The Power of Five Oblivion

tinkle of glass. The guard’s eyes went white and he folded in on himself. It took Richard a moment to see that something had smashed into the back of his skull. Then Jaheda appeared behind him, holding the broken neck of a bottle of champagne.
    The two of them looked at each other.
    “You…” she said.
    “Jaheda.”
    “I was coming to your room. I was coming to find you.” Was it true? The woman’s face, still partly concealed by the black silk scarf that hung around it, gave nothing away.
    She was not alone.
    There was a man standing behind her, dressed in the rags of what had once been blue trousers and a white shirt. He was barefoot. Richard knew at once that he was looking at the pilot, Larry Carter. He had been badly beaten. Richard saw the whip marks where the blood had dried across his shirt, and one side of his face was swollen. He had sand-coloured hair, matted and bedraggled. He looked as if he hadn’t eaten properly for a week.
    “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
    “I’m Richard Cole. This is Scarlett.”
    “What are you doing here?” He didn’t sound at all pleased to see them. In fact he was sullen and hostile.
    “As a matter of fact, we came to get you out.”
    “Did you? And why would you do that?”
    “There is no time for a conversation,” Jaheda interrupted. “You can do that when you are gone from here. I have the man you wanted. I have kept my side of the bargain and taken him from his cell. But now you must go. I want you far away.”
    She hurried towards the doors that Richard had first seen. Carter might have been released from his cell but his hands were still tied behind him and he stumbled forward, his arms and shoulders straining against the cords. Richard and Scarlett followed.
    The doors led into a service area with a forklift truck resting against a wall and piles of empty crates all around. Richard had hoped he would see the street on the other side but they were still inside the palace compound, in a walled-in parking area with about fifty cars neatly positioned in two long rows. Even at a glance, it was clear that many of them had never been driven. They were brilliantly polished, the tyres free of any dust or dirt. Some were brand new, some vintage – from the twenties and thirties. Together they would have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
    “The sheikh likes cars,” Jaheda said.
    “Even though he has nowhere to go,” Richard muttered.
    The woman turned on him. “He collects cars. He does not need to drive them. You wouldn’t understand.”
    She led them to yet another door with a push-bar. Surely this had to be the way out into the street! The door was locked and this time there was an electronic keypad, demanding a numeric code.
    “The number is 5455,” Jaheda said. “But opening the door at this time of the night will set off an alert throughout the palace and there is nothing I can do about that. Once you are outside, you will find yourselves on Baniyas Road. Do you have a car?”
    “Yes.”
    “It will take them a few minutes to come after you. Go as quickly as you can. If Rasheed catches you, have no doubt, he will kill you slowly.”
    “Thank you,” Richard said.
    “Do not thank me,” Jaheda snapped. But then she turned and looked at Scarlett and just for a moment there was a softness in her eyes. Perhaps she was remembering how she had been at that age. “I have done this only for myself.”
    She turned and went, hurrying back the way she had come. Richard, Scarlett and Larry Carter were left standing beside the door.
    “I don’t suppose either of you would have a knife on you?” the pilot asked.
    Richard shook his head. “We’ll cut you free later.”
    “So what happens now?”
    “We go to the airport.”
    “The plane’s still there?”
    “That’s right. You’re going to fly us out.”
    “Oh yes? And where do you think you’re heading?”
    “To Antarctica.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding!”
    Richard had never taken a dislike to anyone so immediately. He and Scarlett were saving this man’s life. The sheikh would have executed him. But he wasn’t remotely grateful. In fact, all he seemed to want to do was argue. “Let’s not discuss it now,” he said.
    He keyed in the four numbers that Jaheda had given him.
    The door opened and at the same moment alarm bells exploded throughout the palace. Richard, Scarlett and Carter burst out, running into the sluggish heat of the night. It took them a moment to