Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 46: Everything Changes
“No one.”
“The Master is the only man in there.”
“Unless he caught someone.”
Niyoosha knew that it was unlikely that any man was inside, but he couldn’t prove it either. “Have you contacted the harem mother?”
“No one has responded when we tried to contact her. No one answered when we called in through the door.”
“Have one of the women from the kitchen bring her in. We will send her in.”
“It will be done, wise one.” The relief on the captain’s face was obvious as he gave orders to have it done.
The old woman that they brought was the head of the kitchen. Niyoosha was at first surprised that she had volunteered, but then realized that many of those in the kitchen were her family. He would see that she was rewarded if she survived. If not, money would go to her family.
It was an hour before she returned. She was guiding a woman in a burka that also covered her eyes.
Niyoosha looked at the old woman.
“The harem mother will explain.” She looked both nervous and happy, though she tried to hide the latter.
No one spoke for a couple of minutes.
“Speak, woman.” Niyoosha was unnerved by how the harem mother had just calmly stood there and said nothing.
“To whom do I speak?”
“Niyoosha, I am—”
“The spymaster.” She cut him off. She didn’t say anything else but started to take off the burka. What was revealed was a young woman whose eyes had been burned out.
The guards, even the captain, backed away.
Niyoosha studied the face; he had seen it somewhere before. Suddenly, he realized where he had seen it. No, not it, but two similar faces.
“My son, Omara, is dead. I am Kyai, daughter of Jaia. Take me to my mother.”
White House conference room
Early morning after the announcement to the world
President Mario DeSantis looked at the others gathered around the conference table. It was an odd collection of people. Two generals represented the Chinese. Lenya Tokmakov, head of the Russian government, had brought Iskra Gruzdev, the local GRU station chief. Chris Santry, the Secretary of State, and Al Simpson, the Secretary of Defense, were the only two US officials that he had included besides himself. The only Secret Service person in the room was Stan Jamison.
Jaia had brought her two daughters, Jinghua and Lyani, but had also insisted on including Ashley Sawyer and Sarah Pierce, whom she referred to as her daughters. When the two young girls had started to take seats behind Jaia, she had told them to take seats next to their sisters.
“Good morning. We will conduct this meeting in English since I believe only Lyani does not speak it.” He looked around and got nods from everyone, even Lyani. His gaze focused on her, but Ashley was the one that replied.
“Lyani is catching on to English, but I will handle any questions she has.”
Mario glanced back at the seats the girls had intended to sit in.
“We were going to use a couple of communicators that were developed from a suggestion of Captain Brenner. They interpret sub-vocal sounds and transmit them in encrypted format. We are sitting at the far end of the table since we still need to get the hang of making sub-vocal sounds. It is a little more complicated than not using much air when you speak.”
“Will they be available for all the troops that we send after Omara?” Al’s gesture included the Chinese and the Russians.
“The Dash 1’s will be. We haven’t found any problems, but we only received the prototypes late last night. The Dash 2’s will include interpreter software based in a module about the size of a six-inch tablet.”
“Let’s get back to the purpose of this meeting, which is to set up our plans for our three countries to go after Omara. We will try to capture him, but we know how hard it is to mount raids in Afghanistan.”
“He left there over a month ago.” Lenya interrupted. When Mario looked at her, she continued. “He went west, hopefully to one of the other locations I know about, but he may stay on the move after what happened yesterday.” She paused. “The worst possibility is if he goes to Turkey. His palace near Adana is several thousand years old, and he controls the local government and most of the Turkish military nearby.”
“Mr. President, we need to have our people check on this palace and any other location that Lenya knows about.”
Ashley calling the head of the Russian government by her first name at first surprised Mario, but then he realized that she saw Lenya as part of her family. He nodded to her, then spoke to Lenya. “President Tokmakov, can you give us the location of other areas that we should check for Omara?”
“Not President. A president is elected. I took power.” See looked at Iskra, who started passing out copies of a list of locations.
Mario realized that Lenya was not ready to say anything else. “General Sung, I believe that we should share information and resources in our search for Omara. I would like to know your thoughts on how we should proceed.”
Qiang Sung was still unsure of the dynamics of the group he was meeting with. That the young girl had spoken up and none of the others except the GRU station chief Iskra Gruzdev had shown any concern to her speaking told him that he needed to learn where the power lay within this group. He glanced at General Haiyang, who he found had been watching him with a smile on his lips. Zhang understood what was concerning him. He would have to have a long talk with him after the meeting. He looked at President DeSantis. “Omara represents a threat that we, the Chinese people, have just learned of. That he has been interfering as long as he has says that it may take a long time to learn what we need to about him.” He paused, unsure how to express his thoughts. He decided almost complete candor was warranted. “My thoughts on what we may face are inadequate to cover what he could do or the resources that he may have. If what we learned yesterday was told to me the day before, I would not have believed it.” He looked at Jaia. “I will work to have the People’s Republic help find your grandson and prevent him from interfering in the affairs of the people of Earth.”
