Chapter 74: "Dangerous Exposure"

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Zayn lay down on the mat as he continued doing his stretches. The sun was shining pleasantly and the light chatter and healthy banter between his team mates felt like a nice change. Zayn's medical examination went by without a problem. The team doctor had, once again, tried probing him for his bullet wound, but Zayn stayed tight-lipped, dodging the question here and there. He let go. Like many times before. Zayn suspected his medical team was in on his deal with Alex. Or the Agent was paying them handsomely to not create a scene out of it when their key striker came around for checkups with unexplained and violent injuries.

Also, he had met his marketing agent. To his surprise, he had a couple of very good offers from prestigious European clubs waiting for him to be considered. Zayn was especially thrilled by the offer made by the Premier League club.

"Alright there, Captain." Hamza nodded at Zayn in the passing.

"I'm good," Zayn replied before turning to his teammate, Tyson, as he stretched his other leg. "So not much hope for the league title this year, then?"

"We were kinda shaky right off the bat this season," Tyson replied, "but yeah, ending top three on the table is the main goal now. I'm surprised you showed up. Should have just rested, in my opinion."

"Yeah I was planning on that, but I have to play some games to have any hopes of getting that national team spot." Zayn replied.

Tyson snorted in reply.

"Seriously?" He raised a brow. "You could have a leg missing and you'd still be selected, anyway."

"Can't be too confident." Zayn smiled, getting up from his mat.

"What about your contract with LA?" Tyson asked, asking Zayn for help. Zayn grabbed his hand, helping him up. "Are you renewing it?"

Zayn sighed and looked away.

"I'm not sure yet," he replied. "I'm interested in a move to Europe but . . ."

Tyson tilted his head questioningly.

"But?"

But things with Bee haven't settled to a point where I can make a move like that, Zayn thought to himself.

"I got some personal stuff that needs looking into," he said instead. "Making a move like that, with Grandpa and my sister staying here. . . I want to think it through."

Tyson nodded in understanding.

"Also heard about your girl, she chill with that?" he asked.

Zayn shook his head.

"I haven't talked to her about it."

"Dude?" Tyson frowned.

"We're not there yet, man."

"What do you mean?" Tyson's frown deepened. "So far as I heard, ya'll got engaged and stuff."

"Yeah, it's a bit complicated," Zayn replied, fixing his gloves. "I'll tell her. If it works, it works, if it doesn't." Zayn shrugged. "I move, man. Can't have a girl hold me back from achieving my goals. I just need to settle things with Claire and Grandpa, first."

Tyson was quiet for a moment as they started walking towards the rest of the team where they had started practicing passes.

"Well, good luck, then." Tyson clapped Zayn's back. "I was hoping you'd found the right girl but I suppose not if she can't take that leap with you. Hope it works out for you."

"Thanks man." Zayn smiled, running the last few steps to take his place in the circle.

***

Zayn turned to the main highway, thinking about his chat with Robert in the restaurant's parking lot as beams of light alternated with stretches of shadows with each passing highway streetlight.

"See you," Robert had said, just as Zayn hugged his friend. "I'm still waiting on that wedding invitation, just so you know."

Zayn had chuckled, clapping his back.

"If it works out," he promised.

"Of course, it'll work out Inshaa'Allah!" Robert replied. "The hard bit was to earn her trust. What's left?"

Breaking it? Zayn had uneasy thought to himself.

"I'll keep you posted," he said instead, before the two parted ways in the semi lit parking lot.

The fact that his friends were now expecting him to actually tie the knot was a bit unsettling. Zayn did not know how to take it. His and Salma's future together had always been curtained by a haze of uncertainty, but now with his potential move to a European club, Zayn could see a solid wall dropping between them. There was no way she was going to move with him across the pond, not with her three million security and political issues.

Also, Zayn thought as he threw a careless look into the rearview mirror. With Alex continuously –

Zayn's eyes did a double-take. Cold chills ran down his spine. A pair of steely eyes were staring at him in the rearview mirror, fixing him with an icy look.

