‘Fine. You know how to reach me if need be. We’ll meet in the restaurant on Patong beach but I want you to be close by, with both women there. I must have line of sight from our table.’

‘With binoculars you mean?’ she asked.

‘Yes. That Hillcliff is dangerous. We have underestimated him,’ said Oberon.

Natasha thought to herself, ‘I never did,’ but said, ‘At least we know who he is now, and he knows we can get to his family at any time.’

‘As long as he doesn’t ask for help from Intelligence.’

‘He hasn’t before, he probably won’t in the future,’ she answered.

‘We have our man there anyway. Isn’t it amazing what one can do with a little lubricating money?’ said Oberon, cheerfully. ‘What I still don’t understand is how Hillcliff managed to steal the tablet from inside the vault.’

‘Maybe the same way he got into the New York office unseen. Miss Dawson reckons he used a powerful electro-magnet to wipe out the CCTV data.’

‘Yes, but how did he avoid the two teams at the mansion? They were real enough,’ said Oberon.

‘It seems that one of the men from team Beta…’ Natasha started to say.

‘Spare me the code names,’ snapped Oberon.

‘Sorry, the man guarding the main entrance was sick most of the night and may not have been at his post the entire time.’

‘Sick was he?’ Oberon asked white with anger.

‘Hillcliff probably made him drink or eat something without him knowing.’

‘Make sure you put the guard on an indefinite leave of absence.’

‘Done. He’ll never be sick again,’ answered Natasha.

‘Good. Still, I don’t understand how he managed to approach the mansion unnoticed.’

‘The CCTV footage had been wiped clean,’ said Natasha.

‘Never mind. Tomorrow, I might just ask him how he did it before you terminate his involvement, as well as that of his family and Miss Osman of course.’

‘Yes Sir.’

‘I’m glad that’s all settled,’ he said, ‘now Natasha, would you mind leaving us?’

Natasha flashed a deadly look at the girl and left the room.

Same evening. Patong beach restaurant.

Mina was trying to swallow her food, a Thai green curry with chunky king prawns. Jack was going on and on about Thai cooking and its diversity in an attempt to keep her mind off their worries. She tried playing the game, thinking it had to be even harder for Jack, as it was his family that was missing, not hers. They spoke of their shared experiences in Iraq and back home, their successes and failures. But, all the while, they both felt as if they were avoiding the real conversation, made up of muted fears of what awaited them the next day. Mina was beginning to understand Jack’s ways, his military stoicism, how he lived in the present. He didn’t waste his thoughts or strength on what-ifs. But she was different. Under the circumstances, she couldn’t enjoy the food or even Jack’s company. Every good thought was marred by anxiety over tomorrow’s impending disaster. What if things went wrong? What if Oberon realised the photograph was not real? She had spoken about this at length with Jack and they had agreed that one frontal photograph of the main inscription would probably do the trick. As she herself had found the tablet and had an intimate knowledge of its measurements and appearance, she had been able to fabricate a good digital fake. She had downloaded numerous high-resolution images of cuneiform tablets from the internet. After copying, cutting and merging them one into the other, she had obtained a final picture, which was very similar to the original tablet in all aspects except one, the most important: it’s content. She suspected that Oberon couldn’t read cuneiform. All in all the result was pretty good and they had decided to print it out in blackand- white the next morning when the main shops opened.

Later that evening, they walked silently along the beach, side by side. Jack had rolled his linen trousers halfway up his calves, and Mina wore a long, orange and red dress, the hem of which trailed in the slow ebb and flow, as they treaded the wet sand. After a while, they returned to their bungalow and sat under the palm tree. They looked out at the shimmering sea and held each other under the star-filled sky. Deep down, they both felt the next day would be like nothing they had ever experienced before.

Chapter 32

December 26th, 2004. Phuket