The Lioness (10 page)

Ty opened the door and heard her cry out in anguish.
Pulling the curtain aside she stood, hands braced on the shower stall and
crying her eyes out.  He reached out and she turned to him. Relief was there in
her eyes. She fell into his arms and let the storm take over.

Rose awoke but for the life of her she couldn’t get
untangled from the stupid sheets. She had been dreaming that she was tied up.
Now she knew why. That had been the scenario for the last two weeks since Ty
had gone back to Iraq. They had both flown out together to Bangkok and after
two more wonderful days there in the city of angels he had left for Bagdad. She
had flown home. They had decided on making their base in Boston, so she was
getting her place ready for Ty. He would be heading home in two more weeks.
They would keep both places for now but figure out which one they wanted to
live in once things settled down. At least they wouldn’t have to pay for hotels
when going to NYC.  She smiled as she stretched and thought of setting up house
with Ty.

She got out of bed and was heading to the bathroom
when her phone went off. Glancing at her watch she noted it was a little after
eight. Later then she normally slept, but she was still a bit jet lagged. This
time it seemed to take forever to get over the traveling. Reaching for the
phone she noticed the number was an unknown. It could be overseas.

Rose could hear the static as soon as she pushed the
button. “Hello, hello, this is Rose.”

Rose listened and then she could hear a faint voice,
sounded like Noori’s. “Noori, is that you?” Why would he be calling unless
something had happened to his aunt? “Noori, I can’t quite hear you. What did
you say? Are you at the same number? Ok, I’ll call right back.”

Rose hung up and sat for a second. She could hear the
urgency in his voice and knew something was up. Picking up her phone again, she
started the process of making the overseas call. She knew the number by heart.
She waited and then heard the call going through. Good, the circuits weren’t
busy. That was a norm when calling countries like Afghanistan or Cambodia. Ty
always called her because it was hard for her calls to go through. He hadn’t
called last night but that wasn’t unheard of. He would call tonight.

“Noori? Yes, I hear you fine. What’s the matter? Good,
your aunt is fine. Tell her I said hello for me. What, Noori, you received a
call from your uncle in Bagdad?” Rose felt sick. Noori’s cousin Shafi worked
with Ty. “Noori, stop babbling I can’t understand. You said Shafi was killed
and…. No, God no don’t tell me this! Noori, no I know it’s not your fault. Tell
me, please tell me again.”

Rose felt cold, her legs felt weak and she felt like
she was going to vomit. Everything didn’t make sense, she was just having a
dream. That’s it, she was really having a dream and she would wake up and she
would be getting the apartment ready for Ty to be coming back. God, why was
there a knock at her door? Noori was crying in her ear and she could hear far
off someone knocking… The connection went dead and she jolted to the real world.
The sound at the door became more insistent. “Wait, I’m coming!”

She went to the door, looked out the peep hole, saw it
was her father. God, this dream was getting weirder by the minute. Having that
part of the dream, Noori’s call, an ambush. Shafi killed, Ty taken. Why hadn’t
Ty been with the unit? Well, this was a dream and dreams don’t make sense do
they?

Rose opened the door and there stood her father. He
looked very pale and a bit uncomfortable. She just stood there and something
told her she wasn’t in a dream. All this was very real and Noori’s call had
been real. His cousin had been killed in an ambush and Ty had been taken. She
could tell by the look on her father’s face.

David O’Malley had some hard jobs in his life, but
this was by far the hardest. He had stood in front of Rose’s door waiting for
her to open it. When she had he knew she must have received a call from
someone. She looked shaken to the core.

“Rose?”

“Daddy, you got a call? You heard about the ambush?”

“Honey, let’s go in, close the door. We need to talk.
I got a call not one hour ago from the New York Times. Apparently Ty had told
them to call me if anything happened, not to call you right away.”

Rose walked with heavy legs. This was a dream, she
would wake up. If she kept telling herself enough times she would indeed wake
up and the phone would ring and it would be Ty, not Noori. Her dad would only
be coming over to go out to breakfast, not to tell her that the light of her
life had been taken captive by extremists.  She sank down onto the couch and
steeled herself for the worst. Looking into her dear Da’s face she knew the
truth. “It happened last night, didn’t it?”

