reviewed the next few steps in their travel itinerary as they relaxed waiting for the boys, and they agreed that they had considered and dealt with each requirement appropriately. There was only about an hour now until they would check in at their gate and actually board their flight. Kevin looked across the vast terminal to a huge clock, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, mounted on the opposite wall. "The boys have been gone a long time, don't you think, Hugo?" "Oh, Kev, you know how kids are at that age. They probably had to find an empty stall so that no one could see them pee." Hugo said with amusement. Kevin answered, "Oh, God, do I remember... But..... still....I think I ought to go check on them..." At that particular moment the man in the bathroom stall next to Nicky and Jilder said something in a really foreign sounding language Nicky said to Jilder, "I think he's talkin to us. Did you hear him talk, Jilder?" Nicky had finished using the toilet, and Jilder was just finishing up, when they both made lots of noise laughing and banging against the partition." Now that they'd finished peeing, Nicky reached over to the flush handle and flushed the toilet. The toilet made a really loud 'whoooosh' sound, and sprayed water all over both boys, even in their faces, which made them laugh all the louder and bang up against the enclosure again with even more abandon. Jilder jumped back from the water spray and hit the divider between the man's stall and theirs with quite a blow, and when he did, he startled the man, and the man dropped a shiny black gun that bounced under the divider into the boys' stall! Nicky looked at Jilder, and Jilder looked at Nicky, and in the next instant, Jilder grabbed the gun and threw open the door to their stall... The open door to the boys' stall blocked the closed door to the man's stall, and he started screaming again in a foreign tongue. The boys were gone and outside on the mezzanine floor as quick as they could run. Jilder had the gun, and Nicky was running so fast he passed Jilder, and when he was in front ... He yelled, "Over there, the elevator"... And they both ran in the direction of the glass elevators as fast as they could." Just seconds behind them in fierce pursuit, a man dressed in traditional Arabic garb, hardly suitable for the task of chasing after two jack-rabbit fast preteens, ran toward them as they approached the elevators. The boys crashed into an elevator and managed to close the door just seconds before the man reached the same elevator. And they started it moving slowly down to the lower level. They could be seen huddled together inside through the glass sides of the elevator. Kevin was stunned, being only a short distance from the restroom. He ran to the edge of the mezzanine and looked over to see the moving glass pod containing Nicky and Jilder. He was watching as the boys looked out and back up at the man who had been chasing them. At that moment, the man pulled out another gun and fired it in the boy's direction at the glass elevator. The gun must have had a silencer on it, because there was barely a whiz sound as the gun rebound in his hand and a little puff of smoke belched from the muzzle. From the angle at which the man fired, penetration of the heavy elevator glass was unlikely, but a scar appeared on the glass when the bullet scraped it whizzing by. Kevin turned and ran toward the elevator and the man with the gun. The man turned just as Kevin was approaching, and realizing that Kevin was coming for him, he swung around with his arm holding the gun trained in Kevin's direction. The man fired sending a bullet over Kevin's head, but now alarming the travelers all around them. Two women screamed at the ensuing struggle over the firearm. Kevin lunged at the man first, grabbing for the gun, but he only managed to shake it loose from the hand of the assailant, and when he did, the gun flew across the mezzanine a long way from the fighting men. In the moment or two that was required to wrestle the gun from the man's hand, Hugo had leaped across the mezzanine and lunged at the man who was struggling with Kevin, knocking the breath out of him with a single powerful blow to the solar plexus. And before the man could recover, Hugo was pounding him in the head and upper body in a fierce attack. Kevin staggered to his knees and grabbed the man from the back, holding his arms behind him as Hugo pummeled him unmercifully. All Hugo could conceive at that moment was that this man had tried to kill the people he loved, and he was enraged and animated by the instinct to kill. By this time, two airport security guards came running up with firearms drawn while two others, together, seized the man and dragged him away from the killer response he had ignited in Hugo. Even as the threat subsided after security had taken the man into custody, Hugo's eyes transmitted awesome and fierce power to protect his family from danger. Kevin ran to Hugo and said, "Hugo, did you get hit in the head?" "Fuck, I don't know, Kevin... I'm too fuckin pissed to know what's going on... Did I get hit? Does it look like my ears or head are