The Spy Coast

Since they met in Bangkok, Danny has been sending Maggie postcards, but she has never responded. Now, six months later, she is on a flight to London because she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him. She is nervous, thinking that the reality of Danny is never going to live up to the memory of him. They meet at an upscale restaurant, and Danny looks completely different from the tourist she met in Bangkok—he is wearing an expensive suit and is clean-shaven. She is relieved to see, however, that otherwise, he is as she remembers him.

As dinner continues, Maggie relaxes, but suddenly, a man at another table clutches his throat. Danny performs the Heimlich maneuver but cannot clear the blockage. Maggie brings his doctor’s bag over, and Danny cuts into the man’s throat to perform a cricothyrotomy. Maggie saw one performed in the field once—it is a dangerous operation. She assists Danny, wiping away blood, but the opening he’s made keeps resealing. Maggie grabs a ballpoint pen from a nearby server, unscrews the barrel, and gives it to Danny. He pushes it into the opening and air immediately rushes into the man’s throat.

After the paramedics take the man away, Danny asks how Maggie knew what to do with the pen, and she tells him that she saw it on television.