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“I guess he knows I’m not overly keen on him.”

“He is taking Flight Two to Rome tonight.”

Mel smiled. “The Golden Argosy?” Mel was aware that Trans America Flight Two—The Golden Argosy—was the airline’s prestige flight. He also knew that only the line’s most senior captains ever commanded it.

At an adjoining table, a woman said loudly, “Geez! Look at the time!”

Instinctively, Mel did. Getting up from the table, he told Tanya, “Don’t go away. I have to make a call.”

There was a telephone at the cashier’s counter that he used. Danny Farrow’s voice said, “I was going to call you. I just had a report on that stuck 707. You knew they had asked TWA for help? TWA has sent for Joe Patroni.”

“If anyone can get that airplane moved tonight,” Mel conceded, “it’ll be Joe.”

“Oh, a bit of good news—we found that United food truck. The driver was unconscious under the snow. But they got an inhalator on him, and he’ll be all right.”

Tanya was still at the table when Mel returned, though preparing to go.

“I’m coming, too.”

As Mel paid their check, two Trans America ticket agents entered the coffee shop. One came across.

“Excuse me, Mr. Bakersfeld… Mrs. Livingston, the D.T.M.’s looking for you. There is a stowaway—on Flight 80 from Los Angeles.”

Tanya appeared surprised. Aerial stowaways were seldom a cause of great concern.

Mel walked with Tanya from the coffee shop into the central lobby and stopped at the elevator.

“Drive carefully out there,” she cautioned.

“Your stowaway sounds interesting. It’ll give me a reason to see you again tonight.”

They were close together. As one, each reached out and their hands touched. Tanya said softly, “Who needs a reason?”

In the elevator, going down, he could still feel the warm smoothness of her flesh, and hear her voice.

Joe Patroni was on his way to the airport from his home. At the moment, the Italian-American, who was airport maintenance chief for TWA was halted in a traffic tie-up.

Legends had grown up around Joe Patroni.

Joe took a job as an airline mechanic, became a lead mechanic, then a foreman with a reputation as a top-notch troubleshooter. His crew could change an engine faster than an airplane manufacturer said it could be done; and with absolute reliability.