Yasmin had to hold in a scream at the sight of Jackal with his sunglasses and leering smile.
‘Hello, Yasmin,’ he said. ‘Where are you?’
‘Where’s Mahmoud?’ she demanded. ‘What have you done with my brother?’
‘He’s alive … for now. But he won’t be unless you tell me where you are.’
Yasmin wanted to cry. She thought she and Mahmoud had escaped. ‘Show me he’s OK,’ she managed. ‘And then I’ll tell you where I am.’
Jackal lifted his sunglasses and stared with those cold shark eyes. ‘I give the orders. Tell me where you are or I’ll show you Mahmoud—dead!’
Yasmin bit her lip. ‘I-I-I’m at … the railway station.’
Jackal smiled smugly. ‘Stay there—or Mahmoud dies. Don’t call anyone—or Mahmoud dies. Nod if you understand.’
Yasmin nodded.
‘Good girl,’ he sneered. ‘I’ll come and find you.’
Yasmin wanted to run. But she couldn’t. All she could do was wait for fate to arrive. Her phone rang again. She stared at the caller ID: Home. She pressed the button and her father appeared on the screen.
‘Daughter!’ he exclaimed. ‘Are you all right?’
‘You’re at the railway station?’
Yasmin nodded. Her heart was breaking. How could she tell him Mahmoud was in danger—and that she was about to be kidnapped?
‘Your mother’s going online now to buy you a first-class ticket to Alexandria,’ Mr Adib said hurriedly. ‘The boarding pass will be waiting for you at the ticket office. The train leaves at two-thirty am.’
Yasmin’s head spun. How did he know where she was and where she was going? But that didn’t matter now. ‘Father, listen to me! Mahmoud’s been kidnapped—’
‘What are you talking about?’ her father said. ‘Mahmoud just got back. He had to walk the whole way.’
Mr Adib turned his phone to show Mahmoud’s smiling face in their lounge room beside her mother and Radha. ‘Sister, I am OK,’ he said. ‘Glad you made it safely.’
‘But Jackal called me on your phone!’ Yasmin said. ‘He said he had you!’
Mahmoud looked like he’d been punched. ‘I dropped my phone climbing over a wall. He must’ve found it and realised our trick! You must hide from him!’
Yasmin ended the call and looked around wildly. She saw that the ticket office was upstairs past a food court. Rushing past people, she pushed her way up the escalator.
Head down, Yasmin hurried towards the ticket office. But a long queue of passengers snaked out the door. If she waited there it would be too easy for Jackal to spot her.
She had to find somewhere to hide while she came up with a plan to get by Jackal and get herself onto the train.
‘Excuse me,’ a cleaner said as she wiped down a table in front of Yasmin.
Yes! This woman was the answer. Her uniform—blue headscarf, blue apron and blue rubber gloves—made her completely anonymous. Only now did Yasmin notice other women in the same outfit working around the food court. Dressed like that she might be able to evade Jackal and sneak onto the train.
Yasmin hurried to a door marked ‘Staff Only’. With a furtive glance around, she pushed her way inside.