First I’d see Noa. Global warming and fossil fuel couldn’t be lower on my list of things to care about.
The driver from the limousine company finally arrived. A true limo, what can I say.
It was a white Reno.
The driver stopped the car and waited.
“Good morning,” he said and stepped out of the vehicle in a way people used to do in the olden days. He was holding the car papers. “Would you like me to drive you to Canberra or would you prefer to drive yourself? Our company offers both options. If you’d prefer I take you, the price is an additional three-hundred-and-twenty dollars.”
I didn’t know why, since I usually favored driving myself—see the view, as they say, and enjoy the road—but this time I couldn’t find the patience or truly have the time to appreciate the M31.
“I would appreciate you driving me. I’d appreciate even more giving you wages this morning,” I said and smiled. It never hurt to be friendly to those you were going to spend time in close proximity with. A right outing. This wasn’t going to take a simple ten minutes at the Australian foreign affairs department.
“Where do you need to go in Canberra?”
“Your ministry for foreign affairs.”
“Are you a diplomat?” the driver asked.
“What’s your name?” I retorted.
“Byron,” he said. He was cute. He also seemed like a promising conversationalist for the next few hours.
I’d have to distract myself with good conversation while enjoying a calm drive to what will hopefully be a peaceful, diplomatic extraction during which I mainly needed to wait and keep quiet. It was a small price to pay in order to have Noa with me again.
“You a good driver, Byron?”
“Of course,” he replied with a smile of someone who’s never suffered a hardship in his life. He was twenty-five—so how could he seem so put together? Calm and radiating vitality. Calm and radiating vitality at five AM.
“Everyone is interested in our foreign affairs ministry.” He chuckled to himself.
“Why?” I asked while checking I had everything I needed on me. I was as interested in his answer as I was interested to know about the snowfall from last year.
“I know…. All the Australian news has been reporting about for the last two days is the important meeting our prime minister and foreign affairs minister will be having later today.”
I felt as if a snake was winding itself between my feet.
My body tensed.
“What meeting?” I asked nonchalantly, though I was most assuredly interested now. The wheels in my head were turning like crazy. Noa was there. The prime minister was there. And what was left from that was for the prime minister to see her and to let Noa know. If Noa’s head wasn’t splitting, she’d eat her for breakfast. This was all a plus to having them meet by accident. That’s an issue. A bullshit issue.
I had to think of something. I had to get Noa out of there as fast as possible so we could be able to lie in wait for Madam Prime Minister’s exit from her very important meeting.
Somehow, I doubted the option of having her wait for us would be in any way realistic.
I’d have to wait in the car—and for that, I’d need Byron’s help.
All I had to do now was recruit him without his knowledge. Once I met up with Noa I knew she’d understand it all in a matter of moments. It was Noa, after all.
“Say, Byron, how do you feel about waiting for me for the few hours it will take to finish up my business in the foreign affairs ministry? You can wait in the cab—I’ll even leave you a disk-on-key with some good music. I’ll pay you a thousand dollars, and if it drags on through the afternoon, I’ll double it. What do you think?”
“It sounds like a bit much. It shouldn’t be as expensive as that, sir.”
“It’s all right. Imagine I’m simply a lottery winner.”
“What, seriously? You won the lottery?”
“Not exactly…. Sort of. Just press on it. I should have been there yesterday, as they say.”
Chapter Fifteen
Right. Now I had between two or three hours to wrap my head around everything I needed to make this work.
The first—I had to arrive there as quickly as possible. No delays.
I had to leave enough time for a possible random—planned—meeting to occur.
There was also Sagi from the embassy. He was the one who was supposed to deal with all this. He was probably a lawyer or another professional bullshitter who spoke real pretty. If Timothy said everything was okay and ended up sending along only this kid, then I could be calm.
I had to talk with him and have him meet me there quick. Though, naturally, he couldn’t know anything about anything else. I had to manipulate him so he would do exactly what I needed.
I’ll call him. Calling is a good start.
Timothy sent me the number before. I can’t remember if it was by e-mail, WhatsApp, text, and if it was an e-mail, to which address…
Oh, well. Nothing to it. I had to look through everything. Oh, there it was—a text message. Timothy—always so old fashioned.
“That idiot isn’t answering… what the hell…” I muttered under my breath.
I tried him again.
“Sagi?”
“Yes, good morning, who’s this?”
“This is Eran Eshel. We need to meet this morning regarding the woman held in the ministry of foreign affairs. I’d prefer we made it quick. I don’t have time for all the dopeheads who forgot their weed before their flights.”
“I don’t believe this is the case,” Sagi said.
“I don’t know, Sagi. All I do know is that I need to fly out to Belgium in a few hours, and so far, I haven’t had much time to take a single breath. How long do you think this whole ordeal will take?”
“As I understand, there are no security issues leveled against her, despite her being recognized as someone who was at the airport at the time of that
