Chapter 33

We had become so practised at putting our suits on we were dressed and ready to leave the room by the time the escort knocked on our door.

It was a different man this time, and he led us to a lift, but we didn’t get out at the canteen. He directed us down several long hallways. At the door we stopped at, he knocked and waited.

Someone called out, for us to come in, and our guide let us in. He then shut the door behind us, but he stayed on the other side. This room was opulent. A medium-tall Arabian man dressed in a suit and wearing a ghutrah with an agal entered from another room.

He smiled as he put out his hands to us, and accented English he said, “Welcome, please come this way.”

He gestured, and we followed him to a dining room designed to seat sixteen people. One end had been set up for breakfast for four.

I turned as a very striking woman entered the room. She was wearing an abaya that had a close to the body fit, and a distinctive gold and silver diamond pattern woven into the black cloth. Her long black hair was not veiled. Many women in this dome wore a loose fitted black abaya or a reflective version over their spacesuits.

She nodded her head at us. “We hope you don’t mind, but we wish to thank you for saving our son,” she said in a sweet singsong voice.

“Sorry, you have us at a disadvantage, who is your son?” Justin replied.

“The pilot you saved. He is Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum. I am his father, Rashid, and this lovely woman is his mother and my first wife, Jayla. Please, don’t worry about the titles; first names are fine with us in private.”

“In public, simply add Sheikh or Sheikha to our name. You are our honoured friends and those who hear you will know this when you address us as such. Some people still get very hung-up about titles, unfortunately,” Rashid told us.

I decided I liked the bloke and replied, “Thank you, Rashid. Please be aware that we are not well versed in your culture. We are just a couple of kids from Australia. If we say or do anything you find offensive, please let us know.”

Jayla giggled sweetly and replied, “And if it is us who are offensive?”

Justin answered, “Danny will let you know, don’t worry.”

Jayla and Rashid both chuckled at my look of vexation. They motioned for us to sit. Several dishes were placed on the table, and we were told to eat our fill. I decided to change the topic and asked about Hamdan while I piled the food on my plate. There were plenty of yummy things for me to choose from, so this wasn’t hard.

Jayla replied, “The doctors say that if you had been any longer, he would have died. They say your quick action and putting him in that bag most definitely saved his life. He has some cracked ribs and a mild concussion, but he is expected to make a full recovery. We are thankful to you, Aussie Kids.”

We both smiled at Jayla.

“They said he suffered no issues with exposure to vacuum, you must have moved very fast to do what you did,” Rashid added.

“It was Danny’s idea. We did get a bit worried when the doors jammed, but fortunately, he was right beside it, and the low gravity made it easy for us to get him in the bag quickly,” Justin replied.

My next question drew a frown from Rashid, “So, who do you think did it and why?”

“That is hard to say. The Alliance has sunk a lot of money into this venture, and we believe many know that the deposits we have found will boost our economies. With the changes in our political structure and reliance on oil is greatly reduced these days, we of the Middle Eastern blocks have all struggled to find new ventures.”

“How come you weren’t with the other delegates?” I asked.

“Yes, I can see how that could be damming, but to be honest, we were simply late,” he replied.

“It was my fault we were late,” Jayla replied. “I had the ‘morning sickness’.”

“Congratulations, how many children do you have?” I asked politely.

“This will be our second child if I can carry it to term. We have tried many times, since Hamdan, but we have not had success,” Jayla told us sadly.

“If you three had died, who would have stood to gain?” I asked them.

They both looked at me in surprise. “You think we were the intended victims?” Rashid asked me very seriously.

“We must investigate every avenue. True, the visiting dignitaries could also have been the target, but I do find it interesting that your son was the pilot of the shuttle. Is it common knowledge that he occasionally likes to fly them?” I replied.

“Yes. He is very young, not yet eighteen, but he has had a fascination for space flight since a small boy. He had been flying the shuttle for about a year now. We have been living here for the last five years since Rashid was asked to oversee the running of this enterprise,” Jayla replied.