The mobile policeman yawned as he returned to the little guardhouse. He had just been paid but as he was still on duty, he could not hurry to his favorite beer parlor for the ritual feast of peppersoup and star beer – maybe grope the bargirls as they served him.

If the generator hadn’t been running he would have heard the crunch of gravel as Coker landed lightly inside the compound and flattened himself against the wall. The policeman made a cursory sweep of the area with his dim torch, more to justify all righteousness than to find anything.

As soon as he retired into the guardhouse, Coker detached himself from the wall and moved swiftly, using the flower hedges for cover as he headed for the main house.

The growl came from behind him and he cursed under his breath as the dog took him from behind before he could react. He cursed Ahmad, his parents and his grandparents. How could he have assured him the dogs had been taken care of?

Work in progress