Previously on PHOENIX… Regina, kidnapped and brought to the Banks, meets a man named Ahmed Karib who claims to have information about her mother. He tells Regina how he knew her mother and where she might have disappeared to.
Ahmed resumed his story where he’d left off when he’d heard from Regina’s mom for the first time in years.
“In her letter, she reminded me who she was, as if I would have forgotten her. She mentioned your father, but only in passing.”
He paused.
“Most of all, she mentioned you. She said you were so clever, so inquisitive.”
Regina felt her throat tighten. Her mother’s words. No one ever spoke of Regina’s mother knowing her. It was as if they had existed in parallel planes, just barely touching. All Regina was left with was a passing feeling, a vague memory. She had never let herself imagine that her mother knew her. A version of herself that felt like another person. A clever girl, with a loving mother. A version of herself that was so incongruous with reality.
Ahmed continued. “She then asked me to help her disappear. She said how much she loved you, how much she didn’t want to leave you, but she said that if she didn’t leave, she was going to say.”
Regina couldn’t meet his eyes, the blatant pity crossing his face. Her mother thought she was going to die? It seemed hyperbolic, but Ahmed looked far from joking. She hated the fact that her father’s face immediately swam before her eyes. His role in her mom’s disappearance was as opaque as it had always been. Ahmed’s words replayed in her mind.
She said how much she loved you.
She said how much she didn’t want to leave.
But if she didn’t leave, she was going to die.
What could be so monumental that she had to leave? And why couldn’t she have taken Regina with her? Had she not imagined the fate she left for her daughter, one of silent dinners, echoing hallways, a life of emptiness? Or, worse, had she envisioned it all and chose to leave anyway?
“She left the Settlement,” Ahmed said, “as you know, and I helped her find a place to hide. She worked in the factory just like anyone in the Banks, but she helped with my work when she had the time.”
“Why past tense?” Regina cut in. “Where is she now?”
Ahmed dodged her gaze before he said, “That’s where I need your help. I don’t know.”
He had parked the car somewhere in the back of an alleyway and turned to face Regina with a regretful expression. For so many years, her mom had been right here in the Banks, within her reach, and yet was now unreachable. The irony was too much for Regina to bear.
“What do you mean you need my help?” Regina asked. “What can I even do for you?” She was utterly powerless. All she’d had for seven years was her mother’s exact location, and not once had she used that information except to partially ease her peace of mind. Sometimes she’d even convinced herself that it was all an illusion, a cruel trick to appease her, that her mother was well and truly gone and she would never know for certain. It was a pipe dream, a mirage in the desert, a figment of her overactive and underdeveloped imagination. Yet here was confirmation that the years holed up in the Manor hadn’t driven her to insanity after all.
And his last comment. How had he, of all people, lost his mom? How was one to misplace a person? If Regina had been able to keep tabs on her mom, surely someone as well connected and seemingly all-knowing as Ahmed would have figured it out, too.
“The last time I saw your mom was two days ago,” he said, averting her gaze again. Regina wondered if he was expecting her to burst into hysterics. Little did he know that she was a professional at internal implosion. She had averted many a public display of emotion, and she wasn’t going to ruin her streak right now, even when it felt like her world was inverting.
Just hours ago, she had been in the Settlement, comfortably clinging to a new version of herself that would maybe become a successful scientist at Phoenix. She didn’t know which Regina was in the car right now. It wasn’t the one that paced her room night and day, or the one who hacked those computers, or the one she put on for her aunt. Any of those girls would certainly not allow themselves to be kidnapped and taken to the Banks.
“Did you have any idea of your mother’s whereabouts?” Ahmed asked. Regina considered for a moment to tell him about the computers, but instead she said,
“No.”
He looked as if he was expecting a different answer, but Regina kept her face very still.
“Well,” he said, “usually, anyone—Banks or Settlement—can be tracked. Everyone has a security chip in their forearm. Four days ago, she told me she needed to leave. She had to do something, and she needed to be completely off the grid, so she removed her chip. Well, one of my guys did it for her.”
“She just left?” At this point, Ahmed’s unbothered cover seemed to be slipping off. Regina didn’t understand why, but it felt like he was begging her to understand. Justifying himself in a story she didn’t fully understand.
“I am worried about her. She promised she would contact me in two days, but I haven’t heard anything.”
“Where was she going?” Regina asked. Ahmed seemed to be working up to a big ask, but Regina still didn’t know what for. There was still something he was withholding.
He was silent for a second, averting his eyes like before. “I don’t know.” Sensing she was not satisfied with his answer, he continued. “That’s the truth. We fought. She removed her chip without my knowledge and left me a note promising to reach out within two days.”
“She didn’t say when she would be back?”
“No.”
So it was his fault that her mom had disappeared. In this moment, Regina empathized with her mom. This man was clearly infuriating enough to drive someone to disappear.
“Can you just tell me why I am here? I can’t help you with this. I haven’t seen my mom in years.”
Ahmed scrubbed his hand over his face. “I know that. I figured. But you have access to technology that would help me find her.” He grabbed a small device from his pocket. A flash drive. Regina had several in her room, but he didn’t need to know that.
“What is that?”
“It’s called a flash drive. If you plug it into a computer, it will gather the information I need to find your mom.” This was not the type of device she was familiar with. He must have configured it in some way to extract data without notice. And which data? She had thought it was impossible to track someone without their chip. Regina took the flash drive, turning it over in her hands. She would have to look into this when she got home.
“You must plug it into your father’s computer, but he can’t know what you are doing. You can not tell him about this conversation or what I asked you to do. If you do, I will know.”
He didn’t need to include the threat; Regina could hear it in his voice.
That would not be a problem. He grossly overestimated how much she communicated with her father.
“And when I’ve done this? What happens next?” she asked.
“I promise that I will find your mother. And I will arrange your meeting. She’s wanted to keep you out of it, but it’s too late for that.”
Regina felt her heart beat accelerating so fast she couldn’t dwell on the last part of what Ahmed had said. Could this be the way she reunited with her mom? After all these years, the opportunity had stumbled into her path?
She looked up, surprised to find the car parked where they’d begun. Regina hadn’t even noticed that Ahmed had started driving again, too engrossed in his words.
“We will drop you off at your house, and when you’ve completed this mission, tell your new driver. He will contact me.”
Ahmed opened the door before Regina had a chance to ask how he had managed to infiltrate her father’s security or if he knew the woman who had given her the computers, but he had already left the car.
Regina climbed out of the car, Maryam following her. Ahmed returned to the group of his associates, who were engrossed in a very heated game of cards.
“I hope to see you again, Regina,” Maryam said before running to join them.
The imposter driver stood up from the game and handed his deck to Maryam. He and Regina climbed into her father’s car, unlike everything else, not covered in dust.
Regina stared out the window as soon as he started the car, and watched them take the same path in reverse. The sun set, brilliant reds and orange, constructed from memory by scientists who had been alive before the sun started sputtering out after the Great War.
She turned the flash drive over in her palm, wondering what had just happened.
Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoyed this latest installment. If you did, leave a like or a comment! If you want more from Writing by Raya, check out my page for short fiction, book reviews, and more. New chapters of PHOENIX drop every Wednesday!