The Mysterious Ambassador (14 page)

"Hidden? But why? Where?" he began.

As the stranger spoke, he had been looking from side to side, tssfCk into the garden, through the window, evidently on constant guard. He was about to answer Cari's question, but something outside caught his attention. He raced to the window, paused, then to Cari's

Titter astonishment, leaped out of the window. Cari rushed to the window after him. This is what he saw. ' I here was a small military car in the deserted street, an open car, with a soldier driving, an armed soldier seated next to him, and another soldier with a civilian in the rear. The stranger had leaped from Cari's second-story window directly into the vehicle, landing feet-first on the soldiers in the front seat. The vehicle wobbled violently, and zigzagged across the street, crashing into a wall. This took a few moments. In the meantime, the stranger had immobilized the three surprised soldiers—"immobilized" was the word that flashed into Cari's mind as he almost automatically began writing a report of the event for headquarters, (in triplicate). Whatever the word, the stranger had moved so fast, his actions were hard to follow.* "They were blurred—like a film going too fast," Cari commented later. By the time the vehicle crashed into the wall, the stranger had pulled the civilian out of it, and had raced into the hotel garden, where they disappeared into the overgrown bushes.

Cari stared in disbelief. Had it all really happened? One moment, the stranger had been talking to him, the next moment, gone. There was the vehicle, steam shooting from its radiator, jammed against the wall. The three soldiers were lying loosely about the car, as though asleep. Incredibly, there was no one on the street to observe this. A few doors slammed, a few window shutters tightened. There had been watchers, but no one wished to be a witness in the city of terror.

Cari walked in little circles, trying to collect his thoughts. The stranger said he had the medical team hidden. Hidden from General Bababu? Why from him? And who was this stranger, and who was the civilian in the vehicle? Who? Why?

Cari stared out the window. The vehicle was still there; the soldiers sprawled as they had been. In the distance, a military truck was approaching. There was a creaking sound from the veranda behind him. Cari turned, as the stranger and another man stepped into the room. It was the other man who made the creaking sound as he stepped on a loose board. The stranger seemed to walk on cat's paws, soundlessly. Now, after a backward glance, the stranger hurriedly shut the French doors, then stepped across the room and pulled down the window shade. The other man watched him silently. From his dress and appearances, he was a middle-aged local farmer.

"This is Jotando. The medical team was hiding in his house. Through bad luck, they were found by Bababu's men, who were taking Jotando to kill him. I left them all only two hours ago, and thought they were safe until I saw him in the car."

Cari sat in a chair, dizzy with the fast-moving events.

"Will you have some tea?" he said.

The stranger shook his head and translated for Jotando, who also refused.

"You won't mind if I do," said the elegant little ambassador.

"There is no time for tea," said the stranger tersely. "We must go to Bababu's camp at once."

"But why?" said Cari, exasperated by the mystery, the action, the speed of the stranger. "What does Bababu want with the UN medical team? To decorate them for their good work? And who are you, sir? I must know," he demanded.

"Of course you must, Ambassador Cari," said the stranger, not telling him. "The facts are these. Bababu is tearing up the entire country looking for Lamanda Luaga. He believes, with good reason, that the medical team knows where he is. He will question them. If they refuse to answer, he will torture them."

"Torture them? That's fantastic. He won't!" cried Cari.

"He will. If necessary, he will kill one or two to make his point."

"I can't believe this," said Cari.

The big strangjf loomed over him "like the side of a mountain," said Cari later on. And his deep voice boomed like distant thunder.

"I have told you the truth. This may happen. It can happen. I believe it will happen. We must not let it happen, Ambassador Cari."

"No," said Cari staring up at the unsmiling lips, the face like carved granite, the eyes unseen and fathomless behind the dark glasses. "What can we do?"

"You have a UN military detail. They will go with us. Jotando must remain here in your room, for safety," said the stranger quickly.

"All right. Whatever you say," said Cari, leaping to his feet. In this swamp of frustration, here suddenly was a solid rock to stand on.

Confidence flowed from this stranger. Cari reached for the phone.

"Send my detail, with two cars please," he said.

"At once," said the stranger.

"At once."

"And leave word with your office and the press corps where you will be—at Bababu's camp."

"Yes," said Ambassador Cari.

In Bababu's command tent, Diana and the three doctors faced the general angrily. He sat in a leather folding chair puffing on his usual cigarette holder. After a brief questioning, the Wambesi boatsman had been taken away.

"I repeat," said Bababu pleasantly, "I am grateful for the wonderful work you have done for my country.
My
country," he repeated. "But I want to know two things. Where are the pilots who came to rescue you? And where is Lamanda Luaga?"

