The Lioness Read online

  The phone conversation with her father had gone equally well. He had spoken to the secretary for President Hamid Karzai. He was assured the President would get back to him since they were such old friends. He had embedded with the Mujahideen and had met him. Like Massoud, they had become close. He had even been instrumental in Karzai attending a journalism course in France. He expected to hear from him within a day or so because he always returned his calls right away. “Not to worry, my little Rose. We will work this out and get your Ty back safe and sound. If the US isn’t going to help we will go through other parties. Between the two of us, we have enough connections… besides you wouldn’t believe the hornet’s nest that’s being stirred up from Reporters without Borders, the New York Times, all our congressmen. Ty’s mother has flown to NYC and is meeting with people too, so we have a support group here, Rose. You aren’t the only one.”

  “Oh Da.”

  “You aren’t alone little one. Don’t worry.”

  Rose stared out the window and realized Noori was looking at her, worried. “You okay Rose? I am right here. You want to talk?”

  Rose shook her head. “It’s okay, we can talk later. I was just thinking of my phone conversation with Da. Really, I’m fine.” Seeing Noori’s look, she repeated, “Really I am.”

  Opening her door, she waited for Noori and Daoud to come over to her.

  Noori leaned in closer to Rose. “While you talk to Fatima, I will pull Abdul aside, talk to him for a minute but I will be right there.”

  Rose let out a weak laugh. “Do I look or do I act that frail? Really Noori… I have been through a lot. I will get through this too, with Ty… alive.” She got out of the car and looked up into the night sky. She wondered if Ty had a window or was he blindfolded. She tried to push it out of her mind right now. She could dwell on that later when she was back in her hotel room. For now she was going to be making connections. Maybe Daoud’s family had some kind of connection. Even feeble would be better then nothing. Every little bit helped.

  **********

  Rose found herself in the middle of a very noisy group. Fatima treated her like a long lost friend, drawing her in.

  Rose greeted her hostess with “Asalaamu alaikum.” Fatima took her hands and then kissed her first on the right cheek and then the left, just like an old friend. She then pulled her along the hallway. “Let the men talk, you come with me.”

  After stepping into the modest home, she could smell dinner. The men were behind them, slapping each other’s backs, talking loud. She knew Noori would be happy to see his family after such a long separation. His cousins had come here in the ‘80s.

  Shaking her head after removing her burqa, she followed Fatima to the comfortable living room.

  “So you wear a hijab too? It looks very becoming on you.”

  Rose sat with her hostess, feeling comfortable with her at once. “Thank you, Fatima. I have a lot of them plus working in Cambodia and India I bought more scarves. I’ve had a lot of practice, to say the least.” Rose sat there, all of a sudden she thought she heard music. She strained her ears to catch the music. She could swear she heard Brian McKnight’s “Back to One.” It was ever so soft but she was sure she heard it. She listened as Fatima poured tea. Now, nothing. She looked around. “You have a very beautiful home.”

  Fatima looked up at her guest as she poured the tea. “Thank you, Rose. I can call you Rose?”

  Rose reached and touched Fatima’s hand. “I would love you to call me by my name.” She took the tea and then heard it again. Very soft but it was there.

  “Fatima, do you have a radio playing?”

  Fatima looked up from the tray she was getting ready to hand to Rose. “Radio, yes, but it’s in my bedroom. Why, do you want to hear something?”

  “No, it’s just, I thought I heard a song, a song that my boyfriend would sing to me.”

  Fatima took Rose’s hand. “I know it’s hard…my brother and I were talking about it today.”

