“That field? Your field. It’s obvious you don’t work in some bank. It was obvious all along. You’re CIA.”
“Goddamn it. Ma’am, I am not in the Goddamn CIA. Don’t lump me in with that lot.”
She seemed about to speak, then didn’t. I got up and sat beside her on the bed.
“You’re sitting too close.”
I moved closer. “But the truth of it is you’re partly right. I don’t work in a bank. I’m still with NATO intelligence. I’m here on assignment, actually, and the assignment is Michael Adriko.”
“What? Why?”
“Michael’s in trouble.”
“Oh, Jesus. What’s he done?”
“He may get out of it. You know Michael. But I think we’d better get out of it first. You and I.”
“You and I?”
“I’m leaving on my own, and I think you’d better come with me.”
“What for?”
“For whatever it’s worth.”
“For how long?”
“As long as it lasts.”
“As long as what lasts?”
“Let me get you out of this.”
“To where?”
“Back to Freetown. For a start.”
“Why?”
“I’ve got business there. I can set us up.”
“Nair, there’s nothing between us.”
“Come here. Let me hold you.”
“Are you crazy? Stop touching me.”
I had to stop, or I couldn’t talk. The feel of her skin took my breath away. “I’ve known Michael for almost twelve years, and all this time I’ve thought I was infatuated with him, and I was wrong. All the time I’ve known him I’ve been infatuated with you. Waiting in infatuation for you to materialize. For him to produce you, conjure you, bring you, fetch you.”
“Oh God,” she said, “you’re complicating this impossibly. You’re making it impossible. Why do you have to be crazy too?” She stood up and started piling things on the bed. “What’s Michael’s plan? If any.”
“He’s going to Congo.”
“And you’re not.”
“That depends on you.”
“I think I’d better go.”
“I think we’d better not. There’s no law over there. The government has no writ. The cops, the army, psychotic warlords — they all take turns robbing anyone who’s not armed.”
“Then why don’t you leave us now?”
“Because I can’t. I couldn’t bear it. Not without you.”
“This is awful. Shut up.”
“Once you’ve had a look at the place, you’ll want to come with me.”
“I’m going with Michael. Take me to Michael.”
“I’ll take you wherever you want.”
“I’ve got to. I can’t just disappear. I have to hang on till Michael’s situation is … stabilized or something. Or at least clarified.”
She put a bag on the bed and started filling it like a pit.
“Hold up for a bit. Will you? Okay?” She didn’t. She kept packing. “Davidia. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Well, you did scare me. I’m scared — of you.”
“I got crazy. I don’t want to make you crazy too.”
“Too late.”
“Have I forced you into this decision? Because I didn’t mean to put you in a corner. Wait a minute.” She didn’t pause. “Stop packing for a second.”
“I’m going with Michael now, and I think you’d better take me to him.”
“Are you sure? Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“All right, fine. Just a minute. Look at me.” She settled down. “I shouldn’t have said what I said.”
“I agree.”
“I’m crazy.”
“I said it first.”
“So we agree on that too. So will you keep all this quiet?”
“Quiet?”
“Don’t tell Michael.”
“I’ve promised Michael I won’t talk to anybody, now I promise you I won’t talk to Michael — is that what you’re saying?”
“Let me be the one to come clean with him, that’s all.”
“When?”
“Not right away.”
“How long do I have to betray him, then?”
“Not long.”
“How long exactly?”
“Two days exactly.”
“Forty-eight hours.”
“Correct.”
“Promises to him, promises to you, and everything is secret from everybody else. This is what we call a situation.” She seemed to see some humor in the thing.
* * *
To make ourselves more visible I lit the headlamps. Nobody else did such a thing, none of the bikes or vehicles set themselves apart.
Davidia said, “This is blood, isn’t it? How badly is he hurt?”
“He needed quite a few stitches.”
“Where’s the hospital?”
“Actually it’s back that way.”
“Then why go this way?”
“Couple of errands.”
For these conditions I drove too fast. It was nearly 4:00 p.m. I had no idea how late the Catholic communications center might be open. Nevertheless I stopped at a vendor’s shack and bought all his hundred-milliliter packets of spirits. Then I stopped at another vendor, and I did the same thing. Still I had less than a couple of liters. Before I left the hotel I should have gotten the biggest bottle of rum, or tequila, whichever had the bigger proof. Baboon Whiskey, if that’s all they had. But I’d forgotten.
On the way up the long hill in the middle of Arua I nearly stopped again for another such transaction, but the sight of the towers at the top lured me on. “I’m stopping up here at a place with internet,” I told Davidia. She said nothing.
Across the road from the gates, I turned off the engine and said it again. “If you have someone you want to communicate with, here’s the place to do it.”
“Just hurry up. I’m worried about Michael.”
“You can wait with the guard.”
“I’m fine right here.”
When I got out, I went around to her window. She didn’t roll it down. “Will you be all right?”
“Will I?”
“If you get uncomfortable, lock the doors.”
I heard them locking even as I turned away.
* * *
I had two e-mails, the first from Hamid:
Firm and final offer is cash funds 100K US for you.
If your answer is yes, we meet same place same hour.
Cash takes time.
Your share 100K US. Final offer.
I liked his figure. I didn’t like his next one:
Will meet 4 weeks following date last meeting.
Not 30 days. 4 weeks exactly. No fallback. One chance.
On the one hand, the money was set, and it was good money. But with his other hand he’d ripped two days from the calendar. I closed my eyes and set about composing a comeback, a counteroffer, and then scotched it. I had nothing to offer.
I opened the second e-maiclass="underline" several hundred angry words from my boss at NIIA. Before I’d read half, I deleted it.
I banged at the keys: “Hello, you idiotic shits. Are you waiting for my report? You can wait till Hell serves holy water.”
I pressed DELETE.
Again I banged on the keys, this time at some length:
Goddamn you. You smiled sweetly while slipping a rocket up my ass and lighting the fuse. Now you want to dress me down?
Would you cunts please explain what British MI is doing at my hotel?