The Darkest Heart (37 page)

I fired another shot and followed, hitting the wall at a run, putting my hands out to stop myself.

Now everything was silent except for the regular gasp of our breathing.

Sister Beckett was white, all colour drained from her face, and she was shaking her head, staring at me. ‘You killed that man.'

‘I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't come up here.'

‘But—'

‘What else could I have done? Should I have let him kill
you?'

‘No, but—'

‘Well, of course I killed him. What world do you live in, dragging us up here to get shot at, thinking you can just walk in and talk to these people?'

‘We had to do something.'

‘We should have
left.
You should have done what I told you and we should have left.'

Sister Beckett stared, open mouthed, flinching when another shot cracked somewhere close and wood splintered from the corner of the building, the lead whistling as it altered course and crashed somewhere amongst the trees.

‘Take this.' I handed my pistol to Kássia. ‘Just
take
it. Two shots left. I want you to let them know you're still here.'

‘What are you going to do?' She looked at it.

‘Go round the back.' I drew the other pistol. ‘If they think we're still here ...' I shrugged. ‘It's the best we can do. We can't wait for them to come and get us.'

Kássia nodded, taking the pistol.

‘I'm guessing you don't need me to tell you how to use it.'

Kássia took a deep breath and wrapped her fingers round the handle. ‘Go.' She leaned out from the edge of the building and fired into the street. ‘Only one left.'

Circling the house, I made my way along the rear of the buildings, watching for the
pistoleiros
, expecting to meet them at any moment. It wasn't until I heard Kássia fire the final shot from my pistol, though, that I leaned around the wall of the last shack to see the two men taking cover with their backs to me.

Without any warning, I shot the first through the back of the head, blood spraying the second man who flinched away in surprise. My second bullet caught him in the cheek, tearing through the thin flesh. He howled in pain and I fired again, this time hitting him behind the ear, his noise ceasing immediately, his head jerking to the side and banging against the wall, leaving a glistening patch against the dark wood.

I had seen only these two men taking cover, but I couldn't
assume they were alone, so I returned the way I had come, finding Kássia and Sister Beckett just as I had left them. ‘Let's go,' I said taking my pistol. ‘Pick her up and let's get out of here.'

Kássia and Sister Beckett led the way through the corn, and I followed, walking backwards, keeping my eyes on the settlement, watching for movement but seeing nothing.

‘You killed those men.' Sister Beckett was saying behind me. ‘You killed them.'

‘Yes I killed them,' I said, without looking at her. ‘And if I hadn't—' I heard a loud cry and whipped around to see a man come from behind a tree at the side of the path, swinging a machete.

Kássia raised her arm to protect herself and the blade caught her high on the bicep, slicing through her skin just below the sleeve of her T-shirt, drawing blood and peeling flesh as it glanced away and the man retracted, ready to strike again.

I raised my pistol, but Sister Beckett and Kássia blocked my angle, so I moved into the trees looking for a shot as the man raised the machete for a second strike.

As he lifted the blade, though, Kássia pushed Sister Beckett away from her and grasped the man's arm. She held it firm as she slipped round behind him, raising her left hand to his throat.

From where I was standing, there was no shot to take without risking Kássia's life, but I could see that she was more than capable of defending herself, for her left hand was not empty. She had produced a blade of her own from somewhere – narrow and no more than ten or twelve centimetres of bright steel – and she slipped it, point first, into the hollow of the man's neck. In and out, like she had slid it into wet sand, and then the blade was gone and she was stepping away from him as he reeled, hands to his throat, blood bubbling from his lips.

Kássia didn't wait, didn't watch, she went straight to Sister Beckett, pulled her to her feet and continued along the path, coming out to the beach where Daniella was at the gunwale of the
Deus.

‘What the hell's going on?' she asked as we reached the boat and I pushed Kássia ahead of me, urging her to climb. The wound
on her arm was superficial, but a flap of skin was hanging, folded back, and blood was coursing down her arm into the water.

