Daniel nodded to me, and looked at Alasdair with his hands upraised.
Alasdair waved us back and addressed the lock. I noticed he was wearing thin cotton gloves. He twiddled with the dial for a moment, and the door began to open. Did they teach safe-cracking in the British Army? I wondered. Then I noticed that the door was opening by itself; it was a hydraulic door.
Next to me, Daniel stiffened. He exchanged a tense look with Alasdair, who shrugged.
When the opening was wide enough Alasdair slipped inside. Daniel followed him, and so did I. I wasn’t going to be left out in the street by myself.
We found ourselves in a large yard, open to the sky except for the enormous carport. Along the left fence there were rows of enormous amphorae which might once have contained enough wine for a Roman orgy, but now contained a bright profusion of flowering shrubs. I vaguely noticed three enormous cars and some large sheds along the right-hand wall, but really I only had eyes for the back of the two-storey house. Next to a forbidding steel door was a dog kennel. And crouched inside it, with his head on the concrete, was a smallish spotted dog. There were no humans in sight.
The dog lifted his head at once, muzzle pointed.
‘Geordie! Tiugainn!’ Alasdair’s voice was low-pitched, but clear. I had heard once that whispering was far more perilous than low-pitched speech.
The dog tried to move, and whined softly.
‘Isd thu!’ Alasdair turned to look at Daniel and shook his head. I understood. He was chained up, and Alasdair would have to go and untie him. Meanwhile, we could probably be seen from the back windows of the house.
My heart began to pound, and Daniel backed me around the corner of one of the sheds. He placed his finger on my lips. I realised I was shaking all over. Then I looked at the door through which we had come and gaped. It was closing, all by itself. I pointed. Daniel flung himself towards the portal and tried to hold it open, but it was powered by some motor far stronger than he was. The lock clicked shut with terrible finality.
Suddenly Alasdair was with us, carrying Geordie in his arms and murmuring Gàidhlig endearments into his fur. Geordie’s tail was pounding against Alasdair’s thigh, and he whimpered again. Then his body went as stiff as a board, and his nose was pointing directly at the house. ‘Oh, shite,’ said Alasdair. His face had gone the colour of ash. Even our serving soldier was scared. My blood turned to ice in my arteries. Alasdair produced his dog-sling from somewhere inside his clothes and slipped his faithful companion into it. Geordie nuzzled him and whimpered again.
And then came the sound of shouting from the front of the house, followed in quick succession by gunfire.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Knowing I lov’d my books, he furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE TEMPEST, ACT 1, SCENE 2
I clutched Meroe’s Ring of Otherworlds tightly in my fist. The noise was deafening, and the smell like the fires of hell. Why had I never known that guns were so loud? I noted with gratitude that I was being jammed up against the aluminium shed wall, with Alasdair and Daniel between me and harm. Daniel had his gun out. It was larger than I was expecting: a jet-black handgun of some make or other. I didn’t care. He was covering the narrow angle from which any attack would come. The guns kept on firing, accompanied by shouts that sounded like orders being given. I shrank still further and tried, for the first time in my life, to think slim thoughts.
The back door to the house was flung open. We couldn’t see it, but we could hear it. People were running along the concrete. They would be upon us in seconds. I felt Daniel tense. Alasdair had his fists clenched, ready for combat.
And there they were. At least a dozen of them, right in front of us, for a long moment. But they were not at all what I was expecting. Mothers with children first, a couple of aged uncles, young boys and impressively elderly grandmas. I saw Daniel’s gun disappear into his holster. One of the boys was holding a cat carrier, from which outraged yowling emanated. Another boy had, I swear, a large frill-necked lizard in his arms. There were little girls in pinafores carrying teddy bears nearly as big as they were. A middle-aged mum was pulling at the arm of a small girl carrying a brown, flop-eared bunny in her arms. Car doors were yanked open, and deep-voiced engines roared into throaty life.
Last of all came what had to be the family matriarch. She paused for a moment, looked straight at us, and lifted up her black walking stick. I saw Alasdair raise both his hands, palm outwards, towards her. The woman saw Geordie, now secure in the sling around Alasdair’s neck, and grinned. Her front teeth flashed golden, and her black eyes took us all in. Then she nodded, and joined the others in the vast carport, footfalls echoing in the roomy cavern.
Car doors slammed shut, and there was a grinding of hydraulic gears as the immense garage door began to open. The shooting was still going on, but there was less of it. Tyres screeched, and the cars exited the premises at speed. The grinding sound of the garage door began again. Alasdair and Geordie exchanged glances, and nodded. Daniel gripped my arm tight, and impelled me through the closing portal. Alasdair was doing something behind us, but I did not know what. I risked a quick look back and saw him fling himself onto the ground and roll under the door. I hoped Geordie wouldn’t be squashed, but I assumed this was a manoeuvre long-practised on Afghanistan’s plains.
The gate boomed shut and we raced towards Timbo and safety. I have not run, as such, since the humiliations of my boarding school. But I was running now. Terror seemed to have filled my limbs with liquid fire. And when we were three houses away, the world erupted in flame and thunder.
My ears rang as though I had been clubbed by a lead-filled shillelagh. I found myself lying flat on the footpath, with Daniel lying on top of me and covering my body with his own. It felt like a tidal wave of molten lava had rolled over us. The aftershock of the explosion was still echoing, or perhaps I was just imagining it.
I slowly lifted my head off the concrete. I was afraid it might come off. Cautiously, I opened my eyes. Daniel’s face was covered in soot. I touched my finger to my lips and began to dab at the black marks. He grinned and did the same to me. ‘Are you all right, ketschele?’ he enquired.
‘Apart from the regiment of dwarves using my head as an anvil, yes.’
‘Come on, you two!’ That was Alasdair, looming above us and tugging at Daniel’s arm. ‘No time for that now!’
I staggered to my feet with Daniel’s strong arms around my waist and under my shoulder. We flung ourselves into the Prius and sat, stunned. Police sirens were sounding, not far away. A stentorian voice with a megaphone was issuing instructions, stage left. Clearly there was still a great deal happening in whatever was left of the Petrosians’ HQ. But all this was more or less at the periphery of our thoughts, because standing right in front of the car, one accusing arm stretched out with fingers spread, was Letty White.
‘Give me the keys, Timbo,’ she instructed through the open driver’s window, and he handed them over without a word.
She stowed them away in her trouser pocket, opened the rear door and raked me with a baleful glare. ‘You’re not going anywhere just yet.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘What did I tell you? I said don’t go anywhere near these people! I distinctly felt my lips move, and I am certain that an unambiguous instruction to stay right away from here left my vocal cords and reached your ears. We’ve been staking out this place for quite a while now. Obstructing the police is a serious offence. And you!’ She glared at Daniel and shook her head again. ‘I am, regrettably, all too familiar with tripping over Daniel Cohen, private investigator, in the course of my duties. But what possessed you to bring Corinna into a war zone?’