  Abdul, followed by Noori and Daoud, came into the living room. “What were we talking about, Fatima?” Abdul sat down next to his sister and took his tea. Looking first at his sister then to Rose who was seated across from them, he was taken aback. He hadn’t really looked at her when she had arrived. He had seen pictures of her and pictures of red heads but nothing prepared him for her. She was beautiful. Her skin was clear, her eyes a beautiful blue. He could see her sadness and at that moment he was sorry for being the cause of that sadness. He knew though here sat a woman who was a mover and shaker. The combination of her and Ty Madison was powerful. He had heard the news reports already of what she was doing. The reaction to her being here basically by herself. Within hours of her arrival she had started her bullying of the American Ambassador. She had a talk with the Mullah. Her father was friends with the Afghan President, had been friends with the slain fighter General Massoud.

  “We were talking about how hard it must be for Rose.”

  Abdul looked at Rose. “Yes, if there is anything we can do for you while you are here, please let us know. I hear you were talking with the Mullah. You are going to set up an NGO for the women and children here?”

  Rose liked Fatima’s brother. “Yes, I am here for Ty, of course, but I want to help too. You can ask your cousin Noori, I have done a lot in Afghanistan, or at least tried.”

  Noori looked at Rose first then at his cousin. “She is too modest, cousin. She helps wherever she is.”

  Rose looked over at her old friend. “Thank you, Noori.” Setting down her cup she figured she would grab the bull by the horns. She wasn’t here entirely for leisure. “I have a question Abdul? I hope you don’t mind.” Seeing the look Abdul gave her, she pressed forward.

  “I know your brother-in-law was involved with the movement to free Iraq.” Rose saw Fatima get up.

  “It’s okay Rose, you go ahead and talk. I will check on dinner and be right back,” Fatima said. She turned and went to the kitchen.

  Ty sat there taking in the sound of her voice, his girl’s voice. She had heard him but thought she was either imagining it or heard a radio. It wouldn’t take too long if he did it this way, but he didn’t want to put her in jeopardy. Let her just think she heard it because she missed him or that it was a sign that he was still alive. He bowed his head and prayed as he listened to her talk. She was only a few feet away from him but she might as well have been a whole world away.

  “I wanted to ask you, Abdul, since I know your brother-in-law passed away fighting for a cause. I know it was a small group of fighters for independence. I have also heard that the group that took Ty was small, though that can’t be confirmed.” Rose felt very small at this moment but she wanted to press on. She took in a deep breath.

  Noori saw her hesitation. “Cousin, what Rose would like to know, could you ask around for her. She would like to set up a talk with the captors if they would. She would like to start talks, negotiations. Her father….”

  Abdul stood up. This was working better than he or his oldest brother had ever dreamed it would. Omar had thought him foolish but had said he was the one with the education. They would go his way for now.

  “Rose, I am honored that you would ask. I am just a shop keeper and teacher but I will ask around. Maybe if you were to have another press conference, let the people who took Ty know that you want to talk and negotiate, it might move things faster.”

  “I was told by the US Ambassador today that I should go back to Jordan and let them take care of it. I am not backing down till I get him back, alive,” Rose said with more power behind her voice than she felt.

  Abdul knew he would have the help he needed. He also knew now why Ty Madison had fallen in love with Rose O’Malley. She was beautiful, full of life and caring. He had done his own background check before they had even taken Ty. She would be their spokeswoman to some degree. She would fight for the people of Iraq like she did everything else.

  Abdul looked at his sister as she came back into the room. She
didn’t know what he had done, she never questioned. His office was his space and he said he would take care of it. He had been planning this for a long time. Eventually he would have to take her into his confidence, maybe soon, but for now he wouldn’t.

  “Abdul, Rose, cousins the meal is ready,” Fatima said.

  Rose looked over at Noori and his cousin Daoud. They rose and so she got up along with Abdul. “The meal smells divine, Fatima.”

  “Oh, it’s just regular food, you might say. It is hard to get things fancy, especially when you are only told that very morning.” She gave her brother a look.

  Abdul knew Fatima wasn’t too upset. She really loved having guests, since it had been so long. She just liked to do it right. “I promise I will give you better warning in the future.” Abdul felt his phone start to vibrate. “If you will excuse me… I will be right there.”

  Fatima looked at her brother. “We will wait for you.”

