'I love you, Gloria,' I said. I'd been trying not to say it, but I blurted it out. She squeezed my arm without replying.

The Swede finished inspecting the bullet holes and climbed back into the cockpit of the Trislander.

I took Gloria's hand and we walked in silence towards the jet. 'My overnight bag is in the plane,' she said. 'Do you have luggage?'

'No. No luggage.'

The Learjet pilot was standing by the wing signing a clipboard for the driver of a fuel bowser. There. was a strong smell of jet paraffin in the air. 'So what's the verdict?' the pilot asked Glori& 'These Swedes want me to file a flight plan. It's always the same with these horse and buggy outfits, they always want to do everything by the book. Are you both on diplomatic passports?'

'Yes, we can leave,' said Gloria. 'No need to do any customs and immigration.'

'Great! I'll go over to the office and do the airport paperwork,' said the pilot. He looked at his watch. 'You may as well get aboard, out of the cold. There's food in the galley. I'll be back directly. Then we'll crank up and get out of here.'

The plane had its own steps and the interior was luxuriously equipped as an air ambulance. Directly behind the flight deck there was a cabin for the nurse, doctor and wealthy relatives, the soft leather seating arranged around a polished table. On the cabin walls, over the tinted windows, there was a drinks cabinet, racks of magazines, and on a polished-wood panel there were instruments and gauges which relayed altitude, airspeed, cabin temperature, and the time in the financial centers throughout the world where ambulances were most needed. Part of the space was a tiny galley — no more than a closet really — with a sink, a coffee machine and a shelf packed with groceries: shrink-wrapped sliced chicken and bread and canned soup.

I opened a leather-covered door to find another larger cabin. Behind me I heard Gloria putting water into the coffee machine. I went through the door, marveling at the deep carpeting, and at the beds with crisp sheets and pillows. 'Look at this!' I called as I went into the main cabin. 'Big soft beds!'

'Goodness,' said Gloria, looking at me and smiling demurely.

'Did you tell the embassy not to send a car for me?'

'Beds,' said Gloria. 'I never noticed that.'