‘Well, you did.’

Negotiations were ongoing for Pierre and the other three Frenchmen. Although it didn’t officially admit it, the French government usually did not hesitate to pay for the release of French hostages, using funds from state-owned companies, which in turn received benefits. According to a survey conducted by the New York Times, from 2008 to 2013 France topped the list of countries that had paid ransoms to groups linked to al-Qaeda. France had paid a total of $58 million (£39 million) in ransoms, while for Spain, the equivalent amount was $5.9 million (£4 million). The United States accused these European governments of financing terrorism and of ensuring that the kidnapping industry remained a lucrative business. At the same time, America’s strict non-negotiation policy left their countrymen and their families in the worst possible situation.

While the European hostages in the Quarry waited for the negotiations to result in their releases, Pierre drew a pencil sketch of Daniel. He took his time sketching on the small piece of cardboard from a Laughing Cow cheese carton.

They had spent more than eight months together and only needed to look at each other to know what the other was thinking. Daniel could be completely himself in Pierre’s company and he loved Pierre’s ability to talk for hours about fish and other subjects that interested him, while at the same time admitting that he had never experienced being drunk.

‘It looks like me,’ said an impressed Daniel when Pierre had finished the sketch. The Frenchman nodded.

‘I’ll see if I can take it out with me.’

Pierre broke a tooth off a plastic comb and pulled a piece of thread out of a random piece of clothing. Then he unstitched a small piece of Velcro on the right sleeve of his jacket. He put the sketch under the Velcro and sewed it back on with the home-made plastic needle. He said he would put on his jacket when he left the prison and that Daniel would get the sketch when he, too, was one day released.

‘Look, Daniel,’ laughed Pierre, holding his right arm. ‘You’re right here.’

· * ·

It was early April and the three women from Médecins Sans Frontières had been freed through negotiations. Daniel and the others hadn’t seen them, but the Beatles had ordered the hostages to be quiet, as if they didn’t want the women and the men to hear each other. Even so, Daniel could hear the women in the corridor when they were being taken from their cell to the toilet.

With the previous three releases, there had been a pattern. First, the hostages were given proof-of-life questions, then there was silence until another question came, and then the final release a few days later.

On the day Pierre and the other Frenchmen received their second question, Pierre couldn’t sleep. He lay awake all night, scratching his long beard. He hated the idea that someone should pay the Islamists so that he could live, and he hated himself for accepting that he was just a white foreigner who could be sold as an object. The activist and the super-idealist within him had surrendered to darker forces, and he was disgusted. Pierre seemed so indignant about the situation that Daniel was worried he would take his own life to avoid being bought.

Everything indicated that Pierre would be released before Daniel. The Beatles had told Daniel that his family had collected only €845,000.

‘They’re still over 1.3 million euros short,’ said George disdainfully.

So Daniel made a plan for what Pierre should tell his family. The stories had to be from the good times – that they had sat together by candlelight and played chess and had long conversations.

‘Don’t tell them I was tortured,’ Daniel asked.

Inspired by the Spaniards and the Frenchmen, they also got another idea. So that Daniel could get a hint of how the negotiations about his release were going, they agreed that some secret codes should be inserted into the last proof-of-life questions which the family would be asked to send to Daniel.

If things were looking bad for his release, they would send a question about Kjeld’s red truck. In that case, Daniel could make up his own mind whether or not he wanted to try to escape if the opportunity arose. If a release seemed possible, but they weren’t absolutely there yet, the question should be about his old motorcycle. Although the motorcycle wasn’t amber, he would remember the question as amber. And if they had collected all the money, the question should deal with the apple-green car he had sold to his parents.

Red, amber, green. He would be able to remember the colours of blood and hope, even if they beat the life out of him.

Pierre and Daniel gave each other a long hug. When the moment came for Pierre to leave, they had already said their goodbyes.

‘We’ll see each other when we go to Scotland,’ said Pierre, referring to an earlier promise they’d made to each other.

Before the Frenchmen were released, the Beatles brought a guest to the cell one day in mid-April 2014. When the hostages were given the order to turn around again, a woman in a black veil stood by the far wall. She pulled the veil to one side and introduced herself as Kayla Mueller from the United States. She said she had a message for the US government that the Frenchmen should deliver.

She said that she was well and the demand for her release was €5 million – or a woman prisoner for a woman prisoner. If the latter, ISIS was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who had been sentenced to eighty-six years in prison in the US for an attack on US agents and military personnel in Afghanistan. Kayla said that she had been held hostage since August 2013. The young aid worker had been kept in many of the same prisons as Daniel.

When she and the Beatles again disappeared out of the cell, the hostages talked about how they could help Kayla, who was probably locked up in a cell alone.

The day after Kayla’s visit, the Beatles told the Frenchmen they would be released, but that among the many euros that had been delivered as ransom were 4,000 damaged banknotes.

‘But we aren’t Jews, so we will free you in a few days,’ said one of them and ordered the Frenchmen to tell the authorities about the worthless notes they had received. At the same time George demanded that the other hostages should write letters home.

The Beatles came back the next morning and George was furious because nobody had finished their letters. One of the hostages objected gently that he had told them they had two days.

‘Did I say two days …?’ mumbled George.

Daniel scribbled down a few sentences to say that his family should hurry and pay the ransom.

Pierre sat waiting with his hands and face against the wall, while the guards came and went through the open door to the corridor, where there was intense activity. Pierre and his countrymen were led out of the cell for the last time.

On his way out, Pierre quickly laid a hand on Daniel’s shoulder.

‘Goodbye, see you later,’ he said, and Daniel watched him disappear, wearing the jacket that had the drawing of Daniel sewn into one sleeve.

· * ·

The kidnappers’ response to Susanne and Kjeld’s offer of €845,000 wasn’t exactly encouraging. Using exclamation marks and capital letters, they emphasized in their reply that they wouldn’t accept less than €2 million. They once again urged Daniel’s family to contact the freed hostages, including the three women from MSF, who had been released in the meantime.

‘You may also take the opportunity to ask these families and representatives how they managed to raise the sum demanded for their release, so that you may do the same,’ was the message.

The daily updates on the fundraising weren’t encouraging either. The flood of contributions had slowed. As a result Anita extended the circle of contributors to include people who didn’t necessarily know Daniel. A letter was circulated to the principals of Denmark’s schools and colleges which had been signed by several principals of the schools where Daniel had been a student and taught, as well as by the bishop of Ribe Diocese, where Susanne was originally from. Because they hadn’t yet been able to collect the whole ransom money, the letter called on each recipient to ‘share it by email with people you trust in your own network’. They explained: