in his seat to talk to them. ‘Maybe bad driving into Al-Bayji. Riots, fighting.’
‘Shit, well what else do you suggest we do?’ snapped Mike. ‘We can’t stay out here.’
Andy looked up. ‘I think we could skirt the town, and head on for K-2. It’s another hour or so.’
K-2 was an airstrip extensively upgraded by the Americans and a pivotal supply and extraction point for forces deployed in the north of the country.
‘You want to leave Iraq?’ asked Mike.
‘Yeah, I want to leave Iraq. I see this getting a lot worse.’
Andy tried the home number again, and this time he got a tone. Several rings later he got their answerphone, his own voice coming back at him. ‘Shit.’
Do I try her mobile?
She was likely to hang up on him. He wanted the kids back at home, not at school or university, and he wanted Jenny to go down to their local Tesco and buy up enough food and water for a few weeks.
Christ, am I being paranoid?
Maybe. But then if he was over-reacting, so what? It’s only food, it would get eaten, eventually. But right now he suspected Jenny would just tell him to piss off, and that she wasn’t going to mess the kids around just because he was having some sort of panic attack.
Or maybe she would just be more concerned about him, being over here whilst this was all kicking off. Not thinking for one moment that what was happening in Saudi Arabia would have the slightest effect on her cosy life in Shepherd’s Bush, London.
He tried Jenny’s number anyway, and got a ‘this phone may be switched off’ message.
‘No luck?’ asked Mike.
‘Nope.’
Andy wondered whether he should just bypass her for now. He could see this getting a lot worse. If he was right about things, they were going to know about it in two, three or maybe four days. That’s how quickly he suspected the impact of a sudden oil strangulation would be felt. Even now he suspected emergency oil conservation measures were being discussed in Downing Street, and would be announced by the Prime Minister sometime before the end of the day. And when that happened, the penny would drop for everyone else and all hell would break loose.
Sod Jenny.
Andy called the only other mobile number he had on quick-dial.
CHAPTER 8
12.38 p.m. GMT UEA, Norwich
Leona was walking out of the lecture theatre and heading towards the student union bar across a courtyard busy with students criss-crossing it to use the various on-campus shops, when the phone trembled in her breast pocket.
She reached in and pulled it out, expecting it to be Daniel wondering where the hell she was. Things had overrun somewhat, which was fine with her. She didn’t want to turn up before him, or worse still, exactly on time. Leona was still firmly in the let’s-appear-to-be-cool-about-things phase.
She quickly read the display to see who was calling her. At first glance the number was unfamiliar, but she answered anyway.
‘Yuh?’
‘Leona? It’s Dad.’
‘Dad!’ she replied, the pitch of her voice shooting up with surprise.
He rarely called her. If it was a call from home, it was Mum, and Dad might pick up the other handset and say ‘hi’, ask how things were going, and if she needed anything. But that was it. Mum was the one who got all the gory details. She wondered if something bad had happened to her.
‘Is Mum okay?’
‘What? Oh yeah, she’s fine.’
The signal was awful, crackling and dropping.
‘Are you okay Dad?’ she asked.
There was a momentary delay suggesting the call was from abroad.
‘Yeah, yeah I’m fine, love.’
‘Are you still out of the country?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, I’m still over here. I’m coming back very soon though.’
‘Oh, okay. Cool. So is that why you rang?’
‘No. Listen Leona, did you watch the news this morning?’
‘No, not really.’
‘There are serious problems over here. There was a bomb in Saudi—’
‘Oh yeah, I heard about that on the radio. Riots or something.’
A pause, or maybe it was the signal dropping, it was hard to tell.
‘I’m worried about this, Leona. I think it’s going to affect everyone.’
Oh not this. Not the big oil lecture. Why now?
‘Dad, look, if it was serious there’d be an announcement on the campus of some sort. Don’t worry about us,’ she replied with a weary sigh. Then it occurred to her that he might be in some danger. ‘How are things over there for you?’
‘I’m okay right now. But I’m planning to get a plane out tonight if I can, honey. I think it’s