Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (19 page)

“That’s a reasonable concern, but they’re not the only potential targets here. Kevin told me just a couple days ago Shen had to shoo off some people who had nothing to do with Noorah, or even Ian. As long as Amy—and other family members, too—are here, they can get caught in a firefight that has nothing to do with them.

“We think their sheikh is busy doing something else right now, and I’m sure Kevin and Dan are keeping track of traffic out of Egypt with Shen.

“I don’t know where I’d rather have them. Shen’s really good.” Beckie turned to face Amy and Tahirah. “You both understand what we’re talking about? Someone might come to get you and Noorah, and we’re worried about that.”

“Yes, Beckie,” Tahirah said. “I also. If we think Miss Amy will be risk, then I will not be with her. Noorah and I can be together. No one else—”

“Thanks, but let me make up my own mind,” Amy said. “Mom, I’m sure I’ll be okay.” She took her mother’s hand. “I know why you’re here. I remember about Dad.” She turned to Beckie. “Unless you’ve heard?” Beckie shook her head, wondering what this could be. “Mom works here with you guys because Mr. Jamse allows her to go with the teams when they deploy. Dad was in the military. So was Mom. She was the medic and he was the grunt, I think they call them. Fighting, working to keep whoever the enemy is from overrunning his position.

“He was injured and they couldn’t get him out in time. Because no medics went with the troops, he had to wait till they got him back wherever the hospital was. It was too late. She couldn’t save him.”

Beckie turned to Millie; the woman was sitting stone-faced, forcing her emotions away from public display. She took the woman’s free hand. “I’m so sorry. I should never—”

“Wait a minute,” Amy cried. “That’s not where you go! I want her to know that I understand where she’s coming from. She’s lost her husband and she doesn’t want to risk me. I get that. But she can’t protect me forever, especially—”

“But she can—” overlapped “I can now!”

In the explosion of emotion, Tahirah jumped up and ran off the lanai. Before Beckie could do more than look at Millie and Amy in shock, Boynton appeared at the door. “The young lady has taken herself to her room.” The rising note made it a question, but Beckie ignored it.

She turned back to Millie and Amy. “I’ll go see about Tahirah. You two work out your issues. Millie, I’m certain that Amy is as safe here as anywhere. Amy, remember that your mother cares for you. No one will ever care so much.”

After five minutes, Tahirah came through the lanai door, Beckie behind, pushing gently. Tahirah went to her chair and sat. Amy reached over to take her hand.

“Tahirah has issues with obedience and the like, but she’s willing to see how we do things. So, we have a chance to leave a good impression.” Beckie smiled at Millie. “Do you think we will?”

Amy reached her free hand to Millie, who took it in her own. “Yeah,” the girl said. “We’ll do fine.” She squeezed her mother’s hand and released it. “Mom’s agreed. As long as I use some sense, I can help Tahirah and Noorah while they’re here.”

“And by ‘sense,’ she means?”

“They’re not to even play at being hard to find,” Millie said. “Listening to what the team says. Following directions—”

“As soon as they’re given,” Amy finished with a grin. “And staying close to Shalin or Mom, depending on who’s busy.”

Chapter Nineteen

Day Seventeen - Kansas City

THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING REVEREND BILLY’S talk with his subordinate, William, he again invited his grandchildren to lunch following the morning service. David had begged off, so Sarah sat alone across the table from her grandfather. She was holding an iced cola while Billy was sipping tea, relaxing.

“Where’s David?” he asked.

“He’s off with some friends. I wanted to… talk with you, and… well, about something he’s… he’s not ready to hear.”

Billy sat right up. This was unexpected. No, it was disconcerting. I have no idea what’s in her head, he realized. She’s quite nervous. And something she doesn’t want David to share? Has William been… “Well, thank you for your confidence, Sarah. I trust Reverend William’s lessons went better today?”

