Fire & Wind
Page 30
As the Mansour women reached the garden entrance, without warning everything stopped. The President’s car was approaching, followed by a horde of media people. Georghe Markirov, the elchi or matchmaker, was positioned outside the near tent to welcome Azerbaijan’s First Executive. Next to him was Jake and one of the male elders of the Kedar clan. In ancient days, such a momentous wedding lasted seven days and seven nights, but Conor and Tali insisted on something much more manageable – three days and two nights. They thought it enough time for a nation to celebrate. The Markirov Bey had announced the marriage at the end of the nightly news on the first day. That was October 18th, and by coincidence, it was the same day that the new government of Azerbaijan had been sworn in.
The bride’s acceptance was, of course, a foregone conclusion, so the Mehendi ceremony began in the early afternoon. A sisterhood of Azeri women spent an hour decorating Tali’s hands and legs with beautiful Mehendi art, and shortly after that, some fun-filled competitions between the two families began. That evening the air was filled song and dance as the wedding guests partied away the night.
Conor and Tali, however, retired to their apartment at 9:30. Because Jake was leaving for the States shortly, they invite him to join them for a private dinner at ten. All the foods for the wedding itself were homemade; to do otherwise would have been an insult to a nation’s pride. But Conor and Tali had decided to have this evening’s meal catered. They chose Scalini, an Italian restaurant in downtown Baku, and a Mediterranean menu: ravioli with ricotta and spinach, a mixed salad with sautéed calamari and sundried tomatoes, tiramisu, and, of course, a bottle of Barbera d’Asti from the Piedmont region.
Tali offered the evening’s first toast, “To Jake Moynihan, who traveled a nerve-wracking 6,000 miles to see his brother married to a quiet, country girl.”
Jake laughed. “No one, Tali, would call you quiet or country.”
“Especially anyone from the House of Kos,” Conor added. All three smiled at that notion, then ticked glasses to a job well done. At that instant, the waiter began serving the ravioli, then topped off their wine.
Tali continued her cordial chit-chat, “We are grateful you came. We know you have that election next month. It must be exciting.”
“Will you win?” Conor asked.
Jake replied, “I think so. At least, my campaign people tell me I will.”
Conor made the second toast, “Then we will have to visit you in Washington, DC and celebrate my brother’s brilliant victory. Imagine, both of us politicians!”
They drank again, and then Tali changed the subject, “Soooo… how is Lindy, and what is she doing these days?” It was a natural question, one likely to be asked during any casual conversation.
“We broke up some time ago… more than a year,” said Jake.
“Do you ever see her?”
It was the second question that threw Jake. He sat erect, took a deep breath, and felt a bit uneasy. Did Tali somehow know of his recent visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, or know about the VDW recon incursions along the border? Of course, she knew. After all, she was now an officer of the Azeri Security Service. But he wondered, Have I been followed all along?
“Her Uncle Mike is married to my Aunt Sonia, actually, so I’m often informed of the many Bedrosian comings and goings. It can be a little tedious.” It was a clever dodge, but Tali noticed Jake’s shifting posture. Next, Jake sent the conversation in a new direction. “I’m curious, Tali, about your new job. What does it entail?”
It was Tali’s turn to squirm. “Nothing really different. For some time, I’ve been reporting directly to President Guliyev about international affairs. Now it will be domestic affairs.”
“Domestic military affairs?”
This time, Conor noticed the odd turn to the military question. “Enough shop talk, Jake,” he chided lightly. “Mira tells me that you will be traveling with her back to Gobustan.”
“That’s right. I want to see our father’s gravesite one more time before I go. I don’t know that I’ll ever be back, you know.”
“Don’t say that, Jake,” argued the older brother. “You and I have many things to do, and fate will bring us together again.”
“If God wills it,” Tali added.
Lastly, Conor asked, “Are we good, Jake?”
Appreciating his brother at last, Jake didn’t hesitate, “We’re good, Conor Moynihan.”
The rest of the evening was spent in casual conversation. Nevertheless, the anxiety Jake felt returned more than once. But each time, Jake hesitated to tell them about the drone army. He was deeply troubled about it. The revelation would betray Lindy and his old comrades, but not disclosing it was equally troubling – the drone army was lethal, and the Armenians would not hesitate to employ it.
Around eleven the next morning, the mullah arrived to officiate at the nikah al Mutah, the legal agreement that is completed on the last day of the marriage.
Contrary to the ways of Sunnis, Shiites believe in a temporary marriage arrangement. The bride and the groom enter into nuptials that are valid for a fixed time period. The couple is expected to abide by this and stay together after the contract expires only if they elect, of their own free will, to do so. Conor and Tali asked the Mansours to be the witnesses to the marriage contract, but Mira and Seyfulla were also present, and so was Jake. It didn’t take long. By noon the three-day marriage ceremony had been completed, and the camera crews were gone.
