Part 7 (1/2)

The dagger man hooked his finger into the collar of the abaya and held it open. Then he ran the blade into the s.p.a.ce between the black cloth and Cayla's skin. She felt the cold metal and she froze and looked down as he moved the knife blade down between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The cloth split open and one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s bulged out. The skin was pale as cream but the nipple was red as a ruby. The man sheathed the dagger and then reached into the open gown. He brought out both her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, one in each hand, and squeezed them so brutally that their delicate nipples stood out and Cayla screamed with pain. He released her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and hooked his forefinger into the slit in the thin cloth and ripped it down to her ankles. Under the abaya she was naked. The photographer panned the camera in and lingeringly recorded every detail of her body, dwelling on her bosom and then moving down to the soft golden fur of her p.u.b.es.

Cayla stood docilely. She offered no further resistance when the four men holding her lowered her onto her back and held her spreadeagled on the carpet. There was one of them on each of her arms, holding her by the wrists. The other two grasped her ankles. They pulled her legs wide apart. The photographer altered the focus of his lens, moving into a close-up and high-definition shot of the pink lips of her genitalia. Cayla rolled her head from side to side.

'Please don't do this!' she whimpered. 'Please ...'

The man who stood over her undid his belt and let his baggy white trousers drop around his ankles. He stared down at Cayla's s.e.x and spat on the palm of his right hand. He spread the spittle over the head of his p.e.n.i.s to lubricate it. The camera followed each of his movements. His p.e.n.i.s stiffened and extended out of the ma.s.s of jet-black pubic hair. It was enormous. Thick blue veins twisted around the shaft like some loathsome climbing vine. Cayla stared up at it, wide-eyed and speechless with fright. He knelt between her knees, and lowered himself onto her. She tried to kick him off, but the men held her legs apart. The b.u.t.tocks of the man on top of her were muscular and covered with dense black hair like those of an animal. They clenched and drove downwards. Cayla screamed shrilly and her whole body convulsed. While he pounded down on her, the other men from the watching circle laid aside their weapons and came forward to form a line, lowering their trousers and with their hands working themselves up into a state of readiness for their turn.

As one finished and stood up, another took his place immediately. After the fourth rape Cayla lay quiescent, no longer screaming or struggling. After the sixth there was blood, much blood, bright against her pale thighs. When the tenth man stood up grinning and hoisting his breeches, the camera pulled away to focus on the face of Adam, as he watched emotionlessly. He turned to look into the lens.

'I am very sorry you had to witness this, Mrs Bannock,' he said softly. 'I do not think that your daughter can stand much more of it. You and I can put a stop to it at once. All you have to do is to order a wire transfer to a bank in Hong Kong for the amount of ten billion United States dollars. You know how to contact the people who are doing this to Cayla. You will be given the bank details when you let them know that you are ready to send the money.'

During the day Hazel carried the BlackBerry under her blouse, suspended on a cord around her neck. She had strapped it to the skin between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with a strip of adhesive tape so that, even when she was running, parachuting and training with the men she could reach it before it rang twice. At night she kept it under her pillow and often woke to find she was holding it in her hand. It was as close as she could get to Cayla.

When at last it did ring she was sitting at the situation room table with Hector Cross while he gave his senior operatives their daily briefing. The security duties of Cross Bow had to continue with their full efficiency. Hector was very much aware that the enemy might take advantage of the disarray caused by Cayla's abduction and that they could spring another surprise attack at any time. The meeting ended and Hector looked around the table.

'Any questions? Good! I will detain you no longer ...' He broke off as the BlackBerry under Hazel's khaki safari s.h.i.+rt rang.

'Oh, G.o.d!' she whispered and ripping open the b.u.t.tons, she reached under her s.h.i.+rt and brought out the device.

'Leave us!' Hector snapped at his men. 'Get out! Now!' They obeyed instantly, and Paddy O'Quinn led them out and closed the door behind them. Hazel already had the phone to her ear and was shouting into the mouthpiece, 'h.e.l.lo! Who is this? Speak to me. Please, speak to me!' Hector reached out and took her shoulder. He shook it gently.

'Hazel, it's not a voice call. It's a text message or an attachment.' In her agitation she had not recognized the difference in the ringtones. Working in desperate haste, she located the body of the message.

'You're right,' she blurted. 'It's an attachment. It seems to be a photograph or a video. Yes, it's a video! A long one ... twelve megabytes.'

'Wait! Don't open it yet!' Hector tried to stop her. He had a presentiment of the evil to come. He wanted to prepare her for it. But she seemed not even to hear him. She was already running the video directly onto the small screen of the device.

'It's Cayla!' she exclaimed joyfully. 'She's still alive. Oh, thank G.o.d! Come and watch her, Cross!' He came around to her side of the desk.