"Keep driving," the shadow said coldly. "Did you honestly think you could escape me by outing me to the FBI?"

Zayn said nothing as he tried to snap out of the shock of finding a cold-blooded murderer sitting in his car unnoticed, all this time.

"I said keep driving!"

Zayn felt a tremble shaking his insides as he felt the cold metal poke him in the side, just under his ribs.

"I believe you don't want me putting another bullet in you!" he spat. "Be a bit tough to explain why you keep getting holes in you at random places."

Zayn clenched his teeth and swallowed his fears. He forced his eyes back on the road. It was hard trying to come to terms with the fact that he had somehow landed himself with a beast plastering a loaded gun against him once again.

"What do you want?" Zayn asked, as he pressed the gas pedal again. He had not realized he had been decelerating.

A devilish laughter chilled the small space inside the car.

"As if you don't know," he replied. "We had a deal, remember?"

"I believe I kept to it—"

"One more lie and I'll pull this trigger before you even finish it!" the man seethed.

"I've been doing exactly as you asked!" Zayn argued, impulsively pulling away from the gun pressed to his side. "I took her out! She trusts me now."

"Or does she?" he drawled, his voice laced with ridicule. "That Zamarud Zai sure knows game. You think you're playing her when she's playing you."

Zayn felt his heart sank.

"What do you mean?"

"Za-ma-rud," he spelled the syllables. "There's more to it than just a family name. It's a title. She's the current title bearer."

Zayn's knuckles turned white as he grabbed the steering wheel in a death grip. He felt his heart beating at a mad pace, dreading the next words. He could feel the drumming heart screening everything away from his ears.

"Anyway, just wanted to let you know, we're still in business," he said. "The next time we meet, it'll probably be time to do it."

"Do what?" Zayn asked, feeling his breath getting shorter and more labored.

"Nothing criminal," he said so softly, it reminded Zayn of a snake's hiss; a gentle echo of death. "You are being manipulated in the affairs of a family that has nothing to do with you. I will not stoop so low as that lying family to force your hand into something unlawful. You deserve to break free from the undeserving title bearer of the Zamarud. And I assure you, I'll oversee that that arrangement happens."

Zayn gripped the steering wheel tight as a deathly cold sunk its claws into his chest. Although uttered as a reassurance of having his back against the Rahmans, Zayn could sense the real meaning behind those words. This man would be breathing down his back, till Zayn did what he wanted him to do.

"However," the shadow in the backseat continued, his voice harsher this time. "If you try to play clever again, there will be consequences!" he threatened. "Am I clear?"

Zayn nodded.

"Good," he said, withdrawing his gun. "Park on the shoulder."

Zayn did as he was told, barely keeping track of what was going on. His head was spinning. He was not ready for he was being asked to do. The spy stepped out of the car, then leaned in towards his window.

"Give my regards to Miss Alexandra." he said, a satanic glint in his cold eyes. "I left her a little something in the trunk."

***

Salma waved at her Uncle Dawood till he turned around and disappeared at the terminal. She had accompanied her father as they dropped her Uncle at the airport. William's course at the MIT was complete and he was supposed to have been home a week ago, but he had had a very bad stomach bug for days and Anne was getting restless. To reassure her and himself, Uncle Dawood had deemed it fit to fly to William himself and bring him back home.

Salma followed her father to their car and took a seat in the passenger seat, previously occupied by her Uncle. She prepared herself to fulfill the real purpose of joining her father on the drive to their airport – which included seeing her Uncle off but also to have a proper chat with her father. It had been four days since her run-in with Jason in the GCA HQ cafeteria and she had not seen him since. Salma had been waiting in entomology lab III every free second that she got, hoping to catch him there, but he had continued to be a no-show. He had not been taking any classes, and Professor and Louisa had not heard from him. The small seed of panic had turned to into a full grown tree at this point, but Salma could not get a straight answer out of any of the shadows. As a last resort, she had decided to ask her father – something, she knew she should not do because she was not supposed to meddle into, or question the agency's affairs.

