The Kirstin woman moved her hand from Ahreed's shoulder to his hand. "Calm down, Ahreed. You will be back with your family tonight."
Ahreed felt confused again. "Why are you taking me to Canberra? How do I know you won't hurt me?"
"Because Ahreed," continued Kirstin, "This is Australia. You are an Australian. We will not hurt you. We simply need your help."
Too many thoughts were fleeting through Ahreed's mind. The most obvious question was who could he trust? He looked at Kirstin's eyes, then back down into his lap. Slowly, he asked again, "Why are you taking me away?"
The woman tried to gain back Ahreed's eyes. "Because we need your help, Ahreed... Australia needs your help. We have been helping you for the past few years and now we are asking you to help us."
Ahreed pulled his hand away from the young woman. "How have you helped me?" he asked, looking back up into her eyes, anger flashing across his face.
Kirstin sat back in the back seat of the hire car and looked back out of the window. She considered her answer carefully. This young, fourteen year old boy was scared - she could see that. But it was important that she did not reveal her assignment too early. There were many secrets Ahreed would need to keep for the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation, some of them stretching back into a history before he was born, others reaching out into the future security of Australia.
"Your School," she began, fixing back on his expectant, deep brown eyes, "It's a special school we sent you to with your father's permission."
Ahreed paused. He wondered about what the woman Kirstin had just said. "What do you mean, my Baba gave the permission?"
Kirstin again thought carefully about her answer to the boy while holding his worried gaze. She did not want to reveal anything about Ahreed's father that perhaps, his father had not explained to him. But at the same time, she needed to win his trust. The government had spent a lot of money helping Ahreed, his father and the rest of Ahreed's family. This long term plan depended heavily on this conversation with Ahreed and what choices he might make in an uncertain future.
Kirstin blinked. "Ahreed, your dad has helped the Australian Government a great deal," she took hold of his hand again, "And we trust your dad so much, it's difficult for me to explain."
Ahreed pulled his hand away and adjusted his posture in the back seat of the car, still propped on the tarmac with the plane visible in the windscreen. He did not quite understand what the woman Kirstin was saying to him.
She looked down, then back up into his eyes again. "We need to stop the killing, Ahreed... you must know what happened in Melbourne a few weeks ago."
"Yes," replied Ahreed, "I saw what happened." He paused again, looking back through the windscreen at the plane. "It was evil, Miss Kirstin."
"Yes," she replied, " It was evil. There were thirty thousand people in that stadium, Ahreed. Over a thousand are dead and nearly three thousand are sick from the gas."
Ahreed looked back at the young woman's eyes. "They were Jihadists from ISIS."
"Yes they were, Ahreed," continued Kirstin, "But would you ever do such a thing like that?"
Ahreed could feel a tear in his eyes, glancing uneasily back out at the plane through the window of the car. He blinked, and two tears ran down either side of his face. "In the name of Allah, Miss Kirstin, in the name of the loving, the merciful, the beautiful Allah, no, I would never do something like that." Ahreed's gaze fixed ahead, as more tears welled in his eyes.
Kirstin looked at the boy as he stared distantly ahead, both admiring and lamenting Ahreed's sentiment. So many of the terrorist fighters had probably felt this way in their youth. So deep was their love and concern for others in their hearts as children. Naturally maturing young boys emerging into manhood, they had stared ahead into a brighter future, faithfully optimistic yet blissfully naive. And yet, as time and maturity washed over them like a warm, Pacific wave on a tropical island paradise, the sting of a hidden creature in the foam had struck: poisoning, frightening, compelling them them to a tragic choice of devastation.
Kirstin noticed the faint whisps of whiskers on Ahreeds upper lip. His toned, brown skin and long eyelashes, wetted (moistened) by the tears of an ancient (a timeless) dilemma. He was a beautiful kid, and since reading his file at her desk a few weeks ago she had wondered many times about his appearance. Seeing him here now in the back of the car at Sydney airport, for the first time, she realised that this was an important moment in the transition process. Kirstin knew her job, knew Ahreed's history and knew the pressure of her assignment. But now that the boy was finally in her hands, she strived to find the right words. He was just a child.
She glanced up at the rear vision mirror and, seeing (her partner's) Russell's gaze, lifted her hand in a gesture to wait. Looking back at Ahreed she watched as the boy began to sob. She took hold of his hand again and squeezed gently, turning and placing her other hand on his shoulder. "It will be okay, Ahreed. I'm sorry if we frightened you. Don't be afraid." She waited a moment before continuing, "You will be back home tonight, I promise."
Ahreed looked back down into his lap, then glanced out of the side window of the car into the distant horizon of the airport.
"I'm afraid, Ms Kirstin. I'm scared you are going to hurt me." The boy sobbed some more, still staring across the fields of grass and tar into the distance "I don't understand what is happening."
"Look at me, Ahreed," pressed Kirstin suddenly, "Look at me!"
The boy slowly turned back to Kirstin.
"You must trust us, Ahreed," she continued, "We are not the enemy. This is Australia, and you are an Australian. We care about you."
Ahreed looked down, still confused.
Kirstin persisted, "You are special, Ahreed. You are a clever boy. We know you can help us, but you MUST trust us." She watched as the fourteen year old remained motionless, looking down into his lap as if somehow ashamed.
She was concerned about stretching beyond her instructions and giving the boy some assurance. She was not supposed to do that right now. Her brief was to bring Ahreed to Canberra so that the experienced inductors could reveal to Ahreed the purpose of his engagement. She noted a concerned glance from Russell in the front seat, turning his head suddenly in her direction.
"Ahreed," she continued, "We must end the evil... we must stop the killing, and you can help do that."
Ahreed's watery eyes looked up at the young woman. His gaze lingered for several moments, then, he looked back down into his lap.
Kirstin, still holding Ahreed's hand and her other hand on his shoulder, looked up at the man in the driver's seat. She nodded at him.
Russell opened the door of the car.
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