'My poor baby, she looks so beautiful but so tragic.' On the screen Cayla was walking towards the man seated on the carpet in the circle of masked and armed Arabs. The man's face was also masked with a head shawl. But the camera closed in on him until only his head and shoulders were framed in the shot. The man removed the shawl that concealed his features.

'Who is that man, Cross? Do you know him?' Hazel asked with agitation.

'No, I have never seen him before. But now I shall never forget him,' Hector said quietly. Adam made his short speech and they both listened in silence staring at the screen as though it were a venomous reptile.

'... Pay the ransom money and your beautiful daughter will immediately be returned to you,' Adam ended quietly.

'I'll pay it,' Hazel whispered, 'I'll pay anything to have her back.'

'I am sorry, Mrs Bannock,' Hector said gently, 'but he's lying to you. Everything he says is a lie. This is the Beast and he is the master of the lie.' The image on the screen changed, the Arab with the knife advanced on Cayla.

'He isn't going to hurt her. No, he mustn't hurt her. I will pay anything. Anything to stop them hurting my baby!' Her voice was rising hysterically.

'Be brave! For Cayla's sake, be brave.'

'Surely these people are human beings, not animals,' she said. 'They won't hurt an innocent young girl who has done them no harm.'

'No, they are not animals. The most savage animals are good and n.o.ble compared to these creatures.' The Arab on the screen stood over Cayla and exposed his grotesque s.e.x. Hazel sobbed and reached for Hector's hand. Then she was silent as the full horror began to unfold. But she was shaking as though in high fever.

'Turn it off!' Hector ordered her, but she shook her head and her grip on Hector's hand was like a steel vice. He could hardly believe the power of it. He made no effort to remove her hand; although the pain made his eyes water he could not deny her any comfort he was capable of giving to her. It seemed to both of them that the multiple rapes of her daughter went on endlessly. Hector felt a rage rising in him such as he had never experienced before. When the image of Adam appeared again on the screen, Hector had a focus for his hatred. He stared at the face as though trying to engrave the features indelibly on his mind. At last the video had run its dreadful course and the screen went blank. Neither of them moved or spoke for a long time. They went on staring at the empty screen.

'I would pay them if I could,' Hazel whispered.

'You don't have the amount they are asking. Ten billion dollars,' Hector said, and it was a statement rather than a question. She shook her head, and released her grip on his hand.

'Bannock Oil does not belong to me. It belongs to the shareholders. Seventy-three per cent of the issued share capital is owned by Henry's trust. I have the power of attorney to vote those shares, but I certainly cannot dispose of them. I have only about two and a half per cent of the total paid-up share capital of the company registered in my own name. If I sold those shares and all the other a.s.sets I have, I might be able to sc.r.a.pe together five billion or perhaps five and a half. Perhaps I could negotiate with them.'

'Don't even think of it!' Hector said. 'If you had twenty billion it would still not be enough. They want something else from you.'

'What else can we do?'

'We have got to stall them, until Uthmann and Tariq get back. Tell them you are raising the money, but that it will take time. Tell them anything. Meet their lies with our own.'

'Then what?'

'I don't know,' he admitted. 'At this stage there is only one thing I know with any certainty.' Hazel turned to look at him for the first time since the video had started playing. It was as though she had never seen him before. His face seemed sculpted from a pale adamantine marble. It had been purged of any trace of human emotion, except hatred. His eyes burned green. This face was the mask of Nemesis.

'What are you certain of?'

'That I am going in to get that child out of there, and I will kill anybody who tries to stop me.' She felt a strange emotion rising in her like an incoming spring tide. Here was a man, the first real man she had known since Henry Bannock had been taken from her. This is the one I have waited for. I want him, she thought, I need him. Cayla and I both need him. Oh G.o.d, how we need him.

'We have received a ransom demand, at last,' Hector told the men that he had a.s.sembled in the communications room. They watched his face intently.

'How much?' Paddy O'Quinn asked quietly.

'It doesn't matter how much,' Hector replied. 'We can't pay it. We won't pay it.'

Paddy nodded. 'You'd be b.l.o.o.d.y mad to do so. But what are you going to do?'

'Hot extraction,' Hector said. 'We are going in to pull the girl out.'

'Do you know where they are holding her?' They all leaned forward eagerly as hounds given a whiff of the scent.

'No!' They sat back in their seats, and made no effort to hide their disappointment. Paddy spoke for all of them.

'Then it seems to me that we have a small problem.'

'Tariq and Uthmann will be back soon. They will have found out where they are holding her.'

'Are you sure of that?' Paddy asked.

'Have they ever failed yet?'

No one replied for a few moments, then Paddy remarked, 'Always a first time.'

'Listen, you dismal Johnnie, I'll give you odds of ten to one, if you put a hundred pounds on it. Put up or shut up.'