LeDuc and Ryder came down to meet us. Leila and Ayesha stayed beside the ponchos now strung between the trees.
LeDuc checked the man up and down.
Rutherford said, ‘Feel free to start the interrogation — name, rank, et cetera?’
The African smiled at LeDuc, much of his fear appearing to dissipate.
‘Looks like you remind him of someone,’ I said. Maybe the fact that the Frenchman was MONUC put him at ease.
LeDuc snapped at the African and the man’s smile faltered. A rapid-fire exchange then ensued between them. When they’d finished, LeDuc said, ‘His name is Marcel Nbendo and he is twenty-one years old. He comes from a village twenty miles from here, and was recruited forcibly. His chief was paid money to vote for the local government man, plus an extra bounty for contributions made to the army. Marcel was one of those contributions. That was three years ago. He says he wants to desert, but has nowhere to go if he does because he can’t go back to his village. The chief wouldn’t allow it — too risky.’
‘Where was his patrol going and what was its mission?’ I asked.
LeDuc asked the man and then said, ‘Their orders were to kill the commander of the force holding the heights. His name is Colonel Makenga. Marcel did not want to do this mission, believing his patrol would not come back.’
‘Got that right,’ Rutherford observed with a grin as he walked within earshot.
‘Ask him if our principals are still alive down there,’ I said to LeDuc.
The pilot translated, and then said, ‘He and the others in his unit were briefed at the HQ. He saw two prisoners held out in the open.’
‘Both black men?’ I asked.
A moment later, LeDuc said, ‘Oui.’
‘Still no Fournier,’ West commented.
‘He says that when their patrol was briefed, he saw them tied up and under guard.’
‘Are patrols out looking for us?’
LeDuc and the prisoner had a brief exchange. ‘He says no.’
‘How would he know?’ I thought about the question and qualifed it with another. ‘Did breaking Ayesha out set off the alarm bells?’
The French pilot considered the questions before putting them to the African.
The man gave a stuttering reply, his eyes wide with fear.
‘He says that the commander of the FARDC force is a proud man. He would tear the hillside down in order to kill us if he knew we had dishonored him by stealing into the encampment, murdering his people and taking back a hostage.’
West yawned. ‘Bring it on,’ he said.
‘What are they going to do with the prisoners?’ I asked.
After another exchange, LeDuc said, ‘He does not know. Marcel is, how you say, “a grunt”. ’
The sun burst through the trees, fooding our campsite with warmth. Almost instantly, wisps of steam began to rise from the shoulders of our rain-and-sweat-soaked shirts and body armor.
‘If this colonel knew his captives were wealthy, would he be interested in ransoming them?’ I asked.
LeDuc and the African batted this around.
‘Marcel says his colonel is already a rich man, but that riches make a man greedy for more.’
‘We’ve captured a bloody philosopher,’ observed Rutherford. ‘What about numbers? How many have they really got down there?’
‘Around a hundred and eighty,’ said LeDuc after a quick consultation.
‘One-eighty — shit,’ said Rutherford. ‘More than we thought.’
‘Morale?’ I asked.
‘Comme si comme ça,’ the African volunteered, without the need for translation.
On the right ride of my face, my lips were swelling, and I noticed that it was getting more difficult to talk and swallow without dribbling.
‘Ask him if he knows anything about the big scorpions around here — how poisonous they are?’ I said, just as preoccupied with my own situation.
‘Can you say that without spitting, skipper?’ Rutherford asked, wiping his forehead, grinning.
‘Is that what happened to you? Le scorpion?’ LeDuc inquired, looking at my face like it was something in a specimen bottle.
‘Ask the damn question,’ I said, losing patience.
LeDuc got back to me. ‘Marcel wants to know — how big or small was the animal that stung you?’
I held my hands apart; no need to exaggerate.
The African seemed impressed and said something to LeDuc.
‘No, these ones are not so poisonous,’ the Frenchman translated. ‘There are smaller ones.’ He held his thumb and forefinger an inch and a half apart. ‘These ones are much worse. Some of the men keep the big ones as pets. They have fights, make bets — like cockfights.’
‘I think you lost your bout, Cooper,’ said Rutherford, enjoying himself.
My cheek was sagging so much under the weight of whatever was making it so puffed up that I felt like I needed to support it with my hand.
‘There’s an Asian guy down there in the FARDC HQ,’ I said, wanting to sit down. ‘Ask him if he knows who the man is and what he’s doing there.’
‘I don’t need to ask this to know the answer,’ said LeDuc. ‘The Chinese are helping the DRC. They get weapons, money and loans from China, because from the West — America — all they get is a lecture from the International Monetary Fund.’
‘Jesus…’ I said, patience gone.
The Frenchman gave me one of his shrugs and then had a brief conversation with the African.
‘Oui,’ LeDuc said when they were finished. ‘The man is Chinese — PLA. He is giving instruction.’
‘Instruction?’ I said.
‘Training,’ said LeDuc, correcting himself.
‘He’s PLA?’
‘Oui. Central Africa has become, how you say, a two horses race between your country and the Chinese.’
‘We need to secure Marcel here, somehow,’ I said.
A pair of black fexcuffs bobbed in front of my eyes, Ryder’s fingers holding them. ‘I packed a few pairs,’ he said. ‘Thought they might come in handy.’
This being Ryder’s first positive contribution to the mission — at least as far as I could see — I felt I should say something team-building to the guy, but what I in fact wanted more than that was just to sit. My face throbbed, I was producing more saliva than I could swallow and I could feel my heart galloping in my chest like one of LeDuc’s plural horses. And then, before I knew what I was doing, I was down on one knee, throwing up and seeing double, which is pretty much all I remember about that.
Friends
‘How long have I been out?’ I asked Ayesha, who was sitting beside me. The sun was higher in the sky than I remembered it. A gentle breeze moved the tops of the trees in small circles. I was actually warm and mostly dry.
‘Less than an hour,’ she said.
I pushed myself up into a sitting position and felt my cheek. It wasn’t nearly as swollen or hot, and there was a plaster strip covering the puncture. I also had a sense that my face had been cleaned and, with the exception of several minor cuts, my hands and forearms had also regained their former coloring.
‘The stinger broke off under your skin. Did you know that?’ she said.
I didn’t.
‘You had an anaphylactic reaction to the poison. It could have been worse. You seen what nuts can do to some people?’
I had the feeling that both of us were drifting along, floating in a semi-reality, like maybe we’d pulled off the river onto the bank and were having a nice picnic on a blanket. She was still in shock. I wondered what I was in.
‘I cleaned you up, in case you were wondering,’ she said.
I thanked her and looked into her face. Those blue contact lenses were gone, but she was still striking.
‘Can you see without them?’ I asked.
‘I only wear them for effect.’