They allowed the skirts to flap open casually in the breeze, especially when Bonny was nearby. They let her film as much as she wished of everything they possessed, staring into the lens with masculine arrogance, the elongated loops of their earlobes stopped with bone and ivory earrings.
On the main road their Landrover passed ore trucks and logging trailers coming in the opposite direction. The weight of these massive vehicles, even though spread over a dozen axles and banks of massive tyres, rutted the road deeply and raised a fog of dust that covered the trees for a mile on both sides of the roadway with a thick coating of dark red talcum. Bonny gloried in the effect of the sunlight through the dust cloud and the shapes of the trucks lumbering out of it like prehistoric monsters.
When at last, on the second day, they crossed the river on the ferry and reached the edge of the great forests, even Bonny was awed by the height and girth of the trees. They're like pillars holding up the sky, she breathed as she turned her camera upon them. The quality of the air and light changed as they left the dry savannah behind them and entered this humid and lush forest world.
At first they followed the main highway with its milewic open verges.
Then, after fifty miles, they turned off on to one of the new development roads, freshly cut into the virgin forest.
The deeper they journeyed into the forest, the closer the trees crowded the roadway, until at last their high branches met overhead and they were in a tunnel filled with dappled and greenish light.
Even the bellow of the truck engines that passed them seemed muted, as though the trees were blanketing and absorbing the alien and offensive sound. The surface of the road had been corduroyed with logs laid side by side, and over this was spread a layer of flinty gravel to give the great trucks footing. The returning ore trucks bring the gravel back from the quarries near the lakeshore, Captain Kajo explained. If they did not, the road would become a bottomless swamp of mud. It rains almost every day here. Every mile or so there were gangs of hundreds of men and women working on the road, spreading gravel and laying new logs to hold the surface together.
Who are they? Daniel asked. Convicts, Kajo dismissed them lightly.
Instead of spending money keeping them locked up and fed, we let them work off their debt to society. A lot of convicts for such a small country, Daniel pointed out. You must have a lot of crime in Ubomo.
The Uhali are a bunch of rogues, thieves and troublemakers, Kajo explained and then shuddered as he looked beyond the toiling lines of prisoners to the impenetrable forest behind them.
Kajo was standing in front of Daniel, obscuring him for the moment with his six foot six height. Now he moved aside, and Daniel and the field-manager confronted each other. Mr. Chetti Singh, Daniel said softly. I never expected to see you again. What a great pleasure this is. The bearded Sikh stopped as though he had walked into a glass wall and stared at Daniel. You know each other? Captain Kajo asked. What a happy coincidence. We are old friends, Daniel replied. We share a common interest in wildlife, especially elephants and leopards. He was smiling as he extended his hand to Chetti Singh. How are you, Mr.
Singh?
Last time we met you had suffered a little accident, hadn't you?
Chetti Singh had turned a ghastly ashen colour beneath his dark complexion, but with an obvious effort he rallied from the shock. For a moment his eyes blazed and Daniel thought he might attack him. Then he accepted Daniel's pretence of friendliness, and tried to smile, but it was like an animal baring its teeth.
He reached out to accept Daniel's proffered handshake, but he used his left hand. His right sleeve was empty, folded back and pinned upon itself. The blunt outline of the stump showed through the striped cotton. Daniel saw that the amputation was below the elbow. It was a typical mauling injury. The leopard would have chewed the bone into fragments that no surgeon could knit together again. Although there were no scars or other injuries apparent at a glance, Chetti Singh's once portly body had been stripped of every ounce of superfluous fat and flesh. He was thin as an AIDS victim, and the white of his eyes had an unhealthy yellowish tinge. It was obvious that he had been through a bad time, and that he was not yet fully recovered.
His beard was still thick and glossy, curled up under his chin, the ends tucked into his spotless white turban. Indeed, what an absolute pleasure to see you again, Doctor. His eyes gave the lie to the words.
Thank you for your kind sympathy, but happily I am fully recovered, except for my missing appendage. He wiggled the stump. It's-a nuisance, but I expect to receive full compensation for my loss from those responsible, never mind. His touch was cool as a lizard's skin, but he withdrew his hand from Daniel's and turned to Bonny and Kajo.
His smile became more natural and he greeted them cordially. When he turned back to Daniel he was no longer smiling. And so, Doctor, you have come to make us all famous with your television show. We shall all be film stars. . . He was watching Daniel's face with a strange greedy expression, like a python looking at a hare.
The shock of the meeting had been almost as great to Daniel as it had obviously been to the Sikh. Of course, Mike Hargreave had told him that Chetti Singh had survived the leopard attack, but that had been months ago and he had never expected Chetti Singh to turn up here in Ubomo, thousands of miles from where he had last seen him. Then, when he thought about it, he realised that he should really have been prepared for this.
There was a strong link between Ning Cheng Gong and the Sikh. If Ning were placed in charge in Ubomo, he would naturally appoint as his assistant somebody who knew every wrinkle of the local terrain, and who had his networks securely in place.
In retrospect, it was obvious that Chetti Singh had been the perfect choice for Ning. The Sikh's Organisation had infiltrated every country in central Africa. He had agents in the field. He knew whom to bribe and whom to intimidate. But most of all, he was totally unscrupulous and bound toNing Cheng Gong in loyalty and fear and greed.
Daniel should have expected Chetti Singh to be lurking inNings shadow, should have been prepared to face his vengeance. It did not need the expression in Chetti Singh's eyes to warn him that he was in mortal danger.
The only escape from Sengi-Sengi was along the single roadway through the forest, every mile of which was controlled by company guards and numerous military road-blocks.
Chetti Singh was going to try to kill him. There could not be a single doubt of that. He had no weapon nor any other form of defence.
Chetti Singh commanded the ground and could choose the time and the place to do it.
Chetti Singh had turned back and was chatting to Captain Kajo and Bonny.
It is too late already for me to offer to show you around. It will be dark in a short while. You will want to move into the quarters we have prepared for you He paused and beamed at them genially. Besides which, I have exciting news for you. I have just this minute received a fax from Government House in Kahali. President Taffari, in the very flesh, is coming to Sengi-Sengi by helicopter. He will arrive tomorrow morning and he has most graciously consented to a film interview on the site of our operation here. It is a great.
honour, I assure you. President Taffari is not a man to be taken lightly, and he will be accompanied by the chief executive officer of UDC, none other than our own Mr. Ning Cheng Gong. He is another eminently important personage. Perhaps he will also consent to play a part in your production. .