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Katerina knew the moment everything was alright with Alice again. It was when the heat left her own body and the urgency left her soul. She tried raising this experience with Karim before they set off again, but he was not particularly forthcoming. “Sometimes God lets you feel things to get your attention, to show you something so you will pray,” was his only comment and she had to be satisfied with that. She pondered on it as they kept moving.
The experience seemed to have lifted all their spirits. She commented on this to Caleb as they walked and he shrugged, “It kind of made me feel like we have some help. Like God really did warn us and get us to somehow intervene. It gives me hope we won’t be caught off guard.”
“But why now? Why suddenly help us now?”
“We have a saying in Kainnan,” Karim interjected, “that God is as helpful as you let Him be.”
“What does that mean?”
Karim shrugged. “He won’t make you include Him in your life. He won’t intervene until you invite Him to. You get to choose how much you let Him be part of what’s happening to you.”
“But I thought Christians believed God was all-powerful?” Katerina objected.
“Well sure. Technically He is...I mean He made all this,” he swept his arm across the landscape in front of them, “but He’s chosen to give us sovereignty so we can choose to follow Him. Which means that by respecting our sovereignty, there are times when God doesn’t get what He wants. Which means that pretty often we make choices that exclude Him.”
“You’re saying that this time He did something because we invited Him to? So that’s the point of prayer then?”
“One part, the part where we partner with God.”
“I had no idea sovereignty was so valuable,” Caleb mused.
“What do you mean?”
“If this is true, then God pays a huge price to give us our sovereignty. Every day in fact. We make all kinds of terrible, cruel, evil choices but He doesn’t stop us because He gave us free will. Don’t you think that if He knew it would work out like this, He must have valued our sovereignty hugely to give it to us in the first place?”
Although no one responded to that, Katerina thought about it more than once for the remainder of the journey to Tobiah’s stronghold.
They had been walking for at least four hours by Katerina’s reckoning when Karim finally called a halt. They were on the verge of a small park. He led them rapidly across the open lawns and under a huge tree. Like a weeping willow its branches dropped leafy tendrils to the ground, so they were almost hidden beneath it. They studied the fading light, starting to lift off the trees around them and soften the otherwise harsh landscape, as they gathered around him.
“We’re very close to Tobiah’s stronghold now,” he explained. “There’s no way to enter unobtrusively. We’ve tried unsuccessfully before. Once beyond the guard tower there’s a large moat to cross, the deepest in the kingdom, and no way over it except across two extremely well-guarded bridges. I believe the only chance you have is to go straight in through the front door. Your pretext will be that you’re there to plead for Aaron’s life...”
“What do you mean we are?” Katerina interrupted. “What about you?”
“They’ll arrest me too if they catch me. You’re on your own with this.”
“Will we be safe? How do you know they won’t arrest us?”
“I don’t. But they have no reason to. One of my associates has created records for you that are completely clean. They’ll find nothing to link you to anything that’s going on. You’ll go in as Aaron’s cousin,” he nodded at Caleb, “that’ll be your cover. Katerina you’re Caleb’s girlfriend and Noah, you’re a friend. Remember your names too: Katie, Carl, Noel.”
The three exchanged glances remembering the last time they had used those names — the events in the bar which had led to Alice’s capture.
“I can’t give you a weapon because they would probably find it, but I do have this for you.” It was a tiny tube filled with a thick, pale pink substance. “It’s an x-ray device. It will allow you to see through one, sometimes two layers, depending on the material. The cream inside it is for your lips or hands — many women use it here. The x-ray is anchored inside the cream. You just hold the end with the lid to the thing you want to look through and you can see out the other end.”
He handed it to Katerina who did as instructed, putting it to the tree they were under, then smiling in awe. She could still see the tree, but it was faint and ghost-like. The rest of the park was clear beyond it.
“One last thing. Under no circumstances accept any Laria. It’s a drink Wilhelm’s children use as a test to discover people from Earth. Alexandre came across it when the history of your world was discovered. It’s a mixture of snake and scorpion venom which doesn’t harm anyone from Kainnan, but just a few drops would kill any of you. There was huge paranoia amongst the king’s children when they found out what Aaron was doing so they tried to force Laria on every stranger. But so much time has passed they’ve become lazy and most people, like Tobiah and his men, don’t usually bother with it anymore. That may change when they find out about you but for now you should be safe...any questions?”
