Enterprises in Wilma, Tennessee, and had a lakeside house up in the Smokies and how her Auntie Joan had married him when he was at the airbase and an Air Force pilot flying out of Lakenheath, and the man said he was Sol Campito and he worked with a Miami-based finance corporation and sure he’d heard of Immelmann Enterprises, like everyone had it was so important. An hour later he took another ‘hygiene break’ which was a new term for Eva and meant going to the toilet again. This time he didn’t take so long and when he came back he put his book away in the luggage compartment and said he was going to get some shut-eye because he had to catch the shuttle flight down to Miami and it was a long trip from where he’d come, like Munich, Germany, where he’d had some business. And so the flight wore on and nothing untoward occurred except that Penelope kept asking when they were going to get to Atlanta because she was bored and Sammy wouldn’t let her have the window seat so she could look out at the clouds. Behind them the two men in grey suits watched the man who had given up his window seat for Samantha. One of them took himself off to the toilet and was in there for five minutes. He was followed half an hour later by the second suit who stayed even longer. When he came back he shrugged as he sat down. Finally by the time Eva was getting really tired the Jumbo was slowly dropping down towards the land and the countryside seemed to be coming up to them and the undercarriage was locked down and the flaps were up and they were down with only a slight thump and lurch and into reverse thrust.
‘The land of the free,’ said the man with a smile when they were at the terminal and could collect their bags from the overhead lockers; he was on his feet helping to get Eva’s and the quads’ stuff for them. And then he very politely stood in the aisle in the way of the other passengers to let them file out first. In fact he let a number of other passengers go in front of him and only then moved himself. By the time they had collected their hold luggage from the carousel he was nowhere to be seen. He sat in the toilet writing the address and the names Eva had given him before he came out. Twenty minutes later Eva and the quads passed through Immigration and Customs where they were held up for some time and a German Shepherd took an interest in Emmeline’s hand luggage. Two men studied the family for two minutes and then they were through and there was Uncle Wally and Auntie Joan and there was all the hugging and kissing imaginable. It was wonderful.
It wasn’t quite so wonderful in a little room back in Customs for the man who’d called himself Sol Campito. The things from his travel bags were spread out on the floor and he was standing naked in another booth with a man with plastic gloves on his hand telling him to get his legs open.
‘Wasting time,’ said one of the men in the room. ‘Give him the castor oil and blow the fucking condoms out quicker, eh Joe? You crazy enough to have swallowed the stuff?’
‘Shit,’ said Campito. ‘I don’t do no drugs. You got the wrong guy.’
Four men in an office next door watched him through a darkened observation window.
‘So he’s clean. Met the contact in Munich and left with the stuff. Now he’s clean. Then it’s got to be the fat Brit with the kids. How did you assess her?’
‘Dumb. Dumb as hell.’
‘Nervous?’
‘Not at all. Excited yes but nervous no way.’
The second man nodded.
‘To Wilma, Tennessee.’
‘And we know where she’s going. So we keep her under observation. The tightest possible. OK?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Just make sure you keep under cover. The stuff that bastard’s said to have picked up from Poland is lethal. The good thing is we know from his notebook where that Wilt woman is
