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Chapter 4: the caffe shop

The three young trainees reached a caffe shop over the coastline with a large yard fall of tables , the place was quite with only few people in small groups , they choose their table and ordered some fresh juice with some cakes , that evening was very calm except of noises coming from the sea side , every minute passed ,new people were coming and new trainees were appearing , some with authentic permissions others sneaking out without a permission , just small amounts of bribes were paid to the guard to guarantee a safe pass , the shop workers started to prepare the new tables to the newcomers, a group of young trainees approached the table of the three friends and one of them seeing Hassan, had come for greetings as he said, he greeted him without looking at the other two who were in his company and he said: congratulations Hassan oglo , we heard that your sister weeding is taken place the next few days, but we didn't receive any invitation cards? Hassan looked at him with a faintly smile and responded : you know the situation and the country s engagement in the war , therefore our parents and the groom s decided to make a tight ceremony, closed only to few relatives and friends,the young trainee, whose name was Kamal , looked at Hassan in disbelief and said: but we heard that some low level guests were invited like these Arabs of friends of yours , were invited, Im mistaken or it is true that you and your family prefer the low types like these types of yours, you may have forgotten the etiquette in dealing with your surrounding, with these words he diverted his eyes to Abdul and Jamil looking at them in a disgusting look , Jamil and Abdul understood the insult was directed to them and Jamil wanted to rise to face the stupid insulting boy, but Abdul held his hand and Hassan stood up from his seat with an angry exploding face, he retorted to the boy saying: the low levels and real traitors are your type and your family bad seeds , these people you called low are descending from family of high ranks and noble past , their families served our nation and our empire for generations and centuries while your low level types were selling their people , their country and their flag to ambassadors and foreigners, you drunkards race were always in the laps of foreign prostitutes selling the secrets of our nation for one red night or for a drinking party full of alcohol or prostitution and he was about to hit the trainee in his face when a higher voice rose up over their quarrel , a high rank officer rushed in with a group of assistants officers on his side, the presence of the General made the whole caffe shop silent with surprise, the General was the head of the training school of marines , an old man with a lot of badges on his chest, the General was an admiral in the ottoman navy restored to lead the training school, he addressed the whole presents with his words: I'm admiral Ahmed Ali arzagan , who didn't know me before let him know me today, I'm used to pass everyday in a walk near these caffe shops to check the orders and to see how you are consuming your free time, I know everything is going on here and I know who is getting out with an authorized permissions and who is not , if you think that we have blind eyes regarding our trainees and their behavior you are mistaken, from today on, we will take harder measures and new sanctions regarding any violation of orders ,regarding the outings or the trouble makers, I warn all of you from now on that severe punishments will be taken for all who refuse to follow orders including the end of terms of trainings and throwing out every person violates the new order and believe me that will bring dishonor to the guilty and to his family too , from today on , officers will come to check the legitimate pass permissions with every one of you and no closing eyes are permitted any more , the whole caffe shop fell in silence and when Hassan tried to open his mouth after raising his hand for permission , an officer inclined to Hassan ear and murmured: after an hour to the General s office and the group of officers left as soon as they rushed in , the total presents fell in silence then a group of trainees stood up and one of them looked in disgust in Kamal and his group direction and said: there are some insects in our school who are not worthy to wear the officer s costume or to serve under the ottoman s flag and he left with his group, the place started gradually to return to its normality then Kamal rose up and addressing this time Abdul and Hassan and said: you Arabs traitors talk here about nation and loyalty while your dig your swords and daggers in our back and in the heart of our state , you are harmful insects worth to be put under foot or hanged on crosses, you are not different than those traitors in the Arabia who rise flag of Arabic along side the English flag , Abdul responded directly to him : you are not different from these traitors of the Sheriff Husain you mentioned, they dig their swords in the chests of our hero soldiers who are defending in these moments the Mekka and the city of our prophet with their blood and souls while traitors like you dig their digger in the body of the nation, you are trying to serve our enemy by destroying our unity and integrity ,talking dirty talk about discrimination and racist words , the honesty and real loyal to his nation and his sultan doesn't divide his people to races and groups , the traitors Wether to be Arabs or Turks are traitors by their nature , culture and family backgrounds, Hassan interfered: the Arabs and the Turks are all one, who plays on their divisions is the true traitor of our cause , a group ih Arab trainees were sitting far following the quarrel from the beginning , one of them signed to Jamil who was looking around that they want to meet and talk. In the admiral office : Hassan entered the office of the admiral,a guard stopped him on the entrance asking him about the subject he came for and he told him that the General called after him to come , the guard told him to wait till he gets a permission to go in , he waited in the hall , afraid and worried that the admiral will be angry with him and maybe he may punish him for the fight in the caffe s yard, the guards came back allowing the trainee to come in , he went in to find himself in front of another officer who informed him to be the General first secretary and he politely asked him to sit down till orders come to attends, few minutes passed and the door of the General personal office opened , the General came in person and with a stern look ,signed to Hassan to follow him, the General took his sit signing to Hassan to sit down while he was looking at some files on his desk while Hassan was rooming with his eyes around looking at the General nice decorated office , it was a large room of an old castle , ottoman or bezant as he guessed then the General addressed him for the first time with a broad smile saying: Mohammad Hassan oglo the second born of the General colonel sabri Hassan oglo , born in 1895 , his mother is Fatima Hassan Oglo , enrolled in the school of marines in October 1913, the General was reading from of the file opposite to him on his desk , when the General finished reading with another broad smile asked Hassan what drink he prefers to take , caffe or fruit juice , after his long agitation and