Rae pressed her hands harder against her ears and cringed.
There was a terrible wailing scream, followed by another as the guards dipped the amputated stump of a forearm into the hot tar to cauterise the jetting wound. The fact that they’d gone to so much trouble meant that they had no intention of killing Munro – not that night, at any rate. But Munro was in no state to think that logically. He rolled and thrashed on the ground for a few moments, squealing inhumanly. Then he did the worst thing. He scrambled to his feet and tried to get away, and the guards levelled their weapons and cut off his escape to nowhere with a rattling blast of gunfire. Munro stopped in his tracks and arched over backwards as the bullets slammed into his spine. He collapsed into the dirt and lay still under the lights of the vehicles.
Rae’s clasped palms over her ears couldn’t block out the sound of gunfire. She clamped them over her mouth to stifle the scream that, if the guards had heard it, would have brought them all running. Jude met her eyes with an urgent glare and pressed his finger to his lips.
Outside, the guards shuffled over to the body and nudged him a couple of times with their feet, looking as though they were disappointed that he’d died so quickly. For reasons that Jude couldn’t yet understand, Masango seemed more interested in the severed hand. He walked up to where it lay on the ground, bent down and picked it up by its little finger and held it at arm’s length so as not to get any blood on his expensive suit. Carrying it like a dead starfish that a beachcomber might have stumbled upon at low tide, he took it back to his car, where he dropped it into a plastic bag the driver gave him.
The guards gathered up the rest of Munro and slung his body onto the flatbed of one of the trucks. Promise and Masango exchanged a few brief words, and then Promise turned and walked away towards his own hut. Nobody had even glanced in the direction of Rae’s.
The Mercedes was the first to leave, followed by the trucks, a line of burning red taillights receding into the night. The gates closed behind them, and then the compound was still and dark once more.
Rae was in pieces. Jude held her hand for a while and did what he could to comfort her, but he had more pressing matters on his mind. ‘We’re getting out of this madhouse,’ he promised her. She retreated to a corner of the cage and sobbed quietly while he clambered up on top of it and resumed his attack on the bolts with renewed vigour.
An hour later, they were running free.
Chapter 32
The compound was all quiet now, but the light and noise and the awful screaming of the victim still hung over the still night air like the echo of a bad dream. Rae would have to revisit her grief over Munro’s death later; right now, there was no time to stop and reflect as Jude and Rae stole away through the darkness. Rae stumbled on one of the tyre ruts that the vehicles had left in the soft earth. Jude caught her arm to stop her falling. He found himself not wanting to let go of her.
Fortune seemed to have blessed their timing. For some reason, the guards had all disappeared – perhaps to help dispose of Munro’s body, Jude thought, though he didn b share that with Rae. The two of them followed the tyre tracks to the gate. Jude risked striking another match to give them a little light, cradling the flame in the cup of his hand and shining its small glow up and down the gate to look for a way out. Like the fence either side it was nothing but smooth steel, twelve feet high at least, and offering no kind of handholds to climb up it. But the flickering match revealed that the ground underneath the bottom edge of the gate was just as dry and crumbly as the stuff around the huts. The compound had obviously never been intended to house loose captives, only caged ones, and for two slender people who didn’t mind getting their clothes even filthier than they already were, it was little problem scrambling underneath the gate. They scraped and hollowed their way out like dogs escaping from a pound, and sprang to their feet on the other side, breathing hard with nerves and excitement.
It was Jude’s first glimpse beyond the gate since his arrival, but everything had looked very different passing through in Masango’s car. It was a desolate place even in darkness. The dirt road that led up to the compound snaked away between great mounds of weed-tufted earth and scattered huts, rotting metal buildings standing here and there among the garbage and disused machinery. There was nobody in sight.
‘Come on,’ he said, and wanted to take her hand, but fought the urge.