The ride hadn’t taken that long. What had taken time had been finding a vehicle to carry Kyai and all the women in the harem. At first, Niyoosha had insisted that only she would go, but after less than a dozen minutes, his shrewd mind realized that getting rid of the harem women this way would help him. He had to find a way to hide, which would require him to get away from the palace. He met with the guard captain and told him that the palace was his since Niyoosha did not want to return since he would probably be followed. He even told the captain how to get into the vault so he could have the money there. The captain had been wondering how to take control. When he was given everything but the women without a fight, he did not question until much later why Niyoosha had wanted to leave.
Niyoosha had the bus stop in Incirlik a few blocks from the entrance to the Incirlik Air Base.
“Kyai, I am leaving you now. You will be safe once on the air base, but I would not be. Lita, your driver, can see the gate of the base from here. I have talked with General Bey. He has been told to see that you are taken to Colonel Williams.” Niyoosha turned towards the bus door.
“You readily accepted sending me to my mother. You did not seek anything for yourself at the palace. Why?” Kyai didn’t understand why everything had been so easy.
“I believe this is the most important decision I have ever made. Your mother and the others are changing the world. You need to be with them so they understand what Omara did. I am glad you acted. I could not have gone against Omara.” He hesitated. “Your sister Lyani has been disfigured for centuries. I have learned that they have repaired her. I hope that they can do the same for you.” He quickly turned and fled the bus.
Kyai sat and neither said nor did anything for a couple of minutes. No emotions showed on her face. She had learned not to let her emotions show over the many long centuries of her captivity. Finally, the whispers of the women behind her broke her out of her thoughts. “Quiet! Lita, take us to the base.”
When Ashley contacted Wayne Sobczak, he had been trying to contact her. “We just got a message from Niyoosha. He said that Jaia’s daughter, Kyai, and other women have just entered Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. She is going to meet with Colonel Kevin Williams. He is the head of the US 39th Air Base Wing. She wants to meet with her mother. That is all the information that he gave us.” Wayne paused only slightly. “We confirm that Colonel Williams is the senior US officer at the base, which is located near Adana, Turkey. It is in southern Turkey near the Mediterranean Sea and Syria.”
“When did you get this information?”
“Just over three minutes ago.”
“OK. I need to check with Jaia and Mario.”
Ashley reentered the conference room. She walked over to the head of the table next to President DeSantis, who was talking with Jaia. That she had something to say caused Jaia to raise her hand to stop the conversation.
“Jaia, is Omara, mother of Kyai?”
“Yes, why?”
“We received a message that she is at the Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey. She is going to meet with Colonel Kevin Williams, the senior US officer at the base. She wants to meet with you.”
“Omara attacked her, Tirio, Shanuf, and their families over seven thousand years ago. I thought they were all dead. It took years to confirm the attack. That’s when we stopped using the radios. Omara used the signal to find them.” Jinghua looked shocked.
“Just like he used it for the Hisphut to attack us.” Lyani commented.
“I didn’t know that.” Tears could be seen in Jinghua’s eyes.
Jaia hugged her eldest daughter. “Mario, would you check with your officer and make sure that Kyai is all right? We need to talk with her to make sure it is really her.”
Mario looked at Al Simpson, the Secretary of Defense. “Al, can you call Colonel Williams from here? We need to understand what is happening.”
“I will need to have Pentagon communication set it up. I expect we can have a video conference if we don’t need to encrypt, but it would take longer.”
“The phone call first, then we can see about the video.”
Al picked up the phone by the President and made the call. He looked back at Ashley. “Did Kyai make the call?”
“No, the message was from Niyoosha. He’s Omara’s spymaster. Omara would know where the women are.”
“Women?” Lenya asked.
“Nothing was said about who the other women were.”
“Omara would not let Kyai go. Or any other women.” Jinghua looked at her sister, who looked very angry.
“Something major has happened.” Sarah had been considering all that she had learned of Omara and his people. “Kyai will know about it. We need to learn what it is before we can plan, but I expect we may need to send troops much faster than we expected.”
Kevin Williams was very confused as he hung up the phone after talking to General Atman, his counterpart in the Turkish Air Force. “Who are these women that Mehmet let onto the base to see me? How are they related to what happened in Washington yesterday?” He smiled as he realized that he was talking to himself. He reached for the intercom when he heard his aide’s voice come from it.