'Uhh...'
Zoe landed in the sand, momentarily winded. She twisted her body, stumbling to her hands and knees only to feel a hand clutch the waistband of her skirt and jerk her backwards.
'Let me go!'
Before she could recover herself the young man swung his weight over her chest then pinned both her arms with his hands. Zoe was about to kick out at him when she felt someone drop their weight onto her legs.
'I've got her legs,' the blonde girl laughed, 'Auda, bring us a rope!'
Zoe struggled frantically but with two people pinning her down her efforts were futile. She looked up to see the sheikh come striding towards where she lay held down, a coil of rope in his hand.
'You can't do this to me! Damn you! Let me go!'
She felt the rope being tied around her ankles, her legs being pulled together and she thrashed them furiously but the girl had her weight on them whilst the man bound the rope tighter and tighter until her ankles were secured together. She was then rolled onto her chest and her arms were pulled behind her back. The men held her arms still while the blonde girl bound her wrists together.
'Tie another rope around her arms above her elbows, Vanessa,' Auda ordered.
Zoe grunted with the discomfort of having her arms drawn close behind her back as the girl wrapped a rope in a figure of eight around her arms, binding them above the elbows as instructed.
'You'll never get away with this!' Zoe hissed angrily.
'Who's going to stop me?' the man asked arrogantly. 'The British Government believe you're held prisoner by the El-Saram secret police. What will they think when I say that I couldn't find you? How can they prove otherwise?'
Zoe sighed with dismay as the men lifted her onto their shoulders and carried her across to the RangeRover. A moment later she was lying along the back seat and the engine roared into life. From the front passenger seat the blonde girl turned and looked smugly at her, her generous bow shaped lips curved into a sadistic smile, her large blue eyes glittering with mischief.
Chapter Six
Vanessa leant back in the leather seat and pushed her sunglasses up from the brow of her nose until they rested in her hair over her eyes. The tinting of the RangeRover windscreen meant she didn't have to squint, though outside she could see the fishermen now shielding their eyes from the sun as they gave up repairing their nets and moved to the shade. The outside temperature gauge on the dashboard read 34c then even as she stared at it, the little green figures flicked to 36c. Same as me, she thought, smiling to herself, stroking her hands down over her breasts. Her T-shirt clung damp with sweat, hugging her generous curves. She idly picked at the loose strands on the cut-off jeans where the denim finished high up her thighs.
She flicked through the radio stations on the car radio but there was nothing in English with a clear enough reception to make it worth listening to. She picked up her can of coke and shook it experimentally. There was still a little left but when she put it to her open lips the fizzy drink was disgustingly warm from where it had been sitting on the dashboard. She peered out of the car but there was no sign of Auda. She gave a bored sigh and glanced back over her shoulder. Their prisoner looked up at her expectantly.
'Comfortable?' Vanessa asked, cynically.
The girl tried to say something but her words were incoherent, muffled by the folds of silk that filled her mouth and were held in place by a scarf drawn tightly across her mouth. Vanessa watched as the girl wriggled, struggling to lift herself up so she could see out of the door window. With her arms pinned behind her, she had to struggle for a moment before managing to haul herself up into a sitting position. Vanessa observed her as she looked anxiously out of the tinted glass. I've got a pretty good idea how you're feeling, she thought. Well, you can just lie there and enjoy the feeling of helplessness.
Vanessa looked out of the rear window of the RangeRover. Auda's luxury cruiser, sixty-four feet of state of the art marine technology lay quietly at anchor, dominating the tiny and primitive fishing port. They had reversed the two vehicles right up along the jetty and Basil had set to unloading their equipment. With a high tide Auda had been able to bring his cruiser into the harbour and his sleek little speedboat was now being winched up behind the cruiser.
By the time Auda signalled to her that he was ready to take their unwilling passenger onboard; the jetty stood deserted of activity. The nearest group of fishermen sat clustered under an open sided tent of brightly woven fabric that had been erected on the beach and which lay surrounded by nets, wicker baskets and vast sails of white cotton awaiting repair.
Vanessa opened the RangeRover door and swung her legs around, sliding her bare thighs off the sticky leather seat and dropping her feet down onto the stone cobbles of the jetty. The heat rolled over her like a wave. Auda's servant was stacking the last of their equipment up against the side of the jetty. Seeing her he waved and walked across to where she stood gazing down at the emerald water.
'What an amazing place,' Vanessa gazed around her. Out at sea she could see small islands of golden sand dotted with palm trees, then looking behind her she took in the immense sweep of the sand dunes that swept down to the shore. On the horizon some camels moved in convoy, laden with goods, a man sat on the leading one, his head sheltered from the sun by a fold of his cloak held above him by a stick. Looking down the coast in the distance she could see the shimmering steel on the oil refinery.
'We're ready to take the girl on board.'
'Okay,' Vanessa nodded and turned back to the RangeRover.
She saw Auda moving along the side of the luxury cruiser, dressed now in traditional flowing Arab garb. He jumped down onto the jetty and walked past them, waving a wad of bank notes in one hand.
'I'll be back in a few moments. Basil, get Miss Farquerson on board and then get these vehicles moved.'
Vanessa watched him stride past them before turning to his servant.
'Where's he going?' she asked.
'He is going to give the fishermen a gift.'
'A bribe?' Vanessa asked.
'No, a gift,' the young man corrected her, mildly but firmly. 'They are of the Marik tribe. Auda is Chief of the Safaleme tribe. The Safaleme and the Marik ware joined by alliance. Now, we are on Marik land so Auda gives them a gift. All of this coast is Marik territory.'
'I don't suppose they own the oil refinery though do they?' asked Vanessa cynically.
'No, but when the time comes Auda will return it to them.'
'What are you on about?' laughed Vanessa.
'When the King's overthrown Auda'll make the Americans who own the oil refinery lease the land from the Marik tribe. The oil refinery stood on the sit of their own fishing port but no compensation has ever been paid to them for what they lost.'
Vanessa shook her head in disbelief as she watched the figure on the beach sit down crossed legged with the fisherman under their canopy of silk.
'I wouldn't laugh if I were you, that man is pretty damn serious. He may seem like some Arab playboy to you, idling his time in London or Paris, cruising around on his big boat and frequenting the casinos of Monte Carlo. That's for a reason Miss Vanessa. He's keeping out of the way, there's a price on his head here and if he's in Monte Carlo or London you can bet it's on a fund raising mission.'