They all sat down around us and I told them what I had said to Josh.
“Kind of makes sense.” Winter judged, when I was done. “But you know, maybe that’s part of their strategy.”
“You mean, they teamed up with a bunch of people and organisations they were fully aware of would start massacring each other the moment the prime goal had been achieved? And by this, would safe them the effort to eliminate them themselves?” Rob seemed to know along which lines Winter thoughts ran.
“Exactly so. Like that they could remain top-dog of the manger without much effort or risk of collateral damage to their own ranks. Utterly devious, I admit; but in its way clever and effective.” Winter had a pained expression on her face and she looked to Rob as if for support. He held her gaze for a moment and his eyes softened. He smiled at her reassuringly.
“Do you really think that they might plan this much ahead? That they’d be so scheming and strategically clever in choosing their alliances?” Josh didn’t sound convinced.
“I agree with Josh.” Yuki said. “You’ve all seen this Chris and his lot, you heard how Steve ticks. I honestly can’t see these knit-wits plan anything so complicated.”
“But they aren’t the top-dogs of the Nemesis. Steve, Chris and their group are only figures on the chessboard of their masters. And that these are clever, scheming bastards we have to admit. Otherwise they’d never been able to get that Pathogen and set up this world-wide organisation, and all without getting noticed, let alone spread the Pathogen and through it death all over the globe. Don’t underestimate these people, whoever they are.” Rob cautioned with a grim edge to his voice.
“So, what you are saying is that within the Nemesis there is a kind of hacking order, and the lower ranks will eventually be dispensed off in favour of the upper echelons?” Josh looked at his friend with a questioning look.
“Yes, I guess that’s what I meant: everyone using everyone else to stay top-dog; only, the real puppet-masters of the Nemesis are the ones who are actually pulling the strings and who will stay in power. At least that’s my assessment of the situation.”
“But whatever for? And, who the hell are they? Once they have completed their killings and gone after each other, eliminated their non-Nemesis allies, what do they want to achieve with this? They will be alone on this planet. On their own they won’t be able to maintain the living-standards our civilization achieved, not for long that is. Honestly, it beats me what they really want to achieve with all this.”
Josh obviously wasn’t convinced and Yuki, too, looked inquiringly at Rob to see what he’d have to say to this.
“Was there anything among those papers hinting at your theory, their reason for all this?” I chipped in the discussion.
Rob nodded at me appreciatively. “Spot on, Lia. And yes, there was an obscure little booklet within one of the maps. It looks very much like it may have ended up there entirely by accident. Because I can’t see that it was meant for Steve, or anyone of his rank for that. Some of the texts in that booklet are encoded. We’ll have to let Paul and Josh have a go at them. But others are also plain text and they seem to be a kind of master manual, if you like. Look.”
With that, Rob pulled a little black booklet with the tell-tale Nemesis circle on it out of the pockets of his trousers.
“This will prove to be a real treasure-trove of information about the Nemesis. And the best is that they will never suspect it was in that plane, let alone that it has now fallen into our hands.”
Josh took the booklet from his hands and perused it; eventually he looked up, a glint of triumph and hope in his eyes.
“You are right, Rob. This really is a find. Look, Lia, it says here something about having to eliminate the fellow organisations once the main targets had been achieved. If we can decode all of these texts, we’ll learn a lot more. Maybe even who the core Nemesis people really are and where they are. That might help a lot.”
“I am afraid I can’t share in your enthusiasm.” Yuki intercepted. “Won’t we be a prime target for them now? I mean, what with all the equipment and information that we now possess? And we basically stole it all from under their noses? I just can’t see them letting us get away with all this? And someone back there will figure out where that booklet went and will come and try to get it!”
Josh was still leafing through that booklet, stopping every now and then to read something, his fingers sometimes tracing the text. But he had listened to what Yuki had said and he looked up to see what Rob and Winter would reply.
“Oh certainly they will try to locate us.” Rob answered.
“And?” Our collective and somewhat strained question came.
