Time of the Assassins (18 page)

'How many more roadblocks will we have to stop at before we reach the hospital?' Tambese asked, glancing at the man.
'You won't be stopped again,' came the reply.
'Thank you,' Tambese said. 'That might just make the difference between life and death for this woman.'
The man told Vuli to close the doors. Tambese slumped back in his chair as the doors slammed shut and wiped his hands over his face. Neither Sabrina nor Graham moved even though they had heard the doors close. The ambulance started up and the siren was switched on again as soon as it pulled away from the roadblock.
'We're clear,' Tambese said.
Graham immediately sat up and pulled the oxygen mask from his face. He winced as he massaged his spine. 'Jesus, my back's killing me.'
Sabrina peeled the plaster off her arm and grinned at Tambese. 'I don't know what you said to him, but you sure sounded mad as hell.'
'My mother died in the back of an ambulance,' Tambese said after a thoughtful pause. 'I guess I was just reliving those emotions.'
'I'm sorry,' Sabrina said apologetically.
'It was a long time ago,' Tambese replied.
'Have we got free passage into the city?' Graham asked, breaking the sudden silence.
'Clear all the way,' Tambese replied then wagged a finger at them. 'I told you they would fall for it.'
'What did you say to them?' Sabrina asked.
Tambese translated the gist of the conversation.
'Using Ngune's name seems to have done the trick,' Graham said when Tambese had finished.
'It certainly helped. His minions are terrified of him.'
'I can believe it,' Sabrina said grimly.
Vuli pulled back the glass partition and gave them a thumbs-up. 'Where do you want to be dropped off?' he asked Tambese in Swahili.
'Go to the hospital,' Tambese told him. 'We'll take it from there.'
Vuli nodded then closed the partition again.
'What about the ambulance men?' Sabrina asked. 'Won't Ngune take it out on them?'
'They'll go to ground after this. The resistance movement will have them smuggled out of Kondese.'
The ambulance slowed down and Tambese peered through the glass partition, his hands cupped on either side of his face.
'What is it?' Graham asked anxiously.
'We're nearing the hospital,' Tambese replied without looking round at him.
"Thank God for that. What now?'
'Get ready,' Tambese answered then pulled open the glass partition again. 'Go round the back,' he said to Nhlapo in Swahili. Til tell you when to stop.'
Nhlapo nodded as he swung the ambulance into the driveway. He switched off the siren. Graham and Sabrina discarded their blood-splattered clothes to reveal black jumpsuits. After tugging a black woollen hat over her head, Sabrina took a tube of camouflage cream from her pocket and squeezed a little onto her palm then tossed the tube to Graham. He rubbed the cream over his face and hands then offered the tube to Tambese who grinned good-humouredly and waved him away. Graham shrugged, poker-faced, and dropped it onto the bed.
Tambese stripped off to his black jumpsuit then peered through the partition again, watching for the line of refuse bins that Okoye had told him to use as a landmark to disembark. He knocked on the glass when they came into view and told Nhlapo to pull over. Graham handed out the weapons then divided the clips into three piles on the bed. They loaded their weapons and slipped the spare clips into the pouches on their belts. After bolstering his Beretta Tambese knocked lightly on the partition. Nhlapo peered out of the driver's window and gave Vuli the thumbs-up sign.
Vuli looked about furtively to make sure there wasn't anyone about then opened one of the doors and gestured to them to get out. Tambese ushered Graham and Sabrina out of the ambulance then jumped nimbly to the ground and Vuli immediately closed the back door again.
'Get rid of the clothes and wipe the ambulance down for fingerprints,' Tambese said to Vuli.
'No need, we're going to torch it anyway,' Vuli replied. 'Those were our orders.'
'Well, thanks for your help.'
'Good luck,' Vuli said with a quick smile then looked around again. 'Go on, a porter could come out here at any time.'
Tambese hauled himself over the low wall where Graham and Sabrina were already waiting for him. 'The city hall's a couple of hundred yards down the road,' he whispered. He looked the length of the deserted street then turned back to them. 'Ready?'
