Tali

Tali

Tali was the best agent in the Mossad, the Israeli secret service. 

She was young, between 25 and 30 years old, nevertheless her abilities were many.  She had complete command of several languages, among them Arabic, which she spoke to perfection.  This, combined with her oriental features, allowed her to infiltrate the most covert Palestinian terrorist groups, time and time again.  Thanks to her, many important elements of all factions of the Palestinian guerrilla movement were detained or eliminated. 

On the other hand, she was an expert in several martial arts, knew the Manual of Arms perfectly, and also was a great escape artist.  Several times she had been captured and had always managed to escape with her life.  In addition, she had an uncommon figure, muscular but very feminine.  Her hair was long, dark, and straight, her complexion brown with green eyes and a penetrating gaze.  She had a very well formed torso, with two great breasts capped by small rosy nipples.  A thin waist and strong, athletic legs allowed her more than once to escape by running, the fastest men unable to catch her. 

Many stories were told about Tali, the majority products of the popular imagination.  Nevertheless very little was really known about her, in reality there was doubt that it was really her name.  And very few knew what she looked like.  She was the perfect agent.

The mission that had been entrusted to her was most important of her life, she traveled in secret several times to the United States to obtain data and to get to know the agents of the company who would be her contacts.  She would have to travel to Afghanistan and to locate the whereabouts of

Osama Bin Laden and, if possible, capture him, dead or alive.

It was not going to be an easy mission.  Unlike Palestine, in Afghanistan the women cannot go out without covering themselves and they denied access to the groups in power, which were formed exclusively by men. 

Nevertheless, the fact that she had to cover herself completely such that nobody would see her face played in her favor, plus, she use her heavy clothing to completely hide all the equipment necessary for the operation. 

For her to be able to get to the nucleus of the Afghan terrorists, she would pass herself off as an important female Palestinian terrorist, who had been kidnapped recently by the Mossad while traveling to Afghanistan on a mission to make contact with women of the Taliban’s heads.  She managed to get to know the woman of one of Bin Laden’s seconds and, through contacts, she became familiar with a retinue of women traveling to one of the terrorist group’s hiding places in mountains to act as servants.  Quickly she managed to take the place of one of the maids and traveled along with the group in a truck.  As they went in the back of, the truck, she found that it was completely enclosed, she could not see where they were going.  But, Tali had her satellite communications equipment that would allow her position to be constantly monitored by the CIA.  When they arrived at the place, they got down out of the truck.  All the women were covered from head to foot, only their eyes glimpsed through the heavy garment.

Nevertheless, they passed into a cave where somebody issued an order in Afghan language, she did not understand very well, but she saw the rest of the women began to take off their clothes.  The women undressing of the guards caught her attention, this not fit with the customs of the Taliban.  But evidently, during wartime, no rules are sacred.  She undressed, taking care to hide her equipment in her clothes.

The women left all their clothes in the floor and some men came in and picked up the clothing and took it to another cave.  This made her nervous.   If they examined her clothes they would find her equipment, although as all the women’s things were mixed they would not know who might have brought them.

She knew that something was going wrong when the men began to hastily speak among themselves.  Suddenly one of them approached the group of women and furiously shouted something that she could not understand. 

The women began to look at each other, murmuring fearfully.  She tried to imitate their movements to stay unnoticed in the crowd. 

But when the guards formed the women in row and began to interrogate them one by one, she realized that she was going to be discovered.  Quickly she studied the scene and decided to escape towards the entrance of the cave.  She notices that the guards only carried side arms and that the cave was in a mountain so that any firing could cause landslides.  So, she began to run, surprising them.  Several men ran after her, but she was very fast.  Plus, when anyone got too close, she dealt him a blow with her foot, leaving him on the floor.  She reached the mouth of the cave with the idea to hide in the truck, but it had already gone, so she decided to continue running.  But she was naked and barefoot; on the stony ground she could not do it easily.  She looked for a place to hide and found one, between the great stones at the sides of the road.

As time passed, she watched as the men laboriously looked for her, but without result.  She spent hours, watching the men looking for her, allowing her to relax a little and to analyze the situation.

Trying to escape towards a populated area, naked as she was, and by those winding and dangerous roads, would practically be impossible.  Plus, she did not have the slightest idea of where she might find such a place.  On the other hand she could not attempt any form of communication, as they could detect it and use it to find her.  The best thing for her, was to wait until night and try to return to the cave, taking advantage of the dark, to recover her equipment and to continue with her mission. 

Suddenly she sensed a strange scent and her vision started getting cloudy.  Soon, she began to have difficulty breathing until finally, she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, everything was dark.  She remembered the thoughts she’d had seconds before she’d fainted, evidently they had attacked her with some gas, therefore she thought that those were her last seconds of life.  The darkness made her think that perhaps this was what happened after death. 

Nevertheless, there was no absolute silence.  She heard voices and the movement of people in the distance.  Although, they could be other dead people like her waiting for the divine decision to determine their destiny.  She was not very religious, but she believed that there was a heaven and a hell, and she was not certain as to which would be her fate.  She had caused the death of many people, though it was certain that none of them were innocent, but was not her right to judge them.  So, she was on her way to Hell.  Perhaps the dark is the beginning of their eternal punishment. 

