Close to the Wind by Jon Walter Page A

had a napkin of blood. Malik put a hand to his face.
    Behind them, Vex was shouting at Hector. ‘You’re useless.’ He pulled the accountant to his feet and slapped his face. ‘Get up and hold his head. I can see I’ll have to do it myself.’
    Malik stood in the way. ‘Stop it,’ he said.
    ‘Almost there, Malik,’ Papa said weakly. ‘Let them be.’
    Malik ran across the room and out of the door. He was halfway down the stairs before he stopped in the darkness, realizing he had nowhere to go and no one to ask for help. At the top of the stairs, the candlelight flickered in the bedroom doorway.
    ‘Tighter,’ ordered Vex. There was a scrape as the pliers were picked up from the floor.
    Malik crept back up the stairs and stood at the open door. Hector had a hold of Papa’s head and in his other hand he held the torch high over Papa’s face. Vex had two fingers inside Papa’s cheek to stretch it out wide. He put the pliers in Papa’s mouth. ‘Let go of the torch,’ he ordered, and Hector dropped the torch to the floor and held onto Papa’s head withboth hands, spreading his feet wider on the floor to steady himself.
    Vex tightened his grip on the pliers, moving carefully and slowly. Then suddenly he twisted.
    ‘Aaaargh …!’ Papa came to life and his eyes went wide. He screamed loudly, and Vex’s arm shook with the effort. ‘Aaaargh …!’
    Vex put a foot up on the chair and his body arched over Papa.
    ‘Aaaargh …!’
    Malik stared at Papa’s hands, watched them curl and clench the leg of the chair as his fingers became hard white claws.
    The two men screamed together, so close now they could have been one person, with Hector behind them holding Papa’s head, his eyes tight shut, his own teeth clenched.
    ‘Aaaaargh!’
    Then suddenly Vex separated. He pulled the pliers from Papa’s mouth and stepped away so that Papa fell forward, the chair tipping with him until Hector caught hold of his collar and pulled the chair back onto four feet.
    ‘It’s over,’ said Vex. He bent down and picked the torch up from the floor, then straightened himselfand lifted the pliers into the beam of light. There was the diamond, glistening in the torchlight, and hanging from it was the root of Papa’s tooth, like a prize taken from an animal, with the blood still smeared across it.
    Malik stepped inside the room again.
    Vex took hold of the diamond between his thumb and forefinger and Hector was suddenly there at his side, the two of them standing toe to toe, staring at the stone that Vex held up between them, only centimetres from their eyes.
    ‘Untie me.’ Papa’s voice was weak and tired. ‘Please, untie me.’
    Malik ran across to the chair and took the penknife from his pocket. He opened the longest blade and began to cut at the twine round Papa’s wrists, sawing as fast as he could, loosing first one hand and then the second, one ankle and then the next.
    Papa was pale, his head still bowed. He shook as though he were cold, with tiny tremors that shivered across his shoulders and around his open mouth. He wasn’t strong enough to lift his chin from his chest.
    Malik was aware that Hector and Vex were still staring at the jewel.
    ‘Shall we chisel the tooth away?’ asked Hector.
    ‘I can’t decide.’ Vex closed his fingers around the tooth. ‘We might damage the stone. Better to sell it as it is. Let them do it.’
    ‘How will they weigh it like this?’
    ‘They won’t need to weigh it.’ Vex felt the weight of the stone in his palm. ‘I can see the value of it. I’ll know the price.’
    ‘Let me see it.’ Papa’s voice was weak but determined. He lifted his chin and his eyes turned toward them. Malik cut quickly at the twine, then Papa reached out a hand and tugged at Hector’s sleeve and the men turned round, surprised.
    Papa’s face was white but his eyes were clear. His beard glistened bright red in the candlelight. A single strand of twine still held Papa to the chair and Malik