by Finian Blake
“I have done as much as you have asked me to do. As you have arranged, Maalik is in charge. He will carry out your wishes. Your words are like sand and blow all over the place. If you do not wish to pay me there is nothing I can do. Except to go to work for another company.” The bitterness in Nabil’s voice was apparent. “This fool is going to get everybody killed and no amount of money is worth that.”
Sabir choked on Nabil’s last statement. “I trusted you.”
“And I trusted you but it appears that your words are like sand in the wind. You reward loyalty with betrayal.” Nabil was in tears. “I trusted you and you treat me like a child. I no longer have faith in your promises to take care of my family if something goes wrong. I am coming home and Rajiya will probably be with me.” Nabil broke the Skype connection before anything else could be said. He immediately dialed Rijiya’s number only to get her voicemail.
Both Edward and Layla were losing energy and had to end their meditation. After reconnecting with their bodies Edward and Layla picked up separate recorders, recording all their impressions before they started to fade. Tom and Ted listen to them make their recording with interest but held their questions until they were through. Being out of body used an extreme amount of energy and while they debriefed Sera cooked them both a huge French country breakfast.
“Edward, does it sound like they are having a falling out?” Ted wanted to hear that the whole operation was going to fall apart without them having to do anything. “No, it forced Maalik to call his benefactor Sabir and he contacted Nabil by Skype, so we have both means of communication. If we can get Boris to hack Nabil’s computer again we may have an excellent chance of finding who this Sabir really is. Nadia and I have done a lot of training in Saudi Arabia for many powerful men and it is entirely possible that we may have done work for this man.”
Layla’s eyes kept closing while she was eating breakfast. “Edward and I need to go to bed and get some real sleep. This out of body work has completely drained us. See if you can get Boris to track the Skype between Sabir and Nabil.” As Layla staggered up the stairs toward the bedroom she heard footsteps and turning around she found Cher walking behind her.
“Layla, can I lay down for a nap with you? I’m tired too.” Layla held out her hand to Cher saying, “all right but we can’t talk we just need to sleep.” Edward and Layla lay down on the bed with Cher between them facing Layla, and it was just a matter of minutes before all three were sound asleep.
Cher’s dream started almost immediately:
Her mother’s boyfriend twisted her arm and started calling her names again. Nadia and Ted were standing directly behind her with Nadia saying, “We showed you what to do. Kick him in the balls.” Walt collapsed to his knees holding himself in pain. Nadia patted her on the back saying, “Kick him again hard as you can.”
Ted patted her on the back saying, “Kick him in the head good and hard. You don’t want him coming back at you.” Cher gave Walt a roundhouse kick in the head and he disappeared completely right before her eyes.
Cher’s mother appeared right after Walt disappeared, screaming that it was her fault that Walt twisted her arm. “No Momma he beat me. He’s a bad man. He beats you too and calls you bad names.” Cher’s mom started to cry and ran out of the room. The monsters started coming at Cher, but Nadia and Ted did not step in. Ted said, “We showed you how to defend yourself let’s see if you can kick their ass. Nadia and I are here if you need us.” Cher started punching and kicking the monsters as hard as she could with Nadia and Ted standing right behind her. When one particularly big monster approached, Cher turned around pulled the gun out of Ted’s holster which magically appeared on his hip. She shot the monster with it exploding into a cloud of dust.
Nadia and Ted picked Cher up off her feet holding her tightly between them and praising her for the good job that she had done in defeating all of the monsters. Ted and Nadia called Cherry and Rhonda over and they also praised her for her bravery. All of her new friends closed in congratulating her too. Nadia turned Cher around and pointed to all the defeated monsters each now no bigger than her thumb noticing that they were now stuffed animals lying on the ground.
“You did it, baby. You kick their ass, but good!” Cher awoke feeling fresh and happy. She crawled out from between Edward and Layla being careful not to wake them up. After she had closed the door to the room as carefully as possible Cher ran downstairs to look for Nadia. Nadia and Ted were with Helen, Tom and Sue inspecting the final touches on the new barn.
“Nadia, Nadia I fought the monsters again, you and Ted told me to kick their asses while you watched and I did! Everybody was so proud of me that I couldn’t believe it. Nadia, are you and Ted really proud of me?”
“Of course are proud of you. Ted and I are both very proud of you.”
“But those monsters were only in my dream.”
“Cher, darling if you really believe that you can defeat those monsters you can even do it in real life. You can count on Ted and me to help you do just that.” Cher hugged both Nadia and Ted in turn. Her attention was captured by Sue who was picking up a squeeze bottle and walking over to a dummy.
“Hi Cher, I was going to start to train Tom the way that Grandma Lynn showed me. Would you like to watch?”
“I’ve never trained a dog. I would love to see what you do.”
“This is a special attractant that Grandma Lynn uses to train dogs. The scent is for attack.” Sue called her dog Tom to her side ordering him to sit as she sprayed the dummy between the legs and said, ‘zipper’. And the 80 pound German Shepard immediately attacked the spot that Susan had just sprayed. Susan gave the order relax. Tom sit, and he sat down next to her leg as she showered attention on the good dog. There are several major rips between the legs of the unfortunate manikin with Sue praising the dog warmly giving it a treat and a hug.
