Seeking Refuge

by Alana Terry

  Pedro narrowed his eyes. “Have you shared any of this with the authorities?”

  “I did this morning.”

  Hyun cleared her throat. “I spoke with Mr. Murray and Mr. Cooper about our situation. Mr. Cooper said he’ll be here Wednesday morning.”

  Hadassah sighed and smiled at the prospect of seeing Mr. Cooper, who brought both stability and assurance, but her smile was small through the stiffness of uncertainty. “What are the authorities saying?”

  “Quite frankly, they are angry and rather pleased at the same time.” Eli gave a half smile. “They are pleased to have been alerted to possible criminal, even terrorist activity, and they are rather angry with us for discovering it first.”

  Christina threw her hands up in the air. “But I thought you said they wanted hard evidence from us.”

  “They did. All this means is they’ll take credit for the work.”

  Leaning forward, Christina stared daggers at Eli. “We didn’t come here to get credit for our work. We’d just like to leave with all of our teammates.”

  “Forgive us for our frustration concerning Zach,” Tameka said. “We lost another teammate a month ago, and though we prepare ourselves for this, it’s never easy to deal with.”

  ON MONDAY, AT LUNCH time, Hadassah went back through the sewer to speak with the girl from the nightclub.

  “I’m glad you came back,” the girl said. “I wanted to ask you a favor.”

  “Tell me,” Hadassah said.

  “When you come on Friday, are you able to bring clothes for us? We cannot walk through the streets in these clothes: it would bring shame on us.”

  “We will help you with that,” Hadassah replied.

  “I have written sizes for you.” She slipped a paper through the hole in the plywood. “Also, I’ve been working at this wood, and I have it mostly dislodged.”

  “Do you want to try before Friday?”

  “We can’t.” She stayed silent for a while. “My name’s Channah, by the way.”

  “My name’s Hadassah.”

  “Just like Esther’s real name,” Channah replied. “Have you read the story of Esther?”

  “Many times. Will it bother you, Channah, if there are men with me on Friday?”

  “Are they Israeli or American?”

  “American.”

  “Are they coming in the Name of Yeshua as well?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s okay, if you trust them.”

  ON WEDNESDAY, WHEN Mr. Cooper arrived, everyone looked calmer, although there had been no word regarding Zach. Hadassah certainly felt more relaxed with Mr. Cooper around.

  Friday morning, she rose earlier than Christina, a feat in and of itself, then dressed in the orange glow from the streetlights and sank to her knees in the small space between the suitcases and the plaster wall. So many requests to bring before Abba Father. And what grace! She soared into His presence and poured a torrent of prayers before Him, settling into an all-consuming peace and assurance of answers. This assurance swung her resolve into full throttle.

  He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty...

  She opened her eyes in the light of dawn. Christina, awake and preparing for the day, caught her peripheral vision. She looked up and they smiled at one another.

  “Shall we go shopping for those clothes?” Christina asked, finishing up the single braid in her hair.

  Hadassah nodded, then sat on the edge of her bed. “You wanna pray together first?”

  MORNINGS IN ROME ALWAYS saw cafes bustling, coffees sipped, newspapers leisurely read by tourists and sleepy conversations about nothing and everything. But these habits seemed only habits, as if they had lost their luster years ago and only clung to these pleasantries out of a desire to lay claim to someone else’s memories from the golden era of black and white movies. This morning, even the sky looked old and dull from the thick air of nostalgia and vacancy of wonderment.

  Hadassah and Christina met Hyun and Tameka in the Trastevere district just as vendors rolled out awnings, erected tents and set racks of clothing on enticing display as if retail therapy was the cure for all ailments.

  “We have seventeen outfits to pick out,” Hyun said. “Do you have the sizes, Haddy?”

  Hadassah tore the paper with the clothing sizes into four strips and handed them out. “Since we have a two-hour window, let’s try to find something nice for these girls.”

  Hyun handed €300 to each of them. “Don’t go beyond this square. We need to meet back here by 1100 hours to get to the club by noon.”