They ran on, neither one sure which way to go. Rae was several inches shorter than Jude, slightly built and fast on her feet. Suddenly pausing, she gazed around her as if she’d realised something. ‘I’ve seen this place before,’ she said in a low voice.
‘You’ve been here before?’
‘I’ve photographed it. From the outside, during the daytime. This is part of Khosa’s slave labour camp, where they keep the coltan workers. They ferry them back and forth in trucks between here and the mining complex. Which, if my bearings are right, is just a little distance that way, to the south.’ She pointed in that direction, then looked back at Jude. ‘I know I’m right about this. We got so many images, I could piece the whole layout together in my sleep. The river’s over that way, and the hydro station, and the city on the far side. The whole thing is encircled by one giant fence, which we’re going to have to try and find our way through.’
‘Meaning we’re still well and truly trapped,’ Jude sighed, remembering the layers of security Masango’s car had passed through on the way in.
‘And meaning that we’re sitting right next to Khosa’s military base,’ Rae added. ‘His whole army stationed just next door isn’t going to make our escape any easier.’
Jude glumly agreed, but then realised what else it meant. If Khosa was using Ben against his will for whatever purpose, then logic implied that Khosa would want to keep Ben close by. Then, if what Rae was saying was right and Khosa’s base was just over there across the river, it occurred to Jude that there was a strong possibility that Ben might be there too.
The revelation stunned him. All this time, he’d assumed they were being kept some vast distance apart. Splitting them up into different vehicles and taking them by two completely different routes had just been a trick to make them think so.
And that suddenly changed everything for Jude.
‘Forget the perimeter fence,’ he said to Rae. ‘I have to get to the city.’
Her eyes shone with concern as she gazed at him in the darkness. ‘Haven’t you been listening to me? That’s the last place you need to be right now. I thought the idea was to get away from this hellhole, not deeper into it.’
Jude shook his head vehemently. ‘I know. But my dad’s in that city. Or at least, I’m pretty sure he might be.’
‘Then God help him,’ she said. ‘Because you sure can’t. Nobody can.’
‘You don’t understand. It’s not him who needs our help. We’re the ones who need him.’
‘You’re not making sense, Jude. If he’s in there, he’s Khosa’s prisoner. Which puts him in a way worse situation than we are right now. I’m sorry, and I understand how you must feel, but to try to go in there after him is insane.’
‘There’s no choice,’ Jude said. ‘He’s the only one who could get us all out of here alive.’
She looked at him dubiously. ‘What is he, Superman?’
Jude chewed over his reply for a moment. ‘Fact is, I don’t really know all that much. He doesn’t talk about himself, or the things he’s done. He was in the military. Special Forces.’
‘Oh please, spare me the bullshit,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘If I had a dime for every asshole I’ve met who thinks he’s Rambo …’
‘I know how it sounds,’ Jude protested. ‘I’d probably think that way too. But I swear it’s not bullshit, okay?’
‘Right, sure, if you say so.’
‘Look, I don’t expect you to believe me, and you don’t have to come with me. But this changes everything. If he’s here somewhere, I have to find him. Go your own way, if that’s what you want.’
‘You won’t regret it,’ Jude said. ‘Trust me.’
‘You said that before.’
He studied her face, trying to read her expression. ‘Having second thoughts?’
‘Meaning would I prefer to be back in that cage? No way. I’d kill myself first.’
‘Then let’s go,’ he said.
They hurried along the dirt road, sticking to the side and ducking behind the dilapidated buildings that lined its edge. Jude dreaded returning to the spot where the burnings of the workers had taken place, for his own sake but even more for Rae’s. He kept her attention diverted from the horrific sight by whispering to her as they ran. So far, they hadn’t seen a single other living soul in the place.
‘Get down!’ he hissed as a blaze of lights suddenly appeared over the brow of an incline in the road ahead. They just had time to scurry behind a mound of earth before what looked like an entire fleet of vehicles came roaring over the rise and came bearing down the hill towards them.
