National Exile: A 21st Century Novel about Nobility, Poverty, and Cruelty

by Rusul A. Altaay

  Chapter 20

  Radiant

  At the Burj, things were not any better. The lack of food and supplies affected every one. They were as hungry and tired of the situation as anyone else. Yazan was one of the people who refused to accept what was going on. One day, he gathered his team for an emergency meeting where they were able to talk freely about a solution to what was going on.

  “You are all aware that a side form having militias killing anyone they want, whenever they want... The administration is doing even worse. I think it is about time we said it out loud. We need to publicly oppose them starting with commander Basam.” Yazan said.

  “I’m with you. We didn’t sign up for this. Our job was to protect the wellbeing of the people not to torture them like that.” Samir said.

  “That being said, I think we need to be more realistic about what we can do. Even with the weapons we have here at the Burj, there is not much we can do.” Mai pointed.

  “Yeah, but we will at least be able to send a message out to them. We can’t just be quiet like that. This is not a life. I feel like I’m living a non-ending nightmare.” Samir commented.

  “I think it’s a bad idea. We cannot just go start shooting the administration’s facilities. They will kill us all. I say we keep it low until a miracle happens somehow.” Rayan said.

  “We’ve been waiting years for that miracle. You can create your own future. Do not wait for someone else to do the job for you. If not for us, we have to do it, heck we need to do it, for the innocent people who are dying almost every day.” Samir said.

  “I really like your energy, Samir. With spirit like that, we can do almost anything.” Yazan said.

  “I still think it is a bad idea. You are going to get yourselves killed.” Rayan said.

  “The only one who might get killed is you, Rayan.” Rain said as he entered the room.

  “Rain? What are you doing here?” Mai asked.

  “Yazan called and told me about the meeting today. Sorry for being late.” Rain replied.

  “What do you mean by what you just said? Why am I the only person who might get himself killed exactly?” Rayan asked.

  “Because you are the only one in this room who works as a spy for commander Basam.” Rain said.

  “Come again?” Samir interrupted.

  “Waseem, Rayan’s brother, was killed because he was a spy as well. Lucky for Rayan, he was not discovered until I met the person who ordered the hit on Waseem.” Rain explained.

  “You know who killed by brother?” Rayan asked as he got up from the chair.

  “Rayan, is he saying the truth? Did you work for Basam when Sidra disappeared? Did you tell him about her plans?” Mai asked.

  “RAIN… WHO KILLED MY BROTHER?” Rayan shouted.

  “I don’t know, but Aser ordered the hit. Yes, the same man you were supposed to save.” Rain explained.

  “All this time… You were working for the enemy? How could you?” Samir asked.

  “Enemy? This is our own administration you are talking about. This is the same government you are all working for.” Rayan said.

  “It was never our intention to kill anyone. We had no idea that Lion would lose his mind like that and starve people to death on top of murdering people on and off the streets by the minute.” Yazan said.

  “You can’t blame me for anything I did. I’m just protecting my government like you all should do. And Rain, I am going to kill that Aser of yours.” Rayan said.

  “No one is killing anyone. Rayan, you have made yourself very clear. You can leave now. You are no longer part of the Burj’s team. You are not welcome here anymore. Anyone who thinks that we would help Lion’s administration is encouraged to leave with you.” Yazan said.

  “You can’t just kick me out. I work for commander Basam, remember?” Rayan said.

  He just left the room and in a matter of minutes, the room was filled with soldiers, who were ready to arrest everyone for conspiring against Lion’s administration.

  “Rain, can your father do anything about that?” Yazan asked.

  “I’m pretty sure he can’t or won’t. Each… take down two. NOW.” Rain yelled as he started fighting one of the soldiers.

  “This is insane…” Samir shouted.

  The room was turned upside down. Rain, Mai, Samir, and Yazan all started a fight with the soldiers. One of the soldiers pointed the gun towards Rain and was about to shoot. Yazan attacked him and pointed the gun to the ceiling. Mai had a knife and injured a soldier in his leg. Rain put his martial art skills into some use and was able to knock down at least three of them. Few of the soldiers just left seeking back-up and the rest were taking care of by Samir.

  “We have to leave now… We have few minutes before we are surrounded with the SWAT team.” Yazan said.

  “I still can’t believe that Rayan would give us up like that. Something is not right about the whole thing. Take all the guns you can carry before we leave.” Rain added.

  “At any rate, we will get the Burj back. We will not let them do what they want.” Samir said while hardly breathing from all the fighting.

  They started running towards the main entrance of the fourteenth floor. The elevators were not an option. They used the emergency exists. The stairs seemed clear. So they walked their way down to the fifth floor where they saw few soldiers waiting for them. This time, the soldiers had the advantage. They were about seven of them with more guns than our crew. They decided to fight again when all of a sudden, one of the soldiers turned on his people and started shooting them. Our friends used the chaos to their advantage and took down the rest of them. When everything calmed down, they pointed their guns towards that last standing soldier who helped them out.

