Saving Sophie: A Novel (33 page)

Liam leaned forward and talked softly. “If you can get a van, and maybe one other guy, I can grab Sophie on her way home from school. I’ve been thinking about it. The street’s wide-open. Five blocks from al-Zahani’s. Only one man comes to walk her home. We’d have the element of surprise and we can get her back to Jerusalem before they know what’s going on.”

Kayla delicately poked her fork into a slice of melon. She did not look up or respond.

“Did you hear me? I can get her. This is a simple operation. I just need someone to detain the bodyguard. You’ve got friends in Hebron, friends with assault rifles who like to stop people and ask for IDs. Maybe take them in for questioning. We get Sophie, she goes home to her aunt, and the threat of paying millions to terrorists is over.”

Kayla’s eyes were focused on her plate of fruit. She pushed the slices around with her fork. Finally, she raised her face. “We can’t do that. We have to let this play out.”

“What?”

“It’s too soon to break the operation.”

Liam put his fork down. “I should have figured. Damn it, Kayla, we can rescue that girl.”

She put her napkin on the table, walked to the railing, and pointed to the city. “Look, Liam, there’s almost a million people out there. And somewhere in Hebron, there’s a terrorist ring planning a horrible act. We don’t know all the members or what they’re planning. How and when will they strike? Is it already in place and are they just waiting for the okay? Where will the strike be? Sophie gives us a reason to get close to them. She opens a door into the organization. She gets us inside the walls. If we pick her up now, snatch her off the streets, we’ll lose any chance at further dialogue. And they’ll realize you weren’t just some PI from Chicago.”

“Just some PI?”

“They’ll know the Agency’s involved. We’ll likely force the group further underground. We’ll never learn who they are or what their plans are until it’s too late.”

“So, it’s never been about the money or the girl. You’re just using me to get close to the terrorists.”

“Not true, it’s also about the money and we do care about the girl. But don’t you see? There’s a jihadist cell planning a deadly operation and I can’t let it go down. Look out there.” She waved her arm across the horizon. “There are thousands and thousands of innocent people going about their daily business. Women, children, tourists, Muslims, Jews. Whatever al-Zahani’s group is planning will endanger all their lives, and I don’t know enough to stop it.”

“How do you know, Kayla? How do you know this group is planning anything at all? How do you know they’re not meeting to play checkers?”

“Because they’ve done it before. This very group of bastards has killed innocent people before.” Kayla’s voice caught in her throat. “And I need for them to pay for what they’ve done.”

“You can’t make this personal, Kayla.”

Kayla clenched her fists. “Personal? Are you serious? Mass murderers killing innocent people indiscriminately are personal to me and should be to you as well. Terror for the sake of terror, in furtherance of a political agenda, is personal to me. Murder behind a pretense of holy war is personal to me and should be to anyone. And it isn’t only what they’re doing to their enemies, the so-called infidels or settlers, it’s what they’re doing to their own people, the millions of Palestinians who deserve better, like the folks we saw at lunch. It should make you incensed. Everyone should be outraged until there are no more terrorists.”

She turned and faced Liam. “Israel is a speck of land. Take away the Negev Desert and it’s half the size of Vermont. You could fit ninety Israels into Saudi Arabia alone. It’s a jewel in the desert and they had no part in building it. Yet it sticks in their craw. These Islamist militants, these jihadists, they just can’t let it be. And there won’t be peace, Liam, because they don’t want peace. They want this jewel. They want to loot it, demolish it, and eradicate it, until there is no more State of Israel. No more Jewish homeland. And what would be next for them? Peace? Not a chance. In this part of the world, civil war always follows so-called liberation. Look at Egypt. Look at Iraq. Look at Syria. Lebanon. Yemen. This entire region will be a battleground, and maybe that suits the Sons of Canaan just fine.”

She grabbed Liam’s arm. “I need you to play out your role as a private investigator trying to set up a ransom for the release of your client’s daughter. Your cover is the perfect excuse to get close to al-Zahani. And not just al-Zahani, but whoever is the mastermind. It gets us inside the walls. But it serves your quest as well, because you’ll get closer to Sommers. I believe your assignment was to recover the money?”

“As you may remember, thanks to you, my assignment was broadened.”

Liam’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked at the number and nodded.