“Paul and Nin disconnected the radio soon after take-off. So that nobody could contact us. The other thing is the transmitter box within the plane. That one we can’t destroy or disconnect. But, they need a global satellite network in place and fully operational to triangulate us. Paul is convinced that this is no more the case and that they therefore can’t locate us. I am not so convinced, but certainly hopeful that he may be right. By the way, that’s another reason why I am strongly in favour of Nin’s choice of landing site: It’s remote, no major cities are nearby and nobody could suspect we’d land there of all places. It will take them ages to find us. At least that’s what I count on. Plus, even if they find the plane, they won’t have a clue where we are actually heading.”
Rob grinned rather wickedly.
“But this is entirely conjecture, nothing for certain?” Yuki sounded more than a bit agitated.
“Well, yes.” Rob nodded and held out his hand to her as if to calm her down. “Of course, Yuki. But I’d say it’s an educated guess and our plan stands more than a fair chance to succeed. We aren’t stupid. We may never actually have been in this place of the world, but we are able to find our way toward Kenya from there. After all, it’s basically just ‘follow the main road until you hit Nairobi’, and after that a skip, a hop and a jump until we reach Blue-Hill-farm, isn’t it?”
“It’s hardly that simple, mate. Don’t try to fool us.” Josh gently scolded.
“That’s so not what I intended. And well you know. If we manage to land in that spot in eastern Sudan we are literally on the highway to Kenya. All we’ll have to do is follow the road toward Addis Ababa and from there south toward the border with Kenya. And then from Moyale to Nairobi and to Blue-Hill-Farm. It’s sounds really almost too easy to be true, but that’s what it adds up to.” Rob answered, holding Josh’s gaze. “I am not saying that it won’t be difficult. I am sure we’ll run into plenty of problems along the way. I just want to point out that the way, I mean the roads, will be relatively good and easy to travel on. Compared to for example such a landing place as Juba and the South Sudan. Don’t you agree?”
“Yeah, put like that it’s of course true.” Josh grinned. “But it won’t be an easy journey. We’ll have to be very, very careful and stay together at all costs.”
“But we’ll try to get two cars, won’t we? What with all our gear.” Winter joined in the discussion.
“Two cars?” Yuki sounded scared again.
I could very well understand her anxiety. The thought of splitting up our group seemed a bad one. After all, what if we should lose contact?
“Yes, Yuki, we’ll definitely need two cars. Not just because of our equipment, but also for safety.” Rob answered.
“But…” Yuki started but was interrupted by Nin who stuck his head through the cockpit door and shouted. “Hey, folks, we’re flying over Khartoum right now. Another hour and we’ll be ready for landing.”
What! So soon!
We all sat up straight and whoever sat near a window craned their necks to get a glimpse of Khartoum. With Alice on my lap I didn’t get to see anything, but Josh told me what they saw. What interested us all mostly was whether signs of fellow humans could be detected.
But our binoculars were packed up and we were too high above the city to see anything in detail. T
hey said that they couldn’t see any cars or vehicles moving on the road. Though, as Winter and Yuki pointed out from their side of the plane, there were a lot of cars, buses and other vehicles scattered on roads. They said that it looked a bit like a scene after a battle.
It took us just some few minutes and then we were leaving Khartoum behind, steadily heading southeast.
“We ought to prepare ourselves.” Yuki suggested, just as Rob and Josh were getting up and heading for the cockpit.
“We’ll go and see what plans Nin and Paul have for landing.” Josh replied.
Yuki went with them, but Winter remained with me an Alice. She pointed at Alice who was still sleeping tight. “Will she be alright? I mean, once we land?”
“Probably. She’ll be excited and thinking that we will reach Mum, Nate, the twins, Uncle Phil and everybody within just a few days. But otherwise, yes, she’ll be alright. She’s a tough one.”
I replied while pressing a kiss on Alice’s hair. She reacted to it by snuggling closer, which made both Winter and me smile.
“I am glad she’s with us.” Winter mused.