They both nodded then followed Tambese down the embankment to the pavement where he paused to listen for any approaching vehicles. Silence. He led them across the road then they ran, doubled over, to the nearest doorway. The city hall, which spanned the length of the adjacent block, was an ugly, oblong-shaped building dating back to the early nineteenth century when the country was still part of the French empire. Tambese was about to break cover again when they heard the sound of an approaching engine. They ducked into the doorway and lay flat on their stomachs, their Uzis held at the ready. A black Toyota pick-up drove past with two men in the front and a
third in the back, his arms resting on the top of the cab. A Sterling sub-machine gun was slung over his shoulder. He held a wine bottle in his hand. The truck continued to the end of the road where the driver idled the engine for a few seconds while he decided which turn-off to take. Then he accelerated sharply and the tyres shrieked in protest as the truck pulled away and disappeared up a sidestreet.
Tambese scrambled to his feet and scanned the street before giving Graham and Sabrina a thumbs-up sign. They sprinted the hundred yards to the front of the city hall and were still trying to catch their breath when they heard the sound of an engine in the distance. Tambese pointed to a cluster of shrubs against the side of the building and they ducked down behind them only seconds before the truck came back into view.
The man in the back shouted something to the driver who pulled the jeep over and stopped in front of the city hall. The man got out and threw the empty wine bottle into the gutter. The driver shouted angrily at him as glass splinters peppered the side of the truck. The man grinned at the driver and held up his middle finger contemptuously then walked unsteadily towards the bushes.
Sabrina instinctively shrunk further away from the approaching figure and backed into someone's arm. Then she noticed that Graham, who was the closest to her, was crouched with both arms folded across his chest, cradling his Uzi. It hadn't been his arm. She turned her head very slowly, very reluctantly, and looked to see whose it was. A body was entangled in
the bushes behind her. The face, which had been shot away at close range, was seething with hundreds of writhing, squirming maggots. She felt a scream rise in her throat but Graham clamped his hand roughly over her mouth before any noise could escape from her lips. He had seen the body when she backed into it and had anticipated her reaction. The man, who was urinating onto a nearby bush, didn't hear her muffled cry above his uneven whistling. When he finished he returned to the truck, still whistling to himself. The driver immediately started up the engine and pulled away from the kerb. Within seconds silence returned to the deserted street.
'You OK?' Graham asked, putting a hand lightly on her arm.
Sabrina nodded guiltily.
Tambese led them a short distance away from the body. It had been decided that he and Sabrina would break into the building while Graham checked the area for the nearest manhole cover. They would meet up again outside in twenty minutes' time.
'Down!' Sabrina said sharply as a pair of headlights swept into the street.
They ducked out of sight and moments later a jeep came into view. It sped past the city hall and shot through a red light before disappearing up a sidestreet.
'Is that all they do?' Graham asked, tentatively getting to his feet again.
Tambese nodded. 'It's very effective, as you've seen. You don't know when they're likely to appear. And if they're hunting resistance fighters, they'll drive without their lights on. But that won't happen around here.
The resistance movement confine their attacks to the outlying areas of the city.' He looked at Sabrina. 'Ready?'
'Ready,' she replied.
'Synchronize watches,' Tambese said. He waited until the second hand reached the twelve on his watch. 'Ten forty-two,'
'Check,' Graham said.
'Check,' Sabrina added.
'Twenty minutes,' Tambese said to Graham then disappeared round the side of the building.
Sabrina followed him and they kept low as they passed a succession of windows overlooking the spacious garden. The grass was now ankle-high and the beds riddled with weeds.
Tambese stopped beside a steel ladder which was bolted against the side of the building. He crouched down and looked behind a nearby bush for the holdall Okoye had said would be left there by the resistance movement. He unzipped it and checked the contents: a portable oxyacetylene blowpipe, insulated gloves, a canister of carbon dioxide, a De Lisle carbine, a torch and a length of coiled rope. He handed the torch to Sabrina then slung the rope over one shoulder, the Uzi over the other, and climbed up onto the flat roof. He surveyed the surrounding streets then beckoned to Sabrina who shouldered her Uzi and climbed to the top of the ladder where Tambese was waiting for her. She ignored his outstretched hand and jumped nimbly onto the roof.
'There's the skylight,' she said, pointing to the glass window in the centre of the roof.
Tambese crossed to it and, cupping his hands on either side of his face, peered through the glass.
'Well?' Sabrina prompted behind him.
