The Tripoli Mission

taking, the key out of the inside of the door and locked the door from the outside as we left.

  “Tara!” I replied, “Hang onto the key for a few minutes and when we get outside, drop it somewhere.”

  “OK,” Tara replied.

  I started walking down the hall looking and listening for anyone who may be coming to check on the guards. We only walked a few steps to the doorway where the guards had been standing, I looked out onto the balcony into the courtyard and then I looked over at the doorway that led to the stairs and nothing, no one seemed to be around.

  Isis and I walked onto the balcony holding hands with the two girls following, and then over to the stairs. I peaked into the stairwell and it was clear and I couldn’t hear anyone coming up the steps.

  As we entered the stairway, I told Isis to be careful going down the steps with her high heels. She took hold of the stair railing as she went down each step. I am glad no one was around because all we could hear was the clicking of Isis’s high heels all the way to the bottom of the stone steps.

  I peaked into the hallway and looked all around and no one was around. I led Isis out of the stairwell and into the downstairs courtyard and then into the hall to the outer courtyard. I paused at the steps and looked into the open courtyard and it was also clear. I said, “let’s go” as we hurried across the open courtyard and down the steps to the ground level.

  I paused at the door and looked out over the garden lawn and could see no one outside; not a single person. We all hurried down the driveway to the open iron gate and out onto Al Mada Street, where I paused for a minute just outside of the iron gates.

  I was still holding hands with Isis and the two girls were right behind us. I put down my travel bag.

  I said, “girls will you carry my bag down this little stretch of alley for me.”

  “Sure” was their reply as they picked up the bag.

  I looked over at Isis as she watched me reach into my shirt and take hold of one of my 9 mm’s and pulled it out of the holster and took it off safety.

  I turned to Isis and said, “I will feel a little safer once we get a few hundred yards along the alley street.”

  I turned to the girls and said “you stay close to us.”

  “Ok” was their reply.

  There was no one about in the close quarters in the alley and I guess that was normal for the area, but I don’t like dark streets.

  Holding my 9 mm in my hand next to my pant leg, we slowly walked down the alley as I looked from side to side expecting someone to jump out at any second without notice. But, I guess it was my nerves. It only took us a few minutes to walk to the illuminated sidewalks of Omar Mukhtar Street with the high rise white and green building and again I paused at the corner with Al Mada Street.

  Isis and the girls were all standing around me as I put the 9 mm back on safety and slipped it back into the holster inside my shirt.

  “Ok everybody, we can relax now it’s not going to be long before we are out of here.”

  I could see smiles on all of their faces.

  “Ok ladies” as Isis and the girls turned their heads in the direction.

  I pointed down the street.

  “Do you see that lit-up building at the end of the street with all the spotlights,” I replied.

  “Yes” was their reply.

  “That’s where we are going, and it’s only going to take us a few minutes to walk down the street to that building and then around behind the building and get picked up.”

  “Now, don’t worry about the people we are going to encounter on the street, they don’t know you guy’s and to them we are just tourists.’

  “You maybe a little over dressed, but that’s not a problem.”

  I looked all around and no one was near us.

  I said “this is a good place to radio Heather.”

  I pulled the walkie-talkie from my belt and keyed the mike.

  “Heather!” “Do you have your ears on?”

  I paused for a minute.

  I repeated, “Heather!” “Do you have your ears on?”

  It was a few seconds before I heard from the walkie-talkie. “Roger Jimmy.”

  I said, “start moving, we will be at the pickup location in a few minutes.”

  “Ok Jimmy”, was her reply.

  I said, “Ok guys, now remember, you are tourists.”

  I took the travel bag from the girls as it’s more appropriate for the male to carry it out in Arab cultures.

  I squeezed Isis’s hand and said, “it won’t be long now before you and the girls will be out of here.”

  “Good,” was her reply?

  I said, “Ok, let’s go” and with Isis and me hand in hand with the girls in tow behind us, we all started strolling down the lantern lit sidewalk on Omar Mukhart Street towards the Castle Museum which we could see ahead of us in the distance. I could tell that the mood amongst the women had changed to a happier feeling as I could see smiles on their faces as they could see an end coming to their captivity. As Isis and I strolled along the street hand in hand, I could see her making an occasional glance at me with a smile on her face. As we continued to walk along, she leaned over to me and said to me in Arabic, “You’re flirting with me aren’t you”.

  “Yes, I am,” I replied.

  “Why not,” I replied “you’re an attractive woman and very nice to look at.”

  I saw this warm smile come over her face, she squeezed my hand with approval and I saw her look at me again and on her lips she whispered “thank you.” I smiled back and we continued to walk down the street.

