by J C Ryan
When everyone but Rex and Rehka had departed, Rex did a search on his smartphone for news out of Saudi Arabia. He learned that the police were still looking for a group of seven women. Police surmised they’d fled the country. It was clear that the media had been ordered to start plastering over the scandal that might soon hit the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically its royal family, if the truth came out. The media speculated about the prince’s death but didn’t mention anything about the prince’s henchmen’s deaths. They were wondering if the seven women had some help to get away. If not, it meant they must have conspired to kill the prince and made their escape. If they did have help, then who was it?
It was inevitable, he supposed, that the remaining harem members would help them determine how many had left and who they were. Of course, one of those remaining even knew that a man with a big black dog had helped. Fortunately, no one knew his name but those who’d escaped, and they all, including Rehka, only knew him by the name on the passport he’d had made for this trip.
Rex grinned and looked at Digger. “Buddy, you won’t believe this, they didn’t even mention that a dog was involved in this. I don’t know what we’ll have to do to get media attention. We’ll detonate a nuclear bomb next time. That’ll make them sit up and take note.”
Digger must have understood because he didn’t smile, he just growled, turned around, and walked to Rehka.
***
REHKA LOOKED LOVELY in modern western-style clothing they’d found in Salalah, though it was as modest as if it had been traditional Middle Eastern costume. She had chosen a tunic in rich purples and reds, long enough to cover her rather tight jeans to the middle of her thighs. A large pair of sunglasses covered more than half her face, so that she might as well have been wearing a niqab.
A scarf of red partially but not completely covered her hair, throat, and shoulders until they arrived safely at the airport, where she took it off and stuffed it in her bag. The jeans were long enough to cover her ankles, but below them she wore canvas flats with no socks. Likewise, the tunic had loose, flowing sleeves that dropped past her wrists to the middle of her hands.
When she took off the scarf and threaded the earpieces of the sunglasses into her hair to hold them on top of her head, she looked like a sophisticated young woman from anywhere in the world besides the Middle East.
Rex had only once in his life taken a woman clothes shopping. His long-lost first love, Jessie. And that was a long time ago. It was once only – he was young and stupid then and had made the mistake of answering honestly when she asked if the dress she liked made her look fat. Now he was older and more mature but still didn’t know how to behave, where to look, or what to say when Rehka came out of a dressing room to model what she’d chosen and asked his opinion. Fortunately, she didn’t ask if it made her look fat. Not that it did, but he’d learned his lesson – don’t ever answer that question. Nevertheless, despite his misgivings it turned out he actually enjoyed most of it.
Now, Rex could hardly take his eyes off her, until she shifted and asked him to stop staring.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that you are a beautiful woman, Rehka. And I mean that in the most respectful way,” he said. Immediately, he tried to get out of the embarrassing situation. “Have you thought about what you’ll do when we get you back to India?”
Since sending off the others with instructions to get him a message when they arrived at their chosen destinations, he and Digger had been alone with Rehka. It was evident that she had gone through a hard time for long time and that she had sustained emotional damage which would take a very long time to heal. He’d been trying to find a way to tell her that he knew her parents and it had been her rescue he’d come for. He didn’t want to make her feel obligated to him in any way. He did it because it was his moral duty to do it. He was trained to help and protect the weak and defenseless. He couldn’t just walk away from her grieving parents and leave them to their lot. For the same reason, neither could he leave the other women in the harem who wanted out.
He’d never intended to leave a trail of bodies behind him as he literally stole almost half a Saudi prince’s harem. But he had no regrets. Those whom he’d killed were culpable, those he’d saved were innocent victims, and that was all that really mattered.
Rehka interrupted his thoughts. “I think I’d like to see my parents,” she answered. “They live in this tiny little town in Northern India. I won’t be able to stay there, but they must be worried. I haven’t been able to communicate with them since…”
She paused, and her throat worked. Rex could see she didn’t want to finish the thought.
Since she was forced into prostitution. But that is the fault of the men who victimized her, not hers.
“Rehka,” he started, making his voice gentle. Digger picked up on his emotion and laid his head across Rex’s knee, his snout just touching the side of Rehka’s leg. “I know your parents,” Rex continued. And he began to tell her the story of how they came to be here, waiting to fly home to India. He showed her the photos he took of her mother and their house.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE FLIGHT TO Mumbai was an emotional one for Rehka. After she’d heard that he went to Saudi Arabia specifically for her, she couldn’t stop thanking him between bouts of weeping. At first, he’d tried to comfort her. She’d explained that her tears were for joy. She would stop crying and sleep for a while, and then he’d become aware that she was silently weeping again. He wasn’t good with crying women and decided the best was to just give her the space to grieve for her innocence, sob out her anger, and shed the tears she claimed were of joy.
By the time they landed, Rehka seemed to have found some peace, except for the shame she felt at what she would have to tell her parents when they were finally reunited. Rex had some thoughts about how to handle that, but he reckoned the drive from Mumbai to Bilaspur would offer a chance to do that in the privacy of the car.
