The Desert Lion's True Colours (25 page)

Leon nodded in response.

Getting out of his chair, Jay looked at the guns, clothes and other equipment still on display and said ‘So I’m guessing this stuff
does
belong to us?’

‘In a manner of speaking, yes…’ replied Na’talia. ‘. . . As of early this morning the jet and the things in it have been handed over to your father by a close friend.’

Leon chuckled. ‘Close friend huh and who would that be?’ he said.

Smiling Na’talia replied, ‘A Royal Sultan of Dubai.’

Remembering what Chief Edwards had said in the car on the way to the airport, Jay said ‘I’m sorry. I’m not sure I heard you correctly. Did you just say the Royal Sultan of Dubai?’

Before Na’talia could reply, Jay said, ‘You know what, I don’t even want to know whose plane this is. I’ve heard enough. Conspiracy theories, double agents, peeps coming back from the dead,
-
no
offence
dawg!
Kids being taken away from their family and being put into special schools Shit! What next?’

Exasperated Jay slowly shook his head from side to side before saying, ‘I’ma head back to the bathroom.’

With that he gave the clothes a once over and picked out what he wanted to wear. After selecting a pair of pants and a top he returned to the back of the plane and into the bathroom. While he was gone Na’talia broke down Aaron’s plan that would supposedly bring them all some sort of retribution.

While Leon sat there listening to Na’talia explain his father’s intentions, he could not help but feel hurt and even more deserted than before. Sure he was happy to find out his father was alive but he could not help but think why his father would go out of his way to look out for Na’talia but leave him free to the hands of Camistock. He was about to ask her as much but at that moment Jay exited the bathroom the same way he had done before.
–
Swiftly and singing. This time the towel was gone and he was now in his Ralph Lauren underwear and a new white wife-beater. Jay called down the length of the plane to Leon.

‘Yo, we don’t have much time dude. You need to start getting ready.’

Leon looked over at Na’talia who nodded in agreement. Looking over his face she said, ‘He’s right. You should go wash-up and take care of those bruises.’

Leon stood where he was, contemplating how and what to say to her but in the end he decided to keep his thought to himself and just replied ‘Yeah. May be I should.’

Without another word, Leon got up out of his chair, picked up the sports bag he had packed earlier and entered into the bathroom,
-
throwing out Jay’s pants and top onto the long couch on the other side of the plane.
–
Then resting on the edge of the sink he retrieved Kerry’s photograph from his pocket and looked at her face warmly. He had not seen her since she left for work the evening before. No doubt she had been picked up from the hospital already and had been fully debriefed by Carter or the Chief on what was going on. He then thought about the impending reunion with her father. He would have liked to have been there to see that. Trying to make himself feel better, he kissed the face of the photograph and then said ‘I love you’ out loud. With a sigh and Turning to face the mirror he cleaned his cuts with the meds from the first aid kit and then after having a shower and putting on a change of clothes, he Jay and Na’talia spent the remaining flight time going over the next step of the plan.

CHAPTER 14
 

B
y the time Leon and Jay found their way to the pick-up area outside the main entrance of the airport it was 8:25am
–
Saturday Morning. As usual they looked good. Well put together. Jay was wearing the pants and shirt he had taken from the plane, a white velvet Kangol hat
–
to cover the bruise on his head, a white pair of Air Force 1’s and a blue, white and grey diamond pattern golf jumper. Leon on the other hand decided to wear the clothes that he brought. A white pair of Air Force 1’s a plain blue pair of Red Monkey Jeans and a white Hermes varsity jumper. The tag on the inside read cashmere. Kerry had good taste like that. It had a low v neck, a blue letter H sown into the left chest and two blue stripes wrapped around each sleeve. Leon was not one for sun glasses but due to the bruises on his face he decided to put on a wide frame pair of PRADA’s and like Jay he thought it would be best to cover the bruise on his head so he made sure to don a blue New-Era fitted cap, with the ‘305’ area code emblazoned on the front. Na’talia however had on the same clothes she was wearing before they entered the G5 jet-plane. She did not need to change. In fact, she was still sitting in the single, white leather chair on the plane. She knew her roll, she knew where she needed to be, so they all decided it would be best for her to stay behind and wait for Leon and Jay to exit the airport.

Na’talia was still seen as a CIA Agent, shadowing her partner on a case. So there was no way she could turn up in New-York with Leon and Jay who officially do not know she even exited. The logistics in Miami was easy but New-York was very different. It was closer to home and her CIA partners were located all over the tri-state area.

From the G5 Na’talia called the number to one of the two mobile phones Leon had taken from the plane. The phone rang twice before Leon answered.

‘Hey freedom fighter.’ She said. Her voice was warm and cheerful, almost as if their current situation never existed.

Leon smiled. ‘Hey, what’s good?’ he said back.

‘Just want you to know I understand how you may be feeling.’ She said.

‘You do?’ replied Leon mockingly.

‘Yes. I think I do.’ She paused for a moment, and then said, ‘Just give him a chance.’

‘Who… ?’

‘You’re Dad.’

‘Oh. Yeah. Is that it?’

Na’talia let out a sigh. ‘I guess so.’ She said coarsely.

While her intentions came from a good place Leon did not care much for her statement.

‘Aight… I’ll call you if anything should happen. I guess we’ll talk again later on today.’ He said.

‘Ok.’ Na’talia replied. ‘. . . Watch your back.’

Leon raised an eyebrow. ‘Will do,’ He said.

Ending the call, Leon put the phone back in his pocket and using the mobile phone Perry gave him the night before, called Black.

The phone rang just once before it was answered. The person did not say hello or give any introduction, just went directly into a question. ‘Are you in New-York?’ It was Perry.

Assuredly, Leon simply replied ‘Yes.’

