by H M Sealey
“Well, I guess it’s the will of Allah – al-Hamdu lillah.” He glanced at the clock on the tatty dashboard. “It’s late, we won’t get back to the Qism alShurtah for a while.” He tossed his head. “There’s a blanket back there, why don’t you get some sleep?”
It seemed a good suggestion, night was always cold and Asim was shivering. He tugged at the blanket and hauled it over his body. It smelled of oil and damp. He leaned against the wooden slats and closed his eyes, wishing he was back in his own, cosy bed and his mother would come and kiss him.
Mahmud’s phone rang and he answered it in a brusque tone. To Asim’s surprise, he lowered his voice and switched to English, turning away from Asim and almost whispering the words in curt, angry little bursts.
“Now? I’m busy. I can’t come now, I have to wait for -”
Somebody cut him off. Asim strained his ears.
“I’m waiting in the truck. I can’t just leave them. I have a duty. No. I’m not your damn servant.”
There was another pause, and Mahmud gave a long sigh.
“This had better be important. I have to take a kid I arrested to the Qism alShurtah too.” He glanced over his shoulder at Asim, Asim kept his eyes closed and his breathing deep and even.
“He’s asleep. Poor kid. He won’t sleep much for a few days after they lash him. Okay. I’ll come over. Hold your horses. Give me an hour.”
Mahmud finished his odd conversation and started up the noisy truck, leaving the other Mutaween somewhere in the block of flats. Asim was interested, far too interested to fall asleep though it wouldn’t hurt for Mahmud to suppose he had. Speaking English in public was as Haraam as reading forbidden texts. Asim wondered who Mahmud was going to meet and why.
~
Josh
Baraq Saidah gazes at me across the table and I gaze back. A huge, tumbling landslide of memories pour over me. The love he showed us after my real dad was arrested taught me to trust men again. My real dad was a member of Far Right group called Make Britain British. He was short tempered and cruel and I felt his belt across my back far more often than I like to remember. So did mum. Then he stabbed a Muslim man on the street just before the referendum over Shariah law was held. He was used to score political points and later deported to the new BSI to face justice there. I imagine he was hanged or beheaded.
Then Baraq came into my life and the sun came out. I remember the laughter, the joy, the sheer beauty of family life with someone whose love for my mother showed in every smile and every word. I often wonder what might have been if we hadn’t been caught trying to leave the country that day. Old Britain took Baraq away from me; I’ve never forgiven them for that.
“Hello Josh.” He says in a soft voice as laden with emotions as it could possibly be.
“Dad?”
“You remember me?”
I choke back tears. “You’re kidding? How could I forget you?”
He reaches across the table and clutches my hand in his. His are large and lined with blue veins that stand out beneath his golden-brown flesh.
“I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“I thought they killed you. I was sure.” I give a gulp of pure emotion. “They kill people who leave Islam don’t they?”
“I was shown mercy.”
The waiter returns and pours water into three glasses. River orders soup, neither Baraq or I can quite find the words to ask for food.
When the waiter retreats again I let the tears stream down my face.
“I thought I’d lost you all. You and Rachael and mum.” I look at him, unable to take my eyes from his face. “I don’t know what happened to either of them.”
“Easy Josh.” There are tears in Baraq’s eyes but a smile on his lips. “Your sister is safe as far as I know, with your grandmother.” He takes in a quick breath and his smile disintegrates. “Your mother…..Susanna’s body was found some years ago. She was imprisoned but managed to escape. She died in the woods near the village where your sister was living. She crossed half the country trying to find her family. Susanna had cancer in the end, it drained her life, that and a broken heart from losing her children. But I think she died free.”
I rub my face with my free hand. “How do you know that?”
“I don’t. Not entirely. I pieced the story together. But I knew Susanna, she would have tried to find you with her last breath.”
I hurts, all of it. It hurts as if it’s just happened. In my heart I’d resigned myself to never seeing my parents again, Baraq has opened the door to a room in my heart I thought I’d locked.
River sips her water, watching us both with those keen, dark eyes.
“So,” She says. “Did I do what I said I’d do?”
Baraq doesn’t look at her.
“You did. You really did.”
“So?”
Baraq tears his eyes away from me. “I’ve got what you want.”
“Finally!”
I turn my head and gaze at River who is now breaking a piece of bread from the bread-basket. I give her a long, quizzical look. There’s so much I need to ask her. How did she know to bring me here?
River grins at my confused expression.
“I’m good. Come on Baraq, admit it. I told you I could get someone out of a Rainbow Centre and I did.”
“Hang on,” I look from River to Baraq and back again. “You’re not saying you just orchestrated all of that?”
She laughs. “Josh, you look like you’ve just seen a dancing cow. Of course I orchestrated it. I needed to get you out.” She leans over and touches Baraq on the shoulder. “I needed Baraq’s help only he was a bit awkward about it. So I offered to give him something he desperately wanted but couldn’t get. You.”
Baraq takes a piece of bread too. He looks into her eyes with his own kind pair, eyes I haven’t seen for twenty years.
