When Yuki had translated this, Idris, Degu and Mekonnen vigorously nodded their approval and Tigist gave him a broad smile. Abdella seemed disappointed. He glanced at everybody’s faces, keen to see what they thought. Belachew briefly touched his shoulder reassuringly and then went on to talk. Yuki had to take notes, but she didn’t interrupt Belachew. Only when he turned to her and nodded for her to translate, did she so.
“Belachew expressed his sorrow and empathy for Abdella’s loss,” she began, then paused and continued. “I had better stick to his wording. Belachew said: we understand your loss, brother, we have all suffered the same. No, don’t interrupt me, let me say what I mean to tell you. We honour your loss, just as you honour ours. We want revenge, too, just as much as you do. Maybe it is because you are far away from your homeland, that you feel so reckless about risking your life. Maybe your life doesn’t seem to carry any worth for you anymore, other than as a means to take revenge. But let me tell you this, brother: it would be such a waste. You must live; you must live to see your children grow up and tell them of what happened. Yes, I mean it. You will find another woman to love and have children with her, don’t doubt that. You and all of us here have a future. As this man here just said – we must choose our steps wisely. There are so many lives we have to think about; that we are responsible for. I, for one, will gladly join you in the fight against the Nemesis. But brother, let us first consider how best to proceed. Let us learn as much as we can about these Nemesis people. I do not want to find myself ever again in the situation where I have to helplessly witness the slaughtering of our own, just because we didn’t take precautions or tried to understand what was going on. I know brother that you are set on taking revenge. And I honour your determination. All I am asking of you is that you will listen to what we all have to say and to whatever we may learn from our visitors. Will you do this? Can you do this?”
There was a flicker of deep anger, even revulsion in Abdella’s eyes, but a look at everybody’s faces clearly conveyed to him that his people all agreed with Belachew.
Brhane ventured to add something, which Yuki readily translated. “Young man! I agree with Belachew. We all do. Let us hold a council of war later, just as we did in older days. Then we shall all decide how to proceed. You may yet get your day of glory and revenge, Abdella. Don’t you worry about this.”
Rob chuckled at this, but when Brhane looked at him rather sternly, he apologetically lifted his shoulders and said. “Nothing. Private joke. Bad taste of me. I apologize”
Brhane narrowed his eyes and barked something.
Now it was Yuki’s turn to chuckle. “Serves you right, Rob. Brhane said that come to think of, we still have a lot of explaining to do. As far as he is concerned, at least. He says that he is by no means satisfied with the flimsy details we’ve given so far, especially as to why we’ve come here and where we are bound to.”
Everybody had to grin at this.
Rob bowed his head toward Brhane and said. “You are right, sir. We owe you an explanation. As I have told you before, we chose this place to land, because it lies en route to Kenya, our home country. We think that it’s a fair guess that that Nemesis cell, whom we stole the plane and its cargo from, will try to locate that plane. Because of the inbuilt transmitters in the plane they may well be able to do so; in fact, maybe they have already found the plane. We, I mean Paul, Josh, and I are from Kenya, so it’s just natural that we mean to return there. To find out what happened to our families. And since the others had no families left in Switzerland and were also rapidly running out of supplies and food, it was an easy decision to leave Switzerland and to try to make it to Kenya.
“Further, we do not mean to hide from you the fact, that the father and uncle of these three here,” he pointed at Alice, Nin and me, “have for years been hot on the heels of the Nemesis. They suspected the existence of this organisation and guessed at their sinister plans. But unfortunately, nobody ever wanted to take their suspicions serious. The Nemesis collective, however, was well aware of their doings. And they targeted the house of the family in Switzerland, once they had started their global onslaught. The parents and uncle of Alice, Lia and Nin happened to be in Canada and USA respectively when the Nemesis’ onslaught began. That’s how the family was separated. Just before all communication lines went down, it was agreed that we would travel over from England, join Yuki, Alice, Lia and Nin in Switzerland and proceed from there all together toward Kenya. The parents and Uncle of Alice, Lia and Nin will try to do the same from across the Atlantic. We further think, and hope, that the Nemesis people believe the family dead. After all, they destroyed their house with bombs, on top of the earlier pathogen attack. If they were to learn that this is not the case, that some have survived, they would certainly try to hunt them down, wherever they are. So far, we have reason to believe that the Nemesis collective in Switzerland have no clue as to our identity.
