today to quit drinking.”
“If I actually boozed much I’d probably increase my intake by gallons. I know the situation stinks. But it’s the one I’ve been thrown into.” Jet checked her watch and pushed back from the table. “Looks like it’s that time. You need to get to your gate. Tell you what, big boy, I’ll walk you there.”
Matt nodded. They’d tried to stretch their remaining hours together and make them last as long as possible, but reality had now reared its ugly head and there was no getting around it. They would soon again be parted, with Jet having been thrown from one crisis directly into another with hardly enough time to catch her breath.
They rose, and Matt extended his hand to her. Jet took it and they slowly made their way down the stairs from the restaurant to the departure level, where a quick glance at the flight information directed them to the KLM gate, filled with travelers waiting to board. Matt had taken Jet’s advice and booked a first class seat, and in a few minutes they were calling his cabin.
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her soft lips hungry to consume every bit of him she could get, both oblivious to their surroundings or the watching passengers. When the attendant’s abrasive voice screeched from the public address system for a second time requesting all first class passengers, it was like being doused with cold water, and they reluctantly tore away from each other, Matt taking a long moment to lose himself in Jet’s glistening emerald gaze.
“Be careful. You’re not bulletproof or invisible, you know,” he whispered as she pulled close to him again, nuzzling his neck.
“Says you. Stay away from the ping pong clubs. You could lose an eye.”
“Good counsel,” he said. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Remember that your primary job now is to get through this safe so we can pick up where we’re leaving off.”
She kissed him again; and then the moment was over and he was walking purposefully toward the jetway, an anonymous businessman on his way to Europe, like countless other unremarkable road warriors waiting their turn to get on the plane. She watched as he disappeared, and then without looking back, turned and made her way to her gate, with two more hours to kill on the ground and nothing to occupy her time but her conflicted thoughts and the still-tingling memory of their final parting kiss.
Chapter 13
Twenty-two hours later, Jet’s flight touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. As the big jet lumbered to the gate, she stretched her arms over her head and took a last swallow of water, hoping to stave off the worst of the dehydration that was a by-product of prolonged air travel. Once off the plane, she was met by two stern men who whisked her through immigrations and customs without requiring that she do anything but smile, and then handed her off to a waiting black Mercedes sedan with windows tinted so dark that she couldn’t make out the driver’s shape from outside.
The car wove its way onto the freeway and then toward downtown Tel Aviv. Once in the city it pulled into a massive skyscraper’s underground parking garage and deposited her at the elevators, where two more somber agents waited, their earbuds betraying their purpose. One of the agents wordlessly took her travel bag and indicated that she should enter the waiting elevator and the pair followed her in, the one with her bag punching the button for the twentieth floor.
The seconds ticked by as they ascended the tower, and then the door opened with a ping. Jet stepped into a large lobby – the colorful logo emblazoned across the front of the reception desk announcing it as the headquarters of an import company, though she noted it was staffed entirely by men and women with the distinctive air of operatives. One of her escorts nodded toward the offices behind the receptionist’s station, and they walked back to a conference room at the far
“If I actually boozed much I’d probably increase my intake by gallons. I know the situation stinks. But it’s the one I’ve been thrown into.” Jet checked her watch and pushed back from the table. “Looks like it’s that time. You need to get to your gate. Tell you what, big boy, I’ll walk you there.”
Matt nodded. They’d tried to stretch their remaining hours together and make them last as long as possible, but reality had now reared its ugly head and there was no getting around it. They would soon again be parted, with Jet having been thrown from one crisis directly into another with hardly enough time to catch her breath.
They rose, and Matt extended his hand to her. Jet took it and they slowly made their way down the stairs from the restaurant to the departure level, where a quick glance at the flight information directed them to the KLM gate, filled with travelers waiting to board. Matt had taken Jet’s advice and booked a first class seat, and in a few minutes they were calling his cabin.
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her soft lips hungry to consume every bit of him she could get, both oblivious to their surroundings or the watching passengers. When the attendant’s abrasive voice screeched from the public address system for a second time requesting all first class passengers, it was like being doused with cold water, and they reluctantly tore away from each other, Matt taking a long moment to lose himself in Jet’s glistening emerald gaze.
“Be careful. You’re not bulletproof or invisible, you know,” he whispered as she pulled close to him again, nuzzling his neck.
“Says you. Stay away from the ping pong clubs. You could lose an eye.”
“Good counsel,” he said. “Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Remember that your primary job now is to get through this safe so we can pick up where we’re leaving off.”
She kissed him again; and then the moment was over and he was walking purposefully toward the jetway, an anonymous businessman on his way to Europe, like countless other unremarkable road warriors waiting their turn to get on the plane. She watched as he disappeared, and then without looking back, turned and made her way to her gate, with two more hours to kill on the ground and nothing to occupy her time but her conflicted thoughts and the still-tingling memory of their final parting kiss.
Chapter 13
Twenty-two hours later, Jet’s flight touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. As the big jet lumbered to the gate, she stretched her arms over her head and took a last swallow of water, hoping to stave off the worst of the dehydration that was a by-product of prolonged air travel. Once off the plane, she was met by two stern men who whisked her through immigrations and customs without requiring that she do anything but smile, and then handed her off to a waiting black Mercedes sedan with windows tinted so dark that she couldn’t make out the driver’s shape from outside.
The car wove its way onto the freeway and then toward downtown Tel Aviv. Once in the city it pulled into a massive skyscraper’s underground parking garage and deposited her at the elevators, where two more somber agents waited, their earbuds betraying their purpose. One of the agents wordlessly took her travel bag and indicated that she should enter the waiting elevator and the pair followed her in, the one with her bag punching the button for the twentieth floor.
The seconds ticked by as they ascended the tower, and then the door opened with a ping. Jet stepped into a large lobby – the colorful logo emblazoned across the front of the reception desk announcing it as the headquarters of an import company, though she noted it was staffed entirely by men and women with the distinctive air of operatives. One of her escorts nodded toward the offices behind the receptionist’s station, and they walked back to a conference room at the far
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