THE SPANISH REVENGE (Craig Page series) Read Online Free PDF

is likely to be involved. He’ll interrogate you. Force you to divulge the location of our base and who else is involved. All will be lost.”
    Musa delivered his warning in a stern voice.
    “If necessary, I’m prepared to die for the cause,” Ibrahami said.
    “And you, Kemal?” Musa asked.
    “Why do you need two of us to do the job?”
    “We’ve been over that. One to set and detonate the bomb. The other to drive the get-away vehicle.”
    “Ibrahami could easily do it all himself.”
    Musa felt a surge of resentment against Kemal, the coward. Afraid and unwilling to die for the objective of the Spanish Revenge. Though Musa kept his anger in check, he realized he couldn’t risk sending someone like that on an important mission.
    Musa looked at Ibrahami. “Could you do it all?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
    He reached into his pocket, took out a key and handed it to Ibrahami. “It has the number of the locker in the train station. Close to where tickets are sold.”
    As the meeting broke up, Musa asked Omar to remain behind. When they were alone, Musa said, “Watch Kemal. I don’t trust him.”
    Omar nodded and left. Alone, Musa paced again. He was worried that he had made a mistake letting Kemal live. Perhaps he was being too lenient because of their history.
    Once there were three boys in Clichy: Ahmed, Omar, and Kemal. Only twenty five years ago. It seems like eons.
    That was the only world Ahmed had ever known until Madam Cohen, his math teacher, discovered when he was twelve that he had a remarkable gift for mathematics. Despite his father’s opposition, Madam Cohen arranged a scholarship for Ahmed to attend an elite private school in Paris. Riding a train home in the evening meant enduring the taunts and fists of neighborhood boys. Omar and Kemal were his only friends. Each night he went home bloodied and bruised. Life was unbearable until a vicious sixteen-year-old bully came after with him with a baseball bat and the cry, “I’ll murder you, traitor.” In the twilight, Ahmed knew he meant it.
    A circle of neighborhood kids rapidly formed around the two of them. Ahmed realized only one would walk away alive. In front of the circle, he heard Omar shout: “Kill him, Ahmed.”
    The bully was bigger and stronger, but Ahmed was faster. Each time the bully swung, Ahmed ducked. He reached to the ground, grabbed a handful of pebbles and tossed them into the boy’s eyes. His adversary blinded, Ahmed grabbed the bat. Savagely, he smashed it against he bully’s ribs knocking him to the ground. Then he pounded away at the bully’s skull, again and again, unleashing the frustration of long weeks of misery, until the bully stopped moving. Horrified, other boys pulled Ahmed away, still holding the baseball bat.
    They left the bully’s dead body on the ground. An hour later, the police came and made only a perfunctory investigation. A code of silence of the neighborhood held. No one told the police what happened. From that day on, Ahmed carried the baseball bat with him to and from the train to school. No one ever bothered him again.
    Thinking about the private school, he immediately saw Nicole, so young, so beautiful, the blonde hair cascading alongside her strikingly beautiful white face. Between classes and the study, they slipped into the woods near the school and kissed. His first love. His only love. The gold cross around her neck. She was afraid to tell her parents about him.
    When he graduated from private school, Madam Cohen, who had followed his progress, arranged a scholarship to Columbia University. He traveled around the United States. Saw how Americans hated him and all Muslims because of 9/11. Their bigotry and hatred made him glad it happened.
    But not everyone despised him. In New York, those knee-jerk liberals saw him as the dark-skinned Muslim poster child from the Paris slums. They pretended to love him. It made them feel better.
    He abandoned engineering for