The Intern Affair (10 page)

“Would you be able to find out which would be the law applied at this trial? Because, if
Ms.
Gilmore
does not have to face Mr.
Kareef
in court, then I think we could be in
Dakar
within days.”

“Consider it done. Now to come back to the second reason for which your presence in
Senegal
would be required as soon as practicable—”

“Yes?”

“…you are making plans to develop Sabodala and yet we need to consider Mr.
Ousmane
’s former plans to reconstruct the village on the ‘third hill’
before
you can obtain any permit to begin the work. Here again the Canadian government wishes to become involved.
I have received several notifications, alerting me of a couple of organizations that are interested to give their financial support and their available manpower to initiate the reconstruction as soon as possible.”

The Sabodala area was comprised of three hills separated by two streams. According to
Ousmane
’s original plans, the
Village
of
Sabodala
that stood proud on the top of the one hill would have been razed and the entire hill transformed into an open-pit mine. However, amid the man’s madness and obsession, resided a dream, a dream that would see the village rebuilt entirely on the
third hill
, away from the mill and gold-processing plant, which was to be constructed on the middle hill.

“I see.
I can only say that I couldn’t be more pleased with the latter announcement.”
Charles
smiled.

“In the meantime, could I impose one more thing on your schedule?”

“I’ll try—”
Charles
was getting a little perturbed at listening to this growing list of interferences, but said nothing.

“Maybe it would be a good idea to have your engineering team com
e
down as well to see to the removal of some of the equipment from
Ousmane
’s old plant.”

“We’re way ahead of you on that one,
Sir Reginald
.”
Charles
smiled to himself again. “I’ve got a newly appointed engineer ready to go in about ten days’ time and the development team is planning to fly down from Toronto in a couple of weeks.”

“I can see that you have not wasted time. It’s a pleasure to hear your eagerness in the planning of this project.”

“But we
have to be
quick,
Sir Reginald
.
This is a public company and our shareholders have no intention to let us sleep on our laurels; believe me.
They’re like hungry dogs.
We’ve given them the taste of a bone, and now we have to serve the plate or we’ll be devoured.”

“That’s an excellent analogy,
Charles
.
But I must leave you now, the chauffeur is waiting for me.
I’ll ring you tomorrow as arranged.”

“I’ll be here.
Have a good night,
Sir Reginald
.”

As he replaced the receiver,
Charles
was elated, nonplussed and annoyed all at once.
He got up and took a short walk down the hall to Doug’s office.
The boy needed a kick in the butt.

“Doug! I’m glad to see you’re still in the office, we need to talk.”
Charles
took a seat beside his new employee. Doug was working at his computer table, which was fixed to the wall beneath the windowsills.

“Hi,
Charles
.
I didn’t think you were still here,” Doug answered somewhat distractedly.

“I’m always here. Anyway, I need your attention for a minute.”

“Okay, shoot, I’m all ears.” Doug
swivelled
his chair to face
Charles
.

“First, I’ve heard that you’ve given
Cecilia
your reports for typing.”

“Oh, I forgot to check if she’s got them ready for you.”

“That’s just it, I’ve sent her home. And she didn’t finish them.”

“Is there something wrong with her?
She could finish tomorrow maybe, if she needed to go home.”

“You don’t get it, do you?
I don’t want
her to finish typing
your reports!
”
Charles
’s annoyance was obvious.

“Oh, I didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to do any typing.”

“Doug, I think you need to take a good look around you. How many secretaries have you seen in this office?”

“Well, apart from
Cecilia
, I haven’t seen anyone.”

“Exactly. We don’t have
secretaries
. We do the work ourselves. We each have the most sophisticated programming money can buy and we do our own typing; especially typing reports.
The extent of
Cecilia
’s typing goes to helping anyone who may have correspondence to write, report presentation for the shareholders, or sometimes
Terrance
gets her to type of few forms for the S.E.C.
Apart from that, we do everything ourselves.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Well, now you know. But there is another thing, which I need to discuss with you and that one is much more important than knowing who’s typing what.

“You remember, when I came back, I gave you a copy of all the blueprints Mr.
Ousmane
had given me for the reconstruction of the
Sabodala
Village
.
Do you still have them?”

“Sure, I’ve got them rolled up right here
—
” Doug rose and went to his drafting table standing against the far wall of his office.
Charles
followed him.

As Doug was unrolling the plans,
Charles
said, “All right, how long would it take you to put these on your computer?”

“Wow!
That I don’t know. I’ve never handled that sort of thing before.
There are more than a dozen prints here and we don’t have a digitizer or scanner yet. So, I couldn’t tell you.”

