> > > You can't expect people to try to work hard to befriend you if they don't know you.
> > So Tom's to blame for not trying to make friends, but other people can't be held responsible for not trying to befriend him?
> Do you try to befriend every person you run into? Most likely only if you believe you'll see them again. You expect much the same from them, too.
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> > So news-stand cashiers don't get at all nervous when she asks for a paper?
> Not any more nervous than when an armed police officer does. Which means not perfectly at ease, but nobody runs screaming from her yet.
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Armed police officers are governed by strict enforced rules of behaviour and are licensed by government to carry arms. Chiaki wandering around with a sword on her back is more like a biker walking in carrying a bike chain and asking for a packet of cigarettes.
> > How would a normal person use trickery to disappear from an airport on high security waiting for their arrival?
> Hide in the aircraft until the right time, dress as a flight attendant or pilot or a different passenger, stuff one of the air marshalls in a bathroom and steal their clothing and credentials. Or her personal favorite, go to the bathroom while the plane is still at its origin gate and never come back.
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That's the kind of thing a fantasy combat/stealth type might do, but not the kind of thing a reader would buy for a "normal" person to pull off. Airports take their security very seriously. And don't forget that Tom was being followed by at least three on-flight agents, even if one of them was drugged and two were stuck in second class.
The procedure for removing Tom from the plane would be pretty simple, probably the same as that established for removing any passenger quietly and efficiently. The plane remains on the tarmac in a pre-determined isolated sector of the field. A lift truck brings a boarding stairway so officers can enter the aircraft. Stewards indicate the location of the person to be removed and armed officers cuff and escort him from his seat. When he's safely away from the plane everyone else gets to disembark.
I'd argue that it would take superhero-specialist levels of stealth or combat skill to avoid that, and Tom doesn't have either.
> > Would Keiko have passively allowed her old unit to take her into custody?
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> No but she's far more devious, untrusting, and slippery than Tom could be. There would be two unconcious U.S. agents in the Paradopolis hotel room (she wouldn't kill them, she knows every cop in the world would never give up looking for her) and she would have disappeared.
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That only works iof she doesn't want to go to Egypt and make it seem like she had no choice. Tom's a devious bastard.
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