#Chapter Twelve#

“You know I could get fired for doing this?”

“I won’t let that happen!”

We had been convincing, or more like begging, Salem to help us find Houda for the last five minutes and it seemed like he was only just relenting. Without giving him too much detail, we told him that Houda was mixed up with the wrong crowd and was in danger. 

He said that he would ‘get the job done’ alone, but me being me and Mira being Mira…well, we were both adamant on going with him.

“If you think we’re stubborn, believe me she is much worse. You’ll need our help.” Salem shifted his eyes to Mira and gazed at her, calculating and hesitant. 

“We’re taking too long! Salem, either we do this or not, what’s the decision?” I exclaimed hurriedly. 

“Please Salem?” Mira whispered, the water returning to her eyes. 

That did it.

“Fine!” he hissed, clenching his jaw. “But you’re going on my conditions and if you don’t follow every single one of my commands, I’m turning the car around. Understood?” We nodded our heads. “Good. I’m giving both of you exactly two minutes to disguise yourselves. I don’t care what you wear, just make sure you don’t look like you. I’m taking no risks. I’ll be bringing two other guards with me and you’ll both be wearing intercom ear pieces to stay in contact with us at all times.”

“Isn’t this a little much,” Mira whispered to me.

“I know, he’s crazy,” I joked.

Salem cleared his throat. “I’m right here ladies.” 

“We didn’t realise,” I said.

“Just hurry up and go get dressed before I change my mind,” he seethed, obviously unhappy that we had won the argument. 

We bolted up the stairs and once I was in my room, I threw a hooded jumper to Mira and pulled one over my head. I gave her a plain black scarf to change into, a colour I’d never seen on her before since she was always in the bright neon colours. I put my reading glasses on, knowing it would barely make a difference to my appearance anyway. 

“Man, niqab would’ve been so much easier right now,” Mira voiced and I laughed.

“Tell me about it. But can you imagine walking into a club wearing that.”

“True.” 

Frantically running around my room, we both added last touches to our outfit. I grabbed my phone and placed it in the pocket of the black skirt I had changed into. “Ready?” Mira nodded her head and we bounded back down the stairs, finding Salem and two other guards waiting for us in the foyer. They were all dressed in casual wear, also to keep up with appearances.

“Let’s go,” Salem said once he saw us and we all shuffled out the door. 

“I hope she hasn’t done anything stupid,” Mira voiced her thoughts aloud as we jumped into the seven seater car. 

“She’s a smart girl,” I tried to comfort her.

“Not when she’s upset,” she mumbled.

I sighed and relaxed back into my seat. Mira and I sat in the back whilst Salem sat upfront, getting another guard to drive for once. He turned around slightly to face us, keeping his eyes on our surroundings.

“Mira, did you hear your sister mention anything about where this club could be? Unfortunately there are more than one spread out across the city and if you had any information to help us narrow down the location, that would be great.” 

“Umm,” she stammered. “I think I heard her mention something about a warehouse and yellow reflections.” 

I frowned. “Yellow reflections?”

Salem nodded his approvingly. “No that’s good. Khalil, head west!” he told the driver and he simply nodded in response.

“Wait,” I said, still confused. “What does that mean?” 

Salem rubbed his eyes and inhibited an oncoming yawn. Me and Mira exchanged a guilty look, feeling bad for waking him up so early. “It means,” he started, massaging his neck, “that we have an exact suburb now.” 

“How’d you deduce that?”

He let out a breath, looking like he’d rather be doing anything than explaining this to me right now. “Every suburb in this whole country is defined and coded by a colour. On the edges of specific buildings in that suburb, small light panels are implanted that have reflective powers.”

“So they shine yellow at night and that’s how you can tell?” I clarified.

He shook his head. “No, it’s not that simple. What two colours combine to create yellow?”

“Red and green!” was Mira’s quick reply. 

“Right. So the buildings will either have red or green lights implanted and to find out the colour you have to shine the opposite. So if you shined a red light at the buildings roof, and yellow appeared as a result, you’d know that green is the opposite colour there and vice versa.” 

“Wow, why did I not know this?”

“Because only guards, police and people of higher authority know this. Criminals use it as their code language, especially when they think their phone is tapped into. Instead of mentioning details they’ll state the name of the colour to identify where they are. It really is a flawed system, because as you might have already picked up on, more than one building would have these panels built into them, so the only way thugs and street rats can really explain where they are, is by mentioning a close by building or anything out of the ordinary. Which is why he probably mentioned a warehouse to your sister,” Salem finished.

“So why don’t the authorities remove the panels then, so that their disgusting businesses can be cut short?” 