red, like I got hit?" Hugo said. "I can't tell either. You've got to figure out whether your ears were damaged..." Kevin answered. "Well, Kev, I can hear, if that means anything..." Hugo said. "That means one hell of a lot! Thank God, Hugo." Kevin answered. "Yeah! I don't think we let the guy get off any punches at all, between you and me on him together." "Thank God that guy was sure one lousy fuckin shot!" Kevin said. "He could a blown me away point blank. I wonder what he's all about." "Oh, shit. Now where are the boys?" Kevin yelled when he realized they had been in the elevator. He ran over to the railing where he looked down from the mezzanine to the main floor, but Nicky and Jilder where nowhere to be seen. "I left my satchel over on the chairs-- Fuck!", and Hugo took off running in the opposite direction back over to the white chairs where he and Kevin sat before the melee began. There on the floor between the chairs were his satchel of documents and Kevin's carry-on bag. "Phew! Thank God..." Hugo muttered. The boys had taken their laptops into the restroom when they went in, but when they ran out, they didn't have anything. Kevin rushed into the restroom and started searching for the black laptops. He went from stall to stall looking inside of each one. In the last one, the one right against the wall, he found both laptops; so he picked them up with a sense of relief and started out. But before leaving the restroom Kevin, looked into the stall right next to the one in which the boys had left their laptops. He found a cardboard box containing a strange looking electronic device. It was composed of a transmitting antennae, one red and one green light, and two toggle switches. This is an explosives ignition device, Kevin realized. "Holy shit! Now where the fuck are the God damned explosives?" Kevin picked up the box containing the ignition device, and along with both laptops, he ran out into the middle of the mezzanine where a whole cadre of airport security officers were now congregating. Squad cars with blinking red lights were parked askew in front of the huge glass Bradley terminal building, and the place was now crawling with security cops. "Officer, Officer!" Kevin yelled at what looked like the ranking security officer as he ran up to them with his load in his arms. The security officers didn't register at all but turned to Kevin realizing that clearly the incident was not yet over. "Officers! I found this explosives initiating device in the toilet stall next to where my sons left their laptops before they ran out... It's very likely related to why they were running away from that Arab guy and why he was shooting at them... We've GOT to find those boys....fast!" The officers asked, "Do you know where they are, Sir?" "Who, Me?" Kevin replied, looking at the officers like they had missed a beat or something.... "Nooo. They escaped into the elevator that took them down, to the ground floor. That's when the guy fired his gun at them....God, who knows where they are? We've got to find out what they know. Maybe they know where the explosives are." After a brief conversation with Kevin, the senior security officer went on his hand-held radio and put out an all points bulletin to locate Nicky and Jilder... "Supposedly... somewhere in the Bradley Terminal on a downward bound glass elevator... maybe on the ground level now... maybe hiding...One has an afro-like red hair style (he's a white boy though), and the other is Hispanic with black hair. Both are dressed in jeans and sweatshirts and wearing tennis shoes. Bring them to the mezzanine where their parents are waiting. We need those boys to help uncover information about a possible explosives device on the premises." The Security Superior's bulletin ignited a flurry of movement among the security force all over the Bradley Terminal... Everyone was intent on finding those boys... The thought was that they HAD to be in the terminal. ***** Meanwhile a searching security officer found the opened door that lead onto the boarding platform of the large jet aircraft. Actually it was the deplaning passage which usually remained closed while boarding commenced. Two security men walked down the long telescoping passageway that terminated at the closed door in the bulkhead of the aircraft. "You think those kids got all the way out here?" one officer was saying to the other as he opened the door and craned his neck to look inside of the aircraft. "Hummm? I don't see anybody from here." "Are we going to have to search that aircraft aisle by aisle on both decks. That'll take us forever... Maybe they found those kids out in the lobby. Let's go check there first, before we search the aircraft." And with that, they both turned and exited the flexible boarding platform. ***** The superior officer up on the mezzanine with Hugo and Kevin was taking reports from his men, but so far none reported finding the boys. "Don't worry, Sir." He said to Kevin. "We'll find them; they can't have gone far in so short a time." "But you don't know 12-year olds! They can perform amazing stunts that you'd never expect," Kevin answered. "Still. We'll find them. That's