The Intern Affair (51 page)

Jasmin
laughed. “Yes, we have prepared the dish for you and Samir, and he’s waiting in the front section for you to go and join him for the evening meal.”

Within minutes, Talya was ready.
Jasmin
had chosen a cream thawb and cotton pants, over which she slipped a beautifully woven abayah made of fine wool with discreet threads of green and burgundy running vertically through the wool.
It felt soft and comfortable.
In the afternoon, she had bandaged Talya’s ankle after rubbing some ointment on it once again; it was definitely getting better.
Talya didn’t have to hop
anymore;
she could actually limp without too much pain.

As
Jasmin
parted the separating drape, Talya saw Samir
arms crossed over his chest,
waiting.

He took her hand. “You look beautiful tonight, Talya.
I see that I was right to have you rest for a while.
Your cheeks have regained some colour and your skin feels dry and warm.”

“Thank you, Samir.
And, yes, I feel much better, but I’ll feel even better if you give me something to eat.”

He chuckled heartily and
Jasmin
giggled from behind Talya.

“Let’s have a meal then.
Come and sit down.
Afilah
will bring us food. And I will ask Mamadou to play his balafon for us.”

Afilah
brought the food out and set the brass plate on the floor, kneeling down as she did.
Talya saw her eyes shoot
a questioning glance at Samir.

“Yes,
Afilah
, what is it?
What do you want to say?”
Samir looked kindly at the woman.
She then spoke a few words in Arabic.

Samir turned to Talya. “
Afilah
has asked me if you wish to water Katoof tonight with her. She would be honoured if you would fulfil her wish.”

“Yes, of course I would, but I don’t know how,” Talya replied with some reservation, and then added, “Katoof may not appreciate my company. He was restless whole morning, I noticed.”

Samir translated what Talya had said and she saw
Afilah
smile.
She said another few words, which Samir repeated in French.
“
Afilah
tells me that she feels that you have love in your heart for the animal and that Katoof will not deny the care.”

“
Afilah
, look at me,” Talya said, reaching for her hands. “I would love to go with you and once you show me how, I could come with you every night—”

“Princess, we don’t water camels every night,” Samir cut in, grinning.
“Only when we are near a well do we allow them to drink.
But I know what you meant, and I will tell
Afilah
presently.”
He did so.
All the while
Afilah
was looking at Talya, smiling gently.

She then rose to her feet and asked, “Good?” pointing at the dish in front of them.

Talya laughed and said, “Yes,
Afilah
,
very good!
”

When they had eaten, they went with
Afilah
and
Jasmin
to water Katoof.
Both women brought wooden troughs filled with water and set them beside the animal.
From his great height, he lowered his head and began drinking.
Again, Talya wanted to pet his head, and again Samir pulled her hand away.
“Let him drink first, Talya.
If you touched him now, he would think that you want to take the water away.
So we will touch him together when he’s finished.”

There were other women and other boys attending to the other beasts. Under the dim lights of the burning torches, they looked like majestic monsters lowering and raising their heads to and from the troughs.
The sky over them was as black as velvet onto which myriad of stars had been sprayed against the cloth.

As Talya was admiring the beauty above, Samir said, “Would you like to walk for a little while?”

“Yes. Please let’s go and sit somewhere away from everyone.”

She was still limping and Samir made her walking easier by holding her around the waist.

“I hope you will be healed when we reached Sabodala, otherwise I’ll leave you under my brother’s protection and
Jasmin
’s care, and Ishmael and I will carry out the mission ourselves.”

That halted Talya’s progress instantly.
She looked up at her companion in anger and frustration.
She knew what he meant to do.
Not only did he want her to stay away, because she might hinder his progress in Sabodala, but he wanted him and his brother to be free to do away with the men who had contributed to the horror so many people had endured at that site.

“Samir, I know I won’t be able to stop you if you want to avenge any of the murders, but I beg of you, don’t make me stay away.
I would leave the mehalla, never to return or lay eyes on you, if you did.
You’re the one who showed me what vengeance feels like.
You’re not going alone!”

“Princess, let’s sit down and we’ll talk—”

“No.
We are not
talking
about anything. You are going to tell me right now, that you won’t leave me behind or—” The words died in her mouth. Samir had grabbed her and had put a finger across her lips.
Talya turned her head away but remained nestled in his loving arms.

“Princess,” he whispered, “please don’t ever say those words again. I would not stand for the threats they implied.” He released his embrace slightly.

”Samir, you said it first.
You’re the one intending to leave me behind.”

“I know I did, the angry man in me was saying the words. I can’t see you like this, putting yourself through the torture of injuries and sickness while I stand watching you drown in powerlessness. It hurts me.”

“Don’t you think I would prefer to be well, but as it is,
Charos
didn’t want to make my task any easier.
That was part of his plan also.
How fast can an injured horse run?
How high can a tiger leap to catch his prey if he has a torn in his paw?” Talya peered into his eyes, and then added, “I won’t let you go … I can’t, Samir—”

“Let’s sit down.” And he did.

