Scorpia

in a number and suddenly they were in the open air. There was a car – a two-seater Alfa Romeo Spider – waiting outside with the roof down.
    “Hop in!” Nile said. From the way he was talking, he and Alex could have just come from the cinema and been on their way home.
    Alex got in and they drove off. How much time had passed since Nile had set the bomb? It was now completely dark outside. The sun had finally disappeared. They followed a tarmac drive to the main checkpoint. Nile smiled at the guard.
    “Grazie. E’stato bello verdervi …”
    Thank you. It was good to see you
. Alex already knew from their first meeting that Nile spoke Italian. The guard nodded and raised the barrier.
    Nile gunned the accelerator and the car shot off smoothly. Alex twisted round in his seat. A few seconds later there was an enormous explosion.It was as if a fist of orange flame had decided to punch its way out of the main complex. Windows shattered. Smoke and fire rushed out. Thousands of pieces of glass and steel, a deadly rainfall, showered down. Alarms – shrill and deafening – erupted. A huge bite had been taken out of the side and the roof of the building. Alex had seen the size of the bomb. It was hard to believe that it could have caused so much damage.
    Nile glanced in the mirror, examining his handiwork. He tutted.
    “These industrial accidents,” he murmured. “You can never tell when one is going to happen next.”
    He steered the Alfa Spider along the coastal road, already doing eighty miles an hour. Behind him Consanto Enterprises burned, the flames leaping up and reflecting in the dark and silent sea.

DESIGNER LABELS
    A lex stood on the balcony and gazed at the sweeping view of the town of Positano and the black water of the Mediterranean beyond. Two hours had passed since sunset but the warmth lingered in the air. He was dressed in a towelling robe, his hair still wet from the power shower with its jets of steaming hot water blasting him from all directions. There was a glass of fresh lime juice and ice on the table next to him. From the moment he had met Nile for the second time, he had thought he was in a dream. Now that dream seemed to have taken him in a new and very strange direction.
    The hotel, first. It was called The Sirenuse and, as Nile had been eager to tell him, it was one of the most luxurious in the whole of southern Italy. Alex’s room was huge and didn’t look like a hotel room at all – more like a guest suite in an Italian palace. The bed was king-sized with pure whiteEgyptian cotton sheets. He had his own desk, a thirty-six-inch TV with video and DVD players, a sprawling leather sofa and, on the other side of the huge windows, his own private terrace. And the bathroom! As well as the power shower, there was a bath big enough for a football team, together with a spa bath. Everything was marble, and decorated with hand-crafted tiles. The millionaire suite. Alex shuddered to think how much it must cost a night.
    Nile had driven him down here from what was left of Consanto Enterprises. Neither of them had spoken on the short journey. There were a hundred things Alex wanted to ask Nile, but the rush of wind and the roar of the Alfa Spider’s 162kW quad camshaft V6 engine made conversation impossible. Anyway, Alex got the impression that Nile wasn’t the one with the answers. It had only taken them twenty minutes, following the coastline, and suddenly they were there, parked in front of a hotel that was deceptively small and ordinary – from the outside.
    While Alex signed in, Nile made a quick call on his mobile.
    “Mrs Rothman is absolutely thrilled you’re here,” he said. “She’s going to have dinner with you at nine thirty. She’s asked me to send up some clothes.” He weighed Alex up. “I’ve got a good eye for size. Do you have any particular likes or dislikes when it comes to style?”
    Alex shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
    “Good. The bellboy will take you up to your room. I’m so glad I ran into you, Alex. I know you and I are going to be friends. Enjoy your dinner. The food here is world class.”
    He went back to the car and drove away.
    I know you and I are going to be friends
. Alex shook his head in disbelief. Just two nights ago the same man had knocked him unconscious and left him in a subterranean cell to drown.
    He was shaken out of these thoughts by the arrival of an elderly man in a uniform, who gestured and then led Alex up to his room on the second