Dan clenched his jaw as he was pushed over the threshold into a room to his right, moments before he heard Anna being dragged in after him.
A single candle burned brightly on a wooden table, the crooked surface of which appeared as if it had been nailed together by debris from the original fort.
The leader of the men who had captured them brushed past Dan and laid the hard drive he’d taken from Anna’s backpack on the table, then stepped back and addressed the man who sat behind it, his dark eyes blazing as he glared at his new guests.
Although his skin was pock-marked by childhood disease and burned a deep brown by the sun, Dan reckoned him to be in his forties, no more. Deep wrinkles creased his cheeks, and his headdress did little to disguise a receding hairline.
‘They were caught trying to escape,’ the man said. ‘And that was in the woman’s bag.’
‘You have done well. This will be remembered.’
The militiaman bowed, then moved to the door and crossed his arms, his features giving nothing away.
The man behind the table rose from the chair and picked up the hard drive, turning it over in his hand.
‘You know, Miss Collins, it would have been much easier if you had simply handed this over to the police.’ His eyes flashed. ‘Much easier.’
‘Who are you?’ asked Dan.
A round was chambered by one of the men behind him, the sound reverberating off the solid stone walls.
Dan automatically raised his hands in the air.
‘I am Salim abd-al-Aziz,’ the man said. ‘And you are now mine.’
Dan kept his hands up. ‘I demand you hand us over to our embassies in Rabat,’ he said, his voice urgent. ‘This is outrageous.’
Salim’s eyes narrowed. ‘It is not your place to negotiate, Mr Insurance Man,’ he said, his voice dangerously low. ‘I would remind you that you are in a very precarious position at the moment.’
For such a large man, he crossed the room with efficiency, before slamming his fist into Dan’s stomach.
Dan dropped to the floor, the sound of Anna’s scream reaching his subconscious as he struggled to breathe.
He screwed up his eyes, panting to try and counteract the burning sensation that fanned out through his body.
He raised himself to his hands and knees, seconds before Salim crouched down beside him and pulled one of Dan’s ears, forcing him to the floor once more.
‘I have what I need,’ he hissed, and used his other hand to point at the hard drive on the table, and then to Anna. ‘You are, as the Americans say, “surplus to requirements”.’
Dan tried to ignore the pain at the side of his head. His vision blurred, and he saw Anna standing with her hands to her mouth, a look of sheer terror etched across her features.
Somehow, he needed get the militant leader to focus on him, not Anna, and keep them both alive until he could get her away from the fort.
‘You can’t kill me,’ he said. ‘I’m the only one who has the codes.’
Salim’s hand dropped from Dan’s ear, surprise in his eyes. His eyes flickered between Dan and Anna.
Dan held his breath.
Salim straightened. ‘Is it true?’ he asked Anna.
She nodded. ‘I’m – I’m useless with computers.’ She forced a nervous laugh. ‘That’s why I have to rely on the men to do that for me.’ She shrugged. ‘I can’t access the money without him.’
Dan shot Anna a glance and stayed still, watching Salim’s face as the man processed her words.
Finally, his attention fell upon Dan once more, and he sneered.
Dan had no time to react as Salim’s foot lashed out and caught him under the chin.
His head snapped back, and he grunted as his skull met the wooden floor.
As he groaned, the militant stooped over him, lifted his arm, and removed the watch from his wrist.
‘Get up,’ he snarled.
Dan hissed through his teeth as fire tore through his belly and did as he was told. Instinctively, he edged closer to Anna before the man who held her dragged her backwards out of his reach.
Salim chuckled and wandered back to the table where Anna’s hard drive lay. He ran his fingers over it before picking up the grenade next to it. A manic expression crossed his face as he returned to where Dan stood, tossing the grenade between his right and left hands.
‘It would be a terrible waste if something bad were to happen to you before we could let you go,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’
Salim turned to his men and laughed, the small group joining in, bolstering his ego.
Dan saw the man’s stature increase at the reaction of his men and wondered where the conversation was headed.
He soon found out.
‘Enough!’ yelled Salim.
Dan took a step back.
In one fluid motion, Salim spun on his heel to face Dan once more, pulled the pin from the grenade, and tossed it to Dan.
He held up the pin and laughed.
‘Fuck!’
