There was a sensation that his brain slowly registered as pain. A patch th. Brn began to blister. He jerked his hand away, the fastest movement he’d made for hours, studying it as a bubble of red, angry skin took shape. Cracks appeared in his fragile opium shell. He felt sick, a confusion of pain and opium-contentment, the two sensations clashing. Standing up, unsteady on his feet, he was straddling two worlds: the opiate existence and the real world, where there was pain and grief and loss. Resting against the wall, the sickness grew stronger. He walked to the sink, running his hand under cold water. The pain came and went, then returned even stronger than before.

Leo managed to keep the nausea under control. He turned back to the room, regarding his protégée’s injury, slowly deducing the events that must have preceded her arrival. She was only partially dressed and he gestured at the few items of clothing in his possession, spread across the floor and a single chair.

—Take what you need.

While she rooted through his slim assortment of clothes, he asked:

—Who did this to you?

Before she could answer the apartment went dark. The power had been shut off.

Leo peered out over the city. There were lights on next door. His neighbours had electricity. The wires to the apartment must have been cut. He looked down at the street below. There were at least ten people outside.

—Who are they?

—I don’t know. Two men attacked me at home. I injured one. The other chased me.

—Did they speak to you?

—They’d found out I was working for the secret police.

He thought for a moment, examining the blister. Nara joined him, wearing his baggy grey trousers.

—Do you own a gun?

He shook his head, watching as Nara’s strength briefly left her, her expression seeming to collapse. For the first time she sounded helpless:

—What are we going to do?

If the mob broke in Leo knew his time in Afghanistan would count for nothing. The crowd would kill him without a second thought, seeing him as no different to the soldiers who’d recently arrived in Red Army uniforms.

Something struck the timber door. There was another heavy blow and a white zigzag line appeared. They would be inside in seconds.