“  We’ve got to stop meeting like this. Mister Meotti. “

            “  Damn you to hell! I though you’d been kidnapped or missed the connection! We aren’t playing games, little girl!  “

            He turned on his heel angrily, then whirled to face her, ashen.

            “ How do you know my name? Did Eidelberg let it slip?  “

            “  I don’t know any Eidelberg? The only person I’ve met so far is “  Mister Kettering. The man you sent to pick me up! “

            He lost all the color from his face, betraying nicks and scars she hadn’t noticed under his even tan.

            “  I don’t know any Kettering! Damn! This is going all wrong! Amateurs!  “

            “  The man you sent to pick me up! “  She repeated stubbornly. Then he stopped pacing and slapped his palm against his head, mitering something under his breath she could only assume was more cursing in another language. She waited for him to remember that she was standing there, on the other side of the bed by the resumed his pacing.

            “ My grandfather couldn’t have been talking about two such pole as you! The name stuck in my head because it sounded more Japanese or Italian than Jewish. “

            He nodded, his anger barely mollified.

            “  Italian. I grew up in the shadows of the Vatican. I watched the priests grow fatter awhile my Grandmother, who’d barely survived the Holocaust withered and died, telling us stories about how the priests played ‘footsies’ with the Nazi’s because of the orders they received directly from the Pope! “

            “  You’re preaching to the choir, Mister Meotti! I grew up hearing the same stories too growing up! “

            “  Apparently not! Or you wouldn’t spit on the death of so many Jews!…I have your passport. We’re leaving at seven-thirty in the morning. Be ready!  “

            He might have meant to punish her by leaving her alone, but actually she was grateful for the chance to gather her wits and try to slow her heartbeat. She turned off the television set with the remote control on top of the set since she couldn’t find any off or on knobs. Then she turned out the lights and pulled open the curtains several inches in other direction. The air inside the room now seemed to have filled with negative ions so she worked at the lock on the sliding door until she figured it out, then she stepped outside on the balcony. Unlike the weather she was accustomed too, the air was still hot and muggy despite the appearance of a few bright stars over the neon glow of the city below.

            “  Hi!  “  She said in a companionable voice as she looked upwards toward a rooftop with a blinking globe to warn away planes. When she was small it helped to feel that her parents were near, leaned on clouds watching everything she id, making sure she was all right. Offering her the same protection they had when she was a little girl and they tucked her into bed after saying her prayers at the side of the bed every night. In Junior High she’d gotten into a discussion with a friend who no longer believed in the Bible and she ‘saw’ that the dead didn’t care anything for the life they’d left behind, they were either burning in hell or living in some distant Elysian Fields setting, totally removed from everything and everyone they’d loved on earth, so she’d gotten used to being alone. But as she leaned against the sturdy balcony railings he unquestionable felt that she wasn’t alone and wasn’t being ignored as her thoughts raced over the last three days. There was simply too much complexity and cohesion to everything she saw around her and the invisible parts she’d learned about in High School Science to ever take her science teacher seriously and believe this all happened by chance simply because it needed to be so to explain the reality around them! 

            “ It’s You; isn’t it?  “

            As alone as she felt, suspended so high above the street, she felt comfortable in speaking out the surety within. The sense of comfort and reassurance increased, feeling like water pressing up from the bottom of a well in her deepest self, and the sense of Someone standing there beside her, just beyond the line of her vision brought a warmth and comfort that had nothing to do with the gritty bits being blown upwards from the crowded night streets of Manhattan.

             She heard the phone being to ring at the side of the bed inside the room and started to answer it, but then remembering the kind man's warning not to answer the door, she returned, feeling awkward unit it finally stopped. Her nerves were so taunt she felt like a heroine in a silent movie, wanting to wring her hands and bite at her clinched knuckle. The calm and peace of a moment before dissolved in a maelstrom if fear. Then totally abrogated by the light knock on the front door to the strange room.

            “  Go away!  “  She screamed.

            The door burst open slamming against the wall as a slender figure arched at the doorway, the nose of a gun visible. She threw the cell phone in her hand and started to run toward the bathroom, the only other door with a lock that she could think of when the man’s voice coldly ordered her to stop. She obeyed sobbing violently and pleading, “Please don’t hurt me! “ under her breath. In the few seconds it took for her to turn around and face her attacker, her life literally flashed before her eyes, like a cinematic clip of all the times that mattered. Something she’d always considered a flight of fantasy.