  “Please do not shoot…” The guy screamed. “My name is Laith. I mean you no harm.”

  “You are one of the commander’s men. What do you want?” Yazan asked.

  “I want to join you. My family was killed because of Maki Lion’s militias, so I decided to join them and destroy them from the inside. When I saw you were in trouble, I thought I should help.” They guy answered.

  “Why do we have to believe you?” Yazan asked.

  “At this moment, I don’t care who believes what. We need to leave now…” Rain screamed.

  They were all able to leave the Burj and used one of the military hummers to escape.

  “Oh my God, RAIN… What happened to you?” Yazan asked.

  “What? You thought, with all that shooting, no one was hurt? I think the bullet went through. Don’t worry. I’ll live this time.” Rain said while trying to stop the bleeding.

  “On the bright side, Rain is not the only one who got shot.” Samir added.

  “You are bleeding too… You two should have said something earlier…” Mai yelled.

  “The hospital is off limits. I know of a nurse who could help. I will take you there.” Laith, the new guy, said. “We will need few hours of driving up north. In the meantime, keep the wounds coved and stop the bleeding at all costs.”

  “We don’t have few hours.” Mai said.

  “Do you have a better idea? The hospitals can’t even help the civilians. Does anyone have any suggestions?” Laith asked.

  “He’s right. We don’t have a choice.” Rain said as he slowly closed his eyes.

  ---------------------------------------

  When Sidra first arrived to the private island, she was yet to discover one more thing about Rain.

  “So, who are we going to meet exactly?” Sidra asked.

  “One of the businessmen who were sponsoring the project. His name is Shaheen.” Jenna replied.

  “Ok. This better be worth leaving Estil for.”

  Few hours later, at the Siwaar’s headquarters, Sidra finally got to meet the man behind all of it.

  “Welcome... We have not met before. I’m Shaheen Allam. How are you doing?” Shaheen said to both Sidra and Aser.

  “I’m sorry, what? Your last name
is Allam?” Sidra replied.

  “Yes, I know what you think.” Shaheen added.

  “Why do you and Rain have the same last name? Please tell me that you are not his father.” Sidra asked.

  “I’m his uncle. Rain’s father, Hazeem, is my youngest brother.”

  “Wow… Rain lied to me about a lot of things. I wonder what else he lied about.”

  “He never intended to lie to you. He was under restricted rules to not tell you who he really is. I asked him not to tell you for my own reasons.”

  “Of course you did. I believe we came here for a reason.” Sidra said.

  “Of course, you are here about the missing civilian’s airplane. We accidentally shot it.”

  “What? Please tell me that you did not try it the first time on a civilian airplane.” Aser said.

  “We received false information about that plane. The source said that a highly ranked military officer of Estil was on board. We thought it was a great opportunity to launch the project.” Shaheen explained.

  “The project was not complete at all.” Aser said.

  “Please follow me.” Shaheen said.

  Siwaar is the name given to the project that someone had started few years ago. The country had been involved with war for the past century. Then, out of nowhere, it turned into a civil war. As a result, the rates of poverty and ignorance went off the charts. They tried building schools, hospitals, and orphanages, but that never worked. Things were never stable. We either got attacked by random groups or by our own administrations’ militias.

  We had to do something out of the ordinary. So, looking at it, we always had the disadvantage of weapons. Civilians were never able to protect themselves against Estil’s administration. Giving weapons to the people was defiantly never the answer because that would’ve driven the civil war to a darker place. Siwaar is a highly powered satellite. The satellite can turn anything on earth to dust from outer-space. Due to our investors’ connections, we were able to get our own satellites and powered them using radiant material called ‘Dury’. At the time, we did not know that this ‘Dury’ was why so many people had to die.

  “Anyhow, Siwaar cannot be activated without the consent of at least ten people. How did you do it?” Aser said.

  “It worked because it was only set to low power.” Shaheen said.

  “Fair enough...” Aser said.

  Sidra and Aser were asked to work on the final stages of Siwaar. After days of hard work, Sidra was getting worried. She did not hear from Rain or anyone is Estil for days. This was days after they escaped the Burj. As she was talking to Shaheen, she felt the vibration of her cellphone.

  “Oh, my phone is ringing. It is Rain. I’ll be back in a second.” Sidra said.

  She left the room for nearly half an hour. When she came back, Shaheen asked,

  “Is everything ok in Estil? Your face is all red, Sidra.”

  “Yeah, it is. He is... I mean… Let’s just get back to work… I don’t know.” Sidra mumbled.

  “Ok, did you guys talk about anything work related? You know the lines you are using are not secured.” Shaheen said.

  “Don’t worry. It was something personal. Trust me, everything is ok... I think.” Sidra said as she thought, “Did Rain lose his mind? Is he for real? Or maybe it is another one of his lies. No way… He cannot just say something like that. This is crazy… Now, how am I supposed to focus on work after what he told me… He should not have said that… That idiot…”