  It only took us a few minutes to walk the block to get to the crosswalk at Omar Mukhart and Green Square. As we waited at the crosswalk for the traffic light to change with the other twenty or so people who were waiting to cross the street.

  I turned my head towards Tara and Iset and said to them, “stay close to us girls.”

  I said, “you two girls are very nice to look at, so this is not the time to turn on the charm and pick up any strange young man you see.”

  I turned back to Isis and I feel a rap on my shoulder from both girls and something spoken in Arabic which I didn’t understand. But, I looked at Isis and we both had to laugh.

  As the light changed, Isis and I casually walked across the street hand in hand with the two girls in toe onto Green Square. The girls came up beside Isis as we strolled across Green Square. The girls were amused by a carnival like atmosphere with all the people sitting around on motorbikes, cars and horse drawn carriages and some of the events brought smiles to the ladies faces as we walked over Green Square to the crosswalk directly across the street from the illuminated Castle Museum.

  As the light changed and the traffic stopped, we strolled across the crosswalk that was located in front of the Castle Museum.

  I said, “follow me” as we walked pass the square column with the sailboat atop. We stayed to the left of the balustrade that marks the beginning of the harbor. We followed the castle wall around to the back of the castle next to the harbor.

  It was a beautiful view of the harbor lights from the castle and the moon illuminating the black water in the harbor. As we walked around the castle wall, I could see in the blackness the flying boat bobbing in the harbor water about 10 feet off shore, next to a break in the balustrade along the harbor wall where boats come in and tie up behind the castle.

  There were only a few people walking behind the castle and they were mostly couples. We hurried up to where Heather had parked the flying boat. As we approached the flying boat, I could see the back hatch door open at the back of the plane and Heather appeared in the doorway. She was no more than about 10 feet away from the boat dock steps.

  “Hi Jimmy”

  As Heather tossed a rope to me so I could pull the back of the plane up to the steps, trying to keep the wing pod away from the balustrade and the lantern light poles that dotted the balustrade about every 50 or so feet.

  I looped the rope a
round a post a few times to secure the plane. I stepped down from the castle step and grabbed hold of the handle by the door of the “The Mississippi Goose” as the plane bobbed in the harbor water. With a firm grip on the handle of the flying boat, I helped Isis step down one step on the other side of the doorway and take hold of the other door handle.

  “Tara!” “You’re going to be first to board.”

  As she came closer, I took Tara’s hand and Isis grabbed hold of her daughters arm to steady her on the other side, she put one leg into the plane and then the other and disappeared inside of the plane.

  Iset was second to board the plane. As Isis grabbed the arm of Iset to steady her and I took her hand and helped her as she put one leg inside the plane and then the other as she also disappeared into the plane.

  Last was Isis. I took her hand as she held onto the other handle on the other side of the doorway while she stepped one leg inside the plane and then the other one as she too disappeared into the plane.

  With everybody on board, I untied the rope and tossed it into the doorway and stepped into the plane and pulled the bottom part of the door shut. I grabbed hold of the long 10 foot pole that hangs just inside the door and pushed the back of the plane away from the castle steps.

  I yelled, “Heather, we are clear of the castle steps.”

  I closed the top part of the door and latched it.

  I shouted into the cockpit, “the back door is shut.”

  “Go Heather.”

  I could hear the right engine starting up as I glanced out the right side port window and saw smoke go by the window from the muffler pipe of the engine. Heather pulled away from the castle steps on one engine as she started into a hard right turn out into the harbor. Then, I could hear the second engine starting up and again, I could see smoke going past the window from the muffler pipe as the second engine started. With both engines running, we started gaining speed in the water. I could hear the pitch roar of the engines ramp-up as the plane started to accelerate.

  “Jimmy, get everybody in a seat, we are just about to take off.”

  “Roger, Heather,” I replied.

  Each of the girls had sat down on either side of their mother. So I sat down next to Tara and checked that she had buckled up and she had. Isis was helping Iset, buckle up as she had just completed buckling herself.

  As the plane gained more speed, it’s starting to bounce in the water. We could hear the water splashing against the hull of the plane as we skimmed through the water. There was a big bump and then a few seconds later, a second bump, and I could feel the plane lift out of the water. I looked over at a very concerned mother and two girls.

  I said to Isis and the two girls, “you can relax now, we are airborne” and I could see a smile come over all their faces.

  About that time, I hear Heather shout, “we are airborne.”

  “Roger, Heather,” I replied.

  Heather yells back, “Jimmy, I am going to be doing some low flying to get out of the harbor, so I may be doing a little rocking and rolling for the next few minutes.”

  “Roger, Heather.”