  When they scattered, Tameka strode beside Hadassah to the shops along their right hand side. “You hear from our boys in Iraq?”

  “Matt e-mailed me last night. Most of them are in Babylon right now. The city is beautiful from what he says, but a strange kind of beautiful, not at all what you’d expect.”

  “I kinda feel that way about Rome.” Tameka shrugged. “And I have a weird feeling about today. Not a good feeling, either. I don’t know how to shake it.”

  The edges of Hadassah’s mouth curled. “I know what you mean, but I believe God will give us incredible grace through it. He spoke Psalm 91 to me this morning.”

  Smiling in return, Tameka quoted the passage as if in rap or song. Her musical annunciations added emphasis to their steps.

  Rifling through the racks at the busy stores, the perfect outfits seemed to fall right off the hangers into Hadassah’s hands and her selections ran under budget. Relieved to be finished early, with money to spare, she stepped into a quiet alley to fold clothes into her bag. There would be enough time to sit with a cup of tea and collect her thoughts before their noontime operation. She still couldn’t bring herself to drink coffee, not even here in Rome.

  Before she turned to leave the alley, she heard a groan behind her; immediately, she thought of Manila and of Kiri. Her body stiffened, knowing she had to see what or who this was. Her pulse quickened. She typed a quick text to Tameka, who was still shopping in the store she had just left.

  Meet me in the alley to the North.

  Then she walked, hugging the wall and keeping her senses tuned.

  Beyond a heap of cardboard boxes, she saw him curled in a ball and moaning as if each sound took every ounce of strength. On the upper half of Zach’s body, someone had strapped a vest made of heavy metal, then chained and locked it into place. The metal vest looked like lead by its dull luster. Fastened to the front and back of the vest were two strange devices, each constructed of glass and a small aerosol can welded together. He grimaced as if every muscle in his body ached.

  “Zach!” Her hushed whisper was like a lightning bolt to his limbs—every inch of him twitched. His eyes blinked open, then he stared at her. His lips moved. “What was that?” she asked, then crouched at his side, angling her ear toward his lips.

  “Ditch your cell phone.” His breath, short and laborious, augmented his demand.

  She obeyed immediately, sliding the phone worth untold thousands down toward the mouth of the alley. “Is that far enough?”

  He nodded. “Please... help me reach the phone in my pocket.”

  “Left or right?”

  “Right. Careful.” He paused to catch his breath then sighed as she pulled the cell phone from his pocket.

  “Shall I toss it?”

  “Carefully. It’s a...” He winced and a tremor rocked his hulking limbs. “It’s a trigger.”

  She slid it away down the alley as if it was a live scorpion, then employed the most soothing and steady voice she could find. “A trigger to those?”

  His body shook as he said, “Uh-huh.”

  She tried to smile. “Can I help you stand?”

  “Don’t. Stretching my limbs will set it off.”

  “What did they do to you?”

  “The glass...” He paused and shivered despite the warmth. “The glass is filled with Ebola virus.”

  Ebola, she remembered immediat
ely, was a fast-acting virus with no cure and a very slim survival rate. She had seen a picture of the virus in her AP biology class—the thing was shaped like a cobra ready to strike. Panic would definitely hinder her, so she fought against it with the loudest silent prayer she had ever prayed.

  “It’ll kill the ... whole city within ... a few days,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “But leave you distinguishable and make you the scapegoat.” She paused, angry enough to vomit.

  “Hadassah!” Tameka whispered from the head of the alley. “Is that Zach?”

  “Take my phone and Zach’s phone and find Hyun for me. And don’t call anyone until you’re at least ten feet away from the alley.” She turned back to Zach. “Hyun will be here soon. She’ll know what to do.”

  “You’ve got to do it, Haddy.” His eyes fixed on hers, his shallow breaths shifting the vest only minimally. “If you can find something like ... metal bowls and weld it over ... the devices, we should be able to ... contain the viruses.”

  “I’m going to take that vest off you.” She looked at the chains and locks. Wire cutters would work, but each would take several minutes, and there had to be fifteen locks. She could pick the padlocks, but that would be just as time consuming.

