“I pray you to have a long life without a moment of peace!”
Mullah Shaheen gave an envelope of money to Gulnoor and told her he was leaving for Syria. She looked up in surprise; to be on the run is one thing, but to disappear into another country that was in turmoil was a different matter altogether. She had heard of new groups that were fighting and knew her brother would have to take sides to join the raging battle there.
Rebecca had quickly dashed into the next cubicle, where luckily, the patient had fallen asleep. Gulnoor was talking to her brother and seemed upset. Her world had changed and was falling apart; she had no idea what was to become of the family. Syria, kafir, ISIS, jihad, Rebecca had picked up enough words to know where Shaheen’s next destination was.
“Give yourself up, Bhai Jaan,” Gulnoor pleaded weakly. “Ammi says they’re after you and won’t give up the chase until you’re dead!”
“Never!” he retorted. “I’ll never surrender to the infidels! I’d rather die!”
“We’ve lost everything,” Gulnoor whispered. “I don’t want to lose you too!”
“Just concentrate on getting well!” the man ordered. “I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I’m out of the country. I’ll send for you, and we can begin our mission again; have faith!”
“Rebecca said…,” Gulnoor began, and he stopped her.
“That woman is dead!” he hissed. “Forget about that cursed creature; I never want to hear her name mentioned ever again!”
“Rebecca isn’t dead,” Gulnoor was exhausted and closed her eyes. “She’s alive and well; she…,”
“She’s hallucinating; evil apparitions are haunting her,” Shaheen thought. “I must leave before the noose around my neck tightens!”
He hurried out and was about to take the stairs when he saw the soldiers waiting for him below. He heard a voice behind him and thought he, too, was hearing a ghost. Turning around, he found himself face to face with Rebecca.
“Hello, Shaheen,” she snickered, “Going somewhere?”
“You!” he exclaimed and looked around. Rebecca had never seen him like this. He was tired and unnerved. Rebecca felt like she had defeated him. And surprisingly, instead of her usual anger towards him she felt pity.
“Yes, me, I’m sure you wish now that you had killed me when you had the chance.”
“I thought I had killed you! You have led to our downfall, you infidel devil! I’ll get rid of you,” he retorted, and Rebecca saw his hand clasping the knife she knew he kept in his belt.
Rebecca was not scared.
“Never let hatred towards others change you. They’ll get what they deserve. You must do the right thing.” Rebecca recollected Phil’s wise words when she had been frustrated and besieged with memories of Ron. She felt Ron next to her, fighting the enemy with her.
“Don’t blame me for your wrong deeds,” Rebecca warned. “You won’t escape this time; Allah has seen to that!”
“And you won’t live this time! Allah will see to that!” he snarled like a wild beast and came towards her as she held up a chair to protect herself, like a lion tamer trying to divert the animal’s focus.
“Shaheen, the Lashkar is behind you, waiting to take you into custody,” Rebecca announced. “You know this is the end for you; give up!”
“They’ll never take me,” he said and signaled to two men sitting in the waiting area in the corridor. They got up and walked towards him with pistols drawn to cover him. And reassuringly behind them, Rebecca saw the soldiers moving in, focusing on the terrorists, who realized their predicament.
Rebecca recognized Abdullah and Qureshi covering Shaheen as he walked towards an open window, abandoning his way towards Rebecca.
“Come one step closer, and we’ll shoot the woman!” Abdullah warned the Lashkar, while Qureshi kept his gun aimed at Rebecca.
“There’s still a choice here for you, Shaheen. I can make it work for you. Give yourself up, and you can help Gulnoor,” Rebecca’s words fell on deaf ears as Mullah Shaheen snorted and ignored her until he heard the voice of his sister standing there. She must have yanked the IV from her hand, and Rebecca saw the spots of blood on her elbow.
“Give yourself up to the authorities, Bhai,” Gulnoor begged with all the strength she could muster. “It’s the only way you’ll get out alive!”
“Once they catch me, I’ll be dead, and no one will care for my family!” he shouted as he got onto the window ledge, half in and half out of the room.
“No, Bhai Jaan!” she cried, gasping for breath. “What’s running away going to get you? From Afghanistan, we came to Pakistan, and now from Pakistan, you want to run to Syria? Don’t you realize this fighting is leading to the destruction of us all? There are peaceful ways of spreading your message!”
“Chief Naseer will give you a chance if you surrender!” Rebecca shouted. “If you think he’s your enemy, think again. Your enemy is you and everything you stand for. Look around you; things are changing. People are looking forward to a better life; people like you stand in their way. Do you think you’re going to find any peace in Syria or anywhere else? Think again!”
“You’re surrounded, Shaheen. Give yourself up!” Chief Naseer Husain roared. Rebecca saw him climbing up the stairs. “You have no means of escape. There are Lashkar everywhere,”
Rebecca was surprised to see Shaheen hesitate before he turned to leap out. Shots rang out from the soldiers outside the window, and Gulnoor fell into a dead faint.
Distracted by the apparent death of their comrade, Abdullah and Qureshi tried to make a run for it and were gunned down by the soldiers. John Clooney had the men on stretchers and put into an ambulance headed for the police headquarters. Abdullah and Qureshi were pronounced dead by the paramedic in the ambulance.
“This one isn’t dead, sir,” the doctor reported to Clooney, sensing a pulse still on Mullah Shaheen. “Do you wish that he’s kept alive?”
“Absolutely! Do everything to save his wretched life!” Clooney insisted vehemently, as he thought of Ron, “Live, you beast! I pray you to have a long life without a moment of peace!”
“I’m afraid he’ll remain a paraplegic if he survives,” informed the doctor. “Looking at the head injuries, I doubt if he’ll retain any normal functions.”
“Keep him alive!” the chief said coldly. “He must serve as an example to others who think they can play with the lives of innocent people!”
Phil rested his feet on a charpoy and looked at the sky. Tomorrow he would be back in his room in Nancowry, and he looked forward to the quiet, monotonous life there. Those days at Borders seemed so long ago, though it had hardly been a couple of months since they arrived here. Like Marge and Bill Fainey, he was more than ready to leave, though not without a tinge of sadness too. They had seen the best and worst of human nature and were leaving behind some of the finest people they felt privileged to have met.
“Move,” barked Rebecca as she hobbled towards him on her crutches and stretched out on the charpoy beside him. Today was his last day with her, too, and he hated to part from her.
“Come home with me, Phil,” she asked for the third time today. It felt like a load of tension had lifted from Rebecca, and she was more and more like her old self.
“You go home and mend. I’ll come and see you during my summer break,” promised Phil holding her hand. “I have so much to do at school.”
“That’s more than six months away!” she groaned. “I can’t survive that long without seeing you, Phil!”
“From what I’ve seen, you can survive anything, Becks; you’re invincible!” he grinned and tweaked a strand of her long auburn hair. “How about if you visit me in Nancowry? After your surgery? Maybe you can teach a course or two; write your book; or do nothing but enjoy the beautiful sun and beach; and my company, of course.”
“Huh, that doesn’t sound bad at all,” she replied warmly. “I might take you up on that.”
Dinner that night was a bittersweet affair since the visitors would be off early in the morning to catch their flight. Safia had prepared Phil’s favorite dish, and he showed his appreciation by overeating and showering his hostess with compliments.
The men and women sat together as Rafiq and Fiaz-ul-Muhabat tried to keep spirits up, making jokes about the visitors’ first impressions of the country. However, the guests had grown too fond of their hosts to take joy in the parting, and there were a few tears.
“You’ll be back soon!” Rafiq forecast and Clooney made everyone laugh when he said, “God forbid!”