Tom waited four minutes watching the escalator constantly.

Finally the top of Chad’s head appeared along with Suzan’s. They stepped off the escalator and walked up to the counter at the entrance of the first class lounge.

“Watch your step dear, we’re about to land,” Chad said with a smile as they came to the end of the escalator and walked to the front entrance of the lounge.

A large, well dressed, man, stood in the line at another lounge near their escalator but Chad hadn’t noticed him. Suzan liked what she saw.

Chad led Suzan by the hand to the guest services desk.

“We’re on tonight’s flight to Kigali, Rwanda,” Chad said as he found his membership card and handed it to the older of the two women standing there.

“Great sir. There’s a flight board inside. Announcements are made in plenty of time for outgoing flights. Make yourselves comfortable inside and if you need anything, just ask one of the uniformed attendants walking around. They will be glad to help.

Chad and Suzan stood waiting patiently to be allowed in. The ladies found Chad’s information on their computer and waved he and Suzan through.

Thomas watched them pass through and behind the wall covered in large flower printed wall paper and cut into the front of the line of the first class passengers.

He looked down at the two women behind the counter with authority. “I need to get into the lounge right now.” He was that guy.

“Do what I say or else,” was his motto. The other two men of the trio on this assignment in the airport were more civilized, older and more professional.

“I need to go into the lounge. This is an emergency.”

“I need to see some identification sir.”

Thomas took out his badge and showed it to the tall woman, obviously in charge.

She looked at the badge and photo. Everything looks to be in order. Thank you Mr. Gordon. Just please try to keep a low profile please. We don’t need a disturbance in the lounge sir.”

“Sure sweet heart,” he said as he moved past them.

“Do we need to contact security?”

“No, they’ve already been notified. One of our men is in the office now watching the monitors. Just keep calm and don’t tell anyone we’re in here. I’m working a very important case but I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“Just don’t alarm the other passengers waiting to fly out. We don’t want an incident here,” the older woman said with some trepidation in her voice. Her experience had proven time and again that sugar worked better than vinegar when dealing with men like Tom Gordon.

She looked at her new assistant and spoke reasuringly to her. “This doesn’t happen very often here. Don’t let this scare you off honey.”

The two older men of the trio sitting down stairs had handled dozens of cases similar to this one. They knew a slow steady approach worked best. Tom wouldn’t hear of that. He was a big man and tried to use that and his booming voice to move things forward quickly.

Tom Gordon was trying to make a name for himself in the office and in front of his bosses.

The two older men had seen this movie time and again. As far as they could tell, Tom Gordon would soon be transferred or self destruct. The money was already growing in the office kitty with most coworkers betting on self destruction.

“This trip is going to be awesome Chad,” Suzan said as she sat down at a corner table out of the way of incoming passengers and set her bags on the soft carpet. There’s so much to see in this part of Africa. I’ve done a great deal of research on this before deciding on this trip.” Chad looked back over his shoulder as he sat down.

“Well Suzan, I know a little about this part of the world. Most of my work sends me mostly to Asia and Europe. My little brother takes care of South America for the most part.

His Spanish is nearly perfect since he married that wife of his from Bogota, Columbia. His Spanish skills have improved greatly since his in-laws have moved in,” ne said with a grin.

“I guess they would dear. How long is that going to last?”

“Heaven and his wife are the only ones who know that. They seem like nice people but that house is going to seem pretty small after six months of them staying there.

The baby is due next month so they will be here until then and who knows how much longer after that. Bryan seems fine with it so far but I think I see some cracks slowly appearing.”

“I won’t do that to you dear. I’m in no hurry for kids and one will be plenty, thank you very much. My parents won’t be moving in with us, I promise.”

Thomas finished talking to the women at the desk and walked into the lounge with a magazine in his large, tanned hands. He scanned the room for the couple. He stopped and stood at one end of the salad bar and looked for Chad and Suzan.

He finally saw them at a corner table far across the room sitting down and talked into his wrist. A thin wire ran up his arm under his sleeve and into an earpiece.

“We’re all settled in the lounge guys.”

“Great Tom, we’re down here to watch over them when they leave the lounge. Give us a heads up when they seem to be getting ready to move toward us down here. We’re down here on the left side of the escalator. The flight is just over three hours away.”

“I will.”

“I’m at the book store and Jimmy is is at the coffee bar.” “No surprise there I guess,” Thomas said into his hand.

Jimmy Sands was well known for his coffee snobbery and by the vast amount that he drank. Everyone wondered how he managed to sit on long stake outs but no one wanted to ask for details on his bathroom habits.

Suffice it to say that when chasing down suspects, Jimmy wasn’t always first to arrive. The led to some inner office discussions but so far he still had his job. The up side was that he was always very alert.

After forty five minutes the speaker blared out some indecipherable nonsense and people started to shift in their uncomfortable seats down at the gates.

Several passengers holding economy seat tickets started moving to the gate, as usual.

Then the announcement came. “Please remain seated until our passengers needing assistance with wheel chairs, children or other issues and our premier class passengers are on board.”

Those economy passengers still pushed forward. The gate employees watched with disgust and one with silent rage. She had been seeing this everyday for twenty years and was sick of it.

She started for the microphone with a look her superior knew meant trouble.

“Just relax Mary. Why don’t yo take your break now?” He looked at her and she grabbed her purse and walked away.

“Does anyone know what’s up with Mary today?” he whispered.

“Better to be short handed than see one of his customers or employees go to the hospital,” he thought to himself. Few noticed the tension between the two women. It was little different than most interactions between employees and customers these days.

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This is a photo from my quick trip to Salt Lake City this last weekend.

More to come later.

Remember to buy my three books on Audible, “Atlanta,” one of my detective novels, “Sunrise, Sunset,” my book of ten short stories and “Kazu, son of Osheda kamasaki,” my asian historical fiction novel.