The Lioness (12 page)

Rose’s stomach was all worked up. It shouldn’t be but
after the meeting with the Mullah she just couldn’t relax. Something was up and
she couldn’t put her finger on it. She wondered how Ty was, where he was. She
looked out the car window and saw the neighborhood that they were in. Right in
the middle of the red zone.

Her conversation had gone well with the Mullah, who
was happy she wanted to set up something for the women and children. She said
she wanted to start there and work out something for the other neighborhoods.

The phone conversation with her father had gone
equally well. He had spoken to the secretary for President Hamid Karzai.  He
was assured the President would get back to him since they were such old
friends. He had embedded with the Mujahideen and had met him. Like Massoud,
they had become close. He had even been instrumental in Karzai attending a
journalism course in France. He expected to hear from him within a day or so
because he always returned his calls right away. “Not to worry, my little Rose.
We will work this out and get your Ty back safe and sound. If the US isn’t
going to help we will go through other parties. Between the two of us, we have
enough connections… besides you wouldn’t believe the hornet’s nest that’s being
stirred up from Reporters without Borders, the
New York Times
, all our
congressmen. Ty’s mother has flown to NYC and is meeting with people too, so we
have a support group here, Rose. You aren’t the only one.”

“Oh Da.”

“You aren’t alone little one. Don’t worry.”

Rose stared out the window and realized Noori was
looking at her, worried. “You okay Rose? I am right here.  You want to talk?”

Rose shook her head. “It’s okay, we can talk later. I
was just thinking of my phone conversation with Da. Really, I’m fine.” Seeing
Noori’s look, she repeated, “Really I am.”

Opening her door, she waited for Noori and Daoud to
come over to her.

Noori leaned in closer to Rose. “While you talk to
Fatima, I will pull Abdul aside, talk to him for a minute but I will be right
there.”

Rose let out a weak laugh. “Do I look or do I act that
frail? Really Noori… I have been through a lot. I will get through this too,
with Ty… alive.” She got out of the car and looked up into the night sky. She
wondered if Ty had a window or was he blindfolded. She tried to push it out of
her mind right now. She could dwell on that later when she was back in her
hotel room. For now she was going to be making connections. Maybe Daoud’s
family had some kind of connection. Even feeble would be better then nothing.
Every little bit helped.

**********

Rose found herself in the middle of a very noisy
group. Fatima treated her like a long lost friend, drawing her in.

Rose greeted her hostess with “Asalaamu alaikum.”
Fatima took her hands and then kissed her first on the right cheek and then the
left, just like an old friend. She then pulled her along the hallway. “Let the
men talk, you come with me.”

After stepping into the modest home, she could smell
dinner. The men were behind them, slapping each other’s backs, talking loud.
She knew Noori would be happy to see his family after such a long separation.
His cousins had come here in the ‘80s.

Shaking her head after removing her burqa, she
followed Fatima to the comfortable living room.

“So you wear a hijab too? It looks very becoming on
you.”

Rose sat with her hostess, feeling comfortable with
her at once. “Thank you, Fatima. I have a lot of them plus working in Cambodia
and India I bought more scarves. I’ve had a lot of practice, to say the least.”
Rose sat there, all of a sudden she thought she heard music. She strained her
ears to catch the music. She could swear she heard Brian McKnight’s “Back to One.”
It was ever so soft but she was sure she heard it. She listened as Fatima
poured tea. Now, nothing. She looked around. “You have a very beautiful home.”

Fatima looked up at her guest as she poured the tea.
“Thank you, Rose. I can call you Rose?”

Rose reached and touched Fatima’s hand. “I would love
you to call me by my name.” She took the tea and then heard it again. Very soft
but it was there.

“Fatima, do you have a radio playing?”

Fatima looked up from the tray she was getting ready
to hand to Rose. “Radio, yes, but it’s in my bedroom. Why, do you want to hear
something?”

“No, it’s just, I thought I heard a song, a song that
my boyfriend would sing to me.”

Fatima took Rose’s hand. “I know it’s hard…my brother
and I were talking about it today.”

Abdul, followed by Noori and Daoud, came into the
living room. “What were we talking about, Fatima?” Abdul sat down next to his
sister and took his tea. Looking first at his sister then to Rose who was
seated across from them, he was taken aback. He hadn’t really looked at her
when she had arrived. He had seen pictures of her and pictures of red heads but
nothing prepared him for her. She was beautiful. Her skin was clear, her eyes a
beautiful blue. He could see her sadness and at that moment he was sorry for
being the cause of that sadness. He knew though here sat a woman who was a
mover and shaker. The combination of her and Ty Madison was powerful. He had
heard the news reports already of what she was doing. The reaction to her being
here basically by herself. Within hours of her arrival she had started her bullying
of the American Ambassador.  She had a talk with the Mullah. Her father was
friends with the Afghan President, had been friends with the slain fighter
General Massoud.