But little by little she was recovering her senses and she felt her body.  If she were really dead, she should not feel anything; nevertheless she could feel.  But something wasn’t working right.  She could feel her head, neck, shoulders, torso, breasts, stomach, genitals…  But she could not feel her arms or legs.  Perhaps the gas with which they attacked her was not lethal, perhaps it was only a sleeping gas and she was still under the drug’s effects.  But she began to feel strong pains, in her shoulders, her hips, and in her throat.  On the other hand, she still couldn’t see anything. With her movement limited, as she could not feel her limbs, she turned her head as much as she could but no glimmer of light was seen in any direction. She began to fear the worst. What would those Barbarians be able to do to her...

Suddenly everything was illuminated and Tali realized what had happened to her.  She was in a room of about four meters square and five high.  The walls, the floor, and the ceiling were all made of stone and there was only one door.  Air entered through an opening over the door and only dark could be seen through it. 

She was laid down face up on a mattress that was on the floor.  Her body was naked, at her shoulders were no signs of her arms, a single bandage covering them.  She found the same at her hips.  They had cut off her arms and legs, and that was the cause of her pain.  And they had cut them off almost to the evenly with her body, without leaving the smallest stump on her shoulders and with just a few centimeters protruding from her hips.  Bandages hid the scars, but she could feel them perfectly as they were the places where she hurt the most. 

She tried to scream at the horror and the surprise of her terrible discovery, but no sound left her mouth.

It was then she realized that she also had bandage on her neck. They had operated on her throat and removed her vocal cords.  She would never speak again.

When she had managed to calm herself a little, she tried to get up.  It was going to be very difficult.  Using as much strength she had in her abdomen, weak as she was, she managed to raise her torso until she was sitting, supported on her hips.  But she pushed too hard, quickly lost her balance and fell on her breasts.  The intense pain that caused her masked for a few moments the pain she felt in her shoulders, hips, and throat. 

With difficulty, she turned herself over so that she was face up. Once she did, she tried once more to straighten up.  This time to keep from falling, she made her movements smoother, and managed to support herself on her hips without tipping over. 

This position allowed her to observe the room she was in.  In order to see all around she turned slowly, raising one of her hips the few centimeters that she could and supporting it a little, then twisting to turn at a small angle.  All the movements had to be slow to avoid another fall.  She saw a hole in the floor, near a corner.  Evidently it was arranged so the prisoner could take care of her biological necessities.  There was a trough in the floor along the wall opposite the door, where water circulated.  That was the lavatory.  At least they tried to see that their prisoners were clean.  Although it was not going to turn out simple for her to be able to use them in case need. 

She wondered why they had left her with her life.  And why had they operated on her in such manner?  If they wanted to torture her to obtain data, leaving her without voice and cutting off her arms and legs so that she couldn’t even write was not the procedure.  Perhaps they already knew who was she and this was only a cruel revenge.

The door opened and a covered woman entered with a tray, took a few steps and crouched, leaving it on the floor, at the center of the room. After that she left without at least watching Tali.

She observed what there was in the tray, a plate with food, bread and a container with water.

But she could not eat by herself; if they really wanted her to eat they would have to help her.

Perhaps they wanted to watch her, maybe there is a camera filming her at any moment and some perverts enjoying seeing her trying to manage in those conditions.

Seeing vapor coming from the plate of food, she wondered if it were a hot meal, she would have to try to eat it before it cooled off.  Besides, the idea of letting herself die of hunger and thirst did not excite her. So she decided to make the attempt to approach the plate and to feed herself. Plus, if her life were going to continue in that way, she would have to be accustomed to her new condition. She was a very independent person and the idea that she would need aid for the rest of his life did not please to her, so she could begin to practice right away.

She was lying not more than two meters away from the tray, if she could manage to turn on her hips raising them one by one, she also could move in a specific direction in the same way. She raised her right hip first and placed it as far forward as she could, barely a few centimeters. Then, she did the same with her left hip.  Always moving slowly and looking forward to avoid losing her balance, with each movement of her body her enormous breasts shook uncontrollably. They didn't operate on her there, so it probably meant that they wanted to use her as a sexual toy.  This didn't worry to her very much, in her work as a spy she already had to lie down with many Arabs and was she accustomed to being attacked sexually. 

When she got to the edge of the mattress and lowered herself to the floor she felt cold under her hips where her wounds were badly covered by small bandages.  After several minutes she managed to arrive next to the tray.  As she got closer, she could see that it contained pieces of some mixed type of meat with potatoes, all cut in small pieces and bathed in a dark sauce.  Next to the plate there were three slices of bread and a round and wide bowl full of water.

The tray was of the type of which it is used to eat breakfast in bed, supported in the floor on four legs of not more than five centimeters height.  In order to be able to eat she would have to correctly position herself and lean over to reach the plate with her mouth.

To lean over, she had to bend her body at the waist.  If she’d had stumps of at least ten centimeters, she could sit supported on them. But as she didn't have them, she could only support herself on her hips. Therefore, she had to use a lot of strength with her abdomen to stay balanced and to not fall forwards. Plus, to reach the tray with her mouth, she had to support her enormous breasts and to squash them against the floor under her body.

On the other hand, it was not simple for her to figure the distance between the tray and where she had to place herself.  In her first attempt she got too close and, when she bent down to the plate, it was below her breasts, she touched the food with one of her nipples.  The hot food produced an exciting sensation when she made contact.

