The Intern Affair (50 page)

“What happened?
Where are we?” She was shivering.

“Shhh, Princess. We are at Nbak and you needed to rest.
You need to drink a little now.”
Saying this, he put a calabash to her lips for her to drink.
Talya knew she had probably suffered a heat stroke and she couldn’t have too much water or she would have a heart attack, so she took a sip and another and another—

“Stop, Talya, you know you shouldn’t have too much right now.” Samir took the gourd away and threw a woollen blanket over her. “I think when we reach Aleg tonight; we will stop for a day before going to Mbout—”

“You know time is precious, Samir, we need to get to Sabodala before
they
do … otherwise we won’t have any proof to give to the courts.”

“I understand that, but you’re weak and you need to rest. I even thought of taking the road from Aleg to Kiffa where I can get a plane and we would be at Sabodala on the third day.”

“No. You know we can’t do that.
When we decided to travel through the desert, it was because we could remain hidden.
No one can guess which road we are taking from one day to the next.
They
don’t know where we are, but if we show our faces in Kiffa, the word will reach
Charos
within hours.
That means the information would leak to
Bamako
, and to alert our enemy in that way would inevitably attract trouble for us.
We have to stay hidden, there is no other way.”

“But why do you think there is a leak?”

“Because of the killings, Samir.
The sand blinded us as it did yesterday in the storm.
We initially presumed that
Kareef
ordered the killings from behind bars.
But we have no proof of that being the case. Then I asked myself who ordered the killings?
A person
in
Bamako
of course, but how did the latter know who to kill and when?
Because, remember, all of the events occurred in
Senegal
and in
Mauritania
, and not in
Mali
.
So, I assumed that
Kareef
couldn’t call from jail and I asked; was the man in
Bamako
close enough to hear a word or a phrase spo
ken
by either of our friends when they returned to
Bamako
?
No, I didn’t think so. So, the only possible conclusion was that someone in
Charos
’s network was leaking information back to the man in
Bamako
.”

Samir sat pensive for a moment, and then asked, “I know
Charos
was expecting us to fly down to
Dakar
, but how would he know we have landed in
Nouakchott
instead?”

“Believe me he knew. The minute he was advised of our departure from the Hotel de Crillon, he probably phoned some contact at the airport and asked which plane left for
West Africa
that nigh
t (including chartered aircraft
s) and once he got that information, he knew where we were. It was simply a matter of playing the odds.”

“And his intention is to observe our movements from the wings until we have done our job, I presume?”

“Yes, and to kill us afterwards.”

Samir lowered his eyes and shook his head. “I know that to be true, Princess, but believe me I will not let it happen.”

“The only thing I don’t know is who the leak is and that bothers me.
I keep on telling myself that I don’t know who it is because I don’t know the people involved in
Charos
’s operation.
And then I keep on thinking that
Charos
told me himself who it was, but I can’t pinpoint the phrase or the words from our conversation that would tell me who it is.”

Samir smiled. “Do you realize you’ve just said who it is?”
Talya looked at Samir as if she were coming out of the fog.

“What did I say?
Who is it?
Samir, don’t play games—”

He shook his head in reply. “Think, Talya.
You said: ‘he told me himself—’” Talya stared at the Touareg.
Yes! That was the answer.
There was
no
leak.
Charos
himself
was informing the man in
Bamako
.

“But that means
Charos
is playing both sides against the middle, and I am the
middle
who will be ultimately destroyed.”

“Yes, you have engendered truth once again.
However, one thing of which we can be certain, from what we have deduced, is that
Charos
will be careful enough to have you and I killed only when he knows the traitor is out of the way.
That’s where the time factor is in our favour.
We can stay in Aleg as long as we want, and
Charos
will wait until we’re in sight of
Bamako
to wage war or to inform the traitor.
Yet what I also see is that
Charos
has no idea that we have understood what is in Sabodala, or that we are aware of the extent of his operation. He believes that you’re only going after the traitor in revenge for the killings—”

“And that’s where the danger lies.
Although
Charos
will not expect us to land a plane at the mine site anytime soon, within hours of us landing he would be alerted and he would strike.”

“Yes, unless we land in Kedougou and make the rest of the journey by road.”

“I think that’s what we should do then,” Talya concluded as she tried to get up.
She felt dizzy and lay down once again in frustration.

“Princess, you need to sleep.
I will advise my brothers, and we will stay here tonight.” Samir rose to take his leave.

“But we need to go now,” Talya protested, “they might have already cleaned up everything from Sabodala
—
”

Samir sat down again. “If you don’t do what I say, Princess, you will never see Sabodala, I can promise you.
God
has no patience with women who do not listen.” His smile was kind, although his words were firm and unyielding.

