Free Under Fire: (A Dan Taylor thriller) by Rachel Amphlett

little contrite, and smiled. ‘Shall we be on our way?’
    The Sheik stood up and turned to leave the lobby, flanked by his two bodyguards.
    Dan lingered on the leather sofa, collected his thoughts, shook his head then stood up.
    The Sheik glanced over his shoulder to the nearest bodyguard. ‘Make sure those notes are distributed to the rest of the team and have them briefed immediately.’
    While the group walked through the lobby and out to the waiting cars, Dan allowed himself a small smile.

Chapter 10
    Ras Laffan gas facility, Qatar
    Rashid Nasour yawned as his hand automatically reached for the mug of coffee to the right of his workstation.
    The screens in front of him flickered, two showing live video links to the busy liquid natural gas port glowing under overhead floodlights, the other two displaying the supervisory control and data acquisition programme Rashid and his team used to operate the ebb and flow of the enormous gas production and export facility on the edge of the Qatari empire.
    He scowled as the liquid touched his lips, noting the office coffee tasted bad enough when first poured, let alone when it had grown cold. He glared at the viscous liquid at the bottom of the mug, cursed and pushed his chair back, one of the wheels squeaking audibly. He grunted to himself, bemoaning the fact he worked at a multi-billion dollar facility and still had to put up with a squeaky chair.  He ambled across the office to the small kitchen provided for the employees. As he walked, lights turned on automatically – all part of the state-of-the-art offices the organisation had built to house the control centre for the export facility. He finished making the coffee and took a tentative sip. It still tasted lousy.
    He wandered over to the large floor-to-ceiling window which served as an observation deck for the office workers. A few chairs were scattered around the floor space directly next to the window, offering an opportunity for the control teams to sit and watch the activity below during their meal breaks. Rashid pulled one of the chairs closer to the window and sat down, cradling the mug between his hands.
    He scanned the sea out beyond the port. Two large natural breakwaters acted as filters for the enormous LNG tankers which entered the approach channel leading to the port. He could see a tanker coming into the port, its bulk sitting high in the water while its storage tanks remained empty.
    Rashid lifted the coffee mug to his mouth and blew gently across the surface of the liquid, then stood and wandered back to his workstation, letting his gaze fall back to the computer monitors. The screens flickered with a constant stream of measurements and data, issuing reports from each of the LNG processing plants as natural gas entered the facility, became super-cooled, then pumped out through a series of jetties to the LNG tankers ready to transport the volatile cargo to Qatar’s clients throughout the world.
    He leaned back in his chair, scratched his ear and looked up at the display of CCTV screens which covered the wall above his desk.
    He jumped as a hand grasped his shoulder.
    ‘Relax, Rashid, it’s only me.’
    Rashid turned in his chair as a man in his early twenties threw himself down in the chair next to his and began to log into the system.
    ‘I swear you’re going to give me a heart attack one day, Adil,’ Rashid growled.
    The young engineer laughed. ‘You’re old, but not that old.’
    ‘Where the hell have you been anyway? Your shift started an hour ago.’
    ‘I overslept. You won’t tell?’ Adil glanced at the older man.
    ‘If you get caught, it won’t be because of me. But I won’t lie for you if you’re caught.’
     ‘You’re lucky I made it in at all.’
    ‘Was she worth it?’
    Adil laughed. ‘Yes. If her father catches me though, I’m a dead man.’
    ‘If your father catches you, you’re a dead man.’ Rashid shook his head.
    Adil glanced at his computer as it went through its