“River, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you brought Josh to me, but that still doesn’t mean I think what you want to do is sensible.”
River ignores him. “We made a deal. If I got you out, he’d help me.”
“We made no such deal River. I expressly told you not to break into a Rainbow Centre. It was too dangerous and you know too much.” There’s fatherly disapproval in his voice I recognise. He takes my hands in his again and squeezes. “But thank you.”
River leans back in her chair. “Ta da! I’m brilliant.”
I look at River. “Who are you?”
Baraq answers for her. “River works as part of Family Matters, an organisation dedicated to keeping families together, and getting them out of the country.”
I recall the conversation I had with Director Summerday. “They knew that at the Rainbow Centre, that was why they wanted me to go with you, to find out who else was part of it.”
River grins at me. “I know they know. I as good as told them.”
Baraq looks at her in horror. “River, supposing they’d tried other methods of getting you to talk? You could have destroyed our whole organisation.”
She shrugs. “I didn’t. I’m smarter than them.”
“You’re certainly more conceited.”
Baraq turns back to me. “Family Matters operates in both of the authoritarian regimes either side of the border.” He nods to River. “River’s been instrumental in reuniting dozens of families. She’s helped a great many people.”
“What about Howard?” I ask, remembering the man and his kind offer of shelter. “What about Gene and his church?”
River shrugs as if such things are inconsequential.
“I had to get you away. You can say thank you.”
The waiter brings our soup and we discontinue our conversation until he leaves. Then Baraq turns his attention to River. “What church is this River?”
River takes a mouthful of soup. “It’s not important. Someone else ran with us. He was wearing a GPS.”
“I was wearing a GPS River.” I remind her. “You dug it out of my arm.”
&nb
sp; River looks at me in that scathing way of hers. “You told me you were wearing it Josh.”
“You can’t be sure Howard even knew they’d planted a GPS on him.”
“You noticed didn’t you?”
I remember the pain of the injection. “Yes. But they were torturing Howard. What’s one more bit of pain?”
“I couldn’t take the risk Josh. I had to get you to Baraq safely.” She turns to Baraq, completely convinced of her own righteousness. “I had no choice but to get rid of him so I left him with a church.”
Baraq looks appalled. “Have they been picked up?”
“I have no idea.” She says, chewing her bread.
“Don’t you care River?” I ask.
“Of course I care, but I can’t help everyone. If there was even a chance Howie was about to betray me, then. I couldn’t risk it.”
“Howie?” Baraq queries the name.
“Howard Steele.”
“Is he part of Family Matters?”
“Yes.”
Baraq stands up and looms over her. “How much does he know? How much has he told the authorities? How much more might he tell them? River, you needed to warn anyone he knows.”
She regards him coolly. “I didn’t have time for that.
Baraq sits down again and takes out his phone. “You might have helped destroy a whole cell. Let me see now.”
He begins to scroll through through the news headlines. “A whole church?” He searches for clarification.
“Gene Balewa was prepared to make a sacrifice because he believes in me even if you don’t. Baraq, when you give me what I need I can save thousands! I can bring down this whole rotten government and you know I can!”
Baraq doesn’t offer a response to this, just focuses on his phone.
“Gene Balewa.” He searches through the week’s news with a frown that accentuates the lines across his forehead. Friendly little rivers of skin. “Well there’s nothing here about a church but that doesn’t mean they didn’t find it. They usually make quite a big thing when they uncover one. The congregation are likely held for psychiatric evaluation.” He places the phone on the table and addresses River with that solemn voice.
“River, you know they’ll take any children away. You might have split up dozens of families. What were you playing at girl?”
“I gave you Josh back.”
“But at what price? This isn’t what we do River.”
“Maybe Howie did the right thing and didn’t stay with them.”
“And how much does Howard Steele know about us?”
“Not a huge amount. His cell was limited to a few operatives in some backwater near the border. He has no idea just how far reaching Family Matters is. Baraq, it wasn’t my fault he was arrested. He got himself drunk. It wasn’t my fault he tried to sell me out. Now I’m sorry about Gene’s church, I really am, but I think the end justifies the means and so did Gene. Now please, for the love of God give me what I asked for!”
Baraq looks unconvinced but he takes a small, leather bag from the floor beside his seat and puts it on the table.
“This is still against my better judgement River.” He says as he opens the bag and draws out a small, white cardboard box. River stares at it as though it’s the cure for cancer, hungry eyes wide and shining.
“Is that it?”
“This is it.”
River takes the package carefully and opens it. Inside are about half a dozen small, glass bottles. The sort a doctor might fit to a syringe to deliver an inoculation. She picks one up and reads the label.
“This is perfect. Where did you get them?”
“The laboratory.”
“The one I told you about?”
“Yes. It seems your wild theory might be correct.”
“It’s not a theory, I know my mother. I’ve just never been able to prove what she’s doing.” She places the bottle back carefully in the packaging. Baraq watches her with sad, compassionate eyes, eyes that still reveal so much love.
