Agent on a Mission

by Rose Fox

  “Without food, you say?! What about without almost any blood in his body? It’s unbelievable. When we dropped him off he bled like a slaughtered sheep.”

  “I don’t understand what these bastards are made of. These cursed Zionists are strong, damn them! Listen, it’s not funny!”

  A short laugh was heard and someone continued speaking and Abigail listened.

  “Say, did you see that woman they brought with him? That one actually looks pretty weak and she hasn’t got much flesh on her at all. What do you say about her?”

  The voices grew louder, then weakened and faded again. Abigail understood the people were talking about an additional hostage. She thought about what she had heard and that led her to understand things about her situation and about another man being held, who was still alive in spite of his serious injury.

  Abigail was deep in thought.

  The itching of her skin increased and she notice that the worm climbing along the length of her forearm differed from the rest. It was yellow and its movements were slow and she knew it was looking for a suitable place to cocoon itself.

  Abigail whispered, “Don’t do this to me. I won’t get to see you how you change and turn into a butterfly, or maybe I will.”

  * * *

  Adam’s condition worsened. He was hallucinating and making strange sounds. His skin was fiery hot and streams of sweat burst out of every pore in his body and washed over his skin. The smell of his perspiration and the stench of his urine that had dried on his clothes mixed with the bodily excretions that dripped beneath him. The cloud of odor that arose from him attracted swarms of miniscule mosquitos that hovered in circles above his head.

  Two lumps of uneaten dough lay in the sand beside him and convoys of tiny ants came out of their burrows in the sandy wall. The ants marked two black lines on both sides of his head. Every few hours a tired soldier would arrive and holding his nose in disgust poured water into Adam’s mouth but the water spilled out, running and collecting in pools near his cheeks.

  He had lain like this for the last two days and it was clear to his guards that his hours were numbered. They had stopped checking his condition because it was difficult to bear the stench that arose from the hollow where he lay and they sent one of their men to remove some of the filth.

  A soldier stood over Adam, spreading a cloth over his mouth and nose and was obviously finding it difficult to breathe. The fumes of odor were unbearable and he blurted out all the curses he knew. He held a dirty plastic bucket in one hand and a stick with a scoop attached to it in the other. He did his best to keep his arm as extended as possible and swore that if he had to come here again, he would make sure he would bring a longer stick.

  Now he used the scoop to roll turds out of a tear in Adam’s trousers while he mumbled incessantly. He poured sand around Adam’s body and scraped the soft excrement that had spread on the sand as it emerged uncontrollably from his body.

  The soldier held his breath for a minute too long and could no longer contain himself.

  He burst out of the hollow and made for the path. There he took a few breaths that were rather shallow. The terrible stench had also reached here.

  Adam emitted strange, sharp sobbing sounds that resembled the cries of jackals in the night when they bay at the moon overhead.

  A bright light flashed in the distance, instantly disappeared and another soldier came and stood beside the cleaner.

  “What’s up with him?” he said, pointing to Adam.

  The cleaner shrugged without removing the kerchief from his face.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” he said.

  “Hello, you’re Adnan and I’m Jamal,” the man said and extended his arm to shake hands. “Say, do you think he has a chance of surviving?” he asked.

  “Ana mush araf, (I don't know),” Adnan replied.

  “Listen to me now, and let me explain. We want to start interrogating him and we thought that if he says anything, then, perhaps, we should pay attention to his mumbling, especially when he is unconscious.” After a moment, he added:

  “And what’s more, if you get any information out of him for us you’ll be rewarded with holiday leave, I promise you.”

  At that very moment, Adam emitted one of those strange howls and also mumbled a few garbled words. Jamal peeked into the hollow in which Adam lay, nodded towards the man and said to the cleaner:

  “Do you know that this revolting creature lying there is a Qadi? A judge. Yes, he’s a famous judge among the Zionists,” and Adnan gaped in surprise.

  He peeked again to get a better look at Adam and blurted out:

  “That’s a judge? Come on, really, how could that be?”

  “That’s what I heard. They say he’s a clever and important man,”

  Jamal continued and also stared at Adam again, realizing what he was saying and his facial expression illustrated his doubt. It was difficult for them to grasp how this dying creature lying in the hollow in the sand, who had lost every vestige of humanity, had once been the honorable man that had been described to them.

  “What about her?” Adnan pointed the stick with the scoop at the other hollow in which Abigail lay and Jamal sighed.

  “In her case, we really got more trouble than we bargained for. They say she’s deaf and doesn’t turn her head towards any sound at all.”

  He raised his finger in emphasis. “Actually, she was the one who should be dying and not him, because we haven’t gotten a single thing of value from her.”

  Suddenly the earth began to move beneath their feet. They looked at one another and ran to the entrance. They both realized that it was an earthquake and understood that they were likely to be buried alive. When they reached the short ladder that led to the upper level, the earth moved again in an aftershock under their feet. A large block of dirt broke off the wall behind them and rolled onto the ground.

