Sabena soon realized that whatever Salim wanted, he got.
He’d gotten her. That was for sure. But for Salim, Sabena knew she’d never be enough. Salim had an enormous appetite. And he liked to sample a range of dishes from many different places.
So, to ensure the continued arousal of his interest, Sabena devised a new game.
It was all so very easy. Sabena’s peers had been so pliable. Effortlessly influenced. With Salim, she’d displayed a lifestyle of sheer excess. And now everyone wanted to be with them. Whatever the association, however tenuous the link, being with Salim and Sabena gave the hanger-on serious credibility. Salim and Sabena, they were the beautiful ones, the brilliant ones.
The ones to be with. The ones to be seen with.
And those fawning fools had done anything she’d asked just to savor the crumbs from their table.
Sabena grinned, remembering.
Oh, those days had been such fun. All she had to say to all those pert young freshers was, “Do you wanna be in our gang?”
Given Salim and Sabena’s social positioning, it had been an invitation none could refuse.
April 12, 1988 saw the unveiling of Sabena’s game.
Salim had loved theatre. He always saw himself as a showman. The cellar used for the game had been decked out like the set of Caligula, which, given the activities that Sabena had choreographed beneath the hallowed seat of learning, had been very in-keeping.
By partaking in such endeavors, Salim could always enjoy a varied and plentiful menu. And she could continue to reign over Salim’s extracurricular life.
Sabena remembered her fellow students walking through the door hidden by a heavy scarlet curtain. On their faces was fear and anticipation in collision. Their skin glowed. Their movements were awkward. They’d been hesitant but at the same time yearning to know more. They’d all heard the stories. The intentionally promulgated snippets of intelligence.
But the truth had been somewhat different.
Once they’d entered, they would never be the same again.
But they all knew to be in with the beautiful people, they had to take the final step.
Sabena mused. It was strange, she thought. None were coerced. None were forced. It was their own freewill that drove them over the threshold into a world beyond that scarlet curtain. In their eyes, everything had been told to her.
Explaining why.
She’d seen the twinkling desperation in their bright innocent eyes. They’d wanted so much to be accepted, to be thought of on par with Salim and her.
Whatever it took, they’d do it.
Sabena knew it was that feeling of knowing they’d follow blind, knowing that she had ultimate control, complete domination over their pathetic lives.
For both Salim and her, complete domination became their greatest high of all.
However, the moment Sabena had Salim eating out of her hand, she knew the chase was over. The spark had gone. The fires were out. Having Salim become a lap dog wasn’t what she wanted.
So she dumped him.
It still made Sabena smile, recalling their departure.
“Quite frankly, baby, you haven’t got what it takes to keep a girl satisfied,” Sabena had said. “I’m gone.”
That had been the year she had graduated. Salim, she recalled, had been astonished at first, and then he smiled and gripped her chin.
“As far as you’re concerned, nobody has what it takes. Except me. I know that. You know that. You’ll be back.”
“Don’t count on it, babes.” Sabena pulled back.
“I know you, Sabena. We were cast in the fires of Hell. Together. We are the same. I will see you again.”
Salim turned and walked away, solid confidence in every step. Sabena watched him leave and she bristled, frustrated at him having the last word. But deep down, she knew he was right.
Back in the present, Sabena looked out of her plane. Everything she’d been striving to achieve ever since she’d met Salim, was in her grasp.
The man of her dreams, and perhaps a few of her nightmares, was about to bring her the world.
Chapter 71
Ellie didn’t hear Sam behind her. He’d returned to the lounge after scanning the rest of the apartment. Clocking her posture, the bag over her arm, the slight turn of her body towards the front door, he glared. Anger and hurt flickered in his eyes. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Where are you going?”
“Out. I won’t be gone long,” Ellie lied. Tears formed in her eyes.
“I’m clean, Ellie. I’m not working for anyone else but the British government.”
Ellie looked at the door, unable to face him. Sam moved in closer, but his hands were by his side. He made no attempt to touch her.
“I know you think I’m lying but I’m not. My allegiance is to Britain.” Sam’s strong voice sounded so convincing, but then Ellie had been convinced he’d worked for the Foreign Office for ten years.
Still not facing him, she walked softly towards the door. Sam didn’t stop her. He was a beyond-expert-trained liar, and he understood her feelings of blatant distrust.
“Go if you don’t believe me. I won’t stop you. I’ll always love you.”
Ellie stopped walking. She stood silently. Sam stared at her, willing her to turn around. He noticed movement, slight, but definite movement.
Please turn.
Slowly, Ellie turned. Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery.
“What am I to believe?” she screamed, letting out all the frustration and hurt trapped in her body.
“Believe this, I love you.”
It was all Sam could say, and it was the truth.
“Do you? Do you really? I don’t know what to believe. One minute you’re a diplomat, next minute you’re MI6, and now they’re checking on you. For all I know you could be a double agent working for that madman Al Douri.” Ellie sobbed as her words came through in heaving gasps. “Sam, I’m so confused. I don’t know what’s real anymore. I just want my husband back.”