  He shook his head. “Do you have anything like metal bowls? You can ... weld them to the vest.”

  Hadassah remembered seeing a vendor who sold kitchen supplies, and was glad she had money left over. Then it dawned on her. “If I weld anything to you the heat through the metal will scar you for life.”

  “Better than ... Ebola.”

  He gritted his teeth. He must have been beaten pretty badly, and she didn’t have the heart to hurt him anymore.

  “I’ll wait for Tameka and Hyun, then I’ll get the bowls.”

  “Please. Help me get ... these covered.”

  Pretending nothing bothered her as she stepped back into the crowds of the market took serious compartmentalizing. Scenarios dominated every thought: the welder burning the lead to Zach’s skin—she’d need something thin to shove between the vest and his chest; the devices triggering early—she had to move fast; the devices’ eruptions blowing the metal bowls off—the welding has to work, it just has to!

  The vendor of kitchen wares smiled at her choice of two black cast iron pans, each ten inches wide and three inches deep, as well as four pot holders with “As seen on TV” stickers—the Ove-glove.

  “Black cast iron is the best for cooking,” he explained in Italian as he took her money. “Everyone wants enamel coating, but those are the best of them all.”

  She smiled, waiting for her change.

  “I could give you some good recipes to use for black cast iron if you wait a minute.”

  “Oh, no, I should be going.” If she stayed a moment longer she might not be able to hide the shaking in her hands.

  “It’ll only take a minute. Special recipes from my family.”

  Smiling to hide her anger, she said, “I could come back for them later.”

  He hesitated handing her money back.

  “Please, Signore, I’m in a hurry.”

  “Why? No one is in a hurry in Rome.”

  “Haddy, there you are!” Hyun said. And in the nick of time. Tameka and Christina were behind her. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  Hadassah’s nerves calmed knowing Hyun would take charge.

  “Tameka filled me in, but I can’t guess your plan for those pans.” Hyun and the others followed her as she walked briskly back to the alley.

  “Zach suggested containment, and I think I agree with him. He has devices strapped to him filled with Ebola.” Hadassah held up a pan in each hand. “We have to weld them in place, and call emergency services before we leave for the club.”

  “That means one of us has to stay with him,” Hyun said. “Tameka, would you be willing?”

  Tameka nodded. “Without a doubt. I could even give emergency services a call now.”

  “Do.”

  “Let me have my phone back,” Hadassah said. “I’ll need a few of the apps on it to help Zach.”

  Zach looked relieved at the sight of Hadassah, Hyun and Christina hovering around him, fitting the pans into place and sliding the pot holders under the lead vest.

  “Did you buy a soldering iron?” he asked Hadassah.

  “I had a welder in my bag. I just hope it’s enough to secure the pans in place.”

  He shook and shivered. “It’s our one shot.”

  Hyun smiled sadly at him. “This isn’t going to feel pretty. You ready?”

  He nodded.

  Hadassah took the first turn, gripping the welder in two sweaty hands as Hyun held the pan in place and Christina clasped Zach’s hand, stroking his hair with her other hand.

  “How long until it sets?” Hadassah asked Hyun when she finished the first. She could feel his short breath against her shaky hand, and the cold sweat seeping from his pores. After all the pain she just had to inflict upon Zach she didn’t want to look at him, but did anyway. His eyes stared off as if to block the pain. “Will you be okay?”

  “Keep going.” He didn’t even look up at them.

  “I’ll do the next one,” Hyun said.

  Hadassah handed the welder over and wiped her hands on her shirt before grabbing the second pan to hold it against his back.

  As Hyun manipulated the welder, affixing the pan over the device, Zach shed large, silent tears.

  “Shh,” Christina whispered soothingly.

  “I think he needs a break,” Hadassah said.

  “No,” he whispered hoarsely. “Keep going.”

  Before the pan was sealed all the way around, Zach began to cry aloud. Hadassah was glad Hyun had taken over—she wouldn’t have been able to finish. Hyun kept steady to the end.

