by Jack Ford
He huddled in the doorway of a building. Tried to convince himself that having a cigarette because there was nothing else to do but wait for the rain to ease up, wasn’t the same as just having a cigarette for a cigarette’s sake. Deciding his reasoning was the kind of bull he’d hear coming from Rosedale, he lit one anyway.
With the cigarette hanging out from the side of his mouth, he went in his pocket. Pulled out a wrap of tissue. And his hands shook as he unfolded it. Three blue pills. Three yellow pills. And he stared at them, wanting there to be a hesitation. There wasn’t. By the time there was, he’d already swallowed them.
*
Ten minutes passed and the rain still fell and Cooper was still enjoying the smoke going down into his lungs as the beginnings of the tablets began to take effect.
But then a sound behind him. Coming from the darkness of the derelict building. Instincts propelled him to high alert and, not wanting to have his back to whatever it was, he spun round. Listened again. But hearing anything above the noise of the rain as it ricocheted off the ground proved difficult.
He peered through the broken, jagged wooden door. Felt the rush of a passing wind cross his feet which began to encircle him with a blanket of warmth, before leaving him chilled. He listened again, and yes, there it was. Like a bristle brush against a hard concrete floor.
He glanced around.
Waited a moment.
Used the toe of his boot to force the door.
Creaked open with ease. Though Cooper could have done without it falling off one of its hinges to swing down noisily on one side.
He stood in the entrance opposite a row of broken windows. Observed the stark emptiness of the place. Abandoned like so many other buildings in Kinshasa.
He watched curiously. Speculating how it was that the few scattered leaves in the middle of the floor which had found their way inside, still blew. Still twisted. Still circled.
An odd sensation crept over Cooper, causing him to rub his chest, and he could feel a tightness begin to grow and it made it hard to breathe and it was if the air was draining of oxygen, and he wondered and it crossed his mind and he refused to panic at the thought that this time it really was the pills and this time he’d really pushed it too far.
His skin became clammy. Then a steam train of a headache. It pierced through the backs of his eyes making the pain bulge against his sinuses. He leant forward and reached out and felt for the wall to steady himself. He flinched as his touch hit ice cold wet. Freezing on his hand in a painful burn.
Pulling away, Cooper locked his armpit over his hand in an attempt to warm it up.
‘You’re here to see Emmanuel aren’t you?’
The voice from the darkness, although a whisper, made him jump. Something he rarely did. But his instinct to run wasn’t there. A lifetime of training had eliminated that.
‘I am. You know where he is?’
‘No.’
Cooper cleared his throat, then spoke slightly louder than necessary to assert himself. ‘Well, we need to speak to him, need to get a matter sorted… Sorry, can you come nearer? I can’t see you and I’m not too keen on talking to somebody I can’t see.’
The man stepped forward into the light. And Cooper recognized him as the young man who’d stood at the door with the woman, at the address he’d just come from. There was amusement on the man’s face.
‘I think we spend our lives talking to those we cannot see, sometimes it’s the only thing we have to connect us to those who have gone.’
Distancing himself from anything too personal, too raw, Cooper scratched his head, still aware of the strange tightness in his chest. ‘Look, if you know something, I’m happy to pay you for any information. How is it you know him anyway?’
‘How is it we know anybody?’
Cooper drove the butt end of his cigarette into the crumbling wall, watching the red glow disappear. ‘Listen, if you’ve got something to say, I’ll be glad to hear it. If not, I’m out of here. Riddles have never been my thing.’
Cooper began to move.
Did the trick.
‘Stop, wait! Emmanuel was a good man, but he was scared.’
‘What of?’
The man stayed silent, and Cooper was annoyed with himself to hear the impatience coming into his voice. ‘Look, like I say, if it’s money you want, I can pay you. I just want to get some information about Emmanuel.’
‘It’s not about money.’
‘Well it is for the bank who leant him the money for the plane. He either needs to start paying, or we need to take the plane back. So like I say, if you know anything I’d appreciate it, sir, if you could tell me. I’m not in the mood for games.’
