Foe & Friend

An excerpt of the thriller AN IRRETRIEVABLE STEP.

Foe & Friend

An irretrievable step

An excerpt

At five am on Monday morning Ray was driven to the airport in His Holiness limousine accompanied by young Sidki and his cousin. He passed the customs gate and the emigration with the slightest delay possible, and thus had enough time for a light breakfast before he boarded the plane. At six thirty am the plane took off, and Ray managed to sleep on his comfortable seat in the almost empty cabin up to the landing at Fiumicino airport.

When Ray left the airport terminal and was looking for a cab, ready to approach a parking one, a certain cab appeared and stopped with screeching brakes opposite him, and someone's hand signed to him through the cab's window to get in.

It seemed as if this cab driver was in a serious need to earn Ray's fare, he rushed to take Ray's suitcase and loaded it in the luggage compartment, while Ray opened the rear door and got in, before he managed to sit down he saw Al Azam smiling face beneath a hat that almost covered his eyes shielded behind dark sunglasses..

'Well how was it?' Al Azam asked him as soon as Ray sat beside him and shut the door.

'Not bad at all Abed thanks; I've met a committee of three that deals with me meanwhile I guess, till they'll know me better and they'll trust me. It's headed by His Holiness secretary Mr. Malik and two council members. I could have flown back Friday morning, but they suggested to me to pass the weekend there and I didn't meet any of them during the weekend.'

'I didn't expect to hear any drastic news yet Ray, what I wanted was to know how you were doing over there. You are taking the afternoon flight to Florence, so why did you leave the airport premises?'

'I didn't find anything suitable for my wife and her parents at the duty free shop, and the one in Cairo international was shut down.'

'I see,' Al Azam said, 'Stop behind the parked car!' He ordered the cab driver, and as soon as the cab stopped he turned to Ray

'I'll see you in Venice very soon Ray,' and he got off.

Ray saw him enter the hired car that waited for him at the road's side a kilometer or so before Rome's outskirts, with his driver no doubt behind the steering wheel.

'And who's going to pay for that crazy long trip he forced me to take before we reached the airport?' The cab driver asked him in Italian watching Ray through his mirror.

'I'll pay it don't worry.' Ray assured him.

Al Azam must be under some stress if he was so eager to meet me so soon. It seems as if he doesn't trust me yet, and why should he? There's no trust in this kind of business, or maybe he's pushed around by his superiors who wish to know more, whether the Italians would give a hand to the French and British in their war plans? I'll have to wait to my next meeting with Joe, if I want to discuss it with him at all, or if I'll remember it before the war would break out? He kept wondering and kept looking out through the windows at the streets outside.

'Where can I find the best gift's shop?' He asked the driver.

'Try Delfina seniore at Via Governo Vecchio. Are you getting off there?

'No you'll drive me back to the airport.'

Back at the airport with a closed rectangular straw basket with perfumes for his Bianca and Beatrice her mother, a case of Cuban cigars for Luigi and chocolates and a

champagne bottle; Ray sat on a rear bench next to his flight gate, there was still time and he could rest after the successful long trip to Delfina's.

A middle aged man with a week's growth of beard sat heavily beside him.

'Do you speak English?' He asked Ray watching Ray's face with a hint of a smile.

It's Joe, if he hadn't opened his mouth I wouldn't have recognized him! Ray thought astonished and happy at the same time.

'Yes what can I do for you?'

'Well is this gate 24 fo the next flight to Milan?'

'No it's…'

'Never mind I've seen your parents last Tuesday night.' Joy said in a low voice. 'I've spent three hours with them and I've calmed them down they're fine now.'

'Oh I see,' Ray answered as if Joe told him some unimportant and trivial piece of information.

'I'll be seeing you I hope in two weeks time.'

'What's the rush you've got two more hours to wait?'

'Oh I've to buy a few things to my little ones. We're pretty busy, there's a war on our threshold and we might be involved in it.' He added in a whisper while he was already on his feet facing Ray with his back to the rest of the passengers and left right afterwards.

 Haim Kadman 2013 �" all rights reserved.

 

An irretrievable step �" synopsis

'An irretrievable step' is an espionage thriller; its plot relates the adventures of Doron Seri an Israeli junior IDF officer who is persuaded to join the Mossad, his country's intelligence service against his will, through sophisticated tactics that leave him no choice but to volunteer to serve his country as a secret agent in an enemy state. 
He is signed on a contract of seven years, and after two preparative years in Israel he is sent to Italy under a new identity, where he meets Bianca Conti, marries her and takes her with him to Egypt; where they serve as a team. 
The plot's background is the nationalization of the Suez Canal during the late fifties of the previous century, and the invasion of the Suez Canal zone by the British and French armed forces.

This thriller includes 85 chapters; 178 pages and 90.889 words.

www.freado.com/book/16995/an-irretrievable-step

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