The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 42

“Okay,” Sameh said, and poked Mark. “Listen.”

Mark just lay where he was.

“Are you listening?” Sameh said.

Mark didn’t seem to be. He was gasping into the gag.

“Hey,” Sameh said again, and then stood on Mark’s hand until he made a noise into the gag. It wasn’t words, really, Ellie thought, just a noise to show he had heard Sameh.

“Get up,” Sameh said. “Walk to the car.”

Mark tried to say something, but couldn’t past the gag. It didn’t sound like a refusal to Ellie, but all the same, he didn’t move.

Sameh poked Mark with the baton again.

Mark tried to say something else, sounding confused. That time, Ellie was almost sure he’d asked who they were.

She decided it was time to get involved.

“We’re police,” Ellie said, because the word police made people do what you wanted them to do. It made them think that nothing very bad was going to happen to them, and that there were rules about what Ellie and Sameh could do. At least, it did in Australia, and in the calmer parts of the MidEast like Islamabad. Ellie hoped it did here, too.

Sameh looked at Ellie, and made a face.

“Come on,” Ellie said to Mark, trying to sound kind. “Get up. You’re okay.”

Mark nodded, and slowly stood up.

He seemed to be hurt. He was holding his side, and moving carefully on one leg.

All the same, he looked around, and then tried to run back towards the house.

Sameh had been waiting for him to do that. She pushed him over, roughly. He fell, and rolled, and Sameh knelt on his chest, and held the baton across his neck, pressing down. “Don’t be smart again or I’ll actually hurt you,” she said. “Do you understand?”

Mark nodded.

Sameh got off him. “Get up,” she said.

Mark tried to say something, then remembered the gag. He held his knee instead. It was obvious what he meant. His leg was hurt. He couldn’t walk.

“So crawl,” Sameh said, coldly, probably irritated he’d tried to run off on his supposedly sore leg. “Just get in the car.”

Ellie sighed.

“Crawl,” Sameh said, and prodded Mark with her boot.

Ellie decided to help. She went over and pulled the door of Mark’s house closed, then went back to him, intending to help him to stand up.

“Come on,” she said, and held out her hand. “You’ll be okay.”

Mark flinched away, scared of Ellie too.

“It’s fine,” Ellie said again. “Everything’s fine. Calm down a bit, yeah?”

Mark seemed to realize that Ellie wasn’t actually hurting him. He seemed almost relieved by that.

“It’s fine,” Ellie said gently. Her hand was still out. “Let me help you up.”

Mark took her hand, and Ellie pulled, and helped him stand up.

“Put your arm around me,” she said. “I’ll help you walk.”

“Thank you,” he said through his gag. She could just make out the words.

Ellie nodded, and took his weight on her shoulders, and helped him hop to the car.

“Thank you,” Mark said again.

He thought nothing too terrible was going to happen now, Ellie assumed, because Ellie was being kind to him.

He thought that, and it was probably a fairly awful mistake.