Ellie’s bag slipped down her shoulder and rested on her wrist. Her shoulders shook under the strain of the tears that rocked her body. Ellie had tried to keep it in. She had put on a brave face during the past few hours. But knowing she’d been spied on caused her to let go of her courage. She couldn’t hold back anymore.
Sam wrapped his arms around Ellie and kissed her.
“Ellie, I love you more than anything in the world. I never meant for this to happen.”
“They had no right!”
“No, they didn’t.”
“But you’ve got proof now right? Proof they’ve been spying us?”
Ellie, wide-eyed and hopeful, waited for Sam to confirm.
Chapter 72
Quentin couldn’t believe what he was proposing. Ellie Noor, an Al Nadir spy? It was unbelievable.
Maide continued with his logical relay of the situation. “In the surveillance data, Sam questioned Ellie about why she screamed. Ellie lied. She said it was a spider. He didn’t believe a word. You could see it on his face. But he chose not to pursue it. Ellie threw him off base with a highly-targeted emotional hit. Her acting is excellent.”
“You think she was acting? That it wasn’t just a reflex response?”
“Think about it logically, Quentin. It all adds up.”
“Aren’t you jumping a bit quickly to that conclusion?”
“I don’t believe so. The basis of my assumption is that she lied, and she skillfully obfuscated her husband’s questioning. A man who has been trained to interrogate. Is that really the right behavior for a wife?”
It was obvious to Quentin that Maide had thought through his hypothesis and this was a calculated, rather than random, announcement.
“Well, no, it doesn’t seem to be,” admitted Quentin.
“If she’s for real, why should she lie at all?” asked Maide.
“Sam’s been lying to her for ten years.”
“Yes, but he’s a government agent. She’s not.”
“So why did she lie?”
“Exactly. It doesn’t make sense.”
“So you think she’s a threat?” asked Quentin. “Another Sarah Masters? But we’ve had taps on her for some time. Her private life is very private. Few friends. Genuine workaholic. Perfect wife for an agent, actually. Too busy with her own life to think about her husband’s.”
“Until now.”
“But why suspect her on just a scream?”
“Gut instinct,” said Maide. “I’ve been in the business a long time, and gut instinct saved my skin more times than I care to imagine.”
“And your gut instinct says she’s Al Nadir?”
“Yes.”
Quentin detected hesitancy. “But you’re not sure?”
“Al Nadir have gone beyond what we thought was possible with nano-tech, turning operatives into bombs, changing facial structures. Who knows? She could be a new weapon, a sleeping assassin.”
“You think the scream was an initiation? That she’s somehow activated?”
“Could be.”
“But you’re not sure?”
“At the moment, I’m in the dark, which is not a place I want to be.” Maide turned quiet and thoughtful for a second, his mind seemingly searching to find the next words. “And it’s not a place I intend to stay. You know what I need.”
Quentin did, and he was very uncomfortable about the whole business.
“I’m not happy about it. Sam is our best agent. But he’s also a ruthless killer, and not someone I’d like against me.”
“You didn’t seem scared of him today. You played him. You made him look the troublemaker.”
“That was all political bravado. You know how it works. But this is different, Justin. You don’t know what the repercussions could be.”
Maide shook his head. “This is national security.” He narrowed his eyes. “We have to know beyond any reasonable doubt that Ellie’s behavior is completely benign.”
Maide pulled open his bottom drawer. He took out a single crystal glass and his bottle of Glen Fiddich, and poured one for himself. Letting the smooth malt slip down his throat, Maide closed his eyes to savor the taste. Then he opened them and turned back to Quentin.
“You know what I want.”
Quentin nodded obediently and left the room. Maide poured himself another drink and returned the surveillance video to the beginning. He settled into his chair, lowered the sound and pressed play. Ellie’s slow, seductive voice slipped out the speakers.
“Darling.”
“God, I need you. It’s been too long. And I’m starving!”
“Well, darling, your dinner is served. Bon appetito!”
Chapter 73
On board her plane on the eve of a new era of power, Sabena thought about her life. Her science career had taken her around the world and into a number of laboratories and government research facilities. Quantum physics was extremely hot, and her status had grown fast. She excelled without effort but eventually became bored. Military applications were fun to develop, but no one had the balls to go the distance. Every time she wanted to experiment and tap into the power that lurked in the quantum domain, the five-star generals pulled the rug.
“I don’t think we need to be that provocative with nature,” was their typical response.
Sabena had felt shackled by convention, unable to test her theories, and subservient to the politically correct mode of operation that dominated military research. Angered by the situation, Sabena bit back and earned herself a reputation as a brilliant but spiky scientist. At the end of one of her more venomous walkouts, Sabena found herself in a bar in downtown Washington, DC. She raced through tequilas like water, but they had no effect. She wasn’t drunk; she wasn’t even a bit tipsy. She was sober, and she was still pissed with the US Department of Defense.
“Drinking away your sorrows?”
The voice came from behind her. Sabena straightened her back as she quickly tried to place the voice. On matching it to memories, a shiver shot through her. She turned.
