Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (30 page)

“Will it benefit us?” Saliha asked.

Beckie gave her a tight smile. “Probably not in any way you’d choose, honestly. But besides Haleef wanting to see you and your parents while we are here… Damn.” Beckie turned so her back was to the parents and unpinned the scarf, dropping the left side so her face was exposed.

“Okay,” Saliha said and walked to the door. Beckie gave Haleef a glance; he was grinning as he took her arm and then followed her through the door. Saliha was standing, looking up and down the narrow street. “I think… Let’s go down the pub,” she finally said.

“But…”

“Yes,” Haleef said. “We don’t drink very much, alcohol being
haraam
, at least for devout Muslims—”

“Which we are not,” Saliha said with spirit. Beckie laughed. “How about you? You’ll have to leave the veil down, unless you have a lot more practice with that than it looks like.” She smirked as Beckie dropped the pin for a second time.

Beckie successfully fastened the scarf in place, then smiled. “Yeah. I only got to try wearing it for about a half hour before leaving Cairo. I’ll sit with my back to the crowd, and drop it then. Kevin told me I should try a lager sometime.”

In the pub, several patrons greeted Saliha; she spoke to them as she led the way to a table away from the bar. A couple of those at the bar recognized Haleef as well. Neither twin did more than acknowledge the greetings.

The interior of the pub was dark, though the sun shone against the lace curtains over the windows. The ancient dark wood of the floors, bar and furnishings seemed to attract the light and soak it up. Sconces dotted the walls away from the windows. Little candles floating in the pint glasses must have been an attempt to mock the atmosphere. It was just what Beckie wanted.

Haleef brought three short beers to the table. Beckie decided to keep the scarf in place for a few minutes, until she thought it likely that no one would approach either twin at the table.

Before she dropped the scarf again, Beckie said to Saliha, “I appreciate your trusting me enough to sit with us.” She unfastened the pin and took a swallow from the cold glass. “Hmm. I think I like wine better. Anyway, we think that a lot of people are… or could be in danger. The people we’re looking for have tried to kill me at least once and it seems reasonable that they might recognize me.” She shrugged, a small gesture. “But I’m not going to let Haleef do this alone. So…” She sipped again.

As she did, Saliha said, “So the niqab is to keep them from recognizing you?”

Beckie nodded. “But I didn’t want to have you upset over my—”

Saliha laughed. “I think I can forgive your little deception if you promise not to reveal my sins.” She drank more of her beer. “Haleef, why are you here? How are you connected with the things your friend has suggested?” She gave Beckie a hard look. “And why should I help you?”

“I hoped that you would help Haleef, if you can,” Beckie said. “We’re here…” She waved at the pub’s interior. “… at your invitation.” She turned slightly, keeping Saliha in sight as she spoke to Haleef. “Maybe we should go. I don’t want to… I don’t know. I’m not going to force your sister, and staying here just puts her and your family at risk. Com’on.” She started to rise.

“Wait!” Haleef grabbed at her arm and caught the sleeve of the robe. “Let me talk with her.”

He turned to face Saliha. “We fear that Sedki may be involved—”

“Sedki?” Saliha sat forward with a frown. “Now it is family. Distant, but… How… Why are we involved?” She gave Beckie another glare.

“We are involved… through a girl—”

“A girl! Always a girl with you! I should have no more to say.”

Wanting her visible anger to flavor her words, Beckie swept the niqab from her head. “A girl, yes! A girl of thirteen, given a mission and when she failed, her hand was chopped off and she was raped and beaten. This girl! That Haleef—”

“Stop! Both of you.” Haleef touched both women’s arms. “Please sit and listen, sister. Beckie, allow me to finish.”

Beckie swallowed her frustration, pulled her scarf back into place and nodded to Haleef. I have no idea how to convince her, if she even knows anything.

 Haleef turned his attention back to his sister. “Beckie was the negotiator between Grandfather and Sheikh al-Kassis. She knows that Sedki tried to… have her… killed, to stop the negotiations. That was the girl’s mission. But Sedki came to London, ignorant of or ignoring both the failure of the assassination and the subsequent success of the negotiations.”

“A-ha!” his sister burst out. “The negotiations are done? And the result?”

Keep her on track, Haleef.