  I thought to myself, that I could tell by the way Heather was flying that we were no more than 20 feet off the deck and she was hot footing it out of dodge.

  As I looked at Isis and the girls, I noticed out of their right port windows behind them that we were passing ships docked in the harbor and I could see the lights along the sea wall.

  I said to Isis and the girls, “Heather is going to be flying low to avoid Libya radar as we get out of the harbor and into open sea.”

  I continued, “she will be doing a little creative flying so expect some maneuvering of the plane.”

  “Don’t be concerned, this is normal flying procedure for her.”

  “Heather was once a fighter pilot so she knows what she is doing.”

  It was only a few minutes later, and then I saw the outer lights on the harbor wall go past as Heather announced, “we are out over the Mediterranean.”

  “Roger, Heather.”

  “Heather!”

  “Yes, Jimmy!”

  “Do you have anything to eat on this plane as we have two starving girls back here?”

  With a laugh in her voice, “Yes Jimmy, I brought a box of goodies,” replied Heather.

  “Look in the top cabinet to the right.”

  I pulled out a box of snacks and set them down by the girls. Their eyes lit up.

  “Help yourselves girls,” I replied as they started fishing around in the box for something to eat.

  It was about 15 minutes later and Heather shouted, “Jimmy we are ok now you can come up front if you want to.”

  While the girls were digging into the snacks, I got up and said, “come up front with me Isis and I’ll introduce you to Heather.”

  We moved up into the cockpit and I had Isis sit down in the co-pilots chair and I sat down in the jump seat behind the pilot.

  I said, “Heather, this is Isis and Isis this is Heather.”

  Heather replied, “Hi Isis” and “Isis responded back to Heather.”

  I said, “Ok Heather where are we going in Egypt?”

  Heather replied, “I have been instructed to take them to Mersa Matruh, Egypt, where there is an Executive Jet waiting to fly them to Cairo.”

  “We don’t have the fuel to make it to Cairo.”

  I could see Isis’s face light up with excitement.

  “Ok,” I replied.

  “How long will it take us to get to Mersa Matruh?”

  “We should be in Mersa Matruh in about 2.5 hours.”

  “So, it’s what 300 + miles to Cairo from Mersa Matruh.”

  “That’s about right Jimmy,” replied Heather.

  I said to Isis, “you and the girls should be home just before midnight.”

  “Good,” replied Isis in broken English with a big smile on her face.

  By this time, the girls were standing in the doorway.

  I said, “Heather meet Tara and Iset.”

  Heather raised her hand and said, “hi girls and they responded back.”

  “Heather, I am going to let you all talk and I am going in the back for a nap.”

  “Roger Jimmy.” I got up from the jump seat and moved past the girls into the back of the plane and sat down in the seat by the bulkhead and relaxed.

  I must have dozed off for a while, because I started feeling myself being gently shaken and hearing “wakeup Jimmy”. As my eyes opened, I looked up to see a smile from Isis.

  Heather said to wake you as we are getting close to landing in Mersa Matruh.

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  I must have sat there for a few minutes as Isis watched me wake up.

  I said, “How are you doing Isis?”

  “I am doing just fine Jimmy,” she replied.

  She leaned over to me and whispered into my ear, “you flirted with me tonight as we walked down the street in Tripoli, now it’s my turn.”

  I could feel the warm presence of her hand as it came over my face and turned my head towards her and she leaned over and we shared a very wet kiss.

  She moved her head up against mine as she slid her arm around my neck to hug me.

  Isis whispered in my ear, “thank you Jimmy.”

  “Thank you for getting me and my daughters out of that place, I will never forget you.”

  As we broke our embrace, she moved her head around to where we were looking each other in the eyes; nose to nose. She looked into my eyes and smiled and gently placed her lips against mine again and gave me another very wet kiss.

  After she kissed me, she pulled her head back and just looked at me.

  At that second, I heard water hitting the bottom of the boat as it was skimming across the water.

  Splash!

  Isis, with her arms around my neck, fell forward into my lap.

  I wrapped my arms around her to keep her from falling and pulled her up against my body. I had one arm
around her back and the second arm around her upper legs with my hand on her bum.

  “Oops” was her reply as she laughed like a school girl.

  All of a sudden gushes of water could be heard hitting up against the bottom of the flying boat.

  The plane shook as we started to de-accelerate in speed and the tone of the engines wind down to a normal roar.

  From the cockpit, I could hear the squeals of Tara and Iset as they jabbered in Arabic to each other with the excitement of the landing.

  “We have landed Jimmy,” yelled Heather.

  “Roger, Heather.”

  I still had my arms around Isis body as she was still looking me in the eyes. I smiled at her and said, “it sounds like the girls are having a good time in the cockpit with Heather.”

