Qaton

“Are you ready for the meeting, Darat?” asked.

He was deep in thought but my question snapped him out of it.

“Yes,” he replied.

Over the last month, something had changed about Darat.

It was noticeable for most people, but for someone who knew him as long as I had, it was clear enough to detect.

The increased amount of idle brooding, the tension in his face and the increased recklessness with his actions recently had caused me to see a difference in his usual personality.

It had probably started around when he found out that Halel died, and had continued until this very moment.

I hoped that it wouldn't affect the outcome of the meeting that was about to happen.

The reason for our gathering was to discuss recent events —the starting of Hamet’s matchmaking business and the flame that burned down Halel’s old home.

The fire was probably the work of the Zi, the men who were currently trying to investigate further into the smuggling activities which Darat and I were associated with. After the fire had happened, we found Hamet in the compound looking disheveled.

We had asked him what happened and Hamet had revealed how the Zi had somehow discovered his connection with the matchmaking business.

Since the house that was burned down used to be owned by one of our members, many in our smuggling ring would probably think that the Zi arson was committed as a warning. A warning that was trying to either cause panic within our ranks or cause division between ourselves.

That was the topic of the upcoming discussion, and seeing as it involved Hamet, we asked him to come along with us. Due to the fact that he wasn’t able to communicate properly with other people, we asked him to merely observe and not try to talk at any point during the meeting.

The meeting was set to be a few hours after midnight to ensure the secrecy of the discussion as well as to make sure that everyone was free to join in the assembly.

We entered the conference a bit before it started with around three quarters of the participants present. The people that were present stared at Hamet with intrigued looks when he entered the room, his unique appearance made him a stark contrast to the people around him. They had probably heard of his accomplishments from Piyan and were impressed by him. He seemed a bit disturbed by the attention but Hamet wasn’t too rattled by what was going on.

So we waited a few moments until everyone was present, then after a while Ishata stood up and began the meeting.

Most of the members of our group had heard of the success of the matchmaking shop from Piyan and were on our side for now. But if Ishata had her way, she would have us get rid of Hamet and anything to do with him to make sure that we weren’t discovered.

This was a defensive battle, we just needed to make sure that we maintained the group’s positive opinion of Hamet.

Ishata’s role as our representative to the Yad and de facto leader allowed her a lot of authority and respect in the group. Like the last time the group convened, she once again held an oppositionary role and started speaking out against us.

“Your foolishness has caused danger to our whole operation.” she said with a scolding tone.

She pointed to the boy and said to us “Your support of the boy’s antics has led to increased attention from the Zi.”

I started my defense by explaining our reasoning.

“For the longest time, we have had to maintain the utmost secrecy but this goal has limited us.”

“We need some way to influence the people without going to the Yad every time, we can’t rely on him for everything. So, Darat and I started supporting Hamet in order to create more opportunities for us to increase our reach.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

She seemed a bit dubious of our claims.

“You are aware that the Zi literally burned down Halel’s house, right? This is proof that your Hamet’s business is only causing problems for us.”

Emboldened by the whispers of agreement heard around the room, she continued speaking.

“You are being too reckless, Halel would be ashamed by your actions.”

At the mention of Halel’s name, I could sense that Darat was deeply affected by her words. I shot him a glance, signaling him to ignore her provocation, but he ignored me.

“What would you know about what Halel thought?” Darat interjected.

He obviously wasn’t in his right mind, Ishata’s retort about Halel had brought out his anger. He needed to keep himself in control if we wanted to maintain our advantage.

But Ishata pounced at the opportunity that presented itself.

“I know that he wouldn’t want you to lead the Zi right to us, especially when they are at our doorstep.”

Darat took a moment to calm himself, then spoke.

“We need to take action, that is what Halel would have wanted. We needed more options, so I patronized Hamet’s business. Laying down and doing nothing isn’t an option for us, we need to explore every avenue available to us.”

I hoped that his words would be enough to convince the group, but Ishata had something else in mind.