“How should I appeal for Aaron? On what grounds?” Caleb asked.
“We have evidence he didn’t commit the crime he’s being accused of,” Karim pulled a dark envelope from his coat pocket.
“Which was?”
“He’s been accused of burning down a church with men, women and children inside.”
Shocked, Caleb started to open the envelope but Karim said sharply, “No! That’s for Tobiah’s eyes only. No one else must see it. People died getting this information. We can’t risk anything happening to it. You must give it only to Tobiah and if he’s not there, you must wait for him. There is much corruption amongst his people, more than he knows — more than we have been able to uncover yet. Trust no one but him. He’s a reasonable man; when he sees this evidence, he’ll do the right thing.”
“I hope so,” Noah muttered.
Karim’s eyes said the same thing.
Fifteen minutes later they were standing in awe before the huge walled compound containing Tobiah’s massive palace. They could see the moat through the entry gates and it certainly looked deep; the water in it the very dark blue of their world’s deepest oceans, and wide too. As Karim had warned them, the palace indeed seemed unassailable: the tops of the walls crowned with evil-looking wire, a guard tower beside the huge, solid wooden gate and animals barking somewhere on the property. When one particularly fierce howl split the air, Katerina looked nervously at Karim. “Lires,” he explained. “Although I believe you call them wolves. They are very loyal to Tobiah; one of the reasons he’s still alive and not assassinated long ago.”
They stood a few moments longer, studying the old-world charm of the turrets rising into the early evening light; the ancient-looking solidity of the walls of Tobiah’s palace. There was no one visible within the compound and yet it felt as if the walls themselves were watching, aware of who they were and where they were really from. It was an unnerving feeling and their panic increased as Karim prepared to leave them.
“When you’re out,” he was saying, “there’s an eating hut two blocks from here to the south called Mama Joes. Ask for Peter. He cooks there. He can get word to me.”
“What will you be doing?”
“Lying low, trying to help Alice.” Noah stirred but remained silent. “It’s time to go. The evening meal will be just finishing so things should be fairly peaceful, but it won’t last long. After dinner, they usually have meetings followed by some entertainment and things will get pretty chaotic. You need to get in there now.”
Resigned they turned their faces towards the castle. “A word Noah,” Karim added. The two moved aside and Karim put a hand on Noah’s arm, speaking intently to him. Whatever he said made Noah bristle and his response rang out clearly enough for them all to hear him snap; “That’s none of your business!” He shook Karim’s arm off but the black man moved closer, saying more. As Caleb and Katerina watched bemused the two men faced off for a few minutes. Then Karim nodded once and stepped back.
Noah stalked right past Caleb and Katerina for the palace. Caleb shrugged and hurried after him leaving Katerina to look enquiringly at Karim, “What was that about?”
“You need to watch him. He’s discovering some things about himself right now which are fairly unpleasant. He will turn around now we have talked, or he will get worse. I strongly suggest you pray it is the former.” Then their only remaining friend and ally in Kainnan turned on his heel and walked away, back into the city.
At the gate Caleb did the talking. He stated that they were there to petition Tobiah for the release of his cousin Aaron. The guard dealing with them spoke into a strange round device, then they were searched thoroughly by several men. To Katerina’s relief, the man searching her didn’t recognize the x-ray device. Indeed, the guards let them pass without incident, although they were not unaware of the guns levelled at them from inside the guardhouse.
As they crossed the huge grounds toward the palace, it became apparent it had seen better days. Despite being majestic in size and scope, the deep wine color it had once been was fading and moss was strangling the entire ground floor. It seemed well past its heyday, soon to be abandoned like so many of the areas they had walked through in the city that day.
Yet once they climbed the wide steps fronting it and through the open door into the entrance, quite a different sight met their eyes, for the palace was completely modernized inside with not a trace of the old. Everything but the bright paintings adorning the walls was sparkling white: the floors polished blond wood, the ceilings as white as the furniture strategically positioned around the foyer. This was full of men coming and going, most of whom shot them only cursory glances. “I thought it was going to be dangerous,” Katerina muttered.
