Infidels (11 page)

Nayef
kicked out his chair, sending it clattering to the floor as he rose to his
feet, startling the professor and the two guards by the door. He pulled his
handgun and placed two shots in the scholar’s chest, then spun and eliminated
the two guards before they had a chance to react.

Holstering
his weapon, he stepped calmly into the hallway.

Nobody
can know what is going on.

Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Paris, France

“Why not just kill them?”

The
question seemed a fair one to Hisham Bitar, head of security at the Saudi
Embassy in Paris. And it had been a solution employed before. If someone was
making trouble, especially trouble that might embarrass the royal family, they
were quite often “disappeared”. Sometimes that meant a secret jail, other times
that simply meant they were eliminated.

And with
what was going on with Prince Khalid, whatever these two professors had done to
deserve the attention of the Mabahith, must be bad, which meant it could add to
the troubles now facing his country’s leadership.

So
why not kill them?

“One’s
an American citizen, the other a millionaire British citizen. They are too high
profile,” replied his contact, a man so senior he was just a voice on the other
end of the phone he knew never to ignore. “Just capture them and contain them
until the crisis has passed.”

“Can you
provide us with photos, files?”

“No,
there can be no record of this operation. If you are captured, we will deny any
involvement and tell the authorities you were acting on your own. Understood?”

“Y-yes.
But—?”

“But
what?”

“Well,
how are we to find them?”

“Professor
Palmer was shot last week. She’s recovering at the Assistance Publique Hospital,
room two-one-three. Her husband apparently rarely leaves her side. Find them,
take them, isolate them, but don’t harm them. Understood?”

“Yes,
sir, I’ll see to it personally.”

Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

“You can tell he’s just itching to be there with them.”

Dawson
feigned shock at the perfectly correct accusation. “Not at all, you know I’d
rather be here with you.”

“Liar!”

He
grinned. “You know me too well.”

“Uh
huh.” Maggie turned to Laura. “Do you have the same problem with your husband?”

“If I gave
him permission he’d be heading out that door right after BD.”

“Not
true!”

Laura
looked at her husband. “Bollocks! You’re desperate to go to wherever Red and
his team are right now and see for yourself whether or not what they have is
real.”

Acton
sucked in a deep breath then sighed, nodding with a resigned look on his face.
“You’re right, but to be honest, the less time Red and the guys have that thing
in their possession, the better, despite the fact that before Islam was created
Christians and Jews alike worshipped at the Kaaba. For non-Muslims to have it
now though is extremely dangerous.”

“I’m
sure somewhere in the Koran it demands their death,” agreed Dawson, frowning,
his desire to be with his men deepening.

If
the shit hits the fan, I should be there, but instead I’m here playing tourist.

He
immediately regretted the thought as Maggie squeezed his hand. He looked at her
and gave her an unconvincing smile.

She
looked at him “I thought they always said that Islam was a religion of peace,
that the Koran didn’t say all these bad things?”

“Repeat
a lie often enough…” muttered Acton. She looked at him and he shrugged.
“Listen, it’s called abrogation. Basically anything written in the Koran that
contradicts itself, is considered correct if it’s a newer verse than the one it
contradicts. So if something in the ninth Surah, for example, contradicts
something in the fifth, then what is said in the ninth is considered correct.”
He held up his hands as Maggie was about to say something. “Look, I’m just the
messenger. Abrogation, or supersedence, exists in most religions, including
Christianity. There are those who say the Old Testament has been replaced by
the New, others who say the old still applies except where it contradicts the
new. The difference I guess is that in the New Testament there is very little
if any preaching of violence, whereas in the Koran there clearly is, and it’s
some of those passages that are what creates the spirited debate.”

Laura
rolled over to her side to face them better. “It’s like that passage we found
on the Templar knight that time. How did the accepted version go? ‘And when the
sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and
capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush.’”
She sighed, shaking her head. “You’d never find something like that in the New
Testament. And that was in Surah nine. When a Muslim scholar quotes a passage
from earlier that contradicts that, they’re most likely intentionally deceiving
their audience, because they are fully aware of abrogation.”

