Scare Me To Death: a spell-binding edge-of-your-seat thriller by CJ Carver

Author:CJ Carver [Carver, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books - crime, thriller and mystery
Published: 2021-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

29

Mohammed looked at Dan, appalled.

Dan looked back.

This hadn’t been part of the plan but Azoulay was obviously more terrified of someone else. Dan had to make the retired Commandant more terrified of him to get any leverage.

‘Now!’ Dan snapped.

Steps uncertain, Mohammed headed for the door. He was turning the handle when a little girl called out.

‘Baba, Baba!’ Daddy, Daddy!

Footsteps scampered up the corridor.

Dan raised his eyebrows at Azoulay.

‘Don’t hurt her,’ Azoulay begged. ‘Not Salma…’

‘Get her,’ Dan commanded Mohammed.

As Mohammed began to open the door, Azoulay cracked.

‘Okay, okay.’ He began to sob. ‘I’ll tell you, but please don’t hurt her…’

Mohammed closed the door in a flash. Sweat beaded his forehead and trickled down the sides of his cheeks.

‘Tell me,’ commanded Dan.

‘The woman in the photograph,’ Azoulay gasped. ‘She came here last Saturday… she accused me…’

‘Of selling fake bomb detecting equipment.’

He nodded. He was panting as though he’d run a marathon.

‘Where did you get the equipment?’

‘I took delivery of it a long time ago.’

‘How long?’

He closed his eyes. When he spoke, it was in a whisper. ‘Seventeen years.’

Dan held his eyes as he said, ‘I was on flight EG220.’

‘Iilhi aleaziz,’ Azoulay whispered. Dear Lord.

As he looked at Dan, something seemed to collapse inside him. He stopped gasping. He closed his eyes briefly, took a deep breath. He stumbled to a chair. Sank into it. Head hanging, he began to speak.

‘We didn’t know they didn’t work. We thought the BSS184 was a highly advanced system. Innovative. Pioneering. When the flight was bombed, and we arrested the two men responsible – airport employees – I had my suspicions. One man was a ramp agent. The other a baggage loader. They should never have been able to bring explosives into the airport with the detectors in use. We scan everyone.’

Dan stared. ‘You’re saying the right people were arrested?’

‘Yes.’

‘There were rumours they were scapegoats…’

Azoulay looked weary. ‘They were terrorists. They’d already bombed Marrakech. They wanted a bigger target.’

A car door slammed outside. Dan flicked a look through the window to see a woman in a djellaba walking away from an SUV, bags of shopping in both hands.

‘I tested twenty machines myself. I didn’t tell anyone. Not a single one worked.’

He was staring at the floor, eyes focused nowhere. ‘I took one apart to find it contained no electronics whatsoever. It was nothing but an empty plastic box. The antenna on the outside of the box wasn’t attached to anything, nor were the wires. I wanted to run away. I wanted to pretend I knew nothing about this, but soldiers and police officers were using these machines all over the country at checkpoints, to detect ammunition, roadside bombs…’

He gulped.

‘What did you do?’

‘I made a report. I went over my boss’s head. I was risking my career, my family… but I took it in person to the Général de division. I could tell he was very disturbed by my revelations. He promised to investigate. Immediately, I felt better. I knew I had done the right thing. But then, five days later, the Général was dead.

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