by Vanessa Kier
“Yeah, I agree with you on that.” He set her away from him. “You ready to move out? Someone is likely to notice the fire and notify the rebels.”
She nodded.
“That’s my girl.”
The warmth in his voice chased away the lingering fear and gave rise to a small burst of satisfaction. He’d once again called her my girl. Only this time the term hadn’t been accompanied by a look of alarm.
She’d take that as a good sign.
“Which way?” she asked. Seth had put them down on a finger of land between two wide branches of the river. As clouds shifted across the sky, moonlight played peekaboo with the water. The air was redolent with the scent of marsh grasses and mud. She imagined the scene would be quite peaceful under other circumstance. Maybe one of these days she’d actually be able to savor the beauty of this region instead of always running for her life.
Seth checked his watch. After pushing a couple of buttons, he held his wrist out in front of him. Changing position, he pointed to a spot slightly ahead and to the right of the direction the plane had been heading. “That’s north. We’ll head that way, then recalibrate when we’ve put distance between us and the wreck.”
The only things visible were several meandering branches of the river, mud flats, and grass. A darker smudge marred the horizon, but Kirra couldn’t tell if it was jungle, hills, or civilization.
She eyed Seth’s thigh, where her scarf had turned black with blood. “Will your leg be able to handle the walking?”
“Yeah. I hardly feel it. I think it just tore a furrow in the outer layer. Nothing serious.” He shrugged it off, then nodded toward the river. “We’ll need to wade through the water in order to hide our tracks.”
“Umm…”
“Is there a problem?” Seth asked.
“Uh. No, I suppose not. The risk of parasites is better than being shot by the rebels or Sankoh’s men, right?” Still, she couldn’t quite erase the graphic images from the video warning travelers to stay out of the water.
“If it helps,” Seth offered, “I’ve lived in the region for almost three years and never had health problems from wading in rivers.”
“Yeah, well, the parasites were probably too afraid to get near you, Mr. Badass. But this time you have open wounds.”
“This water is only knee-high.”
“Fine. Whatever.” She didn’t know why she was grumbling. Staying here with the burning plane, waiting for the rebels or Sankoh’s men to show up was not an attractive alternative. It was just…“I hate the idea of little critters taking up residence in my body,” she muttered. “How can I fight something I can’t see?”
“Doctors can treat both waterborne diseases and parasites,” Seth reassured her. “Plus, one of the creepiest culprits, Guinea Worm, was eradicated several years ago. I bet you saw an older video with the worm being pulled out of someone’s leg by winding it around a stick, right?”
She shuddered. “Yeah. So I don’t have to worry about that?”
“Nope.”
“Good.” But that didn’t eliminate the waterborne diseases or other parasites. Oh, suck it up. At least you’re both alive.
Shaking her head at her unexpected reluctance, she shouldered her pack. “All right. Lead on.”
Seth had slipped on his own pack and slung the guard’s AK-47 over one shoulder. He stepped forward. “You’re holding up remarkably well, Kirra.”
As the warmth from his words spread through her, Kirra leaned toward him. She needed a kiss.
He turned away. “We need to move out.”
Right. How could she have forgotten? He didn’t want that from her.
For the first hour, the water was wide enough for the two of them to walk side-by-side. Kirra had to admit that the silty river bed was surprisingly easy to navigate and the lukewarm water actually felt refreshing against her lower legs.
She just had to keep her mind from wondering what little critters might be worming their way into her cuts and scrapes.
Eventually, the vegetation on the banks thickened and the river narrowed. Kirra was forced to walk behind Seth as the river diminished to a trickle.
The wind had picked up as storm clouds massed overhead and blew her hair into her face, but she couldn’t muster up the energy to grab another headscarf from her pack. Each trudging step through the mud sapped her strength. She wanted to demand that they stop, but there was no place to hide. So she kept pushing forward until the water disappeared.
