The Power of Five Oblivion

lectures about your wonderful Mr Tarik. Because frankly I’ve had enough of it.” He stopped at the door and rounded on the Frenchman. “Just out of interest, did you know that those children in the hospital beds were soldiers?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. Stop playing games with me. Did you know or didn’t you?”
    Rémy said nothing. He looked ashamed.
    “Yes.” Richard nodded slowly. “That’s what I thought. You knew all along – but you let Tarik have his way because, like everyone else, you’d do anything to support him. He’s a hero, isn’t he! The saviour of Cairo.” He jerked the door open. “Well, if you ask me, he’s as bad as Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad. I can’t say I know either of them personally, but I’m not sure I’d find it easy to choose between them.”
    “Richard…” Scarlett sounded shocked.
    The three of them climbed into the jeep.
    “There’s something else you might like to know,” Richard continued. “It might not make this journey very pleasant, but right now we could be sitting on about ten kilograms of plastic explosive.”
    “What are you…?” Rémy’s voice was a whisper. Next to him, Scarlett had gone very pale.
    “Here’s how it works.” Richard started the car, then pushed it into gear and they jolted forward. There was a track leading down the side of the slope. It would take them a couple of minutes to reach the man who was waiting for them at the bottom. “Tarik wanted Scarlett to kill Akkad. As far as he’s concerned, killing the Field Marshall is like Christmas all over again – if they have Christmas out here. She refused because, surprise, she isn’t a cold-blooded assassin. So Tarik came up with his Plan B. What is the one thing in this whole, wretched country that would bring Akkad out of cover? What could Tarik offer him that would make him risk his own neck?”
    “Me…” Scarlett answered the question with a single word.
    “Exactly.” Richard glanced at the black-and-white photograph of the resistance leader, taped in front of him. Tarik looked so young, so honest. Maybe he had been like that once. When he’d set out, he’d wanted to save the world. “Tarik didn’t need Scarlett any more,” he went on. “So he decided he would use her. He would turn her into a suicide bomber – and you and me with her, Mr Rémy. I’ll bet you any money you like that the man waiting beside that very tempting Land Cruiser is Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad himself. That’s the agreement he’ll have made. He can have us but he has to turn up and show his face first. And as soon as we get close enough, Tarik is going to press a button and blow us all to smithereens … you, me, Scarlett and Akkad too. Right now, we’re delivering the payload.”
    “Why are you doing this?” Rémy asked. His voice was hoarse.
    They were already halfway down the hill. They could see the man much more clearly now. He was middle-aged, paunchy, almost bald with a little grey hair. He was watching them intently.
    “For two reasons,” Richard replied. “First of all, if there really is fuel in that car, I want it. Anywhere’s got to be better than Cairo, and maybe if we get to Dubai, we’ll be able to find a way out of this whole damned continent. And secondly, because the bomb is no longer in this car.”
    “Where…?”
    “I found it last night, when Scarlett was pretending to be ill. I lifted up the bonnet and there it was.”
    “And you dismantled it?”
    “Of course not. I couldn’t actually move the bomb. There were too many wires and I was afraid I’d only manage to blow myself sky-high. But I did the next best thing. I swapped over a photograph and a bead necklace that were in the other car. I even found a screwdriver and changed the number plates. Otherwise, the two vehicles were identical and right now, the one with the bomb is up there on the hill. So when Tarik presses the transmitter – and I’m pretty sure he’s the one holding it – everyone’s going to have quite a surprise. And that’s going to be the moment we start moving. Are you with me, Scar?
    “I’m with you,” Scarlett said. She was ready for this. Everything that Richard had said had made her determined that they wouldn’t be beaten, that they would turn this situation to their advantage.
    Next to her, Albert Rémy brought out a pistol. He checked that it was loaded.
    Richard was surprised. “You always