Storm and Silence (Storm and Silence 1)

‘…should have stayed there! Who does he think he is?’

‘Psht! If he hears you-’

‘I heard,’ I said.

From one moment to the next, a blanket silence fell over the crowd. Without looking, I pointed my cane over my shoulder, directly at the man who had spoken.

‘You have one week to get out of the city. By then, I will have squashed the company you work for and your job along with it.’

I reached the exit of the harbour without any further interruption, Karim close behind me.

‘I see you are in a good mood, today, Sahib,’ he said in what was, for Karim, almost a jovial voice. ‘You gave him a week.’

Nod.

‘That was very generous of you.’

Shrug.

‘Shall I order a cab for you, Sahib?’

Headshake.

‘Are we going to walk?’

Nod.

‘The address?’

I handed him a piece of paper on which I had noted the address.

‘This is where your new offices are?’

Nod.

‘Very well, then, Sahib. We shall walk.’

Nod.

I so enjoyed these lively conversations with my bodyguard. They really brightened my day.

Ten minutes later, the massive supports of a two-columned portico rose up out of the m

orning mist in front of us. The door under the portico stood wide open, and some strangely deluded fool had unrolled a red carpet all the way into the street. His idiot friends, meanwhile, had been busy decorating the outside of the building with garlands. Coloured garlands!

Very slowly, I turned my head towards my bodyguard and gave him a long, long look. ‘Karim?’

The Mohammedan shook his head. ‘This is not my doing, Sahib.’

‘I see.’

Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the door - and was almost blasted off my feet by the fanfare of the brass band arrayed at the opposite end of the hall. Quickly, my eyes took in the scene:

The brass band, the cheering people arrayed along both sides of the wastefully expensive-looking red carpet, the committee of what was probably senior staff awaiting me by the reception desk, headed by a sallow-faced man in a grey waistcoat. Behind them, the walls and ceiling were bedecked with banners and garlands.

I didn’t know any of these people. This was the first time I had set foot on British soil for over a decade. I’d had this office established in my absence. Not a single one of the staff members had I met in my entire life, and they had hung up garlands and banners for me?

I had to admit, they were accomplished bootlickers. But they had made a mistake, or even two. The first was that they, I was sure, had not paid for this welcome out of their own purses. And the second…