But strangest of all was the realization that in a few seconds she could be standing Face to face with the one she’d always ‘known’ existed but never truly expected to see until hat very second. A great peace swept over her as fear dissolved.

            Her opponent’s face betrayed his shock. She saw herself in his eyes and wondered at the calm that was filling her with greater and greater certainty as she stood in one place. He crept toward her slowly, watching her face warily.

            “  I’m looking for a man!  “

            She smiled, feeling the pool of sweat and fear swirl around her ankles, attempting to move her from her place of safety. She motioned toward her curves and then motioned to show the room was empty.

            Without letting down his guard, the man checked the closet, then the bathroom,

Tense with expectation as he had to reach off balance to pull back the white shower curtain but she stood in one place following him only with her eyes, to show him she presented not threat. 

            She sat down on the edge of the bed as he motioned her with the tip of his gun. Sneezing at the rank smell of sulfur as he lit a match with his thumbnail and tried to get his cigarette to light. Finally in disgust he crumbled it and pushed the paper and tobacco shreds into his cuff.

            “  Who is it your looking for? Maybe I can help?  “

            He startled violent at the unexpectedness of her voice and his hand shook slightly.

            “  Your in his room, you ought to know! “   He sneered.

            “  You looking for Shaw Wyatt?  “  She asked at last. Her face twisting with sudden insight.  “ Will Sharayah Wyatt do?  “

            “  That’s a Muslim name!  “  He challenged, but the slow spread of truth finally revealed itself in a low curse. “ Damn! “

            He risked closing his eyes and ran his free hand through the thin strands of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat.

            “ Apologies. “  He said in a dispirited voice. “ I’m not much for this spy stuff, but DS said it was urgent!  “   He did something to the gun that gave off a distinct metallic click and then he put it back into his pocket.

            “  I won’t tell anybody, if you won’t?  “  She questioned. His look of relief was embarrassing. She made sure he could see where her hands were as she reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet with just the tips of two fingers. She approached him as far as the dresser table then laid it down and quickly went back to the bed where she sat down. Discretely folding her hands in her lap.

            “  My ID. There’s pictures in there of my Grandfather and my parents and my parents and me. “

Beads of sweat stood out on his brow as he eyed it nervously, expecting it to exploded at any second perhaps?  “

            “  You open it. “  He said, his voice taunt with suspicion. She stood slowly and obeyed, keeping as much distance from them as she could  as she opened up the fan of pictures and choose one with herself and Drew Slocomb taken at the fair last year.

            The man took it gingerly and studied the photo, even taking it out of the plastic. He sighed and wiped his palms on his trouser legs before handing it back, first flipping through the cards to see the student ID and various cards with her name on it.

            “  I need to use the restroom…. sir.  “

            “  Leave the door open, I won’t peak.  “

            She did as she was instructed, paused to wash and dry her hands with great care, then running her hands through her curls, she dried her kips on a Kleenex. Then she gave a huge sigh.  Sleeplessness and fear were clearly etched on her face.

            “  I guess I don’t have it in me to be a spy.  “  She said, hoping her tone was light enough to start a conversation, but the room was empty!

            With a quick glance to the balcony on the other side of the curtain, she called out tentatively, wishing she knew what name to call him. When silence was her only answer, her heart began to throb wildly and she felt the intense need to empty her bladder! Even though she’d just finished!

            She grapped her purse. Her wallet and keys were still in it. Clutching it tightly she ran to the doorway of the bedroom, then paused, peeking around the corner, But that room was empty as well! She checked the closet, even pulling her coat to one side in case he’d suspended himself from the pole and lifted his legs where they couldn’t be seen in a cursory glance. By even the door to the hallway was locked, the way it had been.

            “  Thanks.”  She said dubiously and hung up.

            Either she was hallucinating, or a man had just been in her room and held her up at gunpoint while he waited for “Shaw” Wyatt to return. Someone who knew her grandfather but hot her parents or her!

            Her fingers trembled so violently, she dialed a wrong number and had to dial Drew Slocomb’s home phone a second time. It went straight to voice mail. That was to be expected, but she knew her grandfather checked his messages frequently, and surely that would be the case even more given their current emergency!

            She was on her way out the front door when her cell phone rang. She’d left the purse on the living room couch! Her room key was in it. Grateful that his quick response had saved her from an embarrassing situation, she didn’t even think to check the caller ID before she answer, “Hello! Gramps?“  Breathlessly.  