She moved backwards and tried again.  This time she was short by a few centimeters; she could almost reach the end of the plate with her tongue. She went forward again and this time yes, she could reach the plate.

She took a piece of meat with her teeth; she let it enter in her mouth and swallowed it.  It was very hot, when it passed through her throat, still sensitive from the recent operation; it caused her a lot of pain.  She coughed several times and tried to drink some water.  To do this she had to turn her body and to go back a little to get her mouth into the container with liquid.  She drank little sips of water and she cleaned the sauce from her lips.

She decided to start with one of the slices of bread, while she waited for the meat to cool off.

Each change of target forced her to reposition herself to be able to direct her mouth to the desired object and to take it between her teeth.  The slice of bread was larger than her mouth, and she had to bite it in pieces to be able to swallow it.  She ate half and left the rest on the tray.

She tried again with the meat, it still was hot, but she decided to suppress the pain.  On the other hand, the food was quite appetizing.  She had never before tried Afghan food.  It wasn't bad.

She finished the whole plate, two slices of bread and almost all the water.  The enormous effort that she made to accomplish the apparently simple task of eating left her very tired, she didn't have the strength to return to the mattress.  She lay down face up on the hard floor next to the tray and she fell asleep in that position.

When she woke up, she was still there, although the tray was no longer there, someone had entered and had taken it away while she was sleeping.

Then something happened that she had feared would eventually happen, she began to feel desire to tinkle.  From the position she was in, the hole was about three meters of distance, it was near a corner about a half meter away from the water trough along the bottom of the wall.

She had to get there, and with some haste, she had to speed up her movements if she was to succeed.

She got up and begun to take the steps, the longest than she could, moving in the direction of the hole.  Keeping her sphincters controlled while she advanced raising her hips one by one was not a simple task.  But she managed to arrive successfully without spilling a drop of liquid.

Now a complication arose, sitting on her hips in front of the hole, her vaginal orifice was on the floor.  But she could not sit on the hole, it was too wide and she would be trapped in it.  She thought that a person with normal hips could sit on it and could balance with their arms supported at their sides.  But, having nothing with which to support herself.  If she tried, she would fall inside of the hole.  The only way to reach her objective was to lie down face down, with her hips over the hole in such a way that her vagina was over it, and tinkle there.

In order get into that position, she had to lie down in front of the hole and to move backwards little by little.  She moved, raising her back and supporting her chin a little further back, bending over, then twisting her body using her chin on the floor as a pivot.  As her hip began to rise over the hole, she supported it against the edge of the hole and pushed herself forward to avoid falling. She continued bending over and going backwards until she felt that her vaginal orifice was in position, although the pressure of her torso against the floor squeezed her breasts although the weight of her hips in the air made her dangerously close to falling in.

In that uncomfortable position she loosen her sphincters and she tinkled.

To move away from there she turned her body towards one side and with a push she turned herself and fell face up next to the hole.  Again she was exhausted, but she got what she wanted, although she thought that it would be easier than it was.  While she relaxed she thought that the next time, what she would have to do is to place herself in the position in which she was and then turn around making the inverse movement to that she had just done.  This would cost her less effort, although she had to very careful to position herself well and not falling when she pushed.  She got angry with herself for not having thought of that before, but she was under pressure, with the urgency of her need to tinkle and she could not analyze all the options clearly.

After some minutes of relaxation, she decided to return to the mattress.  She got up.  Every time she did it was with greater ease, and began to take her small steps in the desired direction. 

But while she moved, her genitals were being rubbed very insistently with each movement, and with her great breasts swinging, she began to feel a very familiar tickle, the one that told her she was getting incredibly aroused.

Normally she did not need much effort to achieve satisfaction.  Usually, it was enough for her to massage her breasts and her clitoris with her hands for a little while and with that she reached climax.  Her profession prevented her from having stable boyfriends, and the occasional sexual relations while on assignment were work, never pleasure, therefore she masturbated frequently.

But now it was going to be a problem, she could not touch her breasts or vagina.  She arrived at the mattress with a great need and greater frustration.  It was torture to feel the anxiety of being touched and not to be able to reach.  But unconsciously she began to rub her breasts against the mattress and at the same time to move her hips backwards and forwards, one and the other, as if they were the pistons of a car.  Her movements became more and more shaky and her breathing more intense.  Her excitation level was increasing geometrically until she exploded in a wonderful orgasm.  And it was not a common orgasm; it was the best orgasm that she’d had in her life. And she had done it without using her hands.  She was happier than she’d been when she got a medal for discovering a network of terrorists in downtown Tel Aviv.

So much rubbing and excitement made her sweat a lot.  She felt very wet and dirty, and she needed a bath.  She would have to check the trough next to the wall with the water running in it.

She went with her already expert steps, towards the edge of the trough to examine it. It was half of a meter wide and in it water ran in the direction of the corner where the hole to tinkle was.  The water was transparent and she could see the bottom through it. The groove was not more than forty centimeters deep and the water rose to only half that.  It was as a small brook and the water seemed to be very clean and pure.

Normally, she liked to put a hand in to test the water temperature first, but now she would have to do it another way. She lay down perpendicular to the trough with her head forwards and advanced a little testing the water with her nose and her forehead.

