The Blizzard

“THAT poor fellow,” Zarius looked regretfully back at as the shell-shaped building disappeared on the horizon.

  “He tried to have us killed!” Jack nearly choked in surprise.

  “Yes, but they have killed him - or will kill him,” Zarius muttered as looked to a nearby time display, then declaring. “Yes, he’ll be dead now. A shame as these bracelets are quite genuine if I’m not mistaken. He did do what he had promised.”

  “Just a shame that he chose to betray us as well.”

  “Don’t be too harsh on the man. We got what we came for, haven’t we?”

  “Yes, if they work. Why do you think he’s dead anyway? If he helped those men find us they wouldn’t want to kill him.”

  “Oh… well, I just have a feeling.”

  Jack examined the three bracelets as they travelled through the escalated tunnels. The straps were thick and dull with the familiar raised bump which covered the sensor. All that effort just for these, he thought. He had felt naked when he had taken his bracelet off so many weeks ago. It was as though some part of him had gone missing and he’d fought the reaction to automatically present his left wrist at shops, terminals and entrances. But it would feel strange to put one back on again, to feel it clinging to his wrist once more. The new bracelet meant a new name, a mask to conceal himself and… possibly John Strang, his father.

  “Who were those men just then?”

  “They were sent by your father to bring you back.”

  “Which one? It appears that I have two.”

  “No dear boy, only one. I thought you would be quite au fait with these matters by your age.”

  Rather than taking the most direct route to Sanaam, Zarius insisted that they take the tube through one of the business districts to cover their tracks. The risk of being followed back to the guesthouse was a real possibility. If they had killed Ibn Nahim – and it was only his portly friend’s hunch that they had - who knows what they would do to Khalid and his family. But something else had been troubling Jack, flitting in and out of his thoughts since they escaped the ambush.

  “Zarius, why were you carrying that wrench with you?” The reality of the last hour was only just sinking in. “And how did you know how to use it on that pipe?”

  “Well, I’ll let you into a little secret if you promise not to tell.”

  “Go on.”

  “You can never - ever - be too prepared for an adventure like this.”

  “That’s your secret? But how did you know we were going to be betrayed.”

  “Preparation.”

  “Did you know it was going to be a trap?”

  “Of course”

  “And you still decided for us both to walk in there! What if we hadn’t been able to escape?”

  “But we did.”

  “Still you could have told me. And it’s not natural how you always know stuff like that. It’s like when you asked me to steal that bomb-thing from the museum. You knew we were going to be attacked by that shark. And then when you came disguised as a policeman. It was just after the hotel manager had called the police. And Saira and Khalid – just about the only people in Sanaam likely to help us – you walked straight in like we already had a reservation?”

  “It’s all part of life’s rich tapestry, dear cousin.” Raphael’s hand fluttered in the air, as if waving away his young friend’s concerns. “Just the skeins and threads coming together.”

  “But how do you know what’s going to happen? And why are you helping me even? And please don’t give me that story about Uncle Brian. I know you’re not my cousin.”

  Zarius’s round lips wobbled as if to give a reply, but almost immediately clamped shut. The ripples in his brow smoothed over and his features relaxed.

  “Believe what you choose, young Jack. The only thing I ask is you see this day through to the end.”

  It was the first time he had called him by his name.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN