The Marsh Angel by Hagai Dagan (ebooks online reader .TXT) 📗

do you know all this? Yaki interrupted. Did you recruit her?

I already told you…

Now tell everybody.

No, I didn’t recruit her. She passed through someone else. I was just filled in before meeting you.

Did you see her?

No.

Okay, carry on.

Usually, no one gets excited by that kind of talk. Everyone has a score to settle with you. Everyone wants to fight and avenge. On the contrary, people who come in too committed to the cause raise our suspicion. But I guess she managed to make an impression. She said she already had military training in Yemen.

With who? Tamir asked. The diaspora was a codename for PLO forces who fled following the Lebanon War and resettled in different Arab states.

In a branch of the PLO airborne unit in Yemen. But she said they were too moderate for her liking, and that she had no intention of sitting around waiting in Yemen until the mahdi arrived. She wanted to fight right away. That must have made an impression, but also raised some suspicion. The people in our organization, they’re not exactly the most trusting of outsiders, you know…

Did she really have airborne combat training?

I guess so. That was also one thing that played to her advantage. But what really played to her advantage… ‘Ali went silent.

Well?

I repeat— I never saw her. This is just what I could make out from the preventive-security guy who briefed me.

What was his name?

Na’im Armali.

Okay, go on.

I understand she’s very good looking.

Do you have any details about her looks?

No. Actually… He said something… Black eyes.

Well, that’s a lot, Yaki sighed, but Tamir was very alert.

Somehow, word about her spread, and she was taken to meet Jihad. You need to understand, Jihad, he loves women, good looking women… And everyone knows that. So, someone must have wanted to make him happy. You understand?

Yes.

So, she met him, and that was that.

What does that mean?

That was that. After meeting him, she started training with the unit.

The airborne unit.

Yes.

But she was still suspected.

Yes.

Did she participate in the last attack?

No one said anything about that, they keep those details secret, but there was some talk about our heroine, about a flying heroine… You never know what’s fact and what’s fiction with those kinds of things.

And that’s it?

Yes.

Yaki drew his face close to ‘Ali’s yellowy face. Are you sure? he asked in a foreboding voice. I really hope you didn’t forget anything. I would be very sorry to hear if it should turn out that you did forget something. It would be very detrimental to the newfound trust we’re trying to cultivate between us…

No, I… I don’t think I forgot. Uh… There might be one more thing, but it doesn’t seem important.

Let us decide that, Yaki replied.

So, Armali said they questioned her thoroughly before she started training in Baalbek, and that he noticed her accent was indeed Palestinian, and that it really was similar to accents he knows from Jordan, but that at some point she said, now I’m here.

And?

As you know, there are many ways to say the word now. He said that after conducting so many questionings, he’s developed an ear for idioms. She didn’t say halqeit, she didn’t say al’an, she didn’t say hallaq, she didn’t even say hassa… She said issa.

And what does that mean? Yaki asked.

Well, I’m no expert in dialects, but the preventive-security guy said it sounded Galilee, something like the Western Galilee, or Acre…

Tamir gripped the pen in his hand so tightly his knuckles became white.

But we tread around the matter carefully, like a minefield, because Jihad really likes her, ‘Ali emphasized. No one wants to piss off Jihad. That’s why no one’s gonna do anything until there’s any proof.

g. Intuition

After the questioning, Tamir asked Yaki if he had some free time. Yaki suggested they go to Jish and grab some hummus.

Isn’t that a bit far? Tamir wondered.

Not when you drive like we do around here, he threw him a suppressed smile. Indeed, Yaki’s car zoomed around the curves of the winding mountainous road running along the northern border. Tamir tried to hide his alarm. Yaki said that in Lebanon, if you don’t drive like this, they suspect that you’re a foreigner. While the tires sprayed gravel in the air as he took another sharp turn, Yaki told Tamir about his travels around southern Lebanon, and his love for the torn and bleeding country. In his eyes, Lebanon was the wild north— lawless, cruel, and seductive. I know we’re gonna get out of there at some point, he said, but honestly, I don’t know what I’d do then. My whole life is up there.

They reached a restaurant in Jish, the site of biblical Gush Halav and home of John of Giscala, Tamir recalled from history class. Yaki greeted the owner, who swiftly covered their table in plates of hummus, assorted salads, and stuffed vegetables in the local tradition. ‘Ala ayni wa-‘ala rasi,12 he said.

Tislam idik,13 Yaki replied. Tamir waited for the man to be sufficiently far from the table before asking Yaki when ‘Ali the Yellow was going to be sent back to Lebanon.

We’ll keep him here for a couple more days, he replied. We’ll put some pressure on him, intimidate him a bit and then caress him, you know, the whole routine. Then we’ll have to send him back. If he stays for too long, it’ll raise their suspicion. Do you know why he works for us?

I thought you said for the money.

People don’t usually risk their lives just for money. Not to mention that we’re no CIA, you know? Our resources are limited.

So, what then?

His daughter had bone-marrow cancer. We used to bring her in to receive treatment in Israel. Hospitals in Lebanon are pretty decent, but you’d be better off doing those kinds of things here. ‘Ali knows that if she goes into remission, she could come back and be treated here. If he’s loyal, that is.

So, why did he switch sides?

Because they also realized that he loves his daughter, so they told him they’d