Welcome to Dubai (The Traveler) (25 page)

Ali inhaled and prepared himself for the conversation. He then sighed and nodded before taking the call.

“This is Police Chief Ali Youssef.” He listened intently to the higher chain of command on the line, who asked him a series of questions. “Yes, at the International Suites in downtown Dubai. It was confirmed by my men a minute ago, and I am on my way there now.”

He listened again before he answered more questions. “We do not know how many there are yet, but if they have taken over the entire hotel, then we suspect as many as a hundred … or more.” He would rather err on the side of safety than to shortchange their number. And he felt that he had already underestimated the men and their mission the night before.

Then the chief answered the final question. “Apparently, there was an old vendetta between a highly skilled Egyptian engineer, Mohd Ahmed Nasir, and the young
Emirati
developer Abdul Khalif Hassan, and this old vendetta has finally showed its ugly face, while intertwining the innocent tourists in its path.”

When the chief hung up from the call, there was no more time to waste. Most of his men had already left, with the dispatch office calling as many cars to the scene as were available.

Ali told the rest of his men, “
Yalla
!” in Arabic to head off to the hotel. Then he climbed into his unmarked car to leave.

*****

As he sped into downtown Dubai, Tariq was far too much in a hurry to obey the changing stoplight, and he charged through the busy intersection before the crossing cars could move forward.

He was also on the cell phone as he drove in haste, trying again in vain to reach Abdul, who would not answer.

In the meantime, a traffic police officer caught the tail end of Tariq’s unmarked car as it ran through the light, forcing the dutiful officer to switch on his siren and take off after him.

As Tariq shook his head at another unanswered phone call, he heard the police siren behind him and looked up in his rear-view mirror at the squad car that was fast approaching.

“We have no
time
for this,” he told himself angrily as he continued to drive. He was only blocks away from the hotel and could see it up ahead. Helicopters were already circling the roof.

“Did they not inform this officer of what is going on?” Tariq blasted as he approached another changing stoplight at the corner. However, he was not close enough in his car to make a second light before it changed. So when his car came to a full stop, the officer jumped out from behind him and pulled his gun, racing to his driver’s side window to arrest him.

The officer pulled his gun at an angle behind the passenger side door and yelled in English, “Out of the car!”

The officer was young enough to be Tariq’s son, so the old veteran prayed for him.

He is a good young man,
he thought.
But he has chosen the wrong day and time to look like an idiot.

Tariq let down his window and showed his investigations badge.

“I am Tariq Mohammed, and I am heading to the International Suites to help Police Chief Ali Youssef and the National Guard. Have you not heard what is going on?”

The young Arab officer paused and looked up at several helicopters that flew over the downtown hotels … right before gunshots rang out from the roof and struck one of them.

“Al-laah!” he yelled.

The helicopter spun around in circles, wildly, and headed for the Gulf before crashing down into the water.

As the people in their cars and on the streets of downtown Dubai began to panic, Tariq took the opportunity to jet off in his car again toward the hotel building. But it was much harder to navigate through the traffic once the drivers ahead of them began to stop and marvel at the uncharacteristic scene.

“No, no, noooo!” Tariq yelled as he crashed into the back of a car that suddenly stopped in front of him. Undeterred, the private counsel and investigator jumped out of his car with his pistol in hand and began to run toward the scene.

“Excuse me!
Awfan!”
he shouted in English and Arabic as he hurried past the many local citizens and tourists on the sidewalk. It was an amazing scene to Tariq as well. There had not been much terrorism in the United Arab Emirates. The people there understood that it was a Middle Eastern haven established with a vision to connect to the technology, entertainment, individualism and capitalism of the Western world, yet they also knew the complications of bitter human disagreements were liable to escalate in any country. So now they all rushed to figure out how to stop a massive rebellion from occurring. But maybe it was already too late.

Chapter 27

Five minutes earlier, Gary had walked and talked along the waterfront of the Persian Gulf with the beautiful, young Jordanian Ramia Farah Aziz at his side. A small section of the Persian Gulf was not far from his downtown hotel at the Hilton, which was not far from the International Suites.

The two of them had been enjoying each other’s company for the past few hours that morning. They compared and contrasted their opposing Christian and Muslim cultures, while locked in an obvious, yet measured, fascination with each other. Ramia was young and naïve, but she was also adventurous and eager, whereas Gary was older now and more jaded. Nevertheless, Ramia’s audacity and spirit enlivened him. She had been raised as an obedient Muslim woman who was now in transition to something more …
individualistic.
And he had been raised as a young Christian who didn’t know
what
he was transitioning to. He just knew that it would be more
global.
So they continued to discuss their perspectives on life.

“I really love my freedom here in Dubai,” Ramia told him with her arms swaying to prove it. “And my cousin Basim is sometimes overly protective of me, but he is such a good man. I really love and appreciate him, even though he thinks I do not.”

Gary smiled for the twentieth time while in her presence. The young woman held nothing back, and he was not used to that. For as
free
as the world may have believed Americans were, Gary understood that many of them had been forced to keep their guards up, including him. So he continued to withhold certain information from her, as he had learned to do with everyone else. Only Jonah knew his full story, or
most
of it. But Ramia was the opposite. She was very talkative and forthcoming.

“I think he believes I’m still a virgin,” she said, to Gary’s surprise.

He was so shocked by her revelation that he began to look around them to see if anyone else had heard her. But they were presently separated from bystanders.

Oh, my God! Is she supposed to say that?

He had heard and read about the strict Middle Eastern codes on sexuality. Even Johnny had advised him on a few things not to do there while out in public. So Gary was uncertain about how to respond to her. Such brutal honesty would have been shocking as well in America, particularly on a first walk together. It was not even an official date.