It was cold.  She did not like to bathe in cold water, but as warm as she was and as dirty as she felt, she decided to do it no matter what.  She would have to enter in the water a little bit at a time, to accustom herself more quickly to the cold.  So, she lay down this time parallel to the trough face down and after she turned in the direction to fall inside face up.

Although the cold water made her shiver, she soon got used to it.  As she did, she found it a pleasant, very relaxing sensation.  The water circulated around her tickling her.  The height of the water was sufficient for her to rest on the bottom with only small portions of her body uncovered, the ends of her hips, her navel, and her breasts.  She had to keep her head raised so that her nose was completely above the water, although several times she lowered it, submerging completely. Occasionally, she turned her body face down, but this was not comfortable, because her breasts were trapped under her body and her head was not submerged putting more strain on her neck.

Although she had no way to tell the time, she was probably in the water for more than an hour.  She felt a great peace lay down on the bottom of the brook with the water rippling between her breasts and lapping lightly at her nipples.  What a great contradiction, to feel so much peace in the middle of so much war.  Finally, she began to feel cold and decided to get out of the water. But this was not going to be easy for her.

This time she could not reverse the movement that made to get in.  The law of gravity worked against her.  But she was not frightened; she began trying to get up by herself.  What required a good amount of strength outside the water, was going to be doubly difficult in the water.

She made the first attempt to raise her torso but she only managed to raise it halfway, falling backwards again. Luckily the water cushioned the blow of her head against the bottom. She would have to try harder.  She tried it twice more until she managed to raise herself supporting herself with her side by pushing against the wall of the trough so that the friction against this would help her.

Now she had to raise herself back to the level of the floor of the cell. This, which with legs was barely a step, now presented enormous difficulty.  Standing on her hips, the floor was just above the level of her waist, almost to the height of the bottom of her breasts.

She put herself at the edge and leaned forwards trying to support the upper part of her torso on the floor of the cell, then trying to raise her rear in the air.  But all the weight of its body fell on her breasts squashing them against the floor.  Ouch!  She could not do it that way.

Then, she turned round facing the wall and with the edge of the trough at her back.  It was not easy to her to do all these movements within the water.  Raising one of her hips under the water cost her a lot more effort than outside.

Supported against the edge, she leaned backwards, supporting half of her back on the floor and with an enormous abdominal effort she tried to raise her hips.  She got to be almost parallel with the water but got tired and fell again.

She tried twice more, and the last time tried a complex movement, a fast turn with her body slightly inclined so that her hips finished on the floor of the cell, but couldn’t do it well and fell again, along the front edge.

She began to lose hope; apparently it was going to be impossible to get herself out.  And she could not ask for help, although she wouldn’t do it even if she could.  She wanted to convince herself that she could be really self-sufficient.

She tried to analyze what she could do to improve her movements.  She realized the she had failed because she had forced her abdominal muscles too often without giving them a rest, and for that reason they could not help her to finish the movement successfully.

She thought about the water, it worked against her while her body was submerged, because she needed more effort to get up.  But once on top of the water, her body floated, which worked in her favor. 

Once more, she positioned herself with the edge of the trough at her back.  This time she decided to wait a while before trying to get up, her muscles had already worked hard turning her and getting her in that position.  She had to wait so they could rest before she had to tighten them again.

She rose again, but this time she remained in an almost horizontal position, with her hip supported on the water.  She realized that in that position she did not have to work to stay in that position, because part of her body floated on the water.  She rested awhile in that position and then she rose and turned quickly backwards and towards her right side and this time, yes; she managed to get her left hip supported.  In that position, her body was supported face down on the floor except for her right hip, she turned again on her left side to be finally face up and completely on the floor of the cell.

Again she had succeeded, overcoming her adversity.  She was euphoric.  She remained lying down a while in that position to recover her strength.  Soon, she thought about returning to the mattress, but she was very wet and there was nothing for her to dry herself.  She preferred to remain there for a while longer until her body dried, and then return to the mattress.  The temperature in the cell, in spite of the stone in the walls and floor, was quite warm, as if there were a central heating system.  Although she supposed that it was because surely she was in some bunker several meters below the surface.

She began to meditate on what her life would be like in the future.  It was obvious that everything was going to change. But would it really be worse?  She was a person who liked great challenges.  She was already bored with those repetitive missions, tracking down run of the mill terrorists, easy to discover, deceive, and capture.  For that reason she had accepted the mission to search for Bin Laden with pleasure.  It was her opportunity, and she had wasted it.  But the result was not as bad as she had first imagined.

The recent changes in her physical condition opened new possibilities for her. Each action necessary for survival, like eating, tinkling, sleeping, having sexual pleasure, and cleaning up, trivial to any normal human being, for her constituted a true challenge.  She had to plan each step with considered care, she ran risks with each action, it was exactly what she liked, and the satisfaction she obtained when reaching her objective was worth the effort.  She was beginning to enjoy being a quadruple amputee.

Once she finished drying herself she returned to the mattress and lay there, face up. She was more tired than if she had been running in the desert all day long.  Her condition was really putting her muscles in shape, at least the ones she had left.

After awhile, a woman entered again with the food tray and left it in the same place as before.

