"You've got to be kidding me," I said for the third time during the game as Dawood chacha struck another dark piece into the post, much to the delight of Khan, Amira and the others who were seated around the board in a frenzy circle.
Ali, who was my partner, seemed to be faring well on this board game, almost as skilled and experienced as his godfather, still not good enough for us to win the game. Amira also had a good hand, although her skills were a bit rusty, but still much better than mine.
A plate of Lebanese sweets was placed on the coffee table which was often present there, along with a bowl of fruits and nuts. Arina and Amin also joined us taking a break from their duties, although Arina seemed to be preoccupied with something she found on the tablet, that seemed to be of serious nature. It was nice to see her out of her usual professional attire, where she looked a bit relaxed in a t- shirt and jeans, or at least was trying to be, with her professional composure still laying on a bit thick.
The third game ended with cheers of Dawood chacha and Amira at hers and her grandfather's win and a half hearted protest from my side, with a score of 2-1 in three games. Jala joined in the cheers, after Dawood chacha grabbed her from the shoulders and pulled her close, clapping and laughing softly at the commotion. She had something on her mind, ever since she got back from the meeting. It was evident in her silence, a discreet frown etched on her eyebrows, and her gaze was mostly lowered to the ground as if she was avoiding meeting us in the eye. Maybe it was because of Khan's presence or the realization that she was no indirectly working for him? However, he never made us feel that we meant anything less than Ali or Amira. It could also be that she might be overwhelmed by the whole situation. I wouldn't blame her. Her whole life turned upside down in a matter of months, dominos of change toppling one after the other without a steady moment of reflection to think over what the hell just happened. We didn't even get to have a heart to heart ever since we got here, so I planned to confront her in solitude tonight, on what was the matter.
"Will you stop whining now? Someone's trying to work here," Arina says exasperatedly looking up from her tablet.
"What are you working on anyway?" I asked her, grabbing my water bottle and gulping some down. I bent over to have a look at what she was doing.
"We actually got an email from Yousef, giving updates on the preparation they have made for the trip, and another one telling us about the shipments they received on Tuesday. Apparently, they need our help to get it smuggled through the main lands and onto the shores of India, Pak and Afghanistan. They'll obviously bear the transport charges and told us that we can take whatever custom money we choose to take while having ten percent share of the total profit. Not a bad deal, eh Mr Khan?"
"Not a bad deal at all, Arina," Khan replied, sipping his cocktail. "Tell them we'll help them. Ali can go and have a look at them getting boarded as well as see how much preparations they have made in terms of the journey up north. Might also give him some quality time to spend with his childhood friend." He winked at Ali who pretended to be wary of his godfather's remarks, but was glad given the half concealed upward quirk of his lips.
"You can join him, too, kiddo," Khan told me.
"I wouldn't want to impose," I excused myself. And it was true. Yousef was his childhood friend and they would be enjoying each other's company after a long time, sharing secrets, talking about the highs and lows about life. I wouldn't want to be the unwanted third wheel.
"Gosh, Salman I have never heard you speak something so dumb in the 4 years I have known you," Ali said, rolling his eyes at me and slapped me on the back. "Come on, it'll be fun. We can smoke, enjoy the view together, and give you a tour around the warehouse."
"Really not my scene, mate. Besides I've got to work on the software, if we are to infiltrate the security system of the base, by any chance."
"Arina and Amin I'll need you two to be there to get the data recorded and take care of the details."
"Sure thing, boss." Amin answers.
"Don't you think we should plan a joint training session for the men and women?" Arina pipes up.
"We have sent groups of them to the other tribes but you're right. An official joint session will give them a chance to be acquainted with one another, and understand the strategy better if they worked together. I'll talk to Yousef, Hussain and Zohra about this and tell Hamza to get the boys ready."
"Zohra? You mean Zuleikha's right wing woman?" Amira interjects.
"Yeah?"
"I don't think she'll be here." Arina said, her eyes on the tablet once again.
"How do you know that?"
"I had a talk with her after the meeting. She says she only comes here for visits, whenever Zuleikha requires her help. She doesn't seem like the woman who works for one person."
"Or keeps her word," Amira said, examining her nails. "I think we should keep an eye on her."
"Look I know, what she said was extremely rude to you during the meeting and the information she had was more than necessary, but I trust Zuleikha, Amira," Khan told her gently. "And if Zuleikha trusts her then, I trust her."
"I thought all of you were in a war, not too long ago?"
"We were and she was the one who fought by my side."
"I see," Amira replied, her eyes hinting distrust.
"Khan baba, I think Amira might be right," Jala spoke for the first time during the evening.
Salman's POV
A silence had fallen over the group, all eyes on her as she rose from her seat. She seemed to have realized the weight of her words, because even though she had defended what his granddaughter's opinion, it was still a challenge to his own. Nonetheless, what she said now was going to be heard since she rarely ever disagreed or even gave her own opinion on any matter.
"Pardon?" Khan asked, his voice cold.
Her Adam's apple bobbed up and down, as she mustered up the courage to say her next set of words. "It wasn't the first time I saw Zohra."
"You mean to say you have met her before?" She nodded in reply to Ali, her eyes wide and glassy. It amazed me to see that the girl who stood side to side with men and fought in battle and single handedly took on their leader of the enemy, was scared of a discussion with a group of unarmed individuals sitting casually in a lounge. Perhaps she wasn't scared of us, the ones she thought trusted her, but the lack of trust we were showing towards her at the moment. In the moment, I realized it didn't feel like a casual conversation, but more like a confrontation where she was being held accountable for her actions, a session at the court that she had faced many times before.
"Where?"
" How?"
"At the airport, in Pakistan, when we were on our way here."