Dan’s eyes widened as his hands automatically caught the grenade, his highly trained mind already counting the seconds.
Three or five?
Anna screamed.
Time slowed as he frantically sought a way out of the room to dispose of the small bomb. The single window was too narrow and too far away, and there was nowhere for him to run.
Salim’s men had stopped laughing and were looking as scared as he felt, each of them backing away rapidly as he pushed past them, trying to find a way to get rid of the grenade in his hands.
Then he became aware of a wheezing sound from Salim’s direction, and he pivoted to face the warlord, confusion swamping him.
A bellow emanated from the man’s lungs, and he swung round to point at his men.
‘Every time!’
They dutifully laughed, and Dan glanced down at the grenade in his hands.
‘Bastard,’ he murmured. He held it up so Anna could see. ‘It’s decommissioned,’ he explained.
Salim approached, wagging his finger. ‘You would be wise to hold your tongue in future, Mr Insurance Man. Next time, it might be real.’
Dan resisted the urge to throw the grenade at the other man’s forehead, fought down his rage, and instead dropped it into Salim’s outstretched hand.
Anna ran to him, and he pulled her into a hug.
‘It’s okay.’
‘He’s a madman,’ she whispered.
‘Shh,’ urged Dan.
He wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment, but now wasn’t the time to antagonise Salim further by pointing out his lack of social skills.
His attention snapped back to Salim as he called out to one of his men and threw the grenade at him.
The men in the room laughed, tossing the decommissioned weapon backwards and forwards until Salim held his hand up to stop the game.
‘Enough.’
Salim placed the pin back in the grenade and stood for a moment, removing and replacing the pin as if lost in thought, before setting the grenade on the table next to him and turning his attention to the leader of the men who had captured Dan and Anna. ‘Jamil, have your men take them to the cells.’ He raked his eyes over Anna’s body once more. ‘Do not let your men near the woman. Not until I say so.’
He leered at her as she was led away, and Dan clenched his fists as two men grabbed his arms and shoved him in the same direction.
As they reached the door, Salim’s voice rang out.
‘Wait.’
His men stopped, curious expressions on their faces.
Salim crossed the room and placed his hand on Dan’s shoulder.
‘Take off your right boot, Mr Insurance Man.’
Dan frowned. ‘Why?’
‘You appear to be limping,’ said Salim. ‘Yet, I did not strike your foot.’
Dan cursed under his breath.
Reluctantly, he removed his boot and held it out to Salim.
The militant leader smiled. ‘Tip it upside down.’
Dan sighed but did as he was told.
The satellite phone clattered to the floor, and as Salim bent down to retrieve it, it was all Dan could do to stop himself from aiming a kick at the man’s head.
Instead, he put his boot back on and met Salim’s eyes as they both straightened.
A manic gleam stared back at him.
‘Did you really think you could call for help?’ the man sneered.
He cleared the space between them, wrenched Dan away from the men who held him, and dragged him to the small opening in the wall behind the table.
‘Look,’ he said, shoving Dan in the back. ‘Look.’
Dan’s eyes roamed the moonlit desert beyond the fort.
Not a single light shone in the distance; there were no other signs of civilisation.
He turned back to Salim and frowned.
‘You may be thinking of a way to escape and get help,’ said Salim. He pointed at the landscape. ‘But you will never walk the desert beyond here.’
Dan saw the man’s eyes glaze over but stayed silent.
‘When I was a boy,’ said Salim, ‘the Moroccans dropped napalm and phosphorus on the people that lived south of their border. There are unexploded bombs that litter the earth all around here.’ His eyes met Dan’s. ‘Have you ever seen what napalm or phosphorus does to a man’s body, Mr Insurance Man?’
He pulled back the sleeves of his robes, unveiling skin destroyed by horrific burn scars.
‘Some of us have never forgotten,’ he said. He turned and beckoned to his guards. ‘Get them both out of my sight.’
As they were led through the interior of the fort towards a set of rooms that had had their doors torn off and replaced with metal bars as makeshift cells, he surveyed everything that lay around the space, knowing he had to get Anna as far away as possible.
With luck, David and Mel would have traced their GPS location, but Dan wouldn’t take any chances.
Salim was certainly crazy, whether through illness or simply on the power he held over those around him.
Either way, he was proving to be unpredictable, and that made Dan more nervous.