He stopped, gently laid his rucksack on the ground and removed his NV telescope. The trees ahead of him were distinguished in the hazy green light, and the glow from the upstairs room burned too brightly for him to look at it. But that was OK.There were other things he needed to look for first. They would have set up some kind of early-warning system. A tripwire around the property was possible, but unlikely — too difficult to set up and too easy for wild animals to set off. No, if he were in their shoes he'd do something else.
It didn't take him long to locate the motion-sensor boxes spaced at regular intervals along the wall. No doubt they would have been set up all around the house, ready to alert the men inside the moment he approached. He moved his sights up to the roof. That was the obvious way to approach, but it was impossible.
He'd have to think of something else; but for now, he needed to keep behind the tree line.
He packed the NV telescope away and pulled out a set of ordinary binoculars. He could see one man at the window, also looking through binoculars. One very accurate shot and maybe he could kill him from here. But it was high risk and taking out just one of them would do him no good at all.
He lowered his binoculars, sat down against the trunk of a tree, closed his eyes and thought.
Gradually a strategy started to form in his head. He considered it slowly, meticulously, making a mental list of its weak points and judging whether the risks they posed were acceptable.
Eventually, he was satisfied. But he needed some equipment and that meant hiking to a nearby town.
Faisal Ahmed spent five minutes locating a hollowed-out tree trunk where he could store his rucksack; then, without hesitation, he started retracing his steps out of the forest. If he could get what he needed that morning, he would be back in situ by the afternoon.
Which meant that he could put his plan into operation as soon as it was dark again.
'I think perhaps you have misjudged my brother,' Latifa Ahmed said, quietly. The sun was just beginning to rise and nobody had spoken for hours.
Will turned to her. She looked desperately tired. Desperately anxious. But still she had the same fierce determination in her eyes.
'He was never going to just walk up and knock on the door, Latifa,' he replied, quietly.
She shrugged, but her attempt to look nonchalant was not successful.
'You should eat something,' Will told her. He left his post at the tripod and walked over to where the food was stashed. 'There's bread, I think. I could uncuff you for a while.'
For a moment she looked as if she was going to refuse again; but at the last minute she nodded, her wide eyes brimming once more with tears.
'Stand up,' Will told her, gently. He was glad it was Kennedy who was asleep at that moment. He could do without the sarcastic comments. Latifa did as she was told and Will undid her cuffs. She stretched out her arms in front of her, then hungrily devoured the slice of white bread Will offered, and then another.
'You really think he will come?' she asked Will.
He hesitated, aware that Drew was watching him intently. 'Do you?' he asked her.
Slowly, Latifa nodded her head. She gazed out of the window. 'He will come,' she whispered. Then she turned back to Will. 'You saved my life,' she said. 'Twice. When Faisal arrives, I will ask him not to kill you.'
Will blinked as her words sank in. Was she saying that just to reassure herself? But then why did she sound so confident?
'I need to cuff you again,' he said.
Latifa nodded, then obediently put her hands behind her back, her head bowed.
'Perhaps you should try to sleep, Latifa,' he said.
'Perhaps,' she replied quietly. 'Perhaps.'
He walked into the toy shop at two minutes past nine. The man behind the counter was reading a newspaper and didn't notice him until he was a metre away.
'Oh, excuse me, sir. You made me jump.' He was a jollylooking man, elderly, with a white moustache and twinkling blue eyes.
'I'm terribly sorry,' Ahmed replied, making sure his voice betrayed no hint of an accent.
'What can I do for you, anyway?'
Ahmed smiled. He knew his face looked appealing and open when he did so. 'I would like to buy a gift for my nephew,' he said, smoothly. 'He has asked Santa for a remotecontrolled car.'
The man nodded pleasantly, as if this were a request he often received and he was happy to oblige. 'There are three or four to choose from,' he said, walking out into the main area of the shop before returning with an armful of boxes. He spread them out on the counter.
Faisal Ahmed examined them. He was not interested in their size, shape or colour; he was not interested in their price. Instead, he scrutinised the technical specifications on the side of each box.
'I think my nephew will enjoy this one,' he announced brightly.
One minute later he was walking out with his new purchase.
His next stop was a builder's merchants, a large, anonymous superstore where he did not have to speak to anyone.
Here he bought himself an aerosol can of insulating foam.
The final item on his shopping list would be more difficult to come by; certainly he would be unlikely to find it in a shop. Instead, he headed to an Internet café. A quick search gave him a list of names of local doctors and a few minutes later he had located their addresses on the electoral register. He checked an online map and memorised their locations immediately.
Forty-five minutes later he was outside the first address. It only took him a couple of minutes to establish that there was someone home, so he moved on to the next house on his list. This one looked more hopeful.
There was an alleyway around the back. Checking that he wasn't being watched, he disappeared down it and moments later was climbing over a high fence into the back garden of the house. He surveyed the place from the bottom of the garden. Still no sign of life. He decided to proceed. In his pocket was a leather pouch of metal instruments.
He brought it out as he approached the back door and about thirty seconds later he had picked the lock. Once inside the kitchen, he stopped and listened.
Silence.
Then he began to search the house.
He worked quietly and neatly, not disturbing anything he came across. The jewellery was easy to find, but he left that. In the small home office there was a safe bolted to the floor. Easily opened, but it didn't interest him. This was the house of a doctor and it was a doctor's implement he required.
He found what he needed after about ten minutes, hidden away in a drawer in a spare room upstairs. It was an old stethoscope, but it still worked. It would be fine for his purposes.
Ahmed put it in the bag with the car and the builder's foam, carefully shut the drawer, then slipped downstairs. He left by the same route he had arrived and he used his metal tools to lock the kitchen door again. He felt confident that nobody would ever know he had been there.
His shopping list complete, Faisal Ahmed stealthily climbed over the garden fence and walked out into the street.
Two hours and thirty minutes later he was on the edge of the forest. There were a few houses dotted around and he knew that somewhere here he would be able to find the final thing he needed to execute his plan.
Sure enough, walking along the garden wall of a house which backed on to the forest, there was a domestic cat. It was a shaggy ginger Tom and it eyed Faisal Ahmed warily.
Ahmed stayed perfectly still.
The cat took a few steps nearer.
When Ahmed's hands flashed out to grab the animal, he did so with an uncanny speed and accuracy. The cat hissed and tried to get away, but Ahmed's grip was too firm. He held the animal under the arm that was holding his bag and with his spare hand clamped its jaws tight shut. Immediately he headed to the forest.