Abigail – The Avenging Agent: The agent appears again (34 page)

He picked up the microphone, brought it
close to his lips and spoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to
remind you all that we have only an hour and a half and that we will meet at
this square I am pointing to.”  

They all disembarked at the plaza and
looked around.  There were mosques around the place and a long line of buildings
led from them.  Lutfi indicated the gigantic gate at the entrance of the
“Sheikh Lutaf” mosque and enthused.

“Friends, can you guess the height of
the gateway you are standing beside, now?”

People ventured some guesses and he
cried out dramatically:

“You won’t believe this but, no one has
even approximated its height.  Yes, yes, you are looking at a gate that rises
to a height of twenty-seven meters.”  When he heard the cries of amazement, he
added proudly as if he was talking about his own home:

“Do you see the matching pair of
minarets, standing on either side of the gate?  Let’s see who can estimate
their height?”  But, this time, no one ventured a guess.

“The twin minarets are forty-eight
meters high!” he announced, enjoying the visitors cries of amazement.

Abigail observed the show and listened
to the stories, understanding the secret of this guide’s charm.  There was a
lot she could learn from him.

“Where is the Bazaar?” Karma inquired
and she pointed to the wondrous Mosque of the Imam that was located to the
south of the square.

“It’s there, facing us.  The Bazaar
begins on the north side of the plaza,” and she went down to the street.

“Let’s cross to the shops,” she called
out and Karma looked around, trying to find them.  He noticed that the
two-storey buildings facing him concealed a multitude of stalls and served as a
vestibule, leading to them.

In the rear of these buildings,
businesses and workshops were revealed that stood in a row.  Behind them, cars
drove along a road paved with interlocking stones that broke the continuity of
these ancient buildings.

The sun glistened on the wet dome of the
‘Lutaf Mosque’ and Karma looked up at it.  He noticed that hues of the building
varied in from gray to pink, depending on the sunlight, and the grand gate at
the entrance to the mosque glowed in shades of turquoise.

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  It’s more
appropriate for a mausoleum than a mosque,” she said.  “Did you know that there
is a long tunnel in the ground beneath it?

“What? Where is there a tunnel?” he
asked immediately, ticking off something in his memory.  “What tunnel are you
talking about?”

“I’m talking about the one that connects
this mosque to that palace on the other side of the square.”

“Is that so?!”

Now, he remembered the coded message
from the transmission, speaking lightheartedly, as he tried not to reveal that
he knew anything.

“Oh, how mysterious.  It’s bad enough
just to think of going down below to it, in the dark, with a flashlight,
Brrrrr.” He shuddered.  “I don’t understand, why do they dig tunnels like
that?”

“What’s to understand?  That building
over there is a palace and members of royal families always need a secret
passage, somewhere mysterious and an escape route that only they know about.”

“Oh, how romantic.”

She let out a sound of contempt. 
“Romantic?  Absolutely not.  Think of the fear of the young princes and
princess making their way down below, hiding or escaping through this tunnel
with a lighted candle in their hand.”

She moved forward, with her back bent,
as if holding a burning candle.

“Wow, think of the shadows on the sandy
walls, moving and attacking them, Boo!” She jumped and waved her bent fingers
in his face.

“Oh, what a wild imagination you have. 
What else is in that tunnel?”

She pulled him by his hand.

“Let’s go to the palace, have a look
around the Royal suite and then we can try and go down below and check it out,”
she suggested.

She didn’t pay attention that a woman from
the bus, who had sat in the row in front of them, was now standing behind her,
listening to her and watching her.  She asked:

“May I go with you to the palace?”

Abigail jumped with a start.  She
hesitated momentarily and saw Karma recoil but, immediately thought that if the
woman were to accompany them, it would appear to be nothing more than an
innocent stroll.

“Yes, come,” she said and when they went
ahead to the mosque, she muttered to Karma, with a smile on her face that was
in total contradiction to the content of her remarks:

“Wait with the lady till I return and
don’t search for me.”  Her smile broadened and she said:  “Not to worry, I’ll
get there in the end – even if I have to do so alone.”

She did not get to see Karma’s face. This
showed he had begun understanding that the time had come to support “Lucy” and
he was still trying to grasp what kind of support she required from him.

The visitors were transfixed by the high
ceiling that was decorated with images and Abigail stared in amazement at the
stained glass windows and collages of glass that cast a golden yellow light
everywhere. After a minute, she passed the people by.  She went to look for
stairs or an opening leading down to the lower level, which would take her down
to the underground royal passage beneath them.

No one noticed that she had left the
hall and she continued to the last room.  There, on its southern wall hung a
densely beaded curtain that fell to the floor.  She pulled the beads aside and peered
into the complete darkness that looked like a black wall.  Before entering, she
glanced back to check whether anyone was looking at her, then slipped away
through the beads that clattered shut behind her back.

The air was moist and musty and the smell
of mold constricted her throat.  She stood still and was frightened of moving. 
The darkness was so thick that before she took a step she moved one foot
forward to feel out whether there was a floor below her.  She stood and
listened and took another few steps and sensed that the surface she was
stepping on was sloping.

She continued, step by step, touching
the wall on her right and feeling the way she couldn’t see with her left arm. 
All at once, it occurred to her that she ought to count her paces so that she
would remember the number when she returned along the same route.  When she had
counted fifteen paces, the hand that stretched out in front of her touched a
wall but, her right hand felt a corner on the right side. Beyond the corner,
there was empty space. 

She stood still, understanding there was
a turn to the right and as soon as she took the turn, she saw a faint light. 
Abigail imagined she heard undefinable noises and she stopped on the spot.  She
listened again, but the silence had returned and she wondered if she had
imagined the sounds because of her tension.  She kept walking slowly, alert and
prepared for any scenario that might unfold.

