Ankara

Another except of my 12th book "On both sides of the abyss"

Jack Steiner stopped the car and parked it at pavement side of 9 Yassam Caddesi road. The three of them left the car and entered the Restaurant a few yards from their parked car. The time nine fifteen pm, but No.4 Restaurant at Ramada Plaza 4. The modest joint was not crowded, and they were ushered politely to a ready table.

'You must be hungry Nour, aren’t you?' Jack asked her in English when they were seated next to their table.

'Yes I'd just a glass of juice during the flight, I was afraid to eat you can guess why.'

'We'll order a soft dish for you,' he remarked with a smile. 'You'll get used to it and it won't move, you don't have to worry.'

Jack ordered chicken liver and mashed potatoes for her, and her first meal with that "horrible thing" in her mouth passed without any problems.

'Zachary will take you upstairs to your apartment, it's in this same building; he'll explain to you several things and at the end I'll come to pick him up.' Jack told her at the end of the meal.

He summoned the waiter and paid the bill, and the three of them left the restaurant. Jack went to his car and returned with Nour's light suitcase with which she boarded the plane and bade her goodbye, while Zachary led Nour to the building's entrance. There was no elevator in this building and they had to climb the staircase to the second floor. Zachary opened the door and as soon as they entered he put down her suitcase and he gave her the apartment's keys.

He showed her the apartment and sat with her in the living room to explain to her the training schedule.

'I'm a native of Tunisia,' he told her in Arabic and our training will be conducted in Arabic, and that's how you'll learn the differences between the Syrian dialect and the Tunisian one, which will be yours from now on.'

'I'm not under danger staying here all alone when you'll leave…' She coughed lowering her head expressing her doubts. When she was with Ken in Beirut her love to him kept her going, she knew that he protects her; but here in this foreign city away from Ken she was afraid to stay alone in this spacious apartment all by herself after Zachary would leave her.

'You're safe here Nour you don't have to worry, I'll visit you every day, but you must be tired now and I'll better leave.'

'Am I supposed to play the role of your mistress…'

'Well that's what people may think but it's just a role and it suits us, I'm a married man and I'm with my family here; and Ken will visit you as he promised, we know how much you're attached to each other.' With these words said he left his seat and went over to the phone on the chest of drawers along the opposite wall side, to call Jack to pick him up.

 

'Well what do you think of her?' Jack asked him while driving him home.

'She's depressed maybe because she misses the American. She hardly pays attention to other men, and she behaves like a spoiled child, well these are my first impressions though I may be wrong.' Zachary summed up his early thoughts. After all he is supposed to train her, and he realized that it is not going to be an easy task.

'She's just landed after leaving Beirut with just that handbag of hers, you'll have to replenish her wardrobe in the coming days; but little by little and thus not to expose her to unneeded attention, and it will improve her feelings.'

'I do hope so Jack I thought of dedicating the days and the weekend to strolls in the parks and the city's popular sites, to calm her down as much as possible.'

'Okay but take her out of town to the country side, except the three or four times needed for shopping during the first month, and take her out at night time but be kind to her as much as you can.'

'Yes that's what I'm already doing Jack, I've told her that I'm married and that my family is with me.'

'One more thing I'd like stress Zachry is don't leave her alone while you're out with her, while you're with her in be it a restaurant or whatever joint; she doesn't know that we're Israelis, and she doesn't have to know it. thus no wise guy be it a waiter, a guest or a passer-by will tell her who we really are.'

Jack slowed down and stopped the car in front of Zachary's home, but Zachary did not get off yet, a few more things bothered him and he had to discuss it with Jack.

'Tell me Jack what is she supposed to do after the training? Is that  project worthwhile at all?'

'For truth sake it's none of our business, but she has a degree in International relations and she may act as a correspondent of some newspaper as her cover; and she can be an agent that carries an affair with some prominent figure in Damascus, or she'll recruit agents and they'll serve us without knowing that they're serving us. Time will tell Zachary and as I've already said it's none of our business.'

© Haim Kadman October 2013 " all rights reserved.