Chira had agreed to fly back to Tbilisi, so Ali drove the Mansours to the airport for an afternoon flight to Georgia. Jake was the only out-of-towner left of the wedding party, and he felt pressured to get back to Chicago and the campaign as soon as possible. The visit to Tom’s gravesite, however, was an immediate priority. Mira’s chauffeur, David, brought her car to the apartment at 2:30 pm for his final sendoff.
Jake had always been uncomfortable with goodbyes, but this one was especially difficult. He felt guilty. Lindy, the VDW, and the drone army were ever-present on his mind, and now his brother and his new bride were there as well. But again, he said nothing as he departed Baku.
The ride to Gobustan took about an hour, and both he and Mira were quiet throughout the journey – three days of wedding fun is always exhausting. When they arrived at the village, they went directly to the cottage. David unlocked the gate and then parked the car near the azalea garden. As they walked toward the gravesite, they heard a songbird nearby. Jake perked up. “Is that…?”
“I think so,” said Mira.
Jake recalled, “You and I were walking in this very garden the last time we heard a nightingale.”
Mira asked, “You remember which one sings, don’t you?”
“I do.”
Then she offered sagely, “It is your father welcoming you home.”
A surge of sadness filled his heart as they sat down on the iron bench next to the giant Oriental plane tree. Unrelenting guilt filled his consciousness. “Mira, I have something important to tell you.”
“What’s that, Jacob?” It was a name not often used for Moynihan. He thought of Jacob of the Bible and that one’s betrayal long ago.
“Conor and…,” he hesitated, “Conor and all of you in this country are in great peril.”
“How so?”
“Armenia is…”
“We know this, Jake,” Mira said. “They have been threatening us for generations.”
“I did not come to the wedding directly,” he explained. “I went to the Black Garden to visit my old girlfriend and what I saw there was frightening. They have a new weapon.”
Mira perked up. “New weapon?”
“A drone army that cannot be stopped.”
She pursed her lips and said, “I’m sure that Tali knows about it.” Mira gave off an air of confidence, but deep down, she was unsure. “Why didn’t you tell Conor or Tali, or somebody?”
“I don’t have a good reason. I guess I thought this trouble would just go away.”
“No need to fuss about it now,” said Mira. “Let’s get back to the cottage. We can decide tomorrow before you leave.”
It was a long night, fraught with anxiety.
The next morning, Jake woke up early. The train for Tbilisi would arrive in 90 minutes, and Jake was ready. He wandered into the kitchen and found a continental breakfast waiting. There was a note on the table. It read: “Had to go back to Baku for business last night. Shahin will drive you to the train station. Have a safe trip, Mira.”
At two o’clock that afternoon, Jake arrived at the Ganja train depot. The high wispy sky of the Gobustan morning had turned into low-lying gray clouds in Ganja. The air was muggy, and it felt like a storm was on its way. Jake was at the meeting place he and Mike Bedrosian had agreed upon, but the man was nowhere to be found. Jake’s feeling of isolation was paramount because the BTK-57 had departed, and all the people who had come to pick up their relatives had disappeared. Moynihan was alone. There was little for him to do but ignore the weather and wait.
An hour passed, but killing time was not what Jake did well. Something has happened to Mike, he reasoned. More seriously, Jake was troubled by the thought that somehow VDW spies had uncovered the fact that he had had dinner with an Azeri Security Services officer. He now worried, Does Lindy think I have betrayed her and the VDW?
He stood up and searched his surroundings, anxious to find a solution. That’s when he spotted a lone taxi in the parking lot. So Jake walked to the end of the station and asked the driver, “Do you know the Sotk Pass?”
The man flipped his cigarette into the air, thinking he had a fare. “Taxi, Müserif? Ganja?”
Jake shook his head, “No.” Obviously, the man didn’t speak English, and Jake’s Azerbaijani was rudimentary, at best. “Do you know the road to the Sotk Pass?”
The driver waved an instructive finger at Jake. “Sotk, Armenia… no, no, no!” He jumped into his taxi and drove off.
Jake was unnerved by his aloneness, a stranger in a strange land. Not knowing what to do next, Jake returned to the depot. There was a clerk at the ticket counter, so he went inside.
“Is there another train tonight?” he asked. “The man I was supposed to meet never showed up.”
“Old 49 be here in 90 minutes,” the man replied in broken English. “It’s the overnight –lots of stops – no dining, no sleeping.”
“Can you sell me a ticket to Tbilisi?”
“Just get on,” the clerk said, clearly eager to lock up and get home. “Buy from man with hat.” Jake understood that to mean conductor. He nodded and then meandered outside and found a seat on the platform.
Just before dusk, Jake saw an SUV coming down from the hillside. Delivered, he thought with a knob in his throat. Lindy! But would she be pleased to see him? He wondered how he would explain the dinner meeting with Tali and Conor. As the vehicle came to the curb and parked, Jake’s heart fell when he saw only one person inside, a thousand questions raced through his mind.
