FAHD KASSIN, WHO had been monitoring Billy Barnett’s calls, honed in on the word Paris. It put him on high alert, and he listened to the rest of the conversation with eager anticipation.
He was disappointed. Billy Barnett failed to elaborate on the comment, saying merely that he would see Stone tomorrow.
Fahd threw down the headphones in disgust. Why couldn’t the man have been more explicit? Instead, he’d hardly been any help at all. He’d referred to the man he called as “Stone,” probably a nickname, and they referred to a third man as the commissioner, though no one said commissioner of what. He also had an unlikely name, though Fahd couldn’t recall it, he’d have to listen to the recording again. Fahd didn’t want to do that, he wanted a lackey to do it for him. Only he’d had that lackey shot.
All right. Billy Barnett was in Los Angeles, but the number he’d called was in a different area code: 212. He could look that up. More grunt work.
Fahd summoned one of the techies from the other room. The man came in rather hesitantly. The last techie summoned from that room had never returned.
“What’s your name?”
“Joram.”
Fahd handed him a piece of paper. “Trace this phone number, Joram. I want to know who owns it, and where he lives.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the techie scurried out, Fahd heard a ringtone sound coming from the headphones, indicating one of the lines he was tracking was making a call. He looked at the computer screen. It was Billy Barnett again. Fahd grabbed the headphones and jammed them on.
Fahd hoped he was calling his party back, but this time it was an eight hundred number. It rang twice before it was picked up.
“Thank you for calling American Airlines. If you are checking on a reservation, press one. If you are changing a reservation, press two. If you are making a new reservation, press three.”
The recorded menu would have daunted most callers, but over the mechanical voice there came the touch tone sounds of Billy Barnett punching in some code or other, and almost immediately the line was answered by an actual human being.
“American Airlines reservations, this is Jeremy, how may I help you?”
Aside from taking Billy first, Jeremy treated him just like any other customer, and took his reservation.
When Billy hung up, Fahd smiled in satisfaction. At last he had something he could deal with.
Fahd took off the headphones and picked up the phone.