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."Would you please ask the stewardess to bring my wife a gin and tonic?"Liskard said, with quiet dignity."Yes, sir," said Lockhart, and turned back through the curtain.All four of the engines had been switched on now, and their noise hinderedcasual conversation.Simon took a deep breath of relief as he saw that AnneLiskard had decided to sink into sullen silence.A stewardess hurried in witha double gin and tonic and profuse apologies to Mrs Liskard.The voice ofanother stewardess sounded from a loudspeaker in the cool blue upholstery ofthe ceiling in the standardized litany to which today's airline passengershave become so wearily immune that they scarcely hear it.".Please fasten your seat belts and refrain from smok-ing until aftertake-off."A moment later the tone of the jets changed, and the blinding white of theterminal building began to move slowly across the plane's windows.Todd turnedto speak to the Prime Minister.Page 47 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"It'll be good to get off the ground and better still to get down again.""Let's just hope it's not a question of leaving the frying pan for the fire,"Liskard said good-humoredly."From what our advance group tells me about thegreeting we can expect in London, that little business in the waiting room mayseem like a tea party in comparison."3Prime Minister Liskard's advance information about his Eng-lish receptionproved to be unpleasantly accurate.Even as the jet came down through theclouds to land at London Airport, one of Liskard's aides pressed his cheek tothe window beside his seat and exclaimed, "Do you see that? Must be fivehundred of them!"Simon leaned across Mrs Liskard, who had been sleeping off the effects of thefirst half of the flight during the second half with her head resting againstthe outer wall of the plane, and caught a glimpse of the dark herd of humanfigures con-gregated in an open space among the terminal's complex of hugebuildings.Then the momentary view was lost as the plane with strange slownessmoved down an invisible incline of air toward contact with the runway."The welcoming committee?" Liskard asked with amused irony.He was sitting across the aisle from the Saint, and had not been able to see."Your admirers seem to be out in force," Simon con-firmed."More likely a lynch mob," Liskard responded dourly."At least somebodycares."The wheels of the jet screeched suddenly against the pave-ment of the runway,and Mrs Liskard woke up."Who cares about what?" she asked blearily.Half a dozen gin and tonics had not improved her per-ceptions nor herappearance.Her face was puffy and her lip-stick smeared at one corner of hermouth.Even so, any man with reasonable tolerance for human frailty could havespot-ted her as potentially one of the most attractive women he was everlikely to meet.All the more pity, Simon thought, that she should be tornapart by whatever tensions drove her into a continual desire forsemiconsciousness."We're in London," he told her."We were just noticing the crowd that's out tomeet you."She tried to see.The plane was taxiing in toward the passenger terminal, butwas still some distance away."Where?" she asked."On the other side of that building," the Saint answered."Carrying roses, I suppose," she said sarcastically.Stewart turned from his place in front."Possibly," he said, "but what they were carrying looked more likepitchforks."Anne Liskard's eyes widened in a gullible expression which may or may not havebeen entirely put on."You couldn't really see that well, could you?" she asked.Stewart shook his head, sighed, and faced front again."Were there really so many?" Lockhart asked."Five hun-dred? The oppositionmust be much worse than we thought."He was the only one of the party who seemed openly wor-ried, but his statementsent a silent but somehow clearly perceptible wave of uneasiness through therest of the group.The Prime Minister, who had spent the last two hours of thetrip concentrating on paper work, snapped down the clasps of his briefcase."Let's not blow this up out of proportion," he said firmly."Thesedemonstrators are of no real importance.Keep that in mind.British publicopinion is entirely on our side, and that's what counts
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