Sabir dropped the asparagus and started to run.
The first thing he saw was Alexi floundering in the river. ‘Quickly, Adam. I can’t swim. She’s in the water.’
‘Where?’
‘Just below you. Her face is down but she’s still alive. I saw her arm move.’
Sabir crested the bank and executed a clumsy leap into the slow-moving river. He reached Yola with his first surge and levered her up into his arms.
She raised a hand as if toward him off, but her eyes were dead when they looked up at him and there was no real force left in the movement. Sabir clutched her to his chest and allowed the force of the river to sweep them back towards the bank.
‘I think she’s had a fit of some sort. Run up to the car and get a blanket.’
Alexi floundered out of the water. He gave a single, anxious glance backwards and then pounded up the hill towards the car.
Sabir laid Yola down on to the sand. She was breathing normally, but her face was sheet-white and her lips had already turned an unhealthy blue.
‘What is it? What happened?’
She began shaking, as if, with her retrieval from the water, some other non-mechanical process had been triggered.
Sabir glanced up to check on Alexi’s progress. ‘Look, I’m sorry. Alexi’s bringing a dry blanket. I’m going to have to get you out of these clothes.’ He had expected – even hoped for – an argument. But there was no response. He began undoing Yola’s blouse.
‘You shouldn’t do that.’ Alexi had reached Sabir’s side. He proffered the blanket. ‘She wouldn’t like it.’
‘She’s cold as ice, Alexi. And she’s in shock. If we leave her in these clothes she’ll catch pneumonia. We need to wrap her up in this blanket and then get her back to the car. I can start driving with the air conditioning set to full heat. She’ll warm up quickly then.’
Alexi hesitated.
‘I’m serious. If you don’t want to embarrass her, turn away.’ He eased off her blouse and then worked the skirt down over her hips. He was surprised to notice that she wore no underwear of any sort.
‘God, she’s beautiful.’ Alexi was staring down at her. He was still clutching the blanket.
‘Give me that.’
‘Oh. Okay.’
Sabir wrapped Yola in the blanket. ‘Now take her legs. Let’s get her up to the car before she freezes to death.’
39
‘Don’t you think it’s time to call in back-up?’
‘We’re forty-five minutes behind them. What sort of back-up do you think we need, Macron? A jet fighter?’
‘What if the eye-man strikes again?’
‘The eye-man?’ Calque smiled, amused by Macron’s unexpectedly creative imagination. ‘He won’t.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because he’s achieved his purpose. He’s bought himself a few hours’ leeway. He knows that by the time we’ve restored…’ Calque hesitated, searching for the right word.
‘GPS trilateration?’
‘GPS trilateration… exactly… and caught up with the car, he’ll have what he wants.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘Search me. I’m after the man, not his motive. I leave all that sort of rot to the judicial courts.’ Calque made a pillow of his jacket and placed it between his head and the window. ‘But I know one thing for certain. I wouldn’t want to be in Sabir or the girl’s shoes during the next sixty minutes.’
‘Is she coming round?’
‘She’s got her eyes open.’
‘Right. I’ll stop the car but leave the engine running for heat. We can put the back seats down and stretch her out more comfortably.’
Alexi glanced across at Sabir. ‘What do you think happened? I’ve never seen her like this.’
‘She must have been picking asparagus near the water’s edge and fallen in. She probably struck her head – that’s a hefty bruise she’s got on her cheek. Anyway, she’s definitely in shock. The water was incredibly cold. She wouldn’t have been expecting it.’ He frowned. ‘Is she epileptic, by any chance? Or diabetic?’
‘What?’
‘Nothing. Forget it.’
Once they’d arranged the back seats and settled Yola comfortably, the two men stripped down.
‘Look, Alexi, I’ll drive while you dry the clothes on the heater. Do Yola’s first. I’ll put the thing on blow. We’ll swelter, but I can’t think of any other way to do it. If the police catch three naked people in a moving vehicle, it’ll take them weeks to figure out what we were doing.’ He reached for the automatic shift.
‘I told him.’ It was Yola’s voice.
The two men turned towards her.
‘I told him everything.’ She was sitting up now, the blanket puddled around her waist. ‘I told him we are going to Rocamadour. And about the Black Virgin. I told him where the verses are hidden.’
‘What do you mean, told him? Told who?’
Yola noticed her nakedness and slowly drew the blanket up to cover her breasts. She appeared to be thinking and acting in slow motion. ‘The man. He jumped on me. He smelt strangely. Like those green insects you crush and they smell of almonds.’
‘Yola. What are you talking about? What man?’
She took a deep breath. ‘The man who killed Babel. He told me. He said he would break my neck just like he broke Babel’s.’
‘Oh Christ.’
Alexi levered himself up in his seat. ‘What did he do to you?’ His voice was shaking.
Yola shook her head. ‘He did nothing. He didn’t have to. His threats were enough to get him everything he wanted.’
Alexi closed his eyes. He snorted. His jaw began to work behind his tightly pursed mouth as if he were conducting an angry internal dialogue with himself.
‘Did you see him, Yola? Did you see his face?’
‘No. He was on top of me. From the back. He had my arms pinned down with his knees. I couldn’t turn my head.’
‘You were right to tell him. He’s mad. He would have killed you.’ Sabir turned back to the steering wheel. He slipped the car into drive and began accelerating wildly up the road.
Alexi opened his eyes. ‘What are you doing?’
‘What am I doing? I’ll tell you what I’m doing. We know where the bastard’s going now, thanks to Yola. So I’m going to get to Rocamadour ahead of him. And then I’m going to kill him.’
‘Are you crazy, Adam?’
‘I’m Yola’s phral, aren’t I? You all told me I had to protect her.? To take revenge for Babel’s death.? Well now I’m going to do it.’
