by Alton Reich
[Day 1]
The flight from National Airport to JFK was nothing more than a hop. By the time the Boeing 727 got up to altitude, it was already descending. The flight attendents served soda and peanuts that had to be eaten as quickly as possible before they were coming around to collect cups and little foil bags.
As he watched them work, Jordan wondered if the brakes on the beverage cart had ever failed while the plane was still climbing and sent it hurtling out the back of the plane. He figured that it hadn't, since ZULU would probably get the call if it ever did.
***
[FBI Field Office - New York]
"I'm Special Agent John Jameson," the tall African-American agent said grasping Jordan's hand firmly.
"Special Agent Jordan Stern, Team Leader of ZULU," Jordan replied. Jordan tried to discretely look Agent Jameson over. He was the kind of man you would have wanted on your college football team. He was big (by Jordan's standards), and he had an air of leadership about him. The kind of person who could inspire his team mates to risk permanent bodily injury to secure victory.
Jordan released Jameson's hand and began introducing the other members of ZULU, "This is Agent Leo Jones, Agent Zenya Gorky, Agent Jim Reaper, Agent Vanessa Lee, and Agent Martin Reed."
Jameson shook hands with each in turn and then said, "Come with me." He led them from the reception area and into the offices. "Would anyone like a cup of coffee?"
A few minutes later they were settled in a conference room, and Jordan got right to the point, "Agent Jameson, how did we get involved with a mauling?"
"Because no one else wanted to," Jameson explained.
"Great, we always get the things no one else wants to deal with," Jim said wryly.
"When it first came across my desk," Jameson continued, "I though it might have been an aligator. I worked in Miami for a couple of years, and once in a while someone would find a 'gator in the sewer system. People would buy them illegally and release them when they got big enough to be a problem. The sewer was about as close to home as they could find in the big city."
"I take it that it wasn't a 'gator?" Zenya asked.
"Nope," Jameson said removing a small stack of pictures from a folder and spreading them out. "The coroner found a bunch of claw marks on the victim. Aligators don't really use their claws when they hunt. They tend to clamp down with their jaws and shake their prey until parts begin to fall off."
"These look like teeth marks," Martin said pointing at one of the pictures, "like fangs almost."
"Coroner saw those also," Jameson explained, "His report referred to them as mamilian."
"So we're looking for a giant sewer rat," Leo said.
NRPG:
Ok, folks, we're off and running. Feel free to make up details as you need to. The Subway station in question is in Brooklyn. As for the culprit, that remains to be seen.
Life is returning to normal around here. The kids are in school and Beth starts school Wednesday. I'm not for the first time in a long time.