by Rose Fox
“This is the wife Allah found for me, in his infinite mercy.” The Qadi waited patiently for Karma to repeat his words. Meanwhile, he glanced admiringly at the beauty of the face the woman before him. He was puzzled by the frightened expression he saw in her pale eyes.
The clergyman, Abu-Rain, had replaced the Ayatollah Karim and was a member of the underground ‘Mujahedin-e-Khalq.’ But, he also operated as a double agent for the ‘Kaukab’ organization. Like Karim, he was acquainted with Karma and had heard of his origins and unusual childhood. Indirectly, he was also involved in Abigail’s activities but knew nothing about her. Rumors abounded regarding her skills and now, as looked into her almost colorless eyes, he understood the source of her nickname in the underground – “Lucy.”
Yesterday, Abu-Rain met with Effendi Khaidar and received a small device from him.
“Give it to her secretly, of course,” he asked him and now he was waiting for the right moment to give it to her when no one else was there.
Effendi’s instruction had been clear:
“Eye to eye, meaning, just the two of you, with no witnesses.”
“Does she know?” he asked Effendi as he closed his hand on the small device.
“She will know.”
“Who will let her have the details and update her?”
“Don’t worry. You supply the ‘where with all’ and she delivers the goods.”
The final discussion with the bridegroom took place two days earlier.
“We are speaking of ‘illusory marriage,' of course,” Karma whispered.
“Really? An illusory marriage?”
“Wait, we do understand one another, right?” Karma inquired, “It’s important you don’t mention the concept out loud.”
The Qadi looked at him questioningly and Karma explained:
“It’s unnecessary; of course, there is no need to mention anything about the other family. Say nothing about that, please.”
Now, as the attractive couple stood before him, Abu-Rain had to restrain himself from slapping the bridegroom on the shoulder and shouting what a lucky bastard he was. When he gazed again at the great beauty, standing beside him, he thought that a woman like this was meant to be first in the rank of wives and not just an additional or temporary one. It never occurred to him for a moment that Abigail knew nothing of the little daughters and first wife of her intended bridegroom.
The ceremony ended with the reciting of verses from the open book and the words were said quickly:
“…that was signed in an illusory consecration, as agreed.”
Although Abigail recalled their conversation about this, she threw an irritated glance at the clergyman and noticed that Karma’s expression was also soured. Karma turned his gaze to her, embraced her and pressed his forehead to her head. The thought that passed through her mind was that she actually hadn’t dreamed of marrying her betrothed this way.
Abu-Rain turned aside to a table against one of the walls. He spread out three pages on the table and called to Karma from there:
“You sign here.”
Karma glanced at him in surprise and went to peruse the documents. The clergyman hurried to Abigail with his hand extended and his back to Karma. He grabbed her hand and pressed the small device firmly into her palm and increased the pressure to be sure she had closed her fingers around it.
From where he was standing, Karma noticed the handshake and was puzzled by it because he knew that it was not customary for a clergyman and he stared at him sternly.
Just then, Abigail felt her ring finger burning, right beneath her ring with the translucent stone and it seared her flesh. She pulled her hand out of his grasp. The reddish scorch mark spread on her skin and the color of the stone in her ring immediately turned black. Clearly, something was radiating energy and the only thing in her hand was the little device.
Abu-Rain sensed her aversion and associated it with her modesty as a woman but, then, he saw her draw back her hand as she stared at her parting fingers. She suddenly dropped the small instrument on the stone floor, almost throwing it and moving quickly to Karma. There was a sound like the engine of a motor car starting and she yelled:
“Karma, outside, at once!”
He caught up with her in two strides and she pushed him down, on the stony ground and then, an explosion was heard coming from the room and the smell of smoke hit their nostrils.
When the smoke dispersed, they got up and Abigail looked into the smoky entrance. Coughs and groans informed that Abu-Rain had survived and she hurried to him, covered her nose with one hand and waved the smoke away with the other, as she coughed.
Tiny flames still burned on a soot stain on the cobblestone floor. She moved them with the sole of her shoe and examined it from close up. Karma entered behind her and bent over Abu-Rain. Abigail looked at him and assumed that since he had made no attempt to flee, he probably knew nothing of what she suspected was another attempt to kill her and that the cleric was probably the unknowing messenger.
Karma knelt, but Abigail did not come closer because she was still unconvinced of the man’s innocence.
Abu-Rain sat up, grabbed his head and asked:
“What happened to me?”
He straightened his beard with his sooty fingers and reddened his bearded cheeks with his bloodied fingers. When he spoke the next sentence, she assumed that the puzzle was solved.
“They told me that after it performs, it self-destructs. But they forgot to let me know that it also kills the person who delivers it!
Abigail and Karma exchanged glances. Karma supported the injured man and helped him stand up.
“Are you able to walk? If you can, we’ll go outside for a breath of air, come,” but Abu-Rain signaled with both hands to let him be. He pointed to the sooty mark on the floor and shook his head.
“That’s all we needed after they wiped out the “Nest” and the “Fortress,” ha?”
