A Disguise and a Missed Chance
It took around five minutes for the guards to check the security tapes recorded during the last hour. Once they finished viewing the tapes, they reported that there was no one on the tapes who bore even the slightest resemblance to the face in the photograph. Heidi and the supervisor were not satisfied with this answer and sat down together to review the same tapes themselves. When they were done, they had to reluctantly agree that their attempts to locate John Robinson had failed.
The reality was that Ali had reached Montreal and he was in the video recordings, but he was in a new set of clothes and his hair and eyes were of a different color. He looked different from the picture that Heidi was carrying and she was unable to recognize him.
“Sorry, Agent Stevens. No sign of him or anyone who looks like him,” said the supervisor. “We can’t say for certain, but he may have arrived here, and we’ve got no information on him ever leaving.”
Heidi was already mentally and physically tired, and now frustration had started to creep in, too. “Shit!” she exclaimed, pounding her fist on the desk. “This doesn’t make sense; where could he have gone? He boards a plane for Montreal but does not reach here? This is impossible!” She was getting desperate to find him.
“Is he prone to using disguises?” asked the supervisor quite casually.
“We don’t have any information on that. However, it could be… possible.” Her voice trailed off as she fell deeper into thought. A disguise? she thought. Yes, that was certainly possible, and even probable. Wasn’t that part of Ali’s training? Wouldn’t he use every skill he possessed to avoid detection while he completed his mission? She was surprised at herself for ignoring this line of thought.
“Damn it!” she said aloud. “If he’s done that, he may have given us the slip.”
Her frustration increased even more on realizing this. She had thought she might be well ahead of him in Canada, but the thought of having been outdone once again increased her frustration to the point that she began to question if she was as fully prepared to capture Ali as she had thought. This man had proven beyond any question that he was far smarter and skilled than she had believed.
“If you want to leave the picture with us, we’ll review the tapes more closely and see if we can find anyone even slightly resembling him,” offered the supervisor.