“Perhaps you haven’t noticed the weapons yet,” Caleb murmured back. She followed his gaze to where one of the many doors off the foyer was slowly closing, but not before she’d seen a room packed with walls of weaponry.
“You are here to see Tobiah?” a man asked abruptly. It was impossible to know how long he had been standing behind them, watching them. He was tall but stooped, perhaps to hide his height. There was something hard and uncompromising about his dark green eyes despite the smile on his face. He led them through a door to another room, this one a small library. Katerina recognized none of the many volumes neatly lining the floor-to-ceiling shelves.
“I am Amois, Tobiah’s assistant,” the man said. “What are you here for?”
As Caleb began to explain, Katerina’s mind wandered. She was flooded with the same old thoughts — what was really going on? Regardless of how much she went over it all, still nothing really made sense. The only time things came even close to understandable was when Aaron was around. She found herself actually longing to see him again.
She had to stay focused. She tuned back in just in time to catch Amois’s curious gaze on her, and behind him, Caleb pulling the envelope that would prove Aaron’s innocence from his pocket. But Karim had warned them to trust no one but Tobiah!
She said the first thing to come to mind, “Amois, I’m sorry, I’m not feeling well, would you get me some water please?”
The man frowned, staring at her long and hard till she pleaded, “Please, I really need a drink.”
She leaned forward, putting her head between her knees until he said sternly, “Don’t leave this room, any of you. I’ll be right back.”
When the door shut behind him, she brushed off Noah’s reassuring hand on her shoulder and hissed at Caleb, “You can’t give that to him, the proof is only for Tobiah!”
“But he said he would take it to him...” Caleb trailed off at the look on her face.
“Just put it away. We can’t risk trusting this guy. We’ve got to find Tobiah before he comes back...come on!”
The foyer was eerily empty now but that was soon explained by the noise emanating from somewhere upstairs. They headed towards the sound, expecting to be challenged at any moment. Yet they made it to the two giant, partially open wooden doors without incident, to see a huge crowd within.
Inside was uncannily like a courtroom, with a raised area at the far end, a huge leather chair resting center stage on it and seating to one side like a jury box. Around the room different groups of people gathered, some waiting and watching quietly, others talking heatedly among themselves. Many of the men had weapons — pistols in hands, rifles slung over shoulders — and they watched everything attentively. Several of them surrounded Noah, Caleb and Katerina before they had barely made it through the door. And on the big leather chair, the man who was clearly Tobiah watched it all.
Tobiah instantly reminded Katerina of a younger, healthier version of her grandfather. He was very big, though tall and broad not fat. He looked like a man with authority. He seemed dangerous, powerful and his face was hard, yet he did not make Katerina’s skin crawl like Amois had. He was waving at them and the men started shunting them towards him.
As agreed, Caleb did the talking. He briefly introduced them with their cover stories before putting a case forward clearly and succinctly. His request was that Tobiah release Aaron, his ‘cousin’, as the crime of which he was accused was a mistake for Aaron had not been the one responsible — and they had proof of this. At this point, Tobiah leaned forward with new interest, asking to see it. But as Caleb moved to pull the envelope from his jacket again, several things occurred at once...
...Amois appeared as if from nowhere, to lean in and speak into Tobiah’s ear with his eyes fixed all the while on Caleb. Katerina, who had been scanning the crowd while they waited, suddenly saw a face that filled her with horror — that of the assassin captured in the photos Karim had brought Aaron. Simultaneously, a tremendous boom outside sent an immediate shock wave through the building, arresting everyone’s attention. It was followed immediately by rapid gunfire.
For long moments the hall seemed to go still, people frozen by the violent sounds. Then it erupted into motion.
Men gathered tightly around Tobiah, protecting him. Many more guns appeared, some aimed at Noah, Katerina and Caleb as if they were responsible for what was occurring outside. Men ran to the windows, peering out cautiously. A phone rang in the chaos and a man near Tobiah flicked it open. Through it they could hear a panicked voice yelling, “A bomb blew up the guardhouse, we’re being fired at....” Then the sounds of more gunfire through the windows. Then the phone went dead.
Within minutes, the hall emptied and Amois and two men began leading them rapidly out. Though Katerina demanded, “What’s happening?” no one answered her.
