The Intern Affair (44 page)

“Well, that’s a relief,”
Sir Reginald
said, smiling.

Charles
, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied. “A relief may be, but what are we to expect now?
What would be her schedule or plans after she’s been warned?
Will she come back or do we need to send her home?”

“For now,
Charles
, I think the best thing we can do is to watch her,”
Sir Reginald
said. “She will tell us what her plans are soon enough.
As for sending her home, I don’t think that would accomplish anything.
On the contrary it would delay the signature of our agreements with the Development Funds—”

“Yes,”
Charles
cut-in, “but as far as I am concerned, her safety comes before the signature of any agreements or even the reconstruction of any village, or the whole of the Sabodala project, if it comes to that.”

Seeing that
Charles
was getting in one of his testy moods,
Thomas
intervened. “Sir, we’ll need to think about everything you’ve said before making any decision.
We will advise you in the morning as to what we’ve concluded, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course, gentlemen, we’re all tired and I will call you in the morning.
Christian
has been assigned to a room next to this apartment.
You have a direct line linking the two suites, so if you need anything or if you are disturbed in any way, you only have to lift the receiver and his phone will ring.”

“Thank you, Sir, and please accept my apologies for my outburst earlier, but
Ms.
Gilmore
’s safety is of prime importance to me, I’m sure you understand?”

“Yes,
Charles
, I do.”

64

The next night,
when
Paris
was asleep at last, Samir and Talya were sitting in the back seat of
Michel
’s car.
Marcel
had settled in the passenger seat.
They were on their way to the
Orly
airport.

Once the formalities were over, they walked the small distance separating the private airport to the Lear waiting on the tarmac, in silence.
Marcel
had gone ahead of them to give the plane one last look around and load their luggage. Samir and she had none. He had told her not to take anything with her apart from her passport, the medical card and her little bottle of quinine pills.

When they climbed aboard, a pang of sadness hit her.
Talya remembered the first time she sat in one of these seats.
She had sealed her fate on that day.
Where was destiny going to take her this time?

Samir settled in the chair across from her, where
Michel
had sat during their first voyage to
Dakar
.
She looked at her companion and recalled the evening he arrived in
Vancouver
.
The same sense of excitement that had raided her mind when she
saw him come
through the doors, invaded her now.
He smiled reassuringly and said, “It won’t be long now, My Lady.”

Talya lowered her eyes, thinking how long this journey was
really
going to be.

Michel
came out of the cockpit and knelt beside her.

“Talya,
Marcel
and I won’t have the opportunity to say this when we land, but we wanted to thank you once again for what you’re about to do, and if you need us, a word from you will be all we need to fly you out.
Just keep this card with you and dial the number.” He handed Talya a small, blank business card with his phone number written on it.

“Thank you,
Michel
, but I hope I never have to use it until we get back to
France
.”

65

Charles
was eating
his breakfast when
Thomas
arrived to join him in the restaurant. “Good morning.
Sorry I’m late.
I had a hard time getting out of bed.” He sat down.

“I know what you mean. Good morning, by the way. Did you sleep well?”

“Did I ever?
Did you see the atrium?
This place is unbelievable. Look at this restaurant…. Is the food as good as it looks?”
Thomas
was looking at
Charles
’s dish of bacon and eggs.

“Oh yes
it is, and go ahead, help yourself.”
Charles
nodded in the direction of the grill and open
-
kitchen counter, on which were displayed tantalizing fresh fruits, juices, breads and calabashes filled to the rim with a variety of cereals.
Thomas
got up again and went for it.

As he was coming back to the table with a tray filled to the edges with his favourite breakfast,
Christian
entered the restaurant and came to sit with the two men.
He was once again impeccably dressed in a light grey suit, white shirt and silk tie.

“Good morning, gentlemen.
I trust you are well rested.”

“Good morning,
Christian,
please help yourself to a cup of coffee and have breakfast, if you like.”

“I will have coffee, thank you, Mr.
Durant
, but I will eat later if you don’t mind?
I have received news from
Paris
this morning—”

Thomas
and
Charles
at once lifted their expectant gazes to
Christian
’s face. The young man looked preoccupied. “Our agent reported that
Ms.
Gilmore
has come down to have breakfast with Captain
Mandalay
at the restaurant of the hotel. She walked with a cane, but looked refreshed and alert, apparently. Her face however showed signs of bruising and some small plasters covered what we think are stitches under her make-up.”

“It’s a relief to hear she’s up and about so soon,”
Thomas
said, slightly surprised at the news.

