The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

Meeting

“Let’s go. We have the f*****g address and Tony’s on his way to the hotel with Olivia. We have to set up our position and everything before the informant reaches there.” Gabriel told Emma, looking at his watch.

They took the bus and paid with the currency they had been provided by the agency. As expected, the conductor noticed that they were tourists and new in the city, and ripped them off real good. That is itself a form of tourism business, ripping off money from foreigners.

While on the bus, Gabriel and Emma could feel the eyes of every passenger on their bodies, ready to eat them alive as soon as they got the chance. Well, my dear friend, in case you're wondering why they were looking at our agents like that, then I must tell you, things are not as they seem from far away. The agents knew that this side was under the influence of the government, so they assumed it was more safer and ‘friendly’ than the other side. Well, it may be safer but it sure as hell wasn’t friendly.

The thing is, people don’t respect you much if you fight a war for them without asking for their consent. Think of it as free advice- it’s good for you, but you don’t want it because you didn’t ask for it. Hence, the people hated the sight of foreigners and saw them as trespassers in their country. The terrorists were sure as hell cruel, but they also respected the traditions. Americans on the other hand, eh……not so much.

So when Emma and Gabriel finally reached their destination, Gabriel turned around and stared at all the bus riders with clenched fists and such fury in his eyes that all of them eventually looked down. He got down after Emma and looked at the address once again. And after ten minutes of bumping into strange alleys, they were finally standing in front of the park.

The park had big stone walls, which towered high above any human. There was only one entrance, and it was so narrow that no two people could cross it at the same time from opposite directions. It was like a igloo in the desert, with an open top. It was a perfect place for a sniper to lay eyes on, and Emma knew that. So she looked around to spot any high rooftops.

Unfortunately, Baghdad wasn’t as developed as you would expect it to be. It was called a city because it was better than the villages in Afghanistan. But that dosen't mean it was like a city in western countries. Apparently, not many builders are interested in making buildings in a city which can be bombed anytime (bad for business, I'm thinking). But there was a silver lining, and it was in a form of a government building. It was the national post office, and it was three stories tall. It was standing right in front of the entrance of the park, giving a clear shot to anyone who was camping on the roof. Emma pointed it out for Gabriel to see. And soon enough, both of them were walking towards the old building, carrying their fake CIA ID’s in their hands.

On the other hand, Tony and Olivia entered the hotel, knowing, or to be precise, assuming that they were being followed. They didn’t stop at the reception, which was empty anyway, and made their way straight to the room number scribbled on the newspaper. The room was on the first floor, and the stairs creaked as if they were about to break.

“Hey, pick locker, you people make sick of me.” The manager shouted, coming out of a neighboring room.

Tony was trying to open the lock of the room mentioned in the newspaper with the master key he was carrying, and he was a little taken aback by the manager’s high pitched tone and almost went for his pistol.

“You little s**t, the man not even visit his room and you come to steal. I teach you lesson…” the man said and took out a knife.

Tony watched patiently for a minute and continued picking the lock as the man charged at him with the knife. As soon as the manager swung the knife at him, Olivia delivered a deadly punch to his chin, knocking him out. He swung for a minute and then his heavy body fell on the wooden floor.

“Okay, so we have the room. Let’s go and meet that informant before she is fed up of waiting and leaves.” Tony said, taking a long look at that disaster of a room.

“So do you think she’ll spot us from here?” Emma said, looking at the park from the roof of the post office building.

The peon standing behind Gabriel and Emma had absolutely no idea what they were saying but he seemed to be trying hard to get as much as he could from their expressions. Gabriel looked at him, and after ten seconds of the classic Western stare down, the poor man finally left them alone. Gabriel followed him and closed the iron gate of the roof behind him as soon as the peon went in.

“We are here, sir.” The taxi driver said. His English was surprisingly good for an Afghan.

“Where are we supposed to find her in this prison named as a park?” Tony said.

“Jeez, why have you been so uptight lately? Just loosen up dude, you function much better that way.” Olivia said, striking Tony lightly on his back.

“I can’t afford to do that, and you know it. I have to be uptight so you people don’t have to.” Tony said, looking around to try and spot a lady.

“Yeah yeah, I know- we carry the burden of sinning so the others don’t have to. But look at Mr. White, he does everything with perfection and pulls off almost impossible missions, all with a light mood.” Olivia said, shrugging her shoulders.

“What do you know about Thomas? He’s a master of deceptions.” Tony thought in his mind, but he thought it would be better if he kept his mouth shut. So he entered the park without replying, followed by Olivia.

All of a sudden, someone tapped on his back from behind. He slowly turned around to see a beautiful woman in a white burkha, looking at the entrance on his right.

“The government has spies everywhere, and it is possible that I was followed. So don’t look at me while talking. Just follow me and sit on the bench opposite to mine.” The woman said and casually walked away.

Tony looked at Olivia, realizing how stupid he was when he thought it would be a regular conversation. Olivia, on the other hand, was completely ready and walked in the opposite direction to that of the woman.

“Who are you?” Tony asked, when he finally sat on the bench which touched the back of the bench where the asset was sitting.

“My name is Jamaila, and I am the daughter of the senator from Baghdad. Your friends contacted me asking if I wanted to find out what happened to my son.” The woman in white said in a voice so low that Tony had to almost hug her to interpret what she was saying.

“Okay, what about your son?” Olivia asked.

“He was kidnapped by the terrorists on my father’s orders. You see, I had married outside my community and left my father’s house. He couldn’t take it and had my husband killed on the day of the wedding. What he didn’t know was that I was pregnant at the time. So he decided to get rid of the child who he said was a ‘bastard’ (which he was, but who’s judging).” Jamaila said, her voice almost trembling. But she was a strong woman and continued her story.

“They were already successful in finding out the place where he was kept captive in exchange for some vital information on a general they wanted to kidnap.” She continued.

“So they were solving a k********g only to execute another? That’s ironic.” Tony said and smiled, taking himself by surprise.

“You’re their friends, so I expect you will bring my son back from that place and I will tell you everything about the general.” Jamaila put forward her final deal.

“Okay, and how will you provide us with the resources and intel we need?” Olivia asked.

“They will be delivered at your hotel room by tomorrow morning. I’ll be leaving now, so you can tell your sniper to stand down while I leave.” Jamaila said, getting up.

“How do you know where we are staying? Wait, I get it. That taxi driver was a professional hired by you. He had been following us all along.” Tony asked.

“No, you will give me the address. If I could hire professionals, my son would be in my lap.” Jamaila said.

“Now you can tell the sniper on that post office’s roof to stand down while I leave.” Jamaila said as she started walking.

“How did you know?!” Tony asked.

“Your friends did the exact same trick. I was just assuming, and turns out that I’m right.” Jamaila said and smiled mildly.

Tony watched the gorgeous widow walk away as Olivia rotated her hand, signaling Emma and Gabriel to stand down. He felt a glitch in his heartbeat when the woman turned around briefly and looked at him. He couldn’t describe the feeling, but it was surely something he hadn’t felt before.