Stone Goose Apartments

Zeytinburnu District

Istanbul, Turkey

17 March 2010

‘I’m surprised you don’t know where the police department is.’ Sevki sat in a comfortable chair in front of a desk that had six computer monitors spread across it. His fingers clacked across the keyboard with practised ease. Images changed on the monitors with astonishing regularity. Cleena didn’t know how he kept up with everything, but she knew he did.

‘I’ve made a habit of never getting arrested.’ Cleena lounged on the couch with accustomed familiarity. When she was in Istanbul, she and Sevki spent time together, as friends and as lovers. Neither of them could afford to have someone permanent in their lives, and neither of them was willing to give up the world they felt safe in to live together. Besides, though the friendship and fringe benefits were good, both preferred independence.

Sevki shrugged. ‘Getting arrested isn’t so bad.’

‘I’ll take your word for it.’

‘It’s when they try to keep you that things become less fun.’

‘I’m going to try never to put jail and fun in the same sentence again.’

The apartment was a mix of adult and child, of technician and dreamer. Everything in the kitchen was neatly in its place. Sevki liked to cook, which was one of the things Cleena appreciated about him. The computer area was immaculate, neatly organized and carefully arranged. That was where he did his work.

One wall held shelves filled with boxed American comic books and graphic novels. Each box was carefully coded. Posters of scantily clad women carrying magic swords and impossibly large handguns cluttered the walls. Cleena recognized Lara Croft and Wonder Woman, but none of the others. A few were even alien, but unmistakably female.

‘Have you eaten?’ he asked.

‘I’m famished,’ she admitted.

‘There is some arabasi soup in the refrigerator.’

‘Sounds delicious.’ Cleena got up from the couch. ‘Want some?’

‘Yes, please.’

‘Is there enough for two?’

Sevki turned and grinned at her. ‘Yes, even when one of the two is you. I also baked some ekmek a couple of days ago. Warm that up in the oven-’

‘I know how to fix leftovers,’ Cleena interrupted. ‘I’m not exactly helpless.’

‘You’re right. Not exactly helpless.’

A warm feeling spread throughout Cleena as she set about preparing the simple meal. It felt good to be in the kitchen again, doing something domestic with someone who knew all her secrets. She located the arabasi, poured it into a pan, and warmed it on the stove. She unwrapped the small loaves of ekmek and placed them on the tray inside the oven. Within minutes, the delightful smell of chicken broth and bread filled the apartment.

She took down a couple of big bowls from the shelves, filled them with soup, and cut the loaves into manageable chunks. She put a couple of pieces of bread into each bowl, then added slices of Havarti cheese.

After she handed Sevki his bowl, Cleena returned to the couch and peered over his shoulder at the monitors while she ate. The soup was good, just spicy enough with the red pepper, and the sourdough bread complemented the taste.

‘According to what I can find here,’ Sevki said, ‘your Professor Lourds-’

‘He’s not my Professor Lourds.’

Sevki glanced at her and smiled. ‘Struck a nerve, have I?’

‘The man is an idiot. He nearly got us both killed. Several times.’

‘Anyway, he’s here in Istanbul to deliver a series of lectures to classes a colleague teaches.’

‘What colleague?’ Cleena blew on her soup to cool it, then soaked a chunk of bread and ate it.

Sevki rattled the keyboard with his lightning fast strikes. ‘A professor at Istanbul University.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Her name, actually. Professor Olympia Adnan.’ Sevki brought up an image from the university on one of the monitors.

The woman in the picture had dark hair styled to fit the shape of her head, dark eyes and a smooth olive complexion. She wore square-rimmed glasses. Cleena put her age at late thirties, but most of that ageing was done out of spite. The woman looked too beautiful to be a university professor.

‘Hey, she’s quite the babe,’ Sevki commented.

‘If you like older women,’ Cleena retorted.

‘Uh, yeah.’ Sevki turned his attention to his soup. ‘It might help if I knew what I was looking for.’

‘I need everything you can find out about the professor, and what he’s doing here. Beyond what you see in the news.’

‘So I’m supposed to be a mind reader?’

‘Think outside the box on this one, Sevki. I need you to use those brilliant instincts of yours.’

Sevki smiled. ‘Now you seek to play on my ego.’ He nodded and tapped his forehead. ‘Very good strategy. You must really be in trouble.’

‘Yes.’ Cleena’s appetite nearly soured at that thought, but she forced herself to keep eating. That was one of the things her father had drilled into her from the beginning: when she was tired, she slept, and when there was time, she ate. Someone malnourished and overly tired couldn’t function in survival mode. And she was certainly there.

‘I’m not the only one in trouble,’ Cleena said. ‘I have a younger sister. Last night someone got to her and threatened her. The professor isn’t my job. He’s someone else’s.’

Sevki remained still, taking in everything she said and showing no emotion.

For the briefest instant, Cleena wished she could take it all back. But she couldn’t. Brigid needed Sevki at his best, and Sevki needed to know what he was up against.

‘This guy who threatened my sister, Sevki, he’s not a commonplace thug. He’s connected somehow. A major player on the international scene.’ Cleena told him about the phone call she’d had and the visit Brigid had received to her work.

‘You think he belongs to an espionage agency,’ Sevki asked when she’d finished the summation.

Cleena nodded.

‘Not my government?’

‘If it had been the Turkish government, why travel all the way to the United States to threaten my sister?’

‘What do they want you to do with Professor Lourds?’

‘Just to watch him,’ Cleena answered.

‘Why? What is he supposed to do?’

‘That’s why I came to you. I want you to dig around and see what you can find out.’

‘Without bumping into these American spies that are threatening you.’

‘They may not be spies. They could be corporate interests. Someone like Blackwater. The espionage threats aren’t just political these days. Economies are uncertain, and religious fervour ignites everywhere.’

Sevki nodded. ‘I know. The Middle East has been increasingly restless of late. The disruption of the balance of power, of the uprising in Iran and of the Americans’ insistence that the Shia followers outnumbered the Sunni followers in Iraq, still hasn’t settled. I’ve been tracking that.’

Cleena hadn’t. She didn’t care for politics. Her father had been swayed by them, and been murdered because of a man who’d waved the flag of the Irish Republic under Ryan MacKenna’s nose. Her father would have never tried to make that weapons deal if he hadn’t been chasing politics. He’d known how Cleena felt about it. That was why he hadn’t taken her with him that morning.

‘I’m telling you this because you need to be careful,’ she said. ‘For yourself. And for my sister.’

He nodded.

‘And if you choose to back away from this thing, I’ll understand.’

‘But you will still do it.’

‘I have no choice.’

Sevki licked his spoon thoughtfully. ‘What you’re asking… this is a very dangerous thing, Cleena.’

‘I know.’

‘But it’s for family. I understand family.’

Before she knew it, tears trickled down Cleena’s face. She wiped them away.

‘I will do this thing for you. Carefully, as you say. But only so far. I myself have family.’