  Hadassah took out her phone and pulled up the sonogram app to view inside the pan. “Completely sealed in the back. And the front.”

  Looking up to heaven, Zach stretched out his legs. Nothing happened.

  “Tameka,” Hyun called out. “Bring his phone here. Christina, use yours to call him.”

  Even as Tameka walked toward them, Zach’s phone began to ring.

  A muffled thud and shatter on the front of the vest set him coughing.

  Hadassah held her phone over the pan. “It looks shattered but contained.”

  “What about the other side?” Hyun asked.

  They waited during a heart-rending delay until the device on the back burst with a sickening thud. The four women laid their hands on Zach and prayed.

  She saw Zach’s lips move, but no sound came out. Hadassah drew her ear close. “What was that, friend?”

  “Please, rescue my sister.”

  “It’s after eleven, folks,” Hyun said. “We’ve got to leave him with Tameka and run.”

  Hadassah, Christina and Hyun took turns giving Zach a kiss on the forehead.

  “Here,” Hadassah said to Tameka. “Wire cutters and lock picks. Hopefully you’ll be able to get the vest off him.”

  “I’ll do my best. Emergency services said they’d be here within five minutes.”

  “Then we’ve got to go, girls,” Hyun said. “We can’t be delayed. If those men did this to Zach, who knows what they’ll do to those girls.”

  Chapter 40: The Rescue

  “YOU’VE ALL DONE EXCELLENT work here,” Mr. Cooper said as he followed Hadassah and the others through the sewers. “Let’s continue to pray for Zach. Don’t be discouraged. God has given us great favor already today.”

  When they got to the basement door of the club they all set down their backpacks, which had clothes for seventeen girls and snacks to sustain them until they made it to the safe house.

  Hadassah unscrewed the padlock plate and opened the door. The plywood stood slightly ajar with the girls gathered close around, eager to leave. Pedro and Mr. Cooper leaned their weight against the wood to try to give the girls more space to get out, and bent down the exposed nails so
no one would be snagged trying to leave.

  The girls filed out as soon as Pedro and Mr. Cooper turned up the steep stairs, out of the tunnel and back into the alley. They all appeared to be from various ethnic backgrounds. Hadassah tried not to stare at their waif-like appearance and scanty clothing.

  With Hadassah, Hyun and Christina helping them, each of the girls pulled the new clothes over their lean bodies. Everything they did was quieter than the sound of the cars on the streets overhead.

  After they proceeded up the narrow, steep stairs and Mr. Cooper began to edge the large group cautiously down a narrow alley, they heard an explosion directly behind them, and the ground beneath them shook. The sound, sudden and deafening, set the girls screaming. A second explosion, much further away but just as loud, sent a ball of fire into the air above the skyline. There were six more explosions in quick succession, the last two shaking the walls of buildings around them. The girls screamed louder and clung to one another. Amid the chaos, Mr. Cooper and Hyun led them out of the alley and down other narrow streets while Hadassah, Christina and Pedro brought up the rear and tried to calm the rising panic in the crowd.

  Pedro’s phone rang. “It’s Eli!”

  Eli’s shout could be heard through the phone. “Where are you?”

  “We’ve just taken the girls out of the club,” Pedro shouted back. “What happened?”

  “Get as far away from the club as you can. A car bomb just went off outside it and the whole place is in flames.”

  “We got the girls out,” Pedro shouted. “We’re several streets away right now.”

  “Lead the way, Hadassah,” Mr. Cooper shouted over the noise.

  Hadassah raced through the labyrinth of narrow streets toward the bridge leading to the Ghetto. “Mr. Cooper, I’m leading them the only safe way I know.”

  “Lead on, Hadassah. We don’t know if the safe house is even safe right now.”

  “What if we take them to Eli’s church?” Hadassah asked.

  Mr. Cooper paused and prayed aloud. “Father, please show us what to do.” He turned again to Hadassah. “I’ll call Eli again and tell him we’re on our way there. Hyun, Pedro, Christina, take up the rear so the girls feel safe.”