Back at the hideaway, Carla received a call from Sam Leighton on her landline.
“Max has escaped and is now safe in Guadeloupe. He is in good health and I have made arrangements to bring him home to Italy. I have only just finished speaking with him.
“He and I wish you the best of luck on your mission, he is sorry he cannot be with you.”
At last, she could fully concentrate on her mission, the sooner she completed it, the sooner she could be with Max again.
***
Sam sent a car to take Carla to the airport. With her brief, she received the plane tickets and Visa for Dubai and on to Kabul International Airport. At least the Japanese constructed terminal was fully operational and civilized now, though it was of small comfort. From there, she had to arrange a private charter flight to Sheberghan Airport and a car to take her some 30 kilometers to Jowzjan province. All very simple actually, she thought.
Anita Harooni lived with her parents and, because Anita had no phone, Carla could not let her know exactly when she would arrive. Hopefully, Anita would be packed and ready to leave when she knocked on the door. Max was on her mind again, and she desperately wanted to get back to him.
The summer temperature was about 30°c and that did not suit Carla. She hated being sweaty and grubby when travelling, thinking it most unfeminine. In contrast, during her ‘capers’ as she often called them, she gave physical discomfort like heat, cold, wet or arid no thought at all; it just went with the job. At least she could avoid wearing a Burqa, a simple scarf to cover her hair would suffice.
Carla eventually arrived at Anita’s humble home, rather tired and irritable from the frustrating series of delays getting there. The father welcomed her in as the mother brought her a cool, refreshing soft drink. Carla could see from their faces that something awful had happened, and for sure, Anita was not there.
It appeared Anita was in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. The driver whom Anita had known since her childhood had been involved in a motoring accident, and because Anita was his passenger, and appeared to have money, they arrested her as well. The matter had escalated; the police accused her of all manner of things and so release from prison was unlikely.
Carla suspected this was all trumped up to keep her in the country, although no one, not even her parents knew she was about to leave. A call to Sam, on her trusty Thuraya satellite phone, produced the same conclusion.
“Well, Carla, you will just have to find a way of getting her out of the prison and back here at once, time is not on our side. We are depending on you,” Sam ordered.
“No pressure then!” she exploded and ended the call.
Sam smiled at her remark; he knew she would make it happen somehow, not necessarily for him, but for the challenge!
Almost in tears because the prospect of seeing Max any time soon had vanished, she pulled herself together and spoke to Anita’s parents. She asked where the prison was and if she could visit Anita there.
The language barrier proved too much, so the father asked the young daughter of a neighbor to translate. Carla liked the girl straight away; she was exceptionally bright and was in tune with Carla and Anita’s predicament. She confirmed the prison was about 100 kilometers away, and it was likely they would let Carla see Anita, provided she was accompanied by a man. A woman was too low down the pecking order to deal with, but the right man who knew the system could get her in.
It came as no surprise to Carla that the girl’s elder brother was such a man, and was available for the right price. He also spoke good English and several other languages, certainly enough to get by.
“He has a new Land Cruiser,” the sister added proudly.
It transpired the Land Cruiser was new to him, as it had been to a dozen or so previous owners.
The brother, Habib Rahimi, was a bit of a wide boy, who made sure he had his finger on the local pulse. When Carla said she wanted to visit Anita, he laughed and said, “you realize they take great delight in searching women, the term is invasive body cavity searches and includes internal examination by men.”
This was not at all what Carla had signed up for; she made no comment, as she thought it over.’ If it is that bad for a visitor, what is it like for a female prisoner,’ she thought.
Anita was nothing to Carla, never having met the woman, but she was angry and fumed, “the bastards cannot be allowed to treat women that way”.
Unprincipled men had groped Carla many times in her early past and to some extent, she had become hardened to it. Was this a crusade she needed to embark on, she asked herself?
“I have to go” she replied quietly, “I need to see where she is, how she is and what I can do to get her out.”
Habib raised his eyebrows in reply, meaning if that’s what you want--- Don’t bitch about it later.
“We can go tomorrow,” said Habib, “I will need payment in advance and it will cost you US$1000.00.
“It will be late when we get there, so we will stay overnight and visit Anita the next morning. You will have to pay for my hotel as well.”
“I can agree to that, “said Carla, “but I don’t have that sort of money on me. I can pay you when we get to the nearest town.”
Habib mulled it over, “how much do you have on you,” he said and made to grab her bag.
He cried out in agony, at the excruciating pain in the middle finger of his right hand, as Carla bent it back against the joint. It brought him to his knees and he lay on his side at her feet, in a futile attempt to relieve the pain.
“Please don’t do that Habib,” she said in a low menacing voice, her piercing blue eyes bored into his. There was no sign of mercy in her face; the almost angelic features had rearranged themselves into a fury he had never seen before, not even in a man.
“Yes, yes” he whimpered “I will wait till we get there, you can pay me then.”
Release was on her terms, when she was ready; if he expected that to suffice and for her to let go, he had to wait a good ten seconds more.
“What time do we leave in the morning?” asked Carla, matter-of-factly.
“5am” Habib replied nervously.
“Good, I will wait at Anita’s home for you to pick me up” and she walked away.
Carla stayed in Anita’s room, it was about 3 meters square with whitewashed walls and ceiling, and bare brown tiled floor.
Fresh clean sheets and a knitted wool blanket covered the hard bed; the feather pillow smelled of stale chickens.
There was a small oil lamp on the bedside cabinet and inside the cupboard was a book about physics. Carla skimmed through the pages and although most of it meant nothing to her, she could recite most of it, including the diagrams and formula.
Although Carla had a photographic memory, she was by no means clever. Puzzles and abstract problem solving was another strong point, but she was not creative compared with Max. They worked best as a team; she could soak up facts and figures but could do little with the information. Max, on the other hand, was hopeless at remembering things, but could use her facts to develop a surprising solution.
Imagination and ingenuity, qualities she wished she had.
Darn, she was really missing him!
Carla slipped away from Anita’s house immediately the sound of the Land Cruiser came within earshot. She left a generous payment for their hospitality.
Habib was almost back to his usual self, although his strapped up finger was a constant reminder of his place in the order of things, as it appeared to catch in everything he touched.
The journey was long and tiring, the bland desert landscape offered nothing of interest to keep her awake. She fully occupied her mind at a subconscious level, planning and anticipating any future challenges.
They arrived late afternoon, and found a bank to withdraw money for Habib and the hotel where they would stay overnight; they had a pleasant meal and went to their separate rooms.
Carla updated Sam on the progress so far, and was delighted when she was able to speak to Max on the phone.
“Have I got things to tell you when we get together!” said Max.
“By then, I hope I will have something to say as well. Could do with you here, especially tomorrow, but we had better leave that for now.”
Max passed the call back to Sam, and they finished the conversation.