to throw it through the rear window, so that it would shatter on impact and explode. But at the last minute, she realized that she couldn’t be sure that it would penetrate. It would depend on how strong or reinforced the windows were. Within seconds, the interior of Goliath’s car was ablaze, including his clothes, as he screamed with pain and skidded this way and that.
But Sarit had no time to survey the results of her work. She put her foot down and pulled away quickly, casting a brief glance in her rear-view mirror to satisfy herself that the job was done.
What she didn’t see was the old man with the donkey and cart on the side road. But he had seen her and was surprised that she didn’t stay to help. It was for that reason that he whipped out a pen and wrote down what he remembered of her registration number on his hand.
Chapter 41
‘My name is Daniel Klein!’ Daniel shouted. ‘I’m a British professor and a friend of Akil Mansoor! This is Gabrielle Gusack! She’s also a friend of Professor Mansoor! We’re unarmed!’
‘I don’t think that’s going to help,’ said Gabrielle.
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t think they’re in a mood to listen.’
‘But they surely can’t think we did anything to harm Mansoor. We were the ones who summoned help, for God’s sake!’
‘Listen, Daniel, there’s no time to explain now, but on the count of three, get up and run to the left. There’s some cover there by those trees, and then some buildings. We can make it to a side street and get clear of them; they’ll have to drive the long way round.’
‘But if we run, it’ll just make it look as if we’ve got something to hide.’
‘And if we don’t run, we’ll be the subject of endless discussions and debates on the news and talk radio long after our funerals.’
And with that she started her quiet countdown. ‘One, two, three! ’
She raised herself only as high as she needed to in order to run and sprinted to the left, just like she had said. Danny barely had time to admire her speed, for – against his better judgement – he found himself running too.
Keeping his head down, he couldn’t see the flashes of the guns or the streaks of the bullets. Neither could he see where the shots were landing. It was only when the gunfire subsided and he felt safe enough to slow down, that he saw Gabrielle turning back towards him, almost smiling with exhilaration.
For a moment, Daniel’s mind returned to the thought that maybe the police did think that they had deliberately harmed Mansoor. But even if so, shooting at them still made no sense. Why not simply tell them to put their hands up and surrender?
‘I don’t understand why they’re firing at us,’ he said in desperation.
He was about to say more, when he noticed that Gabrielle was bleeding from the shoulder.
‘They’re afraid of coming into contact with us,’ she said, grimacing from the pain.
Chapter 42
The bitch! thought Goliath. The fucking evil bitch!
He didn’t know who she was. In his agony, with his clothes on fire, all he knew was that she was the enemy.
The searing pain enveloped his body.
Get out! his mind was screaming. Get out! But it was easier said than done. To get out he would have had to use his hands and he couldn’t even feel his hands.
Neither, for that matter, could he see. His eyes were closed and his eyeballs were so hot it was as if they were melting in their sockets.
He heard the door opening and felt hands upon him, under his armpits. The hands were small, yet their grip was surprisingly strong.
‘ Wa ismaholiya mousa’a aidatica.’
He didn’t understand the words. But he could tell from the tone that someone was trying to help. He allowed himself to be dragged from the car. Once outside, his instinct was to run, to escape from the flames that engulfed him, but he knew that running would merely fan the flames and feed them with oxygen.
Instead, he allowed the man to push him to the ground and roll him. He continued to roll by himself, sensing that it was working. He felt a soft blow to a wide area of his torso. Fabric on flesh. The stranger was trying to beat out the flames. Eventually, it became clear that the flames had subsided, but the searing pain on his flesh lingered on. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was alive.
But he felt his consciousness slipping away.
Chapter 43
‘It’s just a flesh wound,’ said Gabrielle with a smile, tying her headscarf around her shoulder.
Harsh as the situation was, Daniel couldn’t fail to see the humour in it.
‘You’ve been watching too many Clint Eastwood movies. We’ve got to get you to a doctor.’
‘With those guys trying to kill us? Are you crazy?’
They were moving in the shadows, avoiding the pools of light thrown by the street lamps. They weren’t sure if they were still being followed, but it was clear that the cops – if indeed they were cops – were in no mood to listen to them.
‘So what do you suggest, Gaby? You’re bleeding.’
‘It’s Gabrielle to you.’
‘Oh, cut it out! You’ll always be Gaby to me.’
‘Whatever! Anyway it’s not bleeding.’
‘So what’s that then?’
He pointed to the blood on the scarf.
‘It’s congealed blood.’
‘Covering quite an area. And blood doesn’t coagulate that quickly.’
‘It was never bleeding in the first place. It was a scraping injury, the bullet just grazed me. There was blood but no bleeding. It’s like when you scrape a limb on a rough surface.’
‘It must hurt like hell.’
‘I’m a woman. We’re biologically programmed to pass an infant’s fifteen-centimetre cranium through a ten- centimetre passage. Do you think a little scraping on my upper arm is going to bother me?’
‘If it was me I wouldn’t be so stoic.’
‘I guess you’re handicapped by what you’ve got between your legs.’
Daniel smiled. ‘I take it back, what I said about Clint Eastwood. It’s too many reruns of Xena: Warrior Princess.’ If she could keep this up, in the face of what must have been at least moderately painful, then at least he didn’t have to worry about her any more. ‘So what happened to that frightened little girl from the tomb back there?’
‘It’s not the pain that bothers me. It’s not being in control. I guess I can take danger, I just can’t take confinement.’
Daniel nodded, approving of the logic. ‘The thing I don’t understand is why they were shooting at us.’ He looked at her expectantly. She said nothing. He had another go. ‘You said something about them not wanting to come into contact…’
