‘What about the Residents Lounge?’ she suggested, but when they got there a group of Arab men, laughing and talking loudly, had claimed the space.
Daniel was starting to suspect the security guards stationed inside the hotel, including along every corridor, were probably already fingering them as suspicious. He looked up at the security cameras. They were also probably tracking their movements by now. When he realised Sofia was also looking at the cameras and probably thinking the same thing, they both started laughing.
‘I think we need to sit down somewhere soon and act as normal as possible before they shut the place down and carry us away,’ she said.
Daniel considered his room again and again dismissed it. ‘One of the lounges in reception?’ he offered. It was probably the only option left.
He watched Sofia check the time on her phone. ‘That’s probably a good idea because Tawfiq will be returning soon to take me home so I should be watching the door.’
While reception was reasonably busy with people still leaving the two functions in the hotel, it was a large area and there were free lounges. They were also well spaced for privacy. Nothing romantic, or even remotely Moroccan, he thought as he led Sofia to a lounge with a clear view of the cars lining up to collect their passengers outside the front doors. As he sat down beside her he thought about broaching the subject of Massoud. He also still had the apology and the letter.
‘You were talking about how you cope with the danger,’ he said, taking up the conversation from where they’d left off. ‘What about kidnapping?’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘You can still remember what we were last talking about? I’d completely forgotten. Okay, Plan A is I leave through a balcony door out the back of the apartment, which means jumping down on the roof of the house next door. As long as I don’t break a leg I’m over the wall and away. Then there’s Plan B, which is a little trickier. In the event I can’t get out of the apartment in time, I break the glass in the kitchen window to make the kidnappers think I’ve escaped over the roof of the house next door, and then I hide in the broom cupboard, but I’d have to get rid of all Behnaz’s cleaning paraphernalia first, and believe me, there’s a lot of paraphernalia. I’m also thinking that all the brooms and buckets and bleach lying around on the floor outside the cupboard might be a dead giveaway. Actually,’ she said, growing serious, ‘there’s no plan for kidnapping. That’s the whole point of kidnapping, isn’t it? It has to be when you least expect it, so I try to keep a low profile and slip under the radar. It also helps that there’s no other Westerners living in the square so it doesn’t get the unwelcome focus a Western enclave might, which is a bonus for me.’
He realised that not only did she tuck her feet up under her like Alice but she had the same dry sense of humour. ‘But not necessarily for your friends?’ he offered.
‘Exactly. If someone doesn’t like me being in the square they could also be unhappy with those who befriend me. Besides, if someone wanted to kidnap or kill me, it wouldn’t be too hard because twice a day I walk across the square between my apartment and the surgery. I’ve also got into the habit of spending a lot of time at my window watching the square. No matter which way you look at it, I’m an easy target.’
If Sofia had been one of his staff and had just told him what she did, he would have flipped. She kept a low profile and so far she had slipped under the radar? It was not nearly good enough, but it also wasn’t any of his business. ‘What about the Taliban, Sofia? What if they get back in power after the Western troops leave? What will you do then?’
‘I’ll have to leave, won’t I?’ she said, looking as if she was challenging him to deny it until her shoulders slumped and she sat shaking her head. ‘You know, they’ve already said women can’t be judges or president and everyone seems to have accepted that. No one’s standing up for the women. Nothing in the US’s negotiation with the Taliban has specified protecting women or their rights. I fear it, Daniel, I really do.’
‘You think the West should stay?’
‘God no. They’ve been here twenty years and the Taliban are gaining ground again. No, I think the Afghans have to do this themselves, but like I said …’ She shook her head again, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation.
Daniel had the feeling he’d asked her far too many questions already, but he needed to know about Massoud.
About six years previously, he had spent three torturous months negotiating with the warlord on behalf of MSF about setting up a new clinic in his area. Massoud had been a mercurial and difficult negotiating partner, hard to pin down, constantly shifting the goalposts, and unreliable with both his word and the truth. It was difficult to strike a bargain with someone like that, but a bargain had to be negotiated and Daniel had stayed at the table until the process was finished and MSF got its clinic.
During that time he’d learned a few things about Massoud, none of which endeared him to Daniel. When the West had arrived with its easy money, the warlord
