“ Yeah,” he said, and he stepped into the aisle to allow her to slide out from her place by the window. He remained standing as the plane taxied, while Dani moved up to the prime minister’s seat. He watched her bend down and whisper in his ear. Then she took his seat and the prime minister moved back toward Broxton.
“ I usually sit in the aisle seat,” Ramsingh said.
“ Not today,” Broxton said.
“ Of course. You want to be between me and everybody else.” Ramsingh took the window seat.
“ Something like that,” Broxton said. Then asking as Ramsingh fastened his seatbelt, “You really have no security on this trip?”
“ None. Both George and Kevin Underfield said it wasn’t necessary. Nobody knows I’m here.”
“ Give me a few minutes to digest this.” Broxton leaned back and fastened his own seatbelt. It clicked closed with a snap that sent visions of his last flight flashing through him and he grabbed onto the armrests with a tight knuckled grip. He’d never been afraid of flying, but that last flight was too close in memory for him to be at ease during takeoff.
“ You have about forty minutes before we land in Margarita, unless someone kills me on the plane first,” Ramsingh said, as the plane started its takeoff roll. His voice had an amused ring to it and Broxton was impressed. Ramsingh was obviously taking the threat on his life seriously, but he wasn’t letting it dull his sense of humor.
Once they were airborne Broxton was able to breathe easier. He relaxed his grip on the armrests and started to think. When he’d been given the assignment it was an outside chance at best that he’d be able to do anything more than observe the events in Trinidad as they unfolded. It was an easy job, given to him both because of Warren and as a reward for work well done. A short assignment so that he’d be able to say he’d been in the field. Now it was a real job and Ramsingh was his responsibility, at least until he was able to get help.
“ I’m not a field agent,” Broxton said, voice barely above a whisper. He didn’t want anyone else to hear.
“ What do you do?” Ramsingh asked, speaking as quietly as Broxton.
“ I read books, reports, newspapers, anything that has to do with cocaine or Colombia. I analyze what I read, I summarize it for people who don’t have the time to read, then I go back and read some more and do it all over again.”
“ And who reads your stuff?” Ramsingh asked.
“ Probably nobody.”
“ And they made you a bodyguard?”
“ You have your attorney general to thank for that. He made it clear your government wanted no interference. So the only thing they could do was send me.”
“ Because you’re engaged to Warren Street’s daughter.”
“ That’s a sore point with me. We’re not exactly engaged. Yet,” he said.
“ But that’s why they picked you, because of Warren?” Ramsingh asked.
“ Exactly. They figured I couldn’t do much, but I was better than nothing.”
“ Not a comforting thought.”
“ But now it’s my job to keep you alive.”
“ Think you’re any good?” Ramsingh said.
“ I don’t like to fail,” Broxton said.
“ Let’s hope that’s good enough.”
An hour and a half later the three of them were sharing a taxi to the Sans Souci. Broxton was sitting in front with the cab driver, Dani and Ramsingh were sitting in back.
“ I hope you don’t mind my stealing Mr. Broxton from you,” Ramsingh said.
“ Not at all. I’ve got a lot of shopping to do and he’d only be in the way.”
“ It’s a shame you think you have to leave Trinidad to do your shopping,” Ramsingh said.
“ It’s a shame you have a fifteen percent value added tax added on to such a high duty. It keeps your people poor and your goods inferior,” she said.
“ Government has to run.”
“ Not on the backs of the poor. Government should encourage full employment so that it can survive on a graduated income tax. The rich need to pay their fair share.”
“ I can’t change the system overnight. Some things are just going to have to wait until after the election.”
“ You promised you’d get rid of the vat before the last election. I didn’t hear you saying, ‘Elect me and I’ll coast through my first term and if you reelect me I’ll do something about these unfair taxes’.”
“ The government was in much worse shape than I thought before I took office.”
“ That’s an old story. Every third world government uses it.”
“ It’s true.”
“ Can you two cut it out?” Broxton said. “You sound like you hate each other.”
“ Not really,” Ramsingh said. “This is an old game between us. Nobody else has the courage to talk to me like this, except the loyal opposition and the press, and they don’t count. I enjoy Dani’s wit. She’s made a difference.”
“ Anybody can agree with a prime minister,” Dani said. The cab turned right onto a short palm tree lined road on the Sans Souci property.
“ Why don’t you check in and we’ll see you later for dinner,” Broxton said after the cab had stopped in front of the lobby.
“ I can’t. I have someone to meet, then it’s off to Ratan’s,” Dani said.
“ Ratan’s?” Broxton asked.
“ Very large supermarket,” Ramsingh answered.
“ Where you can get all those American goodies you can’t get in Trinidad, because it’s not a free market economy,” Dani added.
“ She never quits,” Ramsingh said.
“ That’s why we all love her,” Broxton said, and they all laughed.
“ Okay, dinner in an hour,” Dani said. “Then it’s off to Ratan’s for me.”
“ Won’t they be closed?” Ramsingh said.
“ They stay open till midnight. When you have a duty free economy people have more money and stores can afford to be open later.”
“ The Venezuelan economy is in the toilet,” Ramsingh said.
“ Not Margarita’s. If they ran their country like they run this island everyone would be better off.”
“ All right, no more, please,” Broxton said.
“ He’s not very political,” Dani said.
“ Doesn’t sound that way,” Ramsingh said.
At reception Dani checked in first, then headed off toward the elevators promising to meet them in the restaurant in an hour’s time.
“ I believe you’ve the presidential suite reserved for me,” Ramsingh told the desk clerk.
“ We’d also like something smaller, two single beds on the same floor,” Broxton said, “and a lot less expensive. You have something like that?” Broxton felt Ramsingh tense up next to him, but it couldn’t be helped. Everything was happening so fast. One minute he was heading for a short vacation and the next he was not only in charge of the prime minister’s security, he was the prime minister’s security.
Ramsingh didn’t speak until they were up in the small room. “This is it? We’re staying here?”
“ It’s not bad,” Broxton said. “Modern, clean, view of the beach, very touristy.”
“ And not very presidential.”
“ Did you book your room yourself?” Broxton said.
“ No.”
“ How many people on your staff know where you’re staying?”
“ They all do.”
“ And your attorney general thinks you’re secure?”
“ Surely you don’t think?”
“ I don’t have the training or the insight to know who to trust, so I’m going to compensate by not trusting anybody.”
“ How about Dani?”
“ Not even her. Certainly she’s not going to try to kill you, but who knows who she might talk to. She could easily slip and say the wrong thing. So until we get some real professionals, it’s better not to trust anyone.”
Then the bomb went off.
Broxton threw himself at Ramsingh, pushing him onto the floor and covering him with his body. The room seemed to vibrate, but the windows didn’t break and the explosion was muffled.
“ I’m all right,” Ramsingh said. Broxton eased himself off and helped the prime minister up.
“ It won’t take them long to find out you weren’t over there. Then they’ll come here,” Broxton said. “We have to go, now.”