“I know Da, I’m fine. Noori has arrived and he and his
cousin Daoud are with me. I’m actually in Daoud’s car. It was his brother who
was killed. Yes, Da I am fine, but I am going to need all the help I can get. I
am going to the Palestine Hotel. Yes, I am covered. Daoud gave me a couple of
his wife’s burqas.” Rose laid her head back and listened to her parents as they
talked to her. She grunted and rubbed her head at the same time. The car came
to a stop and Rose opened her eyes. She got out her identification and passed
it through. She was loaded for bear. She had already made a trip to NY and then
Washington even before taking off to get here. She had called her Congressman
and Ty’s, had meetings with both and with a minor White House official. They
had told her it would be fruitless for her to fly to Bagdad. Better leave it to
people who knew what they were doing. She had gently assured them that she knew
perfectly well what she was doing, could speak the language and was very
determined to go regardless of what they said. They had then told her she was
going at her own risk.

“Yes, sir I will be at the Palestine.”

“Beg your pardon Miss, we heard you were coming, saw
it on the news. Ty was embedded with our unit. If there is anything we can do,
you just have to call.”

Rose looked into the eyes of the fresh faced young
man. Not much younger than her, was her guess, but had already seen enough to
last two or three life times.

“I will remember that Sergeant Mitchell, I will call.
I can use all the help I can get, even if it is just to talk to someone.”

Sergeant Mitchell looked in the front and then back to
Rose O’Malley’s face. “Do you know these men? I don’t mean to be bold but…”

 Rose leaned forward. “I would trust them with my
life. Noori has been with me in some of the toughest places in Afghanistan.
This is his cousin Daoud, his brother was Ty’s driver and was killed when Ty
was taken.”

Sergeant Mitchell looked back in the front. “I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I was just thinking of Miss O’Malley
here.”

Noori looked into the young Sergeant’s face. “I
understand. I was her male relative when she was in Afghanistan. She lived at
my Aunt’s house. It’s good to know people look out for Rose. She’s like my
little sister, I would do anything for her.”

“Well let’s hope you can get Ty back and you can all
get home safely.”

Rose reached and touched the young man’s hand. “What’s
your first name?”

“Mike, Mike Mitchell. Just call and someone will
contact me.”

“I will, you can count on it.” Rose smiled at Mike and
then reached and touched the front seat. “We better go now. I’m really tired
and I have a busy day tomorrow.”

Rose laid her head back. She was here. She would lie
down then go get something to eat. Tomorrow she would be busy. She wasn’t going
to rest until she found Ty… one way or another.

“We just got a call. She’s arrived and already asking
questions. She’s not going about it in the normal channels.”

Ty listened but kept his head down. He didn’t want
them to know he was awake. It was easier this way.  Pretend, just pretend that
he was asleep. They tended to stay away if they thought he was sleeping.

“I saw her hair when she took off her scarf in the
hotel. Bright red, like fire. Her skin… like ivory, it looked so smooth. She
spoke so soft but you could tell she is strong.”

A feeling of something like a fire was fanning in Ty’s
soul. They were talking about Rose, his Rose, she was here. Where angels didn’t
even want to tread, she came in, marching up to the gates of hell and
announcing she was here to take on anyone and everyone if that’s what it took
to get his release.  He had heard the news reports. He knew this man worked at
the Palestine Hotel and was waiting and watching for her. They had heard when
she had a press conference with the
New York Times
. She was already
stirring up a hornets nest, from the White House on down.

How in the world did she expect to get him released? He
wasn’t thinking clearly. She was going to take the bull by the horns and do her
best. That was typical Rose O’Malley style.