She glared at the embankment blocking their path. The steep slope of dirt and vegetation couldn’t be more than four meters in height, yet to her, it appeared unsurmountable.
Seth grabbed an exposed root and hauled himself up.
Well, if he could do it after having been beaten and shot, then she had no excuse. Still, she was relieved when Seth held his hand down. “Give me your pack.”’
She passed it up to him. Once he’d placed the pack on the ground next to him, she followed his example. Pretending that the root was a rope and the embankment was the side of a target’s house, she ignored the shaking of her arms and legs and forced her body to climb.
Her muscles gave out as soon as she crawled over the edge. With a groan, she collapsed at Seth’s feet.
“You know,” he said, voice laced with humor, “saying thank-you for bringing the plane safely down was enough. I don’t really need you to genuflect.”
She swore at him in Afrikaans.
He raised his brows and laughed down at her. It wasn’t fair that he looked so strong and confident while her entire body felt wobbly as jelly and her heart beat as fast as if she’d run the hundred-meter dash.
“Come on,” Seth said briskly. “Up you go.”
She felt a tug on her arm. “You’re mean,” she muttered.
“Nope. Just trying to save your life.” With him pulling and her pushing, she made it to her feet.
He tugged her over to sit on a rock, then dug in his pack and handed her an energy bar. “With the grasses hiding us, we should be okay for a moment.”
She demolished the bar within seconds and washed it down with a huge swig from her water bottle. Even so, Seth finished his rations before her.
“Better?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Good. Let’s check where we are.”
Kirra opened her map but could barely make anything out in the dark. To keep it from blowing away, she anchored one end of the map with her water bottle and held the other end down with her palm.
After checking the coordinates on his watch, Seth switched on the red light feature of his torch. “Unfortunately, we’re only a third of the way to the UAR,” he said, tapping their location. “If we walk northeast, we’ll eventually hit the north-south road.” He spread his fingers out to show her the distance to the road.
“But everyone will be looking for us that way.”
“Precisely. So we’ll head straight north.” He tapped a line on the map. “This east-west road will take us over here”—he indicated another line—“to this north-south road. It will take us into the UAR via the back route to your concert.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
Kirra pulled the map out from under the water bottle. As she began to fold it, a gust of wind snatched the map out of her hands. Kirra lunged for it at the same time as Seth. His hand hit hers. She reached out with her other hand, but the wind carried the map higher. A moment later, it disappeared over the grasses.
“Sorry,” Seth said. “No worries, though. We still have the compass on my watch and the GPS on my phone, once it’s charged.”
She nodded. She suspected that once the concert was over, she’d want to return home, so she wouldn’t need the map for exploring.
“C’mon. Let’s move” He led her at an angle through the grass and scrub brush until they reached a deserted dirt road. After checking his watch, he turned right.
As they walked, the vegetation changed from reeds and scrub brush to thick grassl
and to a thinly wooded forest. The horizon had begun to show a line of gray when a cluster of buildings appeared ahead of them.
Seth took her hand and tugged her gently off the road.
“I know,” Kirra murmured. “Wait here until you scope out the town.” She waved her hand tiredly toward the road. “Just hurry, all right? I’m about to fall asleep on my feet.” She sighed and found a tree stump to sit on.
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded sharply, then strode off. Damn the man, did he have an endless supply of energy? He barely even limped, while her feet and legs felt as if they were made of lead. She didn’t even want to imagine how she’d feel if she hadn’t trained regularly with her self-defense coach. Thabo put her through a vigorous regime of aerobic exercise, strength training, and flexibility exercises. “All the training in the world won’t save your life,” he liked to say, “if your body is too slow.”
But right now she doubted she could do more than shuffle, even if her life depended on it.
“Kirra. Come on sweetheart, wake up.”
“Huh?” She came awake with a start. For a moment she didn’t know where she was. Then she remembered. Plane crash. On the run. Seth.
“Did you find us a place to stay?”