            There was a long silence, and then a click, and the line went dead. Tense with fear, she hit the numbers to reveal the phone number of the last caller. It was her mother’s cell phone! She gave a small scream and almost fainted. Sick to her stomach, she clutched the small, damp instrument and raced toward the bathroom in the other room as quickly as she could, heaving up everything she’d eaten in the last twelve hours as wave after wave of nausea wrung her inside out.   

            Tears didn’t help, but she couldn’t stop them. Putting the small silver sphere on the back of the sink she rinsed out her mouth. Then she happened to remember the small plastic bottles on the shelf over the towels. Luckily there was mouthwash among the shampoo, hand lotion and hair conditioner. She emptied out half of it before she could remove the taste of bile from her throat.

            Straightening, she was shocked at the pale, tear streaked stranger who looked back at her from the high quality hotel mirror. She slow reached for the bottle cap, to but time to decide what to try and do next. Sitting down on the edge of the tub she hid her face in her hands and prayed under her voice.

            “  Look, I’m not much to offer right now, but I sure need you, Jesus! Please help me! I’m in way over my head! Help my Mom and Dad stay safe, okay? You’ve already got one set of them, you know? If you do, I promise I’ll go to church every Sunday, whether I want to or not, okay?  “

            A strange emptiness followed her as she turned out the light and went in search of her purse. Only remembering her cell phone on the back of the sink at the last second. There were simply too many things to try and remember at one time, she told herself sadly. As she reached for it, the phone began to chime, “I’m too sexy for my shirt…” It usually made her smile, but this time it only made the tears stand out against the raw flesh

Under her eyes.

            “  Hello?  “  She asked tentatively?  Since it was a blocked number.

            “  Whore! Put a man on the phone!  “  A deep voice snapped, mistaking the introduction for a curse word.

            Sharayah’s jaw dropped.

            “ Like hell I will!’ She thought. And slammed the lid down, instantly disconnecting the caller.

            “  Shaw? Honey? Are you here? Are you all right?  “  Drew Slocomb demanded, his breath thick with garlic and onions as it blew across her face. His topcoat was damp and smelled vaguely of grease and fish, but as his arms closed around her, she felt safe for the first time since this terrible ordeal began.

            Shaw clung to her grandfather, sobbing. Everything was gone from her mind but the comfort of having someone known being near who would acre and comfort her in these strange events pressing against her life like the strong odors pressing on her face when he kept shaking her and shouting over the throbbing whine of her heartbeat in his ears. Then strong hands seized her and held her in comfort, and the sobs slowly eased. And a sense of connection with the untenable eased her fear. But to her shock, her grandfather was across the room pacing, and the tall man who’s name she couldn’t remember was holding her close, making her feel he really cared about her. It was as if she’d stepped into a parallel universe where wrong was right?

            Ted Eidelberg turned on Drew angrily, leaving one arm around her to comfort her as he confronted the enraged man.

            “  It’s not the kid’s fault, she didn’t know, General! “

            The white haired man stopped and stared at them with such contempt Shaw whimpered. But the look remained on the elderly man as he gently pushed her toward a chair. Her knees were too weak to hold her any longer and she sank into its luxury with gratitude.

            “ They have their cell phone! They know who they are!  “

            “ Negotiating with them will buy us time…Drew.  “

            She looked up slowly, seeing how much of a straggle it was for the man to call his superior by his first name and she sensed that was for her sake. Then she hooded her eyes and assiduously avoided looking at any of them as she gathered her wits. Whatever she’d known about these people, the birthday gifts, coming to her recitals, what they did when they drove away ‘to work’ was only a skin-deep veneer. She realized that and oddly, that fact was a comfort and aided her in regaining her internal balance. She’d been taking care of herself for the last three years. When this was over, however it turned out, she would return to the life where she was in charge of her life again. She tried to force the clammy uncertainty and fear away while she sought to reassemble the pieces with the blank spots she only now realized had existed, like dark matter, at the perimeter of her life. They’d taught her to be ‘independent’ from the first day she arrive at the house, and she drew on those lessons now. No longer thinking of them as rejection, as she had, but protection from whatever it was they were hiding from her. They’d be lying to her for every day of the last nine years, but those years had allowed her to mature from a frightened orphan to a woman cable of working and living on her own. It was a mixed blessing before. Suddenly it was a gift from heaven itself and she drew in strength as she forced the air into her lungs to provide oxygen and clear the cobwebs around the edges.