“As a measure of precaution, we decided not to fly all the way to Kenya but to land either in Sudan or in Ethiopia and to proceed from there by whatever vehicles we would find. That in the end we landed near Gedarif was really a matter of chance, and chance only. Other than that this town lies at the main road to Ethiopia and therefore to Kenya, we didn’t know the place. We didn’t want to land close to Khartoum and we had to land somewhere because the time of day was advancing and we needed to land while it was still daylight. These, you see, were our reasons for landing in this place. And for having come your way. Our goal is to get to Kenya as quickly as possible.”
I didn’t by half like that he had revealed all this. Who we were. That is, who Dad and Uncle Phil were. Yes, he hadn’t named names. But still, it was risky to let these people here know that we might hold special value for the Nemesis. After all, we didn’t know anything about Idris and his group yet. Could we really trust them? That Rob hadn’t mentioned Uncle Phil’s hideout or the fact that Josh was also on the hit-list of the Nemesis was clever. I simply hoped that Idris and his people wouldn’t ask more questions.
But I needn’t have worried. They didn’t. At least not for now. Even though, Brhane and also Serag looked askance at Rob and the rest of us. I couldn’t blame them. Of course, they were wondering what Rob hadn’t told them. They would be stupid not to do so.
Before they could start asking difficult questions, Safia had stepped up to Tigist and whispered something in her ear. Tigist smiled at her, then addressed Yuki.
Yuki heaved a sigh of relief and said. “Tigist tells us that water for washing is ready. Would we want to refresh ourselves a bit? If yes, we are to follow Safia and hurry because food will be served shortly.”
Winter, Yuki and I got up, but the men remained seated. I was itching to wash my face, dirty and dusty as we all were. Safia led us to our compartments and gestured at two basins with water. We thanked her and I called for Alice to join us. When we had tidied ourselves a bit, we quickly inspected our compartments and decided about the sleeping arrangements. We would have to go back to our cars to get our gear, but that could wait until after we’d eaten.
When we joined the others, they were just getting ready to eat. Safia and Tigist brought different platters with food, while another girl brought a jug of water and a basin to everyone to wash their hands. They served us rice with vegetables. Yuki translated for Tigist. “She apologizes for the meagre meal. Had they known of our arrival she would have cooked Injera and Doro Wat she says.”
Paul bowed his head to her and replied. “Please tell Tigist that we are very thankful for this wonderful meal. And kindly ask her what Injera and Doro Wat actually are?”
Tigist grinned at this and talked at length to Yuki.
“Injera is a kind of flatbread, made of some kind of fermented dough. If I understand her correctly, the basis for the dough is a type of millet, but I didn’t quite understand the word she used. Tigist says they will immediately embark on preparing that dough, which apparently takes several days to ferment. Doro War, she says, is a very s
picy sauce with chicken and eggs.”
Winter smiled and told Yuki to thank Tigist for her efforts but not to put herself to so much trouble over us. “We are perfectly happy with the food she served us with. Thanks a lot for your hospitality.”
Tigist just nodded absently to this and disappeared in the back of the cave where the other women had sat down. It seemed that the men and women ate separately. The food was very delicious. It consisted of rice with a meat stew and pumpkin. It was more than a day since we’d last eaten anything properly cooked. Yesterday we’d basically just eaten snacks. We partook of everything with a hearty appetite.