“All right, but I won’t continue the journey by road. I don’t want to leave the caravan.”

He took her in his arms and whispered, “I promise, I won’t take you away from us. We need you as well.”

In a moment, he was gone to have the women erect the tents and settle for the night.

74

When
Thomas
and
Charles
reached their apartment after another day’s work, they decided to shower and change before going down to the terrace restaurant to have dinner with
Christian.
The latter apparently had received some news of Talya, which he wanted to impart to both men. However, they first sat down, put their feet up and treated themselves to a well-deserved drink.

“Now tell me how was your visit with
Alhassan
?”
Thomas
asked as he stretched comfortably in his seat, and began sipping on his whiskey. He knew that
Charles
had left
Ousmane
’s office, as he had done every day since their arrival, to do just that.

“Well, it was an interesting visit this time round.”
Charles
took a first sip of his scotch. “
Alhassan
is looking much better.
I tell you,
Thomas
; the man is as strong as an ox.
Anyway, we chatted for a while and I finally told him about Talya.
He took the news calmly but I could see he was hurting.
Then we came to the subject of Sabodala and that’s when he told me that we should go to the site as soon as possible.”

“And why would he want us to do that in such a hurry?
There is no need for us to go to the site before the team arrives from
Toronto
.
Or have we something else to do out there besides what’s being planned?”

“Yes, we do have something else to do out there,
Thomas
, and
Alhassan
explained why we needed to go to the site.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.
Because
when Samir and Johan came back—”
Charles
went on relating the conversation he had with
Alhassan
and the conclusion he had drawn from it.

“Well, that answers my question, but what do we say to
Ousmane
or do we invite him to come along?”

“I don’t think that would be prudent.
No, I think we should involve
Christian
in this and invite
him
instead.”

“Don’t you think he would buck at the idea? He’s a bodyguard after all, and wouldn’t his job require preventing us from throwing ourselves in front of a passing train?
Or am I off on the wrong track here?”

“No, no, I think you’re right about the bodyguard part, but we don’t need to tell him why we’re really going there.
As
Alhassan
said, I am the prime candidate to acquire all rights on the land, so I think a trip to the property is only warranted.”

Thomas
chuckled. “If you think you can fool
Christian
with that lame excuse of yours, when you’re not even going to invite
Ousmane
, I think you’re deluding yourself. He won’t bite. He’s too intelligent not to see through your scheme.”

“So what do you suggest?
We stay here and let Talya handle it?”

“You know that’s not what I meant.
We need to get down there with
Christian,
yes, but I think we should tell him the truth right off the bat.
Believe me; he’s better to have as a friend than as an enemy. The man is a killer; he has the instincts of a feline and the cunning of a wolf.
He knows exactly what your intentions are before you open your mouth.”

“Then we shall do that.”
Charles
looked down at his drink—the swirling ice cubes stirring his thoughts.
“But I tell you right now, if he shows any resistance to the idea or if he makes a move to call
Sir Reginald
, I’m liable to do something that our dear
Christian
will regret for the rest of his life.”

“And what might that be?
Or should I ask?”

“Oh you can ask all you want, but you’re not getting an answer from me—not just yet anyway.
Let’s just wait and see what his reaction is going to be, first.”

75

Talya was still
in bed by sunset.
Jasmin
sat with her for a long time and talked endlessly about her schooling and her ambitions in life.
Samir came to join them a couple of times to see if Talya needed anything more than water or if she wanted to be left alone and sleep.
She told him every time that, no, she preferred
Jasmin
’s company to staying alone.
He was pleased to hear it each time.
Jasmin
seemed to enjoy the time off, and Talya didn’t want to deprive her of a few hours respite.
Now, however, Talya was hungry and felt she needed to walk for a while.
She felt stiff and restless at the same time.

“
Jasmin
, would you mind getting me some clothes and then we could go for a walk together?”

“Of course, My Lady.
Do you want something to eat as well?”

“Oh yes, please.
I am hungry.”

“Good; it pleases me to hear you say that.
I’ll get you a tray and some clothes. I’ll be right back—” She left in such a hurry that Talya didn’t even have time to ask her if Samir would be available to visit with her before he retired for the night.
Never mind,
he would be coming round anyway,
Talya was sure.

A few minutes later,
Jasmin
re-appeared with a heap of clothes under one arm, and what looked like a woollen abayah, under the other. Talya looked at her quizzically.
She was already sitting on the edge of the cot, rearing to go.

“Samir asked me to get you a warmer mishlah, because he wants to walk with you tonight and the wind is fresh.”

“Sure, that’s a great idea.
But has he said anything about eating? I’m still hungry.”