by Dawn Kunda
Chapter 16
“Which one of you released our dear friends Jendayi and Re Omar?” Chenzira waived his gun in front of three officials responsible for the guests of his compound.
“We don’t know who was in charge that day. The guard had been killed,” responded the obvious superior as he stood straight and looked at the feet of his boss.
Chenzira swung the butt of his gun against the superior’s face, slicing a thick line down his cheek. “You will find out how they got out and who’s responsible. Otherwise, you will be responsible.”
Lowering his weapon, Chenzira paced the marble floor of his office. Turning back to his men, he said, “As I’m sure you’ve heard, my man failed. When you fail, you die. I’m also sure he didn’t let anyone know his orders were from me. The American embassy had a small detonation as directed when he lost control of his target.” He looked each man in their eyes to assure their understanding.
“Find the Americans. Watch them. Because of the unsettled matter at the embassy, we won’t bring them back for at least a month. Not until things settle down at the American Embassy. After that, I want them here, in front of me, and then I’ll take care of them personally. Jendayi has my mark. She will not leave the country.”
“Sir, I have men on them right now in Alexandria. They are unaware.”
Chenzira’s teeth, unnaturally white, showed as he waived his hand toward the closed door. The men turned and left.
* * * *
“So Alexandria isn’t enough? We can’t get back to the States from here?” Mary spoke with gritted teeth, an attempt to hide her frustration.
“I trust what Grant tells me when he’s not in the office. I’d like to guess that when he’s notified of where we end up he’d send for us.”
“How do you know? How do you know there’s not another leak, that he won’t be able to get us? Nothing has gone as planned so far.” Mary passed a cursory smile to the reappearing bartender.
Cal took ahold of her arm and steered her to the arched exit. “We’ll catch a boat and cross the Mediterranean to…Turkey.”
“Turkey?” She pondered the idea for a moment. “We do have safe houses there.”
“We can’t use those. Too obvious and the first place we’ll be looked for.”
“Probably right. I haven’t noticed anyone, but I’m sure Chenzira will have another of his army following us.” They stepped out of the bistro, turned left and headed for the docks. “If someone is tailing us, we’ll know it before we get off the boat.” She looked up at him, ready to tell him what else she had in her minute bag of belongings, the new safehold for the flash drives.
“The fact that we don’t have any information and couldn’t get what we went to Chenzira’s for may help us with a safer departure.”
“Well…I’m not so sure of that.”
He looked at her quizzically, yet bypassed the comment. “Here, we’re at the boarding office. Stay put and I’ll get our tickets.”
“Cal, I need to…”
“It shouldn’t take long. Watch for unwanted visitors, and I’ll be back.”
She let her shoulders slump as her opportunity to reveal her finding from the compound evaporated. This morning she had the first chance to consider what the memory devices held. All the running and hiding didn’t give her the privacy or opportunity to find a computer and analyze them. It became critical to find out if they had any worth to their operation, or to the United States. At this time, they might be counterproductive to their survival.
It was certain that Chenzira sent a follower, probably many, if the devices held any critical information. She also hoped Chenzira hadn’t found out they were missing, although she doubted it.
Cal’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Mrs. Johnson”—he winked at her upon reappearing at her side—“the next departure is in twenty minutes and we’ll be on our honeymoon.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned in for a sweet kiss. She faltered at the first touch of his puckered lips, wondering if the kiss and Alexandria would both be left behind once they boarded their ride.
She scrunched her eyes and returned the meaningless motion. At this moment, caught off guard, she wanted it all. She wanted the kiss to last for a time equal to the never-taken vacations on her paycheck stubs.
Grabbing her arm, he tucked it under his and led the way to the appointed ship. Twice on the way he whirled her around slowly, as if they danced to their departure. Mary knew he watched their surroundings just as she did.
Chapter 17
Sitting across from each other at a small cocktail table, they had picked the back corner of the lounge seating on the ship.
“In a couple hours we’ll be Turkish tourists.” Cal’s eyes roved the front end of the contained room.
“We’ll need to exchange our money, get different clothes, and then find a place to stay.” Mary absently picked at a loose string on her skirt. “How long till we talk to Grant again and how will he know to receive your call?” She looked up and noticed another male passenger with a different look about him.
The suspicious passenger’s clothes were a poor attempt at tourist style. The coffee colored pants still had fold creases above and below the knees. A darker vest hanging below the waist had many pockets and covered a long-sleeved, faded Henley. He sat alone, repeatedly glancing from a magazine to the other passengers.
“We’ll wait at least ten…”
“To your right.” She interrupted Cal’s explanation. He stopped talking while he focused his eyes on his “bride.” “Male passenger doesn’t fit the protocol and appears to be studying the area.”
“Since he’s already seen us,” Cal swiveled his seat to the aisle, “I’ll introduce myself.”
She watched as Cal walked up to the man to ask him what he was reading. After a brief and seemingly friendly exchange, he returned to their table.
“He claims to be a reviewer of tours. That explains his constant surveillance.”
“We’ve barely left the harbor and already have someone to keep our eyes on.”