“I need these plans on CD’s or flash-drive before you leave for
Dakar
. You buy what you need, learn what you don’t know about digitizing and get ready.”

“But—”

“No
buts
about it; just get it done!” Saying this,
Charles
walked out of Doug’s office, leaving him utterly amazed.
He had never worked for a company without being faced with the red tape the mere mention of purchasing even a small gadget would engender.
He looked at the plans in front of him, having no idea how he was going to accomplish the enormous task in ten days time.

“
Thomas
! What are you still doing here?
It’s nearly six o’clock, you need to go home,”
Charles
said as he walked in
Thomas
Gerald
’s office.
His office was slightly larger than that of Doug.
No expense had been spared to give
Thomas
everything he wanted.
Tristan
was, after all, an exploration company and exploring for auriferous deposits anywhere in the world, was
Thomas
’s prime responsibility. Moreover, he carried that responsibility with pride, efficiency, accompanied with a lot of hard work.

He
swivelled
on his drafting stool. “Oh, there you are.
I was about to come and have a chat with you.
We need to talk about the Kankoon permit.”

“Yes? What’s up?”
Charles
stood beside
Thomas
, leaning against the edge of the table.

“I phoned
Francis Gilbert
earlier, he’s back at work and we had a long conversation about the diggers around Kankoon.
We might have a problem there.”

“What sort of a problem?”

“It’s got to do with these nomads digging the ground and leaving these holes all over the place. Apparently, they’re allowed to dig for gold during the dry season and they set up camp wherever they want.
The government can’t have them removed if they choose to settle in one particular area for the winter.
I think we need Talya’s intervention on this one.
Will she be fit to go back with me and talk to the ministers?”

“That I don’t know,
Thomas
. I haven’t heard from
Ghali
or from her since Friday. When I tried to call her before the wee
ken
d, she had
taken
the phone off the hook.
But I think there might be a possibility to get her back at work if
Sir Reginald
provides me with the answer to my question tomorrow.”

“And what question was that?”

“Whether Talya would have to face our friend
Kareef
at the trial.”

“I see.
And d
o
you think there is a possibility she might not have to attend?”

“Oh she will have to attend no matter what, but the question is whether
Kareef
will be there in the same room when she testifies.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait then.”

“Yes, but if the answer is negative, I think I have another ace up my sleeve to get her moving.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll get Samir to take her by the hand; even if we have to fly him to
Vancouver
to come and fetch her.
He’s the only one she’ll listen to in any event.”

12

Their wee
ken
d
at
Sunset
Beach
was a short one. Talya and
Ghali
never got there.
They left on Saturday morning in the rain.
It was pelting down as Talya had rarely seen it do, even in
Vancouver
. When they neared
Horseshoe
Bay
,
Ghali
asked if she would prefer to go to the
Island
.
That was an unexpected, yet welcomed idea.
She accepted all heartedly. She loved the ferry ride.
Two hours of tranquillity on the ocean—the liner winding its path around a multitude of small islands until they would reach
Nanaimo
—
was more than tempting, it was enticing.
They left the rain behind almost halfway through the trip and landed on
Vancouver Island
a little after noon.

They drove for a couple of hours and stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the road to relax for a while.
They talked about some of
Ghali
’s patients, and their incongruous demands or reactions.
Ghali
was a good storyteller.
He knew where the limits were when it came to talk about his patients.
He wouldn’t divulge anything private about any of them.
He had the knack of depicting a scene or an event and making it come alive in front of Talya’s eyes until laughter would conclude the story.
The conversations reminded her of the many a one she had with her father when they would sit in their living room after dinner—TV hadn’t reached the shores of
Africa
then.

When they arrived in
Victoria
, the sun was hiding behind some ominous clouds, and they decided to postpone their walk along the Empress Hotel and Government House until the next day.
They took a room in a small hotel and went out for dinner.
They were behaving as if nothing had ever happened to either of them.
Yet, Talya couldn’t get the shadow following her away from her thoughts.
Ghali
had noticed her pensive or morose attitude more than once during the day.

As they were walking back to the hotel,
Ghali
asked, “What’s the matter?
Do you want to go somewhere else?”

“Oh no,
Ghali
, this is wonderful.
I’m glad we’ve decided to come here. It’s not that—”

“So, what are you thinking about?”

“It’s
Kareef
; it’s becoming an obsession. He’s everywhere we go.
He’s like a ghost.
You know I never thought at the time that it would turn out this way.
I never imagined that his face would follow me.
It’s not even fear that I feel right now, because he’s out of reach, but it’s this haunting. I keep on seeing him, not even lurking, but being overtly mocking me.”