The Intern Affair (65 page)

To hear him say it for the first time threw Talya for a heck of a loop, even though it was the cover they had agreed to use before they arrived at the hotel the day before, and to her surprise,
Christian
didn’t blink an eye; he must have been aware of what they were doing.

“And I am
Christian Sylvester
, Madame
Gilbert
; Personal Attaché to
Sir Reginald Carson
, the Canadian Ambassador in
Senegal
.”
Christian
then shook hands with
Yvonne.

The four of them sat down.

Yvonne
glanced at Talya’s bandaged hand
and lifted her eyes to her. “You better get me a strong coffee before I faint.  This is a bit too much for me to take in the one go.”

“I’ll get it for you, Madame,”
Christian
suggested, getting up from his seat. “Would you like cream and sugar?”

“Just sugar, Monsieur
Sylvester
, if you please?” 

“Why don’t you make that four coffees,
Christian?
” Samir asked, turning to their CSIS agent.

“By all means, I’ll be right back.”

“Sir, I don’t know if I should,”
Yvonne
asked timidly, “but are you a descendent of
Emir
Khalif Al-Intha
of
Qatar
?” She knew what she was talking about;
Francis
had worked in the
Qatar
oil fields when he was much younger.

The crest on the plane had told Talya that Samir was an heir of the
Khalif Al-Intha
royal family.  Although, and she assumed, far removed from position to the
seat of power
, he had blue blood flowing through his veins.

“Yes I am, Madame
Gilbert
. However, you can rest assured that the name doesn’t make me less of a servant. Nor is it preventing me from choosing friends or wife. And it pleases me immensely that you are aware of my ancestors’ mere existence.”

“
Your Highness
, I am—”

“Please, Madame
Gilbert
, and because of the circumstances, I would much prefer if you called me Samir.”

“I don’t know if I can do that just yet, but I’ll try my best.”

Christian
returned with a waiter who brought the coffees to the table.

“Let’s have coffee first and then each of us ha
s
a story to tell you.”

“That’s a great idea,”
Yvonne
said, getting her cup from the table. She was still shaking so badly that the cup clattered on the saucer until she brought it to her lips and drank a little of the soothing brew.

“I’ve ordered some croissants as well, Talya,”
Christian
said with a teasing grin. “I know you like them for breakfast.”
That cat was going to get a kick in the butt one of these days!

108

Charles
was reclining
on his pillows.  The room was quiet since
Thomas
and
Jerry
had left for the hospital. He had a decision to make. He wanted
Carl
to come down and get the agreements signed.  Now that
Charos
’s operation was
almost
a thing of the past, they could start the Sabodala project without wasting any more time. Yet he didn’t want to endanger
Carl
’s life either.  The minute the plane would land, he would become a target. 

However, if he didn’t, and
Carl
didn’t hear from
Charles
for another twenty-four hours, he would alert everyone, including Interpol probably, to come and search for him.
Thomas
could phone the office, but unless
Carl
heard
Charles
’s voice, he wouldn’t trust
Thomas
’s words. The alternative was to call him, tell him the story and leave it up to him to decide.

“Hello? Who is calling?”
Carl
answered after the third or fourth ring. He sounded heavy with sleep.

Charles
tried to steady his voice when he answered. “
Carl
,
Charles
here.” He was still feeling a little woozy.

“Where are you? Why are you calling? Is everything okay?”
Carl
sounded wide-awake now.

“I’m still in
Dakar
, everything is not as well as I’d like, and I have something to tell you.”

“What do you mean? What’s going on? Is Talya in more trouble?”

“Just listen will you?  I’ve been shot.”

Silence.

“Are you there?
Carl
. . . Wake up, will you?”

“Oh I’m here all right, but I don’t think I heard you correctly. Did you say you’ve been
shot
?”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve said—”

Carl
listened for a while, and once
Charles
had told his partner everything there was to tell,
he said
, “I’ll be on the first plane out of here. I’ll instruct
Jim
in the morning. You and I are going to get these darned agreements signed before the next wee
kend
. You just play dead for awhile and leave it to me.”

“Thanks,
Carl
.  I needed that.”

“I bet you did. And don’t worry, mum is the word. Not even
Ghali
will know what I’m doing.  He’s been sniffing around the office wanting to know if we had any news from Talya or Samir but no one is talking, not even
Cecilia
.”

“I appreciate that. Tell everybody I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“You better believe it you will. I’ll be glad when the team is on site anyway, because, and although he’ll be the only one left to go, Doug is driving me nuts.
John
Valdin is so irritated with him you can expect troubles,
Charles
…, but I’ll talk to you about these details when I get to
Dakar
.”

