The Prime Minister paused before saying, “Hakim’s brother, Major Abdullah Faysal, a highly decorated officer in our military assigned to the Northern Command has also come under some scrutiny. As you all know, he is a highly respected officer holding many medals for bravery. To arrest him would create chaos among those who know him. We have decided not to detain him against his will but rather to engage him in a matter of some importance so that he will need to remain in the command headquarters where he can be monitored. Also their brother- in-law, Gamil Ajram, who has been a financial advisor to our Finance Minister, is also missing. There is no word as to his whereabouts. We have no idea if the fact that he is missing is related to these other two matters or if all these issues are independent of one another. We have to be clear about our facts and make responsible decisions. We cannot accuse an entire family of men without solid proof. The Faysal family is held in high regard by this government and by the citizens of this country, so we must proceed with extreme caution.
Surreptitiously an aide entered the room and slipped a note into the Finance Minister’s hand. “If I may speak, Your Excellency,” a man wearing a General’s uniform and chest full of medals stood at attention, “Our information about Abdullah Fayal is that he has conducted himself with outstanding bravery according to his orders.” Opening the note, Schma’il Marzug read “Gamil Ajram in custody. Awaiting your instructions.” The General continued his remarks “…recently intercepted an illegal shipment of nuclear materials and captured one of the couriers. It is my understanding that this man, the captive, has revealed important information to Major Faysal. We tried to turn his long-time aide against him, but it seems that Major Faysal has done nothing against the best interest of our country. We recommend he be released immediately before word of this issue leaks out.”
“Prime Minister, sir, if I may speak,” the Minister of Agriculture interrupted. “There are serious accusations here, ones that involve the illegal transfer of government funds and espionage at the highest levels. It seems this whole family may be involved in some questionable activities. I suggest they all be arrested immediately and brought before this body for questioning.” Arguments went on in this vein until well after midnight with no resolution. There were accusations and questions about suspicious activities. There were responses and explanations. The critical issue beyond these three men was the question of the government’s relationship with a new radical Islamic group. From what they knew, popular support was coming from Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and even Lebanon. But not all these governments had stated public support for the group. Interest in the group seemed to be spreading like wildfire, but its ideas were highly explosive and many governments were leery of it.
In the end, they decided to table the question of their relationship with The Sword of Justice, to release Abdullah Faysal, but to have him followed and to continue to search for Hakim Faysal and Gamil Ajram. They all hoped for that good outcome as they bid one another good night.
Jamila and Elisabeth sat up until late talking over cups of hot tea. Elisabeth knew that the time had come to tell Jamila what she and Layla had learned from the guards. She decided not to tell her this news until they all were safely relocated. She knew Jamila’s response would be highly emotional so she spent some time preparing her for the news. As the story unfolded Jamila’s mood soared and plummeted, she raged and she wept. Now drained she listened listlessly to Elisabeth’s summary and advise. No one knew why Gamil had been in that car outside the gate, or why he had come with the ‘fancy man’ who Jamila decided must be his boss the Finance Minister. No one knew where he was now or what he knew of the things that had happened. All Jamila knew was that she felt betrayed and abandoned by the man she had loved her whole adult life. As the information was absorbed, Elisabeth advised her to talk to Layla in the morning to relieve her daughter’s guilt about keeping a secret from her mother and asked her to shift her focus now to some other matters.
There were many worries to discuss, among them Saroyah’s emotional state. Since her rescue, she had been displaying acute trauma symptoms, over-reacting to sounds or sudden movement, crying and having trouble sleeping. She had gotten very clingy and refused to do anything without a family member by her side. Elisabeth gave Jamila some practical suggestions and said she’d refer the child to a colleague who specialized in these issues.
Their topic broadened from her daughter and missing husband to her brothers. She knew Hakim had contacted Hadara, but had no details about that conversation. Her brother, Abdullah, was still missing and no one knew where he was either but there were rumors that he was held in suspicion by his army commanders. His wife had phoned the Faysals and said she received a call saying he was alright, but had no further information. Now that her children were safe, Jamila was considering returning to her homeland to find Gamil. Elizabeth counseled against that and urged her to be patient.
After Jamila went off to bed, Elisabeth spent some time thinking about Gamil’s situation. She had some ideas based on her findings at the Olive Grove and they weren’t good. She texted her concerns to Manny and T-Max and went to bed, knowing that more news would be coming soon.
They had found that the purest form of communication occurred when there were no other distractions, when it was dark and quiet. Ari went into his bedroom and lay silently on the bed. Closing his eyes he breathed deeply and focused on opening the channel of communication to his brother. Within minutes Rafi was there. He, too, was alone in his tent. They exchanged information – information about Zuhair Bayan and Rafi’s emerging relationship with The Great One. No matter how many warnings Bayan received accidents happened and evidence could be manufactured. They both knew that the situation was a powder keg and Rafi needed a good plan. The options boiled down to threats or persuasion. Neither seemed really good. Based on the picture Ari found they assumed that the man had Jewish roots and that heritage alone could be the death of him in his current circumstances. What they didn’t know was whether or not he had truly converted to Islam or whether he remained loyal to his birth heritage and may be working undercover for the Israeli cause.
