HEARTBREAKER Read Online Free PDF Page B

you again, Nick.”
    “How are you feeling today, Jim?”
    Sorensky smiled. “Still worried I’ll have a heart attack while we’re in the air?”
    Nick shrugged to cover his embarrassment. “The thought has crossed my mind,” he said. “It could happen.”
    “Yes, it could, but I’m not the only man on board who can fly this plane.”
    “I know.”
    “But it doesn’t make you feel any better, does it?”
    “No.”
    “As much as you have to fly, you’d think you’d get used to it.”
    “You’d think I would, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
    “Does your boss know you get sick every time you get on a plane?”
    “Sure he does,” Nick answered. “He’s sadistic.”
    Sorensky laughed. “I’m going to give you a real smooth ride today,” he promised. “You aren’t going on with us to London, are you?”
    “Fly over an ocean? That’s never going to happen.” The thought made his stomach lurch. “I’m going home.”
    “Have you ever been to Europe?”
    “No, not yet. When I can drive there, I’ll go.”
    The captain glanced at the magazine he held in the palm of his hand. “Thanks for letting me hold on to this. I know I don’t have the legal right to ask you to give it up.”
    “But it makes you nervous to have a loaded weapon on board, and I don’t want a nervous pilot flying this plane.”
    Nick tried to get past Sorensky so he could get settled in his seat, but the captain was in the mood to chat.
    “By the way, about a month ago I read a real nice article in the newspaper about you saving that poor boy’s life. It was interesting to read about your background and how you’re best friends with that priest . . . how the two of you ended up taking different paths. Now you wear a badge and he wears a cross. And saving that child . . . it made me proud to know you.”
    “I was just doing my job.”
    “The article also mentioned that unit you work with. What was it he called the twelve of you?” Before Nick could answer, the captain remembered. “Oh, yes, the Apostles.”
    “I still haven’t figured out how he managed to get that information. I didn’t think anyone outside the department knew about the nickname.”
    “Still, it’s fitting. You saved that little boy’s life.”
    “We were lucky this time.”
    “The reporter said you refused to be interviewed.”
    “This isn’t a glory job, Jim. I did what I had to, that’s all.”
    The agent’s humility impressed the captain. With a nod, he said, “You did a fine thing. That little boy’s back with his parents now, and that’s all that counts.”
    “Like I said, we were lucky this time.”
    Sorensky, sensing Nick’s unease with his compliments, quickly changed the subject. “There’s a U.S. Marshal Downing on board. He had to give me his weapon,” he added with a grin. “Do you happen to know him?”
    “The name’s not familiar. He isn’t transporting, is he?”
    “Yes, he is.”
    “What’s he doing on a commercial flight? They’ve got their own carriers.”
    “This is an unusual situation according to Downing. He’s taking a prisoner back to Boston to stand trial and he’s in a hurry,” he explained. “Downing told me they got the boy cold for selling drugs and that it’s an open-and-shut case. The prisoner isn’t supposed to be violent. Downing thinks his lawyers will plea him out before the judge ever picks up his gavel. Like you, they preboarded. The marshal’s from Texas. You can hear it in his voice, and he seems like a real nice fella. You ought to go introduce yourself to him.”
    Nick nodded. “Where are they seated?” he asked with a quick glance into the main cabin of the mammoth plane.
    “You can’t see them from here. They’re on the left side, back row. Downing has the boy shackled and handcuffed. I’m telling you, Nick, his prisoner can’t be much older than my son, Andy, and he’s just fourteen. It’s a crying shame, someone that young is going to spend the rest of his life in