“Mr. Taggart. This is Jamal Abu Hammad. I have some interesting artifacts from Hebron I’d like to show you.”

“I can be there in half an hour.” Liam looked at Kayla and raised his eyebrows. “Abu Hammad. He’s learned something.”

F
IFTY
-T
HREE

D
ANI AWOKE ON A
hospital bed with an IV in his arm, hooked up to a patient monitor measuring his heart rate, respiration, oxygen, blood pressure, and temperature. He pulled at his blue hospital gown, tied in the back. A nurse sat beside the bed.

“Wh-where am I?”

“You’re at the clinic.” She smiled brightly. “Dr. al-Zahani said you fainted and he brought you here. You were very dehydrated so we’re giving you liquids.”

“I don’t remember that. When can I go home?”

She smiled and smoothed his covers. “The doctor will be here soon.”

A few minutes later, al-Zahani walked in. “Well, how’s the patient doing?” he said to them both.

“I think he feels better,” said the nurse.

“I’m fine. How did I get here? I need to go home.”

Al-Zahani sat on the corner of the bed. “Dani, the best we can tell, you have a bad case of the flu. You fainted at the apartment and were quite dehydrated. Don’t you remember?”

He shook his head. “I remember walking to the apartment, but that’s all. My mother doesn’t want me to…”

“We know that, son. It’s quite all right. You told us before you fainted. You had a fever of one hundred and two, which we have managed to bring down. Has anyone else in your family been ill?”

Dani shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. My mom said she didn’t want me to…”

“We know. You already told us. It’s fine.” Al-Zahani patted Dani on the arm. “We’ll give the honor to someone else. When you’re better, you’ll come back and guard the door. You can go home in a little while, after we finish hydrating you, but I want you to keep an eye on how you feel. If you start feeling bad again, I want you to call me right away. Okay?”

“Sure, Doctor. Thanks.”

Just then, al-Zahani’s cell phone buzzed.

“She’s gone, Arif, Lubannah said in a hurried, hysterical voice. “Bashir went to her room to take her to madrassa and she wasn’t there. We looked all over the house. She’s gone. She’s not here. Oh, I’m so worried.”

“She’s not gone, Lubannah. She’s just hiding in the house somewhere.”

“You’re wrong, Arif. Her stuffed bear is also missing. She took it with her. She’s run away, I tell you.”

“Stop crying, woman. Put Bashir on the phone.”

Al-Zahani could hear Lubannah’s footsteps, her calls for Bashir, her intermittent sobs. “Oh, my little one, my little Sophie,” she cried.

Al-Zahani shook his head.

“Yes,
Sayyid,
” Bashir said.

“Are the gates closed?”

“Yes,
Sayyid
.”

“Have they been closed all morning?”

“Since you left, sir.”

“Has the wall fallen down?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then she’s still there. Find her, Bashir. Make certain she does not go into the laboratory. Post a guard at the lab door. Immediately. Then search the grounds.”

“Yes,
Sayyid
.”

“I will be home later.”

“Shall I call you when I find her?”

“No. Just put her in her room and lock the door. I’ll deal with her when I get home.”

“Madame al-Zahani has asked if you are coming directly home.”

“Tell her no. I have important appointments all afternoon.”

F
IFTY
-F
OUR

A
BU HAMMAD HELD THE
cup to his lips and inhaled the vapors of the tea. “As I had promised you, I put out a fishing line to see what I could catch. I let it be known that I heard a man was willing to pay a royal sum for the little girl’s return to her father. It did not take long for the comment to make its way to Fakhir, the baker, which did not surprise me. I know him to be one of Arif’s close associates. Fakhir called on me last night. Of course, I could only tell him what I had heard, a pure rumor, you understand. Nothing more. Millions of dollars for the return of a child. Who knows if such a thing is true? Fakhir laughed it off. I, myself, pretended to laugh as well and retired for the night.

“Early this morning, Fakhir walks into my shop.” Jamal pointed his arthritic finger. “He sits right there. He says, ‘I have also heard rumors, Jamal, about five million dollars.’ I say, ‘Why do you tell
me
this?’ He shrugs. ‘You say you heard rumors. I pass along further rumors, that’s all,’ he says. ‘People say, if we are to believe the rumors, if a father loves his daughter so much, he would come to Hebron himself and bring five million dollars. Not merely make rumors on the street. That is the only way a man like Arif would even consider returning a little girl. And such a transfer should never be a public event or involve strangers. No one could ever expect a man like Arif to hand his precious little granddaughter over to anyone but the father himself. Alone. It would surely be too traumatic for the little one to have others involved. Pure rumors, you understand, but that is what I have heard.’”