"Is Jason gone?" Salma got straight to the point before she could lose heart.

"Gone where?" Her father threw her a questioning side glance.

"I don't know, I'm asking you," Salma muttered. "He said you would send him away somewhere if he got exposed."

"Maybe."

"Dad, that's not fair!" Salma argued. "You didn't need to send him away. Jason loved it here!"

"He's a happy kid. He loves it everywhere," her father replied carelessly as checked the mirrors before taking a turn out of the airport.

"It wasn't even an exposure," Salma continued. "I'm not a threat to him!"

"You're threat to yourself."

"I disagree," Salma said stubbornly.

"C'mon princess, are you going to deny the fact that you think the protecting business should have been the other way around between you and Jason?" her father challenged. "You've always acted like he was under your wing. You think I don't know you'd be looking out for him all the time now that you knew he was serving as a watch?

Salma looked away scowling at how accurately her father had analysed her feelings about the Junior-being-her-watch situation.

"It's still not fair that you had to send him away!" Salma complained. "Who's keeping watch in his stead?"

"If you know than the replacement can't continue their job." Her father laughed at her question. "Jason's job was done anyway. He was tasked with watching Zayn around you. Zayn's not an issue anymore so Jason was just attending for continuity purposes. Also, letting him roam free around you was always a security risk to himself."

"Why couldn't Jason be protected here despite me knowing? Y'all managed to keep his dad and his family as something of a hearsay, a legend. The real person Jason is; barely exists as himself, except in the memory of his sister, you and a few other Green Coats."

"I don't know who he really is," her dad corrected. "So it's just his sister and a few Green Coats."

Salma's mouth dropped open.

"What?"

"He's someone I protect but I don't know his true identity either," her father said, amused by her thunderstruck expressions.

"So you just adopted a kid, not knowing if he's the real deal or not?" Salma cried in shock.

"I know he's the real deal!" Her father laughed. "The person who assigned him to me had worked with his father, but I had never met his dad or the kid or any of his family."

Salma just stared at her father, stunned by his admission.

"How do you even know he's the scientist's kid?!" Salma said. "Or that any of what's been said is true? What if it's fairy tales? The man, his anti-nuke invention, the –"

"It's not!" the Green Coat rolled his eyes. "He very much existed and his story is very real. You think we'd be able to make the Americans concede to our demands here and there by mentioning the shield and the man behind it, if it was just a story? I've been part of some of these threatening negotiations. Trust me, he was their most prized asset. They hate us for it."

Salma frowned as the passing trees and cars, unable to comprehend her father's job. How do they work towards something while knowing little to nothing?

"So the Americans know he was in Sthooriya?" Salma asked.

"To the best of their knowledge, yes," her father replied. "but they have no evidence."

"And Jason could be evidence?"

"In a way," he confirmed.

"So he had to be kept a secret?"

"Yes."

"Even from me?"

Her father sighed.

"Princess," he said in exasperation.

Salma knew what that frustrated tone meant. "Princess, you are not special." "Stop thinking of yourself as such." "Come back to earth." "You've been flying on your high horse for too long now."

That's what it meant.

Salma glared at the road. She knew she was not special, but at times like this, she wished she would be given some leeway. Just a tiny bit?

"Fine," Salma grumbled. "Can you at least tell me how the Green Coats smuggled Jason's dad under the Americans watchful eyes in Japan?"

Her father frowned.

"Who said we smuggle him under their watch?"

"You didn't?" Salma asked, confused. "Jason said the rumor was he was taken out in luggage from a store during a flash mob arranged by the Green Coats?"

Her father laughed.

"Who told him that?" he asked amused.

"I don't know." Salma shrugged. "Is that not true?"

Her father shook his head in amusement.

"We're good, but we are not that good," he said as he switched gears. "Like I said, he was the most prized scientist in the U.S. You can't just take him out disguised as luggage in a flash mob."

"So how did it happen?" Salma asked impatiently.

