Chayton stood and reached over my shoulder to shut the laptop down. "We'll get to this later." Sliding one arm under my legs, he wrapped the other around my shoulders and picked me up like I was a feather.

As he walked over to the bed, he whispered in my ear. "You have already helped me through some difficult issues. You stood by me at Chidi's rock as we said goodbye. Something my own father and grandfather said frequently, was take care of those you love. Tell them often how much you love them, and most importantly, no matter how angry you are, or what has upset you, talk to each other and settle the matter."

I wrapped my arms around his neck as he let me slide my feet to the floor. "Will Maurice and his horrid behavior ever leave me alone?"

He said, "I wish I could tell you yes. Seeing you struggle with the aftereffects of his abuse, hurts me as much as it does you. But you know as well as I do, trauma healing happens in cycles. There will always be events, scents or a sound which brings it back full force. Each time there is something to learn from it, and once you figure it out, you can put it away again."

"I've listened to enough victim statements to know. You'd think I would apply the knowledge to me, but I can't." I yawned. "I can't believe how easily I got sleepy. I guess my body knows what I need. They say sleep is when your body heals."

"Lay down. I'll be right there with you. I stayed up most of the night watching you. At least now with the fever broken, I can relax. We'll grab a nap, and then see what is on the room service menu."

"Mmmm, sounds good." I felt him snuggle up behind me and his arm settled over my waist. "I'm putting Maurice back in his box and locking him away. I know he's there, but until next time, he's banished."

"Yeah, we'll keep him there for longer each time."

As I drifted into sleep, I had a brief thought of Maha and her misguided choices. Justice here would likely be swift and final. Hopefully, I would find more of the missing women on our list before everything disappeared because of the Emir's judgement.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It turned out we didn't bother with room service. The sandwiches and soup still in the fridge were more than enough. Some of them were little more than finger food on tiny rounds cut from a loaf of French breads.

As I finished eating, I used my cell phone to contact the number Ishira gave me for the Domestic Aide Agency.

Speaking with their receptionist, I set up a viewing appointment, and left her with a list of the type of help I wished to procure. We agreed on a lady's maid, and housekeeper and several general labor types for menial tasks directed by the housekeeper.

"Do your contracts allow for movement outside this country? I would like to take some of them back to our country to work in our dwellings there as well."

I didn't get a satisfactory answer from her. She told me I would have to discuss this with the agent I was meeting.

I thanked her for her help and hung up. Step one accomplished. Chayton crooked his finger at me, and I went over to join him where he was chatting with Edith in a Zoom meeting.

After introducing me to her, she explained the objective of the rescue mission which would raid the Domestic Aide Agency. I would wear glasses with a camera with a Wi-Fi Bluetooth connection to the internet. This would give an accurate visual record of the women, and perhaps even men who were captives there. The rest was up to two teams of special ops military specialists. One from the Rangers and the other was Delta Force.

As soon as the interview was over, and I signed the contracts to employee my new help, I would come back to the hotel. Delivery was never an issue because our citizens would be evacuated by their rescuers.

Chayton and I were to leave for the base immediately afterward.

"Edith," Chayton interjected. "I will deliver Alyana to her appointment in the rental car we have. I was planning some covert observations of the compound. The agency has quite a large property, and there maybe guards and other obstacles. Perhaps a second set of glasses for me, as well to record intel for the rescue teams."

"I'll have the Delta Force team lead contact you. Expect delivery of your equipment to your hotel room later this evening. Alyana, use the excuse of reading glasses to put yours on once you arrive in your interview. You'll use the ones with the Christian Dior designer frames. Quite elegant, I assure you."

"Will we leave for home right after?" I asked.

"Yes. No need for any further contact. The Emir is aware but will deny knowledge of the operation. He walks a tight balance between acceptable world standards, and traditional Islamic Sharia Law. And he is trying to modernize his country into something more easily approved of by western nations. We want to encourage and aide him in his endeavours." Edith sounded tense.

"We will do our best to get the information you need," I told her. "I know there must be several of missing persons from our lists and I have no doubt there will be others from all over the world. I hope our guys can get them all out."

"They are targeting the Americans, but hopefully they will take as many as they can safely get out."

I winced and Chayton squeezed my hand under the table. Reality was our citizens were who we were here to help. Our government would decided who else needed to know.

We said our goodbyes and I leaned back in my chair. "Do you think we can pull it off?"

"You did amazingly well at the gala. And scored a huge break in the case for us. Discovery of two missing girls working as serving staff is already a success. I'm not sure how we'll get them out of there. You'll do just fine."

"I'm wondering, should I wear a hajib? And perhaps a veil? And can we find them here in the hotel?"

"Brilliant Alyana. Yes, I'm sure we can find them here."

I went into the bathroom and found the medication containers. Shaking my pills out, I returned to find Chayton pouring tea and adding honey to it.

"Is there water around? I need to take these." I showed him the pills.

"Right. Bottles in the fridge. How are you feeling?"

"Much better. I think by appointment time, I'll be pretty much over this."

Chayton put the teacups on the table, and I found the distinctive green Perrier bottle.

"I wish we could take the whole operation out." I drank nearly half of my water and slipped another sandwich out from under the plastic wrap.

"You and me both. We'll have to take what we can get."

He put a covered glass bowl down in front of me and I raised an eyebrow.

"Yogurt."

"You remembered. Thank you!"

"And a spoon." He handed it to me.

I popped the lid of the dish and dug in. Totally different from the gelatin infused diet options in our stores at home.

"Is that honey in there?"

"Probably. They generally use it to sweeten it here."

Maybe I really would be better by the appointment time.