I could hear Leonardo calling out, saying, ‘Cut me loose and give me a gun,
Carioca.
I can help.'

‘Get to the wheel,' I shouted at Daniella as Kássia climbed over the gunwale and turned to take Sister Beckett's hand. ‘Get us moving.'

I put my shoulder under Sister Beckett's backside as she climbed, and found a hold on the
Deus
, pushing her up ahead of me.

As soon as we were on the deck, I went to Daniella, taking the rifle and leaning it across the gunwale, pointing it at the beach while she throttled the engine and took us away from the shore.

As we headed out into the river, I waited like that, ignoring Daniella's questions, ignoring Leonardo's calls for me to arm him, and braced myself for further shots until the beach was out of sight.

When we had finally left that place of death behind us, I came away from the gunwale and went to Kássia. I had intended to dress her wound, but already her upper arm was wrapped in a bandage. She was sitting with her head in her hands, while Sister Beckett stood over her, speaking in quiet but harsh tones.

‘You're lucky to be alive,' I told her, but she didn't acknowledge me other than to sniff her disapproval.

‘What happened?' Leonardo was shifting in his seat, struggling to be free from his bonds. He looked back at the shore. ‘Someone going to come after us? Cut me loose, for Christ's sake. Don't let me die tied up like an animal.'

‘No one's dying.' I shook my head and went to Daniella, sitting beside her behind the wheel, ignoring Leonardo's calls until he finally gave up.

‘You going to tell me what happened now?' Daniella asked.

‘Stupid woman.'

‘What?' ‘Not you. Her. She wouldn't listen to me, and look what
happened,' I told Daniella what we had seen in the settlement, and about the men I shot.

‘You killed them?'

I could feel Daniella watching me and wondered if she was judging me.

‘I had to.' I took out my pistols, reached for the spare cartridges I'd left beneath the dash.

Daniella was silent beside me as I reloaded the chambers. She kept her hands on the wheel, moving them only when the river required it. I could feel her breathing, the rise and fall of her chest close to mine, squeezed together as we were on the seat. My fingers were trembling as I replayed the incident in the settlement. The men I had killed, the bodies I had seen. How many people were dead in that place? Ten? Twenty? Children, too. Maybe I would be dead if the men had been carrying weapons like the ones in the boxes at the back of the boat. Those boxes were as full of death as they were full of guns.

‘How did it feel?'

‘Huh?'

‘How did it feel?' she asked. ‘Killing those men?'

I snapped the cylinder shut and looked at her.

Those men had deserved it. The things they had done to the people in that village had earned them the deaths I had given them. ‘I did what I had to do to protect us.'

And I had protected Sister Beckett.

‘Then you feel like you did something right?' Daniella asked.

I glanced back at Sister Beckett and remembered my mistake when I had called her by name. Did she know my intention? ‘God knows why I bothered,' I said, still watching. ‘God knows why I didn't let them just ...' I thought about Costa's money, and in my mind I saw Sister Beckett lying dead by another man's hand. I could have earned the money without ever having to harm her. But I would have been instrumental in her death, and back there, I had acted without thinking. I had saved Sister Beckett's life.

That
had been my instinct. To protect, not to kill.

Perhaps she was the key to casting off the shadow.

‘No,' I turned back to Daniella. ‘It doesn't feel like anything. I did it and it's done. But for her, though, for
Dolores
, it's not like that. For her it's like someone opened her eyes to the real world, thinking she could float through it with words and good intentions. I had to kill four men to protect her life. And her friend killed a man, too.'

‘Kássia?'

‘Cut his throat. So much for being armed only with words and smiles. The way she did it, I'd say she's done it before. I've seen experts slaughter animals in the same way.' I put a finger to the hollow in my neck. ‘She took her knife and ...' I saw the distaste on Daniella's face and realised I had been lost in my own thoughts. She didn't need to know the detail. I cleared my throat. ‘She dressed her wound better than I would've done and she didn't lose her nerve. Not once. I reckon she's carrying more than a knife, too.'

