The Sanctuary

Chapter 35

Corben had just finished checking the dead killer’s body for anything that would lead back to the hakeem, or for a cell phone — neither of which he found — when the Fuhud detectives barreled in.

With them there to arrange for carting off the dead body and the wrecked Cherokee, he was good to go. He didn’t want to hang around there any longer than he had to, and he didn’t have to. Filling in the detectives was a courtesy, to keep them sweet, but the clock was ticking. Farouk would be calling Ramez in less than four hours’ time, and with Ramez in the hands of the enemy, Corben had to move fast.

He recovered his briefcase, and not holding out much hope, he checked the back of the Cherokee for Ramez’s phone in case it had fallen out of his pocket in the chaos. It wasn’t there. He dropped to one knee and swept his eye under the car too, but there was no sign of it there either. He made sure the weapons cache in the trunk was solidly locked, and after giving the two detectives a clipped briefing of what had happened and telling them to clear the area as quickly as possible and not to release anything to the press just yet, he turned down their offer of a ride and, instead, hailed a passing taxi to take him and Mia up to the embassy in Awkar.

Mia looked back at the receding scene of the shoot-out through the rear windshield of the taxi as it drove off towards East Beirut and the hills beyond.

She was still dazed by what had erupted around her only minutes earlier, and a tangle of frenzied, jarring images flooded her mind. She settled back into the subdued normality of the comfortable car — the driver, who hardly spoke any English, had his radio on, piping mind-numbingly upbeat Arabic music around her, while Corben was on the phone with someone at the embassy — letting her mind settle down, until she found herself processing what had happened with more clarity. As the tightly packed, somewhat shabby stucco apartment buildings streamed by, she wondered where Ramez was being taken to. She pictured him in some grimy, windowless room somewhere — perhaps where Evelyn was being held too — and flashed forward to Farouk’s imminent phone call. She felt a sudden upwelling of worry as she played out its implications in her mind.

She heard Corben end his phone call, and given that the taxi had been picked out randomly off the street and that the driver’s failed attempt at casual conversation had clearly shown how virtually nonexistent his English was, she felt it was safe to talk. She turned to Corben.

“We need to find a way to warn Farouk,” she urged him. “If he calls Ramez, he’ll be walking into a trap.”

“You’re assuming they know he’s expected to call him.”

She hadn’t thought it through, but it seemed to make sense to her. “Why else would they grab him? The timing’s a bit too perfect for it to be just a coincidence, don’t you think? I mean, Ramez calls in to say he’s in touch with him, and boom, they show up and grab him?” The idea seeded her with more unease. She lowered her voice, feeling more aware of the driver’s presence. “Last night, you said you didn’t want to flag Ramez to the local cops. You must think the kidnappers have a mole at the station, right?”

Corben glanced at the driver. Mia followed his gaze. The driver seemed to be uninterested.

“I’d be amazed if they didn’t,” Corben said in a muted, unfazed tone.

“Which means they know Farouk’s going to call him,” she pressed, whispering conspiringly now. “You need to do something to warn him. What about putting something out on the news? Get the main local stations to say that Ramez’s been kidnapped, maybe even give Farouk a signal to come in, to call the cops or — no,” she quickly corrected herself, “to call you, to call the embassy directly.”

“If he finds out that Ramez’s been kidnapped,” Corben countered, “he’ll run. He’ll be so scared he won’t trust anyone. He’ll just disappear. And if he does, we’ll lose our only link to your mom.”

“But he’ll be walking into a trap.”

Corben’s expression suggested he had already thought of that. “Maybe we can use that.”

Which took her aback. “What do you mean?”

Corben hesitated. “I mean we might have a chance to get Farouk and flush these guys out at the same time.” He darted another glance at the driver. “Let’s not get into it right now.”

She got his drift. She still didn’t think there was any risk in discussing it, but she relented and sat back in her chair and looked out her window, uncomfortable with the notion of using Farouk as bait.

The taxi cruised along the seafront, past the new marina where gleaming hundred-foot yachts mingled uncomfortably with rickety wooden fishing boats, and onto the highway that led to East Beirut. The city bubbled on regardless, turning a jaded eye to the not-so-infrequent acts of violence that would have caused huge outrage in other countries. As the fruit and vegetable vendors rushed by, something kept nagging at her, the question that wouldn’t go away and that, once you got past the priority of getting Evelyn back, was really at the heart of everything that was happening.

