he could have done more, then and now. Tried harder to talk Danny out of it. Been more persuasive. Traveled to more of those sorry, ruined towns. Spoken to more sad-eyed people.
Ali’s attitude changed dramatically at the sight of the cash. Along with a new enthusiasm came an ability to speak English. Casting a quick glance around, he beckoned Adam closer. “Not here. Meet me at the Masa Bar. Ten minutes.” He gestured to one of the beach bars before turning back to his nets.
The Masa Bar was already filling up, but Adam found a table overlooking the beach. Ordering beer for himself and Ali, and soda for Tarek and Maja, he sank back in the comfortable chair.
“I may never get up again,” he sighed. Leo, obviously approving of this plan, curled up on his feet.
It soon became clear why Ali had chosen to meet here. The thumping beat of the music and the constant chatter of the noisy customers meant that, although their conversation had to be conducted in a shout, no one could overhear what they were saying. When Ali joined them, he drained half his beer appreciatively before he spoke.
“I can take you to Cyprus, but it is not easy.”
Adam patted his jacket pocket. “I’ll pay.”
Ali shook his head. “Go to Turkey instead. Much easier.”
“No.” Adam wasn’t budging on this.
Ali sighed and gestured for a waiter to bring him another beer. “You are a US citizen, yes? Why not call your embassy? They will get you out of here.”
“The boy is Syrian.” It explained everything. Syrian refugees were an international problem. Desperate to escape their own land, they had exhausted all the escape routes into neighboring countries.
“Ah.” Ali turned to Maja. “And you?”
She seemed confused, so Adam came to her rescue. “It’s complicated.”
Ali accepted the explanation without comment, appearing lost in thought as he drained his second beer. “Okay. The weather will be good tonight. We leave at midnight.”
* * *
In the hours between meeting Ali at the Masa Bar and joining him on the boat, they attempted to get some sleep in the car. Tarek dozed, but Maja stayed awake and worried about Adam. He looked increasingly weary. His face was pale and the fine lines about his eyes appeared more pronounced. Although he closed his eyes and leaned back in the driver’s seat, she got the feeling he didn’t sleep. When the time came, they abandoned Edith’s car in a side street and joined Ali at the harbor.
Maja was surprised when Ali led them to a dinghy instead of to the fishing boat they had seen earlier.
“Faster,” he explained as she climbed carefully into the small craft. “I am using my brother’s speedboat. We can reach Cyprus in under two hours this way.”
Maja didn’t like water. It was a fact she had decided not to mention to Adam. He had enough worries to contend with without introducing her phobias into the situation. Besides, they were getting to Cyprus by boat; they weren’t swimming.
The sea was mirror-still as the motor-powered dinghy skimmed across the water and Batroun disappeared in the moonlight. Within minutes, the dinghy bumped the side of the speedboat. Ali secured it to the stern of the larger vessel.
Even though there was no light except that thrown out by the full moon, Ali sprang nimbly from the dinghy onto the rear of the speedboat. Holding out a hand, he helped each of them in turn onto the deck. Handing out life jackets, he explained that they should remain seated during the journey. He also gave Tarek a length of rope and instructed him to keep Leo leashed the whole time.
“I am not turning back if your dog goes overboard.”
Within minutes the boat had chugged to life and they were gliding over the dark waters. Tarek soon became engrossed in the technicalities of what Ali was doing, and their conversation switched to Arabic. Ali seemed content to answer the questions the boy fired at him, and Maja turned to look at Adam, who was leaning back in one of the cushioned seats that lined the deck.
“You have pushed yourself hard,” she said.
“What choice is there?” Adam nodded in Tarek’s direction. “What happens to him if I crumble?”
Although she understood what he was saying, she was confused by the depth of his commitment to Tarek, a child he had only just met. Maja shared the same determination to ensure the boy was safe and well, but she had an advantage over Adam. She was invincible, while he was hurting, driving himself to his physical limits.
He hadn’t talked much about his brother, but it was clear he had wanted to find him. Maja understood responsibility. But there was more than duty in Adam’s eyes when he looked at the man in the photograph. There was an emotion so powerful it tugged at her heart. But there were other feelings as well, ones she couldn’t name. They were similar to the ones that made her want to wrap her arms around Tarek and protect him from harm.
“Was there an alternative to this?” she murmured.
Although they were in darkness, he turned toward her and she could see his face in the moonlight. He raised a questioning brow.
“Was there another way to help Tarek without putting yourself at risk?”
He lifted his good shoulder in a one-sided shrug. “You saw those guys who came to the mission. They weren’t playing nice. If they’d found Tarek, they would have killed him, because they suspect he knows the name of their leader. He can tell the world who the Reaper is.” Adam gave a mirthless laugh. “What they don’t realize is the world won’t listen to him.”
“What does that mean?”
He shifted position slightly, resting his good arm on the seat cushions behind her. “I read an article some months ago that speculated about the very thing that Tarek said. It suggested that the Reaper wasn’t driven by religious or political motivation. I wonder now if the anonymous author of that piece could have been Tarek’s father. Whoever wrote it believed the Reaper was a large consortium or group of businesses.”
“Some of the warriors in the great hall at Valhalla died fighting this thing you mortals call terrorism. They thought they were battling against an ideology. I don’t understand how they could have died because of something that was run by a business.”
“Exactly. The article I read was widely discredited for that reason. No one was able to believe such a thing could happen. Even though, throughout history, appalling atrocities have been committed for monetary gain, it was impossible to believe that acts as awful as the Reaper’s brand of terrorism could be done for profit.”
The boat had changed course and Adam’s face was shadowed from the moonlight, but she could tell his expression was troubled.
“But Tarek said his father had proof of this man’s identity?”
“And he was prepared to go public with his name.” Adam lowered his voice as he cast a glance toward where Tarek was still chatting eagerly with Ali. “He died the day after he spoke it out loud.”
“You knew that name.” Maja studied his profile as he turned to look out over the moonlit water. “When Tarek told it to