When I gave her a rather puzzled look, she lowered her gaze and explained. “Rob and I lost a baby earlier this year. We never told anyone. I miscarried in the seventh month and they couldn’t safe the little baby. It was a girl, a tiny fragile little being. She lived just a few hours. It was both an utterly terrible and incredibly wonderful experience. I mean, at least we could hold her. And say our goodbyes.”
She looked over at me.
I was shocked beyond anything! I had never expected anything like that and I didn’t know what to say or do. Without thinking I held out my hand to her and she instantly took it and went on, “I was afraid, first. To come here, I mean. Silly of me, I know. But I thought it would be difficult to see Alice and also Yuki. That I might be jealous or something. However, there wasn’t any other way for us and Rob convinced me that we had to come along with Josh and Paul. Now, I am glad I came. Glad that I met you and Alice. And Yuki and Nin. They give me hope. There will be another one for us, for Rob and me, of that I am certain now. And I owe it to Yuki, but mostly to Alice.”
“I. You. I don’t know what to say, Winter. I am so sorry for your loss” Feeling silly beyond anything because how could words convey the sympathy I felt for her; my need to reach out to her and let her know that I tried to understand? How could I dare to understand her pain?
But she seemed okay with what meagre words I had uttered. She gave me a smile and caressed Alice’s back.
“It’s okay, Lia. And, I am glad I told you. If you wish, you can also tell Yuki. Though, I don’t think that this is such a good idea, at least not now, while she is pregnant herself. It might just scare her unnecessarily.”
“You are right. I won’t tell her, at least not now.” I felt overwhelmed. “I thank you for entrusting me with this.”
She smiled a somewhat sad smile. “I feel like you were my little sister, Lia, you know. I liked you the minute I saw you. And that’s not just because Josh loves you. Actually, I had my reservations about you because of this, and very much so. You know, I didn’t want Josh to be hurt in anyway. He’s dear to me like a brother. And I saw, we all saw, how he suffered when he didn’t know where you were. It really took a toll on him, never forget that. His love for you goes very, very deep. He isn’t the person who falls in love easily. But once he does, it’s for good and goes deep. That’s why it hurt so much to see him suffer. And that’s why I am now so glad for him and you. You two fit. You are equals in many ways and I am sure that your love for each other will carry you both far.”
I felt so embarrassed. Nobody had yet spoken to me so directly. I felt proud that she acknowledged the bond that I felt with Josh so openly. But I also felt intensely uneasy about being in the spot light like that. So, when Yuki and Josh came back, announcing in rather excited voices that we were about to land within the next twenty minutes or so, I felt relieved.
Winter shot me one last smile, then got up and moved toward where Rob had sat down.
Josh made Yuki sit next to me and sat down in the window seat across the aisle. He smiled at me reassuringly. I smiled back, but then had to concentrate on Alice. Yuki’s sitting down next to us had woken her up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“Lia? Where are we?” She asked in an uncertain voice.
“Not far from the landing place. In fact, we’ve just been told that Paul and Nin are about to land that plane. Do you want to have a look at the landscape?” I patted her back. She seemed thirsty, and I offered her some mineral water, which she drank in big, long gulps. When she was done, she had to burp which made her giggle. I wasn’t in the mood to join in her laughter. She quietened down and looked out of the window interestedly.
“Lia, I am so nervous! What will we find down there? Where? Look! My hands are trembling!” Yuki whispered anxiously.
Forcing myself to calm down and overcome my own anxiety, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. “We’ll be alright, Yuki. Nin and Paul are competent pilots and we are enough to defend ourselves should this be necessary. But, hopefully there won’t be anyone down there.”
Of course this was just wishful thinking on my part. We couldn’t know what to expect. And we’d be so vulnerable! Visible from far and wide, at the same time utterly unable to know who or what was down there. It was terrifying. Yet unavoidable. We would have to find means of transport and disappear as quickly as possible. Sure. But it would all take a while. My mind raced to come up with schemes of how we could possibly forage for transport while staying together.
Impossible.