"It was a joint effort between the two countries," her father said. "He was not smuggled. He was carefully transported. The escape was planned between the leaders of the two countries months ago. President Jimmy Carter, then president of the United States, was good friends with Grand Chief Sulaiman. The two men had a lot of respect for each other, especially due to their shared belief and commitment towards ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He had planned and finalized the scientist transfer to Sthooriya. knowing your grandfather was the only other man in power who would provide the scientist protection without any vested interest of his own."

"So it was President Carter who orchestrated the escape?" Salma asked.

"Together with the Green Coats, yes."

"Then that also means the scientist was made to come in contact with Grandpa Sulaiman deliberately," Salma thought out loud. "I don't understand, 'Eden' was just a vaguely put out idea at the time, why couldn't President Carter get someone to discredit the idea and discontinue the project."

"He did that, but being an expert in nuclear physics himself, he knew that would not avert the threat of it being rebirthed again," her father replied.

"Jimmy Carter was Nuclear physics expert?!" Salma cried in surprise.

"Of course," the Green coat said. "His first job as an officer was to work on the US Nuclear propelled submarines Program. It was during this time, in 1952, that an accident occurred in the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ottawa and Lieutenant Carter and two dozen men under his supervision were tasked to clean up and repair the reactor. Hydrogen explosions had flooded the core with hundreds of thousands of gallons of radioactive water. It was a disaster."

"How did they clean up a meltdown like that?!"

"Young Carter and his men practiced on an exact replica of the reactor in a tennis court before getting lowered into the meltdown itself. They had to know every nut and bolt and every piece of the reactor. The men were divided into three teams, each team had to do their required clean up and repair task in a ninety second shift. A minute and a half was considered safe enough duration for exposure to radiation but it was still too long. They got the job done, but in each ninety second shift, the men had absorbed a year's worth of radiation. Carter's urine continued to test positive for radioactivity even six months after the dangerous exposure. It affected him, and influenced his views on Nuclear power drastically. A few decades later, when he was elected as the president of the United States, he would still remember the horrors of that day in 1952. It was this nightmare experience that made him cancel the US military project of developing the neutron bomb."

Salma stayed quiet for a while, too blown away by the story of President Jimmy Carter to be able to say much.

"So . . ." she said after a while as if trying to snap out of her thoughts. "So like the Neutron bomb project, President Carter had basically cancelled Eden and was going let the man live peacefully in the U.S?"

"Exactly! As far as he was concerned, that is what he was doing," Mr. Rahman replied. "However, President Carter knew that was not enough. See, he had basically found out about the military industrial complex working on the neutron bomb as a solution to overcome any impediment the development of Eden may provide them with. A shield had not been developed, and men in power were already trying to come up with ways break past that shield. President Carter had a meeting with the scientist. Once he realized Eden could become a reality and therefore, a cause for intensifying the nuclear arms race, he saw it fit to not only discontinue it but also, try to curb any chances of it being resurrected. Carter knew there were people in the establishment and the military industrial complex who wanted Eden realized. He knew they were only waiting for his tenure to end for them to pounce on the man and try whatever way they could to push him into bringing Eden to life, so they could have both, the impenetrable shield, and the only weapon that could penetrate it. So, he did what he thought was best. Sent the man to safety of the Himalayan Mountains."

"Wow," Salma breathed out. "I could never imagine such a humane world leader."

"Yeah, he was a special one," her father agreed. "Wish the world had more of his type."

The two settled in a comfortable silence, each following their own train of thoughts as they drove. Salma ran the pad of her thumb along her knuckles as she contemplated asking her father one last question.

"Dad?"

Her father chuckled knowingly.

"It's the last question, I promise!"

"I didn't even say anything." He laughed.

Salma glanced at him nervously.

"Will I see Jason ever again?"

Author's Note:

Ah, poor thing. Sally missing the lil redhead now that he's a no-show! Imagine what happens when she realizes Zayn's leaving for England!

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Lots of Love

J.