“We can only hope there won’t be many more.”
The walls around them had large windows onto the deck in order to view the ocean from inside the cabin. The heat from the sun penetrated the thin layer of glass and warmed the back of Mary’s mane of hair. Her eyes blinked a couple times before she leaned forward and stifled a yawn.
“If you need to take a nap, I’ll keep my eyes peeled.” He touched her hand.
“I shouldn’t. Both of us need to pay attention.” Unguarded, the touch warmed her more than the sun. He pulled his hand back just as she wished for more. Playing out a honeymoon could have its advantages. Too bad it was only for the public’s entertainment.
“No one’s getting on or off, so the scenery won’t change much.”
Conversation became minimal. The many hours together gave them little to discuss in public. The smooth slice of water streaming alongside the boat, the brilliant sun, and the soft rock of the sea caressed her eyelids.
She wasn’t sure if she slept more than five minutes as her mind continued to calculate their situation when she popped up in her seat. An olive-skinned man, not the proclaimed tour reviewer, invited himself to their table.
Cal had his hand near the iron at his hip, always alert for the unexpected.
“The sea tires you?” the stranger asked.
The sleep left her eyes quickly as Cal looked at the man with a smug smile.
“You watched the wrong passenger.” As the stranger spoke, he pulled a hand partially from the covering of his jacket. He gripped a small pistol. After each had viewed the weapon, he let his jacket fall back into place. With his other hand, he pulled Mary’s hair back from her neck. She flinched as he eyed Chenzira’s mark. “You will do as I say and stay with me on arrival, or I will shoot your knees out.”
Mary looked to the empty chair where the tour reviewer had sat, then back at the stranger. Weakly, she said, “We have no
thing that you want.”
“I know better than that.”
Cal glanced from the man with the gun to Mary, then back again. “Your people may be into dying for a purpose, but we’re not. What do you want from us?”
“The flash drives, of course.” The man leaned closer, putting on a false yet friendly face. “Although I’m sure they’re not with you and you’ve already transferred the information. So, I have a better idea.”
Mary felt her stomach tighten, sorry that she hadn’t tried harder to let Cal in on her find. It didn’t matter whether she had the devices or not. Any plans on the drives were surely aborted, yet the probable information still had value. “I’ve sent the information to the United States already.” Sometimes lies were good.
Cal jumped in to play the game of Russian roulette. “We don’t have any information. You’re wasting your time.”
The strange man laughed. “Good try. Even hostages without knees have value. Trust me. You’ll find out.” Becoming serious, his accent thickened as he continued, “As we arrive at port, you will walk five feet ahead of me, side by side so I can shoot whichever knees do not know how to follow directions. Do not hold hands. Do not touch shoulders. Do not talk.”
“We—”
“I said no talking. That was, what do you say, your first strike?” The stranger kicked Cal in the knee.
He grimaced and glanced toward Mary. She stared back, wondering if he knew how sorry she was that she hadn’t told him about the stolen flash drives.
They sat in silence for what seemed to be hours until the boat pulled up to port, docked, and prepared to release the passengers. The stranger didn’t take his eyes off his newfound hostages.
“We will exit at the end of the line. I will direct you as we leave the dock.” He didn’t bother to reveal the gun again. It wasn’t necessary.
As the cabin emptied, the stranger said, “Get up. Let’s go.”
Cal and Mary passed questioning looks.
The stranger stood and waited for the two to get in front of him. At the same time, an older woman and man who also waited for the end of the line, approached. The stranger backed into the aisle a step to allow room for his captives. With another step, the stranger backed into the old woman.
He turned to see what halted his movement. The older woman stumbled and grabbed for his arm. The stranger attempted to keep his hand inside his jacket as he gripped his gun and sidestepped the woman’s feet.
Cal yanked Mary to the side. “Do you trust me?” She snapped her head around, their faces nearly touching. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded slowly, still not taking her eyes off his face. She wanted to find a sign of why he would ask this question and waste time.
The stranger’s attention momentarily focused on the woman grabbing his arm for balance. Without further hesitation, Cal gutted the stranger with his fist and threw him to the floor. The woman barely regained her stance as her husband dragged her to the wall. The stranger kicked his hard-soled shoe into Cal’s shin.
The older woman screamed and her husband clamped his hand over her mouth.
Cal grabbed the stranger’s kicking leg, flipped him over and body slammed him back to the floor. The gun fired. The stranger’s body jolted.
Mary jumped beside the stranger. She reached beneath him to pull the gun from his loosened grip. Blood covered her hand, sleeve, and smeared along the butt of the gun. A bubble of blood gurgled from the stranger’s mouth.
“Shoot him again. Don’t take a chance.” Cal heaved himself off the rebel whose life faded fast.
Mary had a clear shot to the stranger’s back. A deep thud and then another. The silence of the gun didn’t distract from the bullets’ mission as they sank into the soft tissue, either hitting ribs or the floorboards beneath.
The gun remained aimed at the dead body as Cal searched it for weapons, ammunition, and any information he carried. Plenty of ammunition had been tucked into the stranger’s pockets. A few crumpled bills remained in his pants pocket. It wasn’t a score as the former assailant carried. The only information came in the form of a torn note with the word “Inked” handwritten in sloppy English.
