Abigail – The Avenging Agent: The agent appears again (55 page)

The dark unadorned lobby was almost
empty and she thought it was more like a nightclub, of a kind that didn’t exist
in this country. Karim sat at a bare brown wooden table and he also appeared to
be seeing the place for the first time.

“They have almost no guests,” he
remarked as she sat down.

“That must be why they arranged for us
to talk here,” she replied.

She looked around and whispered:

“Until they change the furniture and the
wallpaper, they will only see guests like us, who seem to be looking for a
deserted rabbit hole like this.”

"It just interests me to know how a
place becomes like this,” he said, and Abigail nodded toward the counter and
said that the reasons were probably there.

A severe-faced woman, all in black,
stood behind the counter.  Her eyes were lowered and the muscles of her face
looked as though they hadn’t stretched for a smile for a very long time.  A
scrawny man stood behind her.  His large mustache hid his upper lip and he
tottered around in his creased uniform as if he were intoxicated.

“I don’t think we can solve their
problem, eh!  What do you say, Madam?”

She smiled because she liked the way he
addressed her and the names he called her.  Her dimples deepened in her cheeks
and he looked at her longingly, musing again about raising the idea of her
joining his family.  Abigail noticed his piercing look and began talking to
change the subject he was preoccupied with.

“I was thinking about what we discussed
this morning and I suppose enormous quantities of water are used to cool and
slow the operation of the reactors.”  And he came to his senses.

“Certainly, but they use heavy water
that absorbs fewer neutrons than that.  Plain water is less efficient and
absorbs more.”

“I understand that I will have a problem
reaching that water.”

“Of course, I would also say that the
chances of that happening are slight because the cooling fluid flows in a
closed circuit within the reactor core and that water becomes radioactive and
poisonous. So, they take every precaution to prevent it leaking from the contaminated
loop.”

“Yes, that’s known as nuclear leakage,”
she said, “but I am asking this.  Let’s say that I make sure that there is a
shortage of cooling fluid by preventing water from entering the system.  What
would happen?”

“Oho, in that case, the temperature
would rise rapidly to the point that the core could melt.”

He put his hand into his kitbag,
signaling with his eyes, and passed her a dark-colored fabric bag under the
table.

“For your protection in the reactor,” he
whispered.

She quickly dropped the bag into her
satchel and snapped the buckle closed.  It took only a matter of seconds, but her
heart leaped when she suddenly saw the scrawny man with the mustache standing
beside them.  His lower lip was stretched into a professional smile.

“What would you like to drink?”

She was silent and when Karim ordered
tea for both of them she received a sharp jolt, identifying negative energy, along
her finger from her ring.  Abigail wondered why.

This time, two glasses of cold water
were added to the tray and when the waiter disappeared, Karim laughed.

“I remembered what happened with the
boiling water at “Café Urmia,” he said and heard that Abigail was
talking to him about the earthquake.

“I hope that there was no significant
damage to the reactor there,” he remarked.

“I don’t understand, you hope the quake
didn’t damage the reactor?  But, isn’t that what I am going to do there, anyway?”

“Fine. We start with the assumption that
the place was not flooded.” He said.  “Because such a situation will refute
what we know about it, and hence upset our plans.”

“Ah, I am curious about the water system
that I am supposed to deal with…” and again saw that his lips were slightly
parted and he was looking at her with desire.

“You aren’t listening to what I’m
saying, what are you staring at?”

“To tell the truth, at you,” and Abigail
blushed with embarrassment.

“I wanted to talk to you about your
situation.” Then he immediately corrected himself. “I meant that you’re alone
and I wanted to suggest that you come and live with us for the meanwhile.”

“No, no.  It really doesn’t bother me. 
Everything is fine, but thanks.”

“I didn’t explain myself correctly,” He
whispered, “I meant that you come and live with us, with Alice and me, just to
try it out, at first.”

“To try out for what?”

He thought how he should tell her how he
really felt and what came out was a confession that angered her.

“Naima, I desired you from the first
moment I saw you when Alice presented you to me.  I mean to say that I want to
marry you.”

Abigail was shocked, she opened her
mouth and closed it again and said at once:

“Karim, your wife is my best friend. 
There is no chance I will agree to take her place.  What’s more she will never consent
to your taking a second wife.”

“Whether she agrees or not, leave it to
me,” he said, happy that for now he hadn’t heard any objection to the idea in
principle, but then, he heard her say.

“I don’t believe you said that.  You,
you…!” She could barely catch her breath.

“Naima, I won’t give up,” he said, “Today,
tomorrow or even next week.  I have for you all the patience it will take.  Just
be aware that you will not escape me, my sweetheart, nor do you have anywhere
to go.”

“What are you saying?!” Her eyes flashed
and the blush on her cheeks intensified.

