Nin and Paul looked entirely sceptical at this. It would take some arguing before we’d find a solution here. I was all for giving them as much of our equipment as we could spare. Why shouldn’t we? Maybe even some of the Pathogen. If we explained them how to handle it, it might be a powerful weapon for them.
“We’ll have to discuss this later. Let’s not hurry any decision here, even though I also agree with Rob that we should help these people.” Josh said, and Winter and Yuki vigorously nodded their approval.
Before we could continue this discussion, Idris gestured for us to follow him. He led us toward where the rest of his group were standing and didn’t stop to introduce us, but lead the way past the grove and toward a big cliff behind it. At the foot of the cliff, boulders of different size, but all of them curiously rounded as if they had been polished into these shapes, lay about. A little footpath wound its ways through them toward the base of the cliff. But our way didn’t end there. The entrance to their cave lay hidden between a huge boulder and the base of the cliff. One could reach it from the footpath by stepping onto another smaller boulder and then over a series of little stones. Idris made sure we understood that we were to step on those stones and not on the sand between them. The stones looked like they had been positioned there naturally and the path they created led around a little outcropping of the cliff. There, behind a huge boulder was the entrance to the cave. The footpath lead passed this cleverly hidden entrance and, unless you knew how to find it, an army could have tramped passed without detecting it. Even though countless people must have walked over these stone to the cave, no signs of this was visible on the rocks.
“Clever.” Paul muttered. “Solid granite. Quite interesting formations, actually. Don’t you think, Josh?”
“Yeah. I hope we’ll have some time to have a closer look. These stones certainly aren’t local.” Josh who walked ahead of me had bent to touch one of the stepping stones.
“But unless you’re a geologist, you would probably not notice, right? At least I don’t.” Nin chipped in caustically.
“No, you probably wouldn’t.” Josh chuckled. “But they are definitely not from here. And, they were placed here a long, long time ago. Interesting set-up. Anyway, let’s see what’s in this cave.”
How could he be sure of all this? To me those rocks looked just like the bigger boulders, only a bit rougher grained maybe. But the colour and general shape was the same. Amazing! I had always been fascinated by how Uncle Phil was able to read stones, a landscape, or a formation of rocks simply by looking at what it was composed of and how it related to its surroundings. Apparently Josh was one of the same fraternity. I felt a little tinge of envy. I would never be able to achieve their level of sophistication. Not now that all places of learning had been destroyed. I immediately banished these unworthy thoughts; scolding myself for that much narrow-mindedness and concentrating on where we were going instead.
Through a little cave, like an entrée, we came into a big domelike hall. Amazingly, it wasn’t dark; through wide cracks in the rocky ceiling light flooded into the big cave. It wasn’t as bright as outside, of course, but one could easily move about without needing a flashlight. And we saw that Idris and his people, or whoever had used the cave before, had erected little stone walls to divide the space into room-like entities. There were several fires burning in front of the different divisions. The rooms didn’t have a ceiling; their function seemed more to provide some sort of privacy than to provide shelter. In the cave, the temperature was a lot cooler than outside, I even thought I detected a refreshing breeze. In the back of the cave, we saw some wooden huts erected on pillars, with flat, big stones placed between the pillars and the actual huts.
“Some sort of granaries, apparently.” Josh murmured at my side. “The flat stones will keep out mice or other vermin.”
When our eyes had fully adjusted to the dimmer light in the cave, I noticed a ladder hanging from one of the cracks in the ceiling.
Alice had seen it too and animatedly drew our attention to it.
Idris smiled and said a few words to Yuki, which she readily translated.
“Idris says that this ladder leads to a look-out on the cliff. They actually saw us approaching from there, he says.”
