n Christmas Day at ten o'clock in the morning, Colonel Bukharin left his escort of American military police at the allied guardhouse at Checkpoint Charlie and set out across the few hundred yards to the East Berlin side of the frontier.
Bukharin wore an American military-issue greatcoat over his safari clothes, and a knitted fisherman's cap on his bald head.
Halfway across, he passed a middle-aged man in a cheap suit coming in the opposite direction. The man might once have been plump, for his skin seemed too large for his skull and it had the grey, lifeless tone of long captivity.
They glanced at each other in curiously as they passed.
"A life for a life," thought Bukharin, and suddenly he felt very tired. He walked at last with an old man's short hobbled gait over the icy tarmac.
There was a black sedan waiting for him beyond the frontier buildings. There were two men in the back seat F
and one of them climbed out as Bukharin approached. He wore a long civilian raincoat and a wide-brimmed hat in the style much favoured by the KGB'Bukharin?" he asked. His tone was neutral but his eyes were cold and relentless.
When Bukharin nodded, he jerked his head curtly.
Bukharin slid into the rear seat and the man followed him in and slammed the door. The interior was overheated and smelled of garlic, last night's vodka, and unwashed socks.
The sedan pulled away and Bukharin lay back and closed his eyes. It was going to be bad, he thought, it might even be worse than he had anticipated.
enry Pickering hosted the luncheon in the private dining suite of the World Bank overlooking Central Park.
Sarah and Sally-Anne had not seen each other for almost five months, and they embraced like sisters and then went into a huddle in a corner of the private lounge, trying to catch up with each other's news in the first thirty seconds, ignoring everybody else.
Tungata and Craig were more restrained.
"I feel so guilty, Pupho five months. It was too long."
"I know how they have kept you busy," Craig forgave him. "And I have been jumping about myself. Last time I saw you was in Washington-"
"Nearly a month of talks with the American State Department," Tungata nodded, 'and then here in New York with the Zimbabwe ambassador and the World Bank.
There is so much to tell, that I don't know where to begin."
"All right, as a start," Henry Pickering suggested, "tell him about the dispensation that you prised out of the Zimbabwe government."
"That's a good start," Tungata agreed. "First of all, my conviction and sentence under the poaching charge have been set aside "Sam, that's the very least they could do-"
"That's for starters," Tungata smiled and clasped his arm.
"That confession that you signed for Fungabera has been declared void, as it was obtained under duress. The order declaring you an enemy of the state and people has been rescinded, the sale of Rholands" shares to Peter Fungabera.
has been declared null and void. King's Lynn and Zambezi Waters revert to you." Craig stared at him wordlessly as he went on, "The prime minister has accepted that all the acts of violence committed by either of us were acts of self-defence, everything from your killing of the Third Brigade troopers who were pursuing you on the Botswana border to the theft of the Super Frelon helicopter, and he has issued a full pardon-" Craig merely shook his head.
"Then the Third Brigade has been withdrawn from Matabeleland. It has been disbanded and integrated into the regular army, the pogrom against my people has been called Off, and independent observers have been allowed into the Matabele tribal areas to "monitor the peace"." "That's the best news yet, Sam."
"Still more still More," Tungata assured him. "My Zimbabwe citizenship Aid passport have been returned to me. I am allowed t(f return home, with the assurance that there will be no check placed on my political activities.
The government is to consider a referendum on instituting a form of federal autonomy for the Matabele people, and, in return, I am to use all my influence to convince the armed dissidents to come in from the bush and surrender their weapons under general amnesty."
"It's all that you have been working towards congratulations, Sam, I really mean that." only with your help." Tungata turned to Henry Pickering. "Can I tell him about Lobengula's Fire!"
"Wait!" Henry Pickering took both their arms and turned them towards the dining-room. "Let's start lunch first." The dining room was panelled in light oak, a perfect frame for the set of five Remington paintings of the old west that decorated three walls. The fourth wall was an enormous picture window that looked out across the city and Central Park. The curtains were open.
From the head of the table Henry smiled down at Craig.
41 though t we had better pull out all the stops," and he showed Craig the wine label.
"Wow! The'61."