  “No, don’t, I will only be a few minutes. Please go, start without me.” He didn’t give his sister a chance to speak again. He headed for his office. He also wanted to see Ty. He knew he was listening.

  “Hello? Oh Omar. Yes, things are going better than expected. Yes, we will have the help we need. You should be here. I know, I know you had to be there but it’s going to work. I told you….” He listened. “No, she doesn’t know yet. Not even Daoud. He will be fine though. Yes, yes I know, but you will see it’s going to work. Okay, but keep me posted.”

  Abdul hung up. He thought about the tone in his brother’s voice. He sounded tired, stressed. He felt things should go faster.

  Abdul sat for a minute, then remembered he should be with the guests. Getting up, he went to the door that led to the storage room. Turing on the light he saw Ty seated in the corner on the mat that he slept on. As Ty looked up he saw the haggard look of his captor.

  “You don’t have to worry, she will come to no harm. She wants to start talks with the men who took you so to get things moving fast.”

  Ty didn’t think he’d find his voice. He felt like he had swallowed a bucket of sand. His eyes felt that way too.

  “For the love of God, your God, my God, get her out of here. Talk her into going back to Jordan. I can’t stand the thought that she’s here. She’s in danger.”

  Abdul looked into the eyes of the man that was his prisoner. “You know as well as I do she won’t leave till she has you. She has gotten things in motion, stirred up a pot or as you would say, a hornet’s nest. She’s here to stay till she gets the job done. If you want her out of here, cooperate and that will move things along. I have a paper with the demands. I want you to write it better and then we will get air time, you will state our demands .You will tell the world you are being treated fairly.”

  “Listen, I’ll do anything but I want her out of the country. You know as well as I that she, anyone for that matter that travels in this city, is in danger. She’s my world…I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her.”

  “We will work on the speech tomorrow. I have a cousin who works for the TV station. We will have you on there by the next day at the latest.” Abdul started to turn to leave, but turned back. “I can see why you love her so. She’s everything a woman should be. Are all western women like her?”

  Ty was looking at his hands. Shaking his head, “No, I can say they aren’t. She’s one in a million and she’s the only one for me…forever.”

  Chapter 16

  Andrew Smith sat in his office at the US Embassy. Tired wasn’t the word to describe how he felt. He had been going for days since the American Ty Madison had been taken. He sat looking at the file in front of him. So far no word on who claimed responsibility. They had no clues, nothing. To add to the problem was Rose O’Malley. He could tell when talking to her that she wouldn’t leave. How could he expect her to? She was doing something super human. She was doing all the leg work and stirring up trouble in the process. He had reports that her father, Timothy O’Malley of the Boston Globe, was doing his own fair share of work. He had a separate file on him. Served in Vietnam as an AP reporter. Had gone on his own, worked with Tim Page, along with the late Sean Flynn and Dana Stone. He had embedded with the Mujahedeen and got to know some of Afghanistan’s modern day heroes. Smith had it from his sources that O’Malley was in contact with the President of Afghanistan. He was also flying to Jordan to meet with the King of Jordan. He was a no nonsense man who would do anything for his daughter. All three were powerhouses in the Middle East. His conversation with the CIA was confirming that Ty Madison was being used as a pawn, or maybe to draw in Rose and her father. They knew the region and knew it well. He had heard that the Northern Alliance troops she had embedded with twice were at her beck and call forever, because of the connection her father had with their slain leader. When she was sick they went above and beyond the call of duty to get her help. His latest communiqué was the State Department wanted her out and back in the states. ‘Give her a week then get her out, do whatever you have to do but get her out. It’s too sensitive in Iraq right now. She could start something that would be catastrophic for what we have gotten started.’

  “Shit…” he swore under his breath. He felt for her. They were a golden couple and she wanted him back. It was obvious that she would go to any lengths. His responsibility was do as his superiors said but his gut, his heart, wanted to help. He knew his office wasn’t secure. He would go to the Palestine tomorrow, talk to her. Try to warn her, but buy her some time.