“We were talking about how hard it must be for Rose.”

Abdul looked at Rose. “Yes, if there is anything we
can do for you while you are here, please let us know. I hear you were talking
with the Mullah. You are going to set up an NGO for the women and children
here?”

Rose liked Fatima’s brother. “Yes, I am here for Ty,
of course, but I want to help too. You can ask your cousin Noori, I have done a
lot in Afghanistan, or at least tried.”

Noori looked at Rose first then at his cousin. “She is
too modest, cousin. She helps wherever she is.”

Rose looked over at her old friend. “Thank you, Noori.”
Setting down her cup she figured she would grab the bull by the horns. She
wasn’t here entirely for leisure. “I have a question Abdul? I hope you don’t
mind.” Seeing the look Abdul gave her, she pressed forward.

“I know your brother-in-law was involved with the
movement to free Iraq.” Rose saw Fatima get up.

“It’s okay Rose, you go ahead and talk. I will check
on dinner and be right back,” Fatima said. She turned and went to the kitchen.

Ty sat there taking in the sound of her voice, his
girl’s voice. She had heard him but thought she was either imagining it or
heard a radio. It wouldn’t take too long if he did it this way, but he didn’t
want to put her in jeopardy. Let her just think she heard it because she missed
him or that it was a sign that he was still alive. He bowed his head and prayed
as he listened to her talk. She was only a few feet away from him but she might
as well have been a whole world away.

“I wanted to ask you, Abdul, since I know your
brother-in-law passed away fighting for a cause. I know it was a small group of
fighters for independence. I have also heard that the group that took Ty was
small, though that can’t be confirmed.” Rose felt very small at this moment but
she wanted to press on. She took in a deep breath.

Noori saw her hesitation. “Cousin, what Rose would
like to know, could you ask around for her. She would like to set up a talk
with the captors if they would. She would like to start talks, negotiations.
Her father….”

Abdul stood up. This was working better than he or his
oldest brother had ever dreamed it would. Omar had thought him foolish but had
said he was the one with the education. They would go his way for now.

“Rose, I am honored that you would ask. I am just a
shop keeper and teacher but I will ask around. Maybe if you were to have
another press conference, let the people who took Ty know that you want to talk
and negotiate, it might move things faster.”

“I was told by the US Ambassador today that I should
go back to Jordan and let them take care of it. I am not backing down till I
get him back, alive,” Rose said with more power behind her voice than she felt.

Abdul knew he would have the help he needed. He also
knew now why Ty Madison had fallen in love with Rose O’Malley. She was beautiful,
full of life and caring. He had done his own background check before they had
even taken Ty. She would be their spokeswoman to some degree. She would fight
for the people of Iraq like she did everything else.

Abdul looked at his sister as she came back into the
room. She didn’t know what he had done, she never questioned. His office was
his space and he said he would take care of it. He had been planning this for a
long time. Eventually he would have to take her into his confidence, maybe soon,
but for now he wouldn’t.

“Abdul, Rose, cousins the meal is ready,” Fatima said.

Rose looked over at Noori and his cousin Daoud. They
rose and so she got up along with Abdul. “The meal smells divine, Fatima.”

“Oh, it’s just regular food, you might say. It is hard
to get things fancy, especially when you are only told that very morning.” She
gave her brother a look.

Abdul knew Fatima wasn’t too upset. She really loved
having guests, since it had been so long. She just liked to do it right. “I
promise I will give you better warning in the future.” Abdul felt his phone
start to vibrate. “If you will excuse me… I will be right there.”

Fatima looked at her brother. “We will wait for you.”

“No, don’t, I will only be a few minutes. Please go,
start without me.” He didn’t give his sister a chance to speak again. He headed
for his office. He also wanted to see Ty. He knew he was listening.

“Hello? Oh Omar. Yes, things are going better than
expected. Yes, we will have the help we need. You should be here. I know, I
know you had to be there but it’s going to work. I told you….” He listened.
“No, she doesn’t know yet. Not even Daoud. He will be fine though. Yes, yes I
know, but you will see it’s going to work. Okay, but keep me posted.”

Abdul hung up. He thought about the tone in his
brother’s voice. He sounded tired, stressed. He felt things should go faster.