It was Daniella's turn to look at the two women sitting opposite Leonardo.

Sister Beckett was leaning back, her face to the sky.

‘She doesn't only have to deal with what I've done in her name,' I said. ‘She has to deal with what her companion has done. And she has to deal with being wrong.'

Daniella took a cigarette from the packet on the shelf under the wheel and put one between her lips. She lit it with a plastic lighter and took a drag. I wished I smoked, seeing the pleasure it gave her. The calming effect.

‘You had cigarettes all this time?' Leonardo called from behind us. ‘Are you going to let me have one?'

‘No.'

‘Are you going to tell me what all the shooting was about, then?' Those women won't tell me shit. Did you have to shoot someone and show them what a bad man you are? I told you we're not so different.'

I left the wheelhouse and went to where Leonardo was secured. ‘The difference is that you would have been one of
them.'

‘Them?
You mean the kind of people who would do what I
saw on that beach back there? The kind of people who would kill women? You saying you've never done something like—'

I grabbed the scruff of his shirt and pulled him close. ‘I'm nothing like you, Leonardo.
Nothing.'
I pushed him back against the gunwale and pulled him forward again. ‘Who are they for? Who are the guns for?'

Leonardo shrugged.

‘Who?' I banged him against the gunwale once more.

‘I'II die before I tell you that.' He grinned. ‘But you know that.'

I pushed him back against the gunwale and released him, turning to walk away before I did something worse.

‘You've got bad things in you, Zico,' he called after me. ‘Bad things.'

47

There was almost no light left in the sky when we reached Mina dos Santos, and it would've been easy to glide past and not notice it, nestled in the dusk.

There was very little on the riverside to suggest there was any kind of community hiding just half a kilometre onshore. A cleared area of trees, a permanent beach, a small wooden jetty of no more than a couple of metres. There were two outboards moored there, the engines tipped forward to lift the long propeller shafts from the water, and there was a dugout canoe pulled up onto the sand.

Nothing else.

I cut the engine and slid the
Deus
towards the bank, keeping her to the darker water. All was quiet.

‘This is it?' Daniella said to me. Her voice was close to a whisper. ‘I expected more boats. People,'

‘Most people come by road.'

‘Unless they're carrying weapons, right?'

‘Something like that.'

‘So what about
her?'
Daniella asked. ‘Why is
she
coming here? And why by boat?'

‘Why don't you ask her?'

‘I did. When you were asleep.'

‘And what did she say?'

‘FUNAI work.'

‘Then that's all she wants you to know.' I looked at the shore and changed the subject. ‘We'll let them leave and we'll go later; get some supplies for the return journey.'

‘Why not now?'

‘We can be alone for a while,' I said. ‘We'll have the boat to ourselves. There's no hurry to go ashore.' Sister Beckett wouldn't be going anywhere tonight, and Leonardo would need to find his contact.

I took her hands and put them on the wheel, saying, ‘Guide us in.'

Once we were close enough, I jumped down onto the cracked and crooked planks of the jetty, and tied the
Deus
off before climbing back on.

‘Well, you got us here in one piece,' said Sister Beckett.

‘Not a very comfortable ride, though, was it?' Leonardo grumbled from his seat. ‘It's starting to get cold, you know.'

She ignored him and came closer to me. ‘I should be grateful to you. I should be grateful but I can't find it in myself. It's wrong for me to be glad to be alive when another has had to ...'

‘It's OK.'

‘You understand?'

‘Those men deserved everything I did to them but you don't know how to deal with it. I understand
that.'

‘I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you.'

‘And for Kássia.'

‘Yes.'

‘Maybe you'll listen next time. Even to someone like me.'

‘I misjudged you.'

‘I don't think so.'

Sister Beckett took off her glasses and cleaned them on her T-shirt. ‘I learned something today,' she said, ‘but I'm not sure what it is yet.' She replaced her glasses and stared at me with magnified eyes. ‘I just want to be away from here now.'