The Intern Affair (67 page)

He took Talya in his arms.  His embrace was gentle and consoling, for he knew her heart was churning in pain. She was hiding behind a mask of joy and flippancy, trying to protect herself from an eventual breakdown.

Knowing Samir as well as Talya did, he would have seen through the jokes, smiles and laughter.

A few minutes later, Samir called
their cat
to come back to the suite.  He had not changed his clothes. He was still wearing a grey tailored suit, double breasted, a white shirt and a discreet-patterned matching tie. 
I wonder why?
He sat on the bed.

“Why are you still wearing a suit?  Aren’t we getting to
Conakry
tonight?”

“No, we’re not,”
Christian
answered flatly.

Samir said, “
Christian
and I knew that you didn’t want to go back to
Senegal
, but we can’t go to
Conakry
this afternoon either. We wouldn’t make the journey in one stretch—not with the planes I have in the hangar. And
Christian
suggested that it would give the consulate enough time to prepare an alias passport for you.”

“An alias passport?” Talya said surprise painted on her face.  “What are you talking about; my passport is just fine, thank you!”

“You don’t understand,”
Christian
countered his voice steady as a rock. “We need to get you a diplomatic passport, not only to get you into Conakry without a visa, but also for you to travel unnoticed in the months to come.”

“What do you mean ‘in the months to come’?  I have no intention—”

“Hush, Talya, you will see that a diplomatic passport will be very useful when ever we need to travel,” Samir put in decisively, and to
Christian,
“Why don’t you explain what we’re doing when we get to
Conakry
.”
Let’s hear this, by all means.

“Well, what I’m hoping
for
is that when we arrive in the afternoon or before prayer time, we register at the Hotel de France and draw our prey into the open.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”  Talya asked, a little puzzled by his assurance.

“I’m not going to do that, you and Samir are going to do it.”

“We are? How and why?” 
Surprises will never cease.

“Yes you are. In fact, you two will be the perfect bait. We know that our traitor likes money.  That has been steering his every move until now. We suspect that he’s running out of cash, so we’re going to bait him with money. Samir will lure him into making a move, but we’ll only know
how
we’re going to do this, once we’re at the hotel.  Then when our man sees that Samir is offering him an opportunity, not only to escape—with us—but that money is to be had at the other end of the deal, I’ll be able to do my job when I ask him to come for a meeting in my room at the hotel. That plan will take about twenty-four hours to be achieved.”

Talya looked at
Christian
fixedly. “That’s sounds just fine, except for one tiny detail.”

“What’s that?”

“The man knows me and he knows Samir. So, how do you propose we bypass this tiny barrage, as big as the Hoover Dam actually?”

“I thought you’d oppose me on that one, because Samir said the same thing when I first put the suggestion to him.
Anyway, there is no problem for you, Talya, as the fiancée of a
Qatar
Emir
, you should be wearing a veil and be rarely seen in public.”
If you think, you’ll be able to shut me in my room…
“And as for you, Samir, we can certainly alter your appearance by giving you a
moustache
.”

Samir raised both eyebrows. Talya giggled.

“I don’t think
—
” Samir tried to object, but
Christian
held up a hand—he wasn’t done.

“Yes, a moustache and a pair of col
our
ed contact lenses.”

This time Talya had to ask, “Col
ou
red contact lenses? Where do you expect to find these in
Bamako
?”

“
I asked Aaron
Brightman
, when I was giving him some details to prepare your passport, where I could find an optometrist, who could fit Samir with lenses, or glasses that would change his appearance.  I’ve already phoned the guy and he’s expecting us this afternoon.”

“That’s fine, but what if I wanted or needed to participate in the conversations—”

“No,” Samir broke in, “you won’t. You may
attend
our conversations, but remember, as a Muslim woman you won’t be allowed to speak until spo
ken
to, and you can’t raise your veil for any reason.”

Talya knew it was the only way to make this work. For once, that mouth of hers needed to remain shut if she were to see their plan succeed. “What about my hands?”

“What about your hands?”
Christian
queried in reply.

“They’re white,
Christian
—and I still have a cast—or haven’t you noticed?”

“We’ll buy another abayah, Talya, one with longer sleeves—”

“No,” Talya said suddenly, apparently having made up her mind. “No, all of this is far too complicated. You don’t need me to attend the meetings you two may have with our prey. You only need to invite me to the beach party afterwards.”

Both men looked at her confused.

“Could you explain what you’ve just said?”

Christian
must have gone through this rigmarole a dozen times—if not more—by the sound of it. He didn’t need anything else but to use Samir’s face and title to accomplish the task.  The rest was up to him.

Talya smiled. “The two of you have thought of
almost
everything.”

“Don’t tell us that we’re missing something else,” Samir said quizzically.

“I’m
only
a woman, Samir; you know I can’t presume any of your failures to be true.”

They both chuckled.

Talya was putting the
comical
mask over her face once again with offhand remarks.

“Okay, Talya, let’s have it?”
Christian
asked with raised eyebrows. “What is it that we’re missing and what’s this beach party you mentioned?”

