Jo Goes To Paris

Chapitre Dix-Sept

Amber’s face turned white. “You what?!”

“I can’t find it! It’s not anywhere!”

The guard looked at her. “Miss, is there a problem?”

“Shit!” Johanna thought.

“Uh… I believe I lost my passport… It was with me, I swear, we are English and we were in France…”

The guard took the telephone and dialed a number. “Please wait here.”

“Jo, what the hell!” Amber said.

“I don’t know! It was with me! What if I lost it in the plane?!”

“What about the airport in France? Well, either way, you’re screwed!”

 Another man approached the cabin and addressed Johanna.

“Miss Seymour, I’m afraid you have to come with us. You will be under our custody.”

“Are you arresting me?!” she squeaked. “You can’t do that!”

“Please, madam, follow us and avoid any embarrassment…”

“I’m going with her.” Amber said, loyally, but the guard shook his head.

“I’m sorry, madam. Only Miss Seymour.”

Amber hesitated, but after a few seconds she took Johanna and hugged her. Discreetly, she whispered in her ear.

“They will take you outside. When they do, wait for a distraction and run. You will see me near.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Johanna had no time to reply; as the guard took her by her arm, and she immediately shook it off. “Don’t you touch me! I can walk on my own!”

Johanna watched as Amber walked away, feeling a strange sense of loneliness.  She knew her friend had a plan but it didn’t stop her from feeling nervous when she was taken to the airport’s immigration office and interrogated. She had to explain several times what had happened, show all the documents she had and at the same time, think of the speech she would give to Arturo.

After an hour that seemed to be an eternity, they decided to take her to the immigration office, where she was supposed to stay until her situation was discussed with the English embassy and solved. Three of the guards escorted a raging Johanna outside the airport.

“Come on, Amber, where have you gone?!”

Her answer came when she saw Amber inside a black car, looking at her and winking.

It didn’t even take three minutes; there was an explosion on the other side of the airplane, which distracted the guards for a minute. Johanna ran to the car, managing to enter before the guards, and Amber sped up.

“Take that, suckers!” Johanna screamed from the window.

“Calm down. You will have to deal with this later.” Amber warned.

“I don’t care, this is so exciting! I’m a fugitive of the Law!”

“Shit, and the ‘Law’ is coming after us.”

A police car was chasing them. Amber was a good driver, though; she sped the most she could.

“What the hell was that at the airport, by the way, and whose car is this?” Johanna asked, laughing.

“Oh, well, I called Casey and told her what happened. As I promised her she would have a bombastic headline, she agreed to give me a hand.” Amber said, proudly. “She sent a guy who had some fireworks to set them up to fire on the back of the airport, creating the needed distraction. Of course, he was gone before it exploded. This car has no number, no plate, so no one can connect it to Casey or her people. And we won’t say a word.”

“Wait… Does it make you my accomplice?”

Amber sighed. “Yes, it means we are both together at this. So you better gain that man back and make him help us with the Law, or else we both are going to jail.”

“Oh, God, oh God, we are late, aren’t we?” Johanna asked.

“Well, a bit, by this time I think the place is already pretty crowded.”

“Perfect… I didn’t want a scene but maybe that’s what we will have.”

“But look on the bright side, I think we lost the cops.” Amber said, looking at the rearview mirror. “It will buy us some time. You didn’t tell them where we are going, did you?”

“No, of course not!”

Amber’s impressive driving abilities made them get to the Ferrero’s manor in less than fifteen minutes. Johanna had no time to admire the grandiosity of the house; she was just too worried about what she would tell Arturo. Amber led her through the side door where they were allowed in by the huge security guard who checked their names on the list. Making a mental note to thank Casey, Johanna looked around, looking for the familiar face of Arturo.

“What a cool pool they have!” Amber said, pointing at a huge swimming pool decorated with floating golden and white balls and small waterfalls with colored lights making the water look like a rainbow at night. There was also a bar in the middle, not active at the moment. “Please marry him and invite me over for the weekends, I need to take a picture in this pool and post it on Instagram…”

“Will you stop dreaming and help me look for Arturo?” Johanna hissed.

“All I can see now is the pool! Sweet Lord, I’d hire me an Italian barkeeper if I had a pool like this…”

Johanna turned to Amber to give her an annoyed look, but as she did, she noticed the undeniable figure of Arturo on the other side of the pool.

“Look, there he is! Let’s go!”

The place was indeed too crowded as Amber had predicted; all Johanna could see was a great amount of people in their fancy clothes, having their drinks, all of them on her way. She tried to dodge from them the best she could, but the inevitable happened, and she stepped on some woman’s long-tailed carmine dress, and as she walked, Johanna slipped and fell down. Not only that: she fell in the marvelous pool.

Amber put both her hands in her mouth, shocked. “Oh, my God, Jo, are you okay?”

Of course she wasn’t; Johanna didn’t know how to swim.

“Help me!” she asked, desperately. “Take my hand!”

Amber reached out to grab Johanna’s hand, and after struggling for a couple of minutes, she managed to help her friend up.

And that’s how it happened. In a fraction of a second, Johanna found herself in front of hundreds of people, wet from head to toe, her dress slightly ripped. She was still holding her purse. Arturo was staring at her with his jaw dropped, and so was everyone else.