A man in his mid-thirties stood, smiling. He flicked away a curl of jet-black wavy hair as he looked at Sabena through laughing, dark eyes.
“It looks like you need a proper night out, just like the ones we used to have.”
Zack was an old squeeze from her crazy Cambridge days, only topped by Salim, both literally and metaphorically.
“So how about it, Beanie Baby?” Zack slipped his hand over Sabena’s.
She pulled away stiffly. “I didn’t like that name then, and I still don’t!”
Zack smiled. “I know something you did like then.” He moved his hand over to her thigh. “I hope you haven’t changed.”
Sabena’s lips moistened, her mouth split wide across her face, and she shook her head. Soon after, they left together. For over a week, they spent their time in bed charging up and down memory lane. Sweating, exhausted but exhilarated by their sudden reunion, Sabena felt recharged. Then she thought about returning to work, and her face fell.
It was time to admit the truth.
“Zack, I’m bored. Seeing you again has only reinforced the fact I’m wasting my life. I could be doing anything. But I’m stuck in a lab 24/7 looking at weird spatter patterns of exploding protons and representing them in pages of incomprehensible symbols that only a handful of people in the world can understand. What I really want is something exciting, something edgy, and something dangerous. Right now, I feel I’ve gone to my own funeral.”
“Well, sex and death always seem to go together. You know, those people that get off at funerals.” Zack laughed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Sabena grabbed the wine bottle and took a slug. “Deadly serious. I’m just about ready to walk.”
Zack pulled the satin sheets around his hard torso, and gathered them up underneath his arms.
“Feeling cold?” asked Sabena.
But Zack didn’t speak. His sudden pensive expression disturbed her. It was strange how she could throw inhibition to the wall and shag with total abandon, and yet one contemplative stare could perturb her enough to feel awkward.
“You want action, don’t you?” Zack had reached a decision. He was in for the play. “I can give it to you.”
Zack then made a suggestion that turned Sabena Sanantoni’s life around and gave her exactly what she wanted.
Chapter 74
As Sam listened to Ellie recall her day, it became painfully obvious that the surveillance in their home had been removed when Ellie went to the gym.
“I really wasn’t gone that long,” she protested.
“Long enough!”
Sam’s fury at the missing evidence flashed in his eyes.
“How do you know about the bugging?”
“It was what a colleague said to me in a meeting,” said Sam. “He replayed words I’d said to you, words he couldn’t possibly know unless we’re under surveillance. And the way he said them left me in no doubt.”
“But if you’re not a double agent, why bug you? You’re on their side.”
“They want to keep checks on me. I heard they did it with other agents in the past when they questioned their performance or allegiance. They don’t want their prized operatives going off the rails.”
“I can’t believe they’ve done this. I just feel so dirty, so angry.”
“They may not have had visual. It could have just been audio.”
Sam attempted to sweeten the blow. He knew they would have been transmitting audio and visual direct to River House. He’d set up many surveillance missions in the past; he knew the drill. On receipt of transmission, data would be recorded via an encryption program direct to a media file. The file would then be circulated to appropriate section leaders, and Justin Maide.
“Are you sure?”
“No. I’m not sure.”
“So somewhere in MI6 there’s a tape of us going at it like rabbits. That’s real
ly the bottom line, isn’t it, Sam?”
“Yes.”
Sam didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t a tape, but a digitally-encrypted file. But why mince words? Ellie was right. His confession to being an MI6 agent was going to cause him problems. He’d never slipped before, but now – the rules of the game had changed.
“What are you going to do?” asked Ellie. “You can’t let them get away with it.”
Chapter 75
Sabena toyed with the crayfish salad served by her personal flight assistant, but she was too excited to eat. From the moment she met Zack, her life had been building towards the success she would soon embrace.
“Are you mad? I’d be shot for that!”
Sabena had listened quietly to Zack’s proposition and rapidly become incensed by his naivety and stupidity about the level of security that surrounded her work.
“Steal government secrets for you?” confirmed Sabena, her eyes blinking quickly. “You really are quite insane.”
Zack stared at her and Sabena knew he was analyzing her response. Outwardly, she showed she was rejecting the idea, but inside she was burning with excitement. Her eyes gave her away. Already dilated, they sparkled with want, and her lips moistened signaling her lust for what was being suggest. She couldn’t hide it, she was getting turned on. Just the same way she did when, back in the day, he’d introduced a new sex trick. Outer revulsion, inner fascination.
Sabena jerked up as Zack rubbed her arm slowly.
“Think about it, Sabena. You’ll be able to get back at them for keeping you cooped-up like a lab rat. Every time you wanted to test out your theories, they reined you in. For what? Scared of what they’d discover? Terrified to face the truth of your brilliance? I can bring you into a world where they’ll not only revere your brilliant mind but they’ll pay you well for the pleasure.”
Sabena listened. Her face flushed with desire the second Zack mentioned money. But she was nobody’s fool. The meeting with Zack in the bar had been no idle reunion. It had been carefully orchestrated and planned.
The Trusted Page 21
