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CHAPTER TWO

  Middle East, Kuwait city, an Arab dressed in a thobe was inconspicuous but his counterpart across the table deep in conversation dressed in a tweed suit looked out of place. They drank tea and patrons of the less than respectful establishment gave the occasional glance with eyes of fire, the westerner would not have been welcome but his patron gave defensive respect. His patron was also scathing of his blatant sudden appearance, in fluent English stooped over the small round table on his elbows his face was partially hidden by his headdress, he scowled at his visitor. "You are a fool, for an entire week we hear nothing, then you appear giving visual information to our adversaries that may be terminal, explain."

  The impeccably groomed man looked out the corner of his eyes back and forth as he stuttered and whispered his way through his reply. "Things have changed, we have been too complacent, we need go back to basics, word of mouth only."

  "Should Jacob Ahmadi hear of this meeting I will be summoned to explain."

  "Makes no difference, Ahmadi favours Stanton, he once saved his life."

  The Arab was silent and stone faced for a while, a look of fearful resolve crept across his features. "This cannot be, we would have been finished long ago."

  "Stanton doesn't work like that, persons in the crowd here could favour his objectives."

  "Stanton Smanton, who the hell is this man, I hear of him too much of late, over the last week I have lost contact with many business allies. I have thirty million pounds to clean up just from the last week, Stanton, I have him eliminated, I see no problem."

  "You must contact Abdul Nasih, he can explain, Stanton captured Idris and released him." He looked around nervously. "Your partner, Idris Nasih is a plant."

  "You come to adjust percentage, your people want more money."

  "My people want to stay alive, Stanton knows more than you....." There was a dull thud and the westerner slumped from his chair to the ground, blood ran the open wound in the back of his head. The Arab rose to his feet looking around, he rummaged beneath his thobe to find the handle of his gun, a red dot appeared on his forehead, there was another dull thud and he fell backwards to the floor.