On Friday, Salma and I paid a visit to an oasis and date palm plantation at the foot of the mountains. It’s so cool in the date plantation and there is a delightful smell. I had to go back to work on Saturday. Salma had to pack.

On arrival at work, Zaineb came up to me smiling and took me to her office.

Sitting down, I said, “It’s good that this chair has a thick cushion.”

She wagged a finger, saying, “Naughty!”

Zaineb looked serious. She began, “In a few minutes, the director and I are going to have a formal talk with you. We would like you to take on a project. It’s complicated and we think you have the maturity to handle it.

“Your recent interview allowed us to form the opinion that you can do so. We believe you are the only person who can pull it off and we are going to rely on you to do it. Please do not let it go to your head; this is a very serious matter concerning national security."

“I am telling you this now so you can mentally prepare for what you will hear from the director. Wait here with me; the director will be along any minute.”

Something big was about to happen, which now was being confirmed.

When the director arrived, we exchanged the usual formal greetings. I wore my hijab.

“Follow me,” he said, leading the way out of the office and along a corridor leading from Zaineb’s office. I had been down the corridor to other offices, but never to its end. It turned at the corner of the building. There was only one security door at its far end.

It had a secure code lock on it and a security key. The director let us in and there was a faint paint smell. We went up a flight of stairs. There was a hallway with two doors on the right and one at the end.

The director opened the nearest door on the right. To my amazement, I found myself in what looked like a modern, westernised living room with a kitchen at one end. They had fitted it out with two expensive semi-reclining leather chairs and a wrap-around sofa. The amenities included a drinks cabinet, a small fridge, a sound system, a TV, a laptop and places to plug in internet LAN leads. I did not know it was here. Was this what they had been building?

It looked as if Zaineb did not know it was there. The director motioned for Zaineb and me to sit in the two reclining chairs. He sat on the couch.

He began, “What you see here is a replica of a house in the London Docklands. It is owned by our government. Our Government owns the house, but in the name of a local business executive."

“I’ve not shown you the entire house yet. Where we walked up the stairs is in London, partitioned off from a garage and utility room. That’s one thing we have not duplicated."

“Upstairs you will find two bedrooms which match those in London. One has a small en suite but the main bedroom has a much bigger one. Everything works as it would in a normal bathroom."

“All the electrical equipment in here works too. We stock the drinks cabinet with almost the same drinks as you would find in London. This is what they have been building over the last three weeks. There is no duplication of the UK central heating system and we have added extra air conditioners."

“We have put a thermostat on the wall. In London, it runs the central heating in cold weather and the air conditioners if the weather is unusually hot."

“The shell of the building was here, of course, so we only had to add the interior."

“Please let me assure you of one thing. Inside the house, there are no bugs, no cameras, no microphones, etc. We keep it like that so that whatever goes on or people say in here is secure."

“We control the compound. A continuously recorded CCTV monitors the compound door and the door in the corridor. Apart from the outside windows, which don’t open, those doors are the only way in."

“Faridah, you are going to stay here for two nights each week. This will be for at least the next six weeks until living in the building is as familiar as living at home. You must learn to move around in here, operate the media apparatus, lights on and off etc. until doing so becomes second nature."

“You will go to London eventually and live in the Docklands house, which is almost the same as this inside. Your contact in London will explain to you the Docklands front-door security system. We have a manual for it here, so it won’t be a total surprise when you get there."

“In London, your job will be to recruit the British Officer who is in our police force."

“We have a policy of never recruiting on our shores. This officer is the one that Zaineb arranged for you to see when he drove past. As you know, he witnessed your second caning."

“In the prison, the girl walks to the trestle towards one of the one-way windows where the officers observe proceedings. She does so twice; the first time is before they cane her. After her caning, she walks closer to the window before going to the clinic.”

“The witness officer has a short dossier bearing the name of and three photographs of the girl. He has the details of the charge, arrest, conviction and sentence. One of his jobs is to look at the girl and see if her appearance matches the photos.”

“He will stop the proceedings if he thinks anything is wrong, or someone has made a mistake and they have sent the wrong person to be caned, etc.”

