Something was waiting for Quinton.
And it would not wait long.
He moved briskly toward the parking lot, one hand buried in the folds of his jacket, fingers fumbling for the ticket he�d tucked away seven days earlier�the day he�d flown out to Brazil. The fee had no doubt stacked up by now, but Quinton didn�t flinch. Money had never been a concern. A week�s worth of airport parking was the financial equivalent of pocket change�a rounding error for a man who drove a Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge and whose name stirred whispers in corporate corridors.
Still, something gnawed at him.
The Brazil meetings hadn�t gone well. The tone had shifted, the room growing colder with each word. Promises were made�hurried, desperate, maybe even foolish. He�d told them he would sort everything out the moment he landed. He had to say it. He needed to leave the country alive.
Whether they believed him� that was another matter.
He found a payment terminal and slid the ticket in. The machine blinked to life, calculating. When the final amount flashed on the screen, he didn�t bother to look�just inserted his credit card and waited for the beep. A soft clink and the ticket came out. Now it was time to hunt for bay B22.
It didn�t take long. The Cullinan stood where he�d left it, a fine film of dust dulling its midnight gleam. He paused a moment, running his hand across the hood. Home was all he could think about now. His family, the ceremony, the storytelling, this year�s June 16th ritual would go on�his grandchildren would gather, and he would speak of fire and freedom, of friends lost in the smoke of 1976.
But even as he reached for the driver�s side door, something shadowed his thoughts.
The past seven days weren�t done with him. Not yet.
The Cullinan eased onto the tarmac, gliding away from the airport and merging into the artery that led to Umhlanga�Durban�s polished gem, an affluent suburb perched on the coastline. Quinton took the N2 South, the highway unraveling before him like a ribbon of asphalt. The city rose in the distance, framed by the Indian Ocean�s shimmering edge.