Abigail – The Avenging Agent: The agent appears again (58 page)

            All
was already dark when the train stopped at the station in Baku.  She knew it
was still a long way to Bushehr and she debated how to continue the journey.

            The
train left and Abigail thought of boarding a different one or even proceeding
by sea. She decided to check it out, shrugged her shoulders and walked towards
the shore.

            At
the shore, she breathed in the salty sea air, took off her shoes and dug her
bare feet into the grains of sand.  She felt the warmth was left inside the
sand from the ended day's sun.

            In
front of her, dots of light winked from distant ships and the shadows of
fishing vessels rocked on the water.  The wind changed direction and turned
cold and Abigail shivered.

            Light
was projected on the sand from buildings in the distance.  Voices, music and
laughter coming out of them reached her ears.  Abigail thought about going to
them. Perhaps she could arrange to sail on a ship there, but she feared it
might be a gathering place frequented by shady characters.

A sudden idea entered her head that she
might get help from people familiar with navigation and sailing.  They might
have heard or seen someone that would provide the missing piece of the puzzle
she needed with regard to Karma’s disappearance at sea.
She carried on barefoot, and when she reached the line between light and dark,
the voices grew less audible.  She realized they must have noticed her but, a
minute later the wild singing was renewed, and the authoritative voice of a
woman rose above it.

“Hey, you there, come here!  It’s warm
here and we’re having fun!”

Abigail went ahead, swinging her shoes
in her hand.  When she entered the circle of light, the voices grew still
again.  In the background, a song continued playing that told of a woman
abandoned on a beach, crying and filled with longing for her sailor, who sailed
away at dawn.

A large, full-bodied woman, wearing a
dark galabiya, came and pulled her into the building.  The smell of fish filled
her nostrils and made Abigail nauseous and she pulled her hand away from her,
slipped outside and threw up in the sand.

Now, she felt embarrassed to return and
found no relief from the dizziness.  It was also so cold that she returned to
the building and apologized that she was feeling ill.  The large woman pushed
her with her elbow and shouted out loud:

“Oh, oh, what did you drink?  Tell us. 
Don’t be shy,” and she laughed out loud.

In spite of her size, she swayed and
swung with great charm, shaking her big hips to the beat of the melodies and
the laughter of the people around her.

Abigail’s legs trembled and she sat on a
wooden chair.  Someone put a warm pita in front of her and she tore a piece out
of it with her teeth, chewed it and felt relieved.  The woman leaned against
the wall and stared at her from there with curiosity and suspicion.  Abigail
stared back at her and asked quietly if there was a ship sailing to the town of
Naka.  She took care not to mention her final destination – Bushehr, the town
adjacent to Naka.

“Naka?  If I’m not mistaken, my Ian
leaves tomorrow for San, which is close to Naka,” the woman said.  "That
rascal is asleep in the hut above, but don’t worry, when he gets hungry enough,
He’ll come down here.”

The last thing Abigail could possibly
have known was that Ian was the man who had shot Karma and pushed his car into
the water

Abigail was dead tired.  She rested her
arm on the table, laid her head on it and fell asleep after a minute. The
laughter and the shrill music did not disturb her.  Nor was she bothered by the
stamping feet of the men who got up to dance and hop to the loud music and
added drunken, out of tune voices to the songs.

The music stopped at three in the
morning and the last stragglers departed, leaving empty plates and papers
strewn in every corner.  No one gave a thought for Abigail, who was still
asleep at the table.

The gray morning of a new day began
uncertainly and illuminated the filth and discarded bottles lying around that
bore witness to what had gone on here yesterday.  Abigail woke up.

An icy
wind blew in
from the sea, whining and shaking the shreds of curtains hanging over the murky
window and nausea rocked her stomach. The smell of burning oil intensified it,
but she was so hungry that she stood up and followed the trail of the smell and
saw a large, really enormous man.  Muscles bulged on his broad arms and hinted
at his strength and the pan he shook over the fire, looked like a toy in his massive
hand.

“May I join you for dinner?” Abigail
asked and burst out laughing when the tough looking guy jumped in fright and
almost dropped the pan.

“Hey, Madam, you shouldn’t do that!” his
voice thundered.

She was still standing in the doorway
when she noticed the tattoo on his arm that nudged her memory.  It was a
drawing of a snake climbing up the tendrils of a vine.  He invited her to sit
on the only chair there.  From behind her she heard the dragging of legs and
the large woman, who had welcomed her the evening before, entered the kitchen. 
When she saw Abigail, she paused for a second and turned to speak to her in an
angry tone.

“Hi, good for you, Madam, have you woken
up?  I see you knew exactly where to go, ha!”

“Don’t pay attention to her, my beauty,”
the man roared, “Crazy Eileen is jealous as usual.”

“No problem, Ian, have you forgotten?! 
I have Salamas, who is always ready to take your place.”

Abigail’s mouth dropped open and she
asked at once:

“Salamas?  Is he here?”

Ian pointed to Abigail and shouted at
the woman:

“Here, if you please, do you see what
good taste Salamas has?  He’s no idiot and that’s a fact!”

“This is my husband,” Eileen stated and
narrowed her eyes when she looked at Abigail,

“You don’t really know, Salamas, do
you?”

“No, not really,” Abigail hurriedly
replied, trying to avoid getting involved in the couple’s argument. 

On this moment she recalled the drawing
on the two jugs in the basement of the mosque on her wedding day and the tattoo
Karma had seen on the arm of the motorcyclist who attempted ride into him and
San in Arizona.
  She took a step back and her eyes
opened wide.

“See how you’ve frightened our guest,”
Ian roared, “Shut up, woman!”