“It’s a win-lose situation,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Whenever we’ve removed them in the past, the people who create them start up somewhere else. They’ll find another hideout or secluded part of town and do the same thing and we lose trace of them. Whereas if we leave them there, we can track their constant activity and keep surveillance on them, until we bust the leader and his puppies, locking them all up in jail. They’re smart and they move fast, so we have to tread with caution.” I nodded my head in contemplation. Some people were so cunning.

“Oh my God. Houda is with a criminal?” Mira squeaked out, breaking the silence.

“It’s highly possible, yes,” Salem answered, failing to realise that Mira was almost hyperventilating. I had half a mind to swat him across the head for this.

“Maybe, Mira, maybe,” I said slowly, trying to calm her down. “It’s not for sure!”

“Right, OK.” She fanned her face and cutely enough, Salem reached over and produced a bottle of water, handing it over to her.

“Thanks.” She gave him a small smile which he didn’t see anyway and proceeded to twist the lid and take a large swig from the bottle.

“Don’t stress too much Mira,” he said softly, scanning the houses as they went by. “I know exactly where this club is located so hopefully we’ll be in and out with your sister.”

“Insha’Allah,” she muttered to herself. 

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to the kerb. I peered through the window to see if I could recognise where we were and Mira followed my actions. It seemed like on one end of the street was commercial housing and on the opposite end was industrialised warehouses. So we must be here. 

We filed out of the car and the air around us was stiff and filled with tension. 

“You girls have to stay close to us at all times. Act casual and pull your hoodies over your face tightly. No girls with scarfs walk in there, I can assure you that, so if they see it, they’re going to become suspicious. These people are ruthless at times and they’re highly dangerous and I’m actually beginning to wonder how on Earth you two managed to convince me to let you come with me.” Despite the situation, I stifled a laugh at Salem’s last comment.

It was probably your lurve for Mira! I thought.

We did what we were told and both tried to cover our scarfs as much as possible. Salem moved to the back of the boot and pulled the boot open. To my horror, he began pulling out various weapons and strapping them to his body, gesturing to the other guards to do the same.

“SALEM!” I yelled.

“I’m not taking any risks, Sameena,” he stated, as if he expected my outburst and continued on with his task.

“Those things should be banned,” I spat. 

He ignored me, as usual.

With Salem in the lead, we began the short trek to the building which he seemed to know exactly where it was located. “It’s the square-ish looking building over there,” he pointed out, motioning only a few metres from us. Mira grasped my hand and I squeezed it in return.

“Stay close and don’t go astray,” Salem whispered once we had sidled up to a door. We all quietly watched as he pulled out a little device and shined it towards the roof. 

Yellow light.

We sidled up to the iron door and stopped short as Salem began to punch in some numbers on a touch screen pad. As he clicked on the last number, we heard the door unlock, it’s hinging screeching as it moved. The place looked old and it definitely hadn’t been renovated or upgraded in a long time, that much was clear. 

We followed Salem through the door and into complete, pitch black darkness. We stumbled our way down a flight of stairs, where we could see a small line of light emanating from beneath. Salem managed to throw it open and we walked through. At this point, nervousness and fear were eating up at me from the inside. 

“Who are you?” someone boomed suddenly. Mira and I jumped and I put a hand on my racing heart. I peered over Salem’s waist, since that was where I reached up to in contrast with his height, observing the gruff, heavily bearded, heavily tattooed man who strode up to us. 

“We’re just here for the party man,” Salem answered coolly. 

The man eyes us all suspiciously, his eyes jumping between us. We did look like a good group of friends but whether or not he could feel how forced we were in our body language, I wasn’t sure. “Where’d you learn the code?” he asked. 

“From Nader.” 

He scoffed. “Nader himself told you the code? Impossible.” 

Salem shrugged nonchalantly. “If you don’t believe me that’s fine. The main thing is that I know the code, right?” I felt like they were speaking in some other language.

“Go on then. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” It was clear the man was intimidated by Salem and I mean, who wouldn’t be? He watched us as we entered into an old, slightly worrying elevator, his beady eyes staring us down until the doors shut. We all stood in silence as it descended. 

After a minute or so, it halted and the doors opened to reveal the scene I had been expecting. Dark and smokey. Neon lights and blaring music. Men and woman dancing in a sexualised manner. 

I instantly felt out of place and a little like throwing up. Everything just felt wrong and dirty. We made our way through and as we did, the worse it got. 

“Salem?” Mira’s voice was shaky and filled with fear. “What’re the chances my sister will come out of here unaffected?” 

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A/N

A shorter chapter I know, but halfway through writing I got really tired all of a sudden and didn't have the energy to finish. Didn't want to leave you guys with nothing though.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT. Votes are awesome, but I'd also like to hear how you guys think the story is progressing and whether you like it or not. The last chapter had barely any feedback and that can sometimes be demotivating! Thanks guys!

Peace!