Acton
nodded. “Agreed. Westerners have trouble with the idea because they think of
the Koran like the Bible. You have the Old Testament, then the New Testament,
then if you’re Muslim, the Koran. The Old Testament was supposed to lay out a
path to the arrival of Christ, so if the New Testament contradicts anything in
the Old, it’s accepted that this was by design, because after His arrival,
everything changed. So really, the word of God was correct in both the Old and
New Testaments.

“This
assumption is then carried over to the Koran, but as many have pointed out,
there are over one hundred contradictions in the Koran. Muslim scholars though
claim this was by intention, since the Koran was written over a twenty-three
year period. As people began to follow the new religion, God changed the
teachings as necessary to help guide them in their journey.” Acton shrugged.
“Like I said, I’m not saying who’s right or who’s wrong, all I’m saying is that
when Westerners listen to people talk about the Koran, they need to understand
that just because it says something doesn’t mean it’s meant to be followed.
Verses later on in the book could completely contradict something earlier, so
we need to educate ourselves in what is truly being said, and what is truly
being worshiped.”

“I heard
about a poll done in Britain just a little while ago after the Paris attacks
saying almost thirty percent of Muslims there believed the attacks were
justified,” said Maggie. She shivered. “That’s terrifying.”

“And
that’s only the ones who were stupid enough to admit their true feelings,” said
Dawson. He raised his hands. “I can’t talk about this, I have to try to be
impartial.”

Acton
chuckled. “I guess your line of work makes it hard sometimes.”

“You
have no idea. When people are trying to kill you day in and day out, spouting
rhetoric from their holy book, you have to wonder how anyone could have the
gall to call it a religion of peace. I truly do hope that it’s just been
hijacked and that the majority
do
want to live in peace.”

Acton
massaged the small of his wife’s back causing her to moan slightly and close
her eyes. “I think they do, I think the
vast
majority do. What you need
to keep in mind though is what kind of society do they want to live in? I’m
certain they want to live in peace, who wouldn’t except psychopaths? The
problem becomes whether or not devout Muslims can live in peace and happiness
among
us
. Our way of life fundamentally contradicts not only the Koran,
the hadiths and Sharia law, but many of the cultures that Muslims come from.
Christianity is a religion, and since the Reformation and Enlightenment, we’ve
become a more and more secular society, where Church and State coexist
peacefully. But Islam is not only a religion, it is a set of laws and
governance that encapsulates every part of life. Until there is a reformation
from within, they’ll continue to butt heads with Western democracies because
the very concept contradicts their way of life.

“I’m not
saying that all Muslims believe this, they don’t. Many have no problem
participating fully in our Western way of life, and don’t condemn it in any way
beyond simply not participating in some aspects of it, just as a devout
Catholic might not believe in drinking or a Jew might not eat pork. And just
like the Old Testament might have laws in it that we find ridiculous today and
don’t follow, these Muslims feel the same way about parts of the Koran. They
accept that these books are products of their time, and over time, we’ve
evolved. The books are there to guide us to be better people, but when they
clearly contradict what is now accepted as right, we move on.”

“It
seems they blame us for everything, though,” said Maggie. “And now they’re
killing us all over the world. France, Belgium, England, Canada. It’s crazy!”

Acton
nodded. “It is. But remember, we’ve got the same thing in the Muslim world.
Muslims are killing Muslims in unprecedented numbers simply because of what
sect they belong to, all the while blaming Christians, Jews and other infidels.
Remember Nazi Germany. All their ills were blamed on the Jews. It was the Jews
who were responsible for Germany losing World War One, it was the Jews who were
responsible for the Great Depression, the Jews who caused the Spanish Flu, the
Jews who caused all the miseries that Germans suffered. It gave the German
people something to rally around, to focus their misery and hatred and
frustrations on.

