In the midst of this chaos, the family received a new email from Syria filled with threatening capitals.

We hope for your sake that you’re checking this email frequently because AS OF THIS POINT ON you have 24 hours to have the FULL 2 Million EUROS CASH READY!!

If the family didn’t pay the full ransom by the deadline, the kidnappers would add on another €5,000 for each day they had to wait. According to them, this punishment had been meted out by a sharia court and the daily penalty wasn’t negotiable.

· * ·

Daniel and his fellow prisoners had succeeded in exchanging brief messages with Kayla and the other woman who were in the cell next door. They developed a system where they hid small pieces of paper in the toilet. When the messages had been read, they tore them into pieces and ate them.

Sometimes they were serious messages; other times they played Trivial Pursuit. The women would leave a piece of paper with a question such as ‘Who played the role of Aragon in Lord of the Rings?’ The men would hide the answer and a counter-question when they were next allowed to go to the toilet.

Daniel considered these communications to be extremely dangerous, but it also felt right to try to keep everyone’s spirits up. He mostly just concentrated on his training, which was easier to do now, because there was more space in the cell. The Italian Federico had been the latest to leave the prison. Apart from the women the only ones left were Daniel, German Toni and the six Brits and Americans.

On 2 June the Beatles launched a new cycle of violence. At four in the morning they came storming in without the usual warning and ordered the hostages to sit with their backs to them and their hands four inches from the wall. They had to go to the toilet one at a time. When it was Daniel’s turn, he put on his sandals and grabbed a piss bucket, but as soon as he came out into the corridor, he was struck several times with a truncheon. He ran into the toilet, emptied the bucket, peed, washed his hands and ran back towards the cell, the Brit with the truncheon close behind him. Daniel threw off his sandals and walked onto the blankets with the piss bucket in his hand.

‘Why are you doing that?’ cried the guard and hit him hard four more times with the truncheon as punishment.

The Beatles introduced this new routine around toilet visits four times a day. The hostages woke up in a panic early in the morning, ready for the Beatles flinging the door open and beating them on their way to the toilet. It was worse still when the violence struck randomly and unpredictably outside the toilet visits.

‘Who is the Danish boy?’ shouted one of the Beatles. Daniel didn’t dare answer.

‘who is the Danish boy?’

‘Me,’ he whispered.

‘You’re from the country with the Muhammad cartoons!’ they shouted and hit him three times.

This sort of thing happened at all times of day and night and the violence befell everyone. The Americans, James, Steven and Peter, sat in the corner of the cell and clung to each other. Everyone was beside themselves.

And suddenly the Beatles were there again.

‘Who wrote these letters?’ shouted Ringo.

He didn’t wait for an answer, but began clubbing everyone on the back of the head. They must have found the small pieces of paper with the messages to the women in the toilet.

Only a brief moment passed before they stomped into the cell again and gave Daniel and James thirty dead legs each. The dead legs weren’t like those Daniel and his friends had given each other in school. They came with such violent force that he feared they would break a bone. He lay on his blanket and wept, and neither James nor he could walk the following two days.

The hostages moved their sleeping places as far away from the door as possible, and to overcome the fear that hung in the air Daniel told stories about the European Championships in gymnastics. He also invented a method of relaxation that he used on the others. He squeezed his fellow prisoners’ skin so hard between their thumb and forefinger that the pain was excruciating. He held on for one minute. When he let go, they relaxed. The Beatles were becoming more officious, searching the room regularly and forbidding the prisoners to do just about everything. Daniel wasn’t allowed to exercise any more.

‘You’ve gotten bigger!’ they shouted, and took away food and the card games from the prisoners.

The daily routines that the hostages had built up and cherished despite everything were being irrevocably ripped to shreds by the Beatles.

· * ·

For the family, every hour – even every minute – counted. In the past week they had collected an additional €156,000. They now only needed €134,000 to reach €2 million, plus the daily fines. Even in a situation like this, when there was just a small amount of the required ransom missing, the authorities would do nothing. They wouldn’t step in and lend the family the balance.

Fortunately, three individuals offered to cover the rest by lending the family the remaining money and on 4 June Susanne, Kjeld and Anita could finally send an email to the kidnappers, with Arthur’s help, explaining that they expected to be in possession of the full ransom sum the following week. They outlined the reason for the delay:

Unfortunately, the banks here in Denmark are closed for the next few days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday – due to public holidays (Constitution Day and Whitsun). We give you herewith our guarantee that we have the required amount, but the money will not be available to us before next Tuesday (10 June).

They emphasized that they had no control over the final practical arrangements or the delay, and that they didn’t want to extend the process any further. Finally, they asked for instructions on how the money should be handed over.

The ransom sum was to be exchanged for euros by the National Bank, at a cost of 20,000 kroner, and thereafter taken to Turkey in cash. The Danish state wasn’t allowed to transport ransoms, so the family – and, therefore, Arthur – would be responsible for taking the money to Turkey. Just two hours later, the kidnappers wrote back. The family had to verify when ‘the full amount’ in euros arrived in Turkey, and there was one further demand:

THE CASH MUST ALL BE IN 500 EURO NOTES that are not torn, misprinted or damaged in any way!

Arthur was beginning to prepare for Daniel’s release bit by bit, while the crisis psychologist acquainted the family with how such a process normally took place. No one could know the mental and physical state Daniel would be in when, as Arthur hoped, he came across the border into Turkey. There was still the possibility that Arthur would have to arrange for Daniel to be picked up in Syria and brought to Turkey.

However the exchange was going to take place, it was essential there was a crisis team around Daniel which, as a rule, didn’t include members of his family. Experience showed that it could be initially difficult for the person who had been released to relate to an unhappy mother, an overexcited friend or a delighted sister.

Even so, the crisis psychologist and Arthur suggested that Anita come to Turkey with them. She was capable of putting aside her emotions and could therefore be of assistance to Daniel, because she would be a familiar face among a lot of strangers.

A representative from the Danish Foreign Ministry was also part of the crisis team. The Ministry’s emissary was going to Turkey with them to provide so-called consular assistance, such as the issuance of an emergency passport and to sort out any hassles with the Turkish authorities. One scenario might be that Turkey would want to hold Daniel in order to get information from him or because they suspected him of complicity with ISIS. As Arthur explained to the family: ‘I’m your fixer, but I’m not the authorities.’