by David Nees
“How’d Dieu do? Marcus asked. “We couldn’t hear what was said.”
“Dieu was bold. Bold as a lion. He told Mputu that he would no longer help him steal mining leases. He said he was going to protect the miners and the forest.”
“It was the fétiche. It protected me…us. It made me bold. Did you see how Mputu was surprised? He didn’t know what to do.”
“Until he decided to kill you on the spot,” Dan said.
“But he didn’t. You made sure of that. And then his soldiers could not hit us, me and Santu.” He paused for a moment. “It was the fétiche.
The men lapsed into silence. Santu drove fast, but not so fast as to damage the truck. In three hours, they were back in Goma.
Chapter 69
___________________________________
B ack at the hotel, they sat down at the kitchen table. Marcus poured whiskeys all around and offered a modest toast to a successful mission. He then poured some on Dan’s wound.
Dieu, true to his word, made some calls and got a doctor to come to the hotel. The man bandaged up Dan’s arm and put it in a sling. He drained some fluid from Dan’s knee and said he probably would need surgery to fix it. He didn’t ask any questions and departed with a large wad of US dollars in his pocket. He left behind some Tylenol 3 tablets, which Dan refused to take. Instead, he had another round of whiskey followed by a beer chaser.
No one spoke directly of the assassination of General Zhang and General Wu. Dan worried about how much Dieu could deduce from the events. He had been kidnapped and taken to the sorcerer against his will. They had made him confront Mputu, which resulted in the rebel leader’s death. He might conclude that these men, armed and capable, had killed the two Chinese, but no one was going to give him any hints of such a connection.
“Now you don’t have any pressure from Mputu,” Dan said at last. They were on their second round of whiskies.
“Yes. But there will be pressure from Kinshasa. Even if I try to do the right thing. I don’t know if the fétiche will protect me from that.”
Dan looked at the man; a bureaucrat, steeped in the culture of cronyism, making a place for his relatives, members of his tribe. If you had money and with it, status and power, you were expected to dispense patronage. If your salary was too meager, you would skim extra to augment it when and where you could. Could he resist going back to his old ways, even with the fetish?
“Remember, the fétiche cuts both ways. It can protect you. It can also harm you.”
Dieu glared at him. “Because of you.”
“Maybe. But you were in Mputu’s sights. He suspected you of playing him against Zhang. You were in a tough spot. Now you are free of them.”
“And I am going to be a poor man now.”
“Because your bribe money has gone away?”
Dieu didn’t answer.
“If I wanted to stay in the Congo, I think I could find lucrative work improving the military here,” Marcus said in an attempt to change the subject. Those rebels were piss-poor fighters.”
“That could be a dangerous position,” Roland replied. “But I see your point. Lots of courage, but little training. Made them easy to kill.”
“You still don’t like our country,” Santu said. “After all I have taught you about it. After all the beauty you have seen. You still don’t see our worth.”
“Not true, Little Buddy. I see the beauty, but I also see how your country is held back by corruption and incompetence.”
“And you, the superior white man, will fix us, right?”
“I didn’t say that. But you could use some lessons in military training. I imagine you could use some lessons in administration.” Roland leaned forward to make his point. “Yours is not the only country held back by corruption. The list is long. The shame of it is you have such a beautiful county with beautiful people, energetic, resourceful, and happy. Plus, you have so many minerals. You could be the richest country in Africa. You said so yourself. That’s the shame of it.
“And no, the white man can’t fix it. You have to fix it yourselves.” He took a long sip of his whiskey. “Don’t ask me how.”
Dan had been thinking while the others talked, bouncing off dangerous topics and shifting to ones less controversial.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said.
“So, you’ll fix our country,” Santu said. He seemed to be getting angry. Perhaps due to their impending departure and what that might mean for him.
“Hear me out. Both of you,” Dan said. “Dieu, you need to find more income, yet you are constrained by the fétiche. Your country has started the showcase mining operation. The one to show the world how you can extract the coltan responsibly, protecting the environment. I understand it’s not going well.”
Dieu looked at him but didn’t answer. Marcus got up and went to the fridge. He brought back an armful of beers and set them on the table.
“You should maneuver yourself into running the operation. I imagine the bureaucrats back in Kinshasa don’t want to spend much time out here in Goma. You take it over directly, since Zhang isn’t around to do so. Make it work. For real. Set it up so you can take a skim off the top. No one will notice a little and will eventually make you rich. The miners will get more, like the operation promises, and Kinshasa will get more since the ore won’t be smuggled out of the country. Use the system to do things right while you get richer.”
Dieu finished his whiskey and looked at Dan.
“What you suggest would be very difficult.”
“Hire Santu here. He’s proven his worth. You’ve seen how brave he can be. You’ve not fully seen how clever he can be. He could be a big help to you.”
Dan paused, then continued.
“And you have made an impression on Mputu’s rebels. Both of you talked about how they would become more dangerous if Mputu was killed. He’s dead now. It was unavoidable. But the soldiers will remember how you stood up to him. How you have the power of the fétiche working for you. They will respect and fear that power.
“Recruit them. Get them to join you. I’ll bet many would rather do something other than shoot people with the risk of getting killed. Especially if there’s money in it for them.”
“You don’t know the rebels. Many like killing.”
“Okay. Recruit the others and kill the trouble makers. Make the rest your army. To protect the showcase mine operation. AFD probably still wants to destroy it, since they are trying to achieve an Islamic state. Use Mputu’s rebels to defend the mine project.”
Dieu began to shake his head.
“Act while your power is fresh in their minds. If you wait, you lose.”
Dieu looked over at Santu.
“Could it be done?” He asked.
Dan almost smiled. Earlier Dieu looked down on Santu, as if he were just a street hustler. Now he spoke to him as an equal.
“Everything is a risk,” Santu said. “Life can be short and brutal. We know that. But this may be a risk worth taking. I do not feel like going back to Kinshasa to hustle tourists and guide them around the city. This seems more important.”
“And more lucrative,” Roland said. “You’ve grown. You could pull this off.”
“Would you come back to train the soldiers?” Dieu asked.
Roland sat back with a surprised look on his face. “Maybe. I have a trip to take first. My boss back home would need to allow me some time off as well.”
“Your help would be very valuable to us if we try to do what Dan says.”
“I only suggest. You must do,” Dan said. “The white man cannot fix your country. I just offered an idea of how you could work in that direction, using the culture to your advantage.”
“You mean the culture of bribery?”
“Your words, not mine.”
The five men talked through the afternoon when Dieu excused himself and Santu drove him to his house. When Santu came back the three were packing their gear.
“Are you leaving tonight? Yo
u are in no shape to travel.”
“I can deal with it. I’ve chartered a boat to take us south on Lake Kivu. We’ll hire a taxi to go from Bukavu down to Uvira. We’ll cross into Burundi and fly out of the airport at Bujumbura.”
He handed an envelope and keys to Santu.
“This is the title to the Toyota. It’s a sturdy machine and I want you to own it.”
He handed Santu another envelope.
“You’ve earned twenty-five hundred dollars so far. But you’ve shown your worth. Here’s your last payment.”
Santu opened the envelope and counted the money.
“This is five thousand dollars.” His voice reflected his incredulity. “This is so much. A fortune.”
“You’ve earned it. Use it to help in this new venture with Dieu. And if he gets cold feet, you can use it to start a business. Maybe take tourists on adventure tours from Kinshasa out to the east…here. Only skip the rebels and sorcerers.”
Santu smiled. He looked around at the men. Marcus and Roland had paused in their packing.
“You are all my brothers,” Santu said. “Thank you for this wonderful, terrifying adventure. If you had told me what was going to happen, I never would have come. And now that I experienced it, I’m glad I didn’t miss it.”
“It was your hustle that got you the job. And it will get you further ahead, even if Dieu doesn’t want to try my idea.”
“I know you’ll be fine, Little Buddy,” Roland said.
The men embraced and then headed to the Toyota for one last trip.
Epilogue
___________________________________
D an sat in the back with his arm in a sling and his leg propped up during the boat trip on Lake Kivu. Marcus and Roland sat up front with the captain and kept him facing forward. Dan opened the wooden crate and took out the weapons. He gently slipped each one into the lake where it sank into hundreds of feet of water. The Sako TRG 42 rifle was the last to go overboard. It was such a fine weapon; Dan was sad to discard it. But no link could be discovered to the rifle that killed the two generals.
With that final chore completed, he sat back and tried to sleep during the eight-hour, overnight trip to the southern end of the lake.
The meeting in the Chinese president’s office did not go well. The generals assembled were subjected to a fiery dressing down. General Wu was dead, along with General Zhang. The loss was as yet unexplained, which added to President Xiong’s fury. He had lost his leader for the bold plans that had been put in place and were to be implemented in a matter of days.
