Digging Deeper: An Adventure Novel (Sam Harris Series Book 1) (18 page)

There was an air of expectancy as Joao worked himself up to pronounce sentence.

Then the door of the hut opened, and Tereza came into the silent room.  She stood in front of the tribunal and beckoned Sam to stand beside her.  Sam tottered across the room and stood hip to hip with her.

Joao came to life and roared, ‘What are you doing in here, woman?  You know it is forbidden for women to interfere with the decisions of the tribunal!’

‘I am a witness for the defence.  I have a right to be in here as the widow of your most beloved war hero.  You don’t tell me what to do.  I have borne the children of Edison de Sousa.’

There was a muttering of assent in the hut.

The lawyer stepped forward.  ‘This woman has stolen the property of the state of Tamazia.  She has worked for the killer company Gemsite.  She deserves to die.’

‘This woman has fed my children when they were hungry.  She has brought them gifts from the capital.  How many of you have helped the children of Edison the Brave?  I have almost starved since he died.  You, who are such big men, who judge people and shoot them for no reason, what have you done for the children of your biggest war hero?’

‘This is not a defence.’

‘And who saved Pibé from Malaria?  Did you know she gave up her own medicine and risked death so that Pibé might live?  I claim her life.  She is mine to do with as I wish.  Under our laws, she may not die until I have repaid her.  You do not have the right to take her from me.’

‘I cannot agree.  The woman must die, like her colleagues.  They are all vermin and must be exterminated.’

‘I claim my right to get the judgement from the leader of MARFO.  I know that he is due here tomorrow.  Let the woman live until then.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.  He will not save her.  Let’s get this over with.’

Tereza stepped in front of Sam and shielded her with her body.

‘Don’t come any closer, or you will have to kill me, too.’

There was a definite shift in the mood of the room.  The drunken fury had been replaced with a maudlin apathy.  No one stepped forward to remove Tereza from the hut.  No one touched Sam, who was in a catatonic state of fright and stared into the distance with her mouth open.

Joao stood and held up his hand to calm the room.  He felt he was losing his audience, who were moved by the presence of Edison the Brave in their midst, personified by Tereza, whose eyes blazed.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘We will wait until tomorrow, but that is all.'

He addressed one of the rebels. ‘Take her to her hut and guard it well.’

Sam was in an advanced stage of shock.  She was unaware of what had happened.  When the man grabbed her arm to take her away, her legs would not move.  Feeling her resistance, he slung her over his shoulder, pushed Tereza aside and marched outside.  He took her to her hut where he dropped her lifeless on the bed.  Then he went back outside, made himself comfortable against the door frame and fell asleep.

Sam lay on her rough bed.  She moaned with fear in her confused sleep, close to death with shock, exhaustion and hunger.  She had lost all hope of survival and was waiting for the end. Let it be quick. I would do it myself if I had a gun.  She shivered with fear.  Suddenly a small grainy hand took hers in the darkness.  She squeezed the hand, but it did not disappear.  She opened her eyes, convinced she was dreaming.

‘Sam, drink this now.’  It was Pibé.  He held a battered plastic mug with dark liquid in it.  She blinked twice but he was still there holding her hand and proffering the mug like a little gnome in the dark.  Hauling herself up in the bed, she took the mug and sipped the contents.  It was extremely sweet.  Some sort of juice with added sugar.  She sat for five minutes with Pibé, while the magic juice sent sugar coursing through her veins.

Pibé saw her inflate with new vigour and whispered, ‘Come on, Sam. You must follow me.’

He slipped onto his hands and knees and vanished.  Sam was now sure she was dreaming. But with the sugar rush taking effect, she got off the bed and crawled after Pibé, who had disappeared into the dark at the wall of her hut.  She felt his foot for an instant and then it vanished into a hole at the bottom of the wall.  The hole was small but Sam was very thin now. To her surprise, she glided through it with no effort.  She realised that Edison had grabbed her hands and pulled her out, sliding her over the damp, dew-covered earth.

Tereza was there, too.  ‘For God’s sake, follow me.’

Sam was unsteady on her feet.  If this was a dream, it was a good one. She staggered after Tereza, trying not to fall flat on her face.  She was aware of the soft cool earth under her feet and the small sharp stones that penetrated the soles.  But she felt no pain.  Her boots were left behind in the hut, but nobody noticed, least of all the boys who never wore shoes of any type.  She saw bats swoop beneath the bulbs in the village square, and she could hear their calls.  Looking up at the starry sky, she ran straight into Tereza, who had stopped at the village fence.

‘Shhh, Sam.  They will kill me if you are found now.  Go through this hole and run out to the road.  When you get there, you must run to the south, down that way.’ She pointed.  ‘Do you hear me?  Run fast, and don’t look back.  You will be safe in the dark.  No one will see you.  Don’t stop running until you get to an old stone building on the left hand side of the road.  It has a few tiles still on the roof.  It’s the only one like it.  You can’t mistake it.  Go into the building and hide.  The fighters will kill you if they find you but they will look for you to the north, as Zambia is only thirty kilometres away.  Stay until someone comes for you.  God bless you and keep you safe.’