“I’ll come to that in a minute, and I don’t know that you’ve missed anything per se, it’s just that we can’t kill the man at the Hotel de France and hope to get away clean.  At least that’s my humble woman’s opinion on that subject.”

“Stop toying with us, Talya,” Samir said, “and tell us what you have in mind.”

“Well, I suppose that neither of you have stayed at the Hotel de France. The hotel is located very close to the airport—you can walk from the terrace onto the tarmac in less then five minutes. It has been constructed in the sixties to host the Russian work teams that were landing or departing almost every month to and from
Conakry
.
The Russian aircrafts
that would drop-off their passengers, literally in front of the hotel, could turn around and be on their way back to their homeland within the hour.  And the passengers could go directly to the hotel without having to go through the airport facilities.”

“But that’s not a disadvantage,”
Christian
said, “on the contrary, that’s excellent.”

“No, it’s not.” Talya shook her head. “Since the seventies, the field across which you could reach the runway has been filled with land mines.  If you step one foot out of the garden gate, you’re liable to lose a leg or your life doing it.”

“But there must be a road or something to get to the hangars or airport quickly?”

“I don’t know about getting to the airport
quickly,
” Talya replied, “but yes there is a ten mile detour around the airport, tarmac, runways, lanes and all the rest of it, that will get you to the hangars all right.” She saw
Christian’
s enthusiasm deflate before her eyes. “But we’re going off on a tangent here.
The reason for my disliking the location for our proposed elimination is not the location itself but its layout. You see, the hotel is an L-shaped, one-storey building. The front structure facing the runway is divided in three parts. At the far left, you have the reception area and a hall, leading to the rooms located in the two adjacent buildings.
  In the centre, you have a terrace lounge and a couple of shops, and at the far right, you have a couple of restaurants.  Except for the terrace doors leading directly out from the lounge onto the garden, the entire complex has no other entries or exits. Again, remember this hotel was constructed for one purpose only, and that was to house Russian work teams in transit. You see now why we have a problem.  You can’t
—n
either of us can
—
get out unnoticed by a back door, because there is none.  And you can’t go running to our aircraft without being blown to smithereens.”

“You mean we can’t accomplish our mission at the hotel—where then?”

“When I lived in
Conakry
, although that was a long time ago, I remember a row of consular houses located on the road to Dubreka, north of
Conakry
.  Beyond these houses, you have a series of secluded coves and beaches, where I used to go swimming when I was a child. Today however, no one has access to the beaches except for the diplomats residing alongside that one stretch of road. Maybe, the Canadian Consul in
Conakry
could give us access for one evening to share a bottle of champagne with our friend . . . and have a party, don’t you think?”

“Absolutely brilliant!”
Christian
erupted, literally jumping to his feet. “Let me give
Sir Reginald
a call. I’ll arrange it and in forty-eight hours we can go back to
Dakar
.”

Talya got up and rushed after him. “
Christian
? Please, before you go…, may I ask if, in forty-eight hours, I could expect to see
Alhassan
alive?  And please only the truth will do.” She looked up at him, desperate to hear the answer.

“I don’t know, Talya, I have no idea. Just pray for him.” At these words, Talya closed the door on their cat and began crying quietly, resting her back against the doorframe.

“Princess, come here. Just sit beside me,” Samir asked, interrupting the silence he had maintained during their discussion. She did. 

“Do you remember what we promised to do?”

“Yes, I do.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “But will we have time? I can see that we wouldn’t be able to spare one moment—”

“We will. Remembering what happened to you is the most important and last stop in our journey.  Although he is very sick,
Alhassan
knows what you are doing. He needs to know that all of this wasn’t in vain. He will wait for you.”

“Do you even comprehend what I feel? I have loved the man, Samir.  He has awo
ken
feelings in me that I thought were dead forever. I fought against those feelings because I didn’t want to let go, and I pushed him away.”

“Maybe so, but he has done you wrong. Now he wants only to have an opportunity to ask you to forgive him.”

“He should know. He should know that I have nothing to forgive him for; I am the only one responsible….”
Talya got up from the chair and walked to the window.

“Responsible for what?” Samir went to join her. “Responsible for your integrity?  Or are you responsible for
Alhassan
being so forward as to impose himself on you? Or perhaps do you feel responsible for
Charos
’s insanity? And don’t tell me you are responsible for the deaths of
Helen
and
Mansur Dillon
, because you know, as well as I do, that it isn’t true.”

“What are you saying?” Talya cried out, “
That
I should just forget about the mess I’ve created and wipe my hands of it all once the job is done?  No, Samir, I can’t do that. No one has to ask forgiveness for anything, no one, except me!
Alhassan
is one of the victims of
my
determination
to bring justice to bear on these criminals. He has nothing to regret—”

“Princess, stop it!” Samir grabbed her by the shoulders and peered into her eyes. “You are hurting yourself. I won’t allow you to do that.  Don’t you think
Alhassan
would gladly take your place at this very minute?”

“I’m sure he would, if he could.” Talya freed herself from Samir’s grasp. “But he can’t, and I wouldn’t let him anyway.”

“. . .
Because
you’re afraid of him dying if he tried.  You are the one who wants the last bullet to pierce your heart. Such as you wanted to walk into the ocean in
Vancouver
?”