They were taken down three flights of much narrower stairs below ground. The walls were plain gray and the temperature cooler. They could not see particularly far ahead for the corridors were sparsely lit by tiny bulbs spaced along the ceiling. Every now and then they heard bursts of gunfire though no further bombs exploded.
Katerina followed blindly, frantically trying to work out what to do about the assassin she had seen. Tell Noah and Caleb? Try to get word to Tobiah? Perhaps the killer was responsible for what was taking place beyond the palace walls? She was so engrossed in wrestling with it she nearly missed the significance of the corridors they had turned into. It dawned on her suddenly that these were the corridors from her dreams as she recognized the strange writing on them.
If she was right and her dream real, then they were actually heading towards where Aaron was being held!
She had counted twelve corridors in her dream. She thought they were possibly turning into the fifth one now.
Very few of the corridors had doors of any kind leading off them, but as they made one more turn, they entered one packed with them. At the third one, Amois pulled a strange gray device from his pocket. He held it flat against the door’s surface and it swung open silently. But when Amois tried to direct them in, Caleb balked. “What’s this about? What are you doing? We’re not going in there until you tell us what’s going on!”
Amois nodded slowly as if considering Caleb’s words. Then with one fluid motion so quick it startled them, he drew the gun from the nearest man’s holster and put it to Caleb’s head. “You will get in there or I will blow your brains out,” he said. The calm in his voice was almost as unnerving as the sight of the gun barrel pushed so hard into Caleb’s temples.
Helpless Katerina turned to the other guards, but they were looking away uncomfortably. Caleb was frozen, his face white. It was Noah who said placatingly, “Look, we’ll go in there. Everything’s fine. There’s no problem. But you don’t want to do anything stupid because Tobiah will want to see us and we can’t help him if we’re dead, can we?”
“But one of you gone won’t make a difference, will it?” Amois smiled. There was no trace of warmth in his voice at all now. He reminded Katerina of a snake. “The packet Carl, take it out and hand it over slowly,” he continued, stepping back. The gun remained leveled at Caleb and the other guards continued to act disinterested. Caleb looked helplessly at Noah who shrugged. Reluctantly Caleb did as bid. Amois took the package and waved them into the room.
It was simple, painted pale blue, with three plain beds covered in white sheets and red blankets. There were no exterior windows and a door off it revealed an equally plain bathroom beyond. “You will wait here. Tobiah will send for you,” another man told them as they stood inside the doorway, looking helplessly around.
“When?” Noah asked.
The man glanced at Amois but he was engrossed, looking in the packet, and did not answer.
“I don’t know. Probably when whatever’s happening out there settles down.”
“What is happening out there?”
“We don’t know,” the man began. Amois stopped him with a warning hand on his shoulder.
“Please, don’t just leave us here,” Katerina pleaded. But the three men left without another word, shutting and locking the door behind them.
The second they were gone, Katerina pulled the x-ray device from her pocket and placed it against the door. Like a miracle, she could see right through its surface. The men had only taken a few steps and seemed to be having some sort of disagreement. The package was half opened, its papers sticking out the top. She tried to see what was on them through the x-ray but failed. What she did not miss was the moment when Amois reached behind his back, pulled a gun with a silencer screwed to it from beneath his shirt and shot both men point blank — one in the head, one in the chest.
Shocked she cried out and dropped the x-ray device. ‘What is it?” Noah asked but she ignored him, fumbling on the floor for the device. Just as she had feared, when she looked through it again Amois was standing very still looking at their door. Like he was staring straight at her. For long moments she waited for him to come back to their room, her eyes drawn to the gun hanging loosely in his hand, wisps of smoke still escaping it. But then he seemed to remember the bodies. She watched as he bent over, grabbed one by the legs and started dragging it towards a door further down the corridor.
She could not watch any longer and turned away, dropping the x-ray as bile filled her mouth. Noah asked her again, “What is it?” this time more urgently. She shook her head wordlessly and rushed for the bathroom, just making it to the toilet before vomiting.
When she came back out Noah had the x-ray against the door. He was watching in stunned disbelief as Amois opened another door in the corridor and dragged the two bodies inside. He came out a few minutes later with a bucket and mop and quickly cleaned up the thick blood trail. Then he walked rapidly away.