            A light knock on the door startled all of them then the door opened with a card key and Joel Meotti let himself in. His face ashen and haggard with stress. They spoke in low tones, although she didn’t understand Hebrew and she had no way of knowing if her tall new friend spoke it, but she showed no outward interest in their conversation,. In the mixture of events over the last twenty-four hours she simply assumed he was listening but without any interest in knowing what was being said. The younger man continued to pace, glancing at his watch with growing exasperation.

            “   We’re going to be late for our flight if we wait any longer!  “  He announced abruptly, causing her grandfather’s head to jerk in surprise.

            As they were leaving, something harsh rose up inside her at his dismissive wave at her ‘tardiness in leaving after he flicked his finger at her.

            “  He’s already come and gone!  “  She said spitefully, keeping her tone low.

            The thin Israeli man glared at her in the elevator until even Drew Slocomb was drawn out of his introspection enough to notice and raise an eyebrow in question. Shaw looked away, feeling no link to them even though they were clearly the only protection she had as they raced toward very real danger to free her adopted parents. He held back and allowed the younger man to whisper in his ear, his face growing hard as they raced to catch up with her and Ted Eidelberg, who stood over her like a watchful Saint Bernard. But she avoided the anger in Drew’s eyes the same way he’d avoided her when they’d been in the same room upstairs for over an hour. They weren’t the only one to keep secrets!

            They rode to the airport in separate cabs. Ted went with Drew, Joel seized her elbow painfully and steered her to the following cab. The drive was long and tedious in its silence. The cabby glanced at them a couple of times when they stopped at red lights, then he leaned his bent elbow against the window, apparently relieved at having at least one fare tonight where he wasn’t drawn into the maelstrom of the personal lives of his fares. She knew as little about her lean, antagonist escort getting out of the cab as she knew when he all but shoved her head first to the back seat, but a world of change had happened within her, as a sense of control over her own emotions in these flux and ebb situations emerged to protect her from further hurt. Forgotten was her impulsive promise to depend on God, At the moment, He felt as distant as the moon blocked by the tall buildings they sped past, except at odd moments when a surreal glow lit up the urban, cityscape horizon.

            They spent nearly an hour passing through the airport security check points, and she was grateful that she’d thrust the impulsively souvenir bottles of unused shampoo, conditioner and hand cream into her luggage, for they were being thrown into waste baskets at the x-ray check points.  It wasn’t until her passport was stamped and handed to her grandfather that the full realization sunk in. They were leaving America and going to a place where she was the stranger and the alien! It chilled her to the morrow of her bones. She waited in the small lounge set aside for the wealthier passengers, ashamed of herself at her gratitude not being forced to sit beside four strangers in a row for the fourteen-hour flight. The smell of body odor and grilled onions was still clinging to her grandfather’s clothes and it made her feel a little shamed of being seen with him. Ted

Eidelberg kept his distance, although he smiled to reassure her whenever their gaze chanced to meet, clearly ‘under orders’ from ‘the general’. But the dark, lean man to her right continued to ignore her as she thumbed through the current edition of VOGUE, merely looking at the pictures, glossy and seductive no matter what the product it was they were advertising. Thinking to the country they were about to enter, she felt a vague sense of shame rise up for her Country, even though these things had little to do with her ordinary life. She’d grown up with them, and watched the BBC and news on the Public Broadcasting Network simply because she got tired of being fed one moral of pre-weighted food before another three commercials clamored for her attention, pretending they were friends she’d know or see in her real life!  

            They were shown their seats by uniformed attendants and Shaw watched out the window, grateful that she knew she wasn’t alone on this flight. Under more ordinary circumstances she would have asked him if she WAS alone on the other flight, and it would have made her feel very ‘grown up’ to be told that she flew it alone, but that suddenly seemed childish now and a new ‘persona’ wrapped itself around her as they waited for the remaining passengers to be loaded behind the curtain. She could hear the polite greeting given by the Stewardess and felt the cold creep into the warmth of the spacious cabin as the door remained open for an improbably long time. She felt Joel Meotti stiffen as a late arrival was escorted into the VIP section, but whether from shock and disappoint or relief, she couldn’t tell, although she looked over at him, pretending to need the services of one of the well-trained stewards. A baby’s thin wail penetrated the layers of cloth separating them as they sat on the side of the runway for forty-minutes, waiting for their turn at racing down the longer of the three runways and throwing themselves into the sky.