Amazement spread on Abigail’s face. At once, she wondered what more this man knew. She retreated and went into the apartment, muttering that she was looking for a First Aid kit. She took out her cell phone and sent a message to Michael.
“Urgent. Find out what is known about a man called Abu-Rain?”
The answer came within a minute.
“He’s a strange cleric. Even we aren’t sure who he let marry his daughter.
What happened to him?”
In reply, she wrote:
“He gave me something that exploded in my hand; that’s why it’s crucial to know who married his daughter.”
They chuckled in the office and sent her a reply.
“We’ll find out.
Install your tracking device on his telephone.”
An approaching car was heard outside. A door opened and slammed shut. Abigail understood that more people had arrived and she decided to remain safe, in the shadows of the room.
The driver of the car entered with friends and acquaintances of the cleric. Taking advantage of the reigning pandemonium, Abigail came in and began searching for the Qadi’s telephone. She saw it lying beside him. He had used it to call the people and she picked it up quickly. She disappeared into the back room again, extracted the small tracking device from her phone and inserted it in his. When she returned to the hall, she laid it down openly on the little table and waited until she saw the injured man, pick it up.
When they all departed, Abigail looked for Karma and assumed he had gone to accompany wounded Abu-Rain and his entourage. When she heard his familiar steps, she clung to the wall and jumped in front of him, shouting,
“Boooh!”
“Oh, you gave me a fright,” he exclaimed and rested his hand on his chest. “I really did get a fright.”
He went to her and embraced her as he whispered in her ear:
“We almost forgot. What do you think? Shall we celebrate our marriage here?”
He nibbled her earlobe and tickled her with the warmth of his breath. Abigail clung to him and wanting
him to indulge her, asked adoringly:
“Where?”
“We’ll stay here,” he whispered, “Abu-Rain arranged a place for us here.”
“No, no!” she said, taken aback, “wait, was it his suggestion that we stay here?”
“Yes, he is taking care of us, why not? Relax, go with the flow, you’re always on guard. It’s enough now!”
Outside, the sun had almost set and the howling wind that sounded like jackal made Abigail shudder. She looked at the man she had married only an hour earlier and thought that, actually, she hadn’t told him of her beautiful house, there at the foot of the Caucus Mountains, in Azerbaijan. She thought of surprising him and suggested they go there today. She pointed toward the mountains.
“There?” He glanced in the direction she was pointing, saw mountains covered with evergreen trees and didn’t understand her.
“Aren’t you getting a bit carried away, my wife?”
“I imagined us living in a small house in the heart of the mountains.” Suddenly she changed her mind. “You’re probably right, I’m exaggerating.”
Then, he decided there was something worth considering in her suggestion.
“On second thoughts, it’s not a bad idea.”
“No, I was just babbling. The winter is coming and we won’t be able to survive there in the mountains, anyway.”
As their eyes met, they burst out laughing and Karma pulled her to him and whispered:
“Since they have already prepared a place for us, let’s stay here tonight. Tomorrow, we can consider how to continue from here,” but Abigail refused.
“It isn’t really the place I wanted to spend our first night.”
“Why? Who says what the right place is?”
“But this is the least secure place in the world for two people like us.
“”Oh, enough, there is nowhere safe for us,” and he pulled her inside the house.
At one of the rooms, he pushed the wall under the window with his shoe and an opening appeared in it. Karma bent down and disappeared and Abigail entered after him. A chill enveloped her and she heard him say:
“Come in and close the opening behind you,” and she saw the stairs.
“Oh! I should have figured that a house of prayer, like this, has a basement,” she mumbled and counted eight steps.
Dark passages led off from the dim vestibule and Karma laughed when he said he wasn’t familiar with the basement and perhaps they should explore it, but not today. However, Abigail saw that he proceeded confidently along the right corridor till he reached a large room. It was a bedroom that contained a low bureau, a double bed, and two bedside tables.
Two jug-shaped lamps stood on the bedside tables. They were adorned with flowers and a striped snake crawling over them. Karma had a flash of memory, but he said nothing and only pressed on the glowing switch on one of them and spread a golden light in the room. Then he took off his shirt and lay down on the bed with a deep sigh, spread his arms out on either side, stretched and yawned noisily has he glanced at Abigail. She stood beside the other bedside table, passed her hand over the round adorned belly of the jug and felt a tiny aperture that was directed at the wall. Right away, she unscrewed the bulb holder, removed it and peered inside.
“What are you up to?” Karma asked and Abigail signaled him to be quiet. She brought the jug closer to his eyes, and when he peeped inside and cried out:
“I don’t believe how this…” Abigail covered his mouth with her hand and finished the sentence he had begun: “Yes, it’s clear you didn’t know I wear trousers under my galabiya.”
“What, What?”
“Well, so what, it’s permitted and accepted.” And she signaled Karma with her arm to continue talking and to go with the flow of what she was saying.
