Chapter Twelve

Boris and Mr Pyre had been arguing for a good five minutes before they
realised that Alma had disappeared, and taken the egg with her. They
had been concentrating so hard on presenting themselves as being
strong and powerful, that they hadn't been able to spare any attention
for anything else. The dissapearance was only noticed when Boris
gesticulated towards where the egg had been, and realised that he was
gesticulating at empty air. They had both jumped up, all pretence of
being cool, calm and collected temporarily forgotten as they searched
the area for their runaway hostage.

It was another five minutes before it occured to them that Boris' car
was missing and a further ten before they had found some transport for
themselves: two old motorbikes that had been forgotton in the back of
a shed until now. The only direction she could have gone was towards
Lisbon so, wobbling slightly as they got used to their new wheels,
they headed east, their animosity towards each other forgotton as they
persued their common goal.

They tore through the streets of Lisbon like men possessed, eyes wide
open, looking for a single, solitary glimpse of anything that might be
the car, the girl or the egg. Eventually Mr Pyre's bike starting to
slow down, and the two men realised that they were both dangerously
low on petrol, and were still no nearer to finding Alma. "I think,"
said Boris "that it's time to call in some extra help."

They found a small café and made use of the bathroom to make
themselves presentable, before steadily, and with great purpose,
walking up to a large hotel in the centre of the city. The bouncers
on the door gave Boris a quick nod, and Mr Pyre a suspicious glance
before allowing them to pass inside. Another large man with a metal
detector at the entrance to the lift insisted that they remove all
weapons before proceeding. Inside the lift a third man pressed the
button for the top floor, inserting a special key card into the
mechanism. The lift rose slowly, a plucky violin could be heard
piping through the small speakers.

Eventually, the lift arrived at the top floor and, with a ping, the
doors opened. Despite their outward cool, calm, collectedness, the
two bad guys were nervous. They were about to ask a favour of the
No.1 guy in the portugese mafia. Such favours were always hard to
repay.

---

"Woke up this morning
Everything I had was gone."

Alma heard the words piped through the speakers of a cheap hi-fi from
behind the counter of the airport coffee shop where she was now sat,
contemplating her next move.

Now that she was at the airport, she was taking the time to think out
her next move. Eventually she decided that she would have to head
back to England, and see if she could find out how George had been
mixed up in all this. Maybe he had left behind somthing that would
lead her in the right direction.

As she walked away from the ticket counter and towards the gate, she
failed to notice that she was being followed by someone dressed head
to toe in black.

--
by Clair - Life in Reverse

Illustration by Wally Torta