"On both sides of the abyss" relates the trials of Amina Rifa'ee, a young
Syrian woman that refused to marry her father business associate and was sent to study in London School of Economics. Her loneliness drives her to the arms of Murad the Libyan, a Mossad agent in fact that introduces after a relationship of several months to Kenneth Collins the Beirut American embassy's press attaché and a CIA agent. The latter takes her with him to Beirut to train her as a secret agent, to become the Israeli Mossad agent in Damascus, without being aware to it
Amina is torn between her love for Kenneth Collins the American embassy press attaché in Beirut, a CIA agent that trains her as secret agent, and between her loyalty to her country.
The short dialogue below relates her desperate situation:
'Let's sit down Amina,' he said after they soothed their clothes as if nothing happened between them, and walked over to the lone desk and he sat behind it; while Amina settled on a seat opposite him.
He opened the drawer and pulled out a pad and a pen.
'Do you remember Murad's address in London?' 'Why, why is it needed at all?' She asked surprised. 'I'm asking the questions Amina and you must answer my questions, do you understand?'
'Yes I do understand sir.' She hastened to answer him alarmed. 'It's fourteen Kenton Road in the borough of Harrow, apartment seven on the third floor sir.'
'That's much better Amina, can you describe his appearance? What's his stature like, what's the color of his hair, eyes? Does he have scars or anything else that differentiates him from other people?'
'He's about five feet eight and the color of his hair is black and of his eyes is dark brown. He has a knife scare on his left upper cheek, a small one hardly visible. He's thin almost emaciated...' 'Fine that will do for Murad, now then what about your American operator, are you in love with him?'
Amina coughed loudly and cleared her throat several times; she was on the brink of losing her self control again.
Excerpt
"On both sides of the abyss" is an espionage thriller; its plot relates the fate of Amina Rifa'ee a young and beautiful Syrian woman, a native of Damascus that falls in love with Kenneth Collins a CIA agent. She meets him in London while she has just graduated from London School of economics, and the one that introduces her to Ken is Murad a Mossad agent, with whom she lives during her last year of studies.
Ken serves as a press attaché at the American embassy in Beirut and he takes her with him, to train in clandestine activities in a hideout apartment, to become a secret agent in her own country and serve the Mossad without being aware to it.
She identified by one of her ex fiancé relatives and is kidnapped by the Syrian internal security service to the Al Maza notorious jail, where she agrees to become a double agent and thus escapes the death penalty. Withing thirty six hours she sent back to her American operator in Beirut claimin that hoodlums sent by her ex fiancé tried to abduct her.
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From the Back Cover
The next morning while sitting in his office with all Beirut daily papers, as passing over them was usually his first task every morning, Ken found in the last pages of several of them, a short paragraph relating the release from hospital of a young woman, which was rescued two days earlier from an abduction attempt. There were no other details concerning the young woman's name or about the kidnappers, which managed to escape.
So that must be it, Ken thought with some reassurance, but I'll have to check it. The trouble is I can't turn to the local service, they work hand in hand with the Syrians; and I don't intend to expose myself to them, it will be an unpardoned mistake. I'm still a clean diplomat in their eyes I hope...
He yawned and stood up to stretch his weary limbs. He was not physically tired, but the mental stress and his doubts were the cause to his weariness. After a few seconds of indecision he decided to go out and hail a cab to pay Amina a visit. If she was not robbed by the kidnappers she surely left the hospital with just the apartment keys and her documents in her handbag, she was unconscious and an easy prey to the poorly paid hospital personnel and she is surely left with no means.
Another thought that bothered him was the local service involvement, as yesterday night all he wished was to get into bed with her; they must have been updated of what happened by those that failed to kidnap, and they know her name and the reason why she was kidnapped...
I must change the plan and appear with her in public as my current mistress; as if this is the only reason I'm going out with her. On the other hand if her ex fiancé is desperate to get even with her, this project is on the verge of a deep precipice. I might find her one day with a cut throat from ear to ear, as far as I know those people and their beastly customs. In any case I'll have to take her to the town's outskirts, away from the embassy and Beirut's popular entertainment centers and sites. I've eighteen months to train her, and I may start it on this very day.
With these thoughts he left his office and went out.
“We’re going to use nine megaton warheads in space and we’re not sure they’re large enough to be effective. Why would you even consider using kiloton-range surface-to-air warheads as back-up?” The answer was succinct. “Because they’re all we have.”
Ninety-Nine Novellas, Part II (1,125 book pages) is a collection of 99 popular Jay Dubya stories and it is the companion e-book to Ninety-Nine Novellas (1,600 book pages).