He had already been moved three times since his
capture. They hadn’t really talked to him, just kept him in the same room as
everyone else. So far the treatment hadn’t been bad. He had heard about his
capture on the news, both in English on the BBC and then in Arabic. His driver,
a relative of Noori’s, had been killed in the ambush. If he had only stayed
with his unit, but no, he had wanted to go talk with some people. Wanted that
exclusive story, just one last one. Well it proved to be that last one. See
where it got him. Captured, and his driver killed and he would have been out of
here next Monday, back in New York, back with Rose, starting a life. Now he was
sitting here, not knowing what was going to happen and Rose was here, exactly
where he didn’t want her. It wasn’t like she was coming in meek and mild
either. She had made her intentions known. He knew by now she had probably made
every contact she knew in the news circles, in Washington and all her Muslim
friends. No, she was coming in like a hurricane for sure. His little titan, his
tempest.

He sat thinking and listening to the talk among the
men in the room. Occasionally another family member came in. Women bringing in
food. Even the children. One of the little ones came in and had walked right up
to him, staring with big brown eyes. A little boy. What would his life be in
ten years, f he made it that long. Life expectancy wasn’t good with all that
went on.

He bowed his head, praying he would live to see
another day, live to see Rose. Then he heard the commentator and, snapping his
head up, he saw her face. She had her head covered with one of her colorful
scarves from Cambodia, but she was here. She looked pale, tired as she got out
of the car, heading into the hotel. She was staying at the Palestine and there
next to her was Noori and his cousin Daoud. Then he heard the talk. The men not
realizing his fluency in Arabic were talking.

“It is good. Daoud is there.”

“What do you mean?” said the second voice, the older
of the two. “He isn’t with us.”

“But he’s family, he won’t say anything.”

“The problem is he and Noori are close. They always
were and with his brother dead…”

“That wasn’t our fault. They were in the wrong place
at the wrong time. The Shiites were responsible for a few bombings that day. We
just took the journalist. If it had been them he would have been dead by now.”

Ty felt grateful but sick. So two forces had been at
work that day. Shafi had not died at the hands of his captors but the Shiites
and their bombing. He had been snatched out of the devil’s hand in time.

“Our cousin Daoud won’t say anything. He may be
faithful to Noori but we’re family, blood is thick.”

Ty couldn’t believe it. Rose’s driver was a cousin to
his captors. For that matter, Noori was too. What had he gotten his Rose into?
She wouldn’t rest till she got the job done.

He couldn’t let them know how well he was understanding
their conversation. It was to his advantage to keep them in the dark on that
score.

Rose woke and the room was dark. Getting up quickly, she
realized she wasn’t back in the states. She was in Bagdad, in the middle of a
war. She could hear the generator. “Power must have gone out,” she said to
herself as she got up to go to the bathroom.

She was going to peek out the window but remembered,
never
look out the windows, stay away from them.
Since the Green Zone had been under
attack since yesterday morning she had received the warning right off. “Stay
away from the windows!”

She knew from being in Afghanistan that she was to
travel with her flack jacket and never to wait at the bus stop. She wouldn’t
have to since she had Noori and Daoud. They would call her and come right into
the hotel to get her. Since Noori was her faithful helper from Afghanistan, she
trusted him with her life. Daoud was his cousin, brother to Shafi, who had been
killed.

Turning on the light in the bathroom, she noted the
dimness. Reaching for the bottled water, she poured it into a glass and took a
drink. Looking up into the mirror, she saw the dark circles under her eyes. She
looked so pale. To think she had spent time in Cambodia just a few weeks ago
and had some decent color. She never tanned but always had good color. Now
looking at herself she looked tired and worn. She felt it too. She better get
back to bed to get some sleep. Who knew what later today would bring. She had
to go see leaders in the Iraqi Government offices and then go to the US
Embassy. She wasn’t leaving any stone unturned. Noori and Daoud had some people
that she was going to visit. Men they said who might be able to make
connections for her. She knew this was dangerous but she had to do everything
and she knew what the American Government would say. ‘We don’t negotiate.’ She
didn’t give a fig what they told her, that wasn’t going to stop her. She was
here for a purpose and she wasn’t leaving until she’d completed her job, one
way or another.

