Chapter LV. In The Wrong Year

The stagecoach made its way back to the main market, before reaching a small roundabout, it had to go north along the ramp, but the groom turned right up the street between the houses.

-The road is not from here, said Robert

-She pulled her hand to his: Calm down

-Robert: Are you sure they will not hurt us?

-With confidence, she said: He will not hurt us; he will not hurt me at least.

-His eyes widened, “Excuse me, what?”

-She grabbed his hand again: I will not let him hurt you.

He is schizophrenic, this is how he was diagnosed with the CIA, and his schizophrenia is his strength, he comes out of a personality, directly impersonating a new one, a completely different one, which he experiences as if he had in it for his whole life. This is every professional agent’s strong point, but it comes at such a high price that it in many cases often ends up in a whiff of insanity.

Therefore, they must be monitored and psychologically evaluated on a periodic basis. The last thing the agency wants is a suicidal agent with a message exposing many secrets, or a biased towards their opponents, or a madman circling the streets babbling from here and there.

It takes its responsibilities towards them, these people suffer a lot, and the more they train, the more they work, the more professional they become, and the crazier they are.

But there was something different about him, which Alex did not miss.

Not that schizophrenia that she knew; When sitting with him, talking to him, all the paper reports seem as if they were written about a different person, as if deep down another person about whom no one knows anything yet, and as if all these characters he played are one character as if everything grows from inside him.

What she was most concerned about is whether he is honest in being an intelligence agent, or is it a role he plays, as are the dozens of roles he played and plays for the agency.

Many doubts revolve around him, officers were unable to manage him, and deal with him. The agency changed the liaison officer with him every few months, he is somewhat out of control, but at the same time, it is unable to terminate his services.

The closer the agency got to making that decision, the more he did something that made them stick to it more, creative, distinct, and innovative, that we cannot easily let go of.

Until Alex arrived, the only liaison officer he had worked with for years. His condition stabilized, he was no longer that mysterious brawler, she understood him completely, she threw all the reports, papers, and opinions behind her back, and dealt with him directly, without barriers.

He was not simply pretending, he was not acting, he was really him. Every character he played, every lie he lied, every mess he made, it was him, without acting.

And he said to her, they are all composite characters. If you look at each character, you will find something that connects them to the other, that they are like cubes, I build them on top of each other, I do not play them. What you need is to look at the details, and you will find a fine thread connecting them.

He trusted her, and so did she. She became his friend, perhaps the only one in this world until Katrina entered his life.

She knows nothing of what happened to him lately, but she knows that man deep inside him at the bottom of the pyramid of the cubes, “he will not hurt me, I trusted him before, I trust him today, his chivalry will not accept treachery, not of this kind, he will not do it”.

Between the palaces, they were exposed in the open, without the curtain of overcrowding. This road was not usually taken by tourists, nothing here but closed palaces, and luxurious homes, far from the market, just off the main road from the hill to the shore, two electric vehicles among all the vehicles, turned right behind them.

Moments later, he turned right, and stopped in a side alley of the road, just behind him, the two vehicles stopped, and then continued on, they were no longer visible.

There was pandemonium, men shouting in Turkish.

The groom went round the alley around the building back to the main road, came out of an alley beyond, and on the way, they saw the hammer team, lying on the ground, surrounded by several policemen.

He passed by them back to the market, Alex looked straight at them, recognized them, the hammer and someone else were not between them, she did not say a word.

The police grabbed two small bags of white powder in their hands, which they took out of the two vehicles, and pistols the drivers had.

The groom said: poor them, they will spend a long time in prison, drugs, and weapons!

-He looked at Alex: We have nothing to do with weapons.

Looking back, he said: As for drugs, they should have searched their vehicles before they could be rented.

He laughed out loud.

He turned to her: Madam, do you carry any weapons?

Alex: No

He turned in a side alley, then stopped at the door of a house: Come on, he is waiting for you inside.

The two dismounted and entered the house, a small yard, and then stairs up, the door opened by itself as soon as they got there.

The servant: From here, please.

They walked behind him into a large hall, and Robert poked Alex’s hand, whispering to her: It was him, the same servant in the mystical angle.

she looked up at him, she wanted to say, is this what concerns you in the midst of all that is going on around us!

In the hall, he sat on a luxurious sofa, looking at them, smiling…

Without any introductions, not even a word of welcome, he spoke.

-How did you know you had to ride the stagecoach up the hill?

Alex: I follow what most people do. Gone with the Wind.

Laugh, then laugh more

She just repeated his words, he always said to her, When I do not know what to do, I go with the wind, I let it takes me where it wants.

Alex: Strange, I searched yesterday for the Princesses Island, I read some news that the stagecoaches have been permanently canceled since 2020! I was surprised by their presence today.

Baibars: It would be a wrong decision because, despite the stench of their dung, tourists love them.

He took a breath from his cigarette and puffed it

He said: They exist because they have not abolished them yet. We still have one year left.

It is just that you think we are in the wrong year.