Leading the speeding procession was Masango’s long, low Mercedes, ahead of a lengthy tail of armed pickup trucks and sundry four-wheel-drives that were all loaded with grim-looking soldiers. Masango himself was at the wheel of the limousine.
‘Did you see who I saw in the passenger seat?’ Rae whispered in Jude’s ear.
Jude nodded. He didn’t need to say the name.
Khosa. He’d have recognised that face anywhere. He saw it every night, in his dreams.
‘I don’t know what,’ Rae said, shaking her head. ‘But something’s happening and I don’t like it. Three days Craig and I watched this place, and we never saw so many soldiers the entire time. Now they’re marching through here as if the Marines had landed. And for Khosa to make an appearance in person, that has to mean something.’ Her voice trailed off for a moment or two; then her face set with determination and she said, ‘It’s no good. I can’t walk away. I have to know what he’s up to.’
Jude stared at her. ‘But you said—’
‘I wanted to get away from this hellhole. I know. But this could be important, Jude. I mean, imagine if Chen was here, in the flesh, for a meeting with Khosa.’
‘Who’s Chen?’
‘The minister in charge of overseeing African mining operations. Not that there’s ever been any proof of his actual hands-on involvement. Nobody’s been able to put him at the scene of a real-life coltan mine. Or it might not be that. It could be all kinds of things. They could be closing down the operation, for all I know. Or relocating the whole damn thing to some other place. If they do that, I’ll never be able to find them again and all our work has been for nothing. Whatever’s going on here tonight, I can’t just turn my back. Please. Craig died for this.’
‘Thirty minutes,’ Jude said, relenting. ‘That’s how long we give it. If we don’t find out anything in that time, we get out of here and we don’t look back. Agreed?’
She nodded. ‘Deal.’
The last of the vehicles had already disappeared down the road. Jude and Rae slipped out from behind the earth mound and doubled back the way they’d come, following the dust that still hung in the air. Before the road reached the gates of the hut compound, it forked off to the left. Judging from the fresh tracks, that was the way they’d gone.
‘They’re heading towards the mines,’ Rae said.
Chapter 33
The dust was settling on the row of parked vehicles by the time Jude and Rae clambered onto a flat rock at the top of a slope overlooking the main mineshaft entrance. They’d covered the last few hundred yards off-road, darting from cover to cover, working their way upwards onto higher ground.
The moment he took in the scene below, Jude wanted to double back. Now he understood why the rest of the labour camp seemed so deserted; it was because everyone was here. Whether all these extra soldiers had been stationed outside the mine due to Khosa’s unexpected visit, he couldn’t say. But there were at least sixty of them, all heavily armed, milling around the mine entrance. The shaft looked like the mouth of a cave tunnelling into the rock, one festooned with tons of scaffolding and massive iron railings and danger signs illegible with rust. Heavy plant machinery was everywhere. Trucks were coming and going every moment as the troops hurried back and forth. The whole scene was brightly illuminated by floodlights on masts. The only thing Jude couldn’t see was any sign of Khosa and Masango, aside from the dust-streaked Mercedes sitting empty among the hubbub.
As they watched, Rae wondering how the hell they could ever get inside and Jude wondering whether he’d taken leave of his senses in agreeing to this madness, a battered freight lorry rumbled to a halt under the glare of the floodlights. Soldiers jumped out of the front as more strode purposefully to the rear and flung open the tailgate to unload the truckload of mine workers, perhaps fifty or sixty souls, who were crammed into the back. The ragged slaves were made to disembark amid a lot of aggressive, pointless shouting and pointing of guns. This must be the night shift arriving for duty, Jude thought.
To him, the concept of slaves was something that belonged to a darker, historical past. But here they were, young and old, male and female, some so skinny that they looked like walking skeletons under their tattered clothes. They hadn’t even started their shift yet, and already many of them seemed ready to collapse with exhaustion. Even the more energetic and least malnourished-looking poor devils moved in a kind of shuffling gait, eyes locked down towards the ground, never daring to meet the impassive gaze of the guards who drove them from the truck like a herd of cattle. The slower ones were made to pick up their pace with whips and clubs.
