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The small corporate jet taxied to a stop as a tanker truck and a Rover sedan with Barbadian government plates rolled up to meet it. A large, round-shouldered black man got out of the sedan and climbed aboard. Hartley Braithwaite put his passport in a different pocket of his coat and took a seat facing the plane's single passenger.
"Miss Darcy. May I congratulate you, dear lady? You have achieved something utterly magnificent, something no one would have believed possible, and you have done it with surpassing beauty and grace. You have thrilled the entire world."
"Thank you, sir."
He could barely hear her. She looked exhausted, pale and thin, dwarfed by the airplane seat. There was a bandage above her left eye and scratches on both arms. He was astonished to see she had shoulder-length blonde hair.
It was hard to believe this was the same person he had seen running, jumping, and diving with such determination only days before.
"Thank you for sending the plane for me. I... I just couldn't stand being there any longer. I kept feeling like people were after me. And when that man...that man...."
"I'm sure that was horribly traumatic, my dear. You recovered wonderfully. I'm glad you had Coach Haskin ask us to send our plane. We are happy to be of any service we can. I mean that with all my heart."
"That's very generous of you, sir. And of your firm, of course. I don't know what I would have done."
"Please do not worry yourself about what might have happened, Miss Darcy. I promise you our firm will do everything it possibly can, and it can do a lot. We’ll help you gain control of your life, no matter what you might have in mind."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
"I have made the passport arrangements you requested, thanks to friends in the Ministry. We have a flight of several hours to Miami, and we will have plenty of time to discuss your plans for the near future.
“We have already set up several accounts for you and we have a number of other arrangements put together for you to consider. Believe it or not, thanks to the contracts you signed before you left to train, your main account is now nearing six figures."
"Thank you, sir."
She painfully elbowed herself to a new position in the seat and cleared her throat.
"Mr. Braithwaite, I do have a request to make. There is something I must do, that I simply have to do, before anything else, and I would really appreciate your firm's help with it even though I cannot explain just what it is right now.
“I'm sorry, Mr. Braithwaite. What I need truly is a matter of life and death. If your firm could help me for three or four days, maybe a week, then I will be happy to meet with your firm for whatever purposes they might wish."
She looked solemnly at him, her face strained.
"I need this plane, or another, for that week, sir. I will explain the purpose afterwards, and I’m sure your partners will agree it was worth it. In any case, I will try to pay you back for whatever it costs."
The jet's engines whined to life. Braithwaite was serious too.
"Let us talk it over once we are airborne, my dear. Something can be worked out, I feel sure."
