Sarai

by Lilya Myers

  With a loud sigh, he prepared himself to make the turn and start the descent out. That’s when he saw the empty space. It wasn’t reserved for handicapped or official vehicles. It was a full sized parking space right next to the elevators. He wasted no time yanking the car into the turn as though another vehicle might rush up out of nowhere and slip in the space before him. He threw it in park, and exhaled. A good space was like a prize. What good fortune to find a space at all, no less one right next to the elevator! Even though he had only the one piece of luggage, this simply improved his mobility. Better for the return trip too. Coming back with an extra bag or two was not unusual and he always forgot where he parked.

  He swung a small leather bag, about the size of a woman’s small purse, over his shoulder. It was convenient for holding his sunglasses, keys, a wallet, and his passport. He opened the passenger door behind the driver’s seat and pulled his computer case from the floorboard. He liked the idea that he wouldn’t have to check either piece. After a cursory pat of his jacket pocket, checking for his passport and ticket, he locked his car and headed for the outbound terminal.

  As Omar walked past a bank of windows, he could see a line inside of about fifteen people waiting to check in. He was about to turn in through the heavy glass doors when he saw the outdoor kiosk. The jacket he needed earlier had gone from just right to uncomfortable on an unseasonably warm day in New York. No wonder everyone was inside in the air conditioning. It would be about ten to fifteen degrees warmer in Cairo. There was no one ahead of him in line so he wheeled his luggage right up to the kiosk. Pulling his passport and ticket from the inside pocket, Omar handed them to the counter clerk as he shrugged out of his jacket.

  “I’ve only got the one bag and I’ll be carrying it on with me.” While the clerk checked his documents, Omar neatly folded his jacket and placed it inside one of the outer pockets of the bag.

  He glanced at his watch. By the time he got through security, he figured his brother’s flight would have arrived and he might even make it to the food court first. They planned to grab something to eat at a place called, “Yeari’s Gyros.” It was a clever play on words if you knew how to correctly pronounce Gyros. Yeari’s Year-ohs. He’d been given a lesson on that from a Greek guy who sat next to him in a bar one night.

  Omar was the one who suggested that they meet at JFK. It was an inconvenience for Saib since he had flown directly from Oakland into New Haven. Omar’s story about where he lived didn’t match up with Saib’s recon trips to the neighborhood. Interesting. Supposedly he lived in a house belonging to a professor he never ever talked about. Funny thing, he never talked about the other students who lived there, either.

  The plan to meet came about when Saib realized that he had to get to Omar before Aswad had a chance to grill him when he got to Egypt. It had to do with the plane crash. Omar was caught between a rock and a hard place. He was always indebted to someone. The blood was always on his hands.

  Aswad eluded to a problem he told Omar they would discuss when he got to Egypt. It didn’t take a rocket science to figure out that Saib was trying desperately to cover his ass, which meant that Omar needed to cover his as well. Somebody screwed up and they’d better get their stories straight. It was one thing to give sketchy answers to Aswad over the phone. It was another thing standing face-to-face with him.

  Saib didn’t quite understand Omar. Most times, he believed that his half-brother’s allegiance rested entirely with their father. Then, there were times that they would cover for one another where he sensed a whole different range of emotions. If someone was able to look inside the head of the two men, it was very likely they would find that Omar thought the same about Saib. Neither really trusted the other but they did work together when they had to. For the good of staying alive.

  None of the three brothers were ever really comfortable around one another. Kafele was the least comfortable around any of them. Once they were grown, Omar and Saib went off to college in the U.S. Their first priority was to get away from Aswad. The other was to get away from each other. The red flags of distrust were reason enough for Omar to keep his own little corner of the world on one coast of the North American continent, separate and private from Saib. It was bad enough that Saib was on the same continent at school. Saib, Omar hoped, had the whole West Coast in which to keep his nose buried and stay the hell out of his business.

  Kafele was a different story. He had been a cowardly and timorous child until the years of seeking solace in the streets, following Aswad’s abuses, hardened his inner core. At the ripe old age of sixteen, a drastic transformation had begun to come over him. It was a persona that Aswad was no longer able to reign in. His brothers were not around as much or were too busy to notice the change in him right away. The once weak, sensitive and introverted Kafele metamorphosed both physically and mentally by the time he turned eighteen. He had become street savvy through his associations. Where many of his circle were really lethal and dangerous in a host of nefarious activities, Kafele used his strength in order to dominate and subdue his opposition. His family. This life. One person in particular, had finally helped him to break free of the bondage that nearly destroyed him. Kafele stayed emotionally detached from his two half-brothers and he liked it that way. He placed his trust in one who could not be trusted, yet he believed, had saved him.

  Saib knew that Kafele had developed a close friendship with a businessman who was about his and Omar’s age. If they had bothered to find out who the man was, they would have learned that he was not a total stranger and that they’d had dealings with him in the past.

  Kafele met Nahab, what seemed accidentally, at a market not far from Kafele’s home. Nahab had come from a poor farming family in the Delta. His off-the-charts intelligence brought his family out of poverty and took him much further than the average Egyptian ever got to go.

