Things Start To Escalate !

Rob became flushed and flustered as he hopped about on one leg to take off both his shoes and socks. He avoided looking at the girls but could hear their distinctive laughter and there was a growing swell of background murmurs mixed with a few giggles from the locals. It was not a comfortable feeling to have the dirty airport flooring beneath his bare feet.

The captain made a show of turning his socks inside out and tapping the heel of his shoes to check if there was any hollow cavity. He indicated that Rob should empty the pockets of his jacket and then take it off. It was actually too hot in the airport to be wearing a jacket but Rob was that formal type of Englishman and driven by the proper etiquette. So it was no hardship to take it off but he did not relish seeing his personal belongings examined and the jacket inverted and the lining probed and prodded.

"Look, is this all really necessary ?" he could not resist challenging the captain, though it would have been more diplomatic to keep quiet. "I assure you that from the information we have received, it is absolutely necessary and I would advise you to behave and comply with our requests !" Rob flushed again in the face of this rebuke and this time could not help his gaze wandering to Verity, who retained a huge grin and was still happily recording proceedings. She once more poked out her tongue at him.

"Please remove your shirt" the captain continued. Rob felt certain that the guards would not push this much further with someone of his standing but he was still disconcerted by how far things had already gone. This time it was the elderly gentleman from the minibus who stepped forward to object. "Look here, this is all a little irregular you know Captain Obuku." He and his wife were regular travelers and knew the staff at the small airport. "I'm sorry for the delay Mr. Camberley but we must act according to the intelligence that we have been provided with. We can not make exceptions for certain categories of passenger you know" the captain replied.

"Come away Harold, they obviously know more about it than we do" his wife interjected. "Er, well, yes, I'm sure they do" her husband conceded.

"Your shirt sir" the captain reminded Rob. His embarrassment grew exponentially as now stood bare chested in full view of the increasingly amused and excited crowd. Rob was in reasonable shape; no man boobs and not much of a belly but equally he did not have much time to workout in his job and there was no six pack or rippling muscles comparable to the the black guy that had so recently been similarly exposed. Verity's wolf whistle did nothing to stem his embarrassment. While the two guards examined the shirt, the captain wandered over to Verity again and there was another whispered conversation !