Liam approached the security desk and removed his sunglasses, placing his bag with exaggerated care onto the table.
‘Could you guys be careful with this? I’ve got a lot of hardware in here for my presentation, it’s pretty delicate and I don’t want it thrown through an X-ray machine and vaporised, okay?’
The man behind the counter stared blankly at Liam and opened the bag, rifling through its contents and having a good feel around. He pulled out a pen-light and lit the interior, searching carefully.
Liam’s heart was almost leapt out of this mouth when the security guard pulled out a U.V. flashlight and repeated the process. It would be easy for him now to see a hidden zipper through simply noting the build-up of grease from Liam’s fingers brushing the material as it was pulled open.
‘All in order sir.’ The guard said as he passed it through the barrier. ‘Next please.’
Liam thanked his lucky stars that it was a new bag, that he’d only opened the hidden pocket once, and that it wasn’t a trained professional sitting behind the desk. He walked through the metal detector and feigned surprise as it went off.
‘Please remove any loose metal items, such as your keys or loose change, and place them in the baskets.’ The security guard spat out the words in one breath, and eyed Liam with an incredibly unimpressed look as he indicated the baskets on opposite sides of the detector.
Liam grinned apologetically as he went back through the detector and began searching for his pockets. He pulled out his keys and wallet and put them in one basket, while placing his phone in the other. As he just finished unbuckling and removing his belt, his phone started playing the true tone version 007 theme song.
‘Sorry about that.’ He said, stepping through the barrier and picking up his phone. ‘Hello? Yes, we’re here. Okay…what? What’re you saying? Hold on, I can’t hear you…wait…’ As he spoke, Liam began walking further and further away from the barrier, one finger in his ear.
The others went through the barrier, each removing various metal items. As Bradley finally stepped through, Liam returned and claimed the rest of his items, apologising profusely for forgetting them in the first place.
He set his phone down, pressing the ‘call’ button as he reached for his belt. Just as he finished buckling it, the phone began to ring again. He quickly grabbed his keys and wallet, thanking the security guard that handed him his phone as he passed.
‘What? You just rang me? What is it now? …Ahuh…okay…’
Unbeknownst to the security detachment on duty, their fundamental key to security protection had just been reprogrammed, and then reprogrammed again. As Liam placed his keys down in one basket, and his phone in the other, a wireless interference began to be broadcasted by both the phone and the mini-maglite torch on his keychain. As soon as the metal detector’s programming had been reversed, that it would go off when metal wasn’t detected, Liam’s phone began to ring. As Liam answered it and walked away, the keychain continued to broadcast a signal, allowing him to more fully monitor the situation from his mobile phone. After the initial overwriting, it was a piece of cake to simply through the switch back to normal when the others had finished going through.
Had the security guards been blind as well, Liam could have walked through that barrier with any amount of armament he wanted.
Liam returned his phone to his pocket as he caught up with the others at the top of the stairs.
‘Don’t you just love the buzz this job gives you?’ He grinned, rubbing his hands together.
‘You could have chosen a more subtle ring tone,’ Zharra commented drily, ‘or do you like flirting with danger?’
‘Flirting with danger is fine. I mean, Bradley does it all the time.’ He looked pointedly at both of them as he spoke, ‘…and more, from what I’ve heard.’ He grinned cheekily at both of them as Zharra smirked back.
‘…you don’t know the half of it, boy.’ She said, running her tongue carefully over her teeth and stroking the side of Bradley’s face.
Bradley’s eyes had glazed over as he seemed to recall some special memory.
Liam grimaced, ‘whoa, okay. Stop there. You win, too much information-
Rae cleared her throat. ‘Are we quite finished? Or do I need to box your ears, Liam?’
‘She’s got you wrapped around your little finger, doesn’t she Liam?’ Natasha said loudly as she stalked closer, ‘how often does she let you off your leash now?’
Liam resisted the urge to stiffen. The others, under the quick-thinking Ryan’s direction, scurried through the door into the main reception hall under the pretence of getting drinks. Rae remained, appraising Natasha through slitted eyes.
‘Fancy meeting you here,’ Rae said viciously at Natasha, before looking up at Liam.
Natasha stopped in front of her, folding her arms carefully. ‘I’m as surprised as you are…I’m guessing you’re here for the thankyou ceremony for all the ‘amazing’ things you’ve done for the Sultan and his people?’ Natasha shifted her weight delicately from one foot to the other. ‘Funny, I didn’t know that ice queens could stand the heat of Brunei. Got Liam carrying a bucket for you in case you melt?’
Liam’s fixed grin slid off his face as he said limply, ‘if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll just go and kill myself quietly.’
As he turned to leave, Natasha caught his arm, ‘no wait, don’t go. I need to talk to you…privately.’ She said pointedly, giving Rae a dirty look.
Rae smiled sweetly and put her arms around Liam, eyes shooting daggers at Natasha as she kissed him on the cheek.
‘Five minutes, darling. Then I’ll have to come and have a chat with this charming woman myself.’ With a final dirty look at Natasha, Rae went through the doors and into the hall.
Liam was secretly wondering how much of Rae’s actions were actually acting. There was some definite hate shooting out of that mouth, almost perfectly covering her genuine alarm. Liam was suddenly very grateful that they had resolved their issues. If Rae kept shooting those dirty looks at him, he was certain that he’d simply wither away. If Chernobyl’s fallout and Rae’s expression had met, Chernobyl would apologise politely and ask which was the easiest way to take to Northern England and Wales thank-you-very-much.
‘What are you doing here?’ Liam asked in a semi-hushed tone.
‘It’s the final year of my business course, the Brunei government extends opportunities to students at the International University in Singapore.’ She shrugged as though it was unimportant. ‘If you’d had stayed overnight you’d have known that and you’d be here with me.’ She smiled, and Liam’s heart fluttered. ‘The night scene can be pretty wild here…a girl needs someone to watch her back in some of these nightclubs…’
Liam coughed and adjusted his bag strap.
‘So how long have you been engaged?’
Natasha’s question was out and hanging in the air so quickly that Liam’s mind clashed gears as it tried to come up with an answer. He had expected questions, but not this! He cursed Rae for letting her nursed anger at Natasha get in the way of the mission.
‘About a month.’ He said slowly. ‘I was getting cold feet and then the accident happened. We’re young, but it was a whirlwind romance…the fun had already started to bleed away for me and then that…accident completely severed the connection between us.’
Natasha nodded quietly to herself, looking at the ground.
Excellent, Liam thought, pay attention to your sorrow and the anger, ignore the blatantly suspicious happenings. Just focus on those emotions and resist the urge to kill Rae. Please.
‘What made you go back to her then?’ Natasha mumbled, still not looking up.
‘After she showed up, we had a row. The biggest and only we’ve ever really had.’ He sighed and fidgeted with the strap again. ‘We sorted it out and I realised how much I really do love her. We’ve had our problems before, but now we’ve sorted it out.’
Natasha looked up at him, eyes tearing. ‘Well then, I’m really glad I helped you rebuild your relationship, but you should know that that little whore is sleeping with a guy behind your back! I could smell his cheap cologne all over her, and it certainly wasn’t yours!’
With that, she turned and half ran down the corridor, pushing into the ladies restroom.
Liam’s heart was racing again, all of this was tearing him up inside.
He pushed open the door and shuffled through, calling out, ‘oh Rae! Darling? Where are you?’
