The Intern Affair (53 page)

The gravity of his words touched Talya deeply.
He was right.
Tomorrow night they would face evil.

“I know, and I will take part in whatever celebration you have prepared for us.”

Seeing that joy was not accompanying Talya’s response, Samir added, “Please smile for me?
This
old
man needs the comfort and re-assurance of your happiness.”

“Samir!
How many times do I have to tell you that if you’re
old
then I’m
ancient and decrepit?
” They both laughed.

“Come, I have something to show you.” He took her hand to lead her into her section of the tent.
Lying on the bed, there was a small but beautifully carved balafon.
This is a music instrument made of a long wooden pole, attached to a large calabash, around which strapping leather is delicately braided.
Six cords made of camel hair, or reeds, stretch from the tip of the pole to the bottom of the gourd, where they are firmly pinned with wooden dowels.
Similar to a guitar, the balafon gives off a melodious sound when played properly.
The
instrument
dyed in caramel colour, commanded Talya’s admiration. She rushed to the cot, and picked it up.
She could not play it but she knew Samir could.

“This is so beautiful.
Will you play it tonight?”

“I will, with Mamadou, we both shall play for you.”

“Thank you, Samir.
This is a gift I will treasure.
But how am I going to transport this on our journey?”

“You won’t. Tomorrow
Jasmin
will take it back to
Nouakchott
and she will travel with it to
Paris
when she goes back to school next week.
You will find it in your wardrobe at the Hotel de Crillon when you return.”

At hearing these words, Talya’s heart missed a beat.
She was afraid of tomorrow once again.
Will I ever return to
Paris
?
She lowered her eyes and put down the balafon on the bed.

Samir looked down at her. “What is it?
What did you see?” He was concerned.

“May I ask that you sleep beside me tonight? Please tell me you will stay beside me?”

“I will, Talya.
I will have a litter prepared so that I can watch you fall asleep peacefully.”

“I am so scared.
We’re nearing the end of the road.”

He took her in his arms gently. “No, Princess, not yet.
Remember, what we have to do.
We need to go back to where it all started before
God
will be satisfied that we have accomplished what He set out for us to do.
Tomorrow is only a step.”

“Where will it all end, Samir?”

“I don’t know….”

The softness of his arms around her relieved some of the torment she felt that night, but it didn’t erase
Kareef
’s face from her mind.
Samir held her for a long while.
The only refuge they could find from the ever-increasing fear they felt, it seemed, was in each other’s arms.

“I’ll ask
Jasmin
to come, and help you change into your white garments, for tonight we all want to see you as bright as the sunlight against the darkness.”

“Please pray for us tonight?”

“I will, Talya.” He released her and walked away before Talya could see his eyes. Tears ran down her face.
God, please help us!

79

Charles
,
Thomas
,
Christian
and a man named
Jerry
, walked toward a turbo-prop parked on the tarmac waiting for departure.
Jerry
was a young agent, who, by all accounts, had the necessary skills to accompany the trio in their investigation of the mine site. He went around the aircraft, giving it a last cursory check while the other three men climbed aboard.
They were dressed for the circumstances, in jeans and T-shirts.
They hadn’t spo
ken
much since their stormy meeting with
Sir Reginald
, the day before.
He had been opposed to their plan to visit Sabodala, from the moment he had heard the motive for their venture.
He had yielded to letting the men go, only when
Charles
pointed out that, without uncovering the secret that lay behind the veil of serenity in the village, no one would be able to conclude the negotiations with the Development Funds Organization successfully.

Once everyone settled in his seat and
Jerry
fired up the engines,
Christian
looked at his companions and said, “We will reach Kedougou in three hours. We are not going to the mine site’s airstrip for the obvious reason that we don’t want to attract undue attention.
However, after leaving Kedougou, we are liable to be followed to our ultimate destination.
If we are followed,
Jerry
and I will have no choice but to deter our followers from pursuing us.
This means, if we have to kill people in the process, we will.
The same goes when we are in the village.
You gentlemen have probably never witnessed or participated in such an action, but
Jerry
and I have, and I can assure you that we will not hesitate to kill anyone who presents any form of opposition.”

Charles
and
Thomas
looked at one another with understanding.
They had known already that these measures of
defensive
actions on the part of
Christian
and
Jerry
were to be expected.
There were not many other ways to deal with drug traffickers, especially in
Africa
.

“And what do we do?
Do we just watch as you go on killing people?”
Thomas
asked flatly.

“No. You and
Charles
will carry these”—
Christian
pulled two small
semi-
automatics out of his backpack on the seat beside him—“and if you have never fired a gun before today, it’s very simple; just point at the assailant and pull the trigger.”

“We both have used similar weapons,
Christian,
”
Charles
said, smiling at
Thomas
, “we were in
Indonesia
together some years ago when we encountered some troubles.
But we were both much younger and much more daring than we are today.” He remembered another time and another adventure that life had put across their paths.

