“Thank you, Captain.” He says dismissively as he looks away and turns to talk quietly into the ear of the Defence Secretary next to him.
Now I am about to boil over and give him a piece of my mind, but before I do, Colonel Reed, probably seeing it, takes my attention and speaks.
“Thank you, Andy, please wait outside. Lieutenant Winters will come out and see you shortly.”
Taking the opportunity to get out of that fucking room and leave that tosser behind, I go back out to the waiting area, heading straight over to the windows to try and calm down.
As I look out, I wonder why he got under my skin so quickly; it’s not as if I haven’t dealt with idiots like that many times before. Perhaps it’s because I'm still a bit tired or because I'm worried about where my children and I go from here?
Having calmed down and taken a seat again to wait for the Lieutenant, I notice a few phone chargers plugged into the wall close by, so I shuffle along the seats to see if there is one that fits my phone. There is and my phone is soon plugged in and powering on.
Just as the phone has started, the Lieutenant emerges from the conference room. This time, he doesn’t come straight over to me, but starts talking to a female RAF officer. This gives me a chance to check my phone; have Stacey’s parents tried to contact me? It would be a surprise if they have to be honest after what we saw in their office building yesterday, but I hope. My heart sinks a little even more for Stacey, to see that there are no messages or missed calls from either Jim or Karen. Poor Stacey.
The only activity of any consequence is a pile of messages and missed calls from Josh and Emily’s Mum, Jessica. To be fair to her, she does seem frantic, if not late; the first time she tried any contact wasn’t until just gone midnight.
Not bothering to listen to the numerous voicemails she has left, instead, I go direct and click her number, glancing at my watch as I do, wondering what the time will be wherever she is in the world if it is nearly 0630 here? Whatever the time is, I am pretty sure she will answer for a change because her last message was only twenty minutes ago.
“Andy, thank God, are the children safe?” she answers immediately and frantically.
“Yes, they are safe. We made it out to Heathrow Airport. It was close, but we made it to safety,” I tell her. It still seems strange hearing her voice, even after so long.
“Let me speak to them—is Josh there?”
“They aren’t here right now; I’ve only just managed to get my phone on.”
“Where are they then?” She nearly shouts at me.
“They are safe, Jessica, I have had to leave them for a while to try and sort things out, I will be back with them shortly, I hope, and I will get them to ring you.”
“You’ve left them? Are you serious?” she says, getting hysterical.
“Calm down, Jessica, I don’t think you are in any position to judge. Where are you anyway?”
After a moment of silence, she does calm down slightly. “In Sri Lanka, me and Dylan found some cheap flights, so we took them.”
Dylan, for Christ sake, I think to myself, I haven’t heard of him before, probably some long-haired hippy.
“Are you planning on coming back?” I ask her.
“How can we?” she asks, getting upset, “All flights are cancelled, everywhere, people are stranded all over the world!”
Her news doesn’t come as a big shock; even though I hadn’t thought of it, it makes sense for governments to close airspace with this type of threat. Nobody is going to want this virus on their doorstep.
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” I tell her.
“You didn’t know? How could you not know that? Where have you been?”
“It’s a long story and I haven’t got time to tell it now, Jessica.” I see Lieutenant Winters coming my way.
“I’ve got to go, Jessica, the kids are safe for now and I will get them to phone you as soon as I can. I am sure they will fill you in with what has gone on, okay?”
“Okay Andy, please keep them safe, I will get back as soon as possible.” She is starting to cry now.
“I will, Jessica, goodbye.”
Just as I hang up the phone, the Lieutenant gets to me.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, Captain, shall we make arrangements to get you back to your children?”
“By all means, Lieutenant, lead on.”
As we walk back the way we came, he doesn’t mention anything about the meeting I have just had in the conference room or anything else for that matter, but I try to probe him.
“How long has that meeting been going on for?” I ask casually, starting with a relatively unimportant question.
“I am sorry, Sir, but I am under orders to not discuss any aspect of that meeting.” The Lieutenant informs me bluntly. He then continues, “I have been instructed to tell you that the Colonel will want to see you again before very long, I will make arrangements for you to be collected when needed; is that acceptable?” he finishes as we get back to the reception desk.
“Do I have a choice?” I ask.
“I don’t think so, Sir. Now if you’ll excuse me, I will call for your transport back to your children,” he says as he goes over to the reception desk, looking slightly confused.
Upon his return, the Lieutenant has me worried for a second when he tells me that my children have been moved, but seeing the concern on my face, he quickly tells me that it is good news. Both my children and the rest of the group I arrived with are out of quarantine and in fact, we're now
