The limo was where I expected it to be in the VIP parking lot of the airport serving the capital city of the forgettable southern state located between somewhere and somewhere else—for those of us from the West Coast, most of these states down in this region are forgettable.
The Limo wasn't parked up at the well-lit side near the terminal but back toward the end of the lot and close up to some bushes on the side away from the terminal. No one was near the vehicle, but the doors were unlocked. After looking around to be pretty sure I wasn't seen, I quietly opened a rear door almost pushed into the bushes and slipped into the back seat. There was a pile of luggage on the floor near the center and I crawled over that and pulled a blanket over my head. This would have all been easier to accomplish—and not so warm and stuffy—if I hadn't been wearing a three-piece suit. These were the instructions, though. Blend in. Do what you have to do and not be caught at it.
Some minutes later I heard the driver's door open and we were off. So far so good.
After an eternity of bone-rattling rapid speed, probably on an expressway from the sound of vehicles passing and being passed, and then slowing down to the stop-and-go movement of an urban area, the limo stopped. The driver exited the vehicle. Several long minutes of silence. Then I heard the rear door on the other side of the limo from where I was hidden open and the vehicle settle as at least one person got in the back seat. There was considerable noise coming from beyond the confines of the limo while the door was open. The sound of a crowd—boisterous. It sounded happy. I burrowed farther under the blanket. This was no time to be seen.
"Fuckin opera," a deep, gruff voice said as the door slammed shut and the sound of the crowd deadened. "Some year we're gonna have enough in the coffers sos I don't have to attend these fuckin operas and perform for the Devonshire set. Right, Steve?"
"Yes sir, right." Another, softer, a little higher-pitched, more refined voice.
I heard the driver's door open, more crowd noise, the seat I was wedged against puff back a bit, a breeze of air, and then the door shut and, with a honk, we were pulling away from a curb again.
"You bring the latest budget proposal folder?" The commanding voice.
"Yes, sir, right here, sir." The subservient voice.
"And the plans for the new nuclear plant they want to put downstate. I promised I'd look at those before Monday too. Fuckin' power company. They said they were lookin' at another state when they endorsed me. Now I'm stuck with their fuckin' fallout."
"Right, sir. They're right here. The plans, I have them here in my briefcase."
"Because you know we have to go straight to the airport from here. God, I hate these unexpected trips to Washington. I'd planned to have some foolin around time this weekend. Did cha cancel the hotel rooms at the Omni?"
"Yes Sir. And made reservations at the Mayflower in D.C., just as you asked. Two adjoining rooms."
I groaned to myself. This was supposed to be all over right here in this town. Well, I'd just have to adjust.
"Fuckin opera."
A foot had come around the stack of suitcases and was nudging me in the thigh.
"OK, son, you can come up now."
He was still talking as I came up from under the blanket and turned, and with "the dominant voice" pulling me and turning me, I plopped down on the limo back seat between two suits, one on a bulky middle-aged man of noticeable height, and one on a younger, Harvard Law School grad type. Tanned. Well groomed. Quite good-looking.
There was no question who was in charge. The larger guy was already pawing at me. Prodding and feeling, like I was the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
"Well, lookie what we have here. A real stud. Does his picture justice. Yes Siree, a real hunk."
It was pretty dark in the car; we were already moving out of the well-lit city center and onto an expressway. Back to the airport, if I'd heard right.
But I knew who he was. "Client 11" was all that Leon had said when he gave me the assignment back in L.A. But he'd said it in the hushed tones he reserved for the regular big spenders whose files were kept separate, more private than the others.
I'd seen him on TV. He'd had his hat in the ring for the presidency in early primaries last year but had been weeded out as too folksy, too reactionary conservative, and from a state no one could remember and didn't particularly care about. He was the governor of that state, though, so he wasn't necessarily a nobody. And if he could afford what he was paying for me, he most certainly wasn't a nobody.
"Excuse me? What was that?" I'd heard him say something, give some sort of command, but I'd been dreaming, catching up on the situation. I liked to try to keep up.