  Deep down he knew what was right. The US policy was no negotiating. She was a private citizen. He was at risk of losing his job, but he couldn’t go the way of the government, at least for now.

  Pushing himself away from his desk he went to his file cabinet. Putting away the files, he went back to his desk and wrote down a note for his secretary. He wouldn’t be too late, just go see her early, grab a bite to eat and then be back by 9:30. He’d make the call from his apartment. Just a short note to leave for her at the front desk. He knew she had gone out. She was already at it. She was fast, that’s for sure. She was making connections, thanks to her old friend from Afghanistan who had relatives here. No wonder Ty loved her. He knew she was well respected and loved in this area of the world for what she did for the people.

  Turning off the lamp, he went to the door and looked things over. All neat, just as he liked it. Life was not neat and orderly right now like he wanted it, but he didn’t have much longer, then he’d be gone for a month.

  **********

  Rose collapsed on the bed. She felt like she had aged ten years, felt like her body could sleep forever. She had been holding onto her emotions all day and then they burst like a dam. She laid there and let the tears take over. She knew she needed it and didn’t feel bad about it. She cried for the time she had wasted in anger when she and Ty had been in Banda Aceh. She cried for Ty and not knowing how he was, where he was.

  She let the tears take over. She couldn’t, wouldn’t stop them. She needed this outlet since she didn’t know what each day would bring, how long it would be. She had to keep a tight rein on her emotions during the day. Tomorrow would start early with the Vice Counsel. Then to the TV station for a news conference. Abdul had been right. Get the news out, she was willing to talk. She was one person, but had some help coming behind her. Thank God for Da. He was going to be in Amman, Jordan tomorrow to meet with the King. He said he’d call after. He told her he had good news about his conversation with the President of Afghanistan. She was still going to work on her end. She wasn’t going to quit till she had Ty back. No stone left unturned.

  She couldn’t, wouldn’t stop or give up.

  She lay there and remembered the song she heard at Noori’s cousin’s house. God, she could have sworn she heard Brian McKnight. It was so real, but then it seemed like a dream. It reminded her of Ty and when he sang to her. Sometimes he would just hum the songs as they fell asleep.

  “God, Ty if only I knew what to do? What if I’m maki
ng a mistake like the government says I am. Maybe I should let the people who know what they are doing handle it.” That started a fresh torrent of tears.

  **********

  Rose woke with a start. Feeling like something the cat dragged in, she tried to get her bearings. Then she realized she was hearing her satellite phone. As she reached for it she knocked over the bottle of water she had placed on the bedside stand the night before. Swearing under her breath she grabbed the phone and answered. “Hello?”

  “Rose, you don’t sound so good.”

  “Da? What time is it?”

  Rose’s father glanced at his watch. “Almost six, little one. Why?”

  Rose sat up and brushed the hair out of her eyes. God, she must look awful. She knew she fell asleep crying. She would need a very cold shower on her face. “Because I have a breakfast appointment with the Vice Counsel at seven-thirty.”

  Rose’s father thought quickly. “You aren’t having breakfast at one of the coffee shops, are you?”

  “Da, you know I would go wherever I have to go, but no, we are having breakfast here at the hotel. You know in order to talk, you can’t very well do that at little tea houses or coffee shops, and not only that I wouldn’t linger. It’s not the thing to do, too dangerous. Restaurants are targets too many times with suicide bombers.”

  “I’m sorry, kitten, for questioning your ability, or lack thereof, to take care of yourself.”

  “No Da it’s ok, really it is. I’m glad I have people looking out for me. I have you and Noori, who is like Mom. He is clucking over me constantly. Must think he has to take his sister’s place.” Glancing at the clock, she knew she still had enough time for a shower.

  “Well I know you have something to tell me, good or bad I want to hear it.”

  “First honey, have you got wind of who’s responsible for taking Ty? It’s been almost two weeks now and this is odd, to not hear.”