An Ordinary Day (20 page)

Durant frowned. ‘Why you?’

Amina smiled. ‘Because she’s an old Muslim lady and I guess she’ll talk to me more than she’ll talk to you.’

Durant wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and nodded. ‘Good initiative on Anja’s part.’ Durant looked at his flashing cellphone. ‘This is her calling me now.’

‘Hello?’

‘Kevin, I phoned Amina—’

‘I know. She’s with me. She told me. It’s fine. Good work, well done.’

‘Okay, thanks. The target’s exited the building. Two guys with her. Chatting by the car. She’s making a call on her cellphone. Looks like they may be disputing something – lots of hand movements. One of the other guys is now making a call. One of the guys has gone back into the building. Uptown Girl and the other guy are looking around … opening a car boot. Other guy is coming out carrying a big brown suitcase. Putting it in the boot. Looks pretty heavy … Both guys gone back in, Uptown Girl still outside … She’s on the phone again … Okay, other guys out the building again, two more suitcases, loading them in the boot of target’s car. Uptown Girl’s still on the phone. Getting into her car …’

Durant motioned to Amina and whispered. ‘Tell Mike she may be coming home. I’ll be there now.’

Anja went on. ‘Okay, Uptown Girl is mobile. Direction of travel north towards the city, gotta go, bye.’

Durant paid the bill and ran across the road to the monitoring vehicle. ‘Did we miss anything?’ he asked Shezi, who was struggling in the heat.

‘Salem is still at home. Hasn’t been out yet. He made some calls on his cellphone, but he’s got this annoying habit of walking out onto the balcony when he makes them, so we can’t pick up anything. Otherwise, the townhouse is quiet. Can I be excused? A man’s gotta eat, you know.’

While Shezi went to refuel himself at the restaurant, Durant and Amina quickly looked through the operational notes from the previous evening.

‘Did Elhasomi talk to anybody about a meeting at that factory in Prospecton? Did you ever pick up anything?’

Amina shook her head slowly. ‘I’m sure she didn’t. It’s weird. She doesn’t talk business in front of him and he doesn’t talk business in front of her. It’s like they’re both trying to hide something from each other.’

‘We need to start making sense of this thing. Any mention of suitcases? She’s got three big suitcases in the back of the hired car.’

‘No mention of suitcases. Maybe she’ll bring them here and open them.’

‘This is what I’m hoping. Or we can get the Metro Police to stop her for reckless driving and search the car.’

‘She’s got diplomatic immunity.’

‘Damn it. What are we missing? This woman’s up to something. Money, drugs? It can’t be a nuclear bomb, can it?’

‘Hope not,’ Amina smiled. ‘Look at the way she drives!’

‘Maybe she’ll meet Ali at the townhouse, and right under camera two say something like, “Here’s the money for the nuclear triggers we bought from you.” And then we burst in, have him arrested, deport her, recover the money and triggers, all go home and sleep for about three days.’

Durant dialled Anja’s number and asked her for their location. He spoke for a moment and put the phone on the table.

‘She’s headed this way on the freeway. But with lover boy at home, I don’t know if she’ll even take the cases out the car boot.’

‘If she does, he’s with her. If not, then I think he’s in for a few shocks.’

Durant stepped outside the monitoring van for a moment to see if he could see Shezi across the road at the restaurant. Tyres screeched as a blue Toyota hurtled through the traffic lights at the intersection, swerved to avoid an approaching minibus taxi, mounted the pavement, and collided with a street pole with a deafening bang, bending it forward at a 45-degree angle. There was absolute silence after the impact for perhaps two seconds, and then the streetlight fitting fell to the pavement and exploded into pieces. The bonnet of the car was pushed up and bent; water and oil ran along the gutter and disappeared down a drain.

Durant ran towards the wrecked vehicle without thinking. He was conscious of his cellphone ringing in his pocket, but ignored it. Amina remained in the monitoring van and took a call from Anja indicating that Elhasomi’s vehicle had been involved in a traffic accident. By the time Amina climbed out of the monitoring van, she noticed Durant was already at the smashed vehicle.

