The Code War by Ciaran Nagle Page A

promises that said
plunge in, explore me, let me take away your worries.
    'I can't wait to get to the beach,' called Nancy. 'I'm sure you're
all the same. But, first things first, we must get settled in and
unpack.'
    'Absolutely,' they all shouted.
    The driver handed them their
baggage from the belly of the coach. Then
he waved goodbye and drove off in a cloud of diesel
smoke.
    It was a typical, hot end of
s ummer day in the Middle East. A thin
scattering of cloud did little to deflect the heat. Nancy could
feel her blouse sticking to her skin.
    She reached for her sunglasses while the boys looked around
them, squinting and blinking in the sun before donning their own
shades.
    Nancy remembered the conversation
she had had with Mel when she had revealed her plans.
    ‘ You and those three
boys all making house together in a cramped villa,’ she guffawed.
‘I know your sort Nancy, you’re too greedy by far.’
    ‘ Rubbish. I’ll be
like a big sister to them,’ Nancy had retorted. ‘The very idea of
me seeing any one of them as boyfriend material is ridiculous.
They’re barely out of nappies. Anyway they’ll be too busy with
their studies during the day and writing up their notes in the
evening. I’ll be perfectly happy with my own company.’
    But that was before she had worked
out how she would get herself to the
kibbutz where her Great Uncle Shai lived. Her plan to achieve this
had changed everything.
    ‘ Come on then, let’s
take a look inside our palace,’ she urged the others
cheerily.
    The boys too, were looking anxiously at
the small property.
    ‘ Pete, I think you
might have to sleep with your legs hanging out the window,’ joked
Andy. Pete was well over 6 feet tall.
    ‘ Well, I doubt if you
and Martin will be able to squeeze into the shower together like
you normally do at college,’ Pete retorted.
    Andy had to have the last
word. ‘He’s not the problem. It's you I
worry about. Just don’t use it as an excuse to cuddle up to me on
the sofa.’
    Why did boys always tease each
other about being gay, Nancy wondered to herself?
    She plucked the front door key from underneath a flowerpot of
blossoming bougainvillea. 'A burglar would never think of looking
here,' she laughed to the boys. Then she unlocked the door and
stepped back to let them enter before her.
    As the last of the three passed
through the entrance in front of her,
Nancy fumbled in her skirt pocket. Holding her case in one hand,
she produced a tiny perfume atomiser, already with its cap
off.
    'I'm right behind you,' she shouted as
she squeezed a tiny jet of perfume behind one ear and then behind
the other.
    Must n't
overdo it, need to be subtle, she said to herself as she put the
atomiser away and prepared to enter.
     
    A hundred yards away, near the
promenade, a man was watching Nancy and her charges while
pretending to read an Arab language newspaper that he held out in
front of him. He was sitting at a café table and an empty espresso
cup lay before him. He stubbed out a cigarette and folded the paper
twice before calling for another coffee.
    He remained watching until the
four had closed the door behind them. Then he got up and walked to the promenade and got into the
back of a black Mercedes which moved away smoothly and joined the
traffic.
     
    Nancy stepped through the threshold into a short corridor. Andy
returned and took her case from her as a gallant gentleman should.
'Let me take that for you, Nance, the corridor's a bit narrow.' He
had a twinkle in his eye. Nancy watched him carefully. Maybe he was
a gentleman. Or maybe it just part of the competitive ritual, to
get ahead of the others.
    On the right of the corridor, two
doors led into identical bedrooms. There were two single beds in
each room.
    On the left of the corridor was a shower
room and a small kitchenette and at the end was a TV lounge with a
two-seater sofa and two easy chairs.
    Nancy walked into the TV room. The
boys preceded her, dropping their bags in the