Plague of Coins (The Judas Chronicles #1) by Aiden James Read Free Book Online Page B

despite his grumpiness and stern little digs.
    A beautiful young woman of Middle Eastern descent smiled warmly and greeted us from behind the counter. I barely caught her name—Kali—before she immediately left her post to lead us all down the covered walkway to the airplane. No ticket check-in that day...just skip ahead and pass ‘GO’ and collect two hundred dollars without having to roll the dice. Swweeeeett!
    Well, considering that our present CIA escorts were still with us, maybe not so much.
    “‘Why the frigging hurry’, you ask?” Alistair scolded me over his shoulder. “Except for you, everyone else seems as anxious to get this misadventure over and done with as much as I am!”
    His irritated Scottish brogue at its best, it drew snickers from the two agents, proving they at least carried human pulses after all. Meanwhile, the cute stewardess named Kali urged us to keep up with her on our short trek to the plane.
    Was I the only one in vacation mode, I wondered? Granted, we had an appointment with some crazy Russian billionaire willing to waste his cash on a quest for the Garden of Eden. Not a tremendous amount of fun to be had, but still....
    As soon as we actually boarded the jet two more dark haired beauties greeted us, named Pirma and Serena. All three females could pass as sisters. Not sure if they were from Dubai, or perhaps somewhere deeper in the Gulf region. The shape of their big deep brown eyes looked Jordanian. If nothing else, their charms effectively cooled my boy’s ire. Meanwhile, one of the ‘suits’ made a call on his radio, and then I heard him add, “We’re ready for her...send her to the plane.”
    “So, who’s joining our Iranian party?” I glanced to my left where the cockpit sat. To my right were two rows of luxury passenger pods. This clearly wasn’t an American airplane. “I doubt the Ayatollah would approve of this. Don’t you guys?”
    Although my question was directed toward the two men representing the U.S. government, who suddenly stiffened, the girls giggled shyly. The one named Pirma shot me a flirtatious wink...might be a little fun to be had on the way to the Arab coast.
    “If this person we’re waiting on is a striking female, she might not appreciate being compared to some old bearded guy with an Aladdin turban.” Alistair chuckled as he stepped over to the closest pod to set his flight bag down in the plush leather seat. His ill mood had lifted. “I’d like to see how your considerable charms work with this information as prior knowledge. I’ll lay down a Jackson that says you’ll never see first base.” He glanced playfully at me after relieving his shoulder of the bag’s weight.
    “I’ll trump you with a Hamilton that not only says I’ll win, but that first base will be her idea!”
    More snickers from the CIA duo, and bigger smiles from the ladies. Everyone, it seems, loves a guy who can effectively flirt.
    “You’re on!” my son fired back, and I detected a glint of supreme satisfaction in his eyes that suddenly looked beyond where I stood. “Looks like it won’t take long to find out the verdict.”
    “The verdict on what?”
    My head whipped around at the sound of the voice...lush, genteel, with a hint of another language long since forgotten.
    “That, my dear lady, has yet to be decided!” I pictured my charms surrounding the woman standing before me, and all at once swooping in under her defense system—should she have one. “I’m William Barrow, and this is my father, Alistair Barrow. Perhaps you’ve already met these other two gentlemen?”
    I motioned to our escorts, who had never made their introductions known to us. All they had said when they accosted Alistair and me was that Michael Lavoie sent them; in order to make sure we boarded the right airplane. Being a bit put off by Michael’s further intrusion to my travel plans, I didn’t give a shit about ingratiating myself with these guys.
    But in truth, I was now looking