"Why didn't you tell me this Jala?" I tried not to sound accusing as I remembered her apprehension when she came out of the rest room as if she had seen a ghost, and suddenly seemed to agree with my supposed theory of being stalked. In reality, I was just trying to scare her off and felt like a dick when I thought I had achieved in doing so.
"Because she held a knife to my throat and made me promise not to do so."
I felt a surge of anger in my veins towards the woman I saw earlier today. A fuzzy memory of a woman not unlike her walking out of the restroom at the airport before Jala, also popped up in my brain as I thought more about the events during our journey here. Then again, I was also paranoid about the two men in uniform who seemed to be stalking us turned out to be Ali's men who were hired for our protection. Who I thought were enemies proved to be our allies, our saviors. The lines between the truth and falsehood were getting more blurred, and it was getting difficult to decide who was worthy of trust and who wasn't.
I looked at Ali who also seemed to be seething with anger. His jaw ticked and his hands were clenched in fists as he looked over at Khan who had gotten up from his seat and tried to to make something of Jala's revelation.
"We can't just let this slide, Khan Baba," Ali told his godfather.
"Ali is right," Amin said, who also stood up and looked earnestly at his boss. "Zuleikha must have been aware of this incident and it is quite possible that she herself sent out Zohra to follow them here."
Khan
"It is a threat," Amira said. "An act meant to instill fear. They can't be trusted, Baba."
"But why did she come for Jala? Why not Ali or Amira, who had direct relation with Khan?" Arina asked.
Silence locked Jala's lips as she watched the exchange between us, turning her gaze down shamefully every now and then. I knew she felt exposed, guilty and maybe even a bit frustrated where everyone was asked their opinion, instead of asking her. Nonetheless, she stayed silent.
"I think we should not jump at conclusions. I'll have a talk with Zohra myself-"
"I beg you, Mr Khan, please do not do that," Jala addressed him once again, taking a step closer to him, desperation evident in her voice. Tears brimmed her doe eyes, as she looked up at him and it seemed to soften his demeanor a little bit. "Atleast, not right now until we can make something out of this situation."
"We would need to keep a closer eye on Zuleikha and all her little pets," Ali said, his arms folded while his fingers held his chin, as he came into a calculating resolve.
"She also gave me this card," She dug into the pocket of her long, cream cardigan and pulled out a rectangular piece of glass and held it in her hand for us to examine. "She called it the token of trust."
Being confused and curious at the same time, we walked over to her and hunched over her open palm that displayed the object. It was a little larger than your average playing card and upon closer inspection, one could see that various lines were drawn encased within the plane of the glass, intersecting one another at regular intervals, and resembled the inside of a USB.
"It looks like a USB," I voiced my thoughts, taking the card from the Jala and holding it towards the light so that its parts were visible more clearly. "With a whole lot of memory that's for sure." There were many more memory chips encased within the card than any regular drive and judging by the sturdy material of the card and the delicacy of the wires entwined, they looked like they were made of extremely valuable material. Probably platinum.
"Can we examine its contents?" Arina asked. "It doesn't look like it can be inserted anywhere, though."
I couldn't help but let out a snort at the word "insert" and Amin exhibited a small laugh too. Ali simply rolled his eyes although the sides of his mouth quirked upward, in a smirk.
"Do you men ever finish your puberty phase?" Amira exasperatedly, although Jala couldn't help but laugh along.
"There is always a portal available to insert, Arina," I winked at her. "You just need to look at the right place."
I had worked with similar chips before but this was definitely unique and probably more valuable than I had ever worked with before. That would mean it was protected with high security and it's code would be pretty difficult to crack. I viewed the side of my laptop and sure enough, a port similar to the width of the card was available into which I inserted the device and waited for an empty bar asking for a code. Instead, a window popped up with a text and voice over:
"Error. This data of this file is too large to be supported by your computer."
The voiceover kept repeating itself, leaving us utterly disappointed and clueless to fend for our answers.
"Now what are we going to do?" Arina exclaimed loudly.
"Asking the intelligence for help might resolve our problem." I tried to pose a solution.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Amin said. "The data maybe too risky and we can't trust anyone at the moment."
"Amin's right," Amira agreed and for the first time I seemed to agree with him, too.
"Then, what do you suppose we do?"
"We keep it, and mention it to no one. Not even Zuleikha," Amira said with a meaningful look towards Khan, entrusting the card back in Jala's position, clasping her hand within her own, to reassure that she has our full trust. "For all we know, she might not even be aware of this exchange between Zohra and our dear Jala."
All the preparations were made, Dawood chacha had already left with a group of our and Yaqub's soldiers, the joint training sessions of soldiers from all mafias went quite smoothly where they got to know each other better and build a chemistry before interacting in the real field. Jala had been training alongside those soldiers, and practiced on her own, in the early hours of the day, right after the morning prayer, sometimes taking the help of Dawood chacha to level up her skills even more and practiced late into nights, when all had left the yard, when no one was there to keep her company except the moon and stars. Her will to prove herself was strong and sometimes scary, because it wasn't our approval she was seeking, but her own. (My purpose seemed lost, my objective was what kept me going.)
Salman had been working on the software to disarm the security set up we will inevitably face in the Mother's hold, so the software had to be strong enough to hack into their network without allowing them to breach our own. He had worked with a couple of IT professionals and even took Arina's help in designing its operations since she was a software engineer herself, although it wasn't what she enjoyed doing. Amin joined me for all my meetings I had with various people and has been talking to the army officials informing them that me and Amira will be visiting them in two days. He and Arina have been quite cooperative and managed our affairs in a well organized manner, with all the parties that we have been in contact with, while keeping us updated about the status of the ship Dawood chacha is on board along with the men, and gave us very little to worry about in terms of our schedule and appointments. However, the pre-war anxiety was inevitable.