Duplus

Chapter 16:

Amaani's POV:

"Excuse me?" Broad shoulders stepped towards me slowly. "You can't do this," I repeated myself, looking away, and trying to avoid eye contact. Meanwhile, Lx16 quietly watched the show without moving or making a single sound.

"Remember your place, Ms. Sohail. You're not even an officer here so you can't give me orders." He said, his voice still very low. It was intimidating and stern as he tried to build pressure on me. I couldn't say it didn't affect me at all, but I knew I couldn't back off. Not then.

"Yes, I'm not an officer but as a human being, I can't let this happen. This isn't right!" I shot back, my hands curled into a tight fist. He stepped even closer. "She has brought this upon herself. You should be grateful that we're not torturing her as most people do." He replied. I shook my head in disbelief.

"It doesn't matter what most people do. We're Muslims and doing this is not our way. She hasn't hurt anyone!" I cried. "And how are you so sure that she hasn't hurt anyone?" He challenged me. For a second, I got silent. But soon enough I spoke up again.

"She saved my life! Are we going to totally ignore that?" I asked him, my voice cracking. His face hovered over mine which blocked the slight light that reached my face. It cast a kind of shadow on me. "Yes. Because that isn't justification enough to trust her. And even if she isn't a killer, why is she hiding her identity? This is our territory and since she stands here, she needs to clear herself." He gave Lx16 a look, who looked like she was revising her last words before dying.

She seemed confused and scared but still firm on her decision.

I had no reply to what Jaber pointed out but I knew that hurting her wasn't going to benefit either of us. "Look, we can do this without hurting her. I'm sure there is a way we can cooperate with each other." I turned towards Lx16, giving her a pleading look.

Jaber did too, folding his arms. "We can do this the easy way if she is willing to answer us." He stated. As both of us looked at her, she didn't meet our eyes. "You can do whatever you want, senior. But I'm not revealing any kind of information to you. I'm never trusting you again." She answered distastefully.

I felt disappointment wash over me. Oh Lx16, you could've made this situation easier for yourself. 
At that very moment, the door opened, making all of us snap our heads towards it.

Saira, with the same clothes she was wearing when I last saw her, stepped inside with a gun buckled away in a strap on her leg. Usama followed after her so soundlessly that none of us noticed his presence. He walked and stood himself in front of Saira.

"You called, sir," Saira announced so uptight that I thought she was gonna salute or something. In a second all of us recovered from the small disturbance caused by them. "Yes, " Jaber started. "Take her to prison and make sure she doesn't get any food or water. If she still refuses to answer, we'll just have to punish her." As he finished, he backed away from me as if closing our argument from before.

"Wait, Saira!" I made her stop in her tracks, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. My hand was held up in front of Saira, keeping her from walking further. "Lx16 didn't harm anyone. It's not right to send her to prison." I said, raising my voice.

"Again with this?" Jaber sounded angrier than before. "I'm telling you; don't interfere in our matters." He said coldly. I stomped my foot on the ground in frustration. "I'm going to interfere! Because you made me bring her here and I am a part of this as much as anyone of you is!" I turned to everyone in the room to prove my point.

Even though I was the center of all that unwanted attention as every person in the room stared at me, I didn't stop. I had enough of everything and I couldn't let Jaber do whatever he wanted to.

"Our lives may be in danger. And this is what you're fighting me about?" He fired back. I huffed. "Yes, because hurting her isn't going to help us in any way!" At this point, I was trembling with anger, resentment, and guilt.

The fact that I was the one who was responsible for the mistreatment of Lx16 after she saved my life was eating me alive. My regret was firing me up.

"What is important has to be done." That was all he said before turning to leave. But I wasn't going to surrender so easily. "This is not important. It is outright wrong!" I cried out. He didn't react to me and just motioned for Saira to take her away. 

Despite my protests, Saira went ahead and grabbed Lx16 by the arm and led her out of the room. Surprisingly, Lx16 didn't resist one bit and accepted her fate without a fight. I turned to Usama for support but he just looked down after mouthing a 'sorry'. It was then that Lx16 looked at me and hurt was written all over her face. And just like that, she was taken away to Allah knew what kind of wretched place and it was all Jaber's fault.

I gave him a death glare and he ignored it completely. "Help Saira with the prisoner." He simply said to Usama and he, with a last glance at me, walked away. At that, I completely lost it.

I tightened my fist that turned my knuckles white. My blood boiled and I was sure my face had turned crimson red.

"What you did just now was completely unfair and unjust!" I shouted out at him, pointing an accusing finger. He acted like it didn't faze him at all and continued walking towards the table where he had kept the piece of paper with the code written inside it. It infuriated me even more that he was avoiding me completely.

"For Allah's sake; answer me!"

That startled him and he looked back at me. I noticed a look of surprise and shock on his face as his hands fell to his sides. "You made me do such a horrible thing! Bringing me here was one thing but you took advantage of my circumstances too! Not only that, you're talking about hurting someone you don't even know is evil or not!" I went on venting out my anger on him and he just looked at me with widened eyes.

I continued. "You're just hiding behind this title of being a high officer or whatever. You justify your actions by saying that it's the law but it's not! We go by Islamic law and doing this is against it! When will you understand that?!" I paused to take a short breath.

"Lx16 is not a villain! She saved my life when I was going to get assassinated because of the situation you threw me in! And despite that, I thought I was on the good side and brought her here! Maybe I was the foolish one! Maybe I should've never trusted you!" My voice broke and my throat went dry. Before I knew it, a tear trailed down my cheek and it wasn't long before my eyes were crying out a river.

I desperately tried to wipe the tears that were falling down vigorously, soaking my niqab and making it harder for me to breathe. I couldn't let Jaber see me in that state but at that moment, it was the least important thing on my mind.

The emotions that had been bottled up since the day I arrived exploded and I couldn't keep it in any longer. It was not just Lx16; it was everything. From Sumayya's accidental death to that very moment.  Everything flew in my mind in seconds and that did not help as the tears just kept falling.

As if that wasn't enough, I could feel the jerk's burning gaze glued to me but I didn't dare look up. Maybe that could save me the last bit of respect I had left.

Finally, after 2 minutes of silence that was hanging in the atmosphere like a sharp knife, I took a deep breath and cleared my throat. I wiped the last teardrop with my sleeve, cleaning my face dry. My niqab was still soaked which suffocated me but I managed to take in some air. 

I looked up, facing my humiliation head-on as I knew I had to sooner or later. My outburst did me some good as I had calmed down but the look on Broad shoulders' face made it obvious that he wasn't taking it well. Clearly, his cold demeanor had been cracked and a completely different person stood in front of me.

For a second, I forgot that he was a mean, horrible, and nasty bully.