The Intern Affair (69 page)

“M
r.
Brightman
, I believe this concludes our meeting with you,” Samir said, rising out of his chair, “we are very grateful for your assistance and understanding,” and shook hands with the consul. 

Christian
and Talya got up to leave as well. They shook hands and shortly afterwards they were on their way out.

As they reached Samir’s car,
Christian
opened the rear door saying, “Lady Sarah, please let me….”

Talya looked fixedly at their cat, smiled and shook her head as she stepped in. Samir went to the other side and they both sat in the back seat while
Christian
settled himself at the wheel.

Samir said, “To give you my name made me immensely happy, do you know that?”

“As long as you don’t expect me to walk three paces behind you for the next six months, I should be fine,” Talya replied sedately, looking straight ahead.

Sensing that he should not pursue the matter for the time being, Samir said, “
Christian
?  After we have picked up the lenses, and the darn moustache”—Samir smiled—“I wish for you to drive us to the ‘Paillotte’.  Do you know where it is?” 

“Is that the garden restaurant beside the Grand Hotel?”

“That’s the one. We shall have dinner there.”

“Samir we can’t—” Talya began saying.

“Lady Sarah,” Samir interrupted her obvious objection, “from today onward you shall have no fear, you shall begin to live,” taking her hand and squeezing it. 

If he did this any harder, I would soon have two hands in a cast
.

Christian
shot a glance in the rear-view mirror. “Samir is right, Lady Sarah.  No one will recognize you, and besides, it will be an excellent rehearsal of manner and behaviour before tomorrow night’s Premiere Performance.”

That last remark reminded Talya of what she had said to
Alhassan
one night at the Grand;
‘We are all actors playing a part in this affair.’
How good of an actor was Samir going to be tomorrow?  How good was he going to be to deceive the man who was a master at deceitful enterprises?

114

An hour later,
they were relaxing in the lounge chairs of one of the grassy nooks at the Paillotte restaurant. Talya was staring at the Grand Hotel; its emerging white structure being quite dominant over the little park surrounding them.  She remembered the first morning she sat where she was sitting today.  She had been at the threshold of what changed her life. 

Talya was lost in thought when she heard Samir ask, “Did you come here before today?” 

“I did, although it seems a lifetime ago now.  What happened behind these walls was only a beginning, a start when it should have been a conclusion to a simple embezzlement problem.  I don’t think I will ever be able to go back to the Grand without seeing the ghosts that haunt the place.”

“And who are they?”

“Some of them were our friends.  It was there that I met
Helen
for the first time.  It was there that
Kareef
came to lure me into going to
Dakar
, and it was there that I fought incessant battles with
Alhassan
.  He is the first person to open my eyes as to whom or what we were up against.”

“What did he say on that occasion?”

“He said something about divorcing ourselves from any involvement with underworld organizations or criminal activities, which we might encounter when trying to find our Mr
.
Karim
.”

“And how do you feel about his advice now?   Do you resent him for it?”

“Oh no.  I only wish I had listened to him at the time and believed that it was true. I was blind, Samir, absolutely and utterly blind.”

The waiter came to the table then and deposited a dish of braised lamb cutlets and salad in front of each of them. 
Christian
devoured the content of his plate as if he hadn’t eaten in days. It seemed that his hunger had tied his tongue, because it was not until he had finished his meal that he finally asked, “Samir, tell me something. I have been wondering about this since I have seen the crest on the plane. How is it that a person of your station
pretends
to be a Touareg for the majority of his life?”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would ask the question.  The answer is simple.  My father decided that he was not to live a life of luxury until he had learned not only to appreciate the natural beauty of the desert surrounding his place of birth, but also to
earn
the title
God
had bestowed upon him.  He chose to join a family of Touaregs when he was young and avid of adventure.  Thereafter, he ‘became’ a Touareg.  When I was born, in my mother’s tent, he gave me the name
Sheikh
Mandalay
, which is only an interpretation for ‘Master of the Desert’.  Samir is the name my mother gave me in remembrance of her own father. I guess the rest of it you know.” He sipped
on
his tea, and after a moment, he added, “But the one thing perhaps you don’t know is that I have never returned to
Qatar
since my daughter’s mother died giving birth to her.  I couldn’t have raised her in my country because she was not legally mine. She was a female child, which the family didn’t want or cared for. Then, my uncle bestowed a trust on my daughter and me and asked that we return to
Qatar
only when I would introduce him to a decent woman. The exigencies of the past for me to have a son and heir, since I am not a direct heir to the
seat of power
, could no longer apply to my case.”

“And
Jasmin
is your daughter, isn’t she?” Talya asked
,
after listening to the tale of the life of her
Emir
in disguise.

“Yes, she is. I had to give her the life she deserved in payment for my trespass against her mother’s innocence.” 

Talya knew it since the first day she set eyes on the girl. There was something in her smile and in her gestures that were undoubtedly Samir’s.

“Does she know?” Talya asked, fixing her gaze on him, chastising him silently for hiding the truth when she had questioned him during their trip through the desert.

