Authors: Emma Taylor
He moaned. She felt him pump something warm inside her. She said, speaking quickly and lightly, “Oh please. Oh, please. Oh please. Oh, please.” She rubbed her tummy directly over the spot where Jamaal made his important delivery.
He finished, and she welcomed him down to rest beside her.
Suddenly, she grinned at the ceiling. “Darling. Did you know that some women can tell when their egg has been fertilized by their husband’s sperm?”
Jamaal was almost asleep. He mumbled, “No.”
“I must be one of those women. It might not be true but I feel like I’m carrying a baby.” She kissed his cheek, nestled him down against her and began planning for the new arrival.
*****
The SEAL team landed at Shaikh Isa airbase on the northeast coast of Saudi Arabia at night. A Seahawk SH-60 helicopter took them to a spot two hundred yards outside the small village where the Hussein family lived.
It was three in the morning. The Seahawk hovered a hundred feet in the air to reduce the noise heard in the city. The SEAL team rappelled down ropes to the ground.
They made their way inside the city walls without incident until a child wandered into the street. He stood in the middle of the road and looked at them.
John walked up to the child and asked, “What are you doing out of bed?”
“I got lonely. Who are you?”
“We’re guards hired by the village. We patrol the streets looking for children who aren’t in bed.”
“Like me?”
“Yes. Just like you. You need your sleep. Go back to bed.”
“Not without a hug.”
John opened his arms and the child happily ran to him. They shared a quick hug. John said, “Okay. Now go to bed.”
“Okay.” The child skipped away.
When they were alone, Nitro called the helicopter hovering above them. “What do you see?”
The helicopter had sensitive heat sensing equipment which could look through walls and ceilings for heat signatures. The helicopter intelligence officer said, “Two are missing. I see the mom and dad in one bed, another adult, the son probably in another bed and one child alone.”
“We need to talk to the last one,” said Nitro.
“Northwest corner of the house. Second floor. You’ll have to climb up to the window.”
“They taught me how to do that in basic training. We use a rope with a grappling hook.”
“Good luck.”
The SEALs jumped over the small wall outlining the back of the Hussein family yard. John threw the rope with the grappling hook up to the windowsill. The hook held. He turned on night vision equipment which hung from his helmet in front of his eyes, and climbed up the rope.
The window was open. He scanned the room. A girl who looked to be about sixteen lay asleep in her bed.
John climbed through the window and approached the sleeping girl. He dropped his hand over her mouth and leaned down to her ear.
As soon as his hand touched her mouth, she was awake and trying to scream. John held her tightly. He said, “Don’t be afraid. We’re here to rescue Halah. Her father wants to kill her.”
The girl, Janay Hussein, stopped struggling. She pushed John’s hand away from her mouth. She whispered, “You’re too late. Halah and Dalal were taken away by a Sheikh. He wants to have sex with Halah. Probably with Dalal too.”
“Do you know where they went or the name of the Sheikh?”
“No. My father knows, but I don’t. I don’t think he’d help you, anyway. He got a lot of money from the Sheikh. He wants to keep it.” She paused. “I heard part of their conversation. The man who took them away said there was going to be a celebration tomorrow night, and it would be a success.”
“Thanks. We’ll find them”
“Do it quickly. Halah is a virgin. She probably wants to stay that way.”
“We’ll hurry. Don’t tell anybody we were here. Okay?”
“I won’t. Please find my sisters. I miss them.”
“We will. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
John had an impulse he couldn’t turn off. She sounded young and vulnerable. She loved her sisters. She had value. He took his helmet off and put his hand on her cheek. He kissed her softly. She kissed back. When he started to stand up, she grabbed his hand. “Do it again. I wasn’t ready.”
He kissed her again. She participated eagerly.
He said, “Good night, Janay.”
“Goodbye, nice American.’
The SEAL team walked out of the Hussein’s yard and into the street. Abruptly, a voice came out of the night. “You there. Halt. Who are you? What are you doing in our city?”
Lights came on in the house at the end of the street. One by one, the other families woke up and looked out their windows.
The man who yelled at them had an AK47. He opened up, firing down the middle of the street. The lights went on in sequence, starting at the far end of the street and advancing toward the SEAL team.
The SEAL team ran down the side of the street, staying close to the mud fence in front of each house. They heard the shots and saw dust kick up in the street. Nobody returned fire.
The made it out through the gate of the city and ran along the wall. Voices came from inside the wall. They heard someone say, “Who was it? Why are you firing that accursed gun? You’re waking us all up!”
The voice of the man who started it rose up with a strangled, desperate tone. “They were Americans. They came to take our women. They planted bombs. I know what I saw.”
“Stupid son of a camel. There’s no one there. Go back to sleep.”
The SEAL team ran for two hundred yards into the desert. The helicopter tracked them and landed in front of them.
Inside the helicopter, John told Nitro, “We’re done for. We don’t know which Sheikh or where he is or even what country he’s in.”
“I know. This is pretty much a blown mission.”
“Damn. Those two girls are in deep trouble, and we don’t know where they are.”
*****
When they got back to their base, their communications specialist, Tom Walters had some information. “We can make some deductions from the information we have. The deductions will lead us to our quarry.”
The rest of the team waited. Tom graduated from Stanford with a degree in Philosophy. No other philosopher in history ever resembled Tom Walters. He looked like a cross between a thug and a low-land gorilla. He was short in stature, incredibly broad in the shoulder and deep in the chest. His forehead started just two inches above his bushy black eyebrows. His face was coarsened by his jutting brows and chin. His body was covered with dark hair. He had to shave twice every day.
Sgt. Tom Walters was happily married to a lovely woman who liked the way he looked and had two children who took after their mother. He went to church every Sunday when he wasn’t working.