The man looked at him coldly. ‘This isn’t a game.’
Then, sounding like the military man he’d once been, Cooper said, ‘With respect, my only objective is the business I have with Emmanuel.’
‘You have no business with Emmanuel. You only think you have. And whatever the reason you think you’re here, it won’t be the reason… Realize the truth, but to find it you need to look beyond. Look for the opposite of everything. The answers lie there.’
‘Listen, why don’t we go back to the house and talk?’
‘I’m sorry. I’ve said enough already.’
Concern weaved with interest, Cooper said, ‘Is he in trouble? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?’
‘Sometimes it takes a stranger to help.’
‘Hey, Thomas. You there, boy?’
Rosedale’s brash, booming voice carried through the rain and Cooper felt a sudden warmth return to his skin. The tightness of his chest disappeared. The headache subsided.
He turned his head towards the sound of Rosedale and stepped back out into the sludgy alleyway, to see Maddie and Rosedale walking towards him.
Even in the night sky, Cooper could see the concern on Maddie’s face. He called out to her.
‘You alright?’
Rosedale answered before Maddie had a chance to. ‘I could ask you the same thing… If I gave a damn… Where the hell have you been? Don’t start playing your Superman games here, Thomas. This isn’t a one-man crusade. Whether you like it or not, sugar pie, whilst we’re here, we’re a team, which means it isn’t okay to go out on one of your jaunts.’
Cooper bristled. Pissed with the way he was being spoken to. He tried to keep his anger hidden. It didn’t work.
‘What are you talking about now, Rosedale?’
Rosedale raised his voice. ‘I’m talking about half an hour. Half a goddamn hour, Thomas. That’s what you said. Even Miss Maddison here will agree with me on this one. When you say thirty minutes, mean thirty goddamn minutes. We’ve been looking for you for…’ Rosedale paused to look at his very large and very gold and very garish watch. ‘For the past ninety-six minutes. So by my reckoning you owe us both an apology… and an explanation.’
Shaking his head, Cooper stared at them both in bemusement. ‘What?’
Rosedale stood, silhouetted in the alleyway as he lit his cigar. Reminded Cooper of the hard-boiled TV detective shows he’d watched as a kid.
‘Where the hell were you, Thomas?’
Unwilling to engage any longer with Rosedale, Cooper turned to Maddie.
‘Maddie, I’m sorry. But Jesus, there’s no way I’ve been – what did you say – ninety minutes?’
Cooper looked at his watch. He could see the hands betraying him, supporting Rosedale’s accusation. But he didn’t believe it. There was no way he could’ve been gone that long. Hell, the address where the couple were staying was only ten minutes’ walk away, at the most. And what else had he done? Nothing, besides having a cigarette. And a quick conversation.
Maddie said, ‘What’s going on, Tom? Are you okay?’
‘Of course he’s okay. Who wouldn’t be if they had a pharmaceutical company in their back pocket?’
Cooper shrugged. He was on a hook and too tired to get into another something with Rosedale. He backed dow
n. Tried the apologetic route.
‘Sorry, I didn’t think I was that long. I was talking to some guy about Emmanuel, he was really guarded. How did you get on by the way?’
Cooper walked back into the building with Maddie as they talked. ‘Well it was obvious they were too frightened to say anything, though we did find out from the neighbor they’re Emmanuel’s aunt and uncle. In actual fact, Emmanuel and his family mainly come from a small village up in South Kivu, in the east of the country. Maybe he was just using their address. Who knows? But something is definitely going on here… What did your person say about Emmanuel?’
Cooper glanced around. Saw the crumbling building. The smashed row of windows and the broken door swinging from its hinges. And over in the far corner, there were piles of small empty cages, made from chicken wire, that he hadn’t seen before. The building was somehow lighter now. Wondering what they were, absentmindedly he said, ‘Oh nothing, nothing of interest, anyway. Just he knew Emmanuel, but that was it. Nothing to hold the front page.’
He gave a half smile. Wondered why he hadn’t told Maddie the truth.
‘What’s that over there?’
