Free Stray Bullet by Simon Duringer

leaving, Jack had sent a message to Lee as he’d been unable to contact her as promised. He wasn’t entirely sure why he bothered, perhaps through professional courtesy, to say he would be absent for a while. He wondered if she would do long haul appointments.
     
    Rick broke Jack’s train of thought. 
     
    “Doesn’t it just amaze you?”
     
    “Sorry, what?” replied Jack.
     
    “Please remain in your seats until we’re at the terminal… so what do these sheep do? Immediately get out of their seats and start queuing.” He chuckled. “Unbelievable!” His voice could be clearly heard by other passengers who looked resentful at his comments, but all the same, knew he was correct.
     
    “Are you being met at the terminal?” asked Jack.
     
    “No. I’ll be hiring a car and making my own way to the hotel, and you?”
     
    “I’m expecting to be picked up by friends,” replied Jack, wondering what these friends might look like, or how they would even contact him. Lucio had been deliberately uninformative about his relatives. “Don’t worry.  You’ll know them when you see them, Jack,” he had said.
     
    Jack looked out of the window to see the ground crew running around, fixing the chocks under the wheels and preparing for the refuelling process. He could see the luggage already being removed from the holds and then, as the doors were opened to allow the passengers to exit, he felt the rush of warm air enter the aircraft.  He waited patiently in his seat as the queue thinned and then calmly got up. As he stretched, he heard his stomach rumble impatiently. It had been almost ten hours since his last meal. He would get a take away in the terminal.
     
    Following the crowd through the tunnel and towards baggage reclaim; it struck him that the size of the airport made its UK counterparts appear very insignificant. The passengers all huddled together at baggage reclaim for twenty minutes or so before the first of the flight’s baggage began to appear on the revolving conveyor. Eventually, Jack caught sight of his own large suitcase and walked to the conveyor to lift it.
     
    He launched it on to a trolley and felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, half expecting to see his travelling mate Rick, he was taken aback.
    “Jack, is that you?” came the friendly voice from a man he’d never seen before in his life.
     
    In his confusion Jack nodded.  “Err….yes.”
     
    “Jack, my friend. It’s been years. It’s so great to see you.” He added in a whisper, “Act like we’re buddies. I’m Lucio’s cousin Vinny and we’re on camera.”
     
    “Vinny! How have you been?” Jack exclaimed, feeling quite uneasy about entering such a charade with a complete stranger. He played along hoping the reason would soon become clear. Vinny helped Jack with his case and steered him towards a side exit where a security guard swiftly opened the door to let them through. To Jack’s surprise, it was not only Vinny who entered with him, but four other stern faced men following on behind them. Vinny passed the guard when Jack noticed him crossing the security guard’s palm with what looked like, a one hundred dollar bill.
     
    “Why not just wait at the other side of customs for me?” asked Jack.  He received no reply.
     
    Vinny motioned to his four counterparts. Two ran ahead and two remained keeping a watchful eye behind them. Jack was unnerved by this whole dramatic scene and was relieved when they finally, after several minutes of walking through empty corridors, reached the open air and to their car. Having taken the scenic route around the airport after leaving baggage reclaim, they hadn’t encountered a single airport official.
     
    “I’m sorry about that, Jack. We’ve been experiencing a few problems recently,” Vinny eventually said. “More than likely, if you’d gone the customs route, you would have come out in a pine box.”
     
    “Oh, I see,” Jack responded nervously.
     
    “We’ll be