ShadowShot : L'enfant Guerrier

by T. M. Deans

  “All right. I believe you. I will see what I can do.”

  She came back in about an hour with her son.

  “Fortune smiles on you. I called him and he was there.”

  49

  THE MEETING OF JACK AND LANA WITH THE MUANDA’S

  “He knew about all the Arabs and was curious. He will see you. My son will take you. He has a van parked in the courtyard so you will not be seen. You must go now. He waits for you.”

  I said, “We cannot thank you enough. You have been wonderful. I wish I could tell you what this is all about. Maybe someday you will find out. I know you have not asked anything of us, but we would like to give you something. Here is $1000. You can put it in the church box if you don’t need it for yourself.”

  “Young man I don’t know if you believe in the horoscope but last week my reading said I was about to have an opportunity to do some important good. God bless you.”

  We left for a very precarious unknown outcome.

  It would have been a 30 minute drive in traffic, but her son did some doubling back to make sure we weren’t being followed. I could tell that he had some experience with this kind of work. It was not new to him. A tall fence surrounded the mansion. The entry way had two steel swinging gates and was manned by two armed guards. They knew our driver, and we were expected. Our weapons were in our packs. We left them at the gate. I was sure we would be frisked and it was better not to have them on us. Of course I knew that somewhere on that perfect body, Lana had her knife. We drove up to the front. It was a nice place. I thought it was going to be an old colonial mansion, but it was relatively new. Either way it meant the family was making a lot of money. We thanked our driver and said goodbye. We were met at the door, by a very large black man, who proceeded to frisk us. I was glad. I would’ve been disappointed if I had unarmed myself and then not been frisked.

  Another man appeared. Large man told us to follow him as he trailed behind us. When we got to the office door, the other man opened it and motioned us in. Large man followed behind us, and then stood off to the side like a pillar.

  I opened the conversation. “Sir my name is Jack Slade and this is Lana. We thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

  A tall good looking, black man sat before us at his desk.

  “I am Albert Muanda and this is my home. You may continue in English if you would be most comfortable. You were fortunate to have chosen that hotel. The woman who owns it has worked for my family for years. She is well respected. If it were not for her, I doubt that I would have seen you on such short notice. Please sit down. Why don’t you start by telling me why so many Arabs have suddenly come to my town? I was of course made aware of their arrival, but I must confess I did not know about you. Are they looking for you? Very little happens in my town which I do not know about.”

  “Well sir, we slipped into the town in the night. The Arabs are most definitely looking for us and have gone to great lengths to find us. But in truth I am not sure why. It is still a mystery to me. Let us say in my younger days I worked for an organization that sometimes made enemies, but as far as I know I had no dealing with Arabs at any time. We came to you to ask for help because they were closing in on us. However, there is another reason I wanted to see you. It is one that is difficult for me to speak about.”

  “Go ahead Mr. Slade. I’m listening.”

  “Sir it’s about the contract.”

  “What contract?”

  “The contract put out on the mercenaries who killed your uncle many years ago during the war.”

  He sat back in his chair with a grimaced look on his face. I could also hear large man stir behind us. He leaned forward and put both his hands on his desk. He had an annoyed look on his face.

  He said, “Sir that contract was many years ago. There is no contract, and hasn’t been for a long time. If you’ve come here to try and collect a reward for one of the mercenaries who was there that night, I assure you you’ve come for nothing.”

  I took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Muanda, I am the last mercenary who was there that night.”

  I could hear large man getting closer behind us. In addition, I could feel Lana stiffening, getting ready to make some kind of move. He put his hand up as if to tell the big man to stay where he was. I put my hand on Lana’s arm before she could leap over the desk and put a knife to his throat.

  There was a long moment before anyone spoke and then he said, “How is that possible?”

  “If you’ll permit sir, I will tell you what happened that night. I’m sure you know most of it, but not all of it.”

  “Wait Mr. Slade. There is someone, actually two people I would like to hear this. They are both on the premises. It won’t take long for them to be here.” He picked up the phone, and in his native language, asked for the two people to come to his office. I thought it was reassuring that he wasn’t interested in the contract.

  After a few minutes there was a knock on the door. An old man came in. Mr. Muanda said something to him and he took a seat on the side. Then walked in one of the most incredibly beautiful women I had ever seen, with long black hair and exquisite, exotic, fine features, and cocoa black skin. Lana was sitting to the left of me and the black woman was standing on the left. I could see both of their faces. For a moment it reminded me of two lionesses sizing each other up for the kill. But maybe it was my imagination.

  Mr. Muanda said something to her also that we did not understand. She sat down. Turning to me he said, “Please proceed Mr. Slade.”