'Matthew was right: it is some kind of a storeroom. There must be thousands of files down there.'
'What's the distance to the floor?'
'It's a drop of about thirty feet,' Tambese replied then removed the rope from his shoulder. 'This is forty foot. Well, I hope it is.'
'So do I,' Sabrina said and indicated the flagpole behind them. 'We'll need the extra few feet to tie it to that.'
Tambese unwound the rope and secured one end to the flagpole. He pulled sharply on the rope to test the strength of the pole. It was anchored firmly into the concrete. He looked around slowly. The streets were still deserted. He crouched down beside the skylight again. 'It shouldn't take me long to open it.'
Sabrina hooked her fingers under the frame and lifted it up.
'It was open?' Tambese said in amazement.
She held up a nail file. 'The wood's rotted over the years. It wasn't very difficult to release the catch.'
Tambese smiled then pulled back the skylight and dropped the rope through the opening. It fell to within a couple of feet of the floor. He held the rope out towards her. She slung her Uzi over her shoulder then abseiled down, landing silently on the floor below. Tambese followed and had almost reached the floor when he noticed that Sabrina was holding out her hand towards him. The gesture wasn't lost on him. And he knew she was right. She deserved to be treated
as an equal, not as a woman in a man's world. He held up his hand to concede the point. She moved to the door and opened it fractionally. The corridor was deserted. She gave him a thumbs-up then turned back to watch the corridor through the crack in the door.
He pulled Okoye's map from his pocket and used it to get his bearings. He was surrounded by rows of shelves, all ladened with dusty, dog-eared files. They didn't interest him. What did were the dozens of drawers that lined the walls. They contained the blueprints of every structure ever built in and around Kondese in the last twenty years. Okoye's contact had said the blueprints for the city sewers would be stored under section 350-400. Tambese went to the nearest row of drawers to get his bearings and it came as a great relief to discover that each drawer was numbered in multiples of ten, and not in single units as he had feared. He quickly found the section he wanted and pulled open the drawer marked 350. The blueprints, which were rolled up and secured with elastic bands, lay in neat rows, and each had a white label attached to it, identifying it by number. He cursed under his breath. Without a code, he would have to unroll each one individually. When he took the first one out he noticed a sheet of paper stuck to the bottom of the drawer. He pushed aside the blueprints lying on top and found it contained the index to identify the numbers. He ran his fingers down the list then replaced the blueprint and closed the drawer. It wasn't in there.
'Someone's coming!' Sabrina hissed.
Tambese looked round sharply at her and gestured
for her to close the door. She did as he said then took up a position at the side of the door, waiting. He unslung his Uzi and trained it on the door. He was certain they hadn't been seen from the street, and Okoye's contact had said that the alarms had been cut by the Security Police when they took control of the building, so how had they been detected? He quickly reassured himself that the guard's appearance could have nothing to do with them. What if he were going to another room? It was a long corridor.
Suddenly the door handle was pushed down from the outside. The door was locked, as it had been when they got there. Sabrina stiffened, the Uzi held inches from her face. She curled her finger around the trigger when she heard the sound of keys jangling outside the door. Moments later a key was pushed into the lock and the door opened slowly. But nobody entered. Then there was a distinctive metallic click above them followed by an order in Swahili for them to drop their weapons. Tambese shook his head at Sabrina when he saw her hands tighten on the Uzi. He turned slowly and looked up at the skylight. A man stood a couple of feet away from the window, the kalashnikov assault rifle in his hand trained on Tambese. He repeated his order. Tambese dropped the Uzi. A second man entered the room and quickly disarmed Sabrina.
'I could have taken him,' she hissed to Tambese.
'So could I, but at what price? The other one would have opened fire. And even if we had managed to take him out as well the gunfire would have alerted every patrol in the area. The last thing we need is a gunfight in the middle of the city centre.'
Sabrina remained silent. She knew he was right. She prayed that Graham had seen the man climb up onto the roof. At that moment he was their only chance. Tambese purposely spoke to the guard on the roof, hoping Graham would hear the voice. The guard grinned and pointed to the wall by the door.
'There's an infra-red sensor embedded in the wall by the door,' Tambese translated for Sabrina. 'That's how they detected us.'
'Okoye said nothing about any sensors,' Sabrina whispered back.