Error Removing Slider Link

Hiya,

Getting a strange problem with the latest WordPress site for a client. I’m using the Greatio theme on this particular site with the ‘NivoSlider’ homepage header.

The client requires the slider to not link to a page and when I remove the link for the theme code (header-nivoslider.php), the header ceases to function correctly. The code is as follows:

<div id="slider">
			<?php if($artsee_nivo_slide_type !== 'page') { query_posts($args_nivo_post); } else { query_posts($args_nivo_page); } ?>
				<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post();?>

					<?php $thumb = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Thumbnail', $single = true); // check for thumbnail ?>
					<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory'); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo $thumb; ?>&h=338&w=982&zc=1" </a>

				<?php endwhile; ?>
			</div>

When I remove the link attribute preservering the image source, the slider begins to act very stangely. The images appear out of position and abruptly move up into their correct position and a small list of parentheses begin to appear in the top left of the slider.

Any help would be much appreciated.