Abigail stared at the man and saw with
horror that a turquoise star shone on the back of his hand between his thumb
and index finger.  She realized that she was facing a bitter enemy, a member of
the ‘Kaukab’ and the very thought of that shook her.  She wondered whether to
stay or go but, Ian seemed to be warm and understanding towards her and his
pleasant demeanor prevented her from categorizing him as an enemy.

She decided to ignore the warning signs
– an error she would have reason to regret.

Abigail sat down to their meal and when
they finished eating, he shouted in his loud voice:

“Eileen, we’re leaving!”  And, speaking
more gently to Abigail, he said:

“Come, my lovely one, let’s get on our
way!

Eileen boiled with rage.  She waited a
few minutes, then called Aziz, the Number Three man in the ‘Kaukab’
organization. She told him that a woman arrived last night, who had joined Ian
aboard the ‘Urmia’ and whose destination was Naka.

“So, what?” Aziz tried to understand.

“Nothing, I just thought it was strange…
she knows Salamas, and she’s also gorgeous, so…”

“What does she look like and why did she
come to your station at night?”

“I don’t know, but I noticed her making
eyes at my Ian.  She’s tall and has almost colorless eyes and…”

“Oh, Eileen, you’re the best!  We will
deal with this immediately” and before they finished talking, she hear Aziz
announce:

“You can sleep peacefully. Ian will be
all yours and won’t leave you for that woman with the translucent eyes.”

He called Hussein right away and
exclaimed joyfully:

“You won’t believe this!  That bitch has
fallen into our hands.  Do you remember the one who got away from Aisha and
Gerard at the prison of the condemned?”

“Is that so?  Have you caught her?”

“Almost.  Right now she’s on Ian’s ship
and I’m going to inform him who he has with him and to send a helicopter to the
Naka port with at a unit of at least six men, to be led by Abas.”

“Hey, a helicopter plus six?  Aren’t you
overdoing it?”

“Pal, I’m not taking any chances.  I
don’t plan to lose her this time.”

“If she’s really the woman, who escaped
from that prison, I doubt if six men will be enough.  They said that she returned
and tried to save two of the others, as well.”

“Are you being serious?!  How did it
end?”

“We killed one of them and the other was
already dead, so she left them and got away.”

“Smart, she left us with the dead bodies,”
Hussein added.

Aziz sent a message to Ian, at once.

“Call
back.  You’re in big trouble.”

       
Ian
read the message.  Tense and strung out to the limit, he called Aziz.

            “What
now? What trouble I got into?”

            “It
seems you have someone on your ship that everyone is looking for and who
apparently saw what you did to the driver and the car on the ferry.”

            “Who
saw, who spoke?”

            “The
wife of the driver you pushed into the water.  She’s with you and it appears
that our Salamas drove her to Baku, not knowing who she is, of course.”

            “So,
how do you know?”

            “We
talked to your wife.  She told us that a woman, who matched her description,
came to your station.”  At that moment, Ian calmed down.

            “On,
come on, my wife, really!  Okay, let’s hear her description.”

            “That’s
exactly what we wanted to verify with you.  Is the woman tall, with large
light-colored eyes and deep dimples in her cheeks?

            “What?! 
I don’t believe it!  That bitch is on my ship.  Good thing you called because I
will reach Naka in about ten minutes.  That’s where she asked to get off.”

            “If
it is her, you had better be careful, Ian.  She’s excellent fighter and kills wisely,
with her bare hands.  According to what we know, she’s unarmed and nothing can
deter her.”  He paused and then, added:

            “Yes,
she’s the one who escaped execution from our prison.”

            “Is
that so?”  Ian tried to match the warnings he was hearing right now to the
woman, who had arrived last night and it just didn’t ring true to him.

            “Now,
I’m really confused.  The woman who boarded my ship looks delicate and Eileen
told me she vomited yesterday and slept all night in…”

            “Ian,
you’ve been warned – take care and what is most important – don’t let her get
away again because she is wanted by the Revolutionary Guards for pulling off
many attacks!”

            This
conversation took place on the deck, far from any eyes or ears.  Now, Ian
leaned on the metal railing of the bridge and stared at the approaching shore. 
He wondered how he would be able to work up sufficient anger with such a frail
and beautiful woman, and regard her as a brilliant unarmed fighter, who was
apparently also very dangerous.  On the other hand, he didn’t want to take any
risks and get into trouble.  To remove responsibility from himself, he called
the Coast Guard.

            “I
want to report the possibility that I have a guest on board my ship, the ‘Urmia,'
who is a woman wanted by our Revolutionary Guards.  It is said she escaped from
their condemned prison.”

            “What,
what?” Tall, with light-colored eyes?  Are you certain?  How did she board your
ship?  What’s her destination?” the man panicked on the other end of the line
and Ian also grew tense.

            The
Naka shore was unique.  There were rocks on the sea bed that had been formed
from shell shards over tens of thousands of years, that did not rise above the surface
of the sea,  Ships had to be maneuvered to avoid them.  Ian was familiar with
each and every rock, but submarine rock formations had collapsed in the recent
earthquake a week earlier and had relocated, or new ones had formed that he was
still unfamiliar with. He had heard that ancient buildings on the Naka coast,
to which he was sailing, were destroyed and only some of their walls remained
standing.

            He
leaned over the metal railing and surveyed the sea, trying to look out for
groups of rocks and white coral masses and jumped when he heard Abigail’s voice
behind him.

            “Ian,
I thank you for the maritime lift.  I understand we’ve reached the shore.”

            He
turned around and found she was standing right beside him. He recalled Aziz’s
remarks:  ‘Tall, large light-colored eyes and dimples in her cheeks’, and just
then, she smiled and the dimples deepened in her cheeks.