“Oh, yeah. I just kept quiet ‘cause it bothers him so much to keep saying ‘That’s the way it is, accept it.’” She sighed and pulled her hair around over her shoulder. “I mean, I get that he believes what he’s saying. I don’t know how he can, but he surely does.” She looked over the table at him. “First, I wanted to ask why you keep Aunt Ruth’s picture in your office?”

The gears in Billy’s mind seemed stripped as he gaped at the girl. It took a moment to recover, then he said, “I don’t understand. Why…” Why lie to her? “Because that photo is my only remembrance of Jacob. Your… cousin.” He watched her nod, seemingly satisfied. “Why do you ask?”

She looked down at the table, then up into his eyes. “Well, we were talking…” She blushed very prettily. “Actually, I guess
I
was only listening… Anyway, I heard that you were very angry with her for going to Israel with Uncle Ari. So, I wondered about it. That’s all.”

Billy contemplated possible responses, but Sarah continued before one came to mind. “Second, I was talking to Dad this week and he said the Love and Faith Temple, which I know really means you, is working to prevent the repeal of the trans-vaginal raping law.”

His jaw dropped. His shock showed; it must, to have stopped her cold as it had. “I don’t understand, Sarah,” he said, using her name to give him time to think. “Why would you of all people, care about… about a law designed to make sure abortion is both safe and well-considered? And please don’t refer to it as ‘raping.’ It is a viable, accepted medical procedure.”

“I’m impressed, Poppy.” The glint in the girl’s eye unnerved him. “You said that like you believe it. You must know the requirement has no medical basis. If it was medically necessary, the exam would have been done long before the day before an abortion. And why would I care? How could I not care? I’m female! I’m having periods, so I could—”

“You’re not…”

“Poppy, if you weren’t my grandfather, I’d slap you for even getting that far with that question. I am
not
pregnant, nor am I likely to turn up that way. That doesn’t mean this doesn’t apply to me. If Dad and his fellow legislators can be railroaded by a… by an organization with its own agenda, who’s to say what law they’ll come up with next. No birth control, maybe? Oh, wait…” Stunned into silence, Billy watched her sip her soda before she continued.

“I have a friend who’s now been raped five times, going for six.” She counted on her fingers. “She was raped by an unknown assailant in downtown Olathe. Not far from the church, actually.” She touched her index finger. “One. The police decided she didn’t need a rape investigation or anything that would have gone with it until too late to preserve any evidence. They said she wasn’t raped, it must have been consensual. At least until a
male
witness showed up to explain what he’d seen. Two. She’s been counseled from here to Saint Louis and back about not having an abortion. One session should have been enough to tell that she wasn’t going to keep her rapist’s baby. It was for me. She’d rather die. And according to some of the ‘counselors,’ that would be a suitable outcome. Three.”

Sarah got up and walked to the French doors leading out to the back yard. Billy had no problem hearing even though she faced away from him. “The last counseling session…” She turned back to face him. “… as I’m sure you know, is where the technician—not even a doctor—uses the instrument to legally rape her so she can see the fetus she’s going to abort. Well, this ‘technician’ decided, I guess, that it wasn’t enough to use the instrument, he used his finger, too, and twice the image didn’t meet the standard, so had to be repeated. Four and five.” She made a fist. “Now, she’s gotta have it done again and she can’t get an appointment for two weeks. At least the technician will be different—maybe even competent. Oh, yeah. The first one lied to her about the mental effects of having an abortion.”

“That sounds terrible, Sarah. But abortion is terrible. Taking a life—”

“Don’t give me that bullcrap, Grandfather! If abortion is so bad, why isn’t birth control available for any girl over the age of five? Because, God knows, men certainly have no interest in preventing pregnancy!”

“Women should not be—” Billy realized there was no good place for his statement to end.

“Women should not be what, Grandfather? Having sex? Just women, eh? Nothing wrong with men having sex, huh? Though if the women can’t, I don’t know who the men are going to go with. You’re not suddenly in favor of gays? No, didn’t think so,” she responded to his gasp. “You realize I’m a woman, don’t you? All this posturing you do in the name of whatever it is you think you’re in favor of affects real people, people like me and Alisha.”