for sure," the superior replied. Hugo pulled Kevin aside and started reliving the situation step by step, in an attempt to develop some idea of where the boys might be. "Look, Kev," Hugo said pointing 3 stories down from the mezzanine to the bottom. "Isn't that where we told the boys that we'd all be gathering before boarding the aircraft?" "Humm? Yes. That's what they knew," Kevin answered. "Then wouldn't you guess that maybe they tried to hide by boarding the aircraft?" Hugo speculated. "Well that's sure a possibility." Kevin said. "Do you think the police have considered that the boys might be on the aircraft, hiding in there somewhere?" "Oh, my God," Hugo said. "There are a million places to hide on that huge airplane. But maybe we should still suggest to the police that they search the plane." "Right!" Kevin agreed, and he turned back to the several officers near them. "Officers, we've just been talking, and we believe that it would be entirely possible that the boys have entered the aircraft somehow and are hiding in there. Could you initiate a thorough search of the plane? I think that would be a reasonable place to look." Kevin proposed. "Yes, Sir." the Superior officer said. "We sent two men up to the entrance of the plane, but they didn't find any signs of the boys. But, as you say, it's one place that we haven't looked; and so far they have eluded us entirely... It's worth a try." And with that the officer turned to his lieutenants and directed a search of the aircraft. He said: "Keep us apprised of the status every few minutes. Time is critical, and we need to know where those kids are, because we have no idea of where the explosives are hidden or whether they are programmed to detonate at some predetermined time, or whether they can only be initiated by the signal control box that we've found." Thus into the aircraft the men went. They searched everywhere, in every aisle, on all decks, in the galleys, in the lavatories-- all 10 of them, in the baggage holds that were accessible from the passenger compartments. But so far there were no boys.... Hugo and Kevin thought that they would join in the search of the aircraft itself too. They were allowed to enter in the presence of the Superior Security Officer on the scene, and they heard the reports from the searching officers. Hugo and Kevin were walking down one of the long aisles heading to the aft of the aircraft when they heard a thump in one of the overhead carry-on baggage compartments.... Hugo reached up and sprang the latch on the compartment where the noise seemed to originate. The cover flew up and lying inside, no worse for the wear.. apparently.. were Nicky and Jilder. "Hi, Dad! How did you find us!" Nick said. "NICHOLAS! WE'RE NOT PLAYIN HIDE-N-SEEK! We've been frantic... God, are you okay? Come on; Let me help you out of there," Hugo said. "JILDER! YOU TOO!" Kevin climbed up on a nearby seat and helped Hugo getting the boys out of the baggage storage compartments. Kevin asked: "Jilder, Nicky, WHAT went on in that bathroom? We gotta know, guys. You may be able to stop something terrible from happening." And as soon as Nicky's feet hit the floor of the aisle, Kevin grabbed him and gave him a big hug. "Thump!" and Jilder hit the deck next. "Oh, God, Jilder. I'm so glad we found you two, and you're okay. We've been worried sick. Thank God you're not hurt." and Hugo gave Jilder a fast hug too. The security officers heard Hugo & Kevin helping the boys out of the overhead baggage compartments, and they ran down parallel aisles to reach them. Hugo said softly to both of the boys, "Guys. Maybe you don't realize it, but that guy who was chasing you out of the bathroom and who shot at you, trying to kill, you might have been trying to blow up the airplane. The police will need to know all that you can tell them; so be thorough when you talk to them.... and don't hold anything back. They've got to move fast." The security men arrived on the aisle where the boys had been hiding; Kevin came to the point immediately, "Nick. Why was that man chasing you and shooting at you?" Nick looked at Jilder and said, "Should we tell em what we saw, Jilder?" "Yeah! I think we have to... It's important..." Jilder answered. "Yes, Sir." "Yes, Sir." they each said nodding their heads in understanding. Kevin was holding Nicky's shoulders and Hugo had his hand on Jilder's back while the boys sat in aisle seats. The senior Security Guard approached and knelt down onto one knee; so that he could look directly into the boys' eyes. "Boys, the man who was trying to get you, it turns out, may have planted explosives on this aircraft or somewhere in the terminal. We need to know whatever you can tell us about this man's behavior in the bathroom while you were there." "Yes, Sir." Nicky said, and he began to talk to the officer: "Me and Jilder had to pee, but we didn't want nobody to see us; so we went into the end stall with a toilet. We were gettin ready to pee, and then we noticed this person in a white robe movin around and bumpin the stall next to us. He first pulled his pants down around his shoes, and then he pulled his robe up." Nicky looked