When we were done and had washed our hands, Idris told Yuki that we were to go to the cars and get our gear. The men would accompany us to have a look at our equipment. Since it was obvious that we didn’t have any choice in this, we followed his lead. Yuki heaved a sigh; she would have like to stay behind in the cool cave and rest a bit; but since the two men who could speak English hadn’t yet returned, she had to come along. Alice came with us, too.
It took us about ten minutes to get to the cars. They had been parked a bit aside of the road, behind some big boulders and under the shade of some tall trees. Neither from above nor from the road could one spot them.
“Do you think we have to guard them at night?” Nin asked.
“I don’t think so.” Paul replied. “But, Yuki, please ask Idris whether we or somebody of their group should stand guard here during the night.”
Idris was adamant that nobody needed to guard the cars at night. His people wouldn’t come near them and nobody else was around. Short of asking us whether we didn’t trust them, he made it clear that he resented our question quite a bit.
We packed what we needed for the night. We also showed Idris and his men the box with the Pathogen and the guns and weapons we’d stolen from the Nemesis. They were very impressed and clearly thought our equipment highly interesting. Finally, we locked the cars and headed back to the cave.
We had hardly set down our gear in our compartments when the party that had gone out with the goats returned. They were very astonished to see us and at first, there was a lot of explanatory talk going on among them. We had returned to the central fireplace and sat down to await further developments. Alice had refrained from joining Safia and Tilahun, even though these two, as well as the other children, were signalling for her to join them.
Finally, Idris was apparently done with telling the newcomers who we were, for they all came to the fireplace and sat down. Idris introduced the two newcomers as Goytom and Tsegaye and waved a bit dismissively toward the children, saying, “Mohamed, Habtu and Aster.”
We politely nodded to everyone.
Goytom and Tsegaye look flabbergasted but also very excited. It wasn’t long before they sat down beside us and peppered us with questions. It turned out that Tsegaye had found shelter here together with his younger sister Aster and his brother Aklilu. They were the only survivors of a large family from the border town of Metema and had found their way here by sheer chance.
Goytom, on the other hand, was alone. His family lived south of the capital city Addis Ababa and he had been working as an agricultural engineer in the area when the disaster struck. Ever since he had no news about his family. His eyes certainly lit up when he heard that we intended to travel toward Addis Ababa.
The young woman called Mahlet had sat down beside Tigist and was staring at us intently. I guess, we all stared at her. But we couldn’t help, she was so beautiful.
And, maybe Paul looked at her more than any of us. It was cute to see, though. Goytom mentioned that Mahlet, too, knew English. But when Paul tried to talk to her, she cringed back in her seat, lowered her gaze and remained shtumm. Apparently, she was too shy to say anything.
A look at my watch told me that it was by now early afternoon. I bent my head to Josh and whispered. “Do you think we could kind of get some time by ourselves? We need to tell Alice that she is not to talk about Mum, Nate, Uncle Phil’s hideout and so on. Don’t you think?”
“I agree, but I don’t see that they are going to let us alone for some time to come. Maybe if Yuki … no that would look strange” Josh frowned.
“Why don’t you tell her just here, in German; I guess, no one will understand a word.” Paul who had heard what I had said suggested in a low voice. “After all, isn’t it sometimes best to conduct what you want to hide in plain view?”
Yeah, why not? Nobody here would understand German and certainly not Swiss German. I quickly and as unobtrusively as possible checked whether anyone of Idris’s people had heard what we’d talked about, but nobody looked my way, so I guessed not.
I made Alice sit on my lap and told her in Swiss German that I wanted to tell her something which was for her ear only. She rolled her eyes at me, but kindly listened to me. I first asked her how she was doing and how she was communicating with those children. She looked at me as if I were a complete idiot and explained. “But there’s no problem. They show me what they mean and I do the same. We understand each other very well. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, good for you! Do any of the children speak a bit of English?”
“Just a little bit. They have already taught me some words in their language. But mostly we use signs. Can I go back to them now?” She tried to wriggle free of my embrace.