  A heavy lump of earth fell free from the wall beside Adam and stopped close to his body. He opened his eyes for a moment and as the earth trembled beneath him, he woke up. Adam was so exhausted that his mind couldn’t even process how dangerous his situation was and he looked impassively at the twisting dirt walls around him. Minor aftershocks could still be felt but then everything grew quiet again.

  Apparently, in the long corridor, one of the cells in the labyrinth that led to the missile arsenal had been blocked in the earthquake and all the members of the organization went on alert. Clearly this cave was not going to last long and they were likely to lose their prisoners as well as the ammunition concealed in it.

  That same evening Jamal came to the tunnel again, and this time he was accompanied by a doctor. It seemed the doctor had been warned in advance because he arrived with a white plastic mask on his face that covered his nose and mouth. He stood over Adam, knelt down and attempted to assess his body temperature as he used the back of his hand to touch Adam’s skin with revulsion. He realized that he had to take his precise temperature but the thought of having to insert a thermometer into Adam’s filthy, stinking rectum revolted him.

  He placed a small blue metal box on the sand, raised its lid and rummaged around in it using a small wooden stick. He removed a transparent vial filled with murky liquid and held it up in front of his eyes. It was the antibiotic he needed and after snapping off the top of it with a click of breaking glass, he drew the liquid into a syringe. He brought the needle close to Adam’s motionless arm and administered the injection with one easy push.

  Then he found and pulled out another syringe and filled it with a yellow liquid as he mumbled, “this will lower your temperature a little” and grimaced with revulsion.

  He rose and clasped his knees with his hands to loosen the grains of sand that had stuck to them. He made do with wiping his hands on his trouser legs, turned immediately to go down the corridor and hurried to the entrance, into the fresh air, above.

  Adam continued mumbling as he lay in the hot and stale hollow, but after a few minutes he stopped mu
mbling and apparently fell into a really deep sleep.

  Outside the cave, evening fell and the stars came out. A guard came down the ladder, intending to change the existing guard and glanced into the prisoner’s hollow. He expected to find him groaning or unconscious, as usual, and was amazed to see his eyes open and looking at him alertly. The guard blurted out a sound of amazement and disappeared into one of the bends in the corridor.

  Adam woke up and the first thing that penetrated his consciousness was the terrible smell that attacked his nose. He moistened his lips with his tongue and called out in a very weak voice that required him to gather all his strength. “Water! Water! Water, please!”

  His cries drifted off into the air and he strained his hearing to listen to their echo. Suddenly he seemed to recognize other voices. He imagined he heard a woman’s voice calling his name and was certain he was hallucinating. He strained his ear, once more, and called out,

  “Hello, can anyone hear me?” and again heard a woman’s voice. This time it was clear that someone was calling his name.

  Adam made an effort to shout,

  “Do you hear me?” He felt stupid for having called out in Hebrew but well understood the answer that followed.

  “Adam, Adam, I’m here. Where are you?”

  Adam recognized Abigail’s voice and he laughed and cried. Confined by nylon cords, his body trembled. Uncontrollable sobs escaped from his mouth and he was beside himself with emotion. Tears flowed from his eyes and dark spots spread out beside his temples and stained the sand, reaching the convoys of ants and the crumbling lumps of dough lying beside him. Adam was convinced he had lost his mind and that his feverish brain was hallucinating when Abigail called out again.

  “Adam, Adam, answer me!”

  He shouted to her with more forcefulness.

  “Abigail, Abigail, Are you also here? Is that you, Abigail!?

  It was difficult for him to pronounce the words because he was sobbing and his throat was choked up with emotion.

  A worm crawled down his cheek and irritated his skin. He created a funnel with his lips, and blew out his breath in the direction of his cheek as hard as he could. The itching stopped and he presumed the worm had slid off his cheek.

  Suddenly everything looked so good and it seemed he had never felt happier than he was at that moment. Adam fell asleep for several hours, his blood flowed energetically in his arteries and his brain transmitted recovery to his weakened body. The passing time improved his recuperation and speeded up the return of his strength.

  * * *

  Abigail had not seen sunlight for many days. Her brown skin had lost its natural glow and was dull and dry. There were yeast infections between her fingers and toes and light colored splotches marked her dry skin. Her long hair was dry and looked like wild stalks of straw growing wild in the field. When she rubbed her head on the sand, she heard the crackling of her hair and could imagine how wretched her appearance must be.

  A soldier came to her hollow next morning and removed the ropes from her legs, signaling that she could sit. Her hands were left tied to her sides, but the pressure was looser and didn’t hurt her anymore. She saw the peeling skin on her legs and the bruises that had changed color under the ropes that had tied her for many months.

  As the new day dawned, the entrance to the cave was opened several times and many people were heard marching into it. The noise of a motor thundered outside and upset the quiet that had reigned for so many days in the God-forsaken place. Two people approached the hollow where Adam lay. They did not exchange a word, only opened a stretcher, lifted Adam up by his legs and shoulders and placed him on it. After that, they moved away from the hollow and left Adam lying like that.

  When they went out into the corridor they spoke between them and Abigail heard what they said.

  “We have an hour left till we leave and I don’t think it makes sense to cover their heads with sacks yet. We can wait a little with that, right?”

