At thirty minutes to ten, Lucas pulled over at a private discreet airport, and straight ahead, at a far distance Vivain could see the Airbus A380 800 airplane waiting. It was one of the largest passenger plane made in France with double deckers, four engines, and wingspans longer than football fields: depending on the seat layout, the plane can carry as many as about 850 passengers in a single class or 644 in a two-tiered class.
"You can help yourself out." Lucas said pushing open his door and climbed out fleetly. And turning to face Hugo who was just shutting the door he said, "Hey Hugo, make sure no one leaves the bus until I say so. Am going to talk to the officer in charge. You Balu you are coming with me."
"Bien sûr patron" the huge French man said and set off running to where the bus had parked.
As Lucas and Vivian walked toward the entrance gate a couple of uniformed guards appeared from nowhere. One of them stood before the iron gates; the other strolled over to them.
The two guards, gave them a quick, hard look. They were paid to know who could go in without a frisk and who couldn't.
"Who are you and what do you want." the guard said after a lengthy scrutiny.
"My name is Jack Brown, the vice head principal of Kas Girl's High School." Lucas said calmly and turning to face Vivian he continued, "And this is Miss Balu, one of the teachers. The girls in the bus as you are seeing, are going on a school trip in Mexico. When the news reached the mayor, he permitted us to use one of his planes."
From his bag, he produced an envelope and handed it to the guard. "Here are the documents signed by the mayor himself and the head principal of the school, and attached to it is a letter from the Mexican Techic School, showing their request and invitation for the school trip. You can even call the mayor for confirmation, if you don't mind." he said very calmly and controlled: it made him all the more dangerous.
The guard went through the papers for some seconds, then placed them back in the envelope, looked up and scowled at them and then handed back the envelope. He then went over to a wall telephone and muttered into the mouthpiece. He waited a moment, pushed back his hat to the back of his head and eyed at them with a blank, disinterested expression.
A voice cracking in his ear brought him to attention.
"A Jack Brown, vice head principal and some students girls are down here, sir," he said.
"Yes, sir. I'll see them through. I'll see to it, sir. Yes, sir. Sure thing sir." He hung up, stroked his nose and gave them a sour grin.
"It's okay, let them through." he said to the other guard.
The other guards shrugged and moved to the gate and opened the gate.
Vivian and Lucas went back to the jeep languidly, signaled Hugo, climbed in, started the engine and drove through.
The clock on the dashboard said it was two minutes to twelve o'clock.
Thirty minutes later the plane took off.