Charles
chortled. “Oh, but you don’t know her,
Thomas
.
Do you know that the morning after the attack in
Dakar
, she came down with the police Chief to hear the statement she had prepared?
She was so badly bruised on her face and arms then that I couldn’t believe she would do this—but she did.
She has the will of a bull rushing to its death at the corrida.”

“Yes, I have come to think the same way, Mr.
Durant
,”
Christian
said. “Our agent has reported also that it appears they’ll be going ahead with their original plans.”

“What?
So soon after being warned.
Doesn’t she realize the risk?”

“Mr.
Durant
, if I may suggest, that is the best thing she could have done—”

Charles
looked at
Christian,
baffled. “How on earth did you come to that conclusion?”

“
Because
it is my opinion that
Ms.
Gilmore
was
not
warned off as we first presumed but that she was
lured
or convinced in some way to go ahead with her plans.”

Thomas
was perplexed when he asked, “Are you saying that she’s going to
work for
a drug lord? That, I can’t believe.”

“I didn’t say that, Mr.
Gerald
. I said she has been
persuaded
in some way to go ahead with what she planned to do originally.”

“You mean the reason she’s still alive is because she is serving a purpose?”
Charles
frowned.
This young man has got brains
, he thought.

“Yes, Mr.
Durant
; that is what I think.
But I shall explain how I arrived at that conclusion.” And he did.

When
Christian
ended his surmise,
Charles
and
Thomas
were dumfounded. They now realized that
Kareef
had been a cumbersome pawn and that there was another individual waiting in the wings to either strike or being killed for his intrusion in
Charos
’s operations.

After a moment’s reflection,
Charles
asked, “What are we supposed to do now?
Should we leave, or stay as baits?”

“You should both stay in
Dakar
, sir.
Ms.
Gilmore
knows that you’re here. She is counting on you, I believe, to take the necessary steps to further your progress with the signature of the agreements, so that the Senegalese government may see that you mean to be here and help in the pursuance of the Sabodala project.
If you leave now, the government is liable to think that
Ms.
Gilmore
has joined Mr.
Charos
’s operation as you first presumed, Mr.
Gerald
.”

“And they would turn their backs on her until someone kills her
,
is that it?” If only
Thomas
could have known beforehand what was going on, he would have gone with her in the first place.

“Yes, sir.
That’s the assumption.”
Christian
drank a long gulp from the cup of coffee in front of him then stretched to the back of his seat. “Gentlemen, I think we should go and meet Mr.
Ousmane
now, he’s expecting us.
After which we will visit Maitre
Sangare
who should have come out of surgery by then.”

“I see that you have our schedule all planned out, don’t you?”
Charles
was smiling, although he was in no mood for enjoyment at that moment.
He would have liked to take the first plane out to
Paris
and get Talya back to
Vancouver
the next morning.
However, he knew that was impossible; they were too far-gone and too deeply involved to back out now.

“Yes I have, Mr.
Durant
, and if I may say, sir, it will be a pleasure for me to observe the manner in which you will conduct the negotiations.”

“Well,
Christian,
you’re in for an experience then, because these negotiations will not be as simple or straightforward as you may think.”

“I didn’t think they would be, and in there lays my interest in seeing that you reach a successful conclusion.”

“And what about my plans to go to
Bamako
?”
Thomas
asked with some curiosity, “do I still go forward or should I stay here?” although he already knew the answer to his question.

“Mr.
Gerald
, if you wish for a premature death, you may go.”

“No,
Christian,
I have no intention of depriving my wife and children of my presence just yet.”

66

Seven hours later
,
they were flying over the north of
Nouakchott
’s coastline. Talya had slept most of the way thanks to some sleeping tablets Dr. Francart had brought her the evening before their departure.
As she woke up she felt a little woozy and her wrist was throbbing.

“Talya, how do you feel?” Samir asked.

“Not very well…, I need to get to the bathroom.” She unbuckled the seat belt and tried to rise onto her able foot without touching the ground with the other.
She succeeded in getting up into the aisle only to faint in Samir’s arms behind her.
Talya was back in her seat when she came to
,
with Samir kneeling at her side.

“We’re almost there.
You’ll be all right once we get some oxygen into your lungs.”

“Yes, I guess so.” She grabbed his hand. “But I still need to go back there—”

“Okay then let’s go.” He lifted Talya off the seat and helped her progress to the rear of the aircraft.

When she hopped back to her seat,
Marcel
was sitting in the chair opposite hers. “I’m sorry for the discomfort, Talya, but we’ll be landing in forty-five minutes, and I think you’ll feel better once we’ve opened the doors.”

“Thank you,
Marcel
, I’ll be fine now.” Talya felt some colour returning to her cheeks.
How am I going to handle the next leg of our journey?