As she caught her breath, Billy broke into her tirade. “Didn’t she complain to the hospital?”

She snorted in derision. “What hospital? These guys—and way too many guys do this—are in temporary offices, in trailers, in the parking lot in the mall. Really private and secure, with a big sign, Olathe Reproductive Counseling Service, on both sides so everyone knows what’s happening. At least the only windows are in the waiting area!”

“Well, to the manager, then?”

“He said she was lying to get out of the examination.”

“Well,” he said without considering the consequences, “girls in that position frequently lie—”

“Good day, Reverend.” Sarah’s voice was cold and unyielding. “I’ll see myself out and wait until Mother is ready to leave.” As she opened the doors and walked out, she threw back over her shoulder, “Alisha is no girl. But she is black.” Billy saw a glint on her cheek as she stepped off the deck.

For a minute, two, Billy sat, dumbfounded. Even more stupid than William. But, he decided, even if everything she’d said was true, the greater good served by… We aren’t just embarrassing them; it’s critical they understand the hazards and pitfalls of abortion. The child will be loved, if not by the mother, by a foster home if that’s her choice.

Still, he had to tell Deborah, his daughter, that her daughter had walked out on him. Before he’d done more than rise, Deborah came through the door, more nervous, he thought, than angry.

“Sarah’s standing outside in the rain. She won’t come in and won’t say why. Can you tell me?”

“We had a disagreement, Debby. I foolishly accused one of her friends of being a liar with no evidence. A girl named… Alisha, I think she said.”

“Oh, God.” Deborah sagged, reaching out for the doorframe for support. In a second, she’d pulled herself upright. “Dad… I don’t know what to say.”

“Who is this Alisha, anyway?”

“Alisha Rashid. Sarah and David’s music teacher.”

“In school?”

“No, extracurricular. The state cut all the funding, remember?”

“Mmm. What is Sarah’s complaint? That she can’t—”

“Her complaint is the same as mine, if I were bold enough to make it! Alisha Rashid is a thirty-five-year-old woman who has been treated shamefully because… because she’s different!” Billy didn’t break in this time when his daughter stopped for a breath. “She’s African-American. She’s Muslim. She’s gay. She’s a damn fine music teacher who isn’t confused about why her students are there. I miss her, these past weeks.

“She was attacked, raped—”

“Sarah was quite explicit on the trauma she’s faced. There’s no need—”

“There must be, if you still think of her as a girl, or as a liar. That’s no better than the police, who dismissed her complaint by saying she was prostituting herself, so brought whatever happened on herself. A lesbian Muslim prostituting herself!” Billy almost asked, but Deborah must have noticed the conflict; she said, “No, I have no idea how she reconciles being gay with her Muslim faith. But I don’t know how a lot of other ‘religious’ people reconcile their ‘faith’ with their actions, either.”

“She can’t be a good role model…”

“She’s a fine role model, compared to others I can mention. Her dress is the only statement of her religion, and she confided her sexuality to me in confidence from the children because she worried both of them were… bonding more closely than she thought appropriate. Her ability is first rate. I can only afford her because she’s been pushed out of any professional opportunities here. Until she heads for one coast or the other. Which I expect sooner now, rather than later. Thank you.” Billy stepped back from the feeling of odium she radiated.

She turned and walked out, but re-entered to glare at him. “Dad, you must learn, and then remember, these pronouncements you hand down from your pulpit, or Sam and his fellow lawmakers read into law, they aren’t just philosophical things. They affect real people, one at a time, in real and frequently unpleasant ways. Abortion is wrong. The way you’ve chosen to get rid of it is worse, by far.”

Billy took a couple of steps toward her. “Debby…”

She made no advance to him. “Dad… I love you. But that does not mean I agree with you.”

“Have you told Sarah, or David, that?”