Rae leaned close enough to Jude for him to feel her hair on his face. She whispered, ‘They’ll send them deep underground, into pitch blackness, to hack at the rock with blunt shovels and picks. The ones who are too weak to lift tools are made to sift through the rubble with their bare hands, looking for coltan. If they slow down or collapse, they’re either left down there to rot or brought up to the surface to be made an example of.’
‘It’s medieval,’ Jude said.
‘It’s Africa,’ she replied. ‘And it’s profitable. Wherever you find wealth and opportunity on this continent, you’ll find misery, exploitation, and suffering.’
‘Someone needs to do something to stop this.’
‘Then let’s do something,’ she said. And before he could stop her, she was up on her feet and scrambling down the slope on the soldiers’ blind side of the truck. Jude cursed at her recklessness, and went after her.
One of the slave women had dropped a dirty rag that was probably once a headscarf. Rae scooped it up off the ground as she passed the truck and quickly wrapped it around her head to cover her long black hair and most of her face. A guard yelled at her for lagging behind. She fell in with the crowd of slaves, matching their shuffling gait and slumped body posture.
‘This can’t really be happening,’ Jude thought. Horribly aware of how he must stand out, and certain that the guards would rumble him at any instant, he hustled in among the crowd. In a heart-stopping moment one of the soldiers actually looked right at him and then moved on. Jude realised that his face, clothes, and hair were all so caked with dirt from his escapades that night that, at a careless glance, he could blend in.
He kept his head down and focused on shuffling at enough of an accelerated zombie-gait to enable him to catch up with Rae. He tugged at her elbow and hissed furiously in her ear, ‘Are you out of your mind?’
‘Got us in, didn’t I?’ she whispered back with a crazy grin.
What kind of woman is this I’ve met? Jude asked himself.
The yells and cracking of whips began to resonate with echo as the slaves made their way into the dark, rough tunnel dimly lit every twenty paces by liquid fuel lanterns that emitted
a guttering stink and belched smoke. A hundred or so yards into the shaft, someone stumbled and fell. The guards instantly waded in, clubs at the ready. Someone else let out a wail. In the commotion, Jude yanked Rae to one side while the soldiers were distracted. ‘We can’t do anything for them,’ he whispered, and pointed at the side tunnel whose entrance he’d spotted in the murk. ‘This way!’ Checking that none of the guards had noticed them pull away from the crowd, he plucked a lantern off the craggy wall and kept its light hidden with his body.
‘Where do you think it goes?’ she whispered as they ducked through the narrow opening in the rock.
‘Who cares? Come on!’
The tunnel was a third of the width of the main shaft, and wound and snaked much more steeply downwards. The echo of the crowd and the guards was soon out of earshot behind them. Jude lit the way by the paltry yellow glow of the lantern. It gave off choking fumes that smelled as if it was running on diesel oil. He had visions of them suffocating down here, or else of the tunnel narrowing to a stop and their having to retrace their steps, only to run into more guards. ‘Might have been a mistake,’ he admitted.
‘We can’t turn back now.’
They pressed on. One thing was for sure, they were no longer in a manmade tunnel. The natural fissure was leading them deeper below ground.
Just as Jude’s fears seemed about to come true and he was on the tip of saying, ‘It’s a dead end,’ the way ahead opened up radically and they saw that their cave shaft had rejoined some kind of much larger space. Jude twiddled the knob on the lantern to unwind a few more millimetres of wick and brighten the flame. By its flicker they could see the phosphorescent glitter of mineral deposits buried in the rock, the great jagged stalagmites jutting up from the floor and stalactites hanging in spikes overhead, like giant fangs and tusks inside the mouth of some vast creature that had swallowed them whole. It was like a scene from another world. Nobody might have set foot here in fifty thousand years.
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