As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark,
she noticed dark openings in the wall on her right.  She peered into each of
them and progressed to the next one.  She wondered why the place was abandoned
and deserted, without guards or any other presence.  It never occurred to her
that she was, in fact, being drawn directly into the trap – into the heart of
the secret royal underground passage, into the danger that should be avoided at
all costs.

In the meantime, Karma waited for her in
the crowded, bustling hall.  The woman, who had joined the two of them, decided
to continue with the people milling around the Bazaar.  He sat on a stone bench
in the large hall of the mosque and waited.  When more than an hour passed, he
understood that Abigail had found what she was looking for and that the delay
was caused by carrying out her assignment.

He didn’t know what to do.  On one hand,
she had mentioned that if she were delayed – he should go on without her and
that she would get back on her own.  But, on the other hand, he needed to know that
she was alright.  The anxiety that occupied his mind had made him tired.  He
tried to calm himself with the thought that no one knew she had gone down to
the tunnel so there was no cause for concern.  He presumed that she didn’t need
the support he had been asked to give her.

Just then, there was a commotion and the
guards were bustling about in preparation.  At first it appeared normal, like
the regular changing of the guard ceremony accompanied by marching and yelling
loud commands.  Then, a soldier entered pulling an Alsatian Terrier behind him
on a short leash, moved ahead and disappeared from view.  Now, Karma was convinced
that something out of the ordinary was happening.

‘A dog?!’ he thought and almost cried
out in surprise because he knew that animals are not brought into a holy place
like this.  Again, he recalled the message he had received:

“Give
Lucy back up when she inserts the virus into the tunnel.”

He wondered if the moment had arrived
for him to back her up.

Now, it seemed someone was staring at
him and he turned his gaze in his direction.  Indeed, he saw a man with a
mustache at the end of the hall.  A flicker of recognition flashed through his
memory but, the man disappeared among the dozens of people, milling about the
mosque.  Karma frowned, trying to recall where he knew the man from and he
decided to outwit him.

He stepped back to the wall and raised
his head as if to behold the ceiling, decorated with verses from the liturgy
and then he noticed the man again.  It was his brother-in-law, Effendi Khaidar,
his wife Salima’s brother.  He almost ran towards him, but his brother-in-law
eluded him and disappeared again.  Karma tried to understand what he was doing
here and why he was playing hide-and-seek with him.

His brain worked feverishly.  The
unplanned meeting with his elusive brother-in-law and the guard, who entered
the mosque with a dog made him decide to do something to draw attention to
him.  He thought that if Abigail was in trouble – any delay he could offer
might give her time to resolve the problem or, alternatively, allow her to
continue what she was doing without disturbance.  Now he looked for something he
could do that would make everyone pay attention and focus only on him.

Suddenly he got an idea.  He began
singing at the top of his voice, then leaped up, screamed phrases from the
Quran, murmured prayers and sang religious tunes he remembered.  He mimicked
the behavior of a fervent religious fanatic and cavorted around like someone
who had lost his mind in the holy mosque.

The tourists stared at him, some
regarded him with understanding and others, with surprise.  After a few minutes
a group of men in turbans and gowns approached him tolerantly and surrounded
the dancing man with a human ring, touched him and tried to calm him down. 
Soldiers at the entrance followed what was going on without interfering. 
Perhaps, they thought that this crazy religious fanatic was now under control
and being cared for by the religious authorities of the mosque.

The truth was that Effendi, his
brother-in-law, had been following him for many days but, at the same time, was
trying to prevent his fellow members of the ‘Kaukab’ organization from
assassinating him.  He feared his sister becoming a widow.

At the last meeting of the organization,
the suggestion to kill Karma had been raised. Effendi’s claim persuaded them to
wait.

“We need to keep him alive.  He is the
goose that lays the golden eggs for us.”

When he saw that the others didn’t fully
understand him, he added:

“That guy will lead us to the next
assignment of the ‘Mossad’ and I suggest we follow him.  What could suit us better
than that?”

The idea sounded reasonable to them and
the assassination was dropped from the agenda but, Effendi was not gullible. 
He followed Karma because he believed that there was a good chance they would
carry out the hit, in spite of the decision to wait.

That week, Effendi had discovered the
romantic connection between Karma and Abigail. He burned with rage and was
furious but then, the voice of reason took over and he decided to wait for an
opportune moment to deal with the matter appropriately.  In the meantime, he
decided not to tell his sister, Salima, that her husband had another wife and
he tried to keep track of them.

The sounds from above were inaudible in
the passageway down to the tunnel and Abigail was still surrounded by gloom and
total silence.

She moved forward and suddenly felt her
foot suspended in the air.  She almost sank forward but immediately drew her
leg back and cautiously extended it again.  Once more, there was nothing solid
to stand on.  Before her stood a cavernous shaft that was an impassable abyss.

Initially, she assumed that the
renovation was not yet finished.  Her next thought was that, perhaps, the floor
had collapsed. She got down on her knees and felt around the edge of the
shaft.  Her hand came upon a stake stuck into the inside edges of the hole,
from which a rope hung down. She understood it was probably a rope ladder. 
Abigail sat on the brink of the shaft and lowered her legs into it. She leaned
forward to look down it but was unable to discover its depth or where it led. 
Although she had tried to avoid turning on a light, she now pressed on the
protuberance on her key ring and the ray it produced illuminated the distant
floor that continued without an end in view.  She turned around, grabbed the
stake and lowered a hesitant foot down to the first rung of the rope, stood on
it to test if it would support her body weight.  She felt it was steady and
lowered her other leg, then descended rung by rung and counted thirteen until
she was standing on terra firma.