She repeated the procedure she’d used to eat.  This time there were vegetables, along with the bread and water.  She didn’t leave a single piece of bread, eating everything and drinking all the water.  Later she returned to the mattress.

Once again a woman entered.  This time she approached her and removed her bandages.  She saw her scars for the first time and they were quite ugly, especially those on her hips.  This upset her, as it would force to her to cover hips and shoulders in front of other people.  Although she took some hope in the thought that once free, she could get plastic surgery to improve the look of her scars.

And she imagined being free some time because she did not suppose that this confinement would last much longer.  If they were preserving her life it was for some reason, and she suspected that it would not take much time finding out what it was.  On the other hand, when her mission began, she already knew that the Talibans were withdrawing and that more likely, the place where she was would be recaptured at any moment and she’d be released from her captivity.  Although two possibilities existed that distressed her.  One was that the bunker where she was could be bombed, although when she’d been captured, they were almost finished with aerial bombings.  The other was that some anti-Taliban group supported by the United States could take the bunker and, in that case, her destiny would not be her return, instead some fanatical soldier would enslave her.  But always, she was optimistic, so she preferred to imagine her future in freedom.

Suddenly the lights went off.  Evidently it was very late and it was time to sleep.  She realized that her confinement prevented her from knowing what hour of the day it was, since she couldn't see any light of the outside and the temperature was constant.

She decided to oblige and fell asleep.

The light woke her up on the following day.  After taking her breakfast, consisting of bread slices smeared with jelly and white coffee in the same round bowl in which they served her water, she decided that she had to do something to keep from being bored.

And she thought that the best was, since she had recovered almost all her strength, to exercise.  To work her muscles so that if she needed them they would respond to her needs.  She did not want to suffer again what she suffered after bathing.

She lay down face up and began to raise her hips, upwards and downwards. She repeated the exercise several times and then she relaxed. Now keeping her hips supported on the floor, she began to raise the upper part of her torso along with her head, but without bending her neck.  Soon, she repeated both exercises, but turning towards each side as she rose.  Then, she lay face down and raised her hips several times, next, the upper part of her torso.  She was working, one by one, all of her muscles, and they responded perfectly. She decided that she would repeat the routine several times a day.  After finishing she felt thirsty.  She wondered if the water in the trough was potable and supposed that it was, because otherwise it would be a chance for her to take her life, something that apparently they were not going to allow.

She went towards the water and lay down face down leaning her head down into the trough to drink.  Later she rose and turned on her side to leave.  This was easier than getting out from inside, as she had her hips supported by the floor above her.

Then, she solved her last biological challenge, which was to defecate.  She lay down face up over the hole and with her hips in the air over it.  She did it without difficulty.

She noticed that the position of the mattress, parallel to the sidewall opposite the hole to tinkle, was not the best.  That night she had not felt it necessary, but if she felt that sometimes, the distance between the mattress and the hole was too great and worse she might have to cross the cell in the dark.

She decided then to try to take the mattress to the other wall.  It was a thin mattress, only 5 centimeters thick, if it had been a normal mattress she would not have been able to move it.  But with this she could try.

She sat between the mattress and the wall and leaning against the wall, she began to push the mattress at its center with her hips.  She moved it until all her body was laid down face up between the wall and the mattress.

Now she sat in front of the mattress and she leaned forwards and she took hold of it with her teeth and then lying down moving the mattress forward as she leaned.

She repeated that movement several times, some times she had to push the mattress from the sides to keep it moving in the right direction.

After a lot of effort she managed to get to the other wall, where she lay down to rest.  But she’d gotten what she wished; now the bath was only a meter away and she could use the wall to guide herself in the dark.

Being cautious, she decided to practice.  She closed her eyes and she tried to get to the hole without opening them.  She was moving slowly next to the wall and whenever she led with the hip opposite the wall, she did it with extreme care, anticipating discovery of the hole.  Finally she found it and positioned herself to tinkle. Later, she rose and she returned to the mattress, all this without opening her eyes at any time.  She felt safer in case she needed to do it during the night.

During the day a woman entered twice to take and to retrieve the food, and after supper, another one approached to examine her wounds.  No one made the slightest attempt to engage in a dialog with her.  She did not try anything either, although were she able to speak, she could hardly be understood by these Afghan women.

Two more days passed and Tali began to be impatient, how much longer would this routine last?  She kept active doing exercises and moving herself all around the cell, but she began to become bored of this and was beginning to fear that the future held nothing else for her.  Perhaps the war would continue for several more months and meanwhile she stayed locked up there.

But, on the third day, the door of her cell opened and, when she recognized the person who entered, she almost fainted from the surprise.  It was none other than Osama Bin Laden himself!

He entered the cell alone and closed the door after him.  It could be no one else; it was he with his unmistakable white beard, his cap and his tunic.  He had no weapon in his hands, only a bag.

Tali watched him stupefied.  She could not believe that in front of her was the person whom she had to try to capture and bring, dead or alive.

Normally, she could have taken care of him without problems.  Plus, everyone knew that the man was not in the best of health.  Even if she had her hands tied behind her back she could make him fall with a kick and to choke him between her legs.  But in these conditions, she was completely defenseless and incapable of doing the slightest damage to him.

The man approached her and with a totally calm and respectful voice, spoke to her in Arabic.