Talya was still standing when
she said,
“Samir, I am waiting for your answer.”

“Sit down, Princess!” He grabbed her hand and dragged her down roughly to sit beside him.
He then put his arm around her shoulders. “You can’t prevent the man in me to speak up, but you can prevent him to succumb to his desires, and so you have.
You can rest with peace in your heart; I will not leave you because I can see that it would hurt you and that I won’t ever do.”

“All right then, I’ll forgive you.” Talya lowered her eyes.

“For ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,”
Samir recited quietly. She looked up at him in surprise.

“Those are the words of Matthew, one of Jesus’ apostles, how did you…?”

“You mean how could I recite verses of the
B
ible?”

“Yes, I… Samir tell me where and how you learned…” She was getting more and more curious.

“Have you ever heard of the
‘sacred succession of prophecies’
?”

“No, I haven’t and I want to hear this—”

“I don’t believe your God to be different
from
mine. In time, I will show you what I mean, and then you will have no more ambivalence in your heart.
For the teachings of the Lord have been spo
ken
in a sacred succession of prophecies and laws. Abraham passed the laws down to his sons Isaac and Ishmael. Moses received the Torah and the Ten Commandments. David gave us the Psalms and Isa, whom you call Jesus, laid down the Gospels as the Christian laws. Ultimately, the full revelation of God was passed onto Muhammad into the words of the Koran, which formed the basis for our shariah, our Sacred Law. None is discordant, Princess. None is contradictory. All are encompassing one and only belief in one God.”
He stopped and smiled.

Talya was staring.
This man irritates me
. He had been describing what Talya had been looking at, uncomprehending, since she was in school.

“Is that why you rebuff my saying that I am Jewish?”

“Yes, because you only believe in truth, being it told by Isa, Muhammad or David or Moses, you simply believe in ‘God’ in the same way I do.
You can call yourself a Jew or I can call myself a Muslim, the truth is that we have faith and believe in the guidance of God, whom I have heard you called Allah many times.”

“Samir, you irritate me!” Talya had mocking petulance in her voice. He laughed in response.

76

Thomas
,
Charles
and
Christian
were sitting at the Terrace restaurant, waiting for their meal to be served, when
Christian
finally broached the subject of the news from Talya.
His companions had not pressured him thus far, but now they were edgy with expectancy.

“I have been told that the caravan has stopped in Aleg,”
Christian
began, “about one hundred and sixty miles southeast of
Nouakchott
.
The agent could not tell me if Talya was still with them because all the women were dressed in black and wore
abayah
.
However, the
Sheikh
of the tribe being Samir, we strongly suspect that she is still travelling with him.”

“And where are they heading next, or do we know?”
Thomas
asked as the waiter was bringing the plates to the table.

Christian
waited until he had left before he answered. “We don’t know that for a fact,
Thomas
.”

The three men were now on first name basis; it would have sounded strange to do otherwise in front of unknowing interlocutors. “We can only presume that they will continue to travel eastward to traverse the Massif of Assaba, and then veer southward to Kayes, to arrive in
Bamako
in a week.”

“Should they encounter any trouble before then, do you think?”
Charles
asked with renewed concern.

“I don’t think they could,”
Christian
replied. “Only Samir knows which direction the caravan will be heading next.
I believe he is trying to protect everyone by revealing his next destination to his brothers only before they leave in the morning.
Same as we couldn’t follow them after they left
Nouakchott
, we can’t follow them once they leave the track after Aleg and go into the mountains.
We wouldn’t know which path Samir decides to follow.
There are hundreds of tracks through the mountains and the
Sahel
beyond.
We can’t be sure of anything.
I will say this for them; she and Samir have chosen the perfect cover, no man can approach her, and live to tell about it, since she is veiled. What’s more, no one would know where to wait for her in ambush.”

“That’s excellent news,”
Charles
said. “If your men can’t follow her I’m sure no one else could either.”

Thomas
looked at both men across the table, lost in thought.

Christian
riveted his gaze on
Charles
. “Thanks, I feel good about this news as well.
However, if I may say so, I do believe something is troubling you.”

“You’re worse than my wife!”
Charles
chuckled. “And yes, there is something that’s not necessarily troubling me, but something we need to discuss nevertheless.”

“You want to go to Sabodala unnoticed.”

At hearing this,
Thomas
dropped his fork.
It hit the ground with a clatter. He and
Charles
were staring at
Christian.
The boy was one heck of a perceptive agent.

“Don’t be surprised, gentlemen.
I have spent the afternoon reading the police statements and Talya’s final account of the events to see if I could find some indication as to Samir’s next move. I couldn’t find anything relevant in that regard, but what I have discovered is that nothing has been done about the nitro cache in Sabodala.
And like you presumably, I became curious as to why no one bothered to remove any of the explosives. So I thought that a little trip in that direction would be a good idea.”