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Smith stood by the carousel for the few moments it took for his suitcase to appear. It was a small leather one, not much bigger than the hold-all. He glanced towards the Ladies' Toilet to confirm that the girl had not yet appeared, then walked very deliberately up to the door of the red channel and placed his hold-all on the desk. The young uniformed officer came over to meet him.
"Good evening," Smith began cheerfully.
"Good day, Sir," said the young Asian in perfect English. "Do you have something to declare?"
Smith casually unzipped the hold-all and started to take things out, beginning with the Chinese sweet-box. "Well, yes," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I thought I should talk to you because I bought this cam-corder in Hong Kong, and I'll be taking it back to England when I leave. I have the purchase receipt..." He fished around in his breast pocket, "Ah yes. Here we are!" He handed the document to the young official. "I thought it was better to let you see it than to take it through the green channel," he added.
The man took the receipt and looked at it. "Yes, Mr. ....Smith. You are very conscientious. This is what we call a temporary import. There is no problem whatever. I shall give you a note of authorization..." he started to fill-out a small docket, "you must show this to the customs officer as you leave the country, together with your Certificate of Purchase. There will be no problem whatever." He smiled and handed the docket to Smith. Then he started re-packing the hold-all, beginning with the cam-corder, then the sweet-box. "You know," he said in a confidential tone, "you could probably have bought that for even less here."
"Really? Well thanks for telling me. I'll remember that the next time."
So saying, Smith stepped through the channel with his two items of luggage and strolled innocently across the main concourse. He whistled tunelessly as he went, mainly to calm his nerves. If he still smoked, he thought to himself, he would light one up right now.
He found a seat at a small circular table near a snack-booth and sat down without ordering. He glanced back at the exit of the green channel. Sure enough, the girl was just pushing her way through with her bags in a small trolley, searching furiously through the line of people moving towards the exits. She saw him and her face relaxed. Predictably, she pushed her little trolley straight up to him. Smith purposefully shoved the black hold-all under his chair where she couldn't easily reach it. An unconscious smile flickered across his face as she reached the table.
"Oh, hello!" she said with surprise, as though she had just noticed him, "we met on the 'plane. Do you remember?"
"Of course. Why don't you join me? I was about to have a cup of coffee."
She smiled a smile that seemed to light-up the entire food-stall. "If you would like me to," she said sweetly. Smith indicated the chair opposite him. He deliberately waited to see what she would say.
"It was terrible in the green channel," she told him, indicating back the way she had come, "they had some kind of sniffing-machine. Looking for drugs, I think. You were lucky you didn't get stopped."
"Yes. As it happens, I had something to declare. I went through the red channel."
For an instant the smile seemed to melt. "Oh." She paused for a moment, frowned, then seemed to regain her composure. "I think you said it was your first time in our beautiful country, Mr. ..."
"Smith. Leonard Smith. Most people just call me Smith, because it's shorter."
"Ah. Very good to meet you, Mr. Smith. My name is Suavarose, so my American friends call me Rose. Are you American?
"English, actually"
"Oh. Sorry. I should have know by your accent." She paused for a moment, obviously thinking about what she should say next. "I believe you said you had some free time to... to look at the sights?"
"Yes, I have a little time. When we met before I even thought of asking you if you would like to show me around, but then I decided it would be a bit impertinent."
"Oh, but no! I mean, yes! That is... why not? I would love to."
"How very kind of you." He could almost smell the girl's embarrassment. She was not used to picking-up men. He wondered if he should come clean, it was a bit unkind to go on with this pretence, to exploit the situation to his own advantage. But then she hadn't shown him all that much consideration in the way she had tricked him into doing her dirty-work. She hadn't exactly been open with him, had she?
He decided he would confront her right now. It was the most honest thing to do.
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