Abdul sat for a minute, then remembered he should be
with the guests. Getting up, he went to the door that led to the storage room.
Turing on the light he saw Ty seated in the corner on the mat that he slept on.
As Ty looked up he saw the haggard look of his captor.

“You don’t have to worry, she will come to no harm.
She wants to start talks with the men who took you so to get things moving
fast.”

Ty didn’t think he’d find his voice. He felt like he
had swallowed a bucket of sand. His eyes felt that way too.

“For the love of God, your God, my God, get her out of
here. Talk her into going back to Jordan. I can’t stand the thought that she’s
here. She’s in danger.”

Abdul looked into the eyes of the man that was his
prisoner. “You know as well as I do she won’t leave till she has you. She has
gotten things in motion, stirred up a pot or as you would say, a hornet’s nest.
She’s here to stay till she gets the job done. If you want her out of here,
cooperate and that will move things along. I have a paper with the demands. I
want you to write it better and then we will get air time, you will state our
demands .You will tell the world you are being treated fairly.”

“Listen, I’ll do anything but I want her out of the
country. You know as well as I that she, anyone for that matter that travels in
this city, is in danger. She’s my world…I don’t know what I’d do if anything
happened to her.”

“We will work on the speech tomorrow. I have a cousin
who works for the TV station. We will have you on there by the next day at the
latest.” Abdul started to turn to leave, but turned back. “I can see why you
love her so. She’s everything a woman should be. Are all western women like
her?”

Ty was looking at his hands. Shaking his head, “No, I
can say they aren’t. She’s one in a million and she’s the only one for
me…forever.”

Andrew Smith sat in his office at the US Embassy. Tired
wasn’t the word to describe how he felt. He had been going for days since the
American Ty Madison had been taken. He sat looking at the file in front of him.
So far no word on who claimed responsibility. They had no clues, nothing. To
add to the problem was Rose O’Malley. He could tell when talking to her that
she wouldn’t leave. How could he expect her to? She was doing something super
human. She was doing all the leg work and stirring up trouble in the process.
He had reports that her father, Timothy O’Malley of the Boston Globe, was doing
his own fair share of work. He had a separate file on him. Served in Vietnam as
an AP reporter. Had gone on his own, worked with Tim Page, along with the late
Sean Flynn and Dana Stone. He had embedded with the Mujahedeen and got to know
some of Afghanistan’s modern day heroes. Smith had it from his sources that O’Malley
was in contact with the President of Afghanistan. He was also flying to Jordan
to meet with the King of Jordan. He was a no nonsense man who would do anything
for his daughter. All three were powerhouses in the Middle East. His
conversation with the CIA was confirming that Ty Madison was being used as a
pawn, or maybe to draw in Rose and her father. They knew the region and knew it
well. He had heard that the Northern Alliance troops she had embedded with
twice were at her beck and call forever, because of the connection her father
had with their slain leader. When she was sick they went above and beyond the
call of duty to get her help. His latest communiqué was the State Department
wanted her out and back in the states. ‘Give her a week then get her out, do
whatever you have to do but get her out. It’s too sensitive in Iraq right now.
She could start something that would be catastrophic for what we have gotten
started.’

“Shit…” he swore under his breath. He felt for her.
They were a golden couple and she wanted him back. It was obvious that she
would go to any lengths. His responsibility was do as his superiors said but
his gut, his heart, wanted to help. He knew his office wasn’t secure. He would
go to the Palestine tomorrow, talk to her. Try to warn her, but buy her some
time.

Deep down he knew what was right. The US policy was no
negotiating. She was a private citizen. He was at risk of losing his job, but
he couldn’t go the way of the government, at least for now.

Pushing himself away from his desk he went to his file
cabinet. Putting away the files, he went back to his desk and wrote down a note
for his secretary. He wouldn’t be too late, just go see her early, grab a bite
to eat and then be back by 9:30. He’d make the call from his apartment. Just a
short note to leave for her at the front desk. He knew she had gone out. She
was already at it. She was fast, that’s for sure. She was making connections,
thanks to her old friend from Afghanistan who had relatives here. No wonder Ty
loved her. He knew she was well respected and loved in this area of the world
for what she did for the people.

Turning off the lamp, he went to the door and looked
things over. All neat, just as he liked it. Life was not neat and orderly right
now like he wanted it, but he didn’t have much longer, then he’d be gone for a
month.

**********

Rose collapsed on the bed. She felt like she had aged
ten years, felt like her body could sleep forever. She had been holding onto
her emotions all day and then they burst like a dam. She laid there and let the
tears take over. She knew she needed it and didn’t feel bad about it. She cried
for the time she had wasted in anger when she and Ty had been in Banda Aceh.
She cried for Ty and not knowing how he was, where he was.