  A different voice responded,

  “Oh, may Allah be praised that we are being released from this stinking job. I wish they would die already because it’s a lot easier to transfer corpses there.”

  Her heart pounded in terror and she wondered, ‘Where is there?’ but a change in location would make no difference to her.

  Adam remained lying on the stretcher. He didn’t understand what the men, who laid him on it, were talking about and thus, was not concerned.

  His mood was especially miserable. New thoughts had suddenly entered his mind. He thought that even if someone was walking around above, there was no likelihood that person would know Adam had been buried alive beneath the sand he was standing on. He was convinced that all was lost and no one would ever find him.

  Then, unexpectedly, the people returned holding a sack and one of them covered his head with it. They picked up the stretcher and Adam writhed, tried to resist and suddenly felt he was sailing on the spot. He felt they had laid his stretcher down and again felt as though he was moving. He heard a muffled noise and when he strained his ear to listen to it, he recognized the sound of pouring sand as well as footsteps running away.

  Adam grabbed at the sack over his head with his teeth and dragged it on the ground until it fell from over his eyes. Now, he looked around but the place wasn’t the same, because the hollow had been made unrecognizable. He smelled fresh sand and he understood that this earthquake was much stronger than the preceding one.

  Memories from many days before came into his mind. He recalled the long cracks that had opened up in the earth in the forest and how the trees and tree tops had moved and were blown like grass stalks in the breeze.

  All at once he sensed movement and beside him a figure crawled on its knees. He recognized Abigail in his fright. Her hands were tied together and she crawled and squirmed her way to him like a lizard.

  Adam closed his eyes and opened them again to be certain he had seen right. Abigail got up on her knees and looked at Adam, who was fearful of the change that had taken place in her. She looked like a shadow, like an injured animal. Her long hair had been dragged across the sand and her pale eyes were wide open.

  “Adam,” she said and breathed heavily. When she reached him, she laid her head on his chest and listened to his pounding heart.

  “Where are they all?” he asked and felt the salty taste of tears that wet his emaciated cheeks.

  “I don‘t know,” she said. Her speech was measured and her voice was hoarse. “Adam, I’m finished. I only barely reached you.” She got to her knees again and said, “come, let’s try and loosen each other’s ropes.”

  She turned on her side, pushed her leg between the ropes and Adam’s legs and he yelled with pain. Abigail stopped and looked at him in bewilderment.

  “That was very painful,” he muttered.

  “We don’t have time, Adam, before they come and find us here. Can we continue?”

  A bright light that came down the corridor informed them that the door had been opened again.

  “Oh, they’re coming. If only we had tried to hide sooner,” Adam said. “We won’t even manage to undo even one knot.”

  “We had no chance of meeting sooner. Come, let’s carry on quietly,” she suggested as she continued pushing her leg against the ropes that encircled his hips and thighs. This time she went to his second thigh.

  The light remained and a buzz of activity could be observed in the damaged tunnel. The entrance was left open and sunlight penetrated every possible corner now. Adam and Abigail could not remember the place being so lit up and full of activity.

  People were teeming around, in battle fatigues and peak caps, running and rushing in all directions as they dragged stuff out of the tunnel. Everything smelled different now and freezing cold came in through the entrance in waves that matched the rhythm of the blowing wind. Adam shivered and his teeth chattered in his mouth.

  Abigail was still trying to free Adam’s legs from the ropes and she grunted with the effort thou
gh, the whole time, she was surprised that no one paid attention to them or even checked on what they were doing.

  At first, one round of rope loosened and Adam was able to free his right knee, the healthier and less painful one. He bent it slowly and then changed the position of his foot, and now one leg was free. He groaned with relief because it had reduced the pressure on his left leg, which was the injured and painful one.

  “Hey, Abigail, how did you get rid of the collar round your neck?” Adam inquired.

  “They released me yesterday and only left my hands tied, as they are now.”

  Adam signaled with his head at the unceasing activity of the people in the corridor. They all carried items in the direction of the entrance and came back empty handed. They carried square wooden boxes and long objects covered with sacks and tarpaulins.

  “It seems as though we’ve been lying in an arsenal.” Abigail exclaimed.

  “That’s for sure. Why do they appear to be moving everything?”

  “They are probably scared of another quake.”

  Abigail tried to pull Adam’s collar with her feet and said:

  “Do you know what I’m thinking? It’s lucky they didn’t send anyone to rescue us till now. We could have been blown to smithereens with all the ammunition they’re moving out of here.” And Adam laughed:

  “Abigail, what are you talking about? Who would rescue us, huh? You’re just daydreaming!”

  “Why?”

  “Come on, really. They gave us up for dead a long time ago. I don’t think they even remember we ever existed,” he added.

  Abigail didn’t respond. His remarks bothered her and she pursed her lips together, forcing herself not to cry. Then she thought that she had become soft and sentimental and she grew angry with herself.

  “Do you know, Abigail, if there’s no chance of getting out of here and all is lost, perhaps we should attempt an escape or, at least, kill some of them. What would be worse?”

  She stared at him.

  “The worst would be if they killed us.”