‘Soraya in five minutes.’
‘Can you try to ring her and tell her that I have an emergency? She can either wait or reschedule.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Iman asked, rising from her chair.
Sofia waved her concern away. ‘Nothing,’ she said, before closing the surgery door. She began pacing the room as she rang Jabril. No answer. ‘Will someone please answer their fucking phone! Shit, shit, shit,’ she said under her breath, turning in circles. She rang Daniel back. ‘I can’t get through to Chief Wasim or Jabril! We can’t let them get away again. What are we going to do?’
‘Hang up. I’ll ring you back.’
Sofia flopped back down into her chair to discover she couldn’t sit still. She rose again, pacing with the phone in her hand. Time was passing. Too much time. She rang Jabril again and left an angry, confusing message. Walking to her desk she looked at the address she’d written down on her notepad. There was no way she could go there to rescue the boys. Her phone rang again.
‘Okay,’ Daniel said. ‘I’ve just spoken with a friend who’s head of the UN in Afghanistan and told her what’s been going on. Apparently, she has an open line to your chief. She’s just rung him and he’s taking some men to the house now.’
‘Oh my god,’ Sofia said, the relief flooding through her body. ‘So now we wait?’
‘So now we wait. Oh, and Chief Wasim said to tell you that he got your message but he didn’t ring back because he didn’t think you’d want him to waste time ringing you instead of saving the boys. He’ll contact you as soon as they’re safe. We’re nearly there, Sofia, just another hour and it should all be over.’
Sofia choked back a sob. ‘I just want to hear the boys are okay.’
‘I know, but there’s nothing more you can do except wait. Did I ever tell you about the guy who’s been giving me the information?’ As he began recounting the story of Gharib she was drawn into the details until she realised it was simply a way of distracting her while she waited for news.
‘You’re a good man, Daniel Abiteboul.’
‘Not so good.’
‘No, I think you are.’
‘Let’s see what you think when you know me better.’
Sofia thought about the implication in his words. ‘I want to apologise. I should never have asked you to testify against Massoud.’
‘You’ve already apologised. Forget it. On another note, do you know what happened with Jabril’s plan?’
‘Oh god, I do and it’s terrible. Sorry, I should have told you. The Afghanistan Times is going to publish the story of Massoud and the boy in Kandahar, leaving you out of it, of course.’
Daniel was silent for a few moments before he spoke slowly. ‘Does Jabril understand the ramifications of what he’s doing? Does he understand that he’s putting both himself and whoever’s publishing the story in grave danger? Massoud’s not going to let this go. He can’t.’
‘We’ve tried to talk him out of it but he keeps saying it’s too late.’
‘It can’t be too late. Tell him that I’ve been working on something that might not only help but will keep everyone safe. I’ve got a friend who works for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission –’
‘Jabril’s already spoken with them. They said they’ve got too many issues and not enough resources, or something like that.’
‘What if they got a request from the head of the UN to investigate bacha bazi and a grant to go with it? I’ve already spoken with my friend at the UN and she thinks they’d jump at the chance, and with the proper encouragement they might put some focus on Massoud in that report.’
‘Is this really going to happen?’
‘The preliminary talks are encouraging. In any event, Jabril’s got to stop the article and the rest can be sorted out afterward. I can’t stress that enough.’
After she hung up from Daniel, Sofia got through to Jabril to tell him about the raid and also about Daniel’s plan, but he still wouldn’t change his mind. An hour later Chief Wasim rang Sofia to say two boys had been rescued. One of them was Rayi.
‘Now, Sofia,’ he said, before she could hang up. ‘This situation has ended well, but this is not always going to be the case with these things. I would like you to promise me to keep out of this bacha bazi business and not talk about it anymore or have anything to do with this campaign Jabril has been trying to organise.’
‘How do you know about Jabril’s campaign?’
‘Everybody knows about it. Now, are you going to promise me to leave all this alone?’
‘Absolutely. I promise.’
40
JABRIL WOULD HAVE liked to celebrate the boys’ return that evening with Zahra, but she still wasn’t speaking to him and had gone to bed early with a book. Sitting alone in the dark in the lounge room, nursing a scotch as he contemplated the events he had set in motion, Jabril was startled to hear a knock on the front door. Going downstairs he opened it to see Chief Wasim. ‘Is there something wrong with the boys?’
‘No, they’re fine,’ he said, placing a reassuring hand on Jabril’s shoulder before the two men headed upstairs to the comfort of the lounges. ‘A little shaken, but that is to be expected. As far as we can tell they’ve not been interfered with.’
Turning on the lights, Jabril picked up his glass of scotch and carried it to the cabinet before asking Wasim if he might get him anything to drink. Pouring them both pomegranate juices, he sat back down again in his favourite chair. ‘The men who took them told you they weren’t interfered with?’ Jabril asked.
‘The men who took them told me nothing. They’re dead.’
‘I see. Will the raid be in the papers tomorrow?’ Jabril asked, taking a sip of