“I am saying that for now there is no
way you can…” and he did not complete the sentence, but she heard the threat in
his voice and fear crept into her thoughts.

Abigail knew that there was nothing much
that could be done in Iran when a man desires a woman.

“Karim, there is a court and a Qadi and
they pass judgment between us.”

“Is that so, do you know what you’re
saying?"  He laughed out loud.

She pushed her chair back and got up
decisively.

“Where are you going?”

“Outside, to calm down, instead of
sending you there,”

“Sit down, Madam, I suggest that we
speak to Alice and only decide afterward.” He proposed. 

Abigail rose and went outside.  She
didn’t see that the mustached man behind the counter went into the back room
and sent a message, as he had been requested to do.

“The woman walked out and
the man stayed alone.

I will let you know when he leaves.”

            Aslan
received this message and she marked it as the beginning of the operation.

            From
this moment moved off “Yellow Desert” operation of the Iranian intelligence
network. It was launched and had been prepared some weeks earlier, on the day
the two intelligence agents were killed in the Israeli desert.

            The
Iranians had registered success in recent weeks.  They discovered and trapped
eight ‘Mossad’ agents and today, they intended closing the list with Abigail
and Karim.

            Two
were sent to Abigail’s home on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains.  Here,
they set up an ambush, hiding for hours between the conifer trees and thick
undergrowth, as they waited for the owner of the house to return.  Another
group consisting of four people went to the home of Karim and Alice, equipped
with special weapons, but remembering the precise order to take them alive.

            Meanwhile,
Abigail strode along the darkened street.  She looked around her and wondered
how to stop Karim from harassing her.

            She
felt, especially now, that she had lost her husband, that Karim was treating
her like an unattached woman, permitted to any man.  Tears of anger and insult
welled up in her eyes and suddenly, she decided what to do.  She went back into
the lobby and did not notice the surprised look on the sad-looking clerk’s face
and the scrawny man retreated in fright. 

            Abigail
sat down on the chair she had gotten up from earlier and spoke with restrained
rage.

            “I
am still married and adultery carries a heavy penalty in this country.” 

She
ignored, but knew that she might also be punished in the end.

Karim opened and immediately shut his
mouth. He restrained himself from saying that she was a widow, that he hadn’t
yet committed adultery and that she was allowing herself to speak, forgetting
that she was a woman in this country.
  He decided to hold
his tongue because he knew something of Abigail’s character and feared he might
get into trouble with her, so he said:

            “Naima,
my intention today was only to compliment you on your intelligence and beauty.”

            “The
meeting is over for today,” she declared, “but you will go off the subject now,
and you should know that you owe me one.”

            “Whatever
you ask.”

            “Help
me to find out what became of my Karma, because I, myself, will deal with the
people who hurt him in my own way.”

            “But,
Naima, you are in a delicate situation and…”

            “Yes?
very interesting. A mission that would change the balance of power in the world
- this I can do, right?"

            “You
win.  What do you want me to do?”

            “I’ll
tell you some other time but, for now, take me to your home.”

            “You
meant to say, to you, to your home, right?”

            “No,
I meant to say to get to your home, I was not wrong."

            Karim
cringed, fearing she would tell Alice what had transpired, but she read his
thoughts and responded immediately:

            “I
don’t have to come to your house to do that.  I fear that they will try and
hurt me and that they are lying in wait for me near my home.”

            “They? 
Do you have any direction?”

            “Yes,
of course.”

            When
they left and the door closed behind them, the clerk pressed a button that
signaled that the man had also left the hotel.

            They
drove to Karim and Alice’s sumptuous home in silence and before they got out of
the car, she whispered:

            “What
happened between us – never was and never will be.”

            He
stared at her retreating back, her tall and slender figure, and his soul went
out to her.

*
* *

A car was concealed among the trees,
where they had been waiting a long time for this moment.

            Two
men loaded their rifles with special ammunition that enabled them to follow the
instruction to bring them in, alive.  It contained a folded mesh of nylon fiber.
When the bullet will leave their gun's muzzle it will spread out in the air,
When the bullet would leave the gun's muzzle it will spread out in the air, wrapped
around, entrapped and capture the people it was aimed at.

            The
three of them were sitting in the courtyard of the house.  The light was fading
and the sensors of the projector on the wall responded to the dark and
illuminated the yard.

            Now,
the courtyard was completely dark outside the circle of light.  The temperature
sank and cold began to permeate their bones.

“It was sweltering at noon and look how
cold it is now,” Abigail remarked and slapped her arms to try and warm herself.

“let’s take everything away because it’s
impossible to continue sitting here now,” Alice suggested and beckoned to Karim
to help her take away the dishes.

            A
rifle shot was heard and just as Karim put down the tray to collect the plates
on the table a mesh net dropped down from above, spread out, surrounded them
and trapped them like three animals.

