A Kink in the Tail

Chapter 12 - Choosing sides.

It was 10.35 pm. The Arrivals Terminal was quiet in comparison to the rest of the day. The crowd of people waiting for friends and relatives had thinned out a couple of hours earlier. There were still people milling around, some paced up and down; others waited in groups with balloons and banners; parents holding tired infants shifted from one foot to another, rocking their little ones to sleep. The scene held nothing out of the ordinary.

A young man in his late teens, no more than twenty was leaning against a WA Tourism Advertising Board near the exit of the hall. He was oblivious to the comings and goings around him. He only had eyes for whatever was on the screen of his phone, the attached cords disappearing under the hood of his sweatshirt.   His foot tapped a rhythm only he heard. He also was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a guy in a grey Nike sweatshirt, black tracky dacks, and runners. The small black, cloth backpack at his feet completed the uniform for a urbanesque teenager.

A trickle of people came out of the sliding doors and the waiting crowd moved towards the glass wall that separated the new arrivals from the rest of the terminal. The sound level instantly went up. The young man looked up briefly and then went back to tapping his foot and moving his head to the beat. He leaned comfortably against the wall and held up his phone as he folded his arms across his chest.

Small groups came out and dispersed into the waiting crowd, which was becoming smaller. The stream stopped for a while and the people waiting fidgeted and stared at the sliding doors willing them to open and reveal the person they longed to see.  An eternity later, actually ten minutes, a large group of tired looking passengers came out all at once, pushing trolleys or rolling their wayward suitcases behind them. The volume went up again, Yoops! And Yooo whooo's filled the terminal.

The young guy looked around and checked out the group, his head still nodding to some song blasting in his ears. He spotted four men who loomed over everyone else. Four super tall, hulk-sized guys who wouldn't look out of place in a basketball team for giants walked slowly through the crowd towards the exit.  There was no one to meet them.  

They were all swarthy types with dark hair and olive skin. Three of them had short-cropped hair and wore ordinary dark clothes but the fourth could stop traffic.  The sort of man who would glare at you from the front cover of Vogue. He had long dark brown hair that fell to just below his shoulders and stark sharp features.  He wore a beautiful cut grey suit. How he managed to look as perfect as he did after a long trip was a miracle in itself.

The young guy glanced at them and went back to his music. He tapped his phone and started to hum along, his foot tapping away.

The four men passed him without sparing him a look. He ignored them as well, only catching a glimpse of them as they disappeared through the sliding doors that lead to the airport car park. Then he pushed himself off the wall and pulled on the cords releasing his earplugs. His demeanor changed instantly. He stretched his muscles, shook off the hood, and started walking towards the exit on the far side of the terminal. As he walked he turned the camera setting towards himself.

"Did you get all that? I assume they were the ones you were after."   

A quiet voice answered straight away.

"Thank you, Ben. It wasn't what we expected but they were definitely the group we were after. I think that will be the last thing we will require from you. Now that we are here we can take over."

"If you need our services again feel free to contact the office, Mr. Lewis. I'll tie up a few loose ends and then close the case." The young man ended the call and went on his way.

......

Lewis was sitting at the dining room table, a laptop in front of him.  His two offsiders stood behind him.   All three watched the video call, from the first arrivals until their targets appeared.  Thanks to Ben who had been quietly doing surveillance and background checks for them for the last three weeks, they got a clear picture of the four Lycans as they made their way to the exit.