“So our man has seen your photo and your face. He ought to recognise you. He is a police officer, and they remember faces.”

“You are going to see our full report on him. Zaineb showed you a shortened version.

“His house in Docklands is about six hundred metres from ours. He has planned to visit it on a certain date to make his check of his property, which he rents out."

“You will look as if you have just walked towards him by chance and have recognised him. It will surprise him and he will certainly recognise you."

“We have found an upmarket coffee shop two hundred metres away and towards our house. It’s not one of the chain or franchise types. Try to get him there, and then over coffee, whatever, talk him into coming back to your house.”

“We are going to train you in how to do that."

“You must take the initiative and get him back to our place in Docklands where you can talk to him in secure surroundings. You have the element of surprise.”

“If you can pull this off and we think it is the hard part, you have an excellent chance of success. If he gives you the brush off, and he might, we will go to Plan B."

“What we have told you is the full outline of your task. Now we have to train you to succeed.”

My surprise was beyond belief. I almost wet myself. They trusted me to do something like this, but I could not figure out why.

The director smiled and went on, “OK, to summarise what we have discussed so far.
•          Get to know this mock-up house by living in it
•          Study the full dossier on our man
•          Learn the description of the best place to catch him on foot near his house. We have been researching that in London and will present it to you in the next few days.
•          What you will say to persuade him to come with you to the house
•          What you will say once you have him back in the house

“That’s enough for now. The only question is: - Will you do it?”

My confusion was possibly less than my being almost overwhelmed by the task.

How could I say no? It was time to give something back to the land where I had such a wonderful upbringing and was so happy.

I tried to steady my voice and said, rather softly, “Yes, I will do it, but I am going to need help.”

The director smiled and said, “Faridah, we thought you would accept. Thank you so much. This is enough for the start. We want you to live here every Wednesday night. We are going to arrange for Wednesday and Thursday to be training days for you in the house."

“You will work in the office for the rest of the week. You can go up to the house to study any time you want to, except the cleaner’s days. But we want you to maintain as much contact as you can with your colleagues; it will be good for your morale.”

“The cleaners and other staff come in on Tuesdays and Fridays, so unless you let us know in advance, don’t come up here on Tuesday or Friday. They keep the fridge stocked up, fresh fruit, etc.”

“If you bring anything here, you must remove any waste. There are plastic bags left here for that purpose.”

“NEVER leave anything here that would identify who you are. The cleaners have strict instructions to hand in anything they find. It could lead to disciplinary proceedings against you if you leave anything.”

“You probably know that other girls sometimes disappear for a few days at a time. They are not getting a sore bottom but are receiving training in other areas. We have a story to tell your mother.”

“I urge you to look into doing other things outside the office. This work will be very intensive and you need something to take your mind off it. I do not want you going to London looking worn out and unhappy.”

So I said, “I just wonder why you trust me with all this. I have to do it.”

Zaineb said, “We have seen no one like you. At fifteen, you tried to kill a horse that kicked you. You did that with three broken ribs. What would you have done if the Navy Patrol had not turned you around that day? Another hour and you would have been out of sight of land.”

Trying not to laugh, I replied, “My chief concern was how to take a pee. I had to take my clothes off. It is difficult in the dinghy. We had to do that on the way back. It’s much easier downwind. We took turns steering the boat while the other one took a pee.”

Poor Zaineb went pink again...

Feeling rather small that they entrusted me with so much, I prayed I could handle it.

The director showed me around the rest of the house. I tried everything in the bathroom and it all worked. The TV worked, the sound system, the internet, everything. It took all morning.

The director said, “You will report directly to Zaineb. The office staff will guess something is happening, but they cannot ask or talk about it. We operate that way."

“Do you have questions, please?”

It bothered me about what to do with my time when not living in the house and I asked what I should do. Would I live a separate existence in the office?

The director smiled and said, “Don’t worry; we have a huge amount of training to do. We will carry out most of the training in the house, even on the days when you are not living there.”

“You won’t access the house by the stairs.”

The only door still locked was the door at the end of the first-floor landing. He unlocked it and behind it was a set of lift doors.

