The ambassador

An excerpt of my book "An irretrievable step".

At eleven thirty am the Egyptian Ambassador was back at the embassy and summoned Al Azam with whom he was in a friendly relationship to join him in his office.

'Sit down Abed I've returned just now from the foreign office, where I was rebuked because a certain Amina Al Nuseiri your aide was caught with one heroine kilogram in her suitcase. She was sent back to Cairo.'

'I can't believe it I know her too well. It must be the Italians doings…'

'That's what I've thought too,' the ambassador told his friend. 'They don't inspect people with service or diplomatic passports usually, but they showed me a genuine telegram that was sent from an anonymous source from Cairo, denouncing your aide; and there's no doubt that the suitcase was staffed with that incriminating drug in Cairo's airport, just before the suitcase was loaded on the plane or maybe earlier.'

'Are you sure sir, is it your absolute belief?' Al Azam could not come to terms with this drastic piece of news, his plan to force that American Copt to work for him was based on Amina's presence. He could do nothing without her and he knew that he won't get a replacement from Cairo's headquarters, she was his trump card and he lost her. He planned to send her after recruiting the American that shared her bed to Venice, to spy after the Venetian Coptic community…

How am I going to persuade this American to work for our cause without her. He pondered despaired. I'll have to offer him huge sums of money, or employ him according to his conditions, now that he's married…

'Do you have any enemies back home within the organization's ranks?' The ambassador's question barged into Al Azam thoughts like a blade of a sharp dagger.

'There were three candidates except me for my current post, and one more veteran than me that was sure that he'll be elected  .'

'So he could be the one that ordered to plant the heroine in your aide's suitcase, and it wasn’t a too hard task to achieve with the deterioration of the security situation nowadays back home. The French and the British haven't given up their hopes of annulling the Suez Canal nationalization, we're on the brink of war, and it's a very convenient time for foul play of this kind…'

'But are sure sir that it isn't a fake, that document they showed you at their foreign office?'

'Yes Abed I couldn't be surer, this piece of incriminating information was sent from Cairo forty five minutes after your request to cut short Amina Al Nuseiri's leave, from a mail office branch very close to the headquarters building. The Italians' emigration authorities were tipped two days before your aide landed at Fuimicino.'

'Is he mad it's like committing a suicide, all I'll have to do is point him out with my finger, and declare that's the traitor…'

'Not if he's the right ties, did he ever express thoughts about becoming the organization's head?'

'He did brag that he's going to be the head several times.'

'He's our man then Abed! I'll tell you what, write down a report of facts alone, and don't even hint a word on our assumptions. I'll add a letter with the full description of the humiliating meeting I'd to suffer at by the Italian foreign minister, and  express my satisfaction thanks to your excellent job done up today and I'll attach a Photostat of the copy I received at the Italian foreign ministry.'

© Haim Kadman August 2013 �" all rights reserved.