Liam stared quizzically. “You believe him?”

“Do I believe that Arif gave that message to Fakhir? Yes. Do I believe he intends to relinquish the girl? No.”

“Al-Zahani insists that Sommers bring him the money alone? Does he expect Sommers to walk down the streets of Hebron with a wheelbarrow full of money?”

A deep laugh resonated from Abu Hammad’s chest. “It is a question I raised myself. Fakhir responded that the details can always be worked out between reasonable men.”

Liam stood to leave. “Sounds like Sommers would be headed to the gunfight at OK Corral.”

Abu Hammad shook his head. “Is that a movie?”

“It is. An old cowboy movie with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.”

Jamal smiled. “
Old
is a relative term in this store. But I will look for it on Amazon.” Abu Hammad held the door for Liam. “It should go without much more discourse that Arif cannot be trusted.”

“Understood.”

Abu Hammad reached for Liam’s hand, placed a small, dark coin in his palm, and closed Liam’s fingers around it. “This is a Judean coin, almost as old as these hills.”

Liam examined the beaten and misshapen disk, a chalice on one side and a tree on the other. “Thank you.”

“May the branches of the olive signal peace for this troubled land and may we all drink sweet wine from the cup when it arrives. Godspeed, my friend.” Jamal watched Liam leave, then closed and locked his shop door.

Back at the hotel, Liam explained his visit to Kayla. “Abu Hammad told me that al-Zahani wants five million dollars in exchange for Sophie.”

“Wants? There was never a deal in place? Strange. Sommers embezzles the money two months ago, and there’s still no deal? What was this whole embezzlement thing about if not to ransom Sophie?”

Liam shrugged. “Maybe Sommers was just a pawn.”

“Evidently. But the money is somewhere, and Sommers either controls it or knows where it is. In any event, Abu Hammad has given us good news. The door is now open. What are the terms of the exchange? How and when are you supposed to deliver the money?”

“That’s the tricky part. Al-Zahani will only make the exchange in Hebron directly with Sommers, who he says must come alone.”

“With Sommers? Why does he care whether it’s Sommers or someone else who hands over the money?”

“Well, he says it’s because Sophie’s so precious, he doesn’t want to turn her over to anyone but her father.”

“He loves her so much that he kidnaps her but will return her for five million dollars?”

“It’s pretty obvious. He intends to kill Sommers and keep the money.”

“No doubt. But now we have a problem. Without Sommers, we can’t maintain the façade or play out the exchange. He’ll know it’s an Agency operation. He’s not stupid. We need Sommers and we have no idea where he is.”

Liam smiled smugly, a broad smile, and fluttered his eyelashes.

“You bastard.” Kayla put her hands on her hips. “You know where he is. You’ve been holding out on me. How did you find him?”

Liam folded his arms across his chest. “Impressed, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah. Where is he?”

Liam wagged his index finger. “I found him. I call the shots.”

“Agreed.”

“I want this in blood. I’m the first one to make contact. I don’t want to lose him. I have a job to do.”

“Liam, I agree, you make the contact.”

Liam nodded. “I’m pretty sure he’s in Hawaii.”

Kayla sighed. “So are a million other people.”

“I know who he’s staying with.”

“And an address?”

“No, but I’m sure you spies can come up with her address.”

“Then we need to return to the States and set up our trip to Hawaii. There’s nothing more we can do here.”

*   *   *

“C
AT, IT’S ME.”

“Hi, me.”

“We’re coming home.”

“Oh, that’s fabulous. I’ve missed you. When do you get in?”

“I’m not sure exactly, sometime tomorrow. We leave Israel late this evening. Unfortunately, I’m coming back empty-handed. No Sophie. No money.”

“Oh, I’m sorry you weren’t more successful.”

“Well, not so fast. We made a little headway.”

“The last thing you told me was that you were going to meet with the shopkeeper. Was he able to find out anything more?”