Free Texas Tango: A Flint Rock Novel by Glenn Smith Page B

passed the handset to Ava.   She answered, looked surprised, listened, then pressed the off button.
     
    "Mr. Bahaar informs me that my best interest will be served by my immediate presence in Athens.   He will call when I am there and give me further directions."   Ava stood motionless.   "Shall I go?'
     
    Flint was looking around carefully as he wondered from what place they were being observed.   It was dusk and fog was already forming.   He could feel Ava looking scared.
     
    "Do you think Mary might lend us her Sabreliner?" he asked.
     
    Because his question assumed he would go as well, Ava regained her confidence and said, "I can ask."   She called, explained briefly to Mary, then looked at Flint and smiled.   "You must have really impressed her.   She says she has not let anyone else fly it, but it's okay with her for you to take it.   She said to tell you Semper Fi.”
     
    Forty-five minutes later, Ava and Flint had paid for their rooms at the Bristol, quickly packed and grabbed a taxi, made the drive to the Naples airport.   While he scanned the panel as both engines fired up, Flint asked Ava to phone Zeta and tell her that he was filing an instrument flight plan to Athens.   An hour and twenty minutes later, Sabreliner Four Six Texas Tango was on short final for runway Three Left, Eleftherios Venizrlos International Airport, Athens, Greece.  
     
    Chapter 10
     
    Flint landed Mary's Sabreliner in Athens eight and a quarter hours after a slender, attractive man wearing a turban stood up in the first class cabin of an Emirates Airlines Airbus 330 on the ramp at the same airport.   He had left Hyderabad, India at 4:10 A.M. local time, changed planes four hours later at Dubai.   An elegantly lettered name tag on his high quality carryon read "Abdu Koriem."
     
    Koriem slipped his tablet computer into its snug protective jacket as he stepped out of the plane into the jet way.   An hour later he was installed in a room at the Grand Bretagne Hotel, on Constitution Square, next to the parliament building, in downtown Athens.
     

After fourteen hours of traveling, Koriem took a long nap.   He awakened at 5:00 P.M. Athens time, showered, then spent over two hours sitting tailor style on the floor meditating silently.   He repeated five holy names for over an hour, then silently chanted a specific mantra over and over.   He stood up at a minute before 8:00, glanced out of the window of his room, saw the acropolis and the Parthénon.   They looked a short distance away on a hill soaring above and commanding the whole city.
     
    Koriem dressed, wound a fresh turban onto his head, made his way to the rooftop dining room for a pre ordered vegetarian meal.   He shared the elevator with a bronzed woman wearing a piece of casually draped white cloth almost large enough for Koriem to use as a turban.   As it barely hung on her body, the hem was radically uneven ,   A rope like slice of the material made a strap over her right shoulder.   She met a handsome young man at the door to the rooftop restaurant.   They made their way to a small group in the far corner at a round table.   Champagne was their beverage.   A surreal view of the acropolis not far distant created an unforgettable impression.
     
    As Abdu Koriem waited for the first course to be presented, his compact tablet computer signaled a phone call.   He spoke into the microphone on the ear bud cord that plugged into the side of his device.   He listened for nearly a minute, then hung up.   He caught the eye of his waiter, told him there would be two more for dinner.   The waiter nodded, went directly to the kitchen, returned shortly with sparkling water for Koriem.   He stood at a correct distance and stared discreetly away from anyone in the room.   He and Koriem waited.  
     
    Fifteen minutes later, the taxi driver stopped in front of the Bretagne, removed the ignition key and accompanied Flint and Ava to the front desk.   He wanted