15:05
Ad-Dakhla, Western Sahara
Kid and Nikov took their own map and traveled there, at least with Arabic script "Southern Morocco". They understood the sensitivity of their trip since Morocco has always rejected the Polisario, a militant group demanding for independence from Morocco. Having helped the SEALs and Saudi Force to capture Ahmad Al-Salih, they just wanted to stay alone and to figure out how the money of the Saudi millionaire could be spent for.
Kid distrusted the Moroccan authorities, but neither he trusted the Polisario officials. Meanwhile, Kid's own Mesopotamian Arabic conflicted with Moroccan Darija, so he had to take a moment to understand what the Moroccans said. And he was asking a local cleric.
"هل أنت متأكد من المسجد؟ هل هو آمن؟" (Are you sure about the mosque? Is it safe?)
"بالتأكيد ، أصدقاء أمريكيون. المسجد على ما يرام لا أحد في الداخل ، ولا يزال مفتوحًا." (Sure, sure, American friends. The mosque is quite okay. No one is inside, and it is still opening.)
"Alright, thanks."
Kid switched between English and Arabic several times. They just stood in front of a local mosque, painted in lighter white. The Annasr mosque, yes, was their location.
Kid could not speak Moroccan Darija in spite of his fluency in Arabic, so he had to try with several dialects closely to Moroccan, such as Egyptian and Sudanese. Unlike Spanish, Arabic is more complicated since Arabic speakers tend to be more isolated unlike Spanish one.
"I hate this kind of Arabic."
"(No problem. Just head in and ask for the man.)"
Inside the mosque, a local cleric arrived. He welcomed Nikov and Kid warmly, with his fluency in English impressed them.
"Welcome, foreigners. What are you doing here?"
Impression was not the only. Kid and Nikov took a bit risk to see the option from the onward. Kid replied politely.
"We come in peace. May Allah guide you."
"So, what take you there?" The cleric, who dressed like a local Iranian mullah but actually not Iranian, smiled.
"Sir, so ... do you know about ... Ahmad Mohamad Al-Salih?"
The cleric, this time, turned eyes on. The name of the millionaire turned to be important on keeping Kid and Nikov to the run, but surely it was not the end.
"I guess you talk about ... the millionaire?"
"How do you know he is rich?" Kid caught up from the eyes: "How?"
The cleric, standing in calmness, realized the need to provide reality over the activities of the Saudi millionaire and his fair connection. Also, he was quite pure by the eyes, so he knew the reason of the appearances of Kid and Nikov there.
"I guess ... your other reason, is to investigating the money laundering of Ahmad Mohamad?"
"So ... you are ..." Kid got surprised.
"I'm a member ... of the Polisario."
Kid and Nikov were all stunned. Stunned to meet a member of the Polisario group, a resistance group fighting against Morocco, right in the city that under Moroccan control. It assumed that, Polisario has more men in the region even though 75% of the region is now under Moroccan.
The cleric honesty, wearing in black of the ayatollah, quite contradicted to his activities, hence less people knew his real life. Kid and Nikov asked the name of the man.
YOU ARE READING
The Lost List
ActionA series full of drama, tense by pressure, two men, who have chosen to disappear for two years, have decided to resurrect again. And they embark for a new journey of their own, to find out the last, and to finally close their chapter. Yet, it turns...