They went straight from the airport to her former apartment, only to find she’d been gone so long that it had been re-rented, her possessions sold for back rent. Rex thought she seemed more relieved than upset about it, but her secondary concern was having to go home with nothing to help her start over.
“Don’t worry about that,” Rex told her. “You saw that Digger and I helped the others, and we’ll help you as well. In fact, I have an offer to make. But let’s get something to eat, and I have an errand to do. After that, we can get on the road to your parents’ house and we will have enough time to talk about my proposal.”
Rex went to the tobacconist’s shop in the building where he’d questioned Kabir Patel. There was a For Lease sign in the window. Rex assumed it meant Patel’s money laundering business was no longer in operation, at least not on that premises and that he was no longer in residence above the shop, also.
He called his policeman friend, Aarav Patel. He didn’t give his name or any introduction. “You know the gentleman who had that accident, the last time we talked?”
“Let me call you back.”
Twenty minutes later, Aarav called again. The caller ID said “Anonymous”. Patel had the instincts of a survivor, not surprising for an undercover cop.
“Okay, it’s safe now. I’m at a pay phone. What about him?”
“Do you know where I can find him?”
“That accident laid him up severely. He’s still in the hospital, and he has company. A few of my colleagues are guarding him day and night. Have you got more business with him?”
“Well kind of… unfinished business. As you know, last time when I went to see him he was... how shall I put it… I found him to be somewhat incapacitated. If he is in better shape now I would to just pay him a brief visit and give him a message. Do you think you could arrange that?”
“Of course. No problem. I’ll relieve one of my brothers-in-arms for a few minutes. Shall I meet you there in say half an hour?”
Rex made sure he knew which hospital and drove there immediately. He asked R
ehka to stay in the car with Digger, so he could leave it running. Digger wouldn’t be allowed into the hospital, and Rex didn’t want Rehka to know what was about to happen to her former creditor until he was ready to tell her she’d have no problems from him ever again.
Rex parked the car in a spot of shade and went to meet Aarav in the lobby.
The two men clasped hands and slapped each other on the shoulders. When Rex saw Patel’s face light up at the sight of him, he knew he’d made a friend. Until that moment, he didn’t know how much he’d missed the periodic camaraderie he’d enjoyed with the CRC team between missions. He’d lost Trevor, Frank, and the other Phoenix members in a more permanent and personal way, and he still missed them. But the feeling of knowing he had made a new friend, a backup when he needed it, came back in that glance at Aarav.
Letting go of Aarav’s hand, he said, “I won’t need much time with him, but I will need some time to leave afterward, well before anyone else goes into the room. Are you okay with that?”
“I’m okay with anything you think appropriate, my friend. You must remember, I owe you my life. And I owe that pig nothing at all. You made my life easier by taking that scumbag and his cronies off the streets.”
Rex grinned. “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything of the sort.”
Aarav just laughed, turned, and led the way.
They rode up the elevator together, but Rex turned aside to wait for Aarav’s signal that he’d relieved the other cop on duty. When his phone buzzed with a thumbs-up emoticon in a text message, he strolled in the direction Aarav had gone until he saw his friend. With a nod of acknowledgement, he opened the door to Kabir’s room and stepped in.
Kabir was asleep, but he woke up quickly when Rex put a big hand over his mouth and nose. Rex had moved the call button far out of Kabir’s reach before doing so. As soon as Kabir sputtered awake, Rex put a finger to his mouth to shush the man’s weak cries. Kabir went pale and stilled.
Rex took his hand away to let Kabir breathe but showed him a scalpel he’d found on a rolling cart while waiting for Aarav to give him the all-clear. Kabir nodded slightly to show he understood.
“I have one more message for you, you piece of shit. Get out of the indentured service business, or I’ll be back. I have a man who will be watching you.”
Rex looked at the sharp scalpel, decided Patel wouldn’t have the guts to repress a scream if he felt its blade slice all the way through his finger as Rex had planned when he picked it up. Instead, he grabbed a pillow and slammed it over Patel’s face.
“This won’t kill you. If I have to come back and teach you a lesson, I’ll do it the right way and watch you die.” He slashed Patel’s wrists across the veins, knowing Kabir would receive help before he even lost much blood. The right way would have been deep slashes lengthways down the forearms to open the vein, but Aarav might have to explain how a man under his guard had gotten dead. This way, it would look like a pathetic attempt at suicide.
He took the pillow away, wiped the scalpel on a piece of tissue, and stuck the tissue in his pocket. Then he pressed Patel’s fingers around the scalpel, one hand at a time.
“This was a suicide attempt. If my friend doesn’t call and let me know that’s exactly what you said, the next attempt will succeed. Your death will be slow, and I’ll make sure it’s excruciatingly painful. Do we have an understanding?”
When Rex let go of Kabir’s fingers, he dropped the scalpel somewhere in the sheets and nodded his head frantically, tears streaming down his fat, ugly cheeks. “I will tell them. Please, call for help.”
“You’ll get help in time.”
Rex left the room and spoke to Aarav. “Give me fifteen minutes, and then go and give him the call button. He’s going to need some medical attention. Now, just remember, whatever you find in there must have happened before you took this post. You didn’t look into the room and no one else was in there while you were on guard.”