“And
then they killed them.

“And the
same is true with militant Islam. All their problems are clearly the fault of
the infidels. It can’t possibly be their fault since they’re following the word
of God. So rather than look inward to see why they suffer, they lash out at
those their charismatic leaders tell them to.” Acton shook his head, a sheepish
grin appearing. “I’m sorry, I’ve done it again. Too heady a topic for what’s
supposed to be a vacation.”

“Scary
stuff,” murmured Maggie, her hand tightly squeezing Dawson’s. He didn’t get
much time to spend with the professors, but when he did he was always impressed
with their breadth of knowledge and their willingness to try and provide
context to whatever situation they found themselves in. And now, with his own
team stuck in the middle of Yemen with the holiest of relics of a religion
prone to brutal violence at the slightest offence, their words simply made him
itch to get into the fight he feared was about to come.

Laura
yawned.

And that
was his cue.

He rose,
Maggie quickly following. “We’ll get out of your hair and let you get your
rest. Thanks for all your help, Professor.”

“Jim.”

Dawson
chuckled. “Jim.” He nodded to Laura. “Prof—”

“Laura.”

“Laura.”
He grinned. “It’s the training, it’ll take some getting used to.”

She
smiled. “We’ve got lots of time.”

He
nodded. “Let’s hope.” He waved his hand, trying to erase the words. “Forget I
said that.
Yes,
lots of time.”

Acton
shook his hand then sat back on the edge of his wife’s bed.

“So,
what have you two got planned for the rest of the day?”

Dawson
looked at Maggie and gave her a toothy grin.

“BD!”

He
laughed, the professors joining in.

“Just be
thankful you didn’t fall for Niner,” said Acton. “He wouldn’t be as subtle.”

Maggie
laughed then grabbed the side of her stomach, wincing in pain. She looked at
Laura. “Must be sympathy pains.”

“Or we
were wrastlin’ too hard this morning.”

Maggie
slapped him. “Be careful, Niner’s single.”

Dawson
winked at the professors. “Careful, I might call your bluff.” He raised his
chin slightly. “Time to leave you two in peace. And thanks once again for
treating us to this vacation, it’s much appreciated.”

Acton
rose again, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for saving my wife.”

“I won’t
tell you it was Hugh who actually found her just in case you change your mind
about that hotel you’ve got us in.”

Acton
laughed. “Hey, we offered but the bastard said he was on duty so couldn’t take
any credit.”

“
That’s
why I love off the books operations.” Dawson grinned and put his arm around
Maggie. “We’ll stop by before we head home.”

Dawson
followed Maggie out of the hospital room and into the hallway. Maggie gasped,
gripping her left side then breathing through the pain.

“Are you
okay?” asked Dawson, suddenly concerned it might be more than a muscle pull.

“Yeah,
just had a sharp pain all of a sudden. Appendix maybe?”

“Wrong
side.”

“Oh
yeah. Gall bladder?”

“Still
the wrong side.”

“Then
what the hell’s down here?” she asked, gingerly pressing the lower left side of
her stomach.

“Intestines.”

“Gas
then?”

“Probably.
We’ve been hitting the French cuisine pretty hard. It’s richer than we’re used
to.”

“But soo
good.”

“You’ll
get no argument from me, but as soon as we get home I’m hitting the drive
thru.”

Maggie
grinned. “Bacon double cheeseburger with fries and a strawberry shake.”

“Maybe
we’ll try mayo on the side for the fries like they do here.”

“Pommes
frites avec mayonnaise!”

Dawson
smiled. “Now how do you say ‘Freedom Fries’ in French?”

Maggie
shrugged. “Les fries de freedom?”

“Good
Franglais!”

“Merci!”

Hisham Bitar stood halfway down the hall from Professor Laura
Palmer’s room, pretending to be reading a text message. Two people left the
room, a man and a woman, the woman gripping her side and wincing in pain.