Elhasomi lifted her hand, noticed it was shaking, and pulled a piece of crumpled glass from her forehead. She looked at the blue glass with its beautiful angles reflecting the light and it reminded her of a cheap gemstone she’d once had as a five-year-old girl which she’d played with for months, pretending it was a jewel from the Shah’s crown. What happened to that gemstone? Perhaps it still lay in the small box at her mother’s house, which she promised to fetch so many times, but never got around to fetching. She tried to sit forward, but something seemed to be pulling her back. There was a voice, a man’s voice, gentle, reassuring. It seemed far away. Her hair felt a mess. She shook her head and a shower of small glass particles flew off, some catching the sunlight and sparkling like crystal in the afternoon sun.

‘Hey, lie still for a minute, please. You’ve been in an accident.’ The voice was louder now. She looked right and into the eyes of a stranger, a handsome man with blue eyes which reflected passion and purpose.

Durant only realised the driver was Elhasomi when he pulled open the door and looked into a familiar face. Although he had only seen her image on a small black-and-white screen, her beautiful Middle-Eastern features were immediately recognisable. He felt an instinctive compassion towards the woman. It was a reaction he’d last felt on the battlefield of Angola.

‘I’m Kevin, I’m a medic, I’m here to help you. What’s your name?’

‘Leila,’ she said, shivering from shock and with a small trickle of blood running into her right eye. ‘I am alright, what happened?’

‘You hit a pole and we need to make sure you’re okay.’

Elhasomi released her seatbelt and tried to climb out of the car.

Durant put his hand on her forearm and her skin felt cold and moist. She looked into his eyes. There was fear and desperation there, and Durant felt pity for her.

‘It’s best you don’t move until we’re sure you haven’t injured yourself. Does it hurt anywhere?’

‘I am okay. Please, I must get out.’

‘Leila, you may need medical attention.’

‘I am staying just here in the next street. I must phone my friend, please, I have some suitcases in the back …’

‘Don’t worry. Does your neck hurt?’ Durant asked, trying in vain to stop her from climbing out of the vehicle, not because he was desperately hoping Amina would use the time to take the cases from the boot, but because he really feared she may have injured her neck.

‘I am fine. Thank you for your trouble.’ She walked to the back of the car with one hand on the roof to steady herself. ‘I will phone my boyfriend. He is at home and I will phone the car hire place. It is a hired car, not to worry.’

This was an opportunity from espionage heaven – he was face to face with his adversary in an absolutely uncontrived situation.

‘Want me to give you a lift? We can load your baggage into my car.’

Elhasomi shook her head quickly. She was speaking quietly into her cellphone as a small crowd started gathering around the accident scene. The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance and Durant knew he didn’t have long before he had to disappear. His mind raced as he tried to select a strategy. Should he offer her a car fitted with a tracking device? Should he distract her while Shezi tried to open one of the suitcases in the back of the crumbled car? Where was Shezi? Where was Amina? In a few seconds, this opportunity would be lost forever.

‘Leila,’ Durant said loudly, catching her attention. He then lowered his voice and said sternly ‘The police will investigate you for reckless driving because you went through a red light; you may need advice. Here’s a get-out-of-trouble-free card.’ He slipped her a small business card with his cell number typed onto it which he always kept in his wallet. When he designed the cards, a few months previously, he never expected to actually present one to somebody, especially not a prime target. Elhasomi hesitated for a moment, looked down at the card, and then took it, quickly slipping it into her purse.

‘Thank you. You are a good man.’

Seconds later, a car screeched to a stop next to the accident scene, and a man Durant recognised as Salem leapt out and embraced Elhasomi, asking her if she was alright. She immediately whispered something to him and he nodded and opened the boot of the smashed vehicle. The sirens were dangerously close now and Durant knew that if the police arrived before Salem finished transferring the suitcases from the wreck into his car, they’d become suspicious. It was time for him to go. He stepped back into the small group of onlookers which had gathered on the pavement, waited a few seconds, then turned and walked away up the road.

