by Dan Smith
‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘Do you?’
‘Well, I’m pretty sure they’re not fortune hunters.’ She continued to gaze over my shoulder.
‘They’re here, aren’t they?’ I said. ‘Behind us.’
Fernanda nodded once, so I turned and put my elbow on the bar, leaning to one side to look through the crowd. In the far corner of the room, in the quietest and darkest place, Sister Beckett and Kássia were sitting at a table.
They were both looking at me and Daniella.
‘OK.’ I turned to Daniella and lowered my voice. ‘Stay here a moment, there’s something I need to do.’
‘What? What do you need to do?’ she asked. ‘What’s going on, Zico?’
‘Please.’ I put down my drink. ‘Just stay here.’
I turned to look at Sister Dolores Beckett, and steeled myself for what was coming next.
51
It was as if Sister Beckett had somehow poured something of herself into me, and the closer I came to her, the stronger it worked in me.
The pistol was heavy on my belt. The knife pressed against the small of my back. The shadow darkened and tightened around me.
Just one more life, it whispered, but I had already chosen.
Coming towards the table, Kássia made a move to stand, but Sister Beckett lightly touched her elbow and stopped her. The younger woman looked at the nun, but Sister Beckett was watching me. When I reached the table, she allowed a smile to touch her lips, then she opened her hand towards an empty seat.
‘Join us,’ she said.
Kássia’s expression tightened and I could see the violent intent in her eyes. Despite our shared experience in the settlement, and our remaining time on the Deus, she now saw me as a threat. Something must have happened since I last saw them. Or perhaps she and Sister Beckett had talked about the photograph in my pocket.
When I pulled out the chair, scraping it on the wooden floor, Kássia half pushed to her feet. I didn’t know if she was going to reach for her knife or if she intended to spring over the table and beat me, but either way, she was ready to do something.
I held out my hands to indicate I meant no harm and waited for her to relax. After a moment’s consideration she nodded once and I sat down opposite the two women, putting my pack on the floor beside me.
Kássia dropped one hand beneath the table, perhaps clutching the knife she had used to kill the man at the settlement.
‘You’ve made a decision,’ said Sister Beckett, as if she could see my thoughts.
‘Yes. I have.’ I put my fingers into my top pocket and Kássia bristled.
Sister Beckett put a hand out to calm her, so I removed the folded newspaper clipping and opened it out. I put it flat on the table, turned it around and pushed it towards the nun. She looked at herself in the picture.
‘Are you going to kill me now?’ she asked.
I glanced at Kássia who was coiled like a snake ready to strike. ‘No.’
‘I didn’t think so. But it was your intention?’
‘Yes.’
Sister Beckett removed her spectacles and placed them on the picture in front of her. She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked across at me, her lazy eye not quite matching the other. ‘Are you sure it was your intention?’
I said nothing. I was considering the truth that before I had even set foot on the Deus, I had known I wouldn’t kill Sister Dolores Beckett. Something in that thought made the shadow’s grip slip a little. I had never intended to kill her. I had come on this journey for the old man, not for Costa.
‘You could have left me at the smallholding,’ Sister Beckett said. ‘Those men would have killed me.’
‘I almost did leave you.’
‘What stopped you? Why did you help me?’
‘Because Daniella wanted me to. Because Leonardo thought I should leave you. Or maybe because someone like you once helped me and when I had the chance to help him, I ran away.’
‘So it was because you knew it was the right thing to do,’ Sister Beckett said. ‘I don’t think you ever believed you would leave us behind. You were never going to kill me, Zico, I could see it in your eyes when we first met. The way you looked at me, I knew something was troubling you. And when Leonardo told me about the photograph ...’ She leaned closer, as if about to share a secret. ‘I knew then what was bothering you. It wouldn’t be the first time someone wanted to kill me, you know.’ She stared. ‘Did they offer you money?’
‘A lot of money. Enough for ...’
‘For what, Zico? Enough money for what?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘Not now.’
Sister Beckett nodded. ‘And will you be in trouble? For not doing as you were instructed?’
‘Yes.’
‘They threatened you?’
‘They threatened Daniella, and a very good friend of mine.’
Sister Beckett nodded as if she had known it all along.
‘And now I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll have to think of a way to deal with them.’
‘You could leave. Take the boat and leave.’
‘It’s not my boat. It’s my friend’s boat and he’s back in Piratinga with his wife.’ Maybe even dying from the fever that burned through him.
Sister Beckett watched me. ‘He’s the other one they threatened?’
‘Yes.’
‘But if you do what they’ve asked, you would probably be in trouble anyway, am I right, Zico?’
It was the truth I’d had to face earlier, on the boat. Daniella and the old man would never be safe from Costa. As long as he lived and I lived, he would always use them as a threat. He was a devil and he would do anything he could to keep the dark shadow around me. He had found a way to control me, and he would never let it go.
‘Now you see it, Zico. Now you understand. The people you work for, they intend not to pay you. You think they’ll let you carry a secret like this? Entrust it to a man like you? Whatever you planned to do here tonight, or on the boat, on the river, the people you work for couldn’t risk you telling another soul.’