Tereza pushed Sam through the fence before she had a chance to say goodbye to Pibé and Edison.  She was left with the feeling of Pibé’s grainy hand in hers and the taste of sugar on her tongue.

Sam stumbled out across the terrain separating the village from the road, trying to run, trying to be brave.  She could not see her feet and tripped and fell into a ditch that marked the side of the road.  She was winded but uninjured.  She climbed out of the ditch and ran down the road to the south from whence they had arrived all those weeks ago.  ‘Run,’ she told herself, ‘run, run, run.’

Terror got her legs moving.  Somehow, she trotted down the road.  She knew she had only a couple of hours until daybreak. She must keep going. She fell over several times, but each time, she heard Fred howling and the baying of the tribunal.

She got up again and again.  She would not give up.  She reached an old stone building without a roof.  Swerving off the road, she crumpled to the ground.  She was not conscious of falling into another ditch.  She simply folded into it when her legs gave way.  Lying there in the dirty shallow water, her head cushioned by the mud, she fell sound asleep.

***

Sam was woken by the sound of a helicopter nearby but she was too far gone to recognise the sound.  She covered her ears.  She was surprised to find herself in what appeared to be a stream.  Her feet hurt like hell and she was wet through.  She froze at the sound of voices coming towards her and lay very still, hoping to be camouflaged in the ditch.

They would shoot her now.  Would it hurt?  She was terrified and wept into her hand.  She shut her eyes.  If she did not see the gun, it would be okay.  Just like vaccinations.  She tried to make herself smaller, held her breath and waited for the darkness.  The voices got nearer.

‘Where did you see it, Eduardo?  Are you sure it was a body?’

‘Yes, my General. It looked like a body.  I saw it when we were landing.  It was over here.’

Footsteps crunched on the road and stopped right where she was.  She was confused.  Was she already dead or dreaming?  She did not breathe.

‘Sam?  Oh, my God, Eduardo, it is Sam!  Come quickly.  Help me.  Sam, Sam, are you okay?  Is she dead?  Is she?  I can’t bear it.  Tell me.  Have I killed her?’

Sam felt herself being picked up by strong arms.  When nothing horrible happened next, she dared to open her eyes.  She thought she recognised her saviour.  Was this a dream, too?  Or had she died and gone to heaven?

‘Eduardo?’ she asked in a tiny frightened voice. ‘Is it really you?  Am I safe?  Am I really safe?’

‘Yes, Sam, you are safe.  We are here, and you are safe, and no one’s going to hurt you anymore.’  Eduardo placed her on a wooden bench at the back of the ruined house.  He moved aside.  To Sam’s amazement, the General’s kind, round face peered into hers.

He was crying.  ‘How are you, my Sam?’

Sam gathered all the strength she had left, smiled and said, ‘Yes, it’s me. And I really need a lobster right now.’

She sank back along the seat.  Eduardo covered her with a blanket and helped the General sit down on a nearby tree stump.  General Fuego was overcome with sobs of relief.  But he managed to pull himself together by the time General Freddy approached them and said they must get back into the helicopter and leave right away.

They woke Sam and gave her lukewarm coffee with lots of sugar that was better than the nectar of the gods.  They carried her over to the helicopter and had to lift her on, as she was too weak to climb up and her feet were in ribbons.

The General almost cried again when he saw how thin and weak she was.  He had to get her back to Mondongo.  ‘Freddy, get us out of here.  Those bastards would shoot me if they found me in their terrain.’

Freddy laughed.  Fuego knew that they were all in for a rocket in Mondongo when the president learnt that his Chief of Staff had stolen a helicopter.  Fuego had a way with his brother-in-law that would ensure minimal punishment.  He liked an adventure from time to time.  They took off, avoiding flying over the rebel village where the hungover jury had not yet woken up.

***

Down in the rebel camp, Tereza de Sousa was long gone.  She took her sons and left when dawn broke, taking with her the mobile phone and the money that Eduardo had given her.  She had a sister in Zambia, to the north along the main road.  They caught a local bus and sat in the back talking about Sam.

Pibé asked his mother if they would ever see Sam again.

‘No,’ she replied. ‘Sam has gone to live with Princess Di.’

Sam woke up in the only private hospital in Mondongo, in one of the very few and very expensive private rooms.  She was aware of a throbbing pain in her feet, a drip in her arm and someone sitting beside her holding her hand.  She smiled and slipped away again.

She took almost a week to find the energy to sit up in bed and survey the room.  There were tropical banana flowers in a vase.  She wore a clingy nylon nightie that wrapped itself tighter and tighter around her the more she moved, giving off sparks in the dark recesses of her bed. Soon get rid of that.

To her amazement, she saw Jim sitting across the room talking to the General.  He had a bag on his knee that looked like hers.

He noticed that she was awake. ‘‘Sam, how are you?  We were all so worried about you.’