He couldn’t return to the monitoring van immediately; it was too close to the accident scene, and so he walked into a bookshop a little way up the road. The sirens and commotion on the street had emptied the shop and even the assistant was standing outside. Durant phoned Amina and whispered into the phone. ‘I’ll only be able to join you in a little while. Stay put inside the van – and tell Mike not to go in and out until the street is clear outside. Can you see what’s happening through the window?’ The monitoring van had small peepholes on the sides, made to look like rivets which had been painted over with signage which read ‘Medical Waste Services’. This always kept people far away.

‘The cases have been transferred as far as I can see. The Metro Police have arrived and there’s a cop talking to our lady. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back.’

Durant returned to the monitoring vehicle at the same time as Elhasomi walked through the front door into the townhouse. Salem brought the three cases into the house, one at a time, and left them in the dining room.

‘Are you crazy, Leila? What the hell were you doing?’ Salem asked, his hands clutching hers.

‘I am fine, thank you. Thank you for asking.’

‘You could have been killed!’

‘Calm down, Ben, it is not so bad.’

‘Now the police are involved. It’s a disaster.’

‘It is fine. I have diplomatic immunity; I am a Libyan national. They cannot touch me.’

‘What’s in the suitcases, Leila?’

Elhasomi sat down at the dining room table and put her head in her hands. ‘I am feeling dizzy right now. Can I have some water?’

Salem quickly fetched a glass from the kitchen, filled it with water and brought it to her.

‘What’s in the cases, Leila?’

Elhasomi drank the water and placed the glass on the dining room table. She didn’t look up.

‘It is just some local art pieces. African art, masks and beads. I am expected to bring samples back to Tripoli; that is what I do. Now, please, I need to lie down, I am starting to shake.’

‘She’s shaking,’ Durant agreed, the black and white images from the monitor giving his face a surreal glow. ‘She should be hospitalised for observation. It was a high-speed impact.’

‘I wish she’d open the cases and show us what’s in them,’ Shezi said, rubbing his burning eyes in an effort to keep them focused. ‘The place in Prospecton doesn’t sound like a place where they’d store art. Salem’s just as suspicious as we are.’

‘She’s going to lie down,’ Amina said excitedly. ‘Now let’s hope curiosity gets the better of Mr Salem and he opens the cases.’

Durant smiled. ‘It’s clear she didn’t want Salem to know about the cases. Samples? I don’t believe it.’ Then after a pause, he announced, ‘I gave her my number.’

Amina looked puzzled. ‘What number?’

‘My cell number. At the accident scene. I said she may get into trouble and if she does she must give me a call. I thought it was a strategic opportunity.’

Amina laughed. ‘How’re you going to help her? She’s the target, remember!’

‘Get my contacts in the police to harass her about reckless driving. Lay charges, and when the heat gets turned up, she’ll remember the card I gave her and she’ll give me a call. It’s a way of maintaining control over this situation, getting close to her. A little dangle.’

Shezi leaned over and slapped Durant hard on the back. ‘Maybe she’ll invite you over for dinner, Kev. Then we can watch from here.’

‘You’re a funny guy, Mike. But you know what—’ Durant was distracted by the sight of Salem crouching down beside one of the suitcases.

‘He’s going to open them!’ Shezi shouted so loud, Durant was sure people walking past the monitoring van would have heard him.

Salem appeared to be inspecting the latches on the suitcases carefully. Every few seconds, he looked up at the stairs where Elhasomi had disappeared a few moments earlier. The camera on the first-floor landing confirmed Elhasomi had gone to the bathroom first, come out with a facecloth on her forehead, and then disappeared through the bedroom door out of camera view.

‘They’re locked,’ Amina said excitedly.

‘She wouldn’t have left them alone with Salem if they weren’t,’ Durant said. ‘Look!’

Salem took a small pouch from his jacket pocket and began picking the lock on one case. ‘He’s picking the lock. This guy’s a professional!’

Within seconds both locks on the case were open and Salem gently laid the suitcase down before flipping up the lid. It was open for no more than a second, and he quickly closed it and reset the locks in place. He seemed unsurprised at the contents, and walked outside where he made a call on his cellphone. Durant and Amina stared at each other while Shezi kept on looking at the monitor with an incredulous stare. The camera in the dining room had clearly shown that the case was packed tightly with what appeared to be bundles of hundred-dollar bills.