Payback - John Hayes Series 06 (2020), стр. 21
“Look who I found.”
John and Steve looked up from the dining table covered in maps, notebooks, and two laptops.
“Mansur, so good to see you.” John stood, clasped Mansur’s hand, and pulled him into a hug, kissing him on both cheeks in the traditional Arab way. “We really appreciate you coming at such short notice.”
“It is my duty, Mr. John.”
“Mate!” Steve rounded the table. “Good to see ya.”
The two men hugged, but when Mansur moved to kiss him on the cheek, he pulled back.
“Nah, I don’t do that, mate.” Steve clasped both his arms. “Thanks for coming. It means a lot.” Steve turned to Maadhavi. “Remember, I told you about Oman? This is the guy.”
Maadhavi nodded and smiled.
“So, Mansur, I have you to thank. If not for you, we wouldn’t all be together.”
Mansur looked embarrassed. “Perhaps, Miss Maadhavi, they haven’t told you the complete story. If it wasn’t for Mr. John and Mr. Steve, my wife would not be alive today.” He turned to both the men. “I owe you both a great debt.”
“It was nothing, Mansur.” John patted him on the upper arm. “What’s important is you agreed to come and help us. Please, take a seat. Are you tired?”
Mansur pulled out a chair. “I’m okay. I stopped twice to rest.”
“How long was the drive?”
“About eight hours.”
“Do you want to freshen up, Mansur?” Maadhavi offered.
Mansur turned toward her and smiled. “No, thank you.”
At that moment, Marisel walked in carrying a tray.
“Ah, perfect timing, Marisel.” Steve gestured toward Mansur. “This is Mansur. He will stay with us. Can you make up the spare room for him?”
“Yes, sir.” Marisel nodded and gave Mansur a smile. “Welcome, sir.”
Mansur smiled back. “Hello, Marisel.”
Maadhavi poured a cup of masala chai and passed it to Mansur, before pouring cups for the others.
They spent the next few minutes in small talk, catching up with everything that had happened since they had parted ways in Oman.
John finally placed his cup back on the tray and cleared his throat.
“Mansur, I explained briefly on the phone what we’re planning to do, but I’ll go over it again.” John glanced at Steve. “Steve’s niece and her young daughter are in Syria. Not just in Syria, but in Al Qaeda held territory. We are going there to rescue her. The child is not well, so we need to move fast.” John paused and looked from Mansur to Adriana and Maadhavi and back again.
“It will be dangerous. We don’t have permission from the government to be there, and we’re going right into the middle of a war zone.” John paused again, thinking of the right words. “We’ll have the Syrian Army and the Russians on one side, the Al Qaeda forces and the Turkish Army on the other, not to mention the drones and fighter planes of the U.S. and UK overhead.” John paused again and looked down at his hands.
“Mansur, you have a wife and two daughters. We appreciate you have come so far, and I know you’ve already agreed to help, but I want you to think again very carefully about whether you want to come with us.” Mansur moved to protest, and John held up his hand. “Mansur, forget about any debt. Think about your family. If you decide not to join us, neither Steve nor I will think any less of you.” John looked up at Steve. “Am I right, Steve?”
Steve nodded.
Mansur placed his cup on the table.
“Mr. John, it’s because I have two daughters of my own, I agreed to help you. If my daughters were in this situation, I would also want all the help I could get. I’m coming with you.”
John smiled. “Thank you, Mansur.”
“Yeah.” Steve’s voice caught, and he swallowed. “Thanks, mate.”
“Right, let’s do a quick run-through of our plan, then Steve needs to borrow your passport for an hour or two.”
33
The five of them sat around the table, staring at the phone, willing it to ring.
It was ten minutes after six, and Steve had already tried calling three times, but the phone hadn’t connected.
“Maybe the battery is flat,” Maadhavi suggested helpfully.
Steve nodded slowly but didn’t take his eyes off the phone.
“The phone system could be down too, Steve,” John added. “It is a war zone.”
They sat quietly for another five minutes until Steve let out a long sigh and turned to John.
“What do we do?”
John looked from him to Mansur and back again.
“I say we still go ahead. Nothing’s changed. We keep the phone on and try calling her at one-hour intervals. We proceed as planned and head to Turkey. We take each day as it comes.” He looked at Mansur. “Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Steve?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Okay, I’ve booked the three of us on the Emirates flight to Istanbul tomorrow. It gets in at six in the evening.”
“Three of you?” Adriana interjected, looking at Maadhavi and then John.
“Yes. It’s too dangerous for you both to come.”
“No way, John, am I staying here while you head into Syria. Maadhavi and I will come as far as Turkey and provide whatever support you’ll need from there. Right, Maadhavi?”
“Yes,” Maadhavi agreed. “I’m not staying here.”
“But...” Steve protested.
“No arguments, Steve,” Maadhavi replied sternly. “Adriana and I are coming.”
John studied Adriana’s face for a moment as she matched his gaze, not looking away. Finally, he nodded once and half-smiled.
“Right, I’d better make some more bookings.”
Steve stood up, scowled at Maadhavi, and walked out of the room. John winked at Adriana before smiling at Maadhavi.
“Don’t worry, he’ll come round. He’s worried about you, that’s all.”
“I can hear you,” came a voice from the other room.
John grinned and picked up his phone.
“I’m calling Craig. We need his smuggler contact.”
34
Mia woke early, just as the sun’s rays filtered through the window. She sat up, rubbed her face, and looked around at the sleeping bodies huddled together on the floor.
The night had been relatively quiet. Quiet but for the distant sounds of gunfire and bombing, but the women had got so used to it, they all slept right