He had the grace to look embarrassed.  Sam knew that not everyone was worried.  He came over to the bed and put the bag on the end, careful to avoid her feet.

‘The general tells me that you will be fine now.  I brought you some clothes from Villa Alice.  I’m afraid you won’t see the other clothes again.  The women from Kardo looted them all before we could rescue them.  Anyway, I can see that none of them will fit you anymore.  You are so thin.  You look like one of those stick insect models.’

‘Thanks a bunch, Jim. I think I look pretty good actually.’ Sam had no idea what she looked like but could see her stick thin legs sticking out of the nylon nightie.

‘I came to tell you that the company can’t take you back after what happened.  It would be too dangerous for you in Kardo.  The rebels would hunt you down.  Anyway, I don’t expect you want to go back after all you’ve been through?’ 

He paused, looking at her with real concern.

‘Jesus, Sam, you look like you had a holiday in Auschwitz.  I am so sorry about Brian and Fred.  The General told me that they didn’t make it.  I didn’t know that Black wasn’t going to pay the ransom.  I swear it.  He's an evil bastard.’

Sam tried to deflect his apology. [Remove line break]

‘I’ve wanted to be this thin all my life.  Be careful what you wish for, that’s what I say.’

‘I got you your bonuses,’ Jim blurted out and then looked horrified at what he had said.  ‘It not that you care about the money, but I didn’t want you to miss out.  You’ll receive all your pay to date, including the time while you were kidnapped, but I couldn’t get you any holiday pay as you won’t be coming back.’ 

Jim looked at the floor. Sam let him off the hook.

‘That’s great, really.  I appreciate you coming.  I know you didn’t have to. Give my regards to Jorge, please.  I’m going to miss him.’

‘Bye, Sam.  You’re a real trooper.  Black said you could look after yourself.  I guess he was right.'

‘Where is Black anyway?  Does he know that I'm alive?’

‘He knows but he is not happy.  He would have preferred Brian.’  He winked to show that he was joking but Sam knew better.

She shrugged.   ‘Don’t worry.  It’s almost six months’ pay.  That’s a lot.  I don’t want to hang out around here anymore.  I know I wouldn’t win any popularity contests at Gemsite.'

Jim could not bear to stay any longer.  He left after kissing her cheek.

The General had been waiting patiently while this happened, pretending to read his newspaper.  When Jim left, he sat on the bed and looked at Sam with something approaching reverence.  He took her hand and raised it to his lips.

‘Sam, thank you for living.  I would never have forgiven myself if you had been killed.  I am so sorry I got you into trouble.  I thought I was doing my job, but I was a fool.  Eduardo confessed that because of him, Pedro told Black that we were having an affair.  You know what a maniac he is.  He actually thought you were feeding me information.  I was supposed to be milking you for diamond data for the president, but you never told me anything.  Black thought he had been betrayed.  He is very slow to trust but very quick to abandon if he thinks that trust is broken.  You got caught in the middle.  I am sorry.  Do you forgive me?’

Sam looked long and hard into his round brown face with its age spots and tiny, almost pointless, moustache.  She raised a hand and stroked his cheek.

‘Hmmm,’ she said. ‘It will cost you dearly.  I will require at least three lobsters this time.’

The General giggled.  ‘My daughters are dying to see you again.  Will you come out to the island for lunch when you leave hospital?  We will make you a lovely leaving party.’

***

It was a lovely party.  Many lobsters were eaten and many whiskeys were drunk.  Sam and the General smoked on the balcony and talked about life until dawn.  They spent the next day getting over their hangovers and swimming in the sea with the General’s family and Eduardo, who never let her out of his sight.

She had to stop him from following her into the toilet.  ‘Eduardo, I’ll be all right in here on my own.’ She smiled and he looked sheepish.

In the afternoon, the General drove her to the airport, ‘to make sure you leave.’  As usual, he drove too fast.  Sam worried that after all that she had been through, she would die in a car crash on the way to the airport.

Being accompanied by the brother-in-law of the President had its perks.  She got VIP treatment all the way to the plane door.  The general went with her everywhere and made sure no one delayed her or tired her.  Sam wondered if an English general could have done this.

As they parted, the General gave her a small black box and told her not to open it until the plane took off.  She shoved it into the pocket of her new rucksack, bought through the window of the general’s car.  He hugged her for a full couple of minutes and got quite tearful again.  Sam cried, too, but it could have been the relief of leaving.

After a last look back at her very own general, she boarded the flight.  Gemsite had paid for her to travel business class.  She turned left and found her seat, which was easy to recognise due to the massive bunch of flowers on it.  She had them taken away to a cupboard, mourning their certain demise before landing.  She sat down and strapped herself in.  As they took off, she grasped the arm rests and willed the flight to take off safely.  When they banked over Mondongo, she saw Pedro’s rocket glinting in the late afternoon sunlight and all the plump citizens like seals on the beach.  She lowered her seat for a sleep.