            Joel stood in front of his seat, uncoiling like a metal piston and she used the opportunity to cross the empty seat and discretely motion toward the unisex lavatory. He frowned at her in growing hostility as she returned. The plane lurched forward, and she almost missed her handhold on the back of the seat in front of her, but as she tightened the seat belt uncomfortably tight, the massive silver bird finally began a slow rolling crawl, lead by a tractor whose flashing red light set her heart to racing. It was as if it was a buoy, warning of rapids ahead. ‘Danger! Danger!’ It screamed in her overactive imagination. But as the plane turned left, facing a broad band of lighted cement, it was too late to change her mind. They w ere on their way to London, and nothing could stop them now! Part of her clamored to ask to be released. To stay there while they continued on their final leg of the journey to the Middle East! But as the sense of peace and comfort unexpectedly filled her again, she sensed it wouldn’t have done any good. Drew Slocomb had brought her alone because she served a purpose, he wouldn’t relent because she finally realized how dangerous this was!

            ‘You’re the only one I have to depend on, Lord.’ She whispered in awe and humility, attempting to run the tip of her tongue over her dried lips. And she was rewarded for the quiet statement with a deepening sense of belonging and calm. She couldn’t have explained it even if the tightlipped man beside her had asked. But as her fingers brushed against the body warmed Mogen David caught at the base of her throat, the words of hope and reassurance seemed to rise up from inside her.

            “Lo, I am with you always. Even to the end of the Age.”  The Voice repeated. And a strange feeling of water rising up inside her to bathe her body in calm relinquishment repeated itself. She didn’t struggle against it, nor share the rising excitement, but she probed the odd phenomenon with her mind, as if she were going to be asked about it at some later time. It was there, it was real, and that was enough. As the plane shuddered and broke free of the pull of earth’s gravity, her soul likewise winged toward the distant specks of light in the sky.  

            Even when the unsmiling man left her side for long periods of time, to go topside with Drew Slocomb and Ted Eidelberg, she didn’t feel alone. She learned to accept the even drone of the flight and dozed between needs to use the restroom. The meal was kosher, the Stewardess assured her. Shaw wondered if the young woman’s mouth ever got tired of being held in that fixed smile, but she smiled in answer, as if this information pleased her. It seemed small enough reward for the hard work the two forward attending Stewardess were offering. They’d NEVER gotten this kind of individualized attention when she flew cross-country with Marge and Rick to visit Drew Slocomb in Mississippi!

            Shaw pulled out the small, Gideon bible she’d taken from the nightstand of the luxury suite, having reluctantly left behind the exquisite robe, which would either be dry cleaned or discarded. She caught the somber man watching her from the corner of his eyes, then gave up with a shrug and turned to the ‘wrong’ side of the Bible, lingering in the Gospels rather than what His followers later explained about His message and purpose. She felt as if she needed to keep it hidden from the attendants and the sneering man seated across from her in the spacious seating, but she was driven to the portions she’d memorized in childhood, as they helped to reawaken the memory of her ‘real’ Mom and Dad, as dearly as she learned to respect and care for the Wyatt’s until this strange phenomenon split open the lies of their carefully crafted world.

-

            “ What was that?  “  Marge Wyatt exclaimed, paling so sharply that the slight neutral color she’d applied to her cheeks at the airstrip now stood out against the clammy pallor of her skin.

            “  Just a car backfire. “  Rick Wyatt answered, in a hurry to get in and answer the telephone summons on the other side of the door. He was suppose to meet Hasid in the lobby in fifteen minutes, that was probably him calling now to ask why they were

delayed?  A thousand other things of far more importance filled his mind now that they’d arrived on land.

            “  In The Imperial?  “  She asked incredulously as the second, longer, sustained round of rapid-fire tore through the renovated lobby two floors below. The screams of terror and pain immobilized them both as they stared at the elevator door that opened, allowing the trapped sound to cascade out unto the expensive carpets.

            ‘ The men we hired!’  Rick’s mind snapped back, rebelling against the demands to flee for their lives. The attack had arrived, but until this very moment, a part of him refused to believe the brutish could overwhelm common sense and decency, no matter what he’d witnessed or participated in, in the desert. Then it the terrible truth struck him viscerally and he pushed his wife ahead of him, sidling sideways in her effort to avoid him and go see what had happened.

            “  Terrorists, damn it!  “  He hissed. “  Run!  “

            “  Where?  “

            “  Up!  “

            Her eyes accused him but there wasn’t time. They could hear the race of feet up the staircase. If people escaping the carnage below. They would be quickly pursed before they could elude capture, if the terrorism, then he had less time than he needed to find them an escape!

-

-

End Chapter 3