the diamonds. ‘Your friend, Mek Nimr? He sends his regards.’ He fired twice and Damazeen collapsed backwards into the chair he had been sitting on. Two, star-shaped tears appeared in the otherwise pristine white shirt. Assani leaned over and picked up the bag of diamonds from Damazeen’s lap. The barrel of the gun swung towards Makana. There was a moment’s hesitation and then the pistol sailed from his hand forcing Makana to catch it. With a smile, Assani was gone.
Makana heard the door to the suite click shut and stood for a moment. He stooped over Damazeen and confirmed that he was certainly dead. A diamond fell from his hand as it dropped lifelessly to his side. As Makana went through his pockets quickly to see if there was anything connecting the two of them there came a knock at the door. He went over and carefully turned the bolt to lock it from the inside. As he stepped back he heard Sharqi call out:
‘Open up, Makana!’
Makana glanced at his watch. The ever eager Sharqi had arrived earlier than agreed, which Makana now realised he should have taken into his calculations when making his plans. He considered his options. He was locked in a room with a dead man and he was holding the murder weapon. Leaving by any route other than the door was going to be difficult considering this was the twelfth floor. He went over to the window and considered the long drop. Death no longer held the same appeal it once had, now that he knew Nasra might be alive.
‘What are you playing at Makana? Open the door before we break it down!’
It wouldn’t take long, he knew, for Sharqi to get hold of a pass key or decide to simply forget about the expense and give his men the satisfaction of kicking the door in. Makana wasn’t sure how far he could trust Sharqi, but he guessed that expecting him to forgive the murder of his prime source of information was probably too much to ask. Their agreement was that Sharqi would get Assani and Damazeen, after Makana had a chance to talk to Damazeen in private, maybe offer him some clemency in return for Nasra’s whereabouts. He looked down at the gun in his hand. Escape seemed out of the question.
Out of the corner of his eye a movement made him look left as a man floated up before him through the air. A miracle, or was his mind playing tricks? The windows facing him looked out over the river and were covered by balconies. The window to the left in the dining area was flat. The face on the other side of this window was one he had seen before. Not exactly pretty, nor what you might expect of an angel or performer of miracles. The last time he had seen this particular face had been in the alleyway behind Yunis’ house of birds. Before that it had been riding a motorcycle with a television set strapped behind him. Slightly overweight, his flabby features blurred by grey stubble, the man came to a halt when he was level with the room. Makana went over and opened the window.
‘There isn’t much time,’ the man said calmly. He held out a hand. Tucking the gun into the small of his back, Makana climbed out. The platform started to rise.
‘Sorry about last time,’ said the man apologetically, as he pulled the window closed.
‘Never mind,’ said Makana, peering down at the ground and thinking it looked a long way.
‘They use these things for cleaning the glass.’
The electric winch whined as it lifted them slowly. High above a metal arm jutted off the roof over which the cables ran. A rubber wheel on either side squeaked along against the side of the building as they rose. Without warning it came to an abrupt stop and for a few moments they hung there, suspended in the air. The man sniffed and fiddled with the buttons on the control panel. Neither of them said anything. Then there was a click and the maintenance platform began to rise again. A couple of floors up the man pulled another lever and they began to move sideways. There was a good deal of swaying as the platform changed direction. In a few moments, however, they had reached the corner of the building. The man pulled a lever back for them to descend and they soon came to a halt outside another window. The