Tasneen had sounded so happy to meet him for lunch that it had sparked in his imagination all kinds of daydreams about them together. He had even dared to speculate how he could get her out of Iraq and back to England. All this was absurd on many levels, he knew, especially considering how little he really knew her. On top of it all it was highly possible that he was misreading the signs - and the same could be said for her. Ostensibly, the reason for the forthcoming meeting was to discuss the employment of Tasneen’s brother but Mallory’s motives had little to do with the young man’s qualifications for the job.Abdul’s suitability as a translator was worrying Mallory. Farris and Kareem were going to be annoyed, without doubt.They both had family members looking for employment and would see it as a personal insult that they had not been consulted. Then there was the whole Sunni-Shi’a thing, as well as Abdul’s youth and his disability. Mallory wondered what the two drivers would think if they knew it was all because he wanted to get closer to Abdul’s sister.