Some of us would have to stay behind with the plane and some would have to go and try to find cars. A quick glance at my watch told me that it was almost two o’clock. Considering the time zone adjustment it must be close to four. Afternoon, already! About another three hours before darkness would set in! How would we manage?
“Lia, where are we landing? Lia? I am afraid.” Alice sat on my lap, unhappy and looking scared. She was staring out of the window. What she saw did apparently not please her. She looked up at me and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Lia!”
“Shush, shush, it’s okay, tiger. Don’t worry. We are landing in eastern Sudan. Not far from the border with Ethiopia. Nin and Paul chose that place because it is remote but lies directly en route to Kenya. Hopefully nobody will track us here, at least not any time soon. And now, Nin and Paul are about to land. Afterwards, we’ll immediately start our drive toward Kenya. Granted we find cars, of course.”
I knew my words weren’t helping much. I was trying to convince myself just as much as her. At least I could hold her tight. That was all the comfort I could offer now.
We all glanced out of the window at the strange, very dry landscape that moved rapidly closer. Dry, flat plains that looked dusty and empty. There were fields that had been tended to; so, the land must be arable, at least during the rainy season. When would that be?
The plane flew a slight curve now and headed straight down, we flew very low over buildings, a little town. I couldn’t discern any people; but then, we were still too high above ground for that. Now we had already left the main town behind and were flying over outskirts, then only few scattered houses were visible along a tarmac road below.
“They are landing on the road!” Yuki exclaimed. “Please, please, let all go well!”
She was right, the road was fast approaching and before we had had time to worry much, the plane touched down with a gentle thud, the engines roared up in the process of breaking and we were all plunged forward for a moment. The plane slowed down fast and we gently rolled along the road to a standstill.
Even before the plane had stopped entirely, Josh and Rob rose from their seats and headed for the boxes in the back of the plane. As if on cue, they each grabbed a gun, checked that it was loaded and quickly moved to the door.
Meanwhile Yuki, Alice and me, totally taken by surprise, remained in our seats, a
bit dumb folded by this swift and apparently premeditated action.
Winter had apparently been told what would happen because she got up and headed for the door too. She fumbled with the door handles just as Nin and Paul came in from the cockpit. When she opened the door, a wave of heat streamed in the plane. It must be close to 40 degrees outside. What a change to the climate we’d been used to these last few months!
Nin looked over at Yuki, an unspoken question in his eyes; but when she wanted to get up and head his way, he gestured for her, for us to remain where we were.
“Lia!” Josh shouted from the door. “You stay behind with Yuki and Alice. Stay inside the plane. Understood! Rob and I will go scout for vehicles.”
And with that, he and Rob jumped out of the door.
Hey! What did he think he was doing? And why had he not said a word about this to me before?
I felt more than a little peeved. Hadn’t it been him, after all, who had just a short time ago made me promise not to do anything rash or dangerous, especially not without him? And now this!
“Calm down Lia.” Yuki whispered. “And stop grinding your teeth. Nothing will happen to them.”
“And someone had to go and have a look, sis, as well you know.” Nin added. He’d come toward us and was holding out his arms to Alice. She wriggled out of her seat and let herself be embraced by Nin.
“Alice, my little tiger! How are you doing? I hear you slept the last few hours. You didn’t see the desert we flew over?”
I couldn’t hear what she answered because he walked with her toward the back of the plane. She was smiling at him. She was okay, she didn’t need me for the moment.
All I wanted to do now was getting to the door and have a look for myself. And make sure Josh and Rob were safe. Have a look where they were, that is.
Paul cautioned me to be careful.
Winter, too, wanted to get out and so we carefully slid down from the plane. Paul handed us some guns. Then he followed. And we all glanced around.
We were apparently on the outskirts of a little town or village. Not far from the tarmac road, on which Paul had landed the plane, we saw some mud brick houses with corrugated iron sheet roofs, some obviously shops, others residential buildings. Further toward the town centre there were also higher buildings, even one or two that might be called skyscrapers, though of a rather pedestrian variety.
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