The Caliphate by André Le Gallo

Author:André Le Gallo [Le Gallo, André]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: D Street Books, a division of Mountain Lake Press
Published: 2021-05-02T22:00:00+00:00

25. Aéroport de Tombouctou

On Thursday, Hussein went with Karim, the driver, to welcome the Salafist leaders. Hussein saw a tired, rumpled and short-tempered group.

One of the new arrivals looked in the van and, looking toward Hussein and Karim, said with an Egyptian accent, “There was no water on the plane and now you have no water for us. Can things get worse?”

Neither Hussein nor Karim replied.

The promising outline of the Hôtel Atlantide prompted the Egyptian to say, “At last, a place to stretch out and have something to drink.”

But Karim continued past the hotel and about a mile out of town to a high-walled structure.

Hussein, who sat on Karim’s right up front, turned to the men in back of him and said, “That’s where we’re staying. Not far from town and very secure. We have it to ourselves.”

“I’m sure we do,” said Talal Kawar, who had identified himself to Hussein as the Jordanian Ikhwan chief. He wore black pants, a blazer and an ascot. His shiny black hair was combed straight back. The scent of his cologne wafted throughout the vehicle.

“It was built and used by the French Foreign Legion,” Hussein said. “It was ceded to the Malian Army after independence.”

The fort was the same color as the sand that surrounded it. On one side grew several tall palm trees creating shade for a small group of blue-clad Tuaregs sitting on the ground while their camels looked haughtily down at the world. A solid black flag with no design was waving in the intermittent breeze from the top of a crenellated tower rising from an inside courtyard. The tower and its flag dominated the external walls in the style of medieval castles. A massive front gate and a row of vertical slits about halfway up were the only openings in the fifty-foot-high wall.

Karim took the new arrivals to their rooms. These had uniformly high ceilings, with one small barred window about fifteen feet above the floor. The furniture consisted of a cot with a burlap-covered straw mattress, a chair, and a small desk, on top of which was a carafe of water and a plastic glass. Down the narrow corridor were a common toilet and a separate washroom with several large jars of water.

Tariq greeted each of the delegates as they came into the former military fort and, during the rest of the afternoon, visited with them individually. Everyone took note that al Khalil took a brief walk in the courtyard with Ibrahim El Maghrebi, the Algerian AQIM leader, before taking him to his room.

He asked Hussein, “Have somebody bring us some tea. I want to share some of our financial realities with my brother Ibrahim.”

***

At sunset, they all came together for prayers after which they broke up into informal groups until dinnertime. They prayed again at nightfall. Everyone was awaiting the next day, Friday, when Tariq would give the khutbah, or sermon.

Steve and Hank also waited for the khutbah that would give Karim his chance to steal the phone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.