She put her hand into the jug and pulled a device with colored wires attached to it out of the jug. She tore the electric wire on it and made sure that it couldn’t record anything and transmit it then returned it to the jug. When she finished screwing back the bulb holder, she switched the light on and added light to that of Karma’s on the other side.
“I also found something inside,” he said. I found a camera, but it was focused on the wall.”
Abigail raised her hands to her cheeks in dismay. She pointed to her jug and whispered:
“If that’s the case, it filmed me meddling with my jug.”
Abigail went to him, picked the shirt he had taken off and put it back on him, then pulled his sleeve and led him to the eight steps that went up to the prayer hall. She was so adamant that he kept quiet and followed after her, listening to her speaking, with her back to him.
“Like fools, we walked into the trap they set us.”
“At the moment, there’s no trap, right? Except for this, we don’t have to talk about anything there.”
“Yes, but we almost starred in a blue movie, screened to our viewers on the other end of the line. We almost acted in the show of our lives,” she said and quickly walked outside into the yard with Karma groaning as he followed her.
“Listen, I’m telling you again, we’ve already put the cameras and the sound recorders out of action. So, what bothers us about spending the night there?”
“Come on, really, Karma, of that’s what you think, then I have a better offer for you. Come let’s contact the people who placed the cameras and listening devices in the jugs and ask them exactly what they are interested in finding out and what their plans are for us.” He was silent and closed the opening behind him.
All at once, she stopped and spoke thoughtfully.
“I have a little question to ask you. Was that room prepared for us in advance or did you decide spontaneously to go down there today?”
“The truth is that I knew about it and spent a few nights there, but I didn’t imagine that they were documenting things and following me.”
Abigail could not suppress her thoughts about what he had been doing there in the days he spent here, but she didn’t dare ask him. He laughed and said:
“Perhaps they recorded me talking to myself or they have a reader of thoughts, like you.”
Suddenly, he stopped and his eyes opened wide.
“What happened?”
“Oh, the drawing on the jugs! Do you remember what was painted on them?”
“Flowers, I think, and perhaps some decorative stripes, why?”
“Naima, there was a snake in the drawing crawling on flower stems!” He almost yelled.
“That’s right, so what?”
“That’s the tattoo I saw on the motorcyclist’s arm, there in America. He was the assassin on the motorcycle.”
“What motorcycle assassin? Who did they attack?”
“They attacked San when he came to recruit me and…”
“San?!” She screamed and her face reddened. “Are you serious? Are you sure? The guy with slanted eyes, who wears spectacles? San?!” She grabbed Karma’s arm. “Tell me, speak! When, and what happened to him?”
“I don’t know what happened to him.” He tried to extricate his arm from her grasp. “I flew out two days later. I was frightened that the attack was directed at me and I thought it wouldn’t be smart of me to visit him in case I was being followed.”
“Please tell me it’s not true,” she begged. How was he when you left the place?”
“He was injured and an ambulance…”
“But, he was alive, right?”
Karma raised the palms of his hands in the air to indicate that he didn’t know and when he turned away to move on, he found himself facing Abigail. She folded her arms and opened her mouth, intending to tell him about the house awaiting them in Azerbaijan. Suddenly she decided not to say a thing about it to him. Something held her back from telling him. The matter of San had upset her cool.
“Yes, what did you want to tell me?”
She pulled his arm and began to chatter and babble.
“I dream of living in the mountains with a river running near
the house, a small stream, beside large trees with gardens beneath them. In one garden, I would cultivate vegetables and in the others, I would grow flowers.”
“Enough, stop, I know you too well. You’re not a chatterbox and you don’t dream of things like that. So, speak up, what’s the problem?”
“Karma, you know I hate surprises.”
“Fine, then I’ll reveal the plan to you, without any surprises.” He saw that she was staring at him without curiosity, and he continued.
“You said you want to live in the mountains, right?” When she looked at him, he added:
“We are expected at a house that has been prepared for the two of us. It is not far away, about half an hour's walking to the East of this mosque.”
“Is that so? They set up a home for us? ” She asked excitedly.
Right then, she thought that perhaps she hadn’t understood how much he cared and was being too hard on him with her suspiciousness.
A broad-winged dark bird hovered over them, borne on wafts of warm air and Abigail knew that somewhere below there was carrion. She pointed in its direction just as the enormous bird began flying in descending circles till it disappeared behind the hill. Seconds later, it flew back up and they both saw a lamb grasped in its talons and the thin sound of its bleating was lost and carried away by the wind.
“Oh, Karma, it’s got a lamb!” cried Abigail.
“Sheep? There’s no chance of that. Nothing grows there, nor is there any water. I don’t believe that someone would come there with herds.”
“So what was the bird clutching in his claws? Wasn’t something bleating like a lamb?”
Abigail remained pensive, then asked,
“How are we to reach the house where we are awaited?”
“Don’t worry, as I have told you, it is not far away, and they also prepared a vehicle for us.”
“Did you say something about an automobile?”
“Yes, a special four-wheel drive SUV.”
“Especially for us?” she inquired and all her instincts were aroused by her sense of imminent danger and when she stared at him, he added: