Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (15 page)

“It is late to be checking details, now,” he said to his assistant, who only nodded. “That stooge Sedki and his… expendable workers are due this afternoon! Of course we’ll be ready.”

“Don’t forget,” said the assistant, “not only is he American but he is also a Christian zealot. You, a foreign Muslim, must be incompetent by definition!”

Al-Aziz wanted to argue, but could not. He sighed, then stood. “Allah shall be glorified!”

At quarter past three, al-Aziz strolled out of his comfortable office to meet the gaggle of men his aide had announced.

Al-Aziz greeted them speaking Arabic. “Good afternoon.” He paused, gazing at the completely average man standing there. He did his best to push his distaste for Sedki out of view. “My brother Sedki?”

“Sheikh Sedki,” the man responded.

“Not here,” al-Aziz told him, a sneer reinforcing his next words. “Here, you are a landless peasant who cannot speak the language. You do not know my name. I am
your
sheikh, if we must talk of such.” He waved the discussion away and smiled again. “I am glad to see you and your sons again,” he said, including the others. “We have both work and lodging for you until our job is complete.”

“Allah, may his name be praised, will thank you a thousand times.”

“As He will you. All of you!” Al-Aziz’s look took in each of them. “Over the next few days, you must learn the rudiments of the work you will do until our mission is done and Allah, bless His name, is pleased.”

“What is the work, sheikh?” one of the men asked.

“CLRR supplies rubbish removal services.” As he talked, al-Aziz began leading the group toward the workshop. “For certain venues, we have recently incorporated a bin with a built-in deodorizer. It met with such success that we are now modifying those bins by adding a remote-controlled aerosol dispenser containing an air freshener. Your job will be to complete that changeover.” Before opening the door, he said, “Have no worry. The training will reveal all.”

The men were not incompetent, al-Aziz conceded after the five days of training. He had not been filled with confidence when Sedki, his toadying step-brother, had offered several men to assist with the new project. Without knowing anything about it, al-Aziz recalled. But the men had learned the task in good time, and sufficient English words that they could complete the job. While he still found Sedki repellant, he had to admit he was not a dead loss.

When the final training session was complete, he addressed the group. “That is all for the training. First shift tomorrow begins at seven.” He turned to Sedki. “Pick two others and join me.” He walked to a small conference room close to the doorway.

When the four were standing together, al-Aziz looked them over. “Good.” He gave them a full smile. “You three will be working at the stadium, making sure the bins are properly placed. We’ll go in Monday. You’ll be on the clean-up crew. I’ll indoctrinate you then. None of you are to work tomorrow?”

While they all shook their heads, Sedki tugged at his loose work shirt. “Will these be appropriate?”

“Hmm. I had not thought about it.” He scanned the men up and down. “No, you are right. We’ll take care of that before the weekend, as you won’t be with customers until then.” He thought for a few seconds, trying to decide whether or not to tell Sedki. He decided it would do no harm. “In gratitude for your assistance, your problem with the… infidel negotiator will soon be resolved.”

Sedki gave him a beaming smile. “While we persevere for Allah’s glorification, still, I thank you for your help. Can you explain—”

Aziz shook his head. “I have said too much, already.”

Chapter Sixteen

Day Sixteen - The Nest

A JOUNCE WOKE BECKIE; DISORIENTED, she looked around in panic. “Wha… Where…” The evening came rushing back to her. Must have landed, she thought, forcing calm on her breathing. She tried to sit up, but almost fell off the cot.

Sue hurried to catch her. “Whoa, girl, you gave a lot of blood. Take it easy!”

“Okay. Okay, I think.” She rubbed her face and forehead. “How’s Noorah?”

“Alive.” She rubbed her eyes. “Millie is waiting for the plane to park and we’ll get her over to the clinic.” Sue stood and stretched as the plane stopped moving. “She wants you to eat before you do anything else—”

“Like visit Ian? I don’t think so.” This time her attempt to stand was met with success. Of a sort. She staggered but caught herself. “See. Good as new.”

Sue shook her head. “Shoulda given you knockout drops,” she muttered. “Too late now. Kevin, take her under your arm and make sure she gets real food in her before you let her go! Carry her if you have to.”

“Okay,” he said with a grin. “Com’on, little one. Shalin’s got breakfast ready. I’m sure something will sit well with you.”

“How come you taking orders from Sue?” Beckie slurred a couple of the words.

“Because what she’s sayin’ makes sense. I don’t want to explain to Ian why you’ve passed out across his chest. And that’s about as strong as you look.” He turned and waved Dan away from the door. “What do you think?”

“Go with him, Beckie. Ian’s been safe for the past week. He’ll hang on an hour more.”

“And Millie’s not going to wake him till the other doctors get here.” Sue turned back to Noorah.

Beckie permitted herself to be escorted to the boat—Like I could do anything else, she admitted—Kevin holding her arm and Dan walking alongside.

In Shalin’s kitchen, she gulped a full glass of fresh orange juice before looking at the others.

The twins were silent, watching her, as were the men. Shalin busied herself at the stove, but then turned to look her over again.

Beckie scrubbed her fingers through her hair as she thought, God, I must look a right mess! “Shalin, can I use a shower? And could the twins run over and collect some clothes for me? Maurice will be able to pull some out of my room.”

The shower did wonders for her and Beckie felt half-human when she reentered the kitchen. All the adults relaxed visibly as she sat and set to eating the food before her.

