Skeleton Key

like a megaphone, the sort teachers used at sports days. It was connected by a long wire to a box just inside the building.
    “If you had wanted to visit Santiago, you had only to ask,” Sarov said. “But I don‟t think you wanted to visit the city. I think you were running away.”
    Alex said nothing.
    “Where is Juan?” Sarov asked.
    Alex still didn‟t speak.
    Sarov gazed at the boy. He seemed pained, as if he didn‟t understand why Alex had disobeyed him and didn‟t know quite what to do. “You disappoint me, Alex,” he said, at length. “You were down at the cave. You saw the extent of my security arrangements there. Did you really think for a single minute that I would allow a car to drive in or out of this compound without knowing exactly who or what was inside?”
    He suddenly reached out and took the megaphone device from the guard. He pointed it at Alex‟s chest and pressed a button. At once, Alex heard a thumping sound that echoed through the air. It took him a second or two to realize that it was his own heart, amplified and transmitted out of speaker system hidden somewhere inside the guard house.
    “The car was scanned at the barrier,” Sarov explained. “Every car is scanned at the barrier, using the machine I am holding now. A sophisticated sensor. This is what the guard heard. You can hear it now.”
    Thud … thud … thud…
    Alex listened to his own heart.
    Sarov was suddenly angry. Nothing in his face had changed, but his pale blue eyes had turned to ice and there was a dreadful deadness about him, as if his own life had suddenly been drained away. “Do you not remember what I told you?” he whispered. “If you tried to escape, you would be shot. Conrad very much wishes to shoot you. He believes I am a fool to have you here as my guest. He is right.”
    Conrad stepped forward, the gun raised.
    Thud … thud … thud … thud…
    Alex‟s heart was the animal inside him, beyond his control, responding to the fear he felt. There was nothing he could do to hide it. The heart was beating louder and faster, echoing out of the speakers.
    “I don‟t understand you, Alex. Have you no idea what I‟m offering you? Did you not hear a word that I said? I offer you my protection and you make an enemy of me! I want you to be my son, but you force me to destroy you instead.”
    Conrad touched the gun against Alex‟s heart.
    Thudthudthudthudthudthudthud…
    “Listen to the sound of your own terror. Do you hear it? And when you hear silence—it could be just a few seconds from now—that is when you will know you have died.”
    Conrad‟s finger tightened on the trigger.
    Then Sarov turned off the sensor.
    The heartbeat stopped.
    Alex felt as if he had been shot. The sudden silence hit him like a hammer blow. Like a bullet from a gun. He fell to his knees, hollowed out, barely able to breathe. He knelt there in the dust, his hands at his sides. He no longer had the strength to stand up. Sarov looked at him and now there was only sadness in his face.
    “He has learned his lesson,” he said. “Take him back to his room.”
    He put down the sensor and, turning his back on the still kneeling boy, slowly climbed back into the car.

THE NUCLEAR DUSTBIN

    At seven o‟clock that evening, the door of Alex‟s cell opened and Conrad stood there, wearing a suit and tie. The smart clothes made his half-bald head, ruined face and red, twitching eye even uglier than usual. He reminded Alex of an expensive Guy Fawkes on bonfire night.
    “You are invited to dinner,” Conrad said.
    “No thanks, Conrad,” Alex replied. “I‟m not hungry.”
    “The invitation is not one you may refuse.” He tilted a hand to look at his watch. The hand had been inaccurately joined to the wrist. He had to move it a long way to see the watch face. “You have five minutes,” he said. “You are expected to dress formally.”
    “I‟m afraid I left my dinner jacket in England.”
    Conrad ignored him and closed the door.
    Alex swung his legs off the bunk where he had been lying. He had been in the cell ever since his capture at the gate, vaguely wondering what was going to happen next. An invitation to dinner had been the last thing he‟d expected. There had been no sign of Juan when he got back.
    Presumably the young guard had been reprimanded for his failure to watch over Alex and sent home. Or shot. Alex was beginning to realize that the people at the Casa de Oro meant business.
    He had no idea what Sarov had in