  Isis smiled back, “yes it does, doesn’t it, but not as much fun as I am having.”

  “Me too,” I replied.

  As we sat there in our embrace, I slowly moved my hand over both cheeks of her bum. Isis turned her head and looked down at my hand and smiled at me.

  She said, “you must be a bum man.”

  “Yes, I replied and you have quite a nice one.”

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  I leaned over and kissed her again.

  I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “it’s been a pleasure meeting you Isis, a real nice pleasure knowing you; you’re a very beautiful woman, very nice.”

  Isis kept her eye contact with me, smiling at me as I spoke to her.

  “Thank you Jimmy”, was her reply and we kissed again.

  We broke our embrace and stood up from our seats.

  I reached down and took her hand again. Isis looked at me with a big smile and squeezed my hand with approval and walked a few steps to the cockpit.

  The girls were still filled with excited of being in the cockpit while Heather was landing the plane in the greenish/blue water of the bay of Mersa Matruh, Egypt.

  Heather was maneuvering the plane up to the wooden dock.

  I said to Heather, “I ‘ll open the back hatch door and throw them the rope.”

  “Ok Jimmy,” was her reply.

  I let go of Isis’s hand and walked to the back of the plane and opened the hatch door. Some Arab men in suits, most likely from the Egyptian Diplomatic Core, were standing on the dock and I threw the rope to them and they pulled the back of the plane up to the dock. By this time Heather had shut down the engines.

  “Hi, Jimmy,” I looked up and it was Frank.

  “Hi Frank.”

  By this time, Isis, Tara and Iset started slowly moving from seat to seat to the back door of the plane behind me.

  I stepped out onto the dock and shook hands with Frank.

  Isis appeared first in the doorway and I reached down and took her hand and helped her onto the deck. She came right up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Behind her was Tara whom I also helped out of the plane. She also came right up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek as did Iset the second daughter. By this time the Diplomatic Core was all around us; whisking the women away to a waiting limo car for the drive to the Great Circle Airport for the Executive Jet to Cairo. Standing by the car, they all looked back and waved goodbye to Heather and myself.

  Heather said, “come on Jimmy lets sit down in the plane and you can tell me all about the rescue.”

  Heather and I climbed back on board the plane and sat down in a seat at the back of the plane.

  “You know, what’s the first thing I want to ask you Jimmy?”

  “What’s that Heather?”

  “Did you kiss her?”

  “Yes, I confess, I did kiss her several times,” I replied.

  “You dog you” and we started laughing.

  “You always get the women hot for you.”

  “I bet you held hands with her too; didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did, all the way to the Harbor Castle.”

  “You dog you” and we started laughing again.

  “Jimmy, you would charm the pants off a piss-ant.”

  “While you were getting 20 winks, we girls were all talking in the cockpit.”

  “I could tell by the questions Isis was asking about you that the woman had the hots for you.”

  “I bet you told her my life history.”

  “Yep!” “I sure did,” replied Heather.

  “So Jimmy, what happened to the guards?”

  “I shot them with my blow gun and the girls helped me put them in the closet.”

  “I bet those boys are dead my now.”

  “When we got out of Libyan airspace and out over the Mediterranean, I checked in by radio, and told them that we had the women safely on board and we would be in Mersa Matruh in about an hour.”

  It wasn’t 5 minutes later that I received a radio phone patch from the envoy, Isis’s husband wanted to talk to his wife.

  They talked for about a two to three minutes and I guess everybody was happy.

  Frank radioed me about 30 minutes later to tell me that the Egyptian Envoy had walked out of the Libyan meeting and told them in diplomatic language to kiss his ass.

  “So, I bet some people went over to the safe house looking for the women and found the guards in the closet.”

  “I bet those boys are no longer on this earth.”

  From the back of the plane we heard.

  “Hey, Heather!”

  “Hey Jimmy!”

  Frank stuck his head in the back door of the plane.

  “Anyone hungry?”

  “Do you both fancy a late dinner?”

  “Are you hungry Heather?”

  “Yep,” replied Heather.

  “Me too,” I replied.

  “Are you paying Frank?”

  “Air Rescue is paying.”

  “Ok, let’s go.”

  #### The End

  Further Reading:

  “The Majorca Egyptian Affair” is the sequel story to “The Tripoli Mission” and begins the love affair between Jimmy and Isis.

  Author’s Biography.

  Since 2014, the author has been creating the "Afternoon Book," a series of novelettes or short novels that can be read on a smart phone or reader in an afternoon. This series is known as "Global Rescuer Stories" and includes ebooks titled: "The Majorca Egyptian Affair," Jimmy and Isis continue their affair