In the event that he was a convert and loyal to Islam, Rafi could threaten to ‘out’ him and his Jewish roots to The Great One. In the event that he was in reality a Jew working for Israel, Rafi could reveal himself to be a Jew also and align with him. The problem was they didn’t really know how Bayan felt about being Jewish. He might really be a convert to Islam and hate the Jews like he proclaimed. They didn’t know his reasons for sending money to that little synagogue or if, in fact, that was what was really happening. It could be a front for some other organization, it could be a back channel to his family or even blackmail of some kind. No, as of now the information that Ari had gotten, while interesting and potentially crucial, was not yet useful. Ari needed to find out more about this man, this Zuhair Bayan or Zeryka Ben Harav, whatever his name was and what his true loyalties were. The brothers signed off in their usual way, using their shared language. It made them smile, a tiny bright light in a sea of gloom.
Sol Aaronson was silent as he read through the report that had come in from the Chicago agents. In it, the chemical weapons found at Herr Müeller’s home were detailed. Illegal sales information obtained from his computer was also detailed. Aaronson shook his head in disappointment. He had made a deal with Boulos, a good and fair deal and now he knew the man was holding out on him. His name and other identifying information had been found on the German’s computer and never once had Boulos mentioned those transactions. Now Aaronson was a fair man. He was a man of G-d, a deep believer in the system of justice, spiritual and secular. He thought he and Boulos had a clear understanding but now he felt deceived. Throughout their negotiations Boulos had spoken only of nuclear weapons but now there was the issue of chemical warfare. Boulos had been withholding key information about chemical weapons such as sarin gas and anthrax that he was planning to sell to The Sword of Justice. Their deal was off.
> As was his practice in times of trouble, Aaronson turned to G-d. He was always his last salvation and his greatest guide. In the words of his father and his father’s father, Aaronson returned to ancient Hebrew. He began to pray. Until his head was clear he would not speak again with his prisoner/informant. Time ceased to have temporal meaning as he turned inward and upward waiting for guidance.
- 39 -
SIDEWINDER
It was pitch black. He walked like a blind man, feeling with his feet and holding his hands in front of him. He knew the area but it was still risky. There were rocks and gullies, walls and trees; he moved slowly and hoped that his memory would serve him well. He dared not turn on his flashlight for fear of alerting others to his location. He lost track of the time, but knew from his aching muscles and growling stomach it had been many hours since he began this journey. Inch by inch he moved forward until his feet bumped into a hard flat surface. Slowly, step by step hardly breathing he crept forward. His fingers crawled around the door frame then edged toward the knob. He maneuvered the lock inch by fraction of an inch, as he turned the key he felt the door swing open. Scarcely breathing, he stepped inside. A metallic click stopped him dead in his tracks. “Don’t shoot, I come in peace,” he said to the gun barrel pressed into his cheek.
“Abba?” said the voice holding the gun, “Abba is it you?”
“Ari? Ari, my son,” Hakim said in relief wrapping him in his strong arms.
“I heard you coming. I could not see that it was you,” Ari explained, “I am sorry to frighten you, Abba.”
“My son, you did what was right, I am so glad to see you and to finally be home,” Hakim said choking back a sob.
“It is safe here, Abba, it is safe,” Ari said turning on a dim light and walking with his father toward the kitchen. “You must be hungry and tired. Let me fix you something to eat and we will talk.” It was 3AM. They updated each other about family first, progress on their various situations, who was found and who was still missing. They talked and ate until dawn.
T-Max and Manny got the text in the morning. They had spent the night at their headquarters and were up and ready before the sun rose. The message was specific: Gamil is the key! Find him!
They each started typing. They searched databases for terrorist groups in and around where he was last seen. They searched police databases for recent arrests. They piggybacked onto the CIA’s satellite and viewed camps throughout the Middle East to see if they could detect pattern changes. They contacted Chevra Hatzollah agents around the world for help in locating the missing man. It was mid-day before they got a glimmer of hope. It came from intercepted text messages between a low level staffer working for the Lebanese Minister of Finance and the chief of police in Beirut. In it Gamil was described as a traitor with a coded message to shoot on site. This message contradicted a previous message from the Prime Minister that specified no harm should come to Gamil whom he referred to as a ‘person of interest’ needed for questioning. The Prime Minister’s message further stated that the man may have information important to the safety of their country and needed to be kept safe. Alarmed Manny notified Elisabeth and Hadara by coded instant messenger. Mossad issued an order to get Gamil before anyone else did.
