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‘Tall man, around forty, accompanied by a good-looking blonde in her early thirties,’ said Khalil. ‘The man has an Irish accent.’

‘Ah yes, I do remember them. Mr and Mrs Hogan,’ said the booking clerk, once again checking her computer. ‘They only just made it.’

‘That has to be them,’ said the Chief.

‘They were among the last passengers to book in,’ said the clerk, ‘first class.’ She glanced up at the departure board. ‘But the gate for that flight has already closed.’

‘Get me air traffic control now,’ barked the Chief.

•••

Ross and Avril made it to the check-in desk a few minutes before the gate was closed. They were the last to enter the aircraft and were quickly taken to their places at the front.

Ross remained calm as he fastened his seat belt, while Avril’s eyes never left the open door, and she didn’t begin to relax until it was slammed shut.

A member of the cabin crew took them through the safety procedures on this particular aircraft, first in Arabic, then in French, then in English, which Avril thought would never come to an end.

At last, the stewardess returned to her seat at the front of the plane and fastened her seat belt as the cabin lights were dimmed.

Moments later, the four massive engines began to whirl, becoming faster and faster as they prepared to take off.

•••

Suddenly, without warning, the engines began to slow down, before finally stopping.

‘This is your captain speaking,’ announced a voice from the flight deck. ‘I’m sorry to inform you that there will be a slight delay,’ he added without explanation.

A groan went up throughout the cabin when the captainappeared and gave the purser an order to open the cabin door.

No sooner had he pulled it open than the Chief of Police and Khalil marched in.

‘Do you have a Mr and Mrs Hogan on board?’ he demanded.

The purser checked his manifest. ‘No, sir,’ he replied. ‘However, they were no-shows, and as they didn’t have any luggage on board, we were given clearance to take off.’

The Chief of Police sighed. He turned to Khalil and said, ‘You underestimated Hogan.’

Khalil let out a string of invective, before he said, ‘Then they must both still be somewhere in the airport.’

‘I doubt it,’ said the Chief, looking out of the cabin window to see an Air France plane gathering speed on the runway before taking off.

‘Get them to turn back,’ shouted Khalil.

‘Only the Minister can authorize that,’ said the Chief calmly, ‘and if you want to wake him, be my guest.’

The plane disappeared into the clouds.

CHAPTER 7

‘WE’RE DOINGWHAT?’SAIDAVRIL,as they left the terminal at Heathrow and walked out onto the pavement.

‘Taking a coach to Victoria,’ replied Ross.

‘You must be joking,’ she said. ‘You pay six hundred dollars not to sleep with me, we fly back to London via Paris first class, and now you expect me to take a coach to Victoria? Have you run out of money?’

‘Not quite,’ said Ross.

‘There has to be a simple explanation.’