80

Samir and Talya
left camp at sunrise.
No one was to accompany them. Ishmael was not to be trusted, Samir had said.
“My brother is hot-blooded, like our father used to be, and he won’t resist the temptation of killing someone even if he had the opportunity to save that life.”

Talya had not opposed that decision, knowing that watching Ishmael would present a distraction, which Samir didn’t need on that day.

Abdullah
followed them to the airstrip just south of town.
He would watch them take off, and then would bring Katoof back to camp.
They had said their farewells the night before during and after dinner.
The parting celebrations had been sedate and yet enjoyable.
Talya had been crying silently when she had heard
Jasmin
sing a chant of the desert to the assembled company.
She was beautiful!

Talya and Samir were dressed in jeans and T-shirt, although Samir insisted on taking one backpack containing abayahs, thawbs and mishlahs for both of them; just in case they needed to pass incognito in a crowd, later during the journey.

As they lifted the tarpaulin from the turbo-prop, Talya noticed the same insignia beside the plane’s nose that she had seen on Samir’s other aircraft when he came back from Sabodala the first time.
“Samir, is this your plane as well?”

“Yes.
The family owns four aircrafts.
They all belong to my company.
One is in
Tripoli
at my mother’s disposal.
I keep two in
Bamako
, and this one stays in
Nouakchott
to service the transport lines.”

“When y
ou say
transport lines
, do you mean you transport goods and people?”

“No, mainly goods; that’s our business.
We carry goods across
North Africa
, mostly using trucks and semis. This plane is often used to transport medical supplies to hospitals and infir
maries
.

“
Jasmin
said that you still use camels for carrying goods to families in need. How often do you do that?”

“Oh quite often.
We have many families who depend on us for food and supplies.”

“Would you like to go on one of the drives one day?”
Abdullah
asked as he was packing the tarpaulin to take back with him.

“You shouldn’t have to ask,” Talya replied. “Of course, I would.
And you try and stop me.” Both men burst out in laughter.
Talya smiled at them, turning away to carry the backpack on board.

They had no ice-cooler nor were they taking any provisions with them.
They had two sacs of water and a bag of biscuits that
Afilah
had baked for them.
Jasmin
had given Talya a jar of ointment for her hand and a pouch of salt tablets.
 

She stepped back onto the tarmac to watch the two brothers embrac
e
and speak quietly.
When
Abdullah
saw her come down the
steps, he advanced toward her and looked over his shoulder at his brother.
The latter nodded his assent.
Abdullah
took her in his arms. “Please take
care;
we’ll be all waiting for you to return.” As he was releasing his embrace he fetched something out of his pocket and handed it to her.
It was a knife in its sheath, and a belt to strap around Talya’s waist. “Please take this, My Lady, and may the blade it carries protect you; for I know Allah will give you leave to use it if someone wants to harm you.”

Talya stared down at the weapon. The sheaf and belt had been intricately woven in fine leather. “Thank you,
Abdullah
.
I didn’t expect this. But I will take it and wear it so that you will be with me always.”

“Inshallah, My Lady!”

81

They had been flying
for nearly three hours, most of which Talya had slept, when she felt Samir’s hand on her knee.
She was sitting with him in the cockpit.

“Wake-up, Princess. We are nearly there.
And before we land I’ll swing around and show you Sabodala from the air.”

“Can we do that?
Won’t we be alerting the villagers?”

“Oh no, we’ll be high enough not to disturb anyone.
And I won’t circle the place; I’ll just pass over and turn back when no one will notice it.”

As they were flying over the three hills, Talya could see the village atop the first hill, the mine site carved out of the middle hill and the unspoiled third hill.
She saw the creeks separate the hills, but she couldn’t see the three adits.
They were too high up to see any of the landscape’s details clearly.

As they continued southward, she noticed a road leading from somewhere below the third hill and stretching ahead of them in a straight line.

“Where would that road lead, Samir?” She pointed at it through the windshield.

“That should be the road through the Massif of Tangué in Guinée.
We are already over the border now—”

“You mean it’s that simple to cross the border?
Isn’t there a customs’ station or something?”

“Yes, there should be, but I don’t know that it is attended all the time.”

“That’s it, Samir!” Talya was excited now. She had suddenly understood why Sabodala’s location was so important.

“What do you mean?” Samir threw a surprised glance in her direction.

“Don’t you see?
Sabodala is the pivotal point, the centre ring if you prefer, to the drug operation.
It’s accessible by road and almost equidistant to
Dakar
, to
Nouakchott
, to
Bamako
and to
Conakry
.
It is only miles from the Guinée or the
Mali
frontiers.
We’ve got to get down there. I know how they’re doing it.”