“Yeah. In another ten minutes you’ll be able to sleep in a real bed.”
“Oh, God. That sounds wonderful.”
He led her through the grove of trees to their left. Eventually, he turned onto an overgrown path that led to a cluster of five burned-out bungalows. When Seth guided her to the last bungalow on the right—a blackened building with no windows, debris piled in the yard, and the stench of rotting vegetation and guano floating toward them—Kirra balked.
“I can’t—” Her hand snuck into her pocket as she backed away. “I won’t—”
“What?” Seth turned toward her with a puzzled look, then glanced at the burned walls of the bungalow. “Oh, no. Christ, Kirra, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to trigger bad memories. This isn’t where we’re going to stay. There’s a footpath along the side here.”
She blew out a relieved breath, but it took a moment before her shaky legs regained the strength to follow him. The path wound through the tangle of vegetation, finally spilling them onto a patch of dirt at the back of a small, walled garden. The mud wall was only waist-high, giving Kirra a view of an undamaged bungalow.
Seth opened the gate and led her through the weed-infested garden. Then he stepped onto a concrete porch that spanned the entire back of the bungalow and opened the door.
Kirra followed him into a narrow hallway. “Okay, this is more like it.”
He turned on his torch as he showed her around. Even in the dim light, she noticed that dust covered everything. “What is this place?” she asked. The tiny bungalow had four rooms, all furnished, and a small bathing room. “Why is it unoccupied?”
In answer, Seth led her over to the front window. “See those low buildings?”
The window gave onto a large grassy square badly in need of a trim. Four long, single-story rectangular buildings were lined up on the left side.
“Those are classroom blocks,” Seth explained. “My guess is that this is a bungalow that belongs to one of the staff. Either the school empties out when it’s not in session, or they closed the school permanently. As far as I can tell, none of the other buildings are occupied.” He tapped the light switch. “The electricity is off. To conserve the battery in my flashlight, we should use the lanterns.” He nodded toward the wall of the combination kitchen and dining area where a lantern sat on a dining table.
“Okay.” She leaned against his shoulder a moment, then straightened. “Is there running water?”
“No. But there’s a well outside. It has water.” Seth lit the lantern, then shut off his torch.
“Good enough.” She carried her backpack into one of the bedrooms and dumped it on the floor. “I need to wash the silt and mud off.”
“All right. The well is this way.” They filled a couple of buckets with water, although Kirra was so tired that she needed Seth’s help carrying her bucket inside. She pulled what she needed from her pack, then Seth hung one of the lanterns on a hook on the bathing room wall and left her alone.
Once the door had shut behind him, she placed a headscarf on the low wooden stool, stripped off all of her clothes, and sat. She didn’t trust herself not to collapse if she remained standing another minute.
For a long while, she simply stared at the bucket of water and the cup next to it. She wanted to be clean so badly that tears stung her eyes, but her whole body was trembling with exhaustion and stress.
I don’t know if I can raise the cup over my head. I’m so…so…damn…tired…
“You had both Hughes and the woman under your control.” Rio’s frustration and anger over Sankoh’s failure deepened his voice. “Please explain why you let them attend the festival instead of questioning them about the diamonds.”
“I do not answer to Morenga,” Sankoh said with false politeness. “He needs to remember this. The happiness of the people in my town is critical to my continued prosperity. As long as I continue to provide them with benefits such as jobs, food, and entertainment, they are willing to overlook any glimpses they catch of the more unsavory side of my business.” He smiled at Rio.
“The pilot Michael Hughes proved resistant to our initial round of torture. Since Bureh made it clear that he needs the pilot healthy enough to fly, we could not press the matter further.” He made a wide-encompassing gesture with his hands.
“When the woman fell into my lap, so to speak, I saw an opportunity. Why should I not use a threat to the pilot’s life as an incentive for the woman to perform at the festival? She is important enough to be featured at the Shine a Light benefit concert. My townspeople will remember that I arranged for her to sing for them and be grateful. They will forget about the battered white man who my guards escorted to the festival.”
