she was the daughter of the base’s general and because he did not find her very attractive, he preferred to stay away from her.
However, that changed entirely that day: he had just slipped into the next building, a storage room, to escape from the angry lieutenant at his heels, when all of a sudden she was standing right in front of him. It was as if she had appeared out of thin air.
"You are Yasin“, she stated matter-of-factly and looked him over with her mocking pale blue eyes.
"Yes“, he replied and wanted to turn around to get away. "I am Clara and I have watched you.“ "So what?“, he asked grumpily. He did not like the fact that of all people the daughter of the general showed an interest in him.
He was used to girls watching him and if he liked them as well, he was never reluctant to a flirt. However, from this young lady he wanted to abscond as fast as possible.
In that moment she said: "You study the soldiers on their training and like that you learn. I watched you repeating the exercises. Which by the way are very impressive …“
Rayan was alarmed. He felt caught. This could cause him a lot of trouble. And trouble as well as attention were the last two things that he needed. "Don’t worry, I am not going to squeal on you. I am not allowed to participate in anything around here either. It’s a man’s world! Pah! I am 17 years old and waste away my life on this base, which is in the middle of nowhere… Listen! I want to propose a deal to you: you teach me some of your tricks and I help you to improve your English.“
At first he hesitated but Clara made it clear to him - not really in a charming way - that he had no choice.
And just like that a deep friendship grew out of a little blackmail.
It was strange for Rayan to have a female friend. Most likely because of his young age, all he had been interested in so far was sex when it came to relationships with women.
From childhood onwards, the girls from his tribe grew up separately. They did not participate in the boys’ exercises and their education was also separate. Did they even have classes? If he was honest, he had never cared about it.
Furthermore he had left Zarifa at the age of 13 and therefore had not really had the chance to become interested in the girls from his tribe or their habits.
Clara was so different. Most of all she was emancipated.
God forbid that he should say she was not able to do an exercise because she was a woman. If he did she would get very angry, which he realised made her look really pretty.
However, above all he liked that Clara Tanner was highly intelligent. Through the position of her father she had access to a lot of papers and books, which he devoured with her.
He sponged up all knowledge he could get and along with it his English grew better every day. Quickly he made hardly any mistakes when speaking; it was only with writing that he had a lot of trouble. After having only learned English orally from his grandmother, writing confused him.
In exchange he taught Clara some phrases in German, which he also had learned from his Granny. After a moment to adapt he could speak German fluently, almost without any accent.
"You definitely have a gift for languages“, Clara kept repeating, "you have to exploit that.“
From time to time he had to go for several days into the desert for a guided trip but most of the time he just made short explorations in the closer surroundings. He never heard again anything from the old guide, his predecessor; it was most likely he had not survived his illness. Rayan was well aware of the peril of contaminated water: he never took a chance with an unknown source and would always do careful checks in advance.
In respect of that, he had to thank his education and the teachers in Zarifa, who had provided him with useful skills up to now.
"The lieutenant was at our place for dinner yesterday. He was talking about you“, Clara told him one day in September. "He said it was you who saved the whole troop. My father was very interested. So you are famous now.“ While she said it, she was grinning as she knew that this was exactly what he specifically did NOT want. Yasin never talked about his past, and about his family she knew almost nothing. While they discussed other topics, sometimes for hours, when it came to this one he blocked her out and became silent.
"How do you do it?“ – "How do I do what?“ – "That you know precisely when the weather is going to change … I have been here long enough to know that the big sand storms usually arise suddenly without any warning.“ It was the day before that Rayan had indeed made the troop turn around, because he knew a storm was coming. Some of the soldiers thought that he was crazy, because there was no sign at all to be seen in the sky, but the lieutenant, a blond, chubby Texan, trusted in his abilities and followed his advice. What else was a desert guide good for? They had just reached the city with their vehicles when the storm broke out.
Rayan stared at the ground embarrassed. "I cannot really explain it, you have to believe me. I just know it. It is as if the desert is talking to me …“ He looked up with the expectation that Clara would laugh at him, but instead she just eyed him in her usual calm manner and full of interest said: "Tell me more about it.“
"Well“, he stammered. "I was born within the desert, in the middle of a sandstorm. My parents were travelling when the storm unexpectedly and quickly started. They took shelter between some huge rocks. It was in this “break” that I came into the world three weeks early”, he smiled awkwardly. He did not like to talk about his past but then again he knew that all his secrets were well kept by Clara.
He thought that this was a strange topic for him to discuss, as the previous day had been his 17th birthday. He had never told Clara the date so she was not aware of it.
"I would very much like to introduce you to my father“, she said out of the blue. Rayan thought he must have misheard: "What?! Are you crazy?!“
"Listen. I just want to finally let them know who I am spending most of my free time with. They are starting to think I am doing something forbidden“, she grinned mockingly. "Just imagine if my father catches us red-handed ...“
"How do you mean? We have never …“, Rayan started to protest. Clara kept on grinning and added: "but we could have. At least my father could come to that conclusion, if he sees us hanging around together so secretively all the time.“
"NO! And that is the end of this discussion!“, Rayan put his foot down firmly.
But some weeks later, of course, she succeeded in persuading him.
2014 – In the desert near Dubai – A horrible discovery
Carina was out of her mind with joy: finally they really were on their way. The caravan moved slowly and sedately away from the starting point into the open desert. How lucky she had been to find Hatem. This just had to be destiny.
She was just rejoicing from the beauty of the sun coming up on the horizon, spreading its colours all over the sand, when they noticed some turmoil further ahead. The other members of the caravan seemed to accelerate their trot.
Soon she saw the reason why: something had been placed directly on the side of the path. Was it some kind of monument? Here in the middle of the desert?
As she came nearer terror grabbed her and she could understand the nervousness of the other riders: it was a human being that was hanging there!
Someone had fixed the man on a wooden frame, which was about two meters high, with the clear aim that everyone passing by had to look at him. He seemed to be dead.
It was a horrible sight! His body was covered in blood, he had been whipped and, additionally, he seemed to have been tortured with a knife. In some places of his body the skin appeared to have been cut and partly peeled away. From these gaping wounds blood was trickling all over.
Carina was stunned by terror and could not stop staring at the grisly scene. Every little detail burned into her brain and she had stopped