The meal raised her to three-quarters human; far better than she’d expected to feel stepping off the plane an hour and a half earlier.

“Hi, Millie. How’s Ian? And Noorah?”

“Easy one first. Ian’s comfortable. The doctors are on their way. Last I heard, they will land a few minutes before noon. There will be much more interesting news after they arrive.

“Noorah. Funny name.” Beckie followed the doctor past the first examining room and into the second. “Sue said she told you they did a neat job?”

“Yeah, she described it in… in more detail than I really wanted,” Beckie said. A slight twinge of nausea struck as Sue’s words came back.

“Well, they could have done a better job treating her afterwards.” She looked at Beckie’s face. “Yeah. Anyway. Shakti, Doctor Krishna, got a chance to use her expertise.” She clapped Beckie on the shoulder, then put an arm around her and walked with her to Ian’s room.

Beckie was surprised to see two beds side by side; her gulp, almost soundless, gave her away.

“More convenient for them to be where one orderly can monitor them. Don’t worry, no one will even tell the girl where she is, let alone that her target is in the next bed over.”

Beckie’s head snapped around at that; she’d ignored that little bit of history. She closed her mouth and smiled. A quick tour: Ian looked much the same as he had when she’d left, except the plastic tent had been put away and his uniform replaced with ugly green pajamas. Noorah had a large bandage at the end of her arm and instead of matching her PJs, she had far better color than when she’d arrived.

Millie’s words filtered through. “You can stay here and wait, if you want. However…” She turned from her study of the instruments lining the wall behind the beds. “What would be better… You should go relieve Sue and Dan of child watching. You do remember her siblings?” she said, pointing at Noorah. 

“Right. Where are they?”

“Over to Xia’s place. Once we remembered she speaks Arabic, too.”

Beckie relaxed in relief. “Of course. The translator would, wouldn’t she? Though, why Arabic along with Chinese and Thai and the other languages?”

“I was so happy to find she did I didn’t ask. Dan called her and she came right over.”

Beckie didn’t get through the door that Xia held for her before Meili, the girl she’d rescued in Thailand, was hugging her, wrapping herself close. Greetings came from the girl in Chinese and in English. Beckie smiled; her return hugs and greetings were heartfelt.

The next meeting wasn’t as pleasant; Noorah’s young brother ran at her as soon as he could see beyond Meili, striking and hitting with all his ten year-old might. His spate of Arabic couldn’t confirm what Beckie suspected: he was attempting to punish her for snatching him away from his home to only Allah knew where.

He couldn’t quite reach her face with punches hard enough to injure, but a blow to her breast took her breath away before his sister caught his arm and yanked him harshly back to land cowering on the floor.

The attack had lasted just a few seconds. Beckie gave the girl a half-hearted smile of thanks. While she was grateful not to have to throw the boy off herself, the violence the sister had used seemed a bit… Well, I don’t think he deserved that, she thought.

With a glance at Xia, she dropped to a knee next to the boy, now holding his hands over his face.

“Xia, can you tell him we apologize for grabbing him and bringing him here.”

“I have already. He’s more upset he won’t be able to help with whatever it is they’re planning.”

Beckie turned big eyes and open mouth toward Xia. “Oh. So instead of leaving him to have his hand whacked off…”

“Yeah.”

“What’s his name?” Beckie looked around.

“He is Nasir.” Xia smiled as she continued, “It means Protector, I believe. Seems apt, somehow.”

“Sure does,” Beckie agreed, rubbing her breast.

“The girl is Tahirah.” The girl smiled, but meekly, Beckie thought. “Neither of them admit to knowing anything. And they don’t understand why their mother told them to go wi—”

“What? Wait, Saqira is their mother? Why the hell… Noorah said Saqira, the woman in the tent,” Beckie explained, “was her English teacher when we were at the resort. Never said anything about being her… mother.” She thought back for a moment. “No, I’m sure of it.”

“According to Nasir, Noorah and her mother didn’t get along well,” Xia said.

Beckie chewed her lip a second. “She didn’t seem all that aloof in the tent…”

“It does explain why Tahirah speaks some English. Even Nasir speaks a little.”

“Oh. Well. Okay.” Beckie thought for a second. “Can you take Nasir off and find him a bath and some clean clothes while we wash the ones he’s wearing? And we’ll do the same for Tahirah. If she communicates, we’ll be okay.”

“What’s your real reason, Beckie?”

Beckie turned quickly to see an unpleasant questioning cast to Xia’s face. She took the woman by the hand and stepped through the door. “I’d like you to see if he knows what the sheikh wanted him to do.” Xia still had a frown. “Given that Noorah tried to kill both Ian and me, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to guess he was being thought of as a, I don’t know, a junior superhero, maybe, saving his tribe and his family by… with maybe… a suicide vest? Something like that? I’d like to believe he was gonna tend the goats, but I doubt it. So what he thinks it was might help us.” Xia’s face went from upset through questioning, disbelieving and finally settled on acceptance. Beckie gave a sigh of relief.

“Okay,” Xia said. “I’ll see if I can get him to brag about it.”

Beckie squeezed her arm and opened the door.

Xia took Nasir’s hand and said something to him. Beckie guessed it was the invitation to the bath. A movement of Tahirah’s head caught her eye; the girl was nodding.

“Thank you, Tahirah,” Beckie said.

The girl nodded distractedly, watching her brother leave with Xia. When the door closed, she turned toward Beckie. “What is it you want with us?”