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“No longer, or never was?”
“No longer. Since last night.”
“How do you know?”
“And something else. In addition to changing the registration numbers, they took all the seats out and put in fuel bladders.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, I know somebody who talked to somebody who talked to the truck drivers who took the bladders to Abéché.”
“And how did somebody who talked to somebody know of your interest?”
“Just between us, Charley, a mutual friend of ours in the air cargo business flew them from Mogadishu—you know that’s in Somalia, right?”
“I even passed Basic Geography 101 at West Point,” Castillo said.
“Do they grade on the alphabetic or numerical scale at West Point? I always wondered.”
“Numeric. You were saying these bladders were flown to where?”
“N’Djamena. That’s in Chad, I suppose you know.”
“Is it really? When did our friend do this?”
“About three weeks ago. And knowing our friend would be a little curious about why anyone would want fuel bladders in Chad, I asked the pilots to snoop around a little. They found out they were to be trucked to Abéché.”
“I wonder why our friend’s customer didn’t want them flown directly to Abéché?”
“Putting all the little dots together, are you? I wondered, too.”
“And putting your little dots together, what did you conclude? ”
“I’ll bet I concluded the same thing you have,” Kennedy said. “I hope you understand, Charley, that if our friend had any idea about Abéché he would have declined the charter. As I hope we’ve made clear, our friend really wants to avoid the spotlight of public attention.”
“So that’s how you know—actually, think—that the airplane was in Abéché?”
“No. I have what the FBI would call ‘eye witnesses’ to that.”
“I don’t suppose you know where the airplane is now? Or have the new registration numbers?”
“New registration numbers and a new airline paint job. No, I don’t.”
“Wonderful!”
“But I’ll bet it isn’t in Somalia . . .”
“Why fly the bladders from there if the airplane was going there, right?”
“Great minds travel similar paths.”
“Got a guess where it might be?”
“Not a clue. But I’m working on that, and the new identi fication, even as we speak. If I find out something, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Thank you.”
“I don’t suppose you have anything you’d like to share with me?”