I stared as her words arranged themselves into thoughts. I was quicker with my hands than I was with my mind, but now I began to see the truth that had eluded me. This was the voice that had prickled at me when Daniella and I were coming ashore. This was the thing I had overlooked. The unformed thoughts.
Costa would not keep me and use me. He would discard me.
Sister Beckett must have seen the horrible realisation in my eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Zico, but what’s to stop them from hiring another man like you? A man with your photograph in his pocket. And what’s to stop them from shooting you dead the minute you step off that boat in Piratinga? Maybe hiring someone to kill that man, bury you and me under a line of bodies that no one would ever trace back to them. I’ve been around long enough to know how these things work.’
I leaned back, heart sinking and mind reeling under the weight of her words.
Why hadn’t I seen it?
Costa did not intend to control me; he intended to kill me.
The nun had opened my eyes to the reality of my situation. She had revealed the true intent of the devil who had used me.
It was maddening that Costa had tricked me into believing he would pay for Sister Beckett’s life, but that wasn’t what troubled me most. The worst mistake I had made – a terrible, terrible mistake – was that I had allowed Daniella to come on board the Deus. By doing so, I had not been keeping her safe from Costa, I had been sealing her death.
If she had remained in Piratinga, she would have been safe; she would have known nothing about Sister Beckett and there would have been no reason to harm her. By bringing her with me, I had given Costa a reason to kill her and, unless I could think of a way around this, she was as dead as I was, the moment we stepped foot in Piratinga.
I had endangered the old man, too. Costa would know I had travelled with him.
The devil would be waiting for my return and th
en he would tie up all the loose ends.
Me, Daniella, the old man. Maybe Carolina too.
Perhaps he’d even started already.
52
I clenched my hands into fists and remembered the old man as I had last seen him. Burning with fever, shivering and racked with pain. I had put him on a boat with a man he hardly knew and sent him to his death in Piratinga. Perhaps there was no reason for me to return there now, and I should take Daniella onto the Deus and do as I had suggested.
Just keep going.
On and on, putting Piratinga behind us.
But perhaps the old man still lived, and Costa was waiting for me to return. There was Carolina to think of, too. And no matter how much I disliked Daniella’s mother, I wouldn’t wish Luis and Wilson upon her.
I had never felt fear like this, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t see a way out. The only thing I knew for certain was that I needed to get back to Piratinga and go to Raul. Leonardo’s money didn’t matter any more.
As soon as it was light enough, I would leave.
‘ ... could do, Zico.’
‘Hm?’
Sister Beckett cleared her throat. ‘I said there is one thing you could do. Give me their names. Tell me who they are and I will have them arrested. I have some influence.’
I shook my head.
‘Already we’ve had prosecutions,’ she said. ‘But if we could get to the people at the top; if someone like you were to—’
‘No.’ I stared at her without really seeing her. I was picturing the old man and thinking about how I had put his life in danger. ‘There’s nothing you can do.’
Sister Beckett leaned forward and put her hand on mine. ‘Let me try.’
‘There’s something you should know before I leave,’ I said, pulling away from her. ‘I don’t know why you’re here, but I know your reputation, so—’
‘I’m here to talk to the miners,’ she said. ‘Or the people who’ve taken over.’
‘You’re meeting them here? The owners?’ It couldn’t be the Branquinos, they did their business from offices far away and unconnected. They would never come to a place like this.
‘Not the owners.’ Sister Beckett shook her head. ‘We don’t know who they are, but we’re hoping to find out. That’s why I need to know who hired you. The miners found a lot of gold a few weeks ago and now they’re planning to expand the mine. It’s going to be huge, Zico, and the Indians are angry about the push on their land, worried it will end up like Serra Pelada. There is talk of violence. I will be going to them next – to persuade them it isn’t the answer. What we saw in the settlement might be a part of this – militias pushing people out of their smallholdings. The Indians are talking about retaliation, Zico. I’m here to stop a land war, so—’
‘You might be too late. The man on my boat, Leonardo, he’s bringing guns. That’s why he’s here in Mina dos Santos.’
‘How many guns?’ asked Kássia. It was the first time she had spoken since I sat down. She had done nothing but watch me, seeing every twitch of my hands, every turn of my head. Every breath I took.
‘Enough for a small army. And they’re not just any kind of gun. They’re soldiers’ guns. With a lot of ammunition.’
‘That’s why I need to know who hired you,’ Sister Beckett said. ‘It could be the people who now control the mine. They have a good reason to want me dead – if I get my way, this mine will not just stop growing, it will shut down. Tell me who it is, Zico, I might be able to do something more. There has to be a connection. Who was it?’
I hesitated.
‘If you tell me, I might be able to help you.’
‘If I tell you, it could make things a whole lot worse for me. All I want is to get married and have a quiet life but now ...’ I shook my head and hoped Raul was safe.
‘Married?’ she asked. To Daniella? I wish you lots of luck.’
‘And you, too,’ I said, pushing back my chair. ‘But it’s time for me to go.’
‘Where are they now?’ She stopped me. ‘These guns?’
‘On the boat.’
