She waited until she had caught her breath and her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. She could distinctly see the black outline of the Mercedes. It was only about fifty yards away and most of that was in deep shadow. High above the courtyard, stars filled the blackness. There were so many of them. She hadn’t known there were so many. It was as if she had never seen stars before.

She got down on all fours and began to cross the courtyard, balanced on her fingers and toes. Lizard-like, she crawled towards the car, one limb at a time. It seemed to take forever. Once she looked up at the stars. They seemed impossibly beautiful, impossibly distant. Like an animal, she looked back down at the ground and pressed on.

When at last she reached up to touch the car handle, she felt as though she had crossed a marathon finish line. The car latch opened with a loud click. Surely someone heard it! Scarcely breathing, she waited for what might have been seconds or minutes, but nothing moved. Her heart throbbed wildly. She was almost free! At last she was in the driver’s seat. She quietly closed the car door. She opened her handbag and began looking for the key she had stolen. Then her heart plummeted to her stomach like a runaway elevator.

It wasn’t there! It was impossible; it had to be there, she told herself. Desperately she rummaged through the bag. Please, please be here, she prayed.

Suddenly the car light clicked on and a harsh male voice said in clumsy English: “Is thees what you looking on?”

She uttered a little cry of despair. It was Bandar! In one hand he dangled the car keys.

“But how …” she began and then it hit her. The eunuch! Yesterday she had discovered him in her room, looking as if he were searching for something. But the handbag looked as if it hadn’t been touched, so she had ignored it. What an idiot she was!

Bandar’s good eye glinted evilly at her. He seemed delighted with himself. A blind rage erupted in Kelly’s brain. With a savage cry she stabbed at him with the opener.

Bandar reacted as quickly as a snake. He grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully behind her back. She struggled against him, but it was futile. He held her as easily as he would a child.

His body odor was disgusting, as if something had died and rotted inside his skin. It made her gag. He held her close, one hand fondling her breasts as casually as he might pet a dog. He acted as if she was already his possession.

As Bandar led her back to captivity, she cast a last, longing look at the distant impervious stars. A falling star flared briefly in the darkness and she made a sudden wish of death for Nasir the eunuch.

Riyadh

Riyadh