She turned to Corben again. “What is he after? What the hell does he want with some moldy old book?”

“I don’t know,” Corben simply answered.

“But you must have researched it. You must have some theory about what it’s about, what he’s looking for, don’t you?”

Corben slid another glance in the driver’s direction, then looked at Mia. “Like I said. It’s not necessarily relevant.”

“Not relevant?”

“You’re trying to apply your logic, your way of thinking, to what maniacs like this guy are about,” he clarified. “But that’s not how it works. We’re talking about some very sick people here, guys who are certifiably insane. Saddam, his sons, his cousins…these guys lived in their own fantasy world. People’s lives had no value for them. You know those kids who get their kicks plucking wings off butteries or blowing up frogs with firecrackers? These guys are like that, only for them, humans are much more fun than frogs.”

“Okay, I understand that, but I still don’t get his interest in ancient relics.”

“It could be anything,” Corben replied. “Remember Mengele’s experiments? Hitler’s obsession with the occult? Maybe it’s some cult from history that he feels connected to. The key word here is insane. Once you factor that in, anything’s possible. There was a scientist working on a biological weapons program in South Africa a few years back, in the days of apartheid. You know what his pet project was? An ethnospecific bioweapon. He was developing a virus that would only kill black people. And that was after they’d started putting stuff in the water to make them infertile. And it’s doable. Anything’s doable when it comes to killing people. So you tell me. Is our guy after some ancient recipe for something, some virus, some old plague or poison that holds some poetic appeal to him? Or is he just some demented nut whose obsessiveness will help bring about his downfall? I’d go with the latter.”

Mia thought about it for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t that relevant after all. The point was to free Evelyn and, as a bonus, take down the hakeem. Still, it was bugging her. “Iraq, Persia, that whole area’s got a rich history, medically speaking,” she noted, “but that was a thousand years ago.” Her brain was firing more efficiently now, and thinking about history and medicine nudged her into more comfortable and familiar territory, a theoretical, problem-solving mind-set that helped move her away from the harsh reality she’d been sucked into. She also found solace in the notion that perhaps this was where she could be useful.

“Do you know how old the book is?” she asked.

“No.”

She frowned, deep in thought. An idea surfaced. “I’ve been working with a historian on my project out here. This guy — his name’s Mike Boustany — he’s a walking encyclopedia when it comes to this region. Maybe if I showed him the Polaroids, he could give us an idea of how old the books are.”

Corben grimaced. “I’m not sure we’re ready to show them around. Not while this is in play.”

“I’m sure he can be discreet if we ask him to.” Mia could see that Corben wasn’t convinced. “We need to explore every angle, don’t we? Evelyn would want us to.”

Corben held her gaze for a beat. “Sure, why not,” he relented. “Knock yourself out. But I’d like you to think about something else. I want you to reconsider leaving the country.” She opened her mouth to object, but he raised his hands to pause her. “I know you feel you need to be here, and that’s normal. I wanted you here too, I thought you might remember something that could be important. But this is snowballing out of control. I know you want to do everything you can to help get your mom back, but realistically, I don’t think there’s anything more you can do. These guys were prepared to kill you today. You need to think about your safety. We can keep you safe, but…I can’t guarantee anything. I’m not saying you need to go far, but even Cyprus would be better than here. I just need you to think about that, alright?”

Mia felt a tightening in her chest. She knew she’d already used up whatever karmic goodwill she had coming to her in the last couple of days. Staying on was simply tempting fate, and, thinking about it, his suggestion, however deflating, made perfect sense to her. But then again, it wasn’t about rational thinking. She couldn’t leave. It was as simple as that. She knew she wasn’t safe here; she wasn’t even sure she had anything to contribute to finding her mom. But she was part of it. She felt connected not just to Evelyn, but to Ramez and Farouk and their struggle for survival. She felt connected to the city and to its people, and — there was no denying it — to the perverse and dangerous visceral elation that coursed through her when bullets were flying and when she was running for her life.

Beset by a confusing cocktail of dismay and relief, unsure about which instinct to follow, she looked at Corben. “Just do your best then,” she finally muttered, not really wanting to debate the issue right now. “I can’t ask for more.”

“You got it.” He paused, then nodded reassuringly. “We’ll get her back.”

She knew it wasn’t a certainty. Far from it.

The odds were against it.

A deep sense of loss swooped down on her, and she turned and looked out the window as the city flew past her in a sun-drenched concrete blur.