“Can I do that,” Cher said excitedly.
“Yes,” said Sue handing the bottle to Cher, “but you have to do it exactly the way I did it or he won’t understand you. Then you will need to give him a treat with lots of praise.” Cher did as instructed, with exactly the same result that Sue had. Both girls giggled continuing to work with Tom the whole afternoon.
Things were going rapidly downhill for Felix. Ellen had taken several shots at him, and going back by Tom’s house was completely out of the question. He was sure by now that the AG was not too happy with him either. He dug in his notes finding the address of the two Saudi princes that had been shot and decided to see what he could pick up from that direction. Jamal lived in a large apartment complex, so it was easy to park without being seen. Finding a parking spot that was out of the way Felix settled back to watch the apartment of Jamaal. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon when a car from Four Diamonds Security pulled up and a uniform security officer walked up the stairs and into the apartment. After about fifteen minutes two women pulled up in a small rental truck proceeding to quickly empty out the personal items from the furnished apartment. Once that was done they moved to the apartment next door and repeated the process. By five o’clock both of the apartments had been emptied and the rental truck drove away with Felix, following closely behind. In rush hour traffic Felix could stay close behind the truck without being obvious. He followed it to the Camden Industrial Park, but when it turned down an alley he parked his car quickly running down the alley to see it pull into a small warehouse. Felix got to the corner of the building just in time to see a large rollup door closing behind the truck.
Randal decided that he wanted to see the warehouse that Rajiya had rented personally. He had a description from Layla and Edward, but nothing beat a first-hand peek. He decided to bring René and Eden along for training electing to bring Nadia and Ted too. Randal took René as a partner with Nadia and Ted taking Eden as their partner and they drove off in two cars. Randal and René parked down the street west of the building and the other car parked down the Street East of the building. There was no traffic i
n the alley so they decided to check out the back of the building on foot. Nadia found a telephone pole 50 feet away from the back door that had some trash cans stacked around it affording her a good hide. She had just settled into her hide with Eden when a small rental truck turned the corner of the warehouse, opened the door and drove inside. Just after the truck pulled in she saw Felix walking down the alley ineptly trying to be inconspicuous. He went to the small door between the two large rollup doors testing the door handle and finding the door unlocked. Felix slipped in a small door allowing it to close behind him.
“This is Nadia, everybody hold where you are at. Super stupid just walked in the door.” In about two minutes Felix burst out the door running full speed down the alley in the direction of his car. About ten seconds after he cleared the corner Khalid came running out of the door looking in all directions finally taking off in the direction that Felix had run. Nadia keyed the mic again. “Well I guess we can say that the building is occupied. Everybody hold their positions and wait.” A Four Diamonds security car with two women in the front seat rolled out of the warehouse about two minutes behind Khalid leaving a large rollup door open. In the meantime, Felix had made it to his car and driven off. Khalid hopped in the car with the other three people driving off in the same general direction that Felix had taken. They drove around the area looking for the silver Camry and inside of thirty minutes found no fewer than six possibilities none of which had a driver matching Felix’s description.
René came running down the alley at full speed moving straight to Nadia’s position. Randal’s voice came over the TAC radio.
“Nadia, Eden and René will do a quick run around the warehouse Ted and I will watch the outside.” Nadia and Eden were almost through the rollup door when René caught up to them with two cameras. René handed one camera to Eden, keeping one for her use.
“Nadia, Ted wants you to do a quick exploration we’ll take pictures.”
“It sounds like a plan you need to get busy and I’ll begin.” Nadia ran up to the front of the building checking out the small office area finding only useless office equipment and dust. She next moved into the back of the warehouse spotting a propane truck. Pulling the camera from her purse Nadia started taking pictures of the truck. Eden and René made a three hundred and sixty-degree photo tour of the warehouse with René duplicating Eden’s work. After ten minutes all three women beat a hasty retreat back to the respective cars.
It took another twenty minutes for the security car to come back to the warehouse and seal the door once again. Nadia watched them stop at the big rollup door each person getting out with a gun to explore the warehouse. After another twenty minutes had passed the security car rolled into the warehouse and the big rollup door closed once again. Khalid was not at all happy.
“Are you crazy leaving this building open?”
“We had to find out who the intruder was,” Rajiya said defending herself. “Except for the truck there is nothing here to steal and somebody would really have to want a propane truck in order to steal this one.”
Khalid had to agree with Rijiya’s estimate. “There was nothing in this warehouse other than the truck.”
“Lock everything up I need to get back to the house so I can get some sleep before my shift and you need to get out to the airport to pick up Jibril.”
After Felix had opened the small door to the warehouse he noticed three people coming toward him with guns so he decided to beat a hasty retreat. Felix was already driving past the alley, when the man chasing him turned the corner. Felix didn’t care which direction that he was going. He threw the car into gear leaving the area as quickly as possible. It seemed to Felix that everybody was carrying a gun, and Tom had taken his guns away. Felix remembered as he drove to his motel, that Tom had put the guns in the tack room between the two horse stalls in the new barn. It didn’t seem like it would be that difficult to retrieve them. He decided to wait until it was quite late in the evening before doing a quick run to Tom’s house, so he decided to get some sleep and approach the house when everybody was asleep.