He seemed utterly pleased when he saw our surprise and gestured for us to follow him toward one of the room-like structures on the side. There he turned to Yuki and she translated what had already dawned on us. This was to be our place as long as we would stay with them. We had a quick look inside the rooms, there were three of them, and then followed Idris back to the centre of the cave where small roundish rocks and wooden stools were assembled around a central fireplace. Idris gestured for us to sit down with him. Belachew, Abdella, Degu, Mekonnen, the lady called Tigist and another woman followed suit. A girl, I judged her to be maybe thirteen years old, brought a clay pot and some glasses. She wore her hair in lots of little braids, artfully shaped in patterns. She had wonderful big eyes and long lashes. Too shy to say anything, she glanced at us from underneath her long lashes. She was very cute and I smiled at her. Alice was also interested but too shy to do much more than shyly smile at her. The girl answered her smile readily and I guessed that it wouldn’t take long until Alice would go and play with these children. Good.
The water we were given was very cool, but tasted a bit unusual, kind of salty. Tigist saw our perplexed faces and said something to Yuki.
“Tigist says not to worry about the taste of the water. It is perfectly okay, but they have to draw it from a well nearby. This water tastes a bit salty because of the many minerals it contains. There is another well with sweet water, but this is too far away to go there on a regular basis.”
We smiled and bowed to Tigist that we had understood; she gave us a radiant smile and pointed to the girl saying, “Safia.”
Oh, so the girl’s name was Safia. Safia shyly looked at us and smiled before disappearing in the back of the cave.
“She looks a lot like Tigist. Ask her whether Safia is her daughter.” I nudged Yuki.
She complied and soon Tigist vigorously nodded and shot me a glance of approval.
“You were right.” Yuki translated what I had already understood. “Safia is Tigist’ daughter. And the boy over there, his name is Tilahun, is also their child.”
I bowed my head to Tigist, as if to thank her for this information. She smiled and turned to Yuki, talking animatedly with her. We patiently waited for her to translate.
“You know, this is going to be tedious.” I murmured to Josh. “I mean this communicating via Yuki only. I hope some of them understand a bit of English.”
Josh grinned affectionately at me, gave me a quick peck and teased. “Don’t be grumpy; at least we can communicate with them.”
Yuki must have heard me, for she turned and shot me a rather indignant glance.
“Tigist actually tells me that there are two among their people who speak English very well; but they are not in presently, they expect them toward evening as they have gone to graze their goats.”
I whispered ‘Thanks. And sorry’, in answer to which she just patted my knee. Josh chuckled and kissed me again “I love you, you know. My over-efficient pea goose!”
Eh! Where did this suddenly come from? Not that I objected to him expressing his love for me. It was wonderful! It left me feeling giddy, a bit embarrassed, but mostly just tingling with excitement. I glanced up in his face and when I saw the love in his eyes, I felt myself blush. It was still new, this our love, our being together, having him close. But, as I said, it was wonderful. He smiled at me and I whispered ‘I love you too!’ back at him.
Paul, who was seated on Josh’s other side, rather rudely interrupted our daydreaming by saying, “Pay attention to what is being said, will you? It might be important. Your opinion about it, I mean.”
Josh chuckled and turned toward our hosts, but not without hugging me close to him.
Yuki was still talking with Idris and Tigi
st. Our hosts were animatedly explaining something to her. Eventually she lifted her hand, indicating that she must translate what had been said so far.
“Idris told me a bit more about his people. Like, that the old man seated next to Idris is Brhane, Idris’s uncle. Belachew here, has lost all his family. So did Abdella and Degu and a young man called Goytom who is presently looking after the goats. He and Tsegaye, who is also helping him with the goats, are the only ones who speak English fluently. Degu quite well and Serag speaks it just a bit. Once Goytom and Tsegaye will get back here, communication ought to be easier. Idris, Tigist, their children and uncle seem to be the biggest still intact family unit here. Everyone else has lost most if not all their family members. Frankly, I couldn’t get all their names and who is related how with whom. Tigist could see my confusion and has offered that everyone would wear a tag with their name. But I thought this to be a bit over the top and told her we would get accustomed to each other in no time. So, please, do me credit.”
