By Light Alone Read Online Free PDF Page A

the head of security said, bowing to each of them in turn, and then shaking their hands, one after the other. ‘My name is Captain Samira Afkhami, and I am head of hotel security.’
    ‘What?’ said George, meaning what’s going on? and meaning what’s happened to my daughter? The truth was he felt so discombobulated by the wine and the day’s dissipations that none of this felt real enough to pierce his bubble. ‘What?’ he said again, as if whatishness was the only concept his head could hold.
    ‘Please to sit down.’
    ‘I will not sit down!’ Marie cried, striking a blow against tyranny with her words. ‘You must tell me what has happened.’
    ‘Your daughter has disappeared.’
    The phrase, already uttered several times, still made no real impact upon George’s consciousness. He flicked the touchscreen of his memory, and a variety of possible responses scrolled past. What he said was: ‘When?’
    Captain Afkhami looked at the large-nosed man. ‘ Saat kaç ?’
    The man gawped at her, and said something rapidly. The captain then apologized on his behalf. ‘This man thinks he is Irani, but he is Turk, and cannot understand me correctly if I speak Farsi to him.’
    ‘What?’ said George, again.
    ‘He insists on Farsi, but it is a sham,’ said the captain.
    ‘I don’t understand,’ said Marie. ‘I don’t know what you’re saying.’
    ‘There is no need for you to alarm yourself, Madam,’ the captain said. And to the other man, she spoke rapidly: ‘ Az un khosh am nemiyad, agha. Sa’at chand e ?’ When he did not reply, she turned to George, ‘I am asking him the time your daughter disappeared. He claims to understand Farsi, but you see the result. This shows that he is a sham. Rest assured, al though there remain many Turks in this area. Nevertheless Ararat province is firmly under the legal authority of the Iranian Judicial system.’
    The other man began to say something but the captain cut him off. ‘ Gom sho! Gom sho! ’ This seemed to mean ‘get out’, for the fellow drooped his head and left the office. ‘We do not need him ,’ said the captain, to nobody in particular.
    The horrible, yawning sense that something genuinely bad was awry in his life was percolating into George’s numb sensorium. The fear of something that money and influence could not simply undo. He directed his fuzzy gaze towards Arsinée, in the corner. ‘Arsinée,’ he said. ‘Where’s Leah?’
    ‘I don’t know, sir,’ she said, sob-tremulously.
    ‘What do you mean you don’t know?’
    Arsinée responded with two deep, shuddery breaths and a fresh outflow of tears. The captain, slapping the palm of her hand upon the surface of her desk, said: ‘It is a deeply regrettable situation! It is ! Beyond all, and at the beginning, permit me to express the hotel management’s deep regrets.’ She stopped, felt her own chin as if reassuring herself that it was still there, and added: ‘I must also, for legal reasons, say: regrets is not an admission of liability or apology. I trust you understand what I mean.’
    ‘I don’t understand what you mean,’ said Marie, fiercely. ‘I don’t at all.’ In response to the ferocity in her mistress’s voice, Arsinée’s sobbing grew louder.
    ‘Why do you go on after that manner?’ asked George, with a sort of stupefied slowness. ‘Why don’t you just tell us where our daughter is?’
    ‘I answer your two questions from last to first,’ said the captain. ‘I do not tell you where you daughter is, and it is because I do not know. I stress the nature of the legal authority because you must know this, in terms of your possible legal redress, and such is complicated.’
    ‘How can it be complicated?’ flashed Marie. ‘You either know where she is or you don’t.’
    ‘It is complicated because of the region,’ said a new voice. Away in the far corner of the long room a heavy-looking man was wedged in an elegant chair. They hadn’t even realized he was