Randall and his team drove back to the temp service in order to load the photos on the computer. Nadia wanted to build a model of the warehouse just in case it would be necessary to do a rescue or an assault it at some point. René was much more adept at dealing with computers than Randal was, so she took over the job of downloading the pictures. Nadia went over to another computer and started doing a 3-D mockup of the warehouse while she was waiting for the pictures from the camera. Before plugging in the details Nadia decided to call Tom at home to see how Cher and Sue were getting along.
“Tom, this is Nadia I just called to see what the girls are up to.”
“The girls hit Helen and I up for a sleepover in the new barn. We just dropped the furniture in the office side of the barn and the security system is up along with the intercom. I couldn’t see any harm in it. The girls have been working with the dog and he will probably sleep with them too.”
“Tom, it sounds good to me too. I really would like to see Cher start doing little girl things.”
“Cher has really come a long way do you think that this dream thing that she was doing with Layla will work?”
“Psychiatrists analyze dreams, but Layla can get inside of dreams and manipulate them. The way that Layla explained it to me it’s like dropping an Atom bomb on someone’s psyche. If you manipulated them, dreams can be the equivalent of years of psychoanalysis. Cher’s namesake Cherry went through years of psychoanalysis with very little success. When she had just three dreams with Layla the whole world seemed to change for her.”
“It sounds like voodoo to me,” Tom said, “but I can’t argue with the results. That young lady has made some miraculous headway for all that she has been through.”
“Thank you for helping us out with Cher. It will be sometime before we can finish working this model of the warehouse. Are you sure that you don’t mind watching Cher for us?”
“It will be a pleasure.”
Rajiya did not like driving to Dulles International Airport in the early evening because of the traffic. Jibril was coming in from Paris and she planned to meet him at the customs exit. He obtained a one-month visitor’s visa and that would be enough time. She was upset because Nabil was planning on leaving. He delayed in order to make sure that Jibril could obtain all the equipment that he needed to camouflage the truck. All of the tools and painting equipment would be delivered tomorrow at the warehouse. He arranged for Uzma to work with Jibril converting the truck. Uzma was not very good with her hands, but she would gamely follow instructions and she could arrange the necessities that he would need while he was in the U.S. Jibril’s English was not all that good, so Nabil did not want him working alone. Rajiya thought that a man with the kind of talent they needed would be older. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he was barely in his twenties.
“Jibril I’m so glad you could make it. Uncle Nabil is eager to meet you we have heard so much about you.”
“I was excited to come here but I will only be able to stay a few weeks, and then I must return home because I will be getting married at the end of the month.”
“How wonderful…” Rajiya escorted Jibril to her car and started the long drive to downtown Baltimore.
Jibril insisted on going to the warehouse first to size up the job he would be working on. He walked around the truck observing the tank and its arrangement on the bed. Rajiya had taken several pictures of the lavatory truck in order to show Jibril what they were trying to accomplish.
“I will do the job that you need and then I will leave. I will not help you do this thing that you are planning. I am only doing this because my family is indebted to Sabir and I must pay my family’s obligation.”
“Now that you know what the job is I will take you to your accommodations.” Jibril ignored Rijiya’s offer and instead walked into the office area of the old warehouse. He found a restroom noting that it had a shower and looked int
o one of the offices finding four desks that had not been removed. Pushing the desks together made a high flat surface which Jibril planned on using for a bed.
“I will sleep here until the job is done. I need a mattress, towels, some cleaning supplies, a small hotplate, and an ice chest. If my tools are not here by tomorrow I will be on the next plane going back home.”
“I will have everything that you require except for the tools within the hour. Nabil will pick you up in the morning so that you can personally select what you need. If you will accompany me I will take you to get all of the personal items that you require.” Rajiya drove to a Wall Mart and they returned to the warehouse before nine.
“I could take you to a motel for the evening.”
“No thank you I will be quite comfortable here.”
“In that case Nabil and Uzma will be here in the morning.” As she left Rajiya could hear water running into a bucket. In a way Rajiya was glad to see that Jibril was all business. She drove to Maalik’s house with a report.
“Maalik, I picked Jibril up from the airport and he has elected to sleep at the warehouse. I must warn you that he is all business and in the mood to work. Jibril informs me that when he has completed his work on the truck he will be leaving and not participating in any operation that you have planned.”
“He can’t leave we need the help.” Maalik sounded desperate.
“I suggest that you accept the help that he is willing to provide and go on from there.” Rajiya said urgently. “Jibril is doing this because he owes a debt to Sabir. He is not as committed as we are. I believe that if you push him too hard Jibril will leave before doing his work. I urge you to use caution.”
“He must help us we still need replacements for Jamaal and Haroun.”
“I am just telling you what I observed you are the great leader, so you will do what you please.” Rajiya could not hide the contempt in her voice. “Nabil is thinking of leaving and I believe I will leave with him.”