We grinned at her and nodded our collective approval. Alice pointed to the only child approximately her age and wanted to know who she was.
Tigist must have understood the question without translating, for she gestured for the little girl to come forward, took her by the hand and said, “Nulu.”
Nulu shyly hid behind Tigist. But she was clearly interested. And very much so. Because she peaked around Tigist and tried to get a closer look at Alice. She, too, wore her hair in little braids. But hers had been tied in a sort of ponytail. She wore a little blue dress with flowers and looked adoringly cute.
Alice slid down from my lap and moved over to her. She pointed with her finger to her own chest and said, “Alice.”
Nulu was very shy and clearly didn’t feel comfortable with all the attention she got. But she stole a glance at Alice from underneath her long black lashes. She was an extraordinary beautiful little girl and seemed to be younger than Alice. But maybe she just seemed younger than she really was. I turned to Tigist and asked. “How old is Nulu? And who does she belong to?”
Again, without Yuki translating anything, Tigist answered. She lifted her hands, indicating a seven with her fingers. Then she turned and scanned her people. When she perceived a man in the background, she pointed at him and said in English with a heavy accent. “Serag, father to Nulu.”
“Oh, thank you.” I answered, bowing my head both to her and Serag.
Serag didn’t come forward, but remained where he was. Whether because he was shy or for another reason, I couldn’t tell.
Alice, as if she sensed that Nulu would not thaw out as long as she was near us adults, tugged her and pointed to where the other children had assembled further back in the cave and were watching the proceedings with keen interest. Alice looked at me to get my permission, I nodded my approval and she slowly walked over to these children. Nulu soon followed her and took the lead. Once they had reached the children, everyone grouped around Alice and some kind of communication ensued. It was funny to watch.
“She’ll be happy to play with these children, won’t she?” Josh murmured.
I just nodded and squeezed his hand for a moment.
Meanwhile, Idris rapidly talked to Yuki. She eventually turned toward us and said. “They want to know who we are, where we come from, why we have come here and where we mean to go. What shall I tell them?”
Rob answered for all of us. “Let everyone of us say a little about themselves. As to our reason for being here and our ultimate destination. I’m still all for being open, except about the exact location of where we are going to. What’s your opinion?”
Winter and Nin seemed not very happy with this suggestion, but everyone else agreed. It was decided that Paul, Rob, Winter and Josh should go ahead with presenting themselves, then Nin, Yuki and I would take over. It took us a while, for even though Yuki had already introduced us outside, we repeated our names and each of us said a few words about who we were, so that all of our hosts should hear what we had to say. When this introductory round was over, Rob and Nin elected themselves to tell about our reason for travelling.
When before only Idris, Tigist, Belachew, Abdella, Degu and Mekonnen had sat close to us, now everyone of their group crowded around us, eager to hear what we had to tell. Everyone except for the children, that is.
Alice and Nulu , as well as Safia, Tilahun and another boy sat by themselves and were clearly having fun trying to communicate with hands and signs. They were giggling and gesticulating a lot. It would do Alice good to play and simply be with children her age a bit. Seeing her safe and okay, I could finally concentrate on what was going on in our group. As I said, everyone except for the children had gathered around our fire. Apart from the men whose names we’d been told, there were three women we hadn’t previously been introduced to. One was about Tigist’ age, the other two were young women, and quite obviously sisters. Both were breathtakingly beautiful. They were slender, graceful creatures with huge dark eyes and a skin like honey-coloured ivory, so smooth and fine. Both wore their hair open, with just a few strands tied together to keep the mane of soft curls from falling over their eyes. Tigist introduced the three women as Senayit, Ifrah and Mahlet. Ifrah and Mahlet, stayed respectfully in the back, but Senayit sat down next to Tigist and looked us over critically.
We bowed our heads respectfully to greet them, too. And I noticed that Paul couldn’t take his eyes from the young woman called Mahlet. He kept glancing her direction in such a dumb folded way, that I had to grin.