“You weren’t listening,” he said, a touch of reproach in his voice. “Grandfather and his branch of the tribe took the larger allotment, with the possibility of some minerals along with water. Sheikh al-Kassis took the smaller portion of land because we are sure there is water there, and he is bound to supply Grandfather a portion.”

“A reasonable division.” She turned to Beckie. “Congratulations on bringing such a sensible conclusion to pass.”

Is she trying to… “Thanks, but it wasn’t me so much as… Never mind. Thank you.”

Saliha finished her beer. “Another?”

Still annoyed, Beckie emptied her glass but didn’t meet Saliha’s eyes. “Not for me.”

“I’m fine also.”

“Well, then,” Saliha said. “Sedki. The girl. What else has led you here?”

“Nothing else, really.”

“Let me see if I understand,” Saliha said. “This girl tried to kill you,” she said to Beckie, “and failed. It must have been obvious that she was commanded, rather than going off on her own.” Beckie nodded. “You tracked her down, otherwise you couldn’t know about the rape and… the hand. So she pointed you to Sedki, and here you are.” Her brow was still furrowed. “I don’t understand. How did my brother get involved?”

Beckie looked at Haleef, who was sitting very still, his lips compressed and the hand on the table clenched in a fist. Guess he didn’t want to talk about Noorah just yet. She reached over to touch his hand. When he flinched and his eyes met hers, she said, “Shall I?”

“What? What is it?”

Haleef took a deep breath before facing her. “Nothing important, sister. I was trying to find a way to avoid telling you that once again, you are correct.”

Beckie snatched a glance at Saliha. The woman’s face was softening. Before Haleef could form his next sentence, she said, “The girl. I was right, you’re smitten with her.” She folded her hands and dropped her head to rest on them. “How will you ever…” She raised her head. “How will
we
ever work that out?”

Haleef ’s posture relaxed, now that Saliha had guessed. “We can solve that problem later. After Beckie’s worry.”

“We are back to Sedki, then,” Saliha said. “He sent this girl to kill you, and now you want revenge.”

Beckie’s body made a little convulsion; she knocked her glass across the table. I never… Yes, I did.

Haleef cut her off. “Before the attempt on Beckie’s life, the girl shot and injured the first negotiator, Beckie’s husband. Revenge would be understandable, but I have seen no hint of it since I have known her.”

Beckie grabbed Haleef’s hand and squeezed. “Thanks.” Beckie gazed at Saliha, apparently shocked into silence. “No matter what Haleef thinks, I’m sure I had—and still have—thoughts of revenge. Mainly on behalf of Ian, who is my fiancé, not yet my husband. But we have heard little bits and pieces—”

“Sedki talked to me in Egypt several days before he left. You remember? When you were preparing to come home? What he said was worrisome.”

Saliha frowned, sitting forward. “What was it he said?”

“That Allah would be glorified. Remember?”

“Oh, that. Yeah. But I thought he was just talking to hear himself. Nothing would come of it.”

Haleef smiled and leaned back. “I understand that feeling. Probably, we all took him that way.” His smile faded as he leaned toward her. “But he’s here now. We don’t know why he’s here, or what he’s doing. So, expecting the worst…”

Saliha was leaning on the table. She glanced around the room, then faced Haleef again. “I still refuse to believe he has the brains to do anything of import. But he was always… I don’t know… unsavory? Never disciplining his boys when… Pfaugh! Did you talk to Grandfather about him? Or any of this?”

“No. He was too involved with closing up the negotiations. And I expect he shares your opinion.”

“That makes sense. Well, Mother saw Sedki last weekend, she said. In the mosque, though I don’t know what he was doing there.”

“That must have been a surprise. Did he say anything to her about why he was here?”

“She said it was. He’s working with one of the rubbish collection firms—”

“Rubbish collection? That’s a comedown!”

“Isn’t it? But it fits, somehow. She said he told her it was ‘for Allah, Praise be to Him,’ and he would see her again before he returned to Egypt. I didn’t remember until you said the same thing just now.”

“When will he return?”

Beckie smiled and pulled the scarf back up over her nose and mouth. Haleef’s done a great job. Now if we can just get to Sedki and find out—

“He just said soon. I wasn’t at all interested, you know? Anyway, he did say it was CLRR he was working for. Don’t know any more,” she said in response to the confused looks from both Beckie and Haleef. “Oh! She said he’s staying at an aparthotel near the river.”

