Someone first noticed the case at 8:35 am. It was a compact black leather piece of hand baggage of the design known as a ‘sample case.’ It was a Delta counter assistant at gate 43 who saw it sitting next to an empty seat on the end of a row slightly to her left. It was no big thing when she saw it but she made a mental note of it because that was part of her job. She assumed that the owner was just getting a coffee from the Starbucks opposite gate 30.
Ten minutes later the gate assistant noticed that the case was still there and still unattached to anybody. She did what she was supposed to do and called airport security. She explained the situation and location: the security officer replied that someone would come along and check it out.
Four minutes later an airport security guard arrived at gate 43 and walked up to the case. He asked several of the people in the area if they knew whom the case belonged to. Nobody could give him any details other than one youth in a Led Zeppelin tee shirt who said he thought it had been placed there by a tall middle-aged man.
“But he wasn’t wearing a turban or anything.” He joked.
The Security officer fixed him with a stern look and said: “We don’t appreciate remarks like that sir; please keep them too yourself.” The fact that it was exactly the kind of remark that the security branch and TSA employees exchanged all the time remained his little secret. The young man looked somewhat abashed and replaced the earbuds from his ipod into his ears.
Next the security officer removed his walkie-talkie set and reported to his senior in the small office space that was shared by their department in the center of the airport. Having done his job he stepped back and kept his eye on the case. This kind of thing happened at least four or five times a day. There was never much to get worried about.
Five minutes later a uniformed officer with a small work case arrived in the company of another uniformed man who had a lively looking dog on the end of a short leash. The dog approached the case and sniffed around it for a moment or two before returning to the side of his trainer. The trainer gave him a dog treat from his pocket and the dog ate it happily. He liked to sniff things and he loved the Pupperoni he was given as a treat for doing so. Life was good.
The second officer approached the suspicious piece of luggage with a small instrument he had removed from his work case. There was a brief whirling sound and the small LCD screen on the instrument registered a series of different shapes and colors. The officer looked at it carefully and said to his colleague: “There is a lot of stuff in there, quite a bit of electronics. We had better play it safe.”
The security guard who had been on the scene first picked up the case carefully and flanked by the other two officers walked the case carefully away from its resting place. They made there way to the concrete bunker that was housed in the bowels of the airport. Everybody involved had done his or her job in a timely and correct manner.
In just a little over 20 minutes the case had been spotted, reported, investigated and removed. In another few minutes it would be covered in thick white foam and destroyed by a highly controlled explosion by the head of the mechanical team. The explosion would be watched and videotaped by him as it took place behind the 24-inch concrete wall in front of his computer stand.
It was at about this time that the tall blonde haired man arrived at gate 43 with a cardboard Starbucks in his hand. He had a smile on his face as he had been enjoying drinking his latte in the company of a fellow magician he had met inside the coffee emporium. The smile left his face when he realized his case full of magic props was no longer where he had left it.
He approached the person sitting closest to where the bag had been and asked him if he had seen where his case was. He didn’t hear it but almost exactly as he spoke there was a muffled bang from a concrete room in a distant part of the airport. Life is hell during wartime.
