‘Er… I don’t know,’ Gerry mumbled. Perhaps in the kitchen, maybe down the pub, possibly in the office canteen. Or in a prison cell. ‘I suppose so,’ she added.
‘Here, take a seat.’ Gerry sat on a chair at the big wooden table and watched her hostess. Her face was lined but she was a handsome woman with very long dark hair shot through with white streaks. She was slightly overweight but straight backed and elegant. Gerry recalled that she was twenty three years older than Rashid so that made her in her mid-fifties.
‘Would you like some coffee, or a cold drink?’ she asked.
‘Coffee please, milk no sugar.’
Nothing further was said until the two of them were seated opposite one another. ‘Excuse me I’m going to have a cigarette,’ said Tabitha. She pulled an ashtray across the table. ‘Do you want one?’
‘No thanks,’ Gerry replied. She watched Tabitha light up and take a drag.
‘Now you’d better tell me your story,’ she said.
‘How far back do you want me to go?’
‘You can go back as far as you like but maybe start with why you kidnapped my son. Perhaps you can explain why you are so careless towards other people?’
‘I’m not careless.’
‘I didn’t mean careless; I meant callous.’ Tabitha saw her guest appear to flinch at the accusation. ‘Perhaps we should speak in Arabic. Rashid tells me you are remarkably good.’
Gerry spoke for nearly an hour and a half. She explained why she had kidnapped Rashid; how she had become pregnant; how she had helped him escape; ended up in prison; given up her baby for adoption; how she had been released and been sent on her journey to the USA; why she had met Ali Hamsin in Guantanamo Bay and how they had ended up on a life raft together; how he had died; why she and Dan Hall had come to Amman and then finally to Baghdad; how Samms and Parker had died; her failure to find the Gilgamesh document and her return to Amman.
When she had completed her story she stretched her arm out across the table and rested her head on it. Tabitha stared down at her and they were both silent for a minute.
‘What a miserable life you have led,’ Tabitha said eventually.
Gerry looked up at her and then sat upright. ‘What do you mean?’
‘What have you got to show for all this pain and sorrow? The only time you seem to have been happy was when you were in prison; I’m surprised you wanted to leave. The only close woman friend you’ve had seems to have been Angela who shared your prison cell and the only man who you loved and who loved you was this Philip who died.’
‘That’s not true, Dan Hall loves me.’
‘Yet you left him with the Americans who you think will probably send him to prison, assuming he lives.’
‘We hoped that if we found this Gilgamesh document then it would give us some leverage. For one thing I wanted to be able to guarantee your family’s safety, and also I want to… oh, it doesn’t matter now.’
‘Do you think it would have given you this leverage?’
‘I don’t know,’ Gerry sighed. ‘I don’t really know exactly what the document said, if the threat of revealing its contents would have been enough.’
‘The document said that the United States Army would stop short of Baghdad. Qusay Hussein would provide the whereabouts of his father Saddam Hussein and his brother Uday Hussein. The two of them would be arrested or killed along with various other members of the regime. In exchange Qusay Hussein would be allowed to take over power in Iraq. The United States would not object if he became President for his lifetime. In addition the United States and the United Kingdom would raise no objections if Qusay’s son were to succeed him as President in the future.
‘In exchange the American and British oil companies would be given a license to operate the Iraqi oil industry and profit from the oil reserves of Iraq with a fifty percent stake in the current assets and a sixty percent stake in any further fields developed.
‘The United States would also be permitted to maintain a military base including nuclear weapons close to the border with Iran.’
Gerry stared open-mouthed at Tabitha for ten seconds or more and then slowly shook her head. ‘I don’t fucking believe it! Shit! How do you know?’
‘I read it. I read Ali’s translation and I read the original, or rather the photocopy that Hakim Mansour gave to Ali.’
‘But was it genuine?’
‘How could I tell? I assume the signatures were genuine but how could I tell?’
‘You mean it was signed by…’
‘Yes, and with that seal attached and also by the one from your country, who struts about the world and proclaims a clear conscience despite the thousands of deaths and the mayhem in my country.’
‘No wonder that people have died.’
‘Yes I can understand why. It would prove very embarrassing.’
‘But what happened to the photocopy that Mansour made,’ Gerry asked. ‘What happened to it after you read it? Rashid told me it was still buried in the garden.’
‘I wish I could help you,’ said Tabitha. ‘I left it buried in the garden as Rashid described. Perhaps Ali disclosed where it was and someone found it. Perhaps when he was in prison or when he was working for Qusay Hussein when the war began. Maybe someone dug it up by chance. I’ve no idea where it can be now. I’m sorry.’ She paused, and then stared at Gerry.
‘There is one thing that I have found curious about your story; why did they let you live? Why did they just send you to prison?’
Gerry shook her head. ‘I really don’t know.’
They were both silent for a while and then Tabitha asked ‘What will you do now?’
‘I will go back to the United States and tell them that I have found the Gilgamesh document and it is hidden in a safe place. I will describe what it says and tell them that if they harm anyone associated with it, you and your family or me or my daughter, then it will be published on the internet. I will demand freedom for Dan Hall.’
‘How will that work, if it is lost?’
‘But it isn’t lost is it Tabitha. If some stranger had come across the document then they wouldn’t have left behind your husband’s passport and one thousand seven hundred US Dollars in cash for his safe passage. You took the Gilgamesh document away and you have it hidden somewhere safe.’
She reached inside her pocket and placed Ali Hamsin’s passport and the money on the table. Tabitha put her hand to her mouth and stared at her wide eyed. Gerry suddenly realised that she was scared of her and what she might do to get the document.
‘I’m going to leave now,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to cause you and your family any more distress.’
‘No wait. I have something which should help you.’ Tabitha hastened from the room and returned a couple of minutes later clutching a sheaf of paper. ‘This is a transcript of Ali’s Arabic translation which he made for Mansour. He wrote it out with pen and paper, but this is a typed version. It will perhaps persuade them that the original is available. Before I give it to you I want to say something to you.’
‘Ok, go on.’
‘Don’t let your life become one of killing and revenge, and then further killing. I think you are a very unhappy woman. Pursuing your enemies will bring you no peace or happiness. If you kill them then you will create more enemies and you would never have an end to it. If the man who took my husband from me were here in this room then I would spit on him but I would let him live.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
General Robert Bruckner finished reading the report written by Jasper White. It stated that he had arrived at the Hamsin house in Baghdad the evidence suggested that after an exchange of shots, Tate and Hall had killed Parker and Samms. Hall had also been shot and White had taken him to the US Embassy base for treatment. Gerry Tate had disappeared. Hall had informed White that they had failed to find the Gilgamesh documents. Tate had been wounded, but he did not think it was severe. After she had recovered it was a fair assumption that she would be seeking revenge.