worries , Hassan relaxed , he preferred to take a fresh juice to refresh himself and the General pushed a bell immediately the secretary came and he was given an order to bring a juice with a caffe to the General , the old man started his lecture as it seemed to be for Hassan , he talked a lot about Hassan s family good reputation and informed him that the General s father was a friend of Hassan s uncle , the admiral Ihsan Pasha and he himself served in the marines under Ihsan pasha s leadership , saying he was to retire after the coup d etat against the great sultan Abdul Hamid khan , but the present rulers called him to supervise the school of marines officers and voluntarily accepted the post to serve his country and his flag , Hassan was surprised that a General in his rank was naming the sultan Abdul Hamid khan in that hight respect when the name of the sultan was forbidden to be mentioned, the wise General understood what was rolling in Hassan s mind and said clearly: I know that you ask yourself , how a General in my rank and position mentions the forbidden name of his majesty , I'm telling you my son, I never changed my position ever towards the best sultan we had seen for a century or more and all of these bastards know my position, they know too the loyal party to his majesty is still strong and maybe able to overthrow them too , but our fear of a civilian war could burst in the whole nationa that may divide the empire into fragments , was the only reason that stopped us from running to a direct confrontation, these traitors had sold our nation to the Zionists of Theodore Hertzel , when Theodore Hertzel came to meet our sultan, he sat down under his feet praying his sympathy to give orders to allow the Hebrews to Immigrate to Palestine since the old order was forbidding the Hebrews to settle there especially in the city of Alqus, Jerusalem , he offered in case he was given that permission to pay the whole debts of the Ottomans and to build a strong navy to protect the costs and the ports and many other offers , he thought if he bribed the sultan all the doors will be open for them , our pious sultan refused totally his offers and responded to him: these lands of Palestine and Alqus , are not my father's property or my inheritance oh my sultans fathers , this is a property to the whole Islamic words, I prefer to cut my fingers or my hand than to sign a permission of that kind and from that time on ,the Zionists declared an open and secret war against our nation and against the great sultan in person, do you think these stupid General like Mostafa pasha or Medhat pasha with their followers could overthrow the sultan by their own power and force? The game is much more bigger than what you think or what so many others think , it is an international plot and conspiracy prepared very carefully in some dark offices and these Turkish Generals are only the simple soldier of the chess to eliminate the shah by saying" shah mat" or the king is dead , the Zionists are more powerful than what we could think , but Allah our protector is the strongest and the whole mighty that no power could stand against him, I know what I'm saying now is very dangerous my son, but I fear nobody more than I fear Allah, I known that we in our present miserable conditions can't beat the devil and that what our sultan knew too and that s why he didn't surrender to their bribes, knowing that the cancer was in his highest level and best condition , he didn't want the next generations to cast condemnations on him , he wanted to teach the coming generations not to surrender and to fight to the last bullet in their riffle, our Sultan is still alive , but he is locked in his castle , before he left he gave us his last advice: not to surrender whatever your conditions are and advised too to put trust in the new generations to be aware of the big game hoping that the reconciliation day will come and the sun will rise over our Hilal again, the General paused a little bit then he consumed his speech : as for you me son , I had been watching your moves and others moves from the first moment you put your steps inside this school , we have a file for every trainee in this school , I myself keep files for the elites I choose among you and you are one of these elites, the higher rulers gave me the authority to check over everyone here , their target is to eliminate any threat may arise that may endanger their devilish plot , but made the contrary, I decided to help and cover the elements that could be dangerous to these bastards, I don't trust almost nobody, except my closed circle of secret assistants , those officers around me , most of them are sold very cheaply to serve the traitors cause, they keep a keen eye on me and my moves , I know that and I intend to supply them with false reports. That why I preferred to see you this evening alone, you see in my office there are four empty desks for four assistants officers, three if them are working for the traitors and one is my faithful and this secretary outside is one of my trusted men , what I want you to do , is that you keep surveying the trainees and you have to keep your opinions to yourself only to those you find trustworthy like your two Arabic friends , Abdul and Jamil , we became very sure that these two trainees are of the best to serve our cause , so don't worry and keep with them , they were under our watch the day they arrived to Istanbul and keep your struggle but step by step and very carefully, our enemy my son is very powerful. The General finished his lecture and started to take his caffe although that it was cold in that time . Few minutes the General called his secretary and ordered him to call the trainees , Abdul and Jamil too. Like Hassan , Abdul and Jamil were worried when they were called to the General office , the reached the office and their nerves were very tense , they were expecting some dreadful decisions concerning their life and service in the army , they were allowed to enter the big office immediately, on their entry, Hassan pretended to be serious and when , to their surprise , the General allowed them to sit down with a broad smile, Hassan knew that his game came fast to an end , he smiled to them moving his face that made them smile despite of their anger with him, the General read again their files and informed them with few words about their mission and he addressed Abdul saying: when you write to your father, Agha Ahmed send my greetings to him too , Abdul was surprised of mentioning the name of his father , the General smiled and said: in my young age, I was sent to serve in Tripoli and we used to make tours in the villages to know the people of your community better and I was advised to visit your town since it was told to be the old capital of the famous Yousef pasha Al Saifa , there I got introduced to your grandfather , Melhem Agha which was really a true successor of his grand pasha, your father was almost in my age and we became close friends , I know that your family was always faithful to our cause and I'll tel you a secret , I'm the one who enlisted your name among the Arabic trainees called to service , to Abdul great surprise the General gave them the permission to leave with his voice :"please be one body and one soul my sons ". The next day the three friends agreed to take their supper in a restaurant and after that to meet with the Arabic trainees who signed to Jamil for a meeting