            Karim
stumbled, the tray slipped out of his hands, the dishes shattered and their
shards scattered through the holes in the net. Alice screamed when another shot
exploded the projector overhead, that went out, and four figures arose from the
bushes.  The net closed around the trembling and shocked threesome as it was
dragged into the dark, picked up in a combined effort and thrown through the
rear door into the car.

            Alice
screamed hysterically and incessantly asked:

            “Why? 
What have we done?” 

Abigail
was silent, as she tried hard to work out who was behind their entrapment.

            A
soft light illuminated the ceiling of the car and its swaying put Alice to
sleep.  Karim looked like a pale spot and he made a sign to Abigail, drawing
her attention to the lens on the ceiling of the car. It moved like the eye of a
chameleon, indicating that they were under surveillance.

            “They
have gone completely mad,” he whispered, and Abigail pursed her lips to tell
him to keep silent.  Just then the car stopped, the light above them went out,
and the door creaked opened.  The cold seeped in, but no one came.

            Alice
moved and the nylon threads of the net cut into Abigail’s flesh and caused her
pain.  A minute later the three were dragged like a package and Abigail heard
herself screaming in pain.  They were thrown into a sealed bag and hit its
bottom, pressed together and lying in a pile, one on top of the other.

The sickly sweet smell of rotten meat
arose inside it and Alice groaned.  She wheezed and Karim yelled:

            “Alice,
we’re all together with you, try to breathe through your mouth!”

            Abigail
understood that her friend was choking now and didn’t know that she had
suffered from asthma since childhood and was at the peak of an attack at this
moment.

            Suddenly
the bag opened and its sides were pulled down.  A knife cut the mesh and the
three of them fell out with a thud on the floor.  Alice snorted, and from the gray
color of her skin, she appeared to be dying.  She opened her mouth wide to
breathe and her eyes bulged out of their sockets.

            A
woman wearing a galabiya and holding a knife nodded to a short man and he
pulled Alice by her clothes and dragged her away.  Karim remained motionless
and Abigail glanced at him with concern.

            The
woman kicked Karim, who groaned and held the place where he had been kicked. 
When her leg moved in Abigail’s direction, she grabbed hold of it momentarily then
immediately released it so as not to make her fall down.  She looked at Abigail
angrily.  The small man returned and the woman blurted out to him in a language
that was familiar to Abigail – in Arabic, as it is spoken among the Bedouins of
the Israeli Negev, and not Persian.  The woman seemed sure that no one would
understand her remarks.

            “She
looks like a fighter so, we’ll show her right away what we do with people like
her,” then she went back to speaking in Persian:

            “You’re
a despicable criminal, who betrays the country she lives in.”

            Abigail
remained silent. She tried to appear submissive but then, the woman kicked her
in the back with her thick-soled shoe and Abigail doubled over and gasped in agony. 
The woman screamed:

            “You
think you’re a great hero, right?!”

            This
time, when she raised her leg to kick her again, Abigail grabbed the fabric of
her long dress, pulled her hard and the woman fell on top of Abigail and Karim.
She got up slowly and blurted out in Bedouin Arabic:

            “Let’s
skip the initial stages with her and get down to business.  Bring the rope and
tie her to the post,” and Abigail’s heart pounded wildly.

            The
man went out, returned with some rope and they both pulled Abigail by her hair
and pushed her into a second room.  She knew she could overcome them, but she
decided to wait for a better opportunity.  She did not resist when the little
man pressed her to a metal post and tied the rope around her ankles.  The woman
twisted her arms behind her and wound the rope around her elbows and her hips.

            The
man picked up a whip from the floor and in the minutes that followed, flogged
Abigail and heaved like bellows as she counted out loud.

            “One,
two, three,” and Abigail continued his counting, through clenched jaws: 

            “Five,
six,” and he stopped.  He glanced at the woman beside him, whose hands were on
her hips.

            “Let
me take over,” She hissed and pulled the whip out of his hand.

            She
faced Abigail with parted legs, then dropped the whip on the floor and went out
of the room.  She returned with a branch and a cruel smile on her lips. 
Without waiting, she lashed her with the branch and the air whistled out of Abigail’s
lungs.  She continued striking her, holding the branch with both hands. 
Suddenly, she dropped the branch and picked up the whip from the floor again.

            Abigail
sucked in air, her pulse pounded in her head and waves of nausea rose from her
stomach.  The woman aimed the whip. She took care that the straps would wind
around Abigail’s body and close round her neck and torso.  Abigail struggled to
breathe, her shirt was torn and the torn pieces hung down from her, revealing
red welts on her flesh.  Blood began to ooze from her neck.  Abigail gritted
her teeth hard, trying to control her brain and persuade it not to feel pain
until the whip landed on her ear. The pain was so awful that she screamed like
an animal being slaughtered and the woman stopped and stared at her.

