his answer to a nod.
‘I’m Samuel Abbot – I’ll be flying you today.’ He shook their hands. ‘Okay, if you’ll follow me?’
He led them out on to the parking apron. At this time of year the temperature in Vegas fell far short of the blistering heat of summer, but the combination of the high sun and an unbroken expanse of concrete meant that a wave of hot air rolled over them as they left the air-conditioned terminal building. Eddie tugged at his collar again.
Nina had bigger concerns than personal comfort. She looked around for any signs that their cover had been blown. No security vehicles screamed towards them, no guards raised guns. They had passed the first hurdle.
But there would be more to come.
A Boeing 737 airliner, white with the red stripe of the Janet fleet, was parked nearby, but Abbot took them to a smaller plane in the same livery, a Learjet 35A. Its twin engines were already idling. ‘Private jet,’ said Nina. ‘Nice to get the VIP treatment.’
‘Yeah, but if this goes pear-shaped,’ Eddie reminded her quietly, ‘our next flight’ll be with Con Air.’
The door was open; Abbot showed them inside. The plush six-seater cabin was empty, but Nina saw a co-pilot already in the cockpit. ‘If you’ll take your seats,’ said Abbot, closing the hatch, ‘we’ll get this show on the road.’ He joined the other man up front.
Eddie listened warily to the pilots and their radio communications, but heard nothing that suggested potential danger. He relaxed, slightly. The engine noise rose. ‘Okay, fasten your seatbelts,’ Abbot said over the intercom as the plane began to move. Nina nervously pulled her restraint tight, but Eddie left his belt loose – just in case he needed to make a move in a hurry.
The crew didn’t seem about to turn against them, however. Take-off was swift, the Learjet quickly ascending to ten thousand feet and heading north. A barren landscape of desert and mountains spread out below. ‘Hey,’ said Eddie after a while, indicating something through a window. ‘Guess what that is.’
Nina saw a stark, almost circular expanse of pale sand against the russet-browns of the surrounding terrain. A dry lake bed, she guessed; on its southern edge was what looked like an airfield, a long runway stretching all the way across the flat plain. ‘I don’t know. A military base?’
Eddie chuckled. ‘Yeah, you could say that. That’s Area 51!’
‘You’re kidding. What, the Area 51? Where they’re supposed to keep the aliens and flying saucers?’
‘That’s the one. I’d love to poke around there, just to see if any of the stories are true.’
‘You might get the chance,’ said Nina as the plane tipped into a descent. ‘You think that’s where we’re going?’
He pressed his cheek against the window for a better view ahead. ‘Don’t think so. Looks like we’re heading for the hills east of it.’ A frown. ‘Weird, I didn’t think there was anything out there.’
‘Oh, so you’re an expert on Area 51?’ Nina asked, teasing.
‘Had a bit of an interest back when The X Files and all that kind of stuff was big,’ he admitted. ‘Used to buy magazines called things like Alien Encounters. Hey, come on!’ he added, seeing her smirk. ‘Military secrets are a lot more boring in real life than on TV. It’s loads more fun to imagine you’re guarding a crashed UFO than a warehouse full of broken radio gear. And yes, I had to do that once. For a whole month.’
‘Poor baby. So what is down there?’
‘That’s the thing: nothing. That’s why they put Area 51 out here in the first place, ’cause it was fifty miles from anybody who might be watching.’
The plane slowed, engines easing back as it continued its descent. ‘Okay, folks,’ said Abbot over the intercom, ‘we’ll be landing at Silent Peak in five minutes. Put your seats and tray tables in the upright position, huh?’ He laughed a little at his aeronautical joke.
Nina wasn’t amused, though. The message had hammered home the reality of what they were about to do. ‘God, if something goes wrong while we’re out here . . .’
‘Bit late to start worrying now,’ said Eddie. ‘But we got this far okay. All we can do is keep pretending we know what we’re doing.’
‘Isn’t that what we always do?’
The Learjet kept slowing, dropping towards the rugged hills. Eddie looked for their destination. They were heading into a closed valley, a single large rocky peak beyond, but there was no sign of anywhere they might