Death Trip by Lee Weeks

it’s sleeping now,’ she said as she disappeared again to look for the camera.
    Alfie smiled at her. Once she was out of earshot, he phoned in to work.
    ‘Double the surveillance, but keep it covert—someone broke into the flat. They turned the place upside down but didn’t take things like an expensive camera.’
    Magda came back in the room, sniffing and wiping her eyes with her hanky.
    ‘I tell you how this makes me feel, Alfie.’
    Her face was blotchy from crying. Alfie’s heart sank. He didn’t know how much more of this either of them could take. He knew Magda was so afraid of dying, but she didn’t know how terrified he was of losing her. Every day she slipped further from him. He felt powerless.
    ‘It makes me feel like fighting harder than I ever fought in my life. I am damned if I’m dying till I get my son back and till I put a stop to all this, Alfie. I won’t do it.’
    Alfie’s eyes filled with tears for the first time since Daniel’s death.
    Magda stared at him. ‘Alfie, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise how much it was all getting to you.’ He put up a hand to stop her.
    ‘No, Magda, it’s not that. You just made me so happy. I have got my Magda back.’

27
    Sometime after they had eaten, Jake saw headlights on the approach to the farm. Saw stood and watched the jeeps approach. He nodded towards Toad who turned and slipped out of sight. Jake and the others sat blinking in the glare of the headlights. The jeeps came to a stop and cut the engines. Four bodyguards jumped out from the first vehicle and then a short bald man in his early sixties stepped out with a younger man from the second.
    ‘Welcome, Saw. It’s been a long time.’ The older man spoke. Saw nodded.
    ‘Welcome, Kasem.’
    The whole time Saw’s eyes scanned the newcomers.
    ‘You remember my son, Tai?’ Kasem gestured towards the younger man who stood beside him grinning, his gold teeth flashing and his slicked black hair shining in the glare of the headlights.
    ‘Turn off the headlights,’ said Saw.
    Kasem nodded towards the bodyguards. They killed the lights and now just the full moon and the firelight illuminated the meeting. The woman and her childrenedged away and hid around the side of the house. Saw’s men moved stealthily around in the shadows until they surrounded the newcomers. The four bodyguards formed a ring around Kasem and his son. One of them held a 9mm Sterling sub machine gun, the others semiautomatics. Their weapons shone in the firelight.
    ‘I have brought the westerners. We have a deal. Now the land is mine.’
    ‘Let me see them.’
    Saw signalled to Handsome to fetch the five. Handsome cut the ties around their feet and pulled them up by their bound wrists. He dragged them over and made them stand in front of Kasem and Tai. Kasem looked them over one by one and Tai stood nodding and grinning as he stared at the girls. He tried to kiss Silke. She squirmed out of his reach. Tai stepped back, laughing.
    ‘Please excuse my son,’ said Kasem. ‘He is short of company up here in the mountains. But…’ He turned to Saw. ‘The deal has changed. We take the girls in exchange for a shipment of opium. That is all.’
    Saw’s eyes were bright and menacing as he answered.
    ‘You take them all. You give me the land; I can grow my own opium.’
    Kasem shrugged. ‘Take it or leave it. The buyers I had lined up for them are no longer interested. They can’t afford to hold on to them until things quieten down. They are not worth anything to me any more. I will take the girls and do you the favour of shooting the boys.’ Tai nodded in agreement with his father as he grinned at Silke and grabbed at her breasts. Jake looked around.He could still see the knife, its blade just visible behind the cooking pot. He looked back to Saw and the discussions going on. He did not understand their words but he sensed trouble in the air. Saw’s men were becoming jittery. There was movement in the shadows.
    Kasem’s