Aswan, Egypt, December 19, 2009, 1:40 pm.
The air was thick and filled with cigarette smoke, suffocating Nadine. She was on the edge of freaking out. She didn’t understand what was happening. No one told her why she was arrested. “Please let me talk to my family. It must be a mistake,” Nadine begged the officer.
“You don’t look like a criminal, but what you’re facing puts you in big trouble,” the officer said, feeling the fear that came from her high-pitched voice. “Fine, one call.”
She got the phone on the desk and dialed her father’s number. “Help me, please, I’m at the police station in Aswan! come and—”
“Who is this?!” Murad said, surprised.
“—what… I’m Nadine!” she said, echoing her father’s surprised tone.
She was confused. She knew indeed that it was her father. The officer noticed how bewildered she was; he took the phone from her hand and said, “Mr. Murad Azmi? I’m Gamal El Kareem, an investigation officer of the Aswan security directorate, your daughter is here—”
Murad interrupted him, “Officer, I don’t have a daughter.”
“—but she insisted that you’re her father and her ID has your name on it,” Gamal said, holding her ID between his fingers. The officer ended the call after a minute, just humming from his end. He stood up and eyed Nadine quietly before heading outside the room. He told another officer to call the Cairo security directorate immediately, right after he slammed the door behind him.
2:30 pm.
Nadine was shaking her legs nervously and staring at her clenched fists. The officer opened the door and ordered the soldier to take her outside. “Where are you taking me?!”
“The head of the Cairo security directorate ordered to get you to Cairo now,” the officer said coldly. Nadine wanted to scream, but her voice didn’t come out. The soldier took her outside, and they walked to ride the police vehicle.
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“What is happening to me!?” Nadine said to herself.
“What did you do?” the soldier said as he was locking the handcuffs. “They wanted you in Cairo now. They even ordered a special airplane to get you there as fast as possible.”
“I did nothing! I’m innocent.”
“They all say the same thing before getting thrown into prison,” the soldier said and eyed her suspiciously. He left her in the car and headed back to the station. Officer Gamal was standing in front of the vehicle talking on the phone, then rode the car.
“Officer, please tell me what is happening!” she begged. The officer looked away and told the driver to head to the airport. Nadine begged him again to tell her anything, yet he looked stern and angry. She gave up and rested her head on the window glass, looking at the road.
The vehicle was fast heading to the airport. The intense anxiousness filled the space of the car. Officer Gamal talked on the phone most of the ride in codes; not one actual sentence came out of his thin lips. He was watching Nadine through the side mirror, shooting her with disgusted looks and whispered curses.
Nadine was staring at the fast-moving ground. As the last curse came out of the officer’s mouth, she closed her eyes, wishing for anyone to tell her what was happening. She felt a soft breeze of wind hit her face — she frowned; all four windows were up, and the air conditioner was on, even if one window was down. It would bring hot wind, not a cold soft one — another soft breeze hit her again, yet this time followed by a sound of wings thrust.
She slowly opened her eyes; her pupils dilated, getting what was before her. She was sitting in the air on an invisible chair, moving fast in the police vehicle, and the handcuffs around her hands were gone. The thrust sound came again with the soft breeze slowly showing what caused it. Golden strings floating in the air slowly shaped into an angelic golden bird.
Eyes almond in shape and its gaze was an incandescent blue fire that astounded her to the core. Its wings were enormous, and its primaries were flaming in the same incandescent blue fire as its eyes. Its thrusts were getting stronger and stronger, hitting Nadine with an ice breeze. She hugged herself and bent her head down. The wind became unbearable for her shivering body. She wanted to scream for help, yet her voice couldn’t get out.
She felt something nudging her roughly. She clenched her hand tighter around herself. The nudge came back and felt like a punch in the shoulder. She shot her eyes open and found officer Gamal looking back at her with one hand over her shoulder.
“Was the ride so relaxing that you fell asleep?” he said with a clenched jaw and narrowed angered eyes. Nadine looked at him puzzled and then her eyes shifted to the window and saw that they had arrived at the airport.