He would never be one hundred percent certain what he had seen happen that night, no matter how many times he relived it. One second he was watching the jet settling toward a landing and the next, an explosion burst from the rear of the plane. Initiating back by the twin turbofan engines, the small, bright blast tore through the night, out of nowhere. It occurred to Ben that the sound of that initial explosion wasn’t all that much louder than big shells at a good fireworks display; just loud enough to get your attention. None the less, he felt it his guts when it detonated. Immediately after that initial ‘Pop’, the back of the Learjet blossomed into an orange, yellow and black ball of flame. Ben watched in fascinated horror as secondary explosions tore the small jet apart. The whole flaming mess fell rapidly and struck the ground. It wasn’t as graphic or spectacular as what one might see on the silver screen, but… Real, heavy pieces of what moments before had been a powerful little corporate jet were now flaming, smoking remnants that tumbled crazily across the grassy verge. As the pieces settled, the sound of the secondary blasts rolled out from the crash site.
Oh, shit, he thought.
Things were definitely not going smoothly anymore.
The mesmerizing effect of the unexpected crash was shattered by the sound of BLI’s Aircraft Rescue Firefighting trucks, tearing toward the crash site from their station at mid-airport. Everyone had stopped whatever they’d been doing when the jet went down. Crashes are constantly on the minds of almost everyone who travels through or works at an airport. When it actually happens, there is always a brief moment of disbelief; witnesses drink in the sensation, as if confirming that what they’d just seen or heard really happened. Ben and the radio tech came out of the reverie quite quickly. Ben’s immediate concern was gaining control of everything else that was going on right now. Orders left the comm. van for perimeter and take down assets to grab everyone from the buyer’s retinue, immediately. Since the van from the ice arena had moved to the hangars, they had unwittingly brought themselves closer to the majority of the take down team. Both vanloads were confronted. A brief firefight broke out when a gang member burst out of the van and opened up with an AK-47. He died in a hail of SWAT gunfire, which quickly convinced his companions of the futility of further resistance: They were subdued without further incident. All the peripheral bad guys had been corralled in less than two minutes from the time the initial order went out.
Saks and Raible were thinking along the same lines tactically; however their charges were still on edge and angry due to their perceived mistreatment at the hand of Saks. When the noise of the explosion rolled across the GA tarmac, Khan assumed some kind of double cross and drew a semi-automatic pistol. Mirroring his boss’s move, his driver started to draw his own pistol. Fortunately, neither Saks nor Raible was unprepared for such an event. Before Khan could level his pistol at Saks, Raible had whipped his coat aside, raised his MP-5 and leveled it at Khan’s midriff. One look at his face gave no illusion whatsoever as to what would happen if Khan’s pistol continued to rise. Just to make sure Khan understood the circumstances, Raible spoke quietly:
“Move and I’ll fuckin’ cut you in half. Drop it or you’re dead where you stand…”
Khan’s driver had focused, for a fateful fraction of a second, on Raible’s movement. His hesitation revealed his lack of experience handling weapons: By the time he realized his error, he was facing the very large, double-barrels of Saks’ sawed off 12-gauge. Saks smiled evilly as he noted the surprise and fear in the man’s eyes.
“That goes double for you, pal; move and I’ll blow your belly out your asshole...
Drop it, now.”
Khan and his associate dropped their weapons and raised their hands.
Ben pushed back the console chair in the back of the van. He removed a headset, sighed, and looked at his commo guy.
“Holy shit, what the fuck was that? What the hell just happened out there?”
Radar stared at his display screens, as if an answer might appear there.
“I have no idea, Ben, but I do believe we are in deep kimchee.”
Ben stepped out of the van and started walking toward the north end of the field.