Cooper walked across to the middle of the floor. Bent down to get a better look.
‘I think it’s the remains of a rat.’ He looked closely at the little figure. ‘Weird thing is, looks like it’s been drained of all its blood. And look at the side of its body, all its fur’s been shaved.’
Quickly. Too quickly, Maddie said, ‘It’s probably nothing. Come on, let’s go back to the hotel now. I’m really beat. The sooner we find this plane the better.’
‘Sure. Give me a sec.’
Cooper emptied the remaining cigarettes into his pocket, before ripping the packet open flat, enabling him to scrape up the rat before dropping it into one of the collecting bags he had in his jacket.
‘What are you doing? Just leave it, Tom.’
Cooper raised his eyebrows, feeling puzzled himself. Shook his head. ‘I’m not sure what I’m doing. I just think I need to look further.’
31
‘Hey bud, how’s it hanging?’ Feeling the intense heat of the un-air conditioned room, and the effects of the pills, and unable to sleep, Cooper talked readily down the phone to Jackson.
‘Hey Coop, good to hear from you… What’s that noise?’
Cooper looked across the room to where Rosedale was deep in sleep. Snoring loudly.
‘It’s my roommate, don’t even ask.’
Jackson’s voice was full of hope. ‘How’s it going? Reckon you’ll be back soon?’
‘If it continues at this rate, I think we’ll be home by the end of the week. We’ve just hit a wall. Maybe it’s stupid we even came.’
‘That’s not the Coop I know. He wouldn’t care jack-squat if he’d hit three hundred walls, there’s no way he’d give up. What’s got into you? You’re the guy that drives people crazy always running after dead end leads… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Not like it sounded. Coop, you know I wasn’t talking about Ellie, right?’
Cooper took a sharp in breath. It wasn’t so much hearing the name of Ellie, though often that would do it. It was who had said it. He could count on one hand the amount of times Jackson had actually said it, since the accident. Of course he referred to her. Directly. Or indirectly. Never forgetting to send a note, a goofy card, or just a few words on a text each year on 12th July – the anniversary of the accident. But say her name? Rarely. Verging on never.
‘I know you weren’t, but you’re right, sometimes it feels like all I did was run around after nothing but ghosts.’
Jackson stayed silent for a minute. ‘I’ve never asked you this, but I was talking to Dad yesterday and he asked me a question I didn’t know the answer to. He wanted to know if I thought you blamed me for the accident. Do you? Do you blame me, Coop?’
In the darkness of the room, Cooper smiled. But it felt like a sad one. ‘Never.’
‘You still miss her, don’t you?’
‘Always.’
Again there was silence until Jackson spoke, love and truth in his voice. ‘I’ve always loved your attitude to life. To hell with what anyone has to say. Find the truth. Then look beyond.’
‘That’s funny.’
‘What is?’
‘Oh, just someone said that to me tonight.’
Jackson laughed. ‘Well see, that proves it. Two people can’t be wrong… But seriously, Coop, you’re my hero. I’m so proud of you.’
Emotion caught in the back of Cooper’s throat. ‘Hey, embarrass a man, won’t you?’
‘It’s true, Coop, you’re the brother I never had.’
Cooper went rigid. His tone shifted. Strained surprise. ‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah.’
Cooper wanted to change the subject, but trying to think of what to say next suddenly became difficult. Finding it easier to cut the conversation short, Cooper yawned. Feigned tiredness. ‘So listen, it’s late here and I’ve got to be up early.’
‘Okay, but it’s true what I said, you are my hero. I’ve hidden myself away from the world whilst you’re out there taking it on.’
‘This is my version of hiding. What I do is hardly reality. I distance myself from that. Too difficult. Screws me up. You and I aren’t that different in that respect.’
‘Yes we are, Coop. Everything I do is out of fear. Everything you do is out of passion. Integrity. Justice… love. You loved her so much, didn’t you?’
Rubbing his face, Cooper sighed loudly. ‘Yeah I did. And I don’t think I could love anyone else, not the way I loved her… Anyway, sleep well. I’ll catch you soon.’
