Dom was awoken by the rattle of a key in a metal lock. The echo bounced around the building like a disoriented bat. He took out a pistol and an M16 and climbed to the top shelf level of the storage facility. In the shadows of the hampers and heavy equipment he couldn’t be seen from the ground. In nine days, this was his first visitor.

Apart from one red Ferrari, Silver City remained virtually untouched since the Marines locked it up in ’75. They deposited the keys with the embassy, and, under duress, the embassy handed one of those bunches to the PL. But it was an administration without balls. Nobody dared make decisions. Nobody would commit a signature to an order. So, apart from a visit by the Russian circus performers who were forced to camp in the grounds outside, Silver City had been frozen in time. Officials made brief visits, an inventory was taken, but nobody removed anything. The doors were relocked and the keys deposited with the Women’s Union. It was perhaps because those keys still hung in Dr. Porn’s office that nobody thought to look there for Dom.

The main warehouse was a treasure trove of household goods, various electrical equipment and enough weaponry to launch a third world war. Dom had wondered why an aid agency would need so much military hardware. He’d made copies of the keys as soon as he realized their significance, and after his escape from the fake surgeon’s restaurant he set up his secret command post slap in the middle of the city. From there, his plan had been to follow through on his threats and assassinate the widow first. But he’d let himself down again. He was no marksman even though that modern equipment came with manuals. All he had to do was get the target in his sights and squeeze the trigger. Or so he thought. He could see her in the crosshairs. He wasn’t that far away. Yet somehow he’d missed the wife and hit the doctor. Better than nothing, he decided. He saw him go down. He saw them carry the lifeless body into the restaurant. He needed first to be sure Siri was dead, then he’d return and do away with the widow.