Fright of flight

>Day 1, 1400

>> "And what about the hearts?"

>> Leo glanced down at the reports he was reading, then back at Jim. >> "When you said ripped out, you weren’t too far off the mark. According to >> the reports from Denver, the removal of the hearts was done with no >> particular skill and apparently without surgical instruments."

>"The coroner in Denver states that the knife used had a serrated edge, >about 6 inches long," Jordan read. "That would be about the size of a >steak knife."

>"And the knife was never recovered," Zenya added.

"No, I'm afriad not. And such a common knife must be found in almost every household across the whole United States." he said with a bitter smile.

>"The heart was a very powerful symbol in ancient cultures," Vanessa >said, "and the heart was often offered as sacrifice to the gods."

>"The Aztecs used to remove the hearts from their sacrificial victims," >Jim pointed out.

>"And the heart was important to the ancient Egyptians," Jordan said, >"They would remove all the internal organs from the dead except the >heart."

"So we can assume that this murderer is not an Egyptian?" Jim said, cracking another joke.

The whole group laughed, easing the tension felt.

>***

>They made their way through Albuquerque airport. Compared to the >airport they left the facility was quite small. When they arrived at >their departure gate, Zenya looked out the window, "You mean we have to >fly on that?"

>Jordan looked at his ticket, "Nope, that's a 40 passenger Dash-8."

>"Oh, good," Zenya sighed.

>"We have to fly on that," Jordan said pointing, "a 19 passenger >Beachcraft 1900."

>Zenya's eyes took on a look of panic.

>"Don't worry," Jordan reassured her, "I've never been on one that's >crashed."

>"Great," Zenya replied following him to check in.

To the agents' surprise, they had almost the whole plane to themselves.

"THe privilge of flying at weird hours," Leo said to no one in particular.

THe plane was rather small, and the agents realised that it would be impossible to talk much about the case without being overheard by the 5 or so other passengers on board.

"So what are the plans after we had landed?" Vanessa asked, trying to use words that did not tag any significant meaning lest there are eavesdroppers.

The rest of the team seemed to understand her.

"We will be met by someone I know," Jordan replied. "If everything goes fine, the report (read:autopsy report) will be with him. I was hoping that all of us will go to the ceremony(read: funeral) together. Sometimes more eyes are better. "

Just then, the plane began to shake violently.

"What the - ", Zenya asked, her face paled.

"Turbulance," Leo replied with such steadiness in his voice, it was as if he encountered a turbulance everyday. He did not even bother to buckle his belt as the plane tossed like a toy in the air.

"Oh my goodness, are we going to crash?" she said. The rest of the team looked at her, abit surprised at her lack of confidence in modern aviation technology.

Zenya gripped at the armrest of her seat, her knuckles white, until the plane stablise and everything returned to normal.

"Everything is fine now," Vanessa said with a gentle voice and a smile on her lips, as if she was calming down a child who had just seen the 4-eyed monster under his bed.

Zenya looked around, expecting another turbulance. It took her a while before she dared to release the tight grip of her hands.

"What made you so scared of flight?" Jim asked, curious.

Forunately for her, the rest of the flight was uneventful, and the plane landed soon safely soon after in Santa Fe. The game began.

Regards,
Lee Sau Woon aka SA Vanessa Lee