“I hope this is worth it River, I really do.”
“It is. It will be.”
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“Ours is a risky life.”
“Rescuing people one at a time, that’s risky. What you’re planning? It’s as good as a full-out assault. These people are powerful River, and this could threaten that power. That will make them more dangerous than you can ever imagine.”
I have no idea what River and Baraq are talking about. I focus on my soup for a few minutes, and enjoy the taste as it begins to fill my ravenous stomach. Whatever else, I’m free and I have my father back. There’s a little piece of me that wants to leap up out of this chair and start cheering uncontrollably.
Baraq turns his attention back to me again.
“Josh, I have your passage booked on a ship leaving Dover tomorrow.”
River grins again and finishes her soup. “You already booked it? See, I knew you trusted me to get him.”
“No, I always have places booked. I never know when I need to get someone out of the country fast.”
“A ship?” I query. Is it really happening? Will I really be able to put an ocean between me and the Rainbow Centre?
“It takes refugees to the Faroe Islands, no questions asked. From there we can get you to the USA.”
“That’s where mum always talked about going.”
“And I made her a promise that one day I’d find you and take you there. Rachael too if I can.”
I smile; a big, broad beam that doesn’t even begin to reveal the hope that’s springing up in my tired heart right now.
“What about you?”
“I’ll take you as far as Dover.”
“But you aren’t coming?” I’ve been alone in the Rainbow Centre for so long, even when there were people all around me, I was still alone. Since I met River, I haven’t been alone and I don’t want to be ever again.
“Soon. With my family, my brother and his wife and children. But I have other people to help first.
I lean back in the chair feeling suddenly cold. “I don’t want to go alone.”
Baraq runs a hand through his greying hair. He looks strange with a beard, he never used to have one. “Please Josh, it’s what Susanna would have wanted, to know you were safe.”
I turn by eyes to River who is now devouring another chunk of bread, her eyes flicking to the little white box every few seconds, as though she’s terrified it’ll suddenly disappear.
“What about you River?” I ask. She looks up.
“Me? I’m done here Josh. I needed Baraq’s people to get this for me,” She pats the box, “And I got it.”
“Why couldn’t you get it yourself? If you were smart enough to get in and out of the Rainbow Centre?” Why bother with me?
“The laboratory’s over the border, in the BSI. I can’t move around there freely without a niqab and an escort. They don’t have women working there. I might have been just the teeniest bit conspicuous.”
I gaze at the little box by her plate. “What is it?” I ask.
“The thing that’ll bury my mother.”
“You keep saying that.”
“It’s one of her dirty little secrets. Her dirty big secret. The biggest.”
I consider this while I finish my soup.
“Want some help?”
River’s eyes betray genuine surprise. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Baraq interrupts. “No Josh. River takes appalling risks and she hurts people in the process.”
“I’m single minded.” River corrects him.
“Obsessed.”
“I’m good!”
“I don’t dispute that, but you leave a trail of destruction behind you. What about that poor Pastor? What about his church?”
River stands up angrily. “They’ll be okay if I can just do what I need to do! If my mother’s administration falls then things in Old Britain will be sane again. With NuTru gone, maybe or
dinary people can start thinking their own thoughts again. Maybe people can have their freedom back! Maybe the Rainbow Centres will stop teaching depravity as standard. Maybe people will be nice because they are nice rather than because every thought and action is mandated!”
There are tears in her eyes as she speaks, and her chest rises and falls with real passion. She has a cause, something she believes in and it isn’t one of the official political causes about which we’re taught to become angry. She has a cause she’s chosen for herself. Right or wrong. That’s real, proper freedom.
“Okay.” I say. “Then I’m coming with you.”
~
Missy
Missy stared at the bible in Sylvester Jourdete’s hand but said nothing.
“I’m losing patience Misaki.” He had been in this room for two hours now and was beginning to want his supper. “I want to know how to read these codes.”
There were strings of seemingly random numbers scrawled throughout the bible. They made no sense whatsoever.
“I don’t know.” She said again.
“You do know, and you’re going to tell me.”
“Maybe you should work it out for yourself, you’re clever enough.”
“And maybe I should give you a few days here, then come back and ask you again.”
“I….I can’t tell you.”
“But you do know?”
Missy gazed up into the genial old face with the near, white hair. He looked like somebody’s kind grandfather. She nodded slowly.
“Please. I just want to go home.”
Sylvester bent down, took her by the arm and helped her to her feet.
“Well now, maybe I can arrange that, for you and Elsie. All you need do is cooperate.”
Missy sniffed back her tears. “Who are you?”
“A friend. I was Bibi Kessler’s friend.”
“I never saw you with her.”
“No, I keep myself to myself. But I was aware of Bibi’s link to Family Matters. I kept her safe from investigations for over ten years. If it hadn’t been for me, you would have been rotting in a Rainbow Centre long ago.”
“How could you keep her safe?”
“I’m a police officer Misaki. I rescued Elsie from a very enthusiastic colleague of mine. If I hadn’t she’d be in a cell now.”