Chapter 201: Off and Running at the Speed of Ice Melting

Well the pizza was good, but not even close to being worth ten bucks a slice. At that price a medium pizza would be almost a fifty bucks. Way, way more than I would ever pay at home. The place had more class than a pizza hut, I had to admit that but not that much more.

"I'm going to drop you at the terminal," Lamar informed me when we were back in the car.

"I thought you were flying with me?" I asked.

"No, I'll be going over on a military flight with Lucy. We will join you tomorrow," he said.

"I guess that makes sense," I said.

"Of course it does, we are pros. We even act like it at times." he said smiling. "You will be met by a local, who will take you to a hotel. They want Lucy to react with ordinary people, so there won't be any fancy hotels on your trip, but they are all approved by the company, so stay with the plan."

"I would image that all the hotels are wired for video and sound," I suggested smiling.

"Of course, the bosses want to protect their investment." he said. "But the good news is they consider you an investment and want to protect you as well."

"Not as much as Lucy, I'm sure," I replied.

"Probably not, but you get to stay under the same umbrella." he replied.

"Nice way to put it," I said as I exited the car. "Well I guess I will see you in jolly old England."

"You will for sure. Some of the time I will be directly involved with you two, but every country will be a little different."

"Okay, well I guess I better go get screened." With that I left him in the parking lot.

Inside the terminal it was back to limping around trying to find where I needed to be. I reported to the passenger loading area well before the plane was to leave. I didn't think to pick up a book, so I was stuck with reliving my past to fill in the time. The experience wasn't all that pleasant. Mostly they were simply painful memories. One after another, they marched through my conscious mind. No wonder I drifted in and out of sleep.

I managed to wake up when the people around me began to stir. I joined them in line to have my one large combination purse and emergency carry on bag scanned. By emergency, I mean it held my make up and clean panties. A few other things like a hairbrush with a plastic handle which could be pulled and twisted to remove it from the brush part. When removed it, the handle became a four inch dagger. or so I was told by the man, at the flea market, who sold it to me. He also told me once it had been removed it would never xray as one piece again. I might have wasted my seven buck on the stupid plastic hair brush, or maybe not. It was one of those things you only knew about for sure when you needed it. You know like airbags on a car. You trust they will work, but how do you know until you need them.

The hair brush remained a hairbrush, since the flight was long but uneventful. Being trapped in a jumbo jet for eight hours with 400 and change passengers was no fun at all. As usual my luck was rank. I sat across the aisle from a crying baby, and next to a guy who wanted to tell me about his business experiences, whenever I woke up.

"Yeah the advertising cap business has been really good this year. I buy the blank caps from China, then embroider them in the states. I got the best of both worlds, China cheap but still a custom made in America label business." He said.

It was at that point, when the hairbrush handle began to look like a reasonable way to shut him the fuck up. Instead I closed my eye and pretended to be asleep. That was difficult as well since the baby began to cry. Pull out a boob and feed that kid, I thought. I was actually asleep when the announcement came. "We will be landing in Heathrow Internation Airport in ten minutes, please move your seats to the upright position and secure any loose items." There was more, but I tuned her out as well as the baseball cap manufacturer.

If this flight were an hour longer, I would kill that bastard, I thought. We were on the ground just seconds after that thought passed through my mind. Clearing the red tape was no fun, and of course the CIA didn't help me at all. The best way to hide something is to pay no attention to it. Yes, I understood that, but understanding didn't help the pain in my leg, while I stood waiting to have my passport stamped.

Just to make passing through airports easier I had brought the cane made from a couple of pieces of pvc water pipe. The pipe was empty to make it easier to search. The rubbler tip slipped right off so that the whole pipe was accessible. Believe it or not I passed through the scanner in the airport security without any problem at all. On the other hand the British Customs and Inland Revenue inspection was very interested in the empty cane. I offered to just leave the cane with them, but nothing would do but they ran it through a metal detector and xray machine. It would have been hilarious, if I hadn't been in pain and suffering jet lag.

Me and my one suitcase with nothing at all of value inside, wandered out into the commons area. I didn't even bother looking for a sign with my name. I just limped toward the exit. Outside that chrome and glass door was a long line of taxis. If I made it to those doors and then to a taxi, I had no idea where to go, but I needed sleep badly enough to just say take me to a hotel.