The Customs supervisor arrives with two armed police officers. She’s not happy when she takes in the situation, and the tension. The officers split ...up, and place their hands on their handguns. However, they leave the guns in the holsters, because there are no weapons on display. I tell the supervisor, “Please check our passports and papers. Fifteen of us are armed, and we have the proper approvals from your government, issued at your US Embassy. When my lead guard mentioned this the idiot on. "What kind is it?" Oh, some relaxing, 'sleepy time' blend, I don't know. Drink up."I took a long drink. It was only barely warm, so it was easy to drink.Jack sank down into a chair opposite me. "So, do you want to talk about it?" he asked."Oh, god ... I don't even know where to begin." Why not start from the beginning?"I considered it. But I couldn't begin at the beginning, after all, Jack would then remember about the mind-control drug, and he might then not be able to pass his lie detector. "Alex Walters smiled. "'Transgendered crime wave.' You have no idea hownice it is to hear it called something other than the Bonnet ... justnever mind ... the meat of the matter is we've been working on the suspectwe caught sometime back. Deprogramming him, her. It took longer thananyone suspected. The guy who is the best in the world at thisdeprogramming business by a country mile is undercover with the cult. Butwe haven't heard from him in, literally, years. He should be okay, he hasno online. Tossed it underarm to Beth. "Put this over your eyes." What?! I'm not sure about…" His stare cut her short, and she reached for its snake-like form beside her, unfurling the knot with precision beneath crimson nail polish. When straightened, she brought it to her face. He watched her take in the musky scent of his aftershave on the silk as it passed her nose, then cut out her sight. It wasn't a perfect fit, presumably fringes of the room's low-wattage bulbs still permeating her pupils. Good.