The older man dared a few steps forward. With a high-pitched voice wavering with fear, he pleaded, “What is going on? Don’t kill us. We’re on an anniversary cruise.”
Cal faced the older man as he twisted his hands and looked back and forth from the dead body to Cal and Mary still holding the gun. She wiped the blood off with a dessert napkin. The woman began to sniffle and wipe her nose with a tissue that she pulled from her sleeve.
“To stay out of danger, forget what you saw,” Mary informed the couple as she tucked the gun into her waistband. Cal transferred the money and note into his own pocket. He shoved the weaponry and ammo into Mary’s shoulder bag.
“Who are…?”
Cal and Mary ignored the gentleman’s question and dashed for the cabin door. As the afternoon sun slammed their eyes outside the cabin, they paused to get their bearings.
As casual as any tourist, Cal laced his arm into Mary’s and led her to the dock. Her heart beat remained at a freeway speed, which made her feel they moved unnaturally slow. She wanted to run off the dock and out of sight.
Looking underneath his sunglasses, she saw the glint of urgency in Cal’s dark eyes. As they reached the crowded dock, assuming the role of real tourists peering around for their first taste of Turkey, Mary felt her heart calm as it neared the finish line. Soon they’d be off the dock and into the seaside city of Antalya, Turkey.
Over one million residents, the beautiful, historic, and political city of Antalya would hide them well. “I hear sirens.” She cautiously glanced back toward the boat.
“They’ll stop at the ferry before looking for us. We need to keep moving into the city and find a place to stay for a couple weeks until Grant gets us back to the US.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her through the crowd as the sirens grew louder.
Chapter 18
Cal wouldn’t be surprised if more of Chenzira’s men had been flown in, assuming the man he just killed was one, and stationed before he and Mary arrived to port. His eyes scanned the slowly moving people on the wharf as he shuttled her toward the exterior.
“There’s an information booth.” He disengaged his arm around Mary’s waist as he headed for the kiosk. Turning back, he instructed, “Sit on the bench in the shade. I’ll be right back.”
He waited until she positioned herself, and then rounded the booth to approach the attendant.
A few minutes later, he returned. “Did you see—”
“No. I don’t think anyone followed us so far,” she answered before he finished asking.
“I found a large tourist hotel about ten kilometers from here. There’ll be a lot of visitors to hide us.”
“Good. I’m getting tired.”
“We need to talk, too, when we get there.”
She looked at him with tired, curious eyes.
“Naturally, we’ll fill in the gaps on how we’re going to live until Grant sends for us, but we also need to talk about…us.” He watched her expression change from mild anticipation to concern. “You agree, don’t you?”
“What’s there to talk about?”
He clenched his teeth, knowing that she was fully aware of the subject he just broached. “Let’s get a cab and we’ll talk in our honeymoon suite, Mrs. Johnson. Actually, I changed it to Mrs. Hansen for the rest of the ride.” He added that as a conciliatory jab for what she put him through, for the mangled nerves and emotions he briefly visited when so close to her. When he took a moment’s respite to consider more than the job at hand, she drove him more nuts than the turmoil of illegal arms, terrorists, and the imminent danger hovering over their heads.
When they arrived at the hotel, it appeared to house average income tourists. The flowerpots out front were jammed with colors and ferns only the Mediterranean coast could sustain, yet the pots had tiny cracks and flaws
. The tiles leading to the front door had been swept clean. A few weeds sprouted through the cracks. The hotel, still charming and comfortable, caught the eyes of various vacationers as they passed by and chatted about their vacations with smiles and laughs.
He produced a key after a quick visit to the front desk. After entering the second-floor appointed room, he took her hand and positioned her on the edge of a double bed. “First, I’ll sleep on the floor. Don’t worry, I don’t expect anything. This just appeared better for honeymooners. Not having two beds, I mean.”
She nodded as he listed the amenities and confirmed they wouldn’t use the small terrace. “So we live here and you’ll call Grant in a couple weeks?”
“That’s the plan right now. We can update it if necessary, of course.”
Her shoulders relaxed as she leaned back on to the bed.
“We’re not done talking, yet.”
“That’s right. You’re worried about…about us, I gather.” She pulled up on her elbows.
“I’m not worried. I want to know what you’re thinking.” He walked to the side of the glass doors to the terrace and glanced around. Turning back to her, he continued, “First, on the boat when I asked you if you trust me, your nod wasn’t very convincing. I need to know that you trust me.”
“Of course I do. We’re both here and alive. You could’ve fed me to the wolves, or the strange acquaintances we’ve come across instead of bringing me with you.”
“That’s not entirely what I’m talking about. I certainly hope you trust me as far as the job goes, otherwise we can’t work together. But more than that…”
“You want to know if I’ll invite you to this bed tonight.”
He remained silent, then spoke, “It’s not only sex, Mary.” She put her head down. “We’ve had a few rushed and incomplete moments. I want to know if that’s all there is.”