“I must say to you that for my people and me, it is a great honor having you here among us.”  Evidently he knew already her identity.  She answered the compliment with a friendly smile.

“And I must thank you for taking this so well.”

She replied with a complacent smile.

“You are wondering why we have kept you alive, and mostly, why we have made those small modifications to your body.”

Small?  This man was certainly being cynical.  Although his slow, measured tone diminished the damage his words caused her.

“When my men captured you, and examined your equipment, they immediately had me called.  Evidently you were not a normal spy.  You had to be somebody special, surely with the objective of finding the Mullah Omar or me.

“I circulated your photo among several groups of fighters of the Muslim cause and from Palestine they informed me of your identity.  When we recognized you, we weren’t sure what we were going to do with you.  It would be useless to interrogate you to try to get information.  We know that you are very well trained and that we would not obtain anything even by applying the most severe methods.  In addition, your allies, when losing contact with you, surely must have taken preventive measures, modifying all the security codes that you know and retiring all the agents in key places.  Therefore the other option was to kill you.

“But I felt that it was my duty to consult with my friend, Yasser, before making that decision.  After all, he it has many pending accounts with you and it seems to me right that he is who decides your fate.  And he was indeed the one who gave me the idea of what to do with you.  He told me that his older son was looking for a very special woman for his harem, with the physical characteristics that you have at this moment.  It was then that we decided to do the operation. 

“We had the option to transfer you to Palestine and operate on you there, where there are better conditions and better professionals. But they alerted us on your great abilities to escape.  So preferring not to give you the chance, we conducted the operation here.  Lamentably, we don't have the best conditions in this country and Taliban law prohibits us to have a male doctor operate you, so we had to resort to one of the few women surgeons who live in this country.  For that reason I must extend my sincere apologies to you if the final result of the operation was not the best one.  But don't worry; in Palestine there are excellent professionals educated in your Israeli Universities that will be able to improve the aesthetic of your wounds. 

“And about the operation in your throat, it is another condition imposed by Yasser, since no woman of her son's harem can speak.

“We have already everything ready to make the transfer, which will be made tomorrow.  We decided to wait a few days until you were completely recovered from the operation to diminish the risks of your health getting worse during the trip.

“But, I am a just man, and to compensate the damage that we have done to you, I have decided that you deserve an opportunity. Therefore I have brought with me all of your equipment, excepting the weapons of course.  I am going to leave it here at your disposition.  You have until tomorrow to try to make some beneficial use to you, if with its aid you manage to escape, you will have prevailed.

“Otherwise, tomorrow we will take you to join the harem of the son of Yasser. Good luck to you and may Allah be with you.”  Saying this last phrase he approached to within a meter of her and left the bag on the floor, and he left.

Finally the mystery had been revealed.  She now knew what her destiny would be and it was not the best one, to become a slave of an Arab terrorist.  She analyzed her options, made a decision, and tried immediately to put it into practice.

She approached to the bag and she took it by the bottom.  Biting it with her mouth, she raised it and let its contents fall to the floor.  There was the leather harness that had been sewn on the inside of her Afghan tunic where she carried her equipment.  The harness had several separate sections with pockets and in them she kept different objects.  She took it from an end and she placed it on the floor, with the pockets facing up, so she could examine them.  Each pocket had a nylon zipper.  She leaned in the direction of the first pocket and she opened the zip by biting it.  Later she lifted the harness by the end so that the contents of the pocket would fall out, but nothing fell from it.

What she looked for was not there, the poison tablets.  Every secret agent has in his equipment tablets with a poison that acts immediately.  It was the final option they had when being captured, to protect the information that was in their heads.  But Bin Laden’s men, in addition to the weapons, also removed the tablets, to prevent her committing suicide.

Since she had no other option than to continue living, she began to analyze the alternatives.  She had to choose between freedom and slavery.

However, what could freedom be for her, owner of a body that already kept her in captivity?  On the other hand, she had already demonstrated what she could do locked up between four walls.  Plus, she knew that women in harems, were treated as queens, she would never need anything and would not have to worry about anything.  If Yasser’s son of liked to have women like her, surely he would have prepared everything necessary to give her all the attention that she needed.  So, the option of slavery was not so easily dismissed. But she already had discovered what she could do with her limited body and was anxious for the ability to demonstrate it in real life and to continue looking for new challenges.  In addition she was still an Israeli and felt that she could still do many things for her country, therefore she decided to choose freedom.

But something intrigued her; it did not seem clever of Bin Laden to leave her all her equipment, including some of the most sophisticated communication tools.  Perhaps it was a trick so they could learn how they were used.  It was probable that there were hidden cameras filming her in the cell, so that everything she tried to do would be recorded.

She decided to take the risk, while taking some precautions.  She took the harness with her mouth and went to the wall next to the mattress.  She sat in front of the wall and placed the harness between herself and the wall, this way she covered it with her body and regardless of the position of the cameras, they were not going to be able to record anything she might do.

Using the same technique as before, she emptied another pocket of the harness. This time she did it trying to raise it very little so that the object would not fall with much force and the mattress would cushion the fall.  It was her satellite telephone.

She examined it.  It was off.  They had removed the battery.  That was a foul!  But, well, she was not the one making the rules of this game.  She decided to look for the back-up battery, which was in a hidden pocket. Perhaps they had not discovered it and the battery was there.