  “As I was the youngest, I was left at the perimeter of the compound to hold the position upon their retreat. When they made a break for the edge of the tree line where I was, one of the men was dropped by gunfire. I fell in behind the other three men. Our sergeant was leading us back to the boat we left on the river. We broke into a clearing at the same moment as a group of your uncle’s soldiers entered. Sadly your uncle’s wife and two children were with them. One of his soldiers pushed the woman down and everyone opened fire at the same time. When the smoke cleared, one of our men was dead and all of yours. The woman was unhurt, and she was trying to cover her children with her body. I thought we would continue running to the boat, but instead our sergeant calmly walked over to her and was about to shoot the three of them. I yelled not to do it, and pushed him as he was firing his weapon. But it was too late. The sergeant spun around and said, “You shouldn’t have done that, fuck you.” He pulled the trigger of his weapon, but it was a dud or a misfire. My 12gauge was not. I think it was your father who put the contract out on us and I cannot blame him. He must have known that the sergeant was killed by one of his own men. Hopefully you will believe that I’m telling you the truth. I have lived with the shame of the death of your aunt and her children for many years. It is a relief to get it off my chest. I’m sorry I could not save them.”

  He looked over to where the old man was sitting and said something. The old man replied and got up out of his chair. He walked over to me and lifted my hand up and put it in his. He looked into my eyes, then let go of my hand and went back to his chair and nodded. Next it was the woman’s turn. She walked over to me. I felt as though I was supposed to rise as a gentleman, but she put her hand on my shoulder. She looked deep into my eyes and touched my face. She went back to her seat and said something to Mr. Muanda. Now it was Mr. Muanda’s turn to speak. It was safe to say that I was waiting with bated breath.

  He said, “This man’s name is Delbert, and he was the soldier who pushed the woman down trying to save her. As you can see he did not die, although he was severely wounded. He saw what you did, he knows it was you, and knows you are telling the truth. It is incredible to think that after all these years you should show up here like this.”

  I said, “Yes, it’s as if I was being drawn here. But it was because of the Arabs that I ended up here now.”

  “That does not matter, Mr. Slade. You see it was not my uncle who was killed in that raid. It was my father. The woman who
you attempted to save was my mother. I am the boy she was trying to protect with her life. This is my sister who also lived. You saved our lives. We were both wounded badly. Had you not shoved the sergeant, he would’ve killed us both as well as our mother. We owe you our lives. And you have blood revenged the death of our father and mother.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I was choked up. He came around from behind his desk and stood over me. He took both my hands in his, pulled me up, and hugged me.

  He said, “You are part of this family now. There’s nothing that you can ask that we will not grant.”

  My jacket must have opened slightly because his sister said, “Albert he’s bleeding.”

  He stepped back and said, “You’re hurt?”

  I answered, “Yes. Actually I have been shot,” and sank back down into the chair.

  Lana responded, “He still has a particle of a bullet in him. It must be taken out immediately before it becomes more infected. I am a paramedic and I can do the surgery, if you can have a trusted doctor bring me what I need.”

  Albert replied, “That won’t be necessary. We have a full hospital room on the premises. I can get my own personal surgeon. He looked to me for my decision.

  I just waved and said, “If she has what she needs she can do it. She’s in charge of my body.”

  The next thing I knew large man and Albert were helping me down to their own little hospital room, with everybody else following. When we got there, Lana laid me on the table and was asking for anesthesia.

  She already had my shirt off and was jabbing me with a needle, when Albert said, “Forgive me, this is my sister. Her name is Jada. This big fellow is Boom-Boom.”

  I said, “I’m Jack and this is Lana. I think I’ll pass out now if nobody minds.”

  Next morning I woke up in a very nice bed, in a very nice room, with a very nice looking doctor next to me.

  “So how’s my favorite patient doing?”

  “Well I feel pretty good, but I have a small pain right here. I took her hand and put it under the covers. Yes right there.”

  “I’m sorry I forgot to cut that off last night. But seriously how do you feel?”

  “Fine. So how did the operation go?”

  “I found a little piece of lead that was bothering you. You’re all cleaned up and filled with antibiotics. All you have to do now is rest, which doesn’t seem to be a problem, because our hosts said we could stay as long as we like. It was a tense moment Jack, when you told him who you were. What made you decide to just come straight out with the truth?”

  “I’m not sure. I wasn’t planning on it, but something just went off in my head telling me to do it. It was a huge relief to get it off my chest. It seems like it was the right thing to do.”

  “You know Jack, it really is amazing, I believe you when you said everything that happened was pulling us to this place. There must be a reason why it’s important for you to be here, besides knowing you were able to save the children and have closure about it.”

  All I could say was, “I think you’re right baby.”

  “Albert said when you wake up, if you’re feeling well enough we should call down for breakfast. They’ll send it up, but he would like to join us, as there is much we need to talk about. I suppose he meant the Arabs for starters.”

  “Sure. I’ll get dressed.”

  “Oh no you won’t. It’s breakfast in bed for you young man. In fact, you’re not getting out of bed at all today.”

  The maid brought up a beautiful breakfast. Albert and Jada joined us.

  Albert explained that after his uncle had passed away, he and Jada had taken over running the business. He pretty much handled the office business, and Jada did what she liked best, which was security. She said that she had tripled her usual guards and had sent some of her men out to snoop around. So far it seemed they thought you had either been here, or would still be coming.