            Abigail
felt movement in her belly that reminded her of her pregnancy. Just then, the
woman began beating her again, after having gathered her strength and each lash
sent a chill through her body.  She vomited in a projectile stream on the woman
in front of her and on the floor around her.  She stopped whipping her and
stared at her in revulsion.

            A
dark-skinned man entered the room spraying water and washing the floor.  He did
not relate to what was happening around him. Abigail thought about the blood
and other bodily fluids he was forced to deal with in this room in the wake of
the dead and unconscious people he saw there and a smile rose on her beautiful
face.

            The
woman saw the smile and hinted to the little man, speaking to him in Bedouin
Arabic,

            “Call
him.  I think it’s just the right time for him.”

            The
short fellow hurried out of the room and returned with another man.

            The
man stood for a second, glanced at the people in the room and nodded at
Abigail.  He sat down facing her on a chair that was brought in for him and
said:

            “They
caught you, ha?”

            Abigail
inhaled noisily and snorted with disdain.  She restrained herself to control
her nausea and avoid throwing up again and glanced at him briefly.  The color
of his eyes was unusual.  They were golden.  Then she heard him speak Bedouin
Arabic and she considered whether she should say something in their language to
get closer to them, but decided it was preferable to listen without them
knowing she understood them.

            The
man was Ismat, the Chief Interrogator of the prison.  He had special methods
and was renowned for his successes in cracking obstinacy, and uncovering spies
and enemy agents.

            Today
he had received the report of the capture of the woman with the light-colored
eyes.  He was told that she had been making a mockery of the army and the
spies, who had been pursuing her all over the country.  They delayed the
execution of the eight agents they had seized because he decided to come
personally to get as much information as possible out of her before adding her
to the group of people, who were to be put to death.

            For
the present, he gazed at Abigail and thought how beautiful she was.  He turned
aside to address the woman, who had flogged her, in their language.

            “Why
did you start out with the pole?”

            “Because
she got smart with us and made me fall down.”

            “Oh,
really? Let’s check what else she’s capable of because she’s well-known as…”

            “We
won’t check anything!” she responded angrily, “we’ll carry on from here.”

            “Wait,
what do we know about her relationship with the Ambassador, she was caught
with?”

            “Nothing
at all.  She’s a tourist guide, who met him and it’s fair to assume that she…”

            “Perhaps
they met under other circumstances?  See how unusual she is.”

            The
woman glanced at Abigail with animosity and suddenly drew closer to her and
spat in her face.  Abigail’s pale eyes narrowed threateningly and the woman
slapped her face hard and shouted hatefully:

            “Beast! 
You were sent by the ‘Mossad’, right?

            Ismat
rose and went to her and said at once:

            “Come
on, Aisha, that really isn’t the way to handle her!”

            Abigail
struggled not to smile when she heard her name.

            He
glanced softly at Abigail and smiled at her as if he wanted to calm things down
and had her interests at heart.

            “Untie
her,” he said suddenly, and when the little man hurried to the pole behind her,
he raised his hand to stop him.

            “No,
leave her tied up, and all of you, get out!”  And when they left, he stared at
her for a long time and hesitated. Suddenly he strode up and stood beside her.

            “Where
are you from?” he asked. “How did get to the traitor?”

            Abigail
did not reply but understood what they thought of Karim.

            Ismat
drew closer to her, touched her cheek and softly stroked her chin with his
finger, then her wounded neck and moved gently over her skin that was revealed where
her shirt was torn.  Abigail felt his warm breath on her face, looked at him from
close up, as he almost kissed her lips.  He moved and stood behind her then
quickly untied the rope that bound her arms. When he crouched to release the
tie at her ankles, she felt his hand slipping up the length of her legs, rising
slowly under her dress and she froze.  He suddenly stood up and she felt his
breath on her neck and heard him speak quietly in her hair.

            “They
knew who to send to us, right?  You are stunning, a real beauty, there’s no doubt,
but even a Lilith like you, the wife of Satan, will not succeed in tempting
us.”

            All
at once, his hands trembled, his face reddened and his golden eyes shone.  He
let go of her and rushed out of the room, closing the door behind him and
locking it.  Abigail breathed a sigh of relief and felt nauseous again.  She
hurried to the rusty metal sink in the corner and threw up in it. The sour odor
filled the room, her head began to spin and she leaned against the wall.

A wooden bunk was attached to the wall
and when she sat on it, the cut strips of her clothes gaped open and she saw
her wounds.  Her ear hurt and when she put her hand up to touch her neck, she
saw that her fingers were stained with blood.

            Thin
electric wires passed along the line where the ceiling met the walls, but they
didn’t lead to a device of any kind.  She recalled that no search had been
carried out on her clothes or her person. She had might still the tiny communication
device hidden in her bra, but she made no move to check it out because she was
sure she was under close scrutiny.