Meanwhile, Rob and Nin were done explaining what we knew about the Nemesis. They refrained from telling Idris and his people about the documents and things we had found in the plane. Rob was talking about how he, Winter, Paul and Josh had come from Cambridge to us. Then Nin explained a little about Uncle Phil and Dad, our shelter and how we had survived the first onslaught. Idris and his people were stunned by what Rob and Nin told them. There were many questions and especially Abdella and Degu seemed to drink in the information about the Nemesis as if it were some kind of nectar.
Abdella inquired in detail about what we knew of the Nemesis collective’s organisation and Degu chipped in every now and then to ask about the Pathogen. It was when he had asked about for the fifth time what this Pathogen was and how it could possibly kill so many people, that Rob shot us an inquiring glance and said in a low voice. “I think it’s time to let them know that we have stolen a supply of the Pathogen, don’t you all agree?”
Paul, Josh and Yuki nodded their agreement, but I felt a little uneasy. Nin and Winter didn’t seem to be too happy either. In the end, Winter relented and nodded her agreement, too.
Rob cleared his throat and told the story of how we had kidnapped that plane with its load from a local Nemesis cell and had flown from Switzerland to that town called Gedarif. Everyone gasped at this, even before he had dropped the bomb of the bottles with the Pathogen. He had everyone’s full attention now and was bombarded with many questions. How had we been able to fly that plane, to navigate it here? Why had we chosen this spot of all places? Hadn’t we been aware of the Nemesis base close by?
No, Rob told them, we hadn’t known about that Nemesis base. Because the information we had gathered, extensive though it might be, didn’t contain details about Nemesis bases south of the Sahara. As to flying the plane, he pointed to Paul and Nin and explained that they were both accomplished pilots. He then went on to describe the things we had effectively stolen from the Nemesis. He mentioned the weapons and maps, but refrained from talking about the Nemesis documents in detail; he simply referred to them as a bunch of statistics. Then he proceeded to the boxes with the Pathogen and its related equipment.
I needn’t have worried that any of Idris’s people would be suspicious and asks specific questions about the box with the papers. They were so stunned by the tale of the kidnapped plane, its cargo and especially the fact that we had a load of the Pathogen with us that they even forgot, for a while, to ask where we were heading.
It was Josh, who answered him. “We are planning to destroy it somehow. In such a way, that no-one will be harmed. We haven’t yet considered it in detail. Our first priority was to land that plane in a safe place, to get vehicles and drive away from our landing spot as quickly and as far as possible. We don’t want that Pathogen, but we deemed it unsafe to just leave it behind in that plane.”
In answer to this, Abdella started to talk very excitedly to Yuki. She translated literally what he said. “But, but, just think what we could do with it! Why, we can take revenge now! We can destroy them. Just as they did with our families and loved ones. You must not destroy this weapon. You must give at least some of it to us! To me …”
It was distressing to watch this sudden rage, this display of sheer determination to get one even. He seemed obsessed with the thought of revenge. But who was I do judge? We didn’t know, after all, who he had lost. The mere thought of losing Alice, or Josh, or Yuki and Nin made me reel. What would I be capable of if I really were to lose any of my loved ones?
Still, everybody seemed a bit disturbed by Abdella’s outburst. I saw Idris quickly glance at his wife and then at Degu; he seemed on the verge of intervening.
Paul was the first to answer Abdella; he gestured for Yuki to interpret for him.
“I understand your sentiments, Abdella; I think we all of us here do. We all want to get back at the Nemesis. Never doubt that. The questions that we have to very, very carefully consider, however, are, when, how and where to hit back. Maybe this Pathogen will be an option, maybe not. We will have to carefully evaluate all our options and all possible consequences before we take such a risk. What with our position being that vulnerable. We have the future of everyone here to consider, not just our wish to take revenge. At least that’s my opinion.”
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