Crisis Four by Andy McNab

displays. I quite enjoyed that, even though it was the same little man doing the same little surfing thing every single time. Sad but true.
    It was just past one o’clock. They weren’t there yet. Trying to ease my guilt I took Kelly on a sightseeing tour of the shops and she landed up with bars of chocolate, an airline teddy bear and an All Saints CD. It was the easy way out; I knew it wouldn’t achieve anything, but it made me feel a bit better.
    We went back to the Costa Coffee shop and sat on bar stools with a view of the terminal entrance. She had an orange, I had a flat white, if that was what they called it, and we both had a sandwich as we sat watching a packed airport get fed, catch planes and generally spend more money in one hour than they would in an entire day on holiday.
    Kelly said, ‘Nick, do you know how long it takes before an elephant is born?’
    ‘Nope.’ I wasn’t really listening; I was too busy bending over my coffee and looking out for Wallace and Gromit, resisting looking at my watch.
    ‘Nearly two years.’
    ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ I said.
    ‘OK, do you know how many people were in the world in 1960?’
    ‘Three years.’
    She’d sussed me out. ‘Nick… Three billion. But very soon the world will have a population of six billion.’
    I turned to look at her. ‘You’re very clever for a—’
    Then I saw what she was doing: reading facts off the back of sugar packets. ‘That’s cheating!’
    At last I got a smile from her. It turned into an actress’s smile when she said through gritted teeth, ‘Oh look, Granny and Grandad.’
    ‘Well, off you go then and say hello!’
    Muttering under her breath, she got off her stool and ran over to them. Their faces showed a mixture of relief at finding us and self-congratulation at being brave enough to be out and about in such a big, busy place. Kelly gave them both a hug; she did love them, it was just that they weren’t the sort of people you’d want to spend all day with, let alone a bonus weekend. Their trouble was, they didn’t actually do anything. They didn’t take her to the park or on outings; they just kind of sat there expecting her to draw pictures and drink cups of tea.
    Jimmy was wearing cream flannels and a beige anorak; Carmen wore clothes from the sort of catalogue that had Judith Chalmers on the cover. Jimmy’s face seemed to have no features whatsoever; he looked as if he’d been designed in a wind tunnel. Kev must have got his dark skin and eyes from his mother, who still looked attractive, even if she did believe people really thought her jet-black hair was natural.
    The pair of them were busy fussing all over her, asking her what she’d done as they walked towards me. I got in there first, flicking my eyes between them as I spoke. ‘Jim, Carmen, how are things?’ And before they could debrief me on the road conditions and the exact route they’d taken I got straight down to it. ‘Look, I’m sorry about this, but I’ve got to go. You sure you’re OK for the rest of the weekend?’
    They were both very happy. It was like Christmas again, except that that time it had been Heathrow and Kelly had had to be picked up four days early. They never understood why someone so erratic had been chosen as her guardian; they didn’t even know me and I was clearly not suited to the task. I bet they had me down as one of Kev’s wife’s friends. They never did like Marsha. When they weren’t blaming me for their son’s murder, they were probably blaming her, not that she was around to answer back.
    Carmen busied herself doing up the top button of Kelly’s shirt and tucking the whole thing back into her jeans. You can’t take any chances, the draughts you get in airports.
    I made sure they saw me take a quick look at my watch. I had loads of time, but it didn’t mean I wanted to stay. ‘I’ve really got to go now. Kelly, give us a hug and a kiss.’
    She wrapped her arms around me and I bent at the waist so we