Time Sensitive Target

Part 21 - Necessary Lies

It's a strange thing when you realise you've just betrayed yourself with your own lack of control. The fumbling cognisance dawned on me too late, I knew my expression had already revealed enough to water the seed of suspicion Jase had probably long been nurturing. And yet... I had no recovery. I willed myself to say something. Anything. The silence in the room was deafeningly loud, I had to deflect and salvage what I could from this situation but I couldn't make my brain work. 

"Paige?" Jase leaned forward across the table, his eyes narrowed. Under the cover of the surface Ant placed a cold palm on my forearm, giving it a gentle but purposeful squeeze. Wake the fuck up. 

"I'm sorry, it's been a long day. I've been feeling... dizzy on and off. I think it was the sleeping pill," I rubbed my eyes and sniffed sharply as though I was trying to wake myself up. I was more than awake now. Adrenaline was coursing through me, but I couldn't let it show.

"It has been a long day," Rob spoke wearily behind me. Had they noticed? 

"Sure, just... take a look at this and let me know if it means anything to you," Jase's approach was casual, yet I knew he was resolute.

"Mm," I pretended to survey the words again, untidy cursive Arabic shakily scrawled across the page. "I don't think so... I can't be sure. I mean I could have seen it... maybe?" I did my best to appear as if I was wracking my brain for any recollection of the words. 

"What does it say?" Jase leaned back in his chair, coolly unperturbed. This is what he does. Don't be deceived. 

I exhaled through my lips and practiced a baffled expression. 

"I can't really... make it out," I peered closer at the writing. "That word is 'the', that one says 'will'... so does that one too. I'm not sure... what does it say?" I looked up to Jase, making my eye contact direct and instantly regretting it. Had I made direct eye contact at all today? Was that giving me away? Was I trying too hard to appear as though I knew nothing?

"You can't translate it?" Jase tipped his head slightly as he stared straight back at me. 

"Sorry," I shook my head. Jase rummaged through a folder and pulled out papers, the pages of text examples I'd been identifying earlier. 

"That's strange. Because you translated all of the words in this sentence in these excerpts earlier."

His statement unfurled a fog of hostility throughout the room. Ant grasped the back of my chair with a firm hand, ready to whisk me out. 

"I... sorry, I suppose it's difficult if the context of the sentence is different..." My hands trembled under the table. Fuck. 

"I thought you didn't know what the sentence said," Sonny's boot was still against the wall, one knee pointed forwards in the same direction his glare was shot- squarely at me. "So how do you know if the context is different?" 

"Sorry, maybe the handwriting is-"

"Do you want to try again? Or shall I tell you what it says?" Jase bowed his head marginally so his line of sight was level with my own. His green gaze was unblinking, and unforgiving. He didn't wait for an answer as he slid the page back towards himself and scrawled a translation underneath the words.

قريباً سيكون الوقت الذي سيعرف فيه العالم

Soon will be the time when the world will know

He read the words aloud, and pushed the paper back to me. 

"Does that phrase mean anything to you Paige? What was in the box underneath?" Jase asked patiently and deliberately. My palms were slippery with sweat.