Chapter 18: Guerrero Leaves Home

Chapter 18: Guerrero Leaves Home

Nervously, D. O. Guerrero lit another cigarette from the end of his last one. His hands were shaking. He could not hide his fear - fear that the plane would leave without him, fear that he would be a failure once again.

He was on a bus on his way to the airport. The bus was moving very slowly through the snow and the heavy traffic. The passengers had been told that Flight Two, which they were all to travel on, had been delayed by an hour. But it might take them two or three hours to reach the airport, and Flight Two would not wait for them for ever.

There were only a few people on the bus. The driver said that he thought a lot of people had gone to the airport by car, to try to get there quickly. Everyone was talking about their chances of reaching the airport in time. Only Guerrero said nothing.

Most of the passengers were tourists, but there was also an Italian family with several children.

‘Don’t worry,’ the driver said,’ we might just get there in time.’ But they were still moving as slowly as before.

D. O. Guerrero passed his tongue over his dry lips. He needed ten or fifteen minutes at the airport, in order to buy his flight insurance. It would not be enough for him simply to catch the flight; he must have the insurance, too. He hadn’t known that the weather would be so bad. He always had bad luck! All his great plans failed. But this one must not fail! He had already made one stupid mistake, he thought bitterly.

He was carrying no luggage except the small case that contained the bomb.

When he had gone to catch the airport bus, the ticket agent had asked him; ‘Where are your cases, sir?’

Guerrero paused. ‘I don’t have anything but this.’

‘No luggage for a trip to Rome, sir?’

The man looked surprised, and Guerrero thought that he was looking at him strangely.

‘No,’ he said, and hurried to the bus.

He knew that the agent would not forget his face. Later, when the questions were asked, he would remember the man with no luggage.

He should have brought some luggage!

But the plane would be completely destroyed, he reminded himself. They would not be able to prove anything against him. The flight insurance company would have to pay Inez.

Would this bus never get to the airport?

The Italians’ children were running up and down the bus, and their baby was crying. Guerrero wanted to cry out at them to stop making that noise. Didn’t they know that this was no time for playing or talking?

One of the running children fell into the seat next to

Guerrero and almost knocked his case onto the floor. He raised his hand to hit the child, and then, with an effort, managed to control himself. It would be stupid to draw attention to himself.

For a moment the boy looked into his eyes, and Guerrero found that he had to look away. They would all be dead soon. The children too. He couldn’t afford to become soft-hearted now. In any case, it would all be over before they knew what was happening.

At last! The bus was moving faster. They might arrive in time. There seemed to be less traffic on the road now.

He was glad that he had not hit the child. But it was a pity that he had forgotten to bring any luggage with him. He began to worry about it. Perhaps the agent had telephoned the airport. The police might be waiting for him as he got off the bus.

If they were, Guerrero decided, he would pull the string and blow himself up. Whatever happened, he would not go to prison.

He wondered if Inez had found his note yet.

She had.

---

Inez Guerrero came into the apartment, feeling very tired, and took off her wet coat. Her shoes were wet, too, and they hurt her feet. She was getting a cold, and her work in the coffee shop had I seemed harder than usual today. She was not used to this kind of work, and now she ached with tiredness.

Two years ago, in her own comfortable home, Inez had been a pleasant-looking woman. Her pretty face had disappeared with their money. In better days, she had looked younger than she was; now she looked much older. She would have liked to take a hot bath, but there was only a cold, dirty bathroom which was shared by three families. Inez could not bear to go into it. Instead, she went into the living room. She had no idea where her husband was. After a while she saw a note on the table. She read: “I won’t be home for a few days. I’m going away. I expect to have some good news soon, which will surprise you. D. O.”

Few things that her husband did surprised Inez. He had often made plans without asking her advice. Good news would be a wonderful surprise, but she didn’t really believe that there would be any. She had seen her husband’s plans fail so many times before.

But where was he going? And what money did he have? She knew that he had only a few dollars in his pocket, because they had counted their money the day before. They had had twenty - two dollars, and she had taken fourteen to help pay the rent. She remembered the look of sadness she had seen on her husband’s face as he put the remaining few dollars into his pocket.

She decided to stop worrying and go to bed. She opened a drawer to put her clothes away and noticed that some things had been moved but that D. O. did not seem to have taken any clothes with him. In the drawer she found a piece of yellow paper; she learned from it that D. O. Guerrero had bought an airline ticket to Rome. He had paid forty-seven dollars, and had promised to pay the rest over two years.

Inez could not believe it. Why did he need an airline ticket? And why to Rome? How could he have paid forty-seven dollars?

Then she remembered her mother’s ring. Before she looked in the box, she knew that it had gone. She was upset that he had sold the ring. It had been her last reminder of her past life, of her family, and of happier days.

Why had he gone to Rome?

Inez was not a very clever woman, but she understood her husband. Somehow she knew that he was in trouble, and that she must try to help him. He had been behaving strangely recently.

She did not think of leaving him to solve his own problems.

She had married him ‘for better or worse’, and the fact that it had been mainly ‘worse’ did not mean that her responsibility to him had lessened.

She forgot her tiredness, and hurried out in her wet clothes to find a telephone. She phoned Trans America and discovered that the flight to Rome had been delayed by an hour. It would leave at eleven o’clock instead of the usual ten o’clock.

It was now five past ten.

‘Please, can you tell me if my husband is on the flight?’ Inez asked. ‘His name is D. O. Guerrero.’

‘I’m sorry, but we are not allowed to give any information about passengers,’ was the reply.

‘But I’m his wife!’ Inez cried.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t break a company rule.’

She would have to go out to the airport herself, and try to find him.

She spent her last few dollars on a taxi. She was still on her way when the airport bus reached the terminal. D. O. Guerrero was the first person to step off it.