He split the omelette onto plates and handed one to her, but before he started eating, he looked at her with a thoughtful expression on his face.

‘What is it?’ she asked through a mouthful of omelette.

‘I found a site on the internet where you can get a fake identification number,’ he said.

She put down her fork. ‘My darling Omar…’ she began, but he interrupted.

‘I won’t use it for anything dangerous. Just so I can go to the 93gym,’ he said. ‘I’ve been collecting cans and bottles, enough for a month’s membership, and when I exchange them for the cash then all I’ll need is an ID number and a little extra cash so I can go and train at the gym on the other side of the roundabout.’

The look of entreaty in his eyes was so strong that she didn’t have the heart to refuse outright, although she knew that every time he went out in public the danger that he would be caught increased. His face appeared regularly in the media, as the police were looking for him. Admittedly, the picture was an old, blurry one, and these days Omar’s hair was cut shorter than it had been when the faded passport photo had been taken, but all it would need was one watchful employee at the recycling centre or the gym, and everything would be wrecked. That was on top of the neighbours, who had to be aware of him when his bursts of energy led him to clean the stairs or the area around the block, but Olga hoped they would continue to turn a blind eye.

‘An ID number is made up of different factors…’

‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘My date of birth and four other numbers. But this website fixes those four numbers so they look real, and no computer system will see anything out of order. It was a foreigner who made the website, for people like me.’

‘I’ll call someone at the movement and check it out,’ she said.

Omar smiled with satisfaction and forked up his omelette. It would certainly be good for him to have something to keep him occupied other than cleaning and washing – regular exercise that would burn off some energy. She didn’t want to call the No Deportation Movement lawyer, as that would tell him Omar was still with her. The system NDM used was to move those on the wanted list, waiting to be deported, from one place to another, so that as few people as possible knew who was where. That made things more secure.

She knew as well that she would let him have the extra five thousand krónur he would need for a gym membership card. It was so hard for her to refuse him anything.

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