Beckie and Haleef left Saliha at home and joined Kevin and Derek after a short taxi ride. Beckie took advantage of the taxi driver’s poor visibility to the back seat to strip off her robe and the niqab, leaving her in jeans and a Chelsea Football Club shirt she’d picked up at home on a dare from her brother. It made her feel a little more at home. She stuffed the robe and scarf in a small kit bag and the pins in her purse. Haleef had only seen her in the robe; his wide eyes and shocked expression evaporated in amusement once he realized she was no less dressed than she had been.

“I’ll change back after we meet Kevin and Derek, but I think this will work better for them. Any place the four of us go, the robe would stand out, too far,” she said with a chuckle.

Beckie waved off Kevin’s suggestion of a pub and pointed to a coffee shop a little further along; the sign promised free Wi-Fi. Derek gave her a dark look, but no argument.

Inside, Derek tapped on his phone briefly before telling them “CLRR stands for Central London Rubbish Removal. No trick to that. Looks to be a private firm, in spite of ‘ow the name sounds.”

“So why are they hiring Egyptian Bedouins? Any hint about that in there?” Kevin said as he touched the top of Derek’s phone.

“No, just says they’re ‘iring. Lots of openings.” He tapped on while Beckie brought over coffees.

About half-way through his cup, Derek raised his head. “Well, it’s all very interesting. They’ve won new contracts over the past year, some big ones, so they need people. Says to collect the bins at the venues; drive the trucks and dump the rubbish; deliver the bins back to the venues, and for maintenance. Funny. Never thought of rubbish bins needing much maintenance, myself.”

“Hmm.” Beckie sipped her coffee. “Does it say where the contracts are for?”

“Yeah. Interesting places. London City Airport. Gatwick. Olympic Park. Wembley Stadium. Some others but they’re not so big.”

“Ain’t the Internet grand?” Kevin laughed. “A couple years ago, we’d have been working for days to get that much info. Now, we just have to read what they brag about!”

“And you said ‘e’s stayin’ in an aparthotel? That’s convenient, ‘cause CLRR runs one for workers new in the city.”

The last bits of information Derek’s phone imparted were addresses both for the company and for the aparthotel. Kevin made a brief effort to keep the four together: “We can all ride with Derek down there.”

“No,” Beckie responded. “I’m trying to give whomever the impression that Haleef’s on his own ‘cept for a girl who we know won’t matter to them. He can claim to have talked to his parents by phone and then come up from Gatwick to find Sedki. Arriving in a taxi will help confirm that, whereas if we ride up in your car…” She shrugged. “Besides, it’s not like you won’t be able to find us whenever you want.” She touched her hair where he’d woven the tracker in. “Yeah, still there,” she said with a grin. “And he was invited, before, so that should work.” She stood and stretched. “Long enough to find out what they’re doing, and where, at least.” She reached a hand to Haleef as she said, “Still willing to try it?”

“Yes.” He stood and touched her hand.

While neither Kevin nor Derek was pleased, they both rose and escorted them to the door. On the street, Beckie and Haleef found a taxi.

The ride was not as bad as Beckie feared it might be; Saturday afternoon was a slow time, relatively speaking, for London traffic. Still, with clouds threatening rain, the sky was dark when the taxi stopped in front of a ten story building. It had a small strip of lawn between it and the iron fence that kept the pedestrians and cars out; a well-trodden lawn, hanging on nonetheless.

“’Ere you go, laddie,” the driver announced as the taxi rocked to a stop.

“Right, thanks.” Haleef opened the door before leaning over to look back at Beckie. “You stay here with the taxi, in case we need to go somewhere else.”

She nodded and handed a ten pound note to the driver. “I assume that will keep your attention for a little while?”

“Yeah.” He tapped the meter, still running. “For a while.” He radioed in to his dispatcher and sat, quiet. After a look at the meter, Beckie handed him two more notes.

Haleef hurried up the walkway to the building. As he did, two men came around from the side. “Haleef!” one called, but she missed the rest of whatever they said. Haleef didn’t act distressed or uncomfortable, so she relaxed while keeping Haleef in view. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Derek’s red Mondeo cruise by the end of the street and continue out of sight.

After talking with the men for several minutes, Haleef returned to the taxi. “I’ll go inside. Sedki is there, and we will talk. I’ll return; it won’t be long.” He crouched to make looking in more comfortable. “You should stay in the taxi. Taking you inside will raise questions we don’t want, and you can’t just stand about here.”