His generals could not explain what had happened. He sat back and took stock of the situation. His planned takeover of Taiwan, using an attack on the American fleet entering the South China Sea, was in jeopardy. The plan was always risky, but Xiong felt it would succeed with the planning in place and the clear leadership of General Wu, a strategic mastermind.
Now he had to rethink his options. To fail, either to not hit the carrier, not have the messages of China being under attack properly deployed, or to fail to overrun Taiwan, would make China a pariah on the world stage. Non-aligned countries would have to distance themselves, withholding expressions of support. Worse, the U.N. might not produce the right resolutions of restraint and calls for discussions. He could also lose the advantage of Europe’s sitting on the fence regarding his policies.
President Xiong made a decision. The attack on the U.S. carrier fleet would not go forward. The invasion of Taiwan would also be postponed. He dismissed his generals with instructions to have the troops stand down.
After he had dismissed them, he sat back. The time would come again. It was China’s destiny. But time was ticking away. China’s situation would get more tenuous. He would try to set up the right conditions again. For now, he would have to deal with his generals maneuvering to replace Wu and Zhang. The resultant power struggle would need his full attention and efforts to control.
In Langley, Jane and Henry watched the progress of the carrier group steaming through the South China Sea. They had heard the reports from DROC about the killing of two Chinese nationals. China was furious and demanding answers from the government. A rebel commander had also been killed, but thankfully, his men had not gone on a rampage, something Jane thought was unusual.
They sat and watched on and off for hours as they kept processing the information that flowed in. The carrier group gave the Spratly Islands a slightly wider berth, something that hadn’t been planned initially. The change had been ordered from the highest levels at the Pentagon as a gesture to the Chinese.
The next day everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The carrier group had not been fired upon. Taiwan had not been invaded. The mission was completed without much notice on the domestic front. Life went on as usual.
Two weeks later, Roland stepped out of the Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was midsummer and the day was hot. He looked around and took out his cell phone. Punching in a number, he waited as the phone rang. He had been in contact earlier but had been vague as to when he could travel. Now he was oddly nervous.
“Allo.” Her voice sounded as he remembered it. His heart beat a little faster.
“Yvette, it’s me, Roland.”
There was a pause. “Roland. Where are you?”
“Paris, the airport. I can rent a car and come to you.”
There was a silence on the line.
“I didn’t know you were coming so soon. You said you weren’t sure when your boss would let you off. You should have called me.”
“I got the green light to go yesterday and took a flight that night. I tried to call but you didn’t answer. I left you a message.”
“I haven’t checked my messages for a few days. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not a problem.”
Again, there was silence, now uncomfortable.
“This…this… is—”
“A problem?”
“Oui. I’m just leaving for a trip. To hike in the mountains…in Switzerland.”
“I could join you.”
“I’m going with some friends…”
“I’ve shaved and cleaned up. I’m quite presentable now, not like the last time you saw me.”
“It’s…it’s a small group…some close friends of mine…”
Roland took a deep breath. Confront it head on, buddy, he told himself.
“I wouldn’t fit in?”
There was silence on the other end.
“By any chance, is one of your friends a boyfriend?”
More silence.
“I’m guessing that means a ‘yes’. If so, you’re right. I wouldn’t fit in.”
More silence. Roland paused for a moment, then made a decision.
“Yvette. You have a good time hiking. I don’t know if you’re going back to the DRC, but Dieu and Santu may have started working together. And you’ll be glad to know Mputu is dead.”
“Did you have something to do with that?”
“I can’t answer that question. I want to say that I enjoyed our time together. Call me if you ever want to reconnect.”
“Roland…so did I. But…it’s different now.”
“Don’t try to explain. You don’t need to. We can think of it as a summer romance.”
He ended the call and took a deep breath. The phrase “different worlds” came to his mind.
He stared out at the airport grounds. It was modern in a striking way. But there was nothing of the charm of Paris in its architecture. Should I spend some time sightseeing? Roland turned the thought over in his mind.
“Nah,” said out loud. “I’ve seen enough.”
The End
Afterword
Death in the Congo is the fifth book in the Dan Stone series.
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Other novels published by David Nees:
Jason’s Talebook 1 in the After the Fall series
Uprisingbook 2 in the After the Fall series
Rescuebook 3 in the After the Fall series
Undercoverbook 4 in the After the Fall series
Paybackbook 1 in the Dan Stone series
The Shamanbook 2 in the Dan Stone series
The Captive Girlbook 3 in the Dan Stone series
The Assassin and the Pianistbook 4 in the Dan Stone Series
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