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it would take her the best part of
an hour to make it back and the sun was setting rapidly. She was
certainly in a mess. Another vicious cramp made her squeal and bend
over her stomach protectively. She vaguely noticed that she’d
dropped her handbag but was too weak to pick it up.
    Another cramp brought her to her knees. “Oh
shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” The swearing helped. Breathing carefully,
Lilly waited for the cramp to pass. When it did, she would force
herself up and run to the hotel.
    Lilly breathed, willing the cramps to go
away. Gradually she felt calmer. As her muscles relaxed, she became
aware of the gentle lapping of water, of singing in the distance
and of the insects buzzing about.
    The lapping of the water was particularly
soothing. Feeling better, Lilly relaxed a little and looked up. Two
meters in front of her, lying half out of the water, his tail
gently setting the water rippling, was the most enormous Nile
crocodile she had ever seen.
    Lilly froze. Somewhere in the back of her
mind she heard her inner self say, “See what happens when you sin?
You said shit and now you’re in it.”
    As if it heard her inner bitch, the crocodile
raised its head. It looked Lilly straight in the eye, opened its
mouth and coughed.
    Lilly was off like the bullet from a starting
gun. She scrambled backwards, somersaulted and ran pell-mell along
the shore of the lake.
    She had never been much good at school sports
but this time she could have outrun Usain Bolt.
    Frantic for help, she spotted a boat lying on
the shore. She made for it, convinced that if she slacked for a
moment or looked behind her, the beast would get her.
    As she raced for the boat, she could see two
men. They were fishing. Lilly threw herself into the boat causing
both of them to yell in fright.
    “Croc... crocodile,” Lilly gasped. The sweat
ran into her eyes. She couldn’t see. But she could hear the men’s
gasps of surprise. An exchange of words she didn’t understand,
followed by the roar of an engine. To her relief the boat began to
move rapidly.
    “Thank you, thank you so much,” Lilly gasped.
“I was so afraid. I thought it was going to get me.”
    Lilly sat up cautiously and looked around
her. The two fishermen were grinning at her. They were Nubians,
both with the same beautiful bone structure as the ancient statues
dotted all around Abu Simbel.
    As they grinned and looked her over, there
was something about their smiles that struck Lilly as wrong. She
smiled tentatively, “Could I possibly ask you for a lift back to
the hotel?”
    From their looks they didn’t understand a
word she was saying. Looking over her shoulder, Lilly saw her hotel
vanish in the distance. Fighting down a rising feeling of panic,
she pointed urgently behind her.
    “That is my hotel! Can we go there? To the
hotel?” The men grinned at her but they didn’t change course. Lilly
pointed again. The sun was setting rapidly, making it hard to
see.
    When she turned back to the men, she was
surprised to see that one of them had picked up a rifle. Before she
could think or move, he swung the weapon at her. She felt it knock
the middle of her chin. It felt like a tiny knock but as it
connected, she felt herself black out.
    Her last thought, as she faded away, was that
her stomach wasn’t bothering her anymore. It wasn’t as big a relief
as it might have been.

Chapter Two
Auction
    Hafiq decided that if anywhere could be
nominated the armpit of Africa, it was Atbara.
    His two-day trip had turned into a week. He
was bored, wearing his last clean shirt and completely out of
bottled water. That morning he’d hesitated before brushing his
teeth with Coke but the brownish trickle from the tap convinced him
that tooth decay was preferable to risking the water.
    “Boss!” Ali, his local contact, was standing
on the pavement, grinning up at him. “The shipment has arrived. You
ready?”
    Finally! Hafiq looked at his watch. His case
was packed and the bill paid. If he could