“You have no solution. You talk of solutions yet all you do is invite danger to us. We need to get rid of Hamet and all of the problems he causes in order to truly be safe. It’s your fault that Halel died, your carelessness has brought ruin to him and will do the same to all of us unless we protect ourselves.”

She had dealt a damning blow to Darat as well as to our cause.

Darat was fuming with rage, his emotions were in turmoil as a result of what Ishata had said. He stomped out of the room, obviously unable to take it anymore and went to be alone.

Ishata had a slight grin as Darat left because she knew she had won. Compared to the considerable advantage we had at the beginning, we were now losing badly. Only a third of them were on our side, with another third agreeing completely with what Ishata said and the remaining ones probably just wanted Hamet to cease his business.

After Darat stormed out, the room devolved into a chaos of arguing and yelling.

It was the epitome of discord.

In an attempt to regain control, I said “Let’s reconvene in two days, let’s wait for our emotions to settle and then we can talk about things calmly.”

Ishata surprisingly was onboard with the idea.

“I agree, we can meet again in two days to finalize our decision.”

She probably intended to convince the remaining members not on her side during those two days. But I didn’t care because I had more important things to take care of, because I had an inkling that Darat would do something rash.

I took Hamet and came across Darat while returning back to the warehouse. He had a dark expression on his face as he brooded over something that clearly bothered him.

“What are you thinking of?” I asked.

He didn’t reply to me, but his silence spoke volumes.

“I know you want to kill the Zi.” I said.

“Do not. That wouldn’t end well for us.”

“I don't care.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked him in a pained voice.

He stared into my eyes,“They need to pay for what happened to Halel and should be punished.”

That was when I saw the true extent of his hatred for the Zi. He had been bottling up his feelings, and now they were finally revealing themselves. He has been a bit more reckless recently, as seen with his patronage of Hamet, but I had just thought that it was due to the threat of the Zi.

I didn’t realize how much Halel’s death had affected him until that point. But after that realization, I could clearly see how far his utter disdain for the Zi ran. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he planned to butcher the Zi with his bare hands.

“How exactly will you get your vengeance?”

“Simple. I’ll get some oil and some of Hamet’s matches, then I’ll char them while they're asleep.” Darat said with a cheery smile. The stark contrast between his words and his facial expression had struck me as eerie.

“That won’t end well for us, more Zi will come if they die.”

“I still don’t care.”

“We can get them out, we don’t have to kill them. We can find a way.” I pleaded.

He briefly thought for a moment, then decided on a response.

“You have one day.”

One day? I thought it was impossible to think of a plan and execute it in one day. I assumed he must have been playing a sick joke on me.

“One day? I don’t think I can do that.”

“Good, then I’ll get my revenge.”

I put my hand to my face and sighed.

“You leave me no choice. I have to try.”

“You don’t have to try if it’s impossible. Just sit back and remember that this time tomorrow. I’ll start with the plan.”

He has lost it.

Darat’s emotional volatility had made him abandon all rationality.

I had but one day to make sure that the Zi leave this town peacefully because we couldn’t risk the Zi government catching on to the fact that our group operates from here.

At this point if I tried to stop him physically he would simply overpower me, and even if he had the whole group against him, he would just escape and execute his plan anyway.

The smuggling ring was too disorganized to help currently, and I had no contacts that had the mental acumen to whip up a plan on such short notice.

Well actually there was one person I could try to ask, but it would be a gamble.

Hamet

Ten minutes later…

Qaton approached me, looking panicked, and asked me what I would do if I had to get rid of the Zi by tomorrow.

He explained to me how Darat gave him a deadline of a day to get rid of the Zi and that we needed to make them leave peacefully.

It was a really short deadline but it could be done if I knew just one thing.

I asked him how the Zi needed to leave in order to create the best outcome and he said that they needed to either leave of their own volition or be told to leave by their government.

As I pondered on how to best achieve this, the pieces began to assemble themselves within my mind. The elements of the Yad, the arson and the Zi fit together like puzzle pieces and made a plan with such simplicity and elegance.

I described how my plan would work to Qaton and he was surprised by its simplicity and effectiveness.

His eyes lit up as he agreed to help me.

The scheme to get rid of the Zi had started.