He continued, “At first glance, all we seem to know is that this unnamed Sheikh is going to have a celebration tonight. But we can make good assumptions from this information. The assumptions have legs and will be useful. First, he’s a Sheikh. During the last two hundred years, the word has changed from designating a religious leader or the leader of a village into a man who struts on the national stage. The growth of wealth in the Arab world set these men apart from others.
Tom paused. “Anybody have any questions?” He looked over his team. They were all following his narrative. He continued, “Saudi Arabia has too many Sheikhs to investigate in the time we have. However, it only has seven main prostitution centers. A call to each of them in which I pretended to be an assistant of the Sheikh, making sure of the arrangements, gave me just one name. Sheikh Abu El Mofty is the only man of wealth having a celebration tonight. Two things. First, I’m assuming he’s the kind of man who would use a brothel because he’s the kind of man who buys women. Second, the use of the word ‘celebration’ in the Arab world usually connotes a family event. There is only one important event today. El Mofty’s son, Omar, turns twenty-one.”
Tom put a map of Riyadh on their computers. “El Mofty only buys virgins. He’s a coarse, fat, smelly man. He’ll want to take Halah’s virginity at the earliest moment, but we’re in luck there. He’s not only fat and smelly, he’s lazy. He goes to bed at ten every night and gets up at nine thirty. His meetings start at ten in the morning. He won’t stay up just for another virgin, and he won’t have time to abuse her before he has to leave. I spoke with the American consulate last night. They put together a number of events and meetings that will occupy the man’s time from ten until noon. It’s 0700 now. We have five hours to get these girls out of a guarded palace in the daylight. Any questions?”
There weren’t any. Each of the men congratulated Tom on his excellent work.
*****
The next morning, the man in the suit took the girls to see the Sheikh. They found clothes in the right sizes in their rooms. The Sheikh served them their favorite breakfasts and their favorite tea. They even found their favorite books and magazines in their rooms.
Halah stopped walking immediately after she entered the Sheikh’s chambers. She hissed at the man in the suit, “You lied.”
“That’s true, but I got you and your sister here without fuss and that was my main mission.”
Halah looked with disgust, not at a young and handsome Sheikh, but at a Sheikh in his fifties, with a paunch, no hair on his head and a body that stopped at less than five feet eight inches tall. As he walked toward her, his odor marched before him. It wasn’t pleasant. Apparently, he didn’t bathe very often and used strong deodorants to cover the smell. They didn’t. They simply added another overpowering smell to the mix.
“I am Sheikh Abu El Mofty.” His voice was nasally and squeaky. He stood in front of Halah. “You are my virgin?”
Halah didn’t reply until the man in the suit nudged her. “Yes, I am.”
He stepped closer to her. His nose was no more than four inches from hers. “I will know if you are lying. Have you known any man in any way?”
“No. I am pure.”
“I believe you. I could have a team of doctors examine you, but I won’t. You’re telling the truth.” He grabbed her breast. She didn’t hit him or pull back, but it was close. She knew it was the Sheikh or her crazy father. He felt both breasts and walked around her. “It’s important to me that you’re truly a virgin. I have deflowered fifteen virgins. I will only lie with women I have deflowered. I keep all of my women locked up. There are no men. You will only see me as your only man. I don’t want a disease.”
He gripped one half of her rump in his rough hands. Halah jumped.
He said, “Good. Firm. You have a proper figure. I will enjoy taking you.” He stepped in front of the two women but spoke to Halah. “It would be good for you to please me in bed. Women who no longer please me are given to my guards and then to one of the brothels in town. They are no longer pure when they leave me. What else can I do with them?”
The Sheikh turned to Dalal. “What of you? Do you still have your virginity?”
Dalal swallowed once. “No. I lost it.”
“Pity. You’re as pretty as your sister. You will entertain at tonight’s celebration. Your new home is with the people who supply us with women. They run a clean, safe brothel. You will enjoy it.” Dalal turned white.
The man in the suit said, “Your highness, may I have the sister? I would enjoy having just one woman. I can replace her easily in the celebration.”
The Sheikh looked at him closely. “Gamal, you have done will today. Yes, you may have the sister.” The Sheikh looked at his watch. “We have duties until lunch time.”
Halah and Dalal looked at each other and saw nothing but dread and hopelessness.
*****
The best military operations go off without drama. They’re dull. So it was with the first half of the rescue of Halah and Dalal.
The United States government paid the cable company to cut the signal at eight in the morning. The people in the Sheikh’s palace immediately called for a repairman. John Steele answered the call. The CIA supplied a map of the Sheikh’s palace and parked a special van outside. The same heat-sensing equipment located two women in separate bedrooms. No one else in the palace was in a guest bedroom or alone.
John got out of the van, and went to the entrance of the Sheikh’s palace. His deep tan and brown eyes allowed him access. He walked in, showed his badge to the security detail and walked directly to a closet in back of the girl’s bedrooms. It contained the cable equipment.
A security man stayed directly behind John. The security man had a pistol hanging from one hand. John wasn’t too worried. The man looked bored.
John removed the cover from the cable box and went to work inside, testing each circuit. The box contained the cable connection in Halah’s room. He had to move some cables aside to remove the cover from the back.
John slipped attached a small box on her cover. It had a strong magnet. It also had a notice that it was a special security device and could only be removed with the permission of the King.
John wrapped it up and put everything back the way it had been and walked down the hall to Dalal’s room. He went through the same procedures there.
When he finished, he made a call on his cell phone and the cable magically came back on. John even got a signature on a work order that looked exactly like those used by the cable company. He walked out to a van exactly like the real ones.