“Yes she does. I had to tell her when she reached puberty. That was one of the conditions of the trust. Thereafter, she was allowed to abide by my wishes until the age of maturity or return to her mother’s family if she desired to do so.”

“Will she ever be allowed to bear the family name officially?” 

“Yes, but only if she returns to
Qatar
and present herself to my uncle in humility and in acceptance of her birthrights.” 

Talya knew what that meant for
Jasmin
. She would have to be ‘given’ in marriage to a husband of the uncle’s choice.

“What’s the alternative, if she doesn’t want to do that?”

“She could walk into life freely as any other young lady of this world.”

“What about the trust?  Would it be revoked at the age of maturity?”

“Yes, it will unless she goes back, as I have described.”

“What about you, Samir, is there a time frame to your going back?”
Christian
asked with aroused curiosity flaring in his eyes.

“No. Being a man, I could never be imposed further sanctions, and in case you’re wondering, my part of the trust has been endowed for my life time.”

“So you’re only working for the pleasure of it?”

“Not only that,
Christian,
but my family, and my brothers in particular, needed to learn to take responsibilities in life, and I didn’t want them to be working in the oil-fields for the rest of their lives. So when my father died, I took up where he left off and offered my family the running of the company in
Nouakchott
.”

“What about your life in
Mali
?  You’re running a charter company out of
Bamako
, why?”

“That’s for my pleasure; you’re right, and for my tranquillity,
Christian.
Bamako
is at the heart of the Sahel and at the edge of the
Sahara
. From there I have the freedom to return to my place of birth anytime or to serve anyone who wants to travel the deserts, without having to be tied down by rules or responsibilities or family entanglements.”

“Will you ever return to
Qatar
?”
Christian
asked.

“That is one question I will only answer when the time comes for me to do so, which is not tonight.” Samir gazed at Talya meaningfully.

115

The sky was ablaze
from the heat and the dust of the day.  The clouds covered the firmament with an eiderdown of orange and purple. The warmth of the evening w
as oppressive and unrelenting.
Within minutes however, the darkness would fall upon them as an ashen blanket of tranquillity, and the cool winds streaming over the
Niger
would flutter against their bodies
with renewed gentleness.
Talya was sitting on a rocky ledge of the river below the hotel terrace.  Samir came to join her.

“What are you
r
thoughts?”  Samir asked.

“I was thinking of the red skies of my home; the way the fiery clouds erupt over the mountains at sunset.  I want to go home, Samir.”

“We will, Talya, we will.”
He put his arm around her shoulders such as he did when they were first sitting together on the log facing the ocean on
English
Bay
. Talya rested her head on his shoulder and they waited for the night to envelop them. When the little puddles of light over the
Niger
were the only shimmers to be seen, Samir lifted her face tenderly and kissed her passionately. Talya’s love for him was growing inside her. She could feel his body tense with desire when suddenly he pulled her away gently. “I am sorry, Princess, I can’t abuse of the privilege
God
has given me to travel at your side. But I am so much in love with you that I will not be able to wait for you if you don’t order me to do so.”

“How could I do that if I am the one who is tempting you?”

“Princess, once we reach
Paris
together—” It was Talya’s turn to shut him up when she kissed
him
. He was so surprised that he was trying to laugh—but it didn’t work.

“Lady Sarah! You are impossible. I’ll have to give you that spanking…,”
he said
as soon as she let him breathe.

“You can’t, My Lord, not anymore.” She laughed with him.

116

It was five o’clock
the next morning when Samir pulled the throttle toward him, lifting their little aircraft toward the sky.  Talya was sitt
ing beside him in the cockpit.
He had a determined look on his face
.
He had decided to wear his pilot’s uniform just in case the consulate’s car was a few minutes late to pick them up at the
Conakry
airport.
He would change in the vehicle on the
ir way to the Hotel de France.
As for Talya, she was wearing her black outfit and since her ankle was almost back to normal, she had decided to wear latchets on her feet (all-leather sandals lacing up to the ankles). They were another gift from
Afilah
.

Christian
was sitting behind her, fast asleep. That man was not only a cat when awake but
also one when he was napping.
Talya could have sworn she heard him purr.

About an hour into the flight, Talya was ready to fall asleep also, when suddenly she saw Samir’s clenched jaw. He looked at the instrument panels and shot a quick glance in Talya’s direction. 

“Something is wrong, Princess. The oil pressure is dropping and I need to land this plane in the next ten minutes or we’ll be plunging to our final destination.”

“Are you saying we’re going to crash?” Talya cried out, wide-awake and scared out of her skin.

“Not if I can help it. There is a map in the briefcase between us and while I get this baby under these clouds, try to find a track of road near a town called Siguiri.”

“But isn’t there a runway or an airport if there is a town?” Her trembling hands were already foraging amongst the maps and folders in the briefcase.

“Yes there is, but I don’t know if we’re close enough to make it on time.”

She pulled the map of Guinée out of its hiding place, and after taking a brief look at the surrounding areas near Siguiri, she saw a crossroad in a village named Kintinnian a few miles Northwest of Siguiri. 

“Samir, there are roads leading in all directions from a village called Kintinnian, will any of those do?”