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Back The Sanction Save as PDF
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. Epigraph
  3. Prologue
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Epilogue

Holm let Javed lead the way and they went back inside and took a narrow spiral staircase to the upper floor. A corridor ran down one side and had windows every few steps, each offering a view over the vast olive plantation. Javed paused at one of the windows.

‘Sir.’ He pointed outside as Holm joined him. ‘One man drove in the van and another chauffeured Karen Hope. They both left in the van. Taher escaped in the pick-up and presumably Hope was going to drive the yellow SUV out of here. Which leaves me wondering, whose vehicle is that?’

Holm peered down. A Jeep Wrangler was parked in the shade of a couple of olive trees, hidden from anywhere but the upstairs of the farmhouse. He turned from the window as footsteps tapped on the wooden flooring. A tall figure stood silhouetted at the end of the corridor.

‘It’s mine.’ The figure was in shadow but Holm would recognise the stick-thin man anywhere. ‘Hello, Stephen.’

‘Hello, Harry.’

Chapter Thirty-Six

Nasim wasn’t keen.

‘Lona no order,’ he said. ‘We leave now. Go back to Tunis.’

‘I don’t care what Lona ordered you to do,’ Silva said. ‘I’m telling you we’re going to the compound. You can wait here and we’ll take your car or you can drive us there.’

‘I no go and the car no go.’

‘Yes you fucking do.’ Itchy had loaded the equipment into the rear of the Land Cruiser and now he stood behind Nasim, the SIG in his hand. ‘You go, we go, the car goes.’

Nasim protested again, but climbed into the car. They set off back down the mountain track. It was a mile to the end of the ravine where they joined the main road, and then almost immediately they turned off up the track to the farm. The dust from Taher’s rapid exit still swirled in the air as they bounced along, Nasim growing increasingly agitated.

‘I don’t like it, I really don’t like it,’ he said. He glanced in the mirror as they pulled up and stopped at the battered gates to the complex. ‘We stay only five minutes, OK?’

‘Sure.’ Silva got out, reached in through the driver’s window and snatched the keys from the ignition. ‘But just in case we go into the red, I’ll take these.’

Nasim raised his hands in a gesture of despair and resignation.

‘We’ve only got the one weapon.’ Itchy patted the SIG. ‘Let’s be careful.’

They slipped in through the front gates, Itchy in the lead. Silva pointed to the right and Itchy nodded. He moved to the side of the yard. A small dust devil spun up and danced for a few moments before dying back down. Other than the gentle hiss of the wind and the occasional snap of the canvas awning at the side of the house, there was silence.