She turned the harness around and she looked for a false seam that was in the middle section.  The only thing that she had to do was to break that seam and to open the closure that was underneath it, a very simple task for anyone with hands.  She did not have them, so this presented a new difficulty.  But she did not surrender.

She braced the end of the harness under her hips and she raised it biting in where it was the seam.  When she tightened it to the maximum while forcefully biting one of the sides of the seam, she finally managed to break it.  She separated the fabric that covered the zip closure with her teeth and opened it.  Soon she dumped the contents of the hidden pocket.  The battery was there; luckily they had not found it.  She continued, hoping that if there were cameras, they could not catch the scene.

Now she had to place the battery in the telephone.  Another interesting challenge.  The battery was placed in the bottom of the device and then it was necessary to press it so that it fit in its socket.

In order to be able to do this, she placed the device in the floor with the keyboard down, so that the battery can be positioned from above. She lay face down, biting the battery and tried to slide it on the telephone.  But the phone moved forward, preventing her from putting the battery in its proper place.  Then, she took the telephone and she supported it against the wall.  There it would remain stationary and she would be able to position the battery.  She bit it again and moved it on the telephone, which now remained in place.  She got it into the bottom and with relief, heard the "click". The battery was installed.

Now she had to turn on the telephone.  This was done with a red key.  But it was a very small telephone and therefore its keys were also small. She tried several times with her nose, but she could not press the right key.

She thought for a moment and found the solution.  She looked in another pocket of the harness, where there was a metal piece of very long and thin cylinder.  It was a spare part antenna, for transmitting at a distance.  But in this case she was going to give it another use. She bit the antenna with her mouth and she pointed it towards the key, now she could press it and the telephone turned on.

Now she had to dial the number of her contact and to try to communicate with him.  She did it, a few moments passed and a voice in English was heard in the phone.

“Hello.  Password, please.”

What a problem!  it was a safety measure in case the telephone fell in enemy hands.  She only had to say, "Elvis Presley".  But she could not make the slightest sound with her mouth.  She decided to send the password using the keys of the telephone, 3584707737539.

“Password, please,” the voice insisted.

She dialed the same number again.  But the guy still didn't understand and hung up.

She contemplated the telephone for several minutes feeling discouraged.  Her hopes were vanishing.  Suddenly, the phone began to vibrate and on the screen she saw the phrase "Incoming Call" blinking. 

She took the antenna and pressed a key to answer the call.

“Password accepted.  Please, state your name.’

These Americans were not so silly after all; they must have some equipment that allows them to decipher the numerical keys and could understand the message.  She answered, always pressing the numbers: 

- I am Tali. I am prisoner. I cannot speak. Please come to rescue me urgent, tomorrow will be late

The answer arrived after a few seconds.

“We understand, Tali, keep the phone turned on for the next five minutes then turn it off and don't call us again.  We will locate your position.  Keep yourself calm. We are coming for you.”

After this she heard nothing more than static.  Tali did what she was requested to do, kept the phone on and later turned it off.  She again took it between her teeth and replaced it in the pocket of the harness, closing it with the zip closure. Later she left the harness under the mattress and continued with her routine of exercises and movements in the cell.  She was quiet now.  Help was on way.

 

Several hours later, between lunch and supper, she heard shouting and gunshots from her cell.

Something unusual was happening outside.

Suddenly, the door opened and two Afghani looking men, but without the traditional Taliban beard, entered the cell.  It was a rebel commando who had managed to take the place.

This frightened Tali very much, as she did not know what would happen to her.  Perhaps the entrance of these men had nothing to do with her communication and her destiny would be the one she had originally feared.

The men spoke among themselves and, soon one left, to enter later with a tunic.  He approached her and put the tunic on her, after asking her something in his language.  She gestured, indicating that she did not understand.

Then the man asked to her again in English, “Now do you understand me?”

Tali agreed, shaking her head and then raising it to display the scar on her neck.

“Can you speak?”

Tali shook her head to indicate the negative.

“Don't worry, we will take you to Kabul so that they can take care of you.”

Luckily, this group was of the good ones.  She sighed as her spirits lightened.

One of the men picked her up and took her in his arms.  They left the cell and crossed several corridors, finally arriving at an elevator.  They went up several floors and when the door opened they were in a cavern. The man took her to a truck where he placed her in the back. Inside there were other Afghan women who surely were captives like her, although none of them was lacking any parts of their bodies.

During the trip, which lasted a couple of hours, she was fed with the assistance of one of the women.

In Kabul, they took her to one of the Red Cross centers caring for the military wounded.  They placed her in one of the beds.

There she could see the great number of people who were there with amputated limbs.  She had read in the news that in Afghanistan were many mines planted and that many people stepped on them and lost one or both legs due to the explosions.

Also, there were people who had lost one or both arms, and some quadruple amputees like her.  Although as they spoke among themselves, she saw that to no one else had had their vocal cords removed.

 

She decided not to remain quiet and began to move in her bed, going forwards and backwards several times, as well as doing the exercises she that did in her cell.  She did not want to lose her physical conditioning.  The other patients observed her with curiosity and some of them tried to imitate her.

A volunteer approached her and left her a pencil and a paper on the small table that was next to the bed.