Getting back on the bed, she lay down and felt her
head spin. It had been doing that since the flight she was on had started its
descent to Bagdad International. The flights had to descend in a corkscrew
maneuver to avoid coming within range of small arms and missiles. She closed
her eyes and willed the spinning to stop. It didn’t help that she really didn’t
eat either. Noori had complained and said he would make sure she got good food
to eat tomorrow.

Laying there she thought of how close she was to Ty,
but so far. She hoped he was still somewhere within the city limits. It had
been almost a week and captors were known for moving their prisoners around a
lot.

Tomorrow she would start working on getting the
essential connections that she was going to need to get the job done.

She felt so sleepy, like she was falling into a cloud.
A soft cloud, so warm and secure. She wished Ty was here to hold her. God, she
wanted him so bad she could taste it. She felt the tears come and she didn’t
try to stop them. So much for the cloud. She was wide awake again. She was
going to look like a sight when she got up in the morning. Noori was going to
have a fit. It’s a wonder he didn’t bring his sister with him to watch over
her. If he saw the way she looked he would be insisting she leave. He was that
protective. He would say he would get the job done and try to pack her up and
send her back to Jordan. She would get her cry out now and then wake up early
enough to take a nice long shower.

She turned over and snuggled down into the bed. At
least the Palestine Hotel had decent beds. She could feel herself getting
sleepy again. She hoped Ty was asleep and somewhat safe. She willed herself to
not think too much about his condition, hoping for the best. She was going to
do her best and then some. She would get him back alive.

Ty woke and couldn’t tell if it was morning or night
still. He didn’t hear anything at first, then heard low voices.

“I know Daoud, but I don’t know if I can find out
anything. You need to give me some time.”

Ty listened. Was this the Daoud who was Rose’s driver?
He rolled over and tried to listen. The vents up near the ceiling provided
ventilation and the ability to listen to conversations.

“Will you be driving her today?”

“Yes, she has a couple places she needs to go. I was
hoping you might be able to help. I know you know people. I don’t want to know
how but if you could help her. She loves this man and Noori is worried sick
over her.”

“Why don’t you bring her for lunch? Fatima can cluck
over her. You know how she is. She will take her under her wing and feed her
and send her with food.”

“That sounds good. I will. Noori wanted to have her
come eventually to meet the family. Your sister is a good woman.”

“Well since her husband is dead, she takes care of me.
With no children she needs someone to take care of and I’d rather it be someone
other than me. I am too busy.”

Daoud looked at his cousin. Not one to ask, but his
cousin lived in a shadowy world. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know how he found
out things or was able to get things like he did. He and his sister always
seemed to be better off than his. He worked all hours and still had a hard
time.

“Can I bring anything?”

“You know my sister. If you did that she would be very
upset. You and Noori come and bring the American woman. Fatima will be fine. I
will give her what she needs to make the meal.” Daoud’s cousin looked at his
cousin. He would be a good one to bring in to help them but now it was too
complicated. Daoud always kept his feelings to himself. Their family was Sunni
but his cousin said to him it didn’t make a difference. Just like the Americans
were no different, well the good ones.

“Come at 8 tonight and make sure she is covered. You
know the attacks on journalists have risen and this neighborhood won’t be safe
for her, since she is an American. Make sure her hands are covered too.”

Daoud looked at his cousin with what he knew was a
blank stare. He just couldn’t think quickly, not since his brother’s death.

Abdul saw the look and knew Daoud was still working
out his grief. Her hands are a giveaway. “She is too light. We don’t want
problems.”

“You’re right. Maybe Fatima could apply some henna to
her hands.”

“Just make sure she is covered,” Abdul said.

Abdul sat and thought. Things were too complicated.
They had taken this journalist because he was known for his concern for the
people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the region. Their cause needed to be known. He
and others were fighting for Iraq, not like the foreigners who invaded their
country and said they were fighting for the Iraqis. He shook his head as he got
up. He needed to clear his head. He would take the American, Ty Madison, out
into the courtyard for a few minutes. His older brother was firmer, thought the
prisoner should have been moved more, but Abdul said it was too risky. Better
to keep him in one place now that he had been moved almost six times already.