Читать книгу A Brighter Fear - Kerry Drewery, Kerry Drewery - Страница 14

Whatever happened to Sacha? Part I

OCTOBER 1999

Sacha saw the car outside, waiting. Two men standing next to it. She knew who they were, that they had come for her. And she knew that the short walk out of the front doors of the law firm would be the last she would take in freedom for a long time.

In the middle of the foyer her feet paused and she thought for a moment. What could she do? Where could she go? What options did she have?

And she realised she had none.

Her fingers reached up to the necklace resting on her chest, stroking the green stone and the filigreed gold around it. And as she slipped it into her pocket, she stepped forward, across the foyer and out of the front doors. Away not just from the air-conditioning and comfortable office, but from her life and out into the searing heat and stark sunshine, to be taken away to whatever fate waited for her.

The bag went over her head and Baghdad disappeared from her view.

She didn’t scream, or shout for help.

She didn’t fight, or try to escape.

If they couldn’t have her, she knew they would take her family instead.

The handcuffs dug into her wrists. The air under the bag grew hot and moist; no space for her breath to escape, or fresh air to find its way in.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing, keeping herself calm. She thought of her friend Tariq watching her leave the office, worry marking his forehead. She hoped he would call her husband. She hoped her husband would explain everything to their daughter. She hoped one day she would see them again.

She listened to the street sounds quieten, heard the engine rev, the car accelerate. Behind her eyelids she imagined the journey, feeling and watching them turn, another junction, another road. She imagined the dust blowing up behind them, clogging the air, blocking out what lay behind.

She knew that soon the car would slow and turn off the main road; that it would stop, the engine would cut and the silence would embrace her. She knew where she would be.

She thought of the countless people who had travelled this way before her, and how few had made the journey back.