  I asked, “Can you please see to it that the old woman at the hotel and her son are not in danger?”

  She smiled and said. “I’m glad you’re concerned. It shows what kind of a man you are. I already thought of it. The old girl is quite dear to us and I wouldn’t want to see anything happen to her either, or her son. I put two of our best men on the bottom floor, and should any of the Arabs check-in we have a special room for them where we can keep tabs on them. It would be good if we could find out what it is they want from you. We could always have Boom-Boom grab one of them. He can be very persuasive.”

  “Yes I’m sure, but it might be better if we just leave it alone. Maybe they’ll leave. If one of them turns up missing it might intensify their search here. Apparently when I was in Paris they made an attempt then, but I thought I was being robbed, and ended up killing them.”

  Albert said, “Jack I wanted to explain to you about our uncle and our father. They wanted us to not be under the rule of colonialism any longer. They did what they thought was best but as you know it got out of hand. Not by their hands, but by others who had lost control. Our family for many generations had always tried to be honorable. By most standards in this country we are pretty well off. When the call to arms came, my father and uncle, who were natural born leaders, went to war. Looking back it was probably a mistake. They could’ve served the cause better by using their brains instead of weapons. I suppose men reach a point when all that is left to them is violence. Anyway, that is hindsight. I understand that the goal of the mission on the night of the raid was to eliminate my father. He was a rebel leader and a thorn in the side of the opposition. None of the atrocities that occurred in that war were ordered by my father or uncle. The attempt by your sergeant to kill my mother and us was barbaric. Had it not been for you, we would not be here now.”

  “That my mother, sister, and I were there at that moment was just bad luck, but that is the way of war. My uncle loved his brother and made that contract because of what the sergeant did. When Delbert, the man you met yesterday, recovered enough to tell what happened in the clearing, he told my uncle that you had tried to save us. My uncle told Delbert that he was never to tell anyone about this under pain of death. He never did. We suppose our uncle had his reasons for this. When you think about what happened, it would have softened the incident by having people know that one of the soldiers tried to stop it. There was another reason. Our uncle had always been in love with our mother. After that dreadful war ended, our uncle took the reins of the family business. Fortunately we had not lost our lands or many of our holdings. We prospered once again. When your partner the Frenchman was found, our uncle was elated. He continued to search for you, but happily, you seem to have disappeared. It was always a disappointment to him having never found you, but he lived with it. Not until his death did Delbert come to us and tell us what happened that day. However, we already knew because Jada had her head up and watched the whole thing happen. Even though she was a young child, it was something etched into her memory forever. As soon as we had both miraculously recovered fully from our wounds, she told me what had happened. We kept it our own private little secret all those years. But when we talked about it we always hoped that our uncle would never find you. And of course he didn’t.”

  “Now how do we deal with the problem of the Arabs? Are you sure you can’t think of anything to add. Why they would want you?”

  It was time to tell them about Lana’s role in this. I looked over to her, and she nodded.

  When I had related our misadventure from Cape Town, to the plane crash, to the little shootout in the village, Albert seemed awestruck. His sister looked at Lana with professional admiration.

  “I trust we have not overstepped any boundaries by engaging in the gunfights. It was not our intention to become involved. It just happened that way.”

  I made it perfectly clear that Lana was to be considered a friend and partner. I made sure they knew I wouldn’t have survived without her.

  They understood. Sometimes people were thrown together and ended up changing sides.
The gang in the village were bad people and needed to be disposed of.

  Albert said he thought that it was likely the leader of the Arabs would probably want to pay him a visit. Why not send some of his men to bring him here. It would seem natural for him to want to know what they were doing in his town. Then he could contrive to throw them off track. He could make them leave. By now, they probably know for sure that we had been to this town.

  Albert remarked, “If they have not discovered that you stayed at the hotel, they would not know that you were here. Jada, I think you should send some more men to stay at the hotel, and then I will send an invitation for their leader to come here. The sooner the better, and I think it’s best Jada, if you were not seen by them for now.”

  “One last thing before we leave so you can rest. Some people would probably consider us to be warlords. In truth we are not. We never abuse the rights of our countrymen and we try to keep to the family tradition of honor. However, in this part of the world at this time, if you’re going to be in big business you have to have your own army. All of our soldiers operate on a strict code. That is why we are able to work within the bounds of our government. I just wanted you to know.”

  Later that day Jada came up to the room and told us that Albert had made contact. Their leader was due to arrive anytime and to please stay in the room. The conversation would be recorded and filmed so that we could hear everything. Later she came back with a tape recorder and film. The conversation went like this.

  Albert took the offensive right from the beginning and said, “This is my town and I do not care for 20 of your men running around armed. You will take the next two planes out of here by tomorrow or drive. I do not care. Now tell me why you are here, and what you want.”

  The Arab was taken back. You could tell he was not accustomed to being talked to like this but he composed himself and answered, “We are looking for an American man and English woman. They have stolen something that is important to the family I work for. We do not wish to hurt them. We only wish to retrieve what they have stolen.”