Our gaolers went out, but they didn’t lock the door, and I felt sure they’d be back in a moment. Sure enough, in came the guy who’d escorted me, carrying a mug or cup.
‘You want drink?’ he said, and shoved the mug hard into my face, so that the metal rim grated across my front teeth. Being thirsty as hell, I took a sip. It was fresh piss, with a hot, acid stink. I went phworrrh! and spat out the little I’d taken in.
‘Don’t touch it, Gen,’ I went.
The guy didn’t even offer the mug again. He didn’t speak any more. He just threw the contents into my face, went out, and rattled some locks into place behind him.
Gen gave him a minute to get clear, then said quietly, ‘How are you doing, Geordie?’
‘Fucking awful,’ I answered. ‘How about you?’
‘Not great. My ribs are in a mess. I’ve shat myself, too. Are you hurt much?’
‘I’m hurt, but I think it’s only bruises. Fucking stiff neck, too.’
‘Can you sit on the floor?’
‘Not a chance,’ I told him. ‘Can’t reach.’
‘Me neither. Kneel?’
‘Just.’
‘Ditto. We’re in for a long night.’
We’d hardly got a glimpse of our surroundings, and now we were in almost total darkness. The only glimmer of light came in through a ventilation space left between the top of the walls and the roof, high above our heads. The opening was a perfect entrance and exit for mozzies, which were soon whining in to attack us. I could feel that the wall was made of bare concrete blocks, and by scraping with my boot I could tell that the floor was earth, but that was all we knew.
Soon I realised we weren’t alone. Rustling noises started up on the other side of the room, and at first I thought they were being made by another prisoner, maybe as his last gasp from thirst and hunger. Then I heard some squeaks as well, and I said, ‘Fucking rats!’
‘Yeah,’ Gen went. ‘I just had one run over my foot.’
By their noise, the rodents were everywhere — not only at floor level, but around the roof as well. For some time we were both silent, busy with our own thoughts. Try as I might to banish the image, my mind kept returning to the horrific sight of Whinger’s innards sliding down in coils over the side of the table. After a bit, I said, ‘Gen, did you see how they killed him?’
‘The guy with the machete slit his belly open and carved out the liver. That was what killed him. Loss of blood.’
‘Thank God I was on the deck when that was happening. I never saw it. I never heard him shout, either.’
‘I don’t think he made a sound. He must have been unconscious already. They’d given him some battering. I don’t reckon he felt a thing.’
‘Gen, these people are fucking animals.’
‘No, Geordie. They’re lower than animals. Animals don’t behave like that.’
‘Fair enough,’ I agreed. ‘But if I get the slightest chance, am I going to level the score!’
‘“Life for life,”’ Genesis intoned in his singsong Welsh, ‘“eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”’
‘Who said that?’
‘It was God, giving the law to Moses in the Book of Exodus.’
‘That’s what it’s going to be for me.’
‘But that was the Old Testament, Geordie. Jesus said the opposite. He said, “Turn the other cheek.”’
‘That can’t apply to someone who did what this guy did.’
‘Geordie, that man’s mad. He was also pissed out of his mind.’
‘I know. But he’s got a brain. He’s been expensively educated. That makes him all the more dangerous. Gen, it’s going to be him or us.’
‘He said if they find the diamond, we’ll be free to go.’
‘Bollocks. Muende knows we saw him kill Whinger. If we take him to the plane and he gets his diamond, the first thing he’ll do is top us, to make sure we don’t talk.’
‘What’s your plan, then?’
‘We’ll have to go with them. Make as if we’re playing along. Get them relaxed. Maybe we’ll become confused, won’t be able to find the site. We’ll play for time by taking them to the wrong area. The longer the trek, the twitchier they’ll get. They won’t tab far, either of them. The bitch is lame, and he’s fat as a pig.’ I stopped, then added, ‘Of course, everything will be different if they get their hands on my GPS. If they did that, and got the thing to work, they might put two and two together and dispense with our services altogether.’
‘What if we do take them to the plane?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe we bounce one of the guards, grab a weapon, drop them. It depends what route they take. We might even meet the rest of our own guys, coming the other way.’
Gen didn’t answer immediately. But presently, he said, ‘I wonder how they’re doing.’
‘So do I. My gut feeling is they’ve got the wagon free. I just hope to hell they don’t go looking for us around the convent in the morning.’ Again there was a silence. Then Gen asked, ‘What’s the relationship between the two?’
‘Muende and the German? God knows. They can’t be shagging. Or can they?’
‘Anything goes,’ said Gen. ‘You never know. Maybe she’s after the diamond for herself. Maybe, if she’d managed to get it out of the country, she’d have just pissed off over the horizon.’
What with thirst, headache, exhaustion, aching arms and wrists, mozzies and rats, it was hard to follow any train of thought for long. But my mind kept going back to Whinger. I couldn’t stop thinking of how the machete must have sliced through his stomach muscles. Again and again I saw those intestines, still alive, slipping down over the side of the table and landing in coils on the floor.
Another worry began to needle me. ‘Gen,’ I said. ‘Was it my fault that he got killed?’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘If I hadn’t butted the woman… if I hadn’t created that disturbance.’
‘No, no, Geordie. Forget that. It was going to happen sooner or later. The woman was gunning for Whinger all along.’
‘You’re right there. And now I’ve thought of something else.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Yesterday, in camp, she went trying to search Whinger’s kit while he was asleep. He woke up to find her standing over him. She must have convinced herself he had the bloody diamond all along.’
In the next silence I heard a faint scurrying noise as a rat moved across the floor towards me. I raised my right foot into the air, standing on one leg, in the hope that I could crack down on the animal if it came right close. A moment later I felt it touch the toe of my left boot. I stamped, but only half connected; the target gave a squeal and scuttled away.
‘What was that?
‘Fucking rat.’
‘They’re everywhere.’
Again we endured a few minutes’ silence.
‘Gen?’
‘Hello.’
‘I’m thinking about the delay when we arrived here.’
‘What about it?’
‘The woman must have been briefing Mr Arsehole on who we were and what we’d been doing. Obviously she’d been in cahoots with him before. But it was only when she got to the convent that she could make contact with him. That was her first chance since the crash.’
‘Sounds about right. What’s her role, though? What’s their relationship?’
‘You tell me. I reckon she’s been acting as a courier, taking diamonds out. Maybe she’s a dealer. When she came for the big stone, the guys in the plane were just pilot and escort. The stuff about big-game surveys was a load of crap. Ditto the story about coming from Mozambique. I reckon they nipped in from Namibia early that morning and were on their way back out.’