“So, what about you?” Ramia asked. “What do you plan to do in your life?”

Thank God, she was letting him off the hook with more basic questions. Gary had already told her that he was unmarried with no children. And Ramia did not ask him more about his dating status. He was single, and so he was still available. That was all she wanted to know about it. In the Middle East, the concept of a long-term boyfriend or girlfriend was frivolous. Either you were getting married, or you had not found
the one
yet. So unless he was engaged, in Ramia’s eyes, Gary Stevens had not found the one.

“Sometimes I just feel like traveling around the world for the rest of my life,” Gary said in a modest tone.

Ramia’s colorful hazel eyes lit up even brighter in the sunlight.

“Oh, that would be such a
dream,”
she responded. “Paris, Shanghai and Russia. Brazil, South Africa and Australia. Antarctica, Switzerland and Tokyo. The Philippines, India, Mexico.”

She named the cities and countries as if she were reading them from a world atlas.

Gary chuckled at her exuberance and her display of world knowledge.

“Yeah, that’s how I think about it. There are so many places out there, you know.”

Ramia felt, for that brief moment in time, that she had not only broken away from her home in Jordan to experience the spontaneity and wonder of life in the United Arab Emirates, but that she could break away from the
world
and travel
everywhere
.

Would this American man be willing to take me with him after only just meeting me?
she pondered.
Could I love him strongly enough in bed to make him want to keep me? Would Basim and my family back home in Jordan disown me if I left with this American?

The questions all dampened her fantasy. Suddenly Ramia began to feel foolish. She thought,
Is this gorgeous American man pulling my leg? Is he a con man on an international scheme? Is he really married with a wife and children back at home, while attempting to sell a young and innocent Muslim girl the world?

So she paused to consider Gary’s information and answers the way Basim would have asked her to view it. It was all too good to be true, yet the possibilities all crossed her mind. Ramia was as human and opportunistic as any other woman could be.

As she stood there in a brief silence along the waterfront and considered it all, Gary began to look up at a group of four helicopters that seemed to appear out of nowhere. They hovered in military formation over the nearby hotels.

Gary winced and wondered what was going on. Ramia read the deep concern in his eyes and turned to look at the helicopters as well. Then they heard gunshots ring out.

Ramia ducked and cringed, surprised. But she remained amazingly calm, not screaming or panicking.

Gary instinctively secured her hand in his for protection.

“Something’s going on,” he told her. He began to lead them back in the direction of the hotels. But as they jogged forward, one of the helicopters was hit before spinning wildly in their direction near the waterfront.

“What in the world?!” Gary exclaimed as he began to duck and run them both for cover under the tall palm trees that stood to their right.

The spinning helicopter careened out of control right above their heads and crashed into the Gulf waters less than a hundred yards in front him.

“
Whoa
! That was
close!”
Ramia said. She was more amazed than terrified. She had witnessed military battles as a kid near her home in Jordan. There was always a violent dispute going on in the Middle East, so helicopters being shot down did not unnerve her. Nevertheless, the falling helicopter in Dubai was closer than she had ever been to one.

“It looks like they’re circling the hotels,” Gary said, pointing.

“Which one?” Ramia asked.

“Let’s go find out,” Gary responded.

They quickly climbed back to their feet, brushed themselves off and began to run for the downtown hotels. There were at least three major hotels in that same area, including the Hilton, the International Suites and the Executive on the backside around the corner. But as they jogged closer to the area, they could clearly see the helicopters, UAE police officers and military troops that were just arriving in armored trucks. And they were all focused on the International Suites.

Ramia raised her hands to her face and was filled with anxiety. “Oh, my God! I could have been in there.” Fortunately, it was not yet noon, and she was not due back for her impromptu interview with the hotel’s management until one.

She immediately thought of calling her cousin on his cell phone to let him know that she was all right and that she was not inside. The scene was so loud and filled with commotion that she decided not to call her cousin, knowing he would worry about her safety. As for Gary, as he ran forward his heart began to pump faster as his mind raced through a collage of memories and emotions. He reflected on all of the military lessons he had learned over the past three years of group training in Northern Virginia. He felt flashes of the pain, despair and helplessness of losing his mother and his best friend to separate acts of murderous terrorism five years ago.

Even though the old incidents in Kentucky and in Colombia, South America, were disconnected from the present, in Gary’s mind they
were
connected. The moment of tragedy and urgency in Dubai connected
everything
for him.

Several men inside the helicopter had just died or were on their way to dying. Gary was sure of it from their violent crash into the Gulf, a crash that made him think back to his mother and her carjacking wreck while trying to escape two criminals near their home in Louisville. And every gunshot reminded Gary of his best friend begging for his life in Medellín, Colombia, before one gunshot splattered his brains all over Gary’s head and back, while Gary was tied to his friend back-to-back on a hard, cold floor of a dirty Colombian warehouse.

Since he had not been around another urgent tragedy in recent years, he had been able to contain himself and suppress his emotions. All that Gary could think about was running to save his mother and his friend from being murdered. He didn’t even respond to his cell phone that was ringing loudly from the holder on his hip.

“Your phone is ringing,” Ramia said. It was the loudest phone she had ever heard.

Gary looked down at the screen and saw that it was Jonah calling again, likely to calm him down and make certain that he avoided trouble.

I don’t have time for her right now,
he thought.
I’ll call her back later.

Once he and Ramia arrived at the scene, the news traveled to them quickly from the gathering crowd. Most of the men were already talking, groups of immigrant taxi drivers who had pulled over and had jumped out of their cars in the middle of the street.

“Some men took over the hotel and are holding everyone hostage!” someone yelled.

“What do they want?”

“I don’t know. They are just mad at the Emirates.”