“No, wait a moment.” I insisted. “Listen, sweetie, you mustn’t tell anyone here where we are really heading to. Rob told them that we are on our way to their families in Kenya; he mentioned that we may meet our parents and uncle in Kenya, but he didn’t say who they are. And he certainly didn’t say anything about Uncle Phil’s hideout. So, please, be careful that you don’t betray this information to anyone.”
Nin and Yuki were by now looking over at me and some of Idris’s people frowned at me. I didn’t care. Alice needed to understand that we had to be careful with whom we told what.
She tilted her head pensively and looked at me. “Why, Lia? Aren’t these people here our friends? Can’t we trust them?”
“Yes they are very friendly. And I think we can trust them. But the fewer people know about where we are truly heading the better. It’s too precious a place to tell anybody about it. We will only be safe there, if its existence and exact location remain a secret. We will help these people here as much as we can. However, we will try our level best to keep our hideout a secret. Do you understand? If somebody asks you where we are going, just answer Kenya. And tell them, if they insist, that you don’t know where exactly we are going. Which won’t even be a lie, because, honestly, little tiger, you couldn’t find your way to our destination, even if you tried very hard, couldn’t you? So, you won’t lie when you say that you don’t know where we are going, right?”
She still looked at me pensively, but then she nodded and said. “Okay, I understand. I will not tell them anything. I promise.”
“Thanks tiger! You are one swell little girl.” I gave her a peck on her mouth and released her. She quickly glanced toward Nin and Yuki. Nin was talking to Goytom, but Yuki winked at her. Alice giggled and headed back to Safia and Nulu who were eagerly awaiting her.
“You know, German really sounds funny.” Josh mused.
“It wasn’t German; she spoke Swiss-German.” Yuki chipped in.
Tsegaye had followed this exchange and was about to say something, when a commotion by the entrance of the cave made us all turn around.
A woman and a boy had run inside, gesticulating widely. They came toward Idris and urgently spoke to him. The boy pointed upwards to the ceiling of the cave.
What was going on?
It was Tsegaye who translated for us. “They say that a plane flew over the area just now. High up as usual, but still.”
“Which direction did it fly?” Rob wanted to know.
Tsegaye listened to what the woman said and answered. “Melat here says that the plane came from the direction of Gedarif and headed toward Metema. That would be a south-easterly cour
se. She says that it seemed to follow the road. As if it were checking something.”
“Is it possible that they have already found our plane?” Nin looked anxious.
Paul beckoned to Idris and said. “What does Idris say to this?”
Tsegaye translated the question whereupon Idris came over to Paul. He spoke at length, but didn’t look too troubled. While he spoke, everyone else listened respectfully.
Eventually Tsegaye translated. “Idris doesn’t think that this has anything to do with you. A few days ago, there was an incident: Serag had ventured close to the little village down the main road in search of provisions and he almost bumped into a Nemesis patrol. He escaped by sheer luck and had to hide for hours before it was safe for him to return here. They had seen him and searched him for quite a while. So, Idris is convinced that that plane now has something to do with that incident. Or maybe not at all. They may have come to search for survivors, knowing now that there must at least be one person in the vicinity. But, that they should know of your airplane or even guess from its location where its occupants had gone, seems utterly outlandish. These Nemesis people may be evil and have superior equipment, but they are not omniscient. If they employed these heat-sensitive cameras you spoke of earlier, they may have noticed Melat and Aklilu, though. For Melat says that they stood on top of a small boulder near the road. If they did, they may well send a patrol here. We must decide what is to be done now and prepare to defend ourselves.”
“They may have seen our cars!” Paul interjected.
But Idris and Mekonnen shook their heads, apparently they didn’t deem this likely. After all, the cars were parked underneath some trees
“How many guns do you have?” Tsegaye inquired.
Rob answered. “We have one for every one of us except Alice, plus another ten or twelve. They are in the cars, together with our other equipment. We left some boxes of guns and ammunition in the plane. We didn’t have space to pack them all, and, didn’t think we would need them. But, I think, it is too risky to go back there and get them now.”
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