He told me that the lift went down only to the basement. I could get into the basement through a normally locked security door. Only those members of staff who needed to go to the basement had a key, and I was going to be one of them.

There was another locked door to access the lift in the basement. I would have a key to it. Once closed, the door automatically locked itself. No one could follow. This was going to be my access to the mock-up house via the lift.

They had thought of everything.

Zaineb said, “Faridah’s sister flies back to the UK tomorrow for her next term at university. Why don’t we let Faridah spend a few hours with her?"

I said, “I won’t be going to the airport to see her off because it would make me late for work. I will be here as normal tomorrow.”

The director said, “We are a nation of family lovers. You must spend the last few hours with your sister. We owe you that.”

They told me to go home and be with Salma. Back at home, Salma was doing a bit of last-minute packing.

“Tomorrow I won’t come to the airport. It’s too upsetting to see you leave from there,” I said.

“What do you want to do tonight?” I asked.

Salma replied, “We should stay here. It’s great to have the last night at home. This next term is fourteen weeks, the longest of them all. I need to remember this house and all of you in it.”

Salma understood her psyche so well, which I admired so much. I let her get on. She wanted an early night. I heard her getting ready. Finally, in her nightclothes, she came to me and said, “Let’s have a last kiss and cuddle and say goodbye now. In the morning, I will be gone. My bags are in the car; I won’t make noise getting up.”

It was an effort not to cry. We had that last kiss and cuddle.

In the morning, Salma had gone. My training helped me to put away thoughts of her for a while. I went to work. Zaineb was there. We crossed the compound and unlocked the security door, which allowed access to the lift. The door locked itself behind us. The lift took us up to the house. We made a coffee and then sat in the living room.

Zaineb said, “It’s time to get down to detailed planning.”

She gave me another key, saying, “Don’t lose this one. Put it on your key ring with the key to the compound door. This new key is for a safe in here. There’s a similar safe in the house in London and you will get the key on arrival. Unlock this safe and take out the file folder on top of the group of them. It’s labelled ‘Early Planning’.”

I got the file folder out. There were three smaller bound documents inside, labelled ‘EP One’, ‘EP Two’ and ‘EP Three’.

Zaineb asked me to read ‘EP One’ aloud. I did so, realising that the first bit was all about what I needed to pack here. It explained how I must leave looking like a traditionally dressed local young lady. I was to go prepared with a carry-on bag to change clothes on the flight to arrive looking like a Westernised version of the same.

It explained what would happen on my arrival in London and what I was to say at immigration. My ‘driver’ (more like my minder) would identify me. It dealt with the recognition and mutual identification process. The trainers would test me on this and I had to memorise all of it perfectly.

There were maps of the Heathrow terminals and of the two terminals at Gatwick. There were many phone numbers I might need in an emergency. It included a laminated version of this, which I could carry. The phone numbers were those that anyone could access and were not incriminating. These things would not cause any interest if the authorities found them. It would just look like I was very well prepared.

There was a description of the townhouse in Docklands. There were many photographs of it, the neighbourhood, transport links, taxi phone numbers, the location of nearby shops, etc. This part of the manual was information only.

Reading all of this and trying to take it in took over an hour.

Zaineb said, “I have been through enough with you for one day. I need to get on with other things. I will leave you up here and you can go through everything in your own time. Try not to do too much in one day."

“In the drawer below the drinks cabinet, you will find some stationery. If I were you, I would get a plain piece of A4 and make commentary notes. It’s important to say, I understand this referenced topic, or if you need help, write that down. This will help you and me to keep abreast of how you are doing. There is no shame in asking for help. No one is perfect.”

“What have I let myself in for?” I thought.

Zaineb smiled and said, “Try not to overdo it today. Come down to my office at about one pm." (We started at seven-thirty in the morning and on a normal day would leave at two-thirty pm. We could leave at mid-day on a Thursday and we got Friday off).

“If you like, I can come back up here.”

I was feeling at home in the house. It was secure, and no one would know what was going on. It was only a short walk for Zaineb from her office, so I said, “I would be very grateful if you could please come up here. I am feeling more at home here now.”

“Sure,” replied Zaineb. “I will be up here at one pm,...