over at Jilder and smiled, "And Jilder was curious about what the guy was doing; so he got down on his knees and looked under the stall. He was careful; so's the guy couldn't see him looking. Well, then Jilder sits up and puts his hands over his mouth trying to cover up his laughing, and I whispered, 'Jilder, what's goin on?'" Jilder picked up the narrative and went on with Nicky's story: "I thought it was funny 'cause this really fat guy was bent over sticking a long, black flashlight-like thing up his butt! And he pushed it all the way up there!!! That was so funny looking that I had to laugh, and I sat back and told Nicky what I saw..." Nicky picked back up and continued: "We didn't do nothin then except laugh and try to keep our laughin quiet, but I guess we weren't so good at keepin the laughin quiet, because the man said somethin in a really foreign soundin English.... We thought he was talkin to us... I had to pee again; so I let lose and made noise peein in the water. Jilder stood up and peed with me too; we both made lots of noise, I guess." Nicky said, and then paused. His facial expression went from smiling to very serious. And he went on: "When we was finished peeing, I reached over to the flush handle and flushed the toilet. It made a really loud sound and splattered water all over me and Jilder. Jilder jumped back from the water spray and hit the divider between the man's stall and ours, and when he did, the man dropped a gun that bounced under the divider into our stall!" "I looked at Jilder, and he looked at me, and in the next instant Jilder grabbed the gun and threw open the door to our stall, and we both ran out as fast as we could." Then looking at Kevin and Hugo, Nicky said: "Sorry, Dad, we forgot our laptops..." "Oh, Buddy! That's okay..." Kevin said rubbing Nick's untamed red mop... Jilder interrupted Nicky and said, "The door to our stall blocked the door to the man's stall, and he started screaming again in a foreign language. We was gone and outside on the mezzanine floor as quick as we could run. I had the gun, and Nicky was running, running so fast he passed me, and got in front of me... He yelled, 'Over there, the elevator'... And we both ran over to the glass elevators as fast as we could." The security officer interjected a question, "Jilder, what did you do with the gun? Where is it now?" Jilder answered quickly, "I don't really know. But I put it up in the ceiling of the glass elevator that we was in... It was the middle one..." The security officer looked up at one of his men and said, "Take that elevator apart right now! I want that gun!" And with that order, the men ran down the long main aisle of the aircraft and out the open front hatch. The senior Security officer then turned back to the boys and asked, "Did you hear anything you could understand?" "The man was talking to somebody... I thought maybe a cell phone," Jilder said. "Was he speaking English?" the officer asked. "No, Sir... At least not as I could understand..." Jilder replied. A radio message came in to the Officer who was speaking with the boys, "Sir. We found the gun. It was right where the boy said he put it." And then the walkie-talkie crackled and went silent. "I know this will sound a little premature," Hugo said to the Security Officer: "But do you think there's any chance that this aircraft will be taking off today for New York? And will we all be permitted to go after you've questioned the boys?" "I don't know about the aircraft take-off time, now that this incident has occurred. We will have to make a thorough re-examination of all the baggage that has been stowed in the belly of this plane, as well as a re-examination of everyone who will be boarding it. It would seem that the suspect has explosives up in his rectum and colon! I can imagine how comfortable that must be, but there could me more elsewhere too," the Security Officer opined. "I'd speculate that your party will be delayed for at least another 3 or 4 hours before things are moving again... That's assuming that there are no other developments. But you are all free to go. I suggest you request the use of the airlines VIP lounge for you and the boys in the meantime... Oh, and please, leave your names and itinerary and a contact number that we can use to reach you" the officer replied. "Of course," Hugo replied. The boys looked over at Hugo and Kevin and asked whether they could go to the bathroom. Kevin looked at Hugo and said, "I'll go with them up to the front lavatory on this aircraft and wait for them to come out. I'm not taking any chances on more irregularities." "Thanks, Kev..." Hugo said as he reached over and put his hand on Kevin's. "Oh, great!" Kevin said quietly under his breath to Hugo. "Listen, Kev. Let's just be thankful that no one was killed or hurt and that we're going to be on our way tonight. This could have been the end of our lives." "You're so right, Babe. I'm a complainer when I let my self-centered ego take control. I apologize for my childishness.... At my age, it's not cute, I realize..." "But WHAT a beginning," Kevin muttered to himself as he followed the boys to the lavatory. *****