Chapter Twenty-six

"Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change--

let them sleep."

- Rumi

Sayid waited to hear Nadia's decision, but he did not hear it from her lips. Instead, three nights later, he awoke to the feel of a barrel pressed against his temple. "Get up," said a cold, masculine voice in Arabic. "Get up now."

He opened an eye to see Nasser kneeling beside him. If Sayid had remained in the caves, this would have been harder for Nasser, but he was back in his beach tent now.

Sayid sat up slowly. He glanced to his left where he had lain his handgun before going to sleep. The spot was empty.

"Where do you think I got this one?" asked Nasser. "Get up silently and move out of the tent."

"Why not shoot me here?" Sayid replied. Nasser must know the sound would immediately reach Sayid's neighbors and send them running. That was why Nasser wanted him to leave the tent, so that he might lead him to some private place to kill him. "I am not moving."

"You are moving now, Sayid, and you will not make a sound. That is, if you want to see Nadia alive."

"What have you done with her?"

The CIA operative dug the barrel harder against his temple. That would leave a mark, if Sayid lived to see it. "This is your last chance. Get up."

Sayid walked, as Nasser directed him, towards the jungle. He thought of turning on his captor, of trying to disarm him, but Nasser was no hotheaded cop. He was CIA, and it would not be easy. Nasser would kill him first, and then…who knew what he would do to Nadia. Sayid must bide his time.

They made their way into the darkened jungle until they reached a small clearing where Nasser had left a fire burning. Nadia sat nearby against a tree, gagged and bound. Sayid's eyes spoke to her, tried to reassure her, but it wasn't fear her countenance was expressing. She seemed sorry she had put him in this situation. "Nadia," he whispered, "Nadia--"

"Silence," order Nasser, pressing the handgun against Sayid's back. "Sit down beside her."

"What do you intend to do?" Sayid asked as he obeyed the command.

"Why the same as you, Sayid. Whatever I want. And damn the consequences."

Kneeling down, Nasser ordered Sayid to turn and place his hands behind his back. Holding the gun with one hand, he bound Sayid deftly with the other. Sayid had never seen a man tie a knot one handed, and when they had built the tent, Nasser had displayed no such skill.

Now Nasser forced Sayid to turn back around and lean against the tree. He stepped back and sat across from the pair of them. "How many times did you take her?" he asked. "She would not tell me."

"And how many times did you betray her with other women?" Sayid asked. It was the wrong question. The CIA agent's eyes flashed fire.

"Do you think that justifies this!" he cried. "Leaving me! For…" He spat on the ground. "For you! An ex-Republican Guard, a torturer, a man who interrogated her, imprisoned her, kept her in a dungeon for over thirty days! For you!"

"Nasser," Sayid said quietly. "If you kill us, where will you go from here? There is no escape from this island."

"I will find my own way. I know how to survive. I will live in the jungle. They will not find me."

"What kind of life is that?" asked Sayid.

"What other life is available to me? What do you propose? That I live on the beach and pretend to smile while you take my wife into your tent? There are not even fifty people on this island. No one cares for me but Nadia…well, I thought she cared for me. I will be an outcast and a laughing stock. Every breath in this place will be a torment to me."

Sayid did not answer.

"Do you know she is pregnant?" Nasser asked.

Sayid glanced at Nadia, and her face confirmed Nasser's accusation.

"Do you think it is mine?" Nasser asked.

Again Sayid said nothing.

"I think it is yours," he said, leveling the gun at Nadia's womb. "I think the timing matches perfectly with your little search party."

Nadia defensively pulled her knees up against her chest. Sayid opened his mouth to tell Nasser that nothing had happened between them, but Nadia's husband continued, "Do you think I did not know? Do you think I did not know you were searching for her, even before the island?"

"You..." Sayid murmured, his suspicion finally confirmed. He glanced at Nadia and saw her looking at Nasser with disbelief. Apparently, she had not really thought her husband had used Sayid.

"And over these past several weeks," continued Nasser, "do you think I did not see the way you looked at her, or the way she looked at you?" The firelight flickered, bringing Nasser's twisted scowl in and out of sight. "I am a trained interrogator, too, Sayid. I can read people as well as you."

Sayid could hear Nadia's breath coming in slow rasps against the gag stuffed in her mouth.

"I knew," said Nasser. "and I was willing to tolerate it. I thought she was angry for what I had done to her. I supposed she deserved her revenge. I thought she would tire of you in a few weeks. But then," he looked now at Nadia, his eyes growing dark, "then she comes to me, my wife, and tells me she will leave me for…for you."

Sayid's eyes were drawn back to Nadia's, but there was still no fear, only sorrow. He could see she pitied Nasser. Even now, even with her life at risk, she pitied him and longed for his redemption.

Nasser crept forward and forced Nadia's knees down, pushing her legs against the ground. He aimed the gun at her womb. "Perhaps I should kill your lover's child."

Sayid knew Nasser would not believe him if he insisted the child could not possibly be his. So instead he said, "You will kill her too. Is that what you want? Is that the man you want to become? She hoped in you, even when you gave her no reason to hope. She believed in you, even when you gave her no reason to believe. Is this how you will repay her?"

Nasser lowered his eyes. He pulled away the gun. He sat back onto the ground and began to rub his eyes, his temples. "I cannot turn back now," he mumbled. "I can only grow worse." But at least he took the gun, pulled back the slide, and ejected the live round from the chamber. He flipped up the safety and put the gun in the back of his pants. He left the spent bullet lying on the ground, rose, and disappeared into the jungle.

Sayid waited until he could no longer hear Nasser's footsteps retreating deep into the foliage, and then he called for help.