‘Good…’ Perry gave a slight pause and then said ‘you guys got there kinda quick.’

Leon could hear the curiosity in his voice, so he decided it would be best to speed up the conversation.

‘Yeah well, we’re here now. What’s good?’ he said.

Perry told him to hold onto the line while he passed the call over to Black. Leon could hear the muffled sound of the phone being passed from hand to hand. A few seconds passed before Black’s distinct voice came through the ear piece loud and clear.

‘I see you got to NY in good time.’ He said.

‘Yeah, we did aight.’ Leon replied. ‘. . . I just wanted to check-in like you said we should. We we’re just going to catch a cab to a hotel. Get some rest and meet your contact for 10 o’clock tonight.’

Black started to laugh.

‘No you won’t…’ He said. ‘. . . My contact has sent a driver to pick you guys up from the airport. He should be there shortly.’

Adjusting the phone on to his ear Leon said ‘And we’re supposed to just get into the car with this dude?’

‘Yes. Why you ask that?’ asked Black curiously.

Leon did not answer.

Black cleared his throat before he said ‘You’re not worried are you?’

‘No!’ replied Leon quickly.

Black made a sound between an enquiring hum and a board grunt and then said ‘Good… Besides, without you and the bags your carrying there’s no deal anyway. So don’t worry. You’ll be taken care of. So hold tight and the driver will be with you guy’s soon.’

‘How will we recognise him?’ asked Leon.

‘Don’t you worry about that… He knows what you look like.’

With that Black ended the call.

As Leon lowered the phone from his ear Jay asked, ‘What’s going on bro? Someone is coming to pick us up?’

‘It looks like it?’

‘Who?’

‘I have no idea, but it turns out they know who we are though.’

Jay frowned slightly then said, ‘That’s bullshit man. What are we supposed to do now?’

‘Wait. I guess…’

‘For how long?’ Jay retorted angrily.

Leon did not respond right away. He just shrugged his shoulders and let the sports bag he was holding fall onto the floor next to the Gucci bags surrounding his feet.

‘I know what you’re thinking… ?’ he said finally. Leon was trying to sound reassuring however he was unsure if Jay was even paying him any attention. So with half a smile on his face he said ‘We have no choice but to go along with this man. We’re just going to have to feel our way through it. We’ve done it before. Everything will be fine dawg.’

Not happy with the situation, Jay began to mock Leon by saying “
We’ll
be
fine,
dawg
” in an awful attempt of an impersonation.

Leon was going to respond to it but decided it was not worth it.

A few seconds of silence passed between them as they scrutinised all the other passengers standing around them. They watched the intricate commotion of tourists arriving into the Big-Apple for the first time and New-York natives returning to the concrete jungle they called home. Standing on the edge of the curb, Leon turned to his left and watched the car’s coming towards them. Twenty minutes passed and no driver or car looked out of place.

‘How long are we expected to wait?’ Jay said finally.

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

‘This wasn’t a part of your pop’s plan…’ instigated Jay. ‘. . . Why are we even here? Shouldn’t we let the Chief or Na’talia know what’s going on?’

Leon was about to reply but both of their attentions were grabbed by three vehicle’s pulling up to the curb in front of them. Two white Range Rovers. One at the front, one at the back and a white Jaguar XJ, with 20' inch rims sandwiched in the middle. All three of the cars had limo-style tinted windows, making it impossible to see who and how many people were inside each vehicle.

Jay looked over at Leon and said ‘So are we supposed to just get in?’

No sooner did he say that the rear passenger window of the Range Rover at the front of the line slowly rolled down. Leon took two steps to his right to get a better look at the person inside. There were four men within the car including the guy sitting closest to the open window. The guy looked Arabian, but due to his full beard and the wide framed sun-glasses he was wearing Leon thought he could have just as well been from Iran, Egypt, Pakistan or some other eastern region of Europe.

Leon gave the universal head-nod, to which the guy replied with the identical gesture before pointing to the Jaguar behind them.

‘Get in.’ He said.

Before Leon could reply the window rolled back up to reveal his own reflection in the tinted glass.

Looking over at Jay, he tilted his head in the direction of the Jaguar and said ‘I guess this is us.’

The Jaguar’s windows stayed closed so Leon pointed to the bags on the floor and then to the trunk to show the driver of the car his intentions. A second passed and the trunk opened, revealing more than enough space for their expensive luggage. Holding onto their own gear they loaded the 5 Gucci bags into the back. As Jay closed the trunk, the right rear door of the Jaguar opened and out stepped another well-dressed Middle Eastern man. He was wearing black leather shoes, beige pants, a plain white shirt and what looked like the butt of a Glock handgun in the front of his waist. Its black boxy frame was unmistakable. He approached Jay first and with a large smile on his face he shook his hand. ‘Jay… !’ He said warmly. ‘. . . I’m so glad to finally meet you.’

Weary of the situation Jay simply replied ‘Yeah, you too.’

Moving in closer, the guy reached in for a hug and whispered ‘I need to search you.’

Knowing what was coming, Jay relaxed his body and the fake hug transformed into a close quarter body search,
-
minus the space between the legs and ankles. They had already calculated the chances of being searched, so they decided against carrying any weapons on their person.

The guy then turned his attentions to Leon and gave him the same welcome, hug and search. After retrieving Leon’s phones and was relatively satisfied with his body-check he pointed to the bags they were holding and said ‘What’s in them?’

‘Personal effects’ Leon replied.

The guy kept silent for a moment then looking directly at Leon said, ‘I insist you let us carry
all
your luggage.’

The guy made a motion with his hand and the trunk of the Jaguar XJ reopened. After taking their bags and placing Leon’s phones into one of them, he through both bags into the back and then pointed to the Range Rover at the back of the three vehicle procession.