Chapter 6
"How would you like to make a small fortune?" Marilyn Clayborne asked Lazara. It was the following day and they were on board the L-1011 on a return trip from Georgia to Kennedy International. Lazara had been thinking about her romp with Mike Gersten. The man had made her feel good, really good. After they had finished making love they had showered together, and he had driven her to her parents' home in Roosevelt, telling her he would be busy until the following week, but he set up an appointment with her to meet at the reservations desk the coming Tuesday. Lazara wondered just how many more of these Gersten would be able to stand. He was no spring chicken, and what they had done the previous day had really drained him.
"Hmmmm? What was that?" she asked Marilyn.
"I asked if you're ready to make a small fortune," Marilyn told her.
"Sure," she nodded. "What's the gig?"
"Look over my shoulder in the first class area."
"I'm looking."
"What do you see all the way up front?"
"That's either a man and a midget or a man and a boy."
"Right the second time," she nodded. "That is an Arabian sheik traveling incognito through the United States. He has so damned much money, he's been buying into certain U.S. industries because he knows the oil in his country won't hold out forever."
"So?"
"So his son took one look at you when you brought coffee to the cockpit earlier. The boy is all of fourteen, but because of his short height, he feels inferior. According to Moslem law, a boy becomes a man at thirteen. That's when they're circumcised. Well, this boy was circumcised and is still a virgin. His father wants him to lose his virginity, but first he wants the boy to experience a little fellatio. We've been invited for supper tonight at the sheik's penthouse in the city. Call your folks and tell them you're spending the night with me. In a way it isn't a lie."
"You're coming too?" Lazara asked, feeling excited.
"Are you kidding? The sheik wants me. He's promised us fifty-thousand tax-free dollars apiece. We can always take an overseas flight to Switzerland some time next week and open a numbered bank account."
"Fifty-thousand ..."
"I know. It sounds crazy, but these guys have so much money they don't know what to do with it. They piss it away like it's toilet paper. The sheik left his wives at home since they frown on any one of them bringing a harem into this country. He needs a woman, he likes me, and his son likes you. So if you're willing, we'll clear a hundred thou apiece."
"I'm willing, I'm willing," Lazara nodded, scarcely able to believe it. "You're damn right I'll take a flight to Switzerland next week."
"I already have my own account over there," Marilyn smiled.
"I never dreamed I'd be earning money like this." "It's only the beginning," Marilyn told her.