  After the first year at Cairo University, Nahab decided he knew more about business than his professors. He quit school before graduating and started his own import/export company. By the time he was twenty-two, Nahab was running a highly profitable and successful business. He even opened a number of shops in marketplaces around Cairo to sell wares that appealed to tourists. One of them was in Kafele’s neighborhood.

  CHAPTER 14

  HE’D DONE SO much flying in the past few weeks that he could hardly keep his days and nights straight. And it wasn’t over yet. A crackling voice broke Dan from his reverie. At the same time, a flight attendant stopped in the aisle next to his seat. “Sir, please buckle your seatbelt and return your seat to an upright position – we’ll be taking off in just a few minutes. With a sigh, Dan adjusted his seat and pulled the seatbelt across his lap.

  He stared out the window for one last look. The rain made it difficult to see through the small windows, already fogging up with raindrops running together like a prism. It didn’t matter. He’d seen that view hundreds of times. The weather was dreary but rain or shine, the island had always held its summer mystique. Until now.

  The engines were firing up as Dan’s eyes remained fixed outside the window where the island vegetation and blue-green water became a blur behind the tears he’d been holding back. So many good memories there. They seemed forever ago. He hated selling the Capri villa. It was almost like a fire destroyed everything he once knew and then the ashes were thrown to the wind. Hashim wanted nothing to do with it. He didn’t even want to discuss or have any part in the sale of the property.

  “I want you to keep my part, period,” he told Dan. His detachment from the Capri property had started long before the death of their parents. Dan shook his head to clear it. Recognition and the finality of their deaths was still so surreal. He closed his eyes to rewind the past few days, rested his head against the seat and pushed play.

  After the memorial, Dan had made this brief return trip to Capri by himself to handle the closing on the sale of the villa. Marie was exhausted and Dan insisted she stay home on Long Island and rest. He would only be
gone a few days. Thank God for Marie. She worked tirelessly preparing for the memorial and then giving the hundreds upon hundreds of people who came to pay their last respects her attention and thanks. For three days, Marie listened to story after story of how much the two couples were loved and respected. And Hashim’s little girl. It was a travesty.

  Marie had suggested that the funeral for all of the deceased family be held in Capri because “it’s only fitting. It’s what they would have wanted.”

  Hashim wanted Sarai’s memorial to be there as well. Her mother, Hasne, loved Capri. There were no caskets. No bodies. Just beautiful oil paintings of their likenesses surrounded by a jungle of flowers. Relatives and close friends flew in from all over. There were some unfamiliar names and faces that had shown up which no one found unusual. To Hashim, any one of them could be Aswad’s trolls sent to lurk about and report on Hashim’s reaction to his daughter’s death.

  Marie had used the guest list meant for the retirement party to inform those same people of the funeral arrangements. Not a single one failed to be there. There were dignitaries, ministers of foreign governments, and other people of importance who came from all over the world to pay their respects. Three days were not enough. There were no available rooms on the island, hotels in Naples were fully booked, shuttles to and from the island were working overtime, and private jets came and went continuously.

  None of the family stayed at the villa. Couldn’t. By the end of each night, they had little energy to do more than get to their rooms, sleep, and do it all over again the next day. Folks they didn’t know would introduce themselves and engage Dan or Hashim in long conversations. There was never a minute when Dan could pull himself away to talk privately with Hashim the entire three days they were there together. Hashim seemed to go out of his way to make himself inaccessible to Dan.

  As the last day of the memorial began to wind down, an opportunity availed itself for Dan to excuse himself from the guests. He didn’t intend to be gone longer than an hour. First, he had to meet with the realtor at the hotel to sign paperwork. Then, he’d go looking for Hashim. Dan realized that he hadn’t seen him for a couple of hours. Checking his watch, he hurried from the memorial to the portico at the front of the villa.

  It was raining lightly. He’d called ahead for a car to take him the two short miles to the hotel where he would meet the realtor in a private conference room. He’d catch up with Hashim after that. There was no telling when he’d see or talk to his friend again once they left Capri.

  The closing on the estate property was within a week and he’d return alone to Capri for that. There would be a lot of jet lag before, after, and in-between. No sooner would he get home to Marie that he’d have to return to Capri for the closing on the villa.

  Dan walked through the empty lobby to the hotel desk. “Will you call Mr. Hashim El-Shabadi’s room, please?

  “Certainly,” the clerk said bobbing his head up and down like it had been set on a spring. “Oh, scusi. Sorry. Signore El-Shabadi checked out of the hotel about two hours ago.”

  “What?” Dan yelled, frightening the young clerk. It was only his second night working for the hotel.

  The clerk hoped his apology would calm down the man in front of him. He put his hands above the counter while offering a reassuring gesture. “Mi dispiace molto.”

  Dan’s arm came up like a rocket. The clerk ducked even though Dan’s reflex was to run his fingers through his own hair. He hadn’t even noticed the expression on the clerk’s face. Spinning around and getting no further than three paces from the desk, Dan’s frustration overcame him. Both arms flew up in a gesture as though he was pleading with God, then he stopped short and said out loud, “Has he gone stark raving mad?”