It was Mike. As he got out of the car, Jake shouted out, “Where’s Lindy?”
With a bottle of Jameson and two paper cups in hand, Mike said, “Let’s go inside, Jake.” They sat at a bench and watched the clerk leave. “I have a message from Lindy.” He opened the Jameson and poured two cups full.
“What’s going on, Mike?”
“Lindy decided not to come,” he said. “She’s made up her mind and wanted me to tell you it’s over – your relationship. She has moved on. She was embarrassed to tell you she has work here, that the moment has become desperate, and that you should go home.”
That didn’t square with Jake’s notion of the woman he’d been with for years. She never had had a problem being direct and honest with Jake. “Doesn’t sound like Lindy to me.”
Mike hesitated, then, “She’s gone ahead… to the jumping off point.”
“Jumping off point,” Jake replied. “What the hell does that mean?”
Mike didn’t respond right away, then, “I’ve gotta go, Jake. Barely had time for this meeting.”
“What is going on Mike?” Jake insisted. “I’m not leaving until I get an explanation.”
“Okay,” replied the VDW captain. “The whole of the Armenian army is on the move. A VDW recon team last night spotted the Azerbaijani forces head for the Sotk Pass crossing. We had to move to higher ground.”
“It’s begun, then?”
“War is eminent. All hell will break loose within hours. You’ve gotta get out now!”
“I gotta talk to Lindy,” said Jake. “I have….”
“Can’t do it, Jake. You have to get on that train.” Mike got up, handed his old Freedom Army buddy the Jameson, and headed for the door.
Five minutes later, Jake was alone once more. The dusty trail Mike had made into the mountains had all but disappeared. He leaned against the platform steps, trying to puzzle out what had just happened. Then he knew it was over.
Jake had made up his mind, Armenia, Azerbaijan, both for the birds – my future is in Chicago, the US of A!
Just after six pm, he heard the train whistle: three shorts toots, then a long, and another short – the Old 49 was approaching the station. It was time for Jake to leave Azerbaijan. Once on board, Jake took a window seat so he could look out at the mountains of Azerbaijan one last time. It was still gloomy and now almost dark.
In the distance, somewhere beyond Lake Goygol and the Sotk Pass, the setting sun peeked through the clouds fleetingly. A ray of hope, the thought crossed Jake’s mind. Then it disappeared, and a flash of lightning, or something like it, arced across the night sky. That’s when the Old 49 started its descent into the Tbilisi valley, and everything Jake knew about the land of Fire and Wind fell away as darkness.
He thought about Lindy and Tali and the two civilizations on the brink of catastrophe. Could anyone reverse the enmities of the generations? That’s when he remembered his brother and all the things that had transpired in recent days.
Could Conor be the one, he wondered? Jake couldn’t be sure.
THE END
List of Characters
House Kedar
One of the 21 ruling familes of Azerbaijan
Azreal Kedar [aka, Conor Moynihan]
Head, House Kedar
Son of Tom Moynihan & Zarifa Kedar
Mira Nadirov
Azreal’s aunt & surrogate mother
Tali Nadirov (Mira’s daughter)
Azreal’s cousin & lover
Seyfulla Nadirov
Mira’s husband & father of Tali
Rufet Qurb (trusted aide to Azreal Kedar)
1st deputy of Zumre Corporation
Georghe Markirov
Mira’s father
Rayna
Mira’s bodyguard
House Kos (The Dark Triad)
One of the 21 ruling familes of Azerbaijan
Viktor Kos, Oil Minister
Head of House Kos
Vanya Kos, Next in line as head of House Kos
Son of Viktor Kos & Aydan (1st wife)
Vladimir Kos, 2nd son
Son of Viktor Kos & Dina (2nd wife)
Misha
Butler in House Kos
In Chicago:
The family of Tom Moynihan
Jake Moynihan, half-brother of Azreal Kedar
Son of Tom Moynihan & Katie Kowalski
Katie Kowalski-Moynihan
mother of Jake
Lindy Bedrosian
Jake’s girlfriend
Mike Bedrosian
uncle of Lindy
Denis de Barras (Jake’s cousin)
son of Sean & Julia de Barras
Julia de Barras
Katie Kowalski’s twin sister, Jake’s aunt
Sam Mansour
photojournalist & university professor
Iza Beggs-Mansour (Sam’s wife)
(journalist & university professor)
Minor Characters:
Rolan Guliyev
President of Azerbaijan
Alexandr Kazimov
Foreign Secretary of Azerbaijan
Seymur Rezuli
CIA operative in Azerbaijan
Tad Tadesian, (Vartan Alliance)
Armenia-American
Mo Chinske, (American military retired)
CIA Chief – Central Asia
Tom Moynihan / Zarifa [Zara] Kedar
dead father & mother of Conor