Galed and his men were up at the crack of dawn driving into the desert toward The Sword of Justice’s new campsite. Galed drove with reluctance of a doomed man, knowing that death awaited him. He had failed to kill the child, failed The Great One and failed his government. He would meet the fate of those who fail, and he had to be ready for it. He would go to Allah and pray for HIS forgiveness. In the jeep beside him, his subordinates knew what he was thinking. They remained respectfully silent and obedient to his every wish. Collectively, however, they were thinking of their own futures. One of them would most likely be chosen to succeed Galed. One of them would become the new commander of The Sword of Justice’s armed forces. This was a job with great prestige and importance. While they liked and respected Galed they all knew that his time of leadership was rapidly dwindling. These things were sad and they would miss him, but this was the way of the world. One didn’t question such things; it was the word of Allah and The Great One. One simply obeyed.
Gil, Elias, Yosef, Hadara and Samira spent some time planning their moves once they reached the campsite. There certainly were not enough of them to attack the whole camp. Even with Rafi’s back-up team a frontal assault would not be successful. They might be able to eliminate the leader but could not take down the whole group. The group would dissipate once its leader was gone. Charismatic groups depended on their leader for continued survival. They needed to formulate a plan that could accomplish that goal.
The tracker placed on Galed’s jeep beeped loudly alerting them to movement. They piled into their vehicles and trailed after him. They were bumping along the uncharted desert floor when Ari’s text came in. Abba is home was all it said, but that was enough. There was rejoicing in the Jeep! Yosef, Hadara and Samira burst into cheers, they hugged one another in relief and chattered together joyously. Suppressing their urges to call home and talk with the men, the women immersed themselves in planning until another text arrived, then they texted their coordinates.
The child lay curled in a fetal position. She was silent, kept her eyes tightly closed and her arms crossed defensively across her chest. Her breathing was hardly apparent. She could have been in a coma except that she wasn’t. Elisabeth sat next to her, breathing in tandem. After a few moments, Elisabeth increased the sound of her breathing including audible deep breaths as used in Yoga. The child’s breathing became more audible. This process continued with Elisabeth first joining the child then modeling some type of increase, including sighing, audible exhaling, then she verbalized body movements “I can straighten my fingers,” “I can wiggle my toes.” After 20 minutes the child opened her eyes, after 40 minutes she was sitting up and moving easily, after 50 minutes she was talking.
Earlier that morning, Elisabeth had been woken by a terrified Jamila who was unable to wake her daughter. Elisabeth had gone into the child’s room and tried to get her up and functioning. Now that the child was sitting up, she offered her an array of art supplies and sat with her as she drew, talking while she worked. There was no coaching. There were no probing questions asked. The approach was to follow the child, reflect her self-expression and repeat her words as closely as possible. Slowly, Saroyah unraveled her experience highlighting spontaneously the horror of being blindfolded and helpless, of not knowing where she was or why she had been taken, hearing the terrifying sounds of the prisoner they had killed. Being able to put these memories into words while being grounded in the present was an important first step for the child who had been through so much. Their session ended with Elisabeth looking into the child’s eyes and assuring her that she was safe in this place, that she had many personal strengths, and that she had survived this ordeal because of the inner strengths that were part of her.
The plan was slow to crystallize, but form it did. It was Ari’s last message that made the difference. Rafi decided that if Bayan was indeed still loyal to the faith of his childhood it could be put to the test. Like Solomon in the Bible, he would design a test. Bayan playing the role of the two mothers would have to choose between the life of his family and his role as chief advisor. To do this, Rafi needed more information. He had been sitting in the circle of advisors listening to The Great One speaking about the importance of recruiting more supporters. Supporters meant more workers, more pressure on Middle East governments and more money. Money was the key. They needed money to buy weapons, to buy information and to finance their Holy War against the godless westerners and in this effort Shukri al-Sierawan felt they were in competition with other radical Islamic organizations. He thought those groups, such as Fatah al Islam and Hamas needed to be destroyed if his group were to succeed.
He decided to preach this idea to his assembled followers, send it up as a trial balloon, so to speak. He wanted to see if hi
s trusting followers would turn against their brethren. If the idea seemed acceptable to his gathered masses he would then incorporate the idea of destroying other similar groups into his overall plan. If they seemed disinclined he would eliminate it from his current rhetoric. His voice rose crescendo-like to a fever pitch as he proclaimed death to his rivals. It was as if a bolt of electricity ran through the stifling tent. As with one voice the crowd responded, shocking even The Great One with its fury!
- 40 -
WHAT GOES AROUND
Husain Hatolla paced back and forth across the concrete floor. He wanted to get out of here already. He was impatient to return home and not just a little anxious. He had not heard from the UN committee that they accepted his report. The report was bogus, of course, but he thought it would pass muster, his reports usually did. He had a good reputation with the committee. Morocco was not seen as a hotbed of radical activity, so the UN was not greatly concerned about his veracity. The delay in response time, however, was worrisome. Now, he awaited instructions from his connection. That was the one he was most worried about. That was the tricky one. Husain Hatolla had been working with this connection for many years and he hated himself for it. They were abhorrent to him; they represented all he had fought against during his professional life.
Seeing Double: An Elisabeth Reinhardt Novel Page 23