“If you want to say something to us, try to write it here.”

This was interesting, she had to take advantage of the opportunity.  After all, if she were going to live in those conditions for the rest of her life, she would have to learn to write using her mouth, because it would be the only way that she would have to communicate.

She took the pencil and it began to scrawl some letters.  It was not easy for her.  The volunteer approached her often and changed the paper to her when Tali filled it of pothooks.

After enough practice, she managed to write some legible letters and numbers. She decided that this was the opportunity to return home. She wrote that they should call to her boss in Israel and to request him to send somebody.  She gave some passwords so that the call would be recognized.

“We’ll be calling soon, in a couple of days someone will come to look after you, stay calm and rest,” the volunteer said to her.

During the next two days, Tali continued practicing her mouth writing.

Finally, she was filled with joy as she saw a Mossad agent enter the room.

“Finally, we have found you,” he said to her in Hebrew.  “We were very worried about you, we thought that you had died.”

She answered to him writing in the paper. -I have nine lives, like a cat. –

“But look what they did to you, those beasts.”

-       Don't worry about me, I’m getting used to it. –

“I am happy for you.  I don’t know what I’d do if the same thing had happen to me.”

-       It is a matter of adapting –

After writing this she showed him as she walked on the bed.

“That’s great!  You’re not so bad after all.”

-       One does what one can -  Tali wrote on the paper.

“OK, we have chatted enough, let's go home.  Everybody is waiting for you.”  Saying this, he placed her in a wheelchair that he’d brought with him and began to move it.  Tali turned her head towards the writing desk and made gestures.

“Do you want to take to the pencil and the paper?”

Tali agreed, nodding her head.  She’d been confined for a long time had great need to speak with somebody.

He took her outside the building and into an automobile, taking the wheelchair with him.

They went to the airport, where an Israeli military airplane was waiting.  They raised her in the chair.  During the trip, she continued talking with her companion.  She told him everything that had happened and how she had Osama Bin Laden in front of her.  She lamented being unable to do anything.  She consoled herself by explaining that if she had an opportunity, the terrorist would not have taken the risk.  She understood this, but she still felt frustrated.

She asked him what was going on with the war.  He responded that they were continuing to advance over the Talibans but that they had still had not been able to capture Bin Laden or Mullah Omar.  She also asked him about Israel and the situation with the Palestinians.  He told her that things were getting more and more tense, that the conflict worsened more and more.

During the rest of the trip she continued to think about on her future.  Her country needed her and more, she had to find the way to be useful.

Days later, Tali was sitting in a chair in front of her boss.  In her throat there was a small white device, which covered the area of her scar.  She wore a blouse that left her shoulders in the open, in which her scars could barely be seen.  An Israeli plastic surgeon had treated her wounds and he had left her only small red marks, both in her shoulders and her hips.  In addition, they placed an apparatus in her throat that allowed her to speak.  The voice that she had was metallic and without nuance or intonation, but at least she could communicate.

“Tali, the country wants to thank you for your services.  Therefore, you were granted a lifetime pension.  In addition, you will have a house specially designed for you so that you can manage easily and several people will be at your service to attend you in your every need.”

“But, does that mean that I am no longer going to work for the agency?”

“You will be treated like a soldier wounded in battle, what more could you request?”

“To continue working in the agency, nothing else.”

“But in your condition, we can no longer send you on more missions.”

“I don't believe that I am so useless, if you let me, I can show you everything what I can do.”

“It’s not that, it’s that you are defenseless, we cannot let you take any further risk.”

“Well, I can no longer fight, but I can do other things, to train agents for example.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but it doesn’t seem bad to me, after all it would be very good if you could pass along your experiences.  I’ll make all the necessary arrangements.”

“Thanks, you don't know how important is for me to stay in action.”

“I do understand.”

And, thus, Tali’s life continues, working in the agency, teaching everything she knows to inexperienced agents.  It’s very funny to see her in the class.  They had arranged a long bed with a blackboard on the side and she does her teaching on the bed moving from one side to another, and writing on the blackboard with a chalk that she held with a long stick.

 

And at home, she had it adapted so that it resembled the cell where she was locked up.  Instead of dividers, it was a single large room.  The toilet was a hole in the floor, although of somewhat smaller dimensions than the one in the cell, so that she could sit on it without having to keep her balance. And the bathtub was a trough parallel to one of the walls with circulating water.  She requested that only one person assist her and then only in the tasks that she could not do herself, like cooking and cleaning.  But she did not want to be fed.  Her food had to be served in a tray in the floor in the same manner as it had when they served it to her in the cell.  Also, she had a gymnasium with special apparatus to allow her to work each muscle of her body. 

On the other hand, she began to have a more and more intimate relationship with Rafi, the agent who had looked for her in Afghanistan.

Her life could not be better; she enjoyed her work and her house, as well as her boyfriend with whom every day she looked for new forms of sexual pleasure.  She had never thought that the lower part of her hips would be so sensitive and so sexual; when Rafi caressed her there she was immediately aroused.

Several times she asked herself the same question and she did not have an answer for it.  If she could return to the time to when she had her arms and legs and she could choose not to do the mission, knowing what her destiny would be, would she reject it?  She was so happy with her new body and her new life that she was almost sure that if she were able to rewrite her history, she would not change a letter of it.