She let the tears take over. She couldn’t, wouldn’t
stop them. She needed this outlet since she didn’t know what each day would bring,
how long it would be. She had to keep a tight rein on her emotions during the
day. Tomorrow would start early with the Vice Counsel. Then to the TV station
for a news conference. Abdul had been right. Get the news out, she was willing
to talk. She was one person, but had some help coming behind her. Thank God for
Da. He was going to be in Amman, Jordan tomorrow to meet with the King. He said
he’d call after. He told her he had good news about his conversation with the
President of Afghanistan. She was still going to work on her end. She wasn’t
going to quit till she had Ty back. No stone left unturned.

She couldn’t, wouldn’t stop or give up.

She lay there and remembered the song she heard at
Noori’s cousin’s house. God, she could have sworn she heard Brian McKnight. It
was so real, but then it seemed like a dream. It reminded her of Ty and when he
sang to her. Sometimes he would just hum the songs as they fell asleep.

“God, Ty if only I knew what to do? What if I’m making
a mistake like the government says I am. Maybe I should let the people who know
what they are doing handle it.” That started a fresh torrent of tears.

**********

Rose woke with a start. Feeling like something the cat
dragged in, she tried to get her bearings. Then she realized she was hearing
her satellite phone. As she reached for it she knocked over the bottle of water
she had placed on the bedside stand the night before. Swearing under her breath
she grabbed the phone and answered. “Hello?”

“Rose, you don’t sound so good.”

“Da? What time is it?”

Rose’s father glanced at his watch. “Almost six,
little one. Why?”

Rose sat up and brushed the hair out of her eyes. God,
she must look awful. She knew she fell asleep crying. She would need a very
cold shower on her face. “Because I have a breakfast appointment with the Vice Counsel
at seven-thirty.”

Rose’s father thought quickly. “You aren’t having
breakfast at one of the coffee shops, are you?”

“Da, you know I would go wherever I have to go, but no,
we are having breakfast here at the hotel. You know in order to talk, you can’t
very well do that at little tea houses or coffee shops, and not only that I wouldn’t
linger. It’s not the thing to do, too dangerous. Restaurants are targets too
many times with suicide bombers.”

“I’m sorry, kitten, for questioning your ability, or
lack thereof, to take care of yourself.”

“No Da it’s ok, really it is. I’m glad I have people
looking out for me. I have you and Noori, who is like Mom. He is clucking over
me constantly. Must think he has to take his sister’s place.” Glancing at the
clock, she knew she still had enough time for a shower.

“Well I know you have something to tell me, good or
bad I want to hear it.”

“First honey, have you got wind of who’s responsible
for taking Ty? It’s been almost two weeks now and this is odd, to not hear.”

“Maybe it means they aren’t organized.

“Maybe, well anyway listen honey. I talked with the
King of Jordan and also earlier with the President of Afghanistan. He said
after this is all done and things have settled, he would like you to come visit
and be he and his wife’s guest. His wife is so impressed with the work you have
done there for the women and children.”

“That’s nice Da, but what did he say?” Rose could feel
her impatience rising.

“He is going to start the steps to set himself up as a
third party for negotiations… the King of Jordan said he would also. Apparently
you and his wife have worked together.”

“Yes, she doesn’t mind getting right in there and
becoming involved.”

“Well what I want you to do today, honey is see if you
can find out anything, keep your ears open. We need to find out who took Ty.
They should be saying something soon, list of demands, something.”

“Da, I’m going to get some air time on the local TV
station and let the captors know I am willing to talk, set up talks, see what
they want. Maybe this will bring them out of hiding.”

“Both the President and the King said they would be in
contact with the right people to set up talks, be the go-between. So let’s see
who can get things going.”

Rose felt overwhelmed. Her father was going the extra
mile for her, doing so much. ”Daddy?”

Rose’s dad was taken back. She had called him Da
forever, hadn’t called him Daddy that much unless she was scared.

“It’s not too many times I hear you calling me Daddy,
I like the sound of it. Now listen honey, you don’t worry, you will get sick,
and Ty needs you. Take time to rest. We have some help here, people who can
take care of things. I’m not asking you to leave, even though I wish you
weren’t there, but I know you need to be there and I understand. Be careful
though. Keep your eyes and ears open. Okay?”

Rose felt the tears come and she couldn’t stop them.
“Oh Daddy…”

“It’s okay honey, we’ll get through this with Ty
alive. I’m sure of it. Just take a deep breath and be careful for your mother
and me.”

“I will.”