‘Deus e o Diabo,’ she said. ‘Which will it be for us, I wonder? God or the Devil? Will you do something for me, Zico? Will you make sure those guns never come ashore?’
‘You don’t want them for your own cause? For the Indians? It could make their life easier.’
‘Guns don’t make anyone’s life easier, Zico, they only make things worse. If you want to do something good, you’ll get rid of them. Throw them overboard. Burn them. Anything to make sure they never touch human hands.’
I nodded. ‘I’ll do what I can.’
Sister Beckett smiled at me, but there was no happiness behind the smile. She looked tired, and I wondered what it was that made someone like her do the things she did. She had such faith in what she was doing. She really believed it was the right thing and she did it regardless of any personal threat. She lived to help others and I wondered if that was a kind of insanity.
‘Who was it?’ she asked again. ‘Who sent you?’
‘I ...’
‘Please. You could save a lot of lives.’
I took a deep breath and stared at the tabletop, thinking about all the trouble it could cause me if anyone found out I had told her. But, then, if Costa was planning to kill me anyway, maybe it didn’t matter. If I told Sister Beckett who had hired me, then at least someone would know what had happened to Daniella and the old man and me if we disappeared.
‘Branquinos,’ I said, looking up at her.
The way she nodded, I knew she had heard the name and that it confirmed something for her.
To me, though, it was like a riddle. If the Branquinos had taken ownership of this mine, it explained how Costa knew that Sister Beckett would be here. But it also meant they had hired me to come here to kill Sister Beckett while paying Leonardo to deliver guns. Both jobs could have been done by one man, but they must have wanted to disconnect everything; make everything harder to trace. There was no way they could have known that we would all end up together, but what if they had hired me to deliver the guns and Leonardo to kill Sister Beckett? If they had done that, the guns would probably have been delivered.
And Sister Beckett would probably be dead.
Maybe God really was watching over her.
‘They used a man called Costa to hire me,’ I said. ‘That’s the only name I know. He works in Piratinga.’
‘Costa.’ She repeated the name as if to help remember it.
‘I have to go.’ I put my hand on the newspaper cutting. ‘Can I keep this?’
‘Of course.’ Sister Beckett watched as I folded it back along the creases and slipped it into my pocket, then she reached out and took my hand in both of her own. ‘Bless you, Zico,’ she said. ‘You’re a good man. I can understand now why you were so angry with Leonardo.’
I was confused for a second, not sure what she meant.
‘Bringing guns—’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It wasn’t anything to do with the guns.’
‘It wasn’t?’ She waited for an explanation, her hands still encasing mine.
‘He killed two men,’ I told her. ‘Not long before we saw you.’
‘Oh.’ But she wasn’t looking at me any more. There was some kind of commotion behind me, and she was looking over my shoulder. Something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked a lot like fear.
Beside her, Kássia began to push out of her seat. She moved in front of Sister Beckett, raising her left hand.
I started to turn but flinched at the two loud bangs that came in quick succession.
Kássia fell back, dropping the small pistol she had hidden beneath the table. Her body lurched twice as bullets tore through her and took away her life.
I ripped my hands away from Sister Beckett’s and moved to one side, ducking and reaching for my pistol as I turned, but Leonardo smashed the butt of his pistol into my face with enough force to twist my head to one side and send a
white flash of pain firing through my skull.
I dropped my weapon and stumbled to my knees, both hands going to my head. Leonardo kicked me to the floor before coming closer and putting a foot on my pistol.
‘Where are my guns?’ It was clear he had found something to fuel his drug habit. His eyes were wild, his whole face contorted in anger. But there was something else there, too; the same glint of pleasure I had seen the day he killed the men on the boat.
He leaned forward, placing the barrel of his pistol against my forehead, tapping it hard with each word he spoke. ‘Where. Are. My. Guns?’
‘Don’t tell him, Zico,’ Sister Beckett said from behind me.
‘Shut up.’ Leonardo didn’t even look at her. ‘Where are they? I saw you at the store, you know. Thought I’d go down to the river and take my cargo while you were busy – except the boat’s gone. How do you make a whole fucking boat disappear? Only reason you’re not dead yet is because I need to know where you put it. Where are my guns?’
‘Don’t tell him,’ Sister Beckett said again. ‘Think of all the people who—’
‘Shut up.’ Leonardo raised his pistol over my head and fired two shots.
I flinched with each deafening report, the noise so close to me that I felt it reverberate in my head. When Leonardo looked back down at me, he began to lower the pistol to point it at me once more.
And that’s when Daniella killed him.
53
The first shot hit Leonardo in the back of the neck and punched out through his throat.
His muscles contracted and he squeezed the trigger of his pistol, the bullet slamming into the floor just a few centimetres from my head. Wood splintered close to my ear, and the sound of the explosion numbed me. For a moment, it drove all thought from my mind. There was nothing but the noise of that gunshot and the sharp sting of the wood against my cheek.
Standing over me, Daniella continued to fire. Again and again. She worked the trigger, emptying the small pistol into Leonardo as he fell forward, stumbling to the table.
The gun popped and Leonardo jerked as the bullets entered his back, smashing his ribs, tumbling through his flesh.