‘Ah, Mr Twenny Fo,’ said the president. ‘How wonderful it is to meet you.’
‘Is good to be here, you know,’ said the rapper. The two men shook hands.
‘Allow me to present my wife, Margaret.’
‘All right,’ said Twenny, leaning forward to take her hand.
The muscles of the first lady’s face were locked in a smile that mimicked a bout of tetanus. She probably didn’t speak English, not that it would’ve helped her much if she did, Twenny’s Baltimore patois being tricky to grasp even for English speakers.
‘These my associates, yo,’ Twenny continued economically. ‘Boink — head security.’
Mr IHOP gave them a nod.
‘This here’s Snatch, my bidness manager. An’ Peanut, who just is. Not his fault — you feel me?’
More nods.
Boink, Peanut, Snatch — Larry, Mo, Curly.
Travis appeared at my shoulder, tall and gangly, with sharp features and the type of pale freckly skin that sprouts melanomas at age forty.
‘Special Agent Cooper,’ he said. ‘It is Major Cooper, isn’t it?’ He leaned forward and read my name tape.
‘Yes, sir,’ I said, standing vaguely at attention.
‘Oh, don’t do that. Too much formality for a rock concert. I’m pleased you could join us. I thought our wires would get crossed and they’d send you to the wrong place or something.’
He obviously worked for the same outfit I did. ‘How was the flight over, sir?’
‘Call me Blair. The word “interesting” just about covers it. You’ll find out why soon enough. As I’m sure you’re aware, we’re running a little behind schedule. Apologies for that. A certain party arrived late and delayed our departure.’
I didn’t have to work hard to figure out who that party might have been.
‘The UN helicopters will be here in about twenty minutes. We need to clear the ramp so they can land, and you should introduce yourself to everyone. Is there a place we can do that?’
‘The hut,’ I said, motioning toward the terminal.
‘Excellent.’
‘How many personnel are still on the plane?’ I asked.
‘Twenty-two.’
Just then, Leila stomped over, storm clouds on her face as dark as the ones above us. Despite her mood, I decided that all those magazine covers hadn’t done her justice. Her olive skin was almost poreless; her eyes the color of emeralds under polished glass; the proportions of her lips and nose, flawless. The only problem I could see was that she knew it.
She ignored me and said to Travis, ‘I didn’t come here to get drenched and catch a cold. My people and I are going inside.’
‘This is Major Cooper,’ said Travis. ‘He’ll be—’
Leila walked off before he finished his sentence.
‘Interesting,’ I said.
Travis nodded. ‘You got it.’
A few heavy droplets of rain broke up the party. An umbrella appeared over the first lady’s head, and she made for the limo. With a final wave, the president followed in her footsteps, motioning at the nanny to saddle up his children. As soon as his car door shut, the honor guard beat a retreat for the truck, along with their submachine gun-carrying buddies. The man who delivered the red carpet rolled it back up and threw it in the trunk. Moments later, the convoy was heading to the far corner of the field.
I walked over to Cassidy and West and exchanged the usual pleasantries. We all shook hands.
‘Let’s get everyone in the terminal,’ I said. ‘Have you briefed them on how we do things?’
‘No, sir,’ said Cassidy. ‘We thought we’d leave that up to you. You know, save on the confusion.’
‘Okay. Once we get our dignitaries secured, we can come back for the personnel still on board.’
Cassidy and West nodded.
‘Send Duke to eyeball the terminal. There’s not much to it, and no one’s home. I’ve already had a look around.’ I glanced over their shoulders and saw that Leila and her troop were already halfway across the ramp. ‘I’d hurry if I were you.’
‘Roger that,’ said West, summing up the situation.
I went up the stairs into the 767 and was met by a dried-out, petite blonde flight attendant.
‘Mind if I use your PA system?’ I asked her.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Yep. Just keeping everyone informed.’
She pulled the handset off its cradle and showed me which button to press.
I thumbed it and said into the mouthpiece, ‘Thank you for your patience, folks. You’ll be disembarked from this aircraft in about five minutes and escorted by your security team to the terminal building. Please collect your belongings and be ready to move.’
I went back onto the stair’s landing. It had stopped spitting. The clouds were teasing us, though the far side of the airfield was covered in a heavy gray mist of rain. A small jolt moved the aircraft. I looked down and saw that a tug had attached itself to the nose wheel.
Cassidy and Rutherford had left the terminal and were jogging across the apron toward the aircraft. Perhaps I was being overly cautious with all this escorting, but I didn’t know this place and losing al-Eqbal was a good lesson, especially for al-Eqbal.
I went back inside the aircraft. ‘Do you mind?’ I asked the attendant again, motioning at the handset.
‘Please,’ she replied.
I told the passengers to make their way to the forward exit and stood back on the landing. They filed past as I did a head count. Almost all of the staging crew were male, and even the ones who weren’t, looked male. Black jeans and old t-shirts predominated, as did dreadlocks, tattoos, and piercings. The dancers among them were easy to pick out, being the ones wearing deodorant. I totaled twenty-three persons, the right number. Then I went through the cabin checking seats, galleys, and lavatories. All clear.
Cassidy, Rutherford, and I escorted this second group into the terminal, getting them inside just as the clouds above us burst open with a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. Blinding rain came down like buckets of six-inch nails. Inside the hut, the downpour was deafening. As the Boeing was towed to a far corner of the parking area, a tractor pulled up outside the front door with the luggage in a covered trailer.
There was plenty of tension in the room. Twenny and his buddies occupied one side of the terminal, while Leila and her girls took the other. Were we about to have a dance-off?
‘If I could have everyone’s attention,’ I called out. The room settled down. ‘My name’s Vin Cooper. I’ll be managing the security arrangements. We don’t think there’ll be any need for special precautions, but the Pentagon does a lot of unnecessary things, right?’
I grinned at a sea of blank faces that remained blank.
‘Yo, Mister Army. Head of security for Mister Fo is me,’ said Boink, folding his arms, head on a tilt. ‘I say who does what, dig?’
I blinked a couple of times.
‘Don’t think for a moment I’m getting on no helicopter with that,’ Leila said.
By ‘that’, she meant Twenny Fo, because she was pointing at him.
Ayesha and Shaquand stood behind her defiantly, chins jutting.
‘Well, you know, the feeling is mutual, bitch,’ said Boink.
‘You wanna piece a this?’ said Shaquand, flicking Twenny and his cohorts the bird.
‘I wouldn’t touch you bitches with rubbers on my fingers, yo,’ said Snatch.
I glanced at Travis, who again mouthed the word ‘interesting’.
Weren’t Twenny Fo and Leila supposed to be slurping each other’s juices? The room was suddenly full of shouting. I found Cassidy in the crowd, and he shrugged at me. I whistled hard, the piercing note cutting through the squabbling like an oxy torch through ice.
‘Okay, then we’ll go with plan B,’ I said in the sullen silence and with a hand gesture drew an invisible line down the middle of the room. ‘We’ve got two choppers inbound. Everyone on this half goes in one, the rest of you go in the other. Twenny Fo and Leila — either myself or one of my team will be accompanying you at all times. Apologies if that inconveniences you at all, but we have our rules.’