  Maybe he had. The clerk was having the same thoughts about Dan, who was pacing back and forth in the lobby before storming out.

  ***

  The pilot’s voice came over the speaker a second time. “It’s the captain here again. Sorry, folks, for the delay. We hope to be on our way in about twenty minutes so no one misses their connecting flights home. At least that’s the word from the tower right now. There’s an incoming flight that ran into some bad weather and we’re waiting for clearance. Sit tight. Your flight attendants will be around with some snacks and I’ll let you know as soon as we’re ready for takeoff.”

  The flight attendants jumped to task and began passing out an assortment of snacks. When the aisle cleared, a flight attendant came back over to Dan carrying a letter.

  “May I see your ticket, Sir?” It wasn’t particularly unusual for Dan to occasionally receive agency information after he boarded a flight. Once she had verified the information on his I.D., she handed it back to him along with a sealed envelope. “I was told that the letter was urgent, Mr. Somers.”

  Yeah, they always say that.

  Dan set the letter on the tray for a moment to wrestle with one of those mini packages of cookies where all but a few crumbs fly out of the package in the process of tearing the darn thing open. He hadn’t left himself enough time to grab a bite to eat and the espresso was starting to burn a hole in his stomach lining. The losing battle with the cookies forced him to set the package aside.

  Dan glanced at the letter. It looked different. He picked it up and gave it a cursory examination before opening it.

  Dan:

  As soon as you read this letter, you must get off the plane immediately! Use your influence and get off that plane. Take a taxi to the Romeo Hotel in Naples. A room has already been reserved for you tonight. There’s a package being held for you at check in. Open it in a safe place but do not delay. Further instructions are inside the package. We must meet in person.. I will explain everything then.

  Trust me.

  Hashim

  Dan sat there stunned.

  Just what the hell is he talking about? Emergency? Safer?

  The words in his head matched the expression of anger and frustration on his face.

  How did he even know? Just as Dan folded the letter to slip in his suit jacket, the pilot’s voice came back over the speaker.

  “Folks, it wasn’t my intention to keep us on solid ground. I know you’re not gonna want to hear this and I really regret having to tell you. The tower has just notified us of a severe storm which will make flying extremely dangerous. They are grounding all flights out of Naples tonight. The good news is that you won’t have to sleep on the plane.”

  Dan was processing the reaction to the pilot’s announcement through the shock of Hashim’s letter. A handful of people with no rush to be anywhere responded to the pilot’s announcement with a light chuckle and applause. Someone in the back was overheard asking the rhetorical question, who wouldn’t want another night in Naples? Disgruntled passengers began vocalizing their complaints and displeasure in response. The pilot paused for a moment before he began to garble out some other instructions, barely discernable over snapping seat belts and passengers shushing the complainers.

  “We do sincerely regret the inconvenience. The airline has already arranged for your transportation and accommodations at the Romeo Hotel, or one of the other nearby hotels, tonight. Shuttles will be operating to take you to the terminal tomorrow. When you leave the plane, go directly to the table at the terminal exit where you disembark. Attendants are waiting there to reschedule your departing flight for tomorrow. One last thing. Have your baggage claim ready for the concierge who will be assisting you with your luggage to the hotel. Thank you for your patience and understanding and thank you for flying Air International.”

  Dan was in first class and wasted no time being the first to leave the plane. There was so much commotion and confusion that he hailed a cab instead of waiting for the shuttle bus. He was in no mood to be loaded onto a bus with the others. He had to think. What’s all this cloak and dagger stuff with Hashim? Hashim’s note had rattled him to the core. He couldn’t get out of the airport and over to the hotel fast enough.

  According to Hashim
’s cryptic message, there was no need for him to schedule a flight out just yet. Luggage wouldn’t be a problem since the only luggage he had was the carry-on. It held enough for the closing on a two day trip to Capri. Dan had been anxious to get home. Now he was determined to stay until he got to the bottom of this mystery with Hashim. Marie wasn’t expecting him until morning. The time difference was in his favor. He didn’t even want to think about how he was going to explain this.

  CHAPTER 15

  DAN WASN’T THE first to arrive at the hotel. The lobby of the hotel was already buzzing with irritable travelers from other canceled flights, making the atmosphere more contentious with the rain. Dan stepped through small puddles of water that were everywhere on the lobby floor. His fine Italian leather shoes were ruined. It didn’t look like he was going to get to that package and checked into his room any time soon.

  His mind reeled. Hashim wouldn’t know that his flight was aborted. The next horrible thought crossed Dan’s mind. Would he think I was so angry with him for leaving the memorial without a word that I ignored his message and went home?

  Dan’s foot started tapping in time with his growing irritation. “Merciful God,” he muttered under his breath as another registration desk was opened. He rushed up to the counter.

  “Yes, name is Somers. Daniel, first name. I have a reservation.” He pointed that out to save time. “Oh, and you’re holding a package for me.”

  “Yes sir, may I see your ID?”

  Dan pulled out his passport and let go of a bigger sigh than necessary. He was usually one of the most patient people around but no one would ever know it tonight. He surveyed the lobby impatiently as the clerk banged away furiously on his keyboard.