Chapter 19
632 Words
Chapter 19“Khalid,” Pierre yelled between gasps for air when he arrived at the terrace of the little café. “They’ve got her. They’ve taken her away, right in front of the apartment. I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop them. They looked like police officers in plain clothes.”
John looked flabbergasted.
Khalid didn’t move from his seat. He was seething. He said quietly, “I know. It was either that or being killed in front of your eyes. I’m sorry you had to go through this little episode. Sit down and have breakfast.” Khalid put his elbows on his knees and stared at the ground. He had driven Talya through the desert to escape Osnoir’s capture and now that she was home, her own people had taken her from him. He was not about to accept...
“Khalid, what’s going on here?” Pierre questioned, taking a seat beside John. “And what did you mean by ‘it was either that or getting killed’?”
“Mark confirmed there is a contract on her, that’s what I meant. And from what you’ve just told me, she is now under protective custody and it will be that way until I intervene. If I can.”
“I don’t believe this. Do you mean that her own government has taken her by force to protect her? How can they do that?”
“They can, and they have. They took her into custody and she’ll be kept in Ottawa, or somewhere else, until the dust settles or until Mark gets the upper hand on the contract...”
“And how long is that going to take?” John asked, finally opening his mouth.
“I don’t know. Mark will be in a better position to tell us that when he gets here tomorrow,” Khalid replied.
“But why, why didn’t you come to the apartment, if you knew what was likely to happen?” To Pierre, it seemed utterly unbelievable that Khalid could sit there and apparently do nothing. His French blood was reaching the boiling point.
“And then what? It would only have delayed the inevitable and tied my hands. As it is I can do something to help her – officially.”
“Gees, I’m sorry, I almost forgot,” Pierre suddenly exclaimed, “Talya had a message for you, Khalid.” The latter switched his glance from the ground to look at Pierre fixedly. “She said something like, ‘it’s only five hours away,’ that’s what she asked me to tell you. Does that make any sense? She didn’t know what was going to happen when she said it, though. We were in the elevator coming down from her apartment.”
“Pierre, this is extremely important; I need to hear exactly what Talya said, please.” Khalid had grabbed a pen from his jacket pocket and was now ready to write Talya’s cryptic message on his napkin.
“Well it sounded like what I said; ‘it’s only five hours away’...”
“Now think – are those her exact words?”
“No, not really, but what she said didn’t sound right. She said, ‘Tattoos will be only five hours away’. It’s that first word I didn’t quite understand.”
“Well let’s see what we’ve got.” Khalid wrote the words down.
“Tattoos will be only five hours away.”
It took him a few minutes to unscramble the letters and to put them in a meaningful version of Talya’s message, “How every bait will fly to Nassau too”. He handed the napkins to Pierre. He looked at the phrase not knowing what it could mean. He passed it to his companion.
“What does that mean? Nassau is in the Bahamas, that’s all I can see that would have any relevance with any of this.”
“The message tells a lot more than just mentioning a place,” Khalid said, smiling and stretching his arms above his head.
John looked at Khalid pensively. “There is one thing that I’d like you to explain, though. From all I’ve heard in Paris and what you said earlier, Talya has located the head of the cartel in Miami, so why Nassau now? Nassau is not Miami, as far as I know...”
“Hold on a minute...” Pierre perked up suddenly. “There is another Nassau...”
Both Khalid and John looked at the pilot – intent on what he was saying now.
“Yes..., when you mentioned Florida, it reminded me there is a county named Nassau in that State. Maybe, that’s what she meant.”
- Writer