Aarav smiled and nodded, “Of course, that’s exactly how it is.”
The whole operation had taken no more than a couple of minutes. Aarav would be fine, and so would his colleague. After meeting with Rehka and seeing the emotional turmoil the young woman was going through, Rex would have preferred to end Kabir right then, but his hospital stay complicated things too much. Leaving him in terror would have to be enough, unless he screwed up. Then he’d better believe the threat would come to pass.
***
“YOU’RE SURE THEY won’t turn me away? I have brought shame on the family,” Rehka said, not for the first time.
In answer, Rex put a comforting arm around her shoulder. “Rehka, your father is a noble and fair man, and he’s very proud of you. Your mother has an idea of what may have befallen you, but she has kept her worries from your father. All you need to tell them is you were taken against your will to another country and treated like a slave. I promise you, they will welcome your return with open arms. Can we agree you won’t worry anymore?”
He’d told her this several times before, and each time she seemed to accept it a bit more, but she’d never committed to not worrying. This time she did.
“Okay,” she said, pronouncing the Americanism with an adorable accent and then reverting to Hindi. “I will not worry. What is the offer you have?”
“Eat first. I’ll tell you on the way.”
Rehka was so happy to be back in her country of birth where she could keep her face uncovered that she insisted on having a picnic in a park before they got on the highway. Digger approved. He was happy to be off-leash, and Rex watched for people who might be frightened of him, so he could cavort all he wanted to. The necessities dealt with, they finally set out for Bilaspur late in the evening. With two drivers, they’d make the journey without stopping, but it wouldn’t be as hard on Rex as the days-ago trip in the opposite direction had been.
On the way to Bilaspur, Rex told Rehka what he had in mind for her employment.
“I have several hard drives with encrypted files that I haven’t had time to decrypt and explore,” he began. Glancing to his side where Digger had given up his prized front seat to Rehka, Rex observed her reaction to what he’d said.
She’d turned her head sharply to look at him when he said hard drives, and her eyes had widened in surprise when he said encrypted. But she said nothing.
Rex went on. “I have reason to believe they contain information about a great deal of money hidden in numbered in tax havens and secret bank accounts all over the world. I’m wondering where I could find someone to help me sort it all out.”
Another sideways glance showed him she’d begun to smile, enjoying his roundabout way of offering her a job.
“I may be able to refer someone,” she said, barely suppressing the glee in her voice.
“That would be great. I’m also going to need someone to oversee and manage investment and distribution of a rather large sum of money I expect to come into. There are some beneficiaries I’d like to help out from time to time.”
Rehka gasped. “That’s why you gave us the phones.”
“Yes. But I have things to do, and places to be. I’ll need my associate to monitor the requests at times. Also if this person were able to develop administrative and computer systems to manage all that, it would help me a lot.”
Rehka didn’t do anything overly demonstrative. She just said, quietly, “Thank you. The person I refer will have all those skills and do everything you ask. But you might have to teach the person where to invest the money. That is not an expertise the person has. And you must give the candidate a few days to think about it.”
“We can talk about that and the terms of employment later,” he said.
***
IN DUE TIME, he and Digger were gratified to have the privilege of watching the joyful reunion. Gyan wrung his hand over and over again, and Akshara pulled him down for a fierce hug, whispering her undying gratitude. Rex patted her on the back and said it had been no trou
ble. Her wise old eyes conveyed the information that she knew it was a lie, but she said nothing.
Then she walked over bent down and hugged Digger, who looked as if she had just given him a piece of steak.
Rex was about to take his leave after telling Rehka he’d call her the next day when Gyan stepped forward at his wife’s nudging.
“We would be most honored if you will attend a feast of celebration tomorrow evening,” he said.
Rex paused. “Will we play a game of Chaturanga?”
“If you wish,” Gyan said. With a twinkle in his eye, he added, “You think you have improved any since our last time?”
Rex winked at him. “You’ll find out tomorrow night.”
Gyan giggled. “We shall see. This time, my whole family will be there to observe your humiliation.”
“I accept your gracious invitation,” Rex said, laughing so hard he could barely make the words intelligible.
The following day, Rex and Digger presented themselves at Gyan’s door, and Rehka answered. They were both invited in. The intervening hours had worked a miracle. Her eyes were clear and without doubt, her lips smiling. She was lovelier than ever, Rex noted. And then he chastised himself. His life had no room for a romance. He wondered if she expected one and hoped he wouldn’t have to break her heart. But then it struck him that she would not be remotely ready for a relationship with any man. She had practically been raped on a continuous basis by various men for months. How could she even trust any man ever again? Let alone allow a man to touch her.
The ensuing feast topped the first one by a country mile. He’d never seen so many tasty dishes in one place before, not even at this very house when he’d been invited before. This time tables were set up outside, the family being too large to fit inside the house at one time. The women scurried about, helping Akshara or herding children, as the men ate.
Afterward, the men gathered around to watch the Chaturanga game. Always a quick study, Rex came close to winning, but Gyan rallied at the last minute and won. His cackle was the signal for Rehka to come over and chide her father for inhospitality. He should have let their guest win.