109

“Talya, what you have
just told me, is one ounce short of unbelievable
,
”
Yvonne
said after the three of them had related their stories from different angles, as it were.

“And you know; I have come to like wearing a veil. It saves on make-up and hairdo.” Talya was smiling at her friend. She
saw Samir throw a
glance in her direction. “About make-up, have you brought the dress and the rest of it?”

“Sure, but what are you planning to do with those? You’re just fine the way you are. No one could recognize you dressed like this, especially on the arm of
an Emir
.”

“I need to find someone,
Yvonne
, and you’re the only one who can help me do that. I need the clothes to pass incognito. You must admit that I could hardly pass unnoticed in the business district, wearing an abayah and a veil, and being accompanied by a
Qatar
Emir
and an Attaché, now could I?”

“I guess so, but who are we looking for?”

When Talya told her,
Yvonne
’s face went pale. She thought she would faint for sure this time. 

Samir saw her flinch and took her hand. “Madame
Gilbert
, please tell us what happened? Your face tells me that you’re not comfortable knowing this person.”

“I’m sorry; it’s just that I know he is responsible for killing
Helen
and M
r.
Dillon
. I saw i
t coming the day he came back.
You see
, when you were back in
Vancouver
;
Francis
kept on receiving phone calls from him. He told him on each occasion that M
r.
Dillon
would take care of the Kankoon application and that he was now our liaison officer. Then he asked about
Alhassan
. I phoned
Alhassan
and told him how the man was ferreting for information.
Alhassan
said that he would inform you of what was going on. The next night,
Helen
, M
r.
Dillon
and
Alhassan
decided to go out for dinner and asked me to come along because
Francis
had already gone to Kankoon. That’s when the two of them got killed. I can’t help it, Talya, but every time I think of that night, I’m still crying.”
Yvonne
lowered her eyes and wept silently.

Talya was seething. 

Christian
saw her eyes afire with rage. “Talya and the two of us are going to reverse this situation. You will not have to be scared of him anymore because as of this minute he’s the one who’s running for his life.”

“
Christian
is right, Madame,” Samir said. “If you know where he is, the three of us will bait him and bring him to justice.”

“I appreciate that, sir, but he isn’t here,”
Yvonne
said
in a steadier voice, looking at the three of them in dismay. “He’s not in
Bamako
, I mean.”

“Where is he,
Yvonne
? And how do you know he’s not here?” Talya asked.

“Well, when
Alhassan
survived he must have heard about it, because the day after the attack, I got so worked up that I wanted to talk to him. That’s when his assistant told me that he took a flight that morning. He didn’t have to tell me where he had gone because the only flight leaving on Saturday morning is the one landing here during the night of Friday, going on to
Conakry
in the morning.”

Talya’s heart missed a beat when she heard the name of the city where she had lost a part of her soul.

“I’m sorry to hear what you’ve been through, and we will find him,”
Christian
said with kindness.
“I promise you, by the time your husband gets back, he will be history.”

Talya peered into
Yvonne
’s eyes, and hesitated before asking, “Tell me something else; do you think he’s still in Guinée?  And if so, why do you think so?”

“Where else can he go?
” Yvonne replied.
“
When I read your statement, which
Charles
send us to be sure we were aware of what had happened—it was like a final report of a mission—and when I went back to my notes, I came to the conclusion that he would have no place else to go. He couldn’t go back to the States, where he was probably considered a pariah by this time. He couldn’t go to
Dakar
, if he wanted to stay alive, nor could he go to
Nouakchott
where the drug dealings were initiated—according to the report. The last place he could have gone was
Paris
, but that was only an alternative, and after hearing what you’ve just told me, there is no way the man would go near the place. And although it’s been more than two weeks since the attack, I would think he’s going to stay put until the dust settles.”

“Talya told me you were a very astute woman, Madame, and—”

“She said that?”
Yvonne
interrupted Samir, looking at Talya, smiling. “Oh my goodness, Talya, you… I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to be rude, please, go ahead.” She turned her gaze to Samir once again.

“Yes, you’re not only astute but extremely insightful. I don’t wonder why Talya has been your friend and will remain so.” Samir smiled
to
the women facing him. 

“Madame, if you permit me, I would like to ask one more question,”
Christian
said in his purring voice, “and don’t worry if you don’t know the answer, we’ll find out for ourselves.”
Boy was he smooth!
  “Would you by any chance know where our man was planning to stay when he travelled to
Conakry
?” 

That was asking a bit much, but to Talya’s surprise,
Yvonne
answered, “Yes I do, M
r.
Sylvester
. His assistant told me where he planned to stay when I insisted that I needed to talk to him urgently.  He then confirmed that, yes, he had gone to
Conakry
and that he was going to stay at the Hotel de France near the airport.”