Cooper clicked off his phone and turned over on the uncomfortable sleeper.
Across the room on the double bed, next to the snoring form of Rosedale, Maddie lay rigid, awake, having heard every word.
32
In the shadow of the night, a truck pulled up to a grinding halt. The three men, armed with old Russian machine guns, taped and tied, waited patiently. Nodding a greeting to the driver they untied the blue tarpaulin sheet covering the load. Pulling it off to reveal a multitude of terrified, confused faces.
Undoing the bolts on the back of the truck, the men led their captives off. Pushing. Kicking. Forcing them into the middle of the red clay yard.
‘Take all your clothes off… Do it.’ The nervous, embarrassed, frightened glimpses of the old man, echoed in the thoughts of the others. A variety of ages, not knowing why they’d been chosen. Nor why they’d been taken.
‘Now move it… Move.’
Walking naked with their arms raised high, heads bowed down, they moved in quiet unison towards the ice-cold showers, forced at gunpoint to walk and stand under the freezing water.
To an accompaniment of distant screams, which pierced the blanket of hush, the herded group were now taken down stairs into the enigma of deeper darkness. A long, low-roofed hallway led them to a metal door which opened and, once they were in, closed shut. Leaving them crammed tightly. Pushed up close to one another in a red, unplastered chamber of stifling heat.
33
‘Can I have a word, Mr. President?’
‘Sure.’ John Woods sat in the Oval Office, finishing tying up his shoelaces before turning to look at Teddy. ‘Is it me, or is it this sofa…? Can you feel it? It’s like leaning on a goddamn corkscrew.’
‘You often do that?’
‘I do now.’
Teddy pressed the back cushion of the cream floral couch. ‘Yeah, okay… I feel it. Think it’s a spring. I’ll get June to speak to maintenance.’
‘Thanks… Anyway, what’s up?’
‘I know this is off schedule, but I need to run something by you.’
Naomi Tyler, an honours graduate of the University of Kentucky and a former communications director of the vice president, who’d been recently appointed as the newest of John Woods’s senior advisors, clutched her mobile. ‘Sorry, Teddy, you’ll have to make this later. We’ve got a bi-partisan me
eting on the Clean Power Plan, with only a five minute window before the Women in Science conference begins, plus we’ve then got an out of towner – West Virginia – regarding the epidemic of prescription drug abuse in America.’
‘Remind me, why West Virginia?’
‘Because it’s the state that’s home to the highest rate of overdose deaths in the nation… It’s all in the speech, sir. There’s time to look over it on the way there, but bear in mind we’ve also got to facilitate your call to the president of Uruguay, which should’ve happened last week. We’ll have approximately twenty-five minutes, but of course that’s rounded off, which means…’
Teddy interrupted. ‘Jesus, Naomi. By the time you’ve gone through the whole schedule, I could’ve had the conversation.’
‘You can’t do a walk and talk?’
Teddy Adleman stared in dismay. ‘Naomi, if I’d wanted to do that, don’t you think I would do…? Mr. President, help me out here.’
‘Can’t it wait?’
Teddy said, ‘I don’t think it should.’
‘Okay… Naomi, give us a moment.’
‘Mr. President, we really can’t afford the time.’
Woods put his hand on Naomi’s shoulder. ‘Naomi, I tell you what, why don’t you go get yourself a sandwich and whilst you’re at it, try and relax.’
Naomi Tyler visibly jerked. Her smooth black skin beginning to patch from stress.
‘Mr. President that just isn’t possible. By the time I go and get it and then get back here, even if I ran, the schedule will be out by… at least eighteen minutes.’
‘Naomi… Naomi. Breathe. Calm down. I was joking, okay. I know there’s no time to go, I just love your reaction. Listen, wait outside the office. I’ll be with you in a minute.’
Naomi gazed down at her phone. Then at Woods. ‘Mr. President, would that be a literal minute, or…’
‘Naomi, just go.’
*
Listening to Teddy, Woods gulped back his milky white nothing-fancy coffee.