When he finished fixing it, I was a dirty blonde with a long lank ponytail and a distinct four o’clock shadow. The dirt and the beard came from the garden, the single gold earring from Granny, and the collarless long-sleeved shirt from Feisal. Entering into the spirit of the thing, I demanded a crystal and a pair of cutoffs.

‘We’ll pick up some mystic insignia at one of the bazaars,’ John said. ‘These types go in for scarabs and ankh signs and such. The shorts are out. Your knees aren’t knobby enough.’

‘You might have expressed it in more flattering terms,’ I said.

‘Your legs, my darling, are masterpieces of sculptural elegance,’ John said agreeably. ‘Those appendages would grace an Aphrodite or a young Diana. Never could such marvels of slender rounded beauty be taken for those of a man. Your form, in short, is rare and divine.’

‘“Philadelphia Lawyer,”’ I said.

John raised one finger and made an invisible mark on the air. ‘One point for you.’

Feisal’s friend was a shy, retiring chap. As soon as we left the house in response to his signal on the horn, he slid out of the driver’s seat of the car and walked away without looking back. If he wanted to make certain neither John or I could identify him, he succeeded.

As for the car, I had seen its likes before – in junkyards or abandoned in vacant lots. If it had been in good condition it would have ranked as a vintage vehicle; those tailfins had to be thirty years out of date.

‘Good God,’ John said, staring. ‘Is this the best he could do? We won’t get twenty miles in this wreck.’

‘I hope you won’t think me rude,’ said Feisal, ‘if I remind you that you are in no position to be fastidious, and that you sound like a typical supercilious twit of a tourist. We underprivileged Third World types can’t afford a new car every year, so we learn how to keep them on the road.’

‘Touché,’ John admitted. ‘After you, Vicky.’

He handed me the basket Granny had pressed upon us. It was our only luggage except for Feisal’s suitcase.

Feisal got in behind the wheel. ‘Where to?’ he asked.

‘The ETAP.’

‘Oh, wonderful. The big tourist hotels are the first places they’ll look.’

‘Just drive,’ John said shortly.