The People Traders (36 page)

"Perhaps I should help you, Karen. You're going home; you don't want to miss the boat, do you?" he kept saying softly, every second that little bit closer.

By now Karen could no longer hold herself together, but her will to go home was strong. This man was offering help, except he terrified her. Everything about him represented all she despised about these people. Suddenly she panicked, seeing everything she'd fought for being taken away by this man and she instinctively squeezed the trigger. The machine-gun shattered the silence. Khan was suspended briefly, shock written all over his face, then he collapsed slowly to the ground.

Karen dropped the gun, putting her hands to her head. She felt sick and dizzy as she collapsed to the ground herself.

Peace had returned to the cove, the only sound was the sea crashing into the rocks to each side. Khan, his eyes open, staring lifelessly up to the sky. In his haste he'd panicked her. If he'd just stayed where he was, rather than move towards her slowly, she'd have been his now. But like a fool he'd tried to take her before Karen had lost control of the situation completely.

***

When she came to, it was very dark. She lay there for sometime, unable to think straight. Her body was shaking, the pain in her side intense, her head pounding. Then slowly it all came back to her. She pulled the torch from her bag, sweeping it round until it rested on Khan. He was a mess. The gun at such close quarters, switched to maximum output because she believed she was going to have to fight whoever was in the truck, had cut him in half. Karen felt sick and turned the light away quickly. Then she removed the radio and pressed the send button, praying she wasn't too late. Nothing happened, so she tried again. This time the radio broke into life; the relief inside her was overwhelming. She gave the password and waited. Seconds later the reply came, they were coming. Not wanting them to find Khan, she dragged herself up, leaning heavily on the gun for support. Then after collecting her backpack, she made her way slowly down to the edge of the water. Once at the edge, she threw the gun into the water then removed her ammunition belt, and did the same. Finally she took out the handgun from her pocket, looked at it for a moment, then threw it in as well. Now she was just Karen; injured, yes, an armed civilian, no. She pointed the torch out to sea, flashing it once every five seconds as Chapman had told her. Minutes later someone was grasping her hand and asking her where everyone else was?

"There's only me, no one else is coming," she heard herself saying, while they helped her into the small craft.

Karen gazed back at the shore as it melted into the darkness. Somehow the last weeks seemed like a nightmare, not reality. Now she was going home. But for her it would never be the same. She'd grown up, lost her innocence. But more importantly she had money and there were scores still to settle.

CHAPTER 24

Sirec walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He could see a number of soldiers standing on the narrow beach using long rods with hooks, pulling to shore what looked like a body. There were already four body bags alongside them, zipped up and ready to be taken away. He sighed, then continued along the narrow track towards the beach, glancing at a heap of clothes by the side of the track as he passed.

An officer saw Sirec and hurried up the track to meet him. "Sirec, the name's Jived. I was told you were coming and to leave everything as it was found. We have, of course, been continuing to pull the dead from the water after finding the army truck. It had gone over the edge."

"Do you know what happened here yet?" Sirec asked.

"We don't know for certain. I believe our troops came upon smugglers, perhaps moving drugs or weapons, and a fight ensued. We've one dead on the beach, besides four others already pulled out of the water. The one on the beach must have been an officer, judging by the clothing left up on the track. We expect to find at least six bodies. That's how many are missing, according to the local military base, who'd reported the vehicle hadn't returned from an operation. Why they stripped the officer then took him down to the beach before shooting him, is a mystery. Unless, once they were on the beach, he tried to make a run for it?"

"Perhaps you can show me?" Sirec asked without comment on Jived's analysis of what had happened.

They both walked down to the beach and Sirec looked at the corpse for a moment when one of the soldiers pulled back a cover laid on top of him. It was Khan, now Sirec was beginning to understand.

"You can see he was shot at very close range by an automatic weapon," Jived began. "He didn't have a chance; it literally cut him in half. We've also found the weapon we believe killed him, besides a handgun and an ammunition belt thrown into the water. This is all very strange because these weapons were not his. His handgun was still with the clothes on the track, why were these left, I don’t know? We can find no footprints that might tell us just how many people were here and if they left by boat."

Sirec took out a cigarette and lit it slowly, before walking over to the guns and ammunition belt still lying where they were found. He bent down and looked at the belt carefully. The first thing he noticed was that the ammunition, still on the belt, could not be used for either gun, and the straps on the pouches that held grenades, were unfastened, as if they'd recently contained grenades.

He stood and then looked at Jived. "The truck, was it damaged beyond what could have happened if it had slipped over the edge?"

"There was an explosion, possibly a grenade, inside the back of the truck, if that's what you're thinking? We know that for certain, because the bodies inside were blackened from it, with some of the dead in pretty bad shape, being in close proximity to the explosion. Is that important, Sirec?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm just trying to piece together a picture in my mind, that's all. Probably it was one of the soldiers’ own grenades that exploded when the truck went over the edge and hit the rocks."

"I thought that as well, Sirec. Can we take the bodies now? I don't think we can glean much more from here? But we will be looking for the killer, or killers. They shouldn't be too difficult to find."

"Yes that's fine with me, keep me informed as to your progress in the investigation, will you?"

With this agreed Sirec walked further down the beach then stopped and gazed out across the still water. He took a last draw on his cigarette and threw the remainder into the sea, watching it floating on the surface. He was trying to visualise just what had really happened in this cove. However, with Khan dead on the beach, for Sirec it didn't take much imagination to suspect that this was the work of Karen. The description by the farmer, of the weapons Karen carried, were similar to the weapons left on the beach. Everything was there; the machine-gun, the handgun and more importantly, the belt worn by someone knowing little about guns, because neither gun lying on the beach used the ammunition still attached to the belt. Finally, there were the grenades the farmer mentioned. With the straps open and the grenades missing, this meant the explosions inside the lorry were deliberate and not accidental. The only error she seemed to have made was not to realise that the weapons would remain hidden by the water. Unless, he thought for a moment, she was trying to hide them from the rescuers and was not really concerned if they were found later?

However, Sirec was very impressed with how she'd taken on a truck full of soldiers and how she must have insisted Khan stripped to be sure he carried no weapon. This was a simple but effective act for someone alone and unable to search him. But what made her shoot Khan? Did the foolish man try to take her? Did she panic, or did she intend killing him anyway? Sirec didn't think the latter was the case; after all, unlike Saeed, who she had a real hatred for, she'd never met Khan and only had to wait with him for her rescuers. So he surmised Khan went for her, a hasty and costly mistake on his part.

Sirec began to laugh, at last he owned a girl who was his type. Even against formidable odds, she was not only very good, but had been a true adversary, not afraid to fight and more importantly, she was not to be underestimated.

"Well, Karen," he said quietly, at the same time looking out across the water towards Cyprus. "It would seem the first round is to you. The next round will be mine. Enjoy your short freedom, girl, before I bring you home. You've earned it."

Then he turned and walked purposefully back up the track, pulling his mobile telephone out of his pocket and beginning to press numbers; it was time to call in some favours.