"Well, it's not every day that I entertain the current number one best selling author-"
"Yes, isn't it wonderful!" Sally-Anne cut in. "Craig was number one in the New York Times the very first week of publication!" 1Y.1hat about the T! deal?"Tungata asked.
"It's no t signed yet," Craig demurred.
"But my information is that it soon will be," said Henry, as he filled the wineglasses. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the toast: Craig Mellow's latest opus, and its long ride at the top." They drank, laughing and festive, and Craig protested with his glass untouched. "Come on! Give me a toast that I can drink as well."
"Here it is!" Henry Pickering held up his glass again.
Tobengula's Fire! Now you can tell him."
"If those two women will stop chattering for ten seconds" Not fair!" Sally-Anne protested. "We never chatter, we seriously debate." Tungata smiled at her as he went on, "As you know, Henry arranged for Lobengula's diamonds to be placed in safe-keeping and for them to be appraised. Harry Winston's top men have vetted them and come up with an estimate-2
"Tell usi'Sally'Anne called. "How much?"
"As you know the diamond market is in a very serious depression at the moment stones selling for seventy thousand dollars two years ago are fetching only twenty thousand-"
"Come on, Sam, don't tease us!"
"All right, Winston's have valued the collection at six hundred million dollars-2 Everybody spoke at once and it took a while for Tungata to regain the floor.
"As we all agreed from the beginning, the diamonds are to be placed in a trust fund, and I am going to ask Craig to be one of the trustees."
"I accept."
"However, fourteen of the stones have already been sold.
I authorized the deal and the proceeds from it were five million dollars. The entire amount has been handed over to the World Bank in complete discharge of capital and interest on the loan inde to Craig. Tungata drew an envelope from his inside pocket. "Here is the receipt, Pupho, your share of Lobengula's Fire. You are free and clear of all debt now. King's Lynn and Zambezi Waters are yours." Craig turned the envelope between his fingers, staring at Tungata, struck dumbllad Tungata's smile faded as he leaned towards him A spoke seriously. "In return, there is one thing I would ask from you, Pupho."
"Ask it," said Craig. "Anything."
"Your promise that you will return to Africa. We need men like you to help stave off these new dark ages that threaten to overwhelm the land we both love." Craig reached across the table and took Sally' Anne hand.
"You tell him, he said.
WPM,
"Yes, Sam, we are coming home with you," she said softly. "That's a promise." ally-Anne and Craig drove up the hills of King's Lynn in the old Land-Rover. The late afternoon had turned the grasslands to cloth-of-gold, and the trees on the crest of the hills wove delicate lacework against the high serene blue of the African summer sky.
They were waiting for them on the lawns under the jacaranda trees all the house servants and herders from King's Lynn. When Craig embraced Shadrach, the old man's empty sleeve flapped against his skinny chest.
"Do not worry, Nkosi
, I can work better with one arm than any of these puppies can with two."
"I will make you a bargain," Craig suggested, so that all could hear. "I will lend you an arm, if you will lend me a leg." And Shadrach laughed until the tears dripped onto his shirt and his newest and youngest wife had to lead him away.
Joseph waited on the wide veranda, aloof from the common throng, resplendent in snowy white kanza and with the tall chef's cap on his head.
"I see you, Nkosikazi," he greeted Sally-Arme gravely, as she reached the top of the stairs, but he could not disguise the sparkle of pleasure in his eyes.
"I see you also, Joseph. And I have decided we will have two hundred guests at the wedding," she answered him in fluent Sindebele, and Joseph covered his mouth with both hands in astonishment, the first time she had ever seen him off balance.
"Haul'he said, and then turned to his underlings.
"Now we have a truly great lady at Kingi Lingi who understands all your monkey chatter," he told them sternly.
"So woe unto any of you who lie or cheat or stealP Craig and Sally-Anne stood at the top of the stairs, holding hands while the people of King's Lynn sang the song that welcomes the traveller home after a long and dangerous journey, and when it was ended, Craig looked down at her.
"Welcome home, my darling, "he said.
And while the women ululated and danced so that the heads of the infants strapped to their backs jerked like little black puppets and the men roared approval, Craig kissed her on the mouth.
The End
Wilbur Smith - B4 The Leopard Hunts In Darkness Page 57