Sankoh shrugged. “It would have been against my better interests to act forcefully against the woman before she sang. I am the tribal chief. I must uphold certain standards of courtesy when it comes to guests.”
Rio leaned forward. “The woman carried a backpack, correct? Yet you failed to search it. Such a simple task could have resolved the matter. Now they have both escaped and we’re once again stuck chasing after the woman and the pilot.”
“Do not presume to tell me how to do my job,” Sankoh admonished him. “You understand nothing of our culture. I did what was appropriate. In any case, my men will soon have both Hughes and the woman back under our control.”
“Your definition of appropriate seems to vary depending on your mood,” Rio pointed out. “You didn’t extend any courtesy to the workers from your rival’s company when their car broke down in your territory four months ago. If I recall correctly, you had them shot on sight.”
Sankoh braced his hands on the top of his desk. “I do not need to explain myself to you.”
“Perhaps you would prefer to explain yourself to my boss. Those are his diamonds you lost.” Rio rapped his knuckles on the desk. “Morenga is quite unhappy.”
Sankoh knocked Rio’s hand away. “Your boss forgets that he is not the only player in the region. Or even the most powerful. I have no fear of him.”
“Do you truly prefer Bureh? That psychopath? He would see your town destroyed. At least Morenga cares about the common people.”
Sankoh’s only reply was an enigmatic smile.
Since there were several truckloads of Bureh’s men combing the area, Rio figured Sankoh had been promised a substantial reward if he turned the diamonds over to Bureh.
Rio struggled to find something to say that would turn the situation around. Morenga couldn’t afford to lose such allies. More importantly, his boss couldn’t allow Sankoh’s defiance to go unpunished. Otherwise, Morenga’s enemies would swoop in and tear apart his alliances.
The phone on Sankoh’s desk rang.
“Ah. See? Did I not tell you that
we would have the foreigners recaptured shortly?” He picked up the handset.
If Rio hadn’t been watching so closely, he would have missed the minute tightening of the man’s facial muscles. So he understood the news was bad before Sankoh spoke.
“Apparently I did not give Hughes enough credit. He—”
Rio’s satellite phone rang. Since it was his immediate boss, the head of Morenga’s security, he held up a hand and murmured, “Excuse me.”
The news he received made him wish he was alone so he could beat his head against the nearest wall. “Thank you. I’ll get right on it.”
Rio shut off the phone and took a moment to collect himself. Then, when he’d tamped down his anger, he said very calmly, “Please explain why, when you knew that Hughes is a pilot, you did not secure the routes to the airstrip?” He put his phone carefully back in his pocket, hoping to distract himself from the urge to wring Sankoh’s neck. “In addition,” he said, giving Sankoh his coldest look, “please explain why you did not alert our men at the airstrip that Hughes was on the loose and likely heading their way?”
Sankoh watched him. For the first time since Rio had entered the office, the other man regarded him with uncertainty.
Rio stood up. “We have four men dead, the facility has taken extensive damage, and our plane has been stolen.” God save him from short-sighted, arrogant criminals like Sankoh who blundered around and caused more trouble than they were worth.
At least he had the satisfaction of seeing wariness replace Sankoh’s confidence.
“You may rest assured that my boss will exact appropriate punishment for your failure.” Without waiting for an answer, Rio stalked from the room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Seth had noticed Kirra weaving on her feet, so he set his lantern on the floor outside of the bathing room and took up guard position, even though it made him feel like a pervert. He’d already taken advantage of her exhaustion earlier when he’d deliberately knocked her hand away from the map so that it blew away over the river. Assuming they could find transportation, they would reach the east-west road and pass the turnoff to her concert tomorrow. As long as he kept Kirra away from the map feature on his satellite phone, she wouldn’t realize that they’d passed the road to the concert.