"And I repeat, for all of us, we do not know," said Alec Kirk. "This is monstrous. You have no right to hold us here."

"Right, Dr. Kirk? Whatever I do is "right." My word is the law, Dr. Kirk."

"We respect your authority, General," said Diana. "But we are here only as a medical unit. We have no interest, no part, in your politics here. We did our job. We want to go home now."

"Well said," said Bababu glancing at Mokata who stood at the side. Mokata nodded appreciatively. "And so you shall. When you have answered my questions. First, where are the pilots?"

"We don't know," snapped George Schwartz.

"That is possible," said Bababu thoughtfully. "Where is Lamanda Luaga?" and he repeated the name with distaste.

"We don't know that either," said Chris Able.

"That, however, is not possible. That, Doctor, is a lie," said Bababu pleasantly. He smiled at them, and at Mokata who smiled in return. A phrase from Nietzsche, "Beware the smiler with a knife."

The word "lie" hung over them, like the sound of a big bell. "A lie, gentlemen, and lady," said Bababu. "You will not leave this tent until you have told me the truth."

"We have told you the truth," snapped Alec Kirk. "I speak for all of them. We don't know where he is." They were speaking the truth. None of them had the slightest notion of how to get to the
Deep Woods.

Bababu stared at them. He began to swell with rage, and cracked a cigarette holder. The doctors, used to violent types, watched warily. This man could be capable of almost anything. They were right, as they were about to learn. Bababu slammed the little table with his fist and nodded at Mokata who called out a sharp command to four soldiers at the side. Two stepped forward and grabbed Alec Kirk. He was pulled violently to a tent pole, his hands raised over his head. Then his wrists were lashed to the pole. A soldier ripped off his shirt, so that he was bare above the waist. Then Mokata stepped forward with a cat-o'-nine-tails, a multi-thonged whip, he had been holding behind him. It was a cruel-looking whip. At the end of each thong was a small metal star.

"Answer the general's question. Where is Luaga?" said Mokata.

"I don't know," said Alec. "This is insane. We are here under the auspices of the United—"

Mokata swung
the
whip lightly. It barely touched Kirk's skin. *

"No speech, Doctor. Only the truth. Or we will make you talk."

Alec tightened his lips. Mokata scowled, looked at Bababu, who nodded. Mokata raised the cruel whip high in the air. His face tensed. He was about to swing hard. Diana ran forward, between him and the tethered Kirk.

"No," she cried. "Stop this awful horrible thing."

"Miss Palmer, you can tell us where Luaga is," said Bababu.

"No, I cannot," said Diana.

Bababu pounded the table with his fists, and pointed at Diana. To the horror of the doctors, the soldiers grabbed Diana, and tied her wrists above her head to another tent pole. George and Chris started toward her. Rifles pointed at them. They stopped, tense, their fists clenched. One of the soldiers at Diana's side glanced at Bababu. The general nodded grimly. In one motion, the soldier grasped the collar of Diana's thin white shirt and tore it from her back. George and Chris uttered short cries of protest and started toward her. Once again, rifles pointed at them, halted them. Mokata handed the whip to the soldier, then looked at Bababu for further instruction.

"If you do not wish to see the lady whipped, you will answer my question. Where is Luaga?" said Bababu.

"Diana, we've got to stop things right now!" shouted George.

"Keep quiet, George. Tell him nothing," snapped Diana, her hands tied above her head.

Bababu caught this muttered reply and almost smiled. It wouldn't take much more, he told himself. He nodded at the soldier who raised the whip to strike Diana. His arm froze in mid-air. A glittering gold necklace on her neck caught his eye. He stared at it. At the end of the thin gold chain, there was a curious round medallion. The sight of it seemed to paralyze the soldier.

Mokata questioned him shortly and muttered in return. Mokata stared at the necklace. His eyes widened and he turned to Bababu, who sat waiting impatiently.

"Why are you waiting?" he shouted. "Make her talk!"

Mokata crossed rapidly to him, and said something quickly that the team could not understand. Bababu glared at Diana, whose wrists were tied so high on the pole she had to stand on her tiptoes. His eyes popped, his face blazed red as he shouted at the soldier. Though his words were not understandable to the team, the meaning was clear': "Get on with it!" Still the soldier hesitated, caught between his fear of Bababu and something he saw on that gold necklace.

There was a commotion outside the tent. Angry voices, then the unmistakable crunch of a fist on a jaw, a falling body. All turned toward the sounds. A soldier fell through the entrance of the tent, landing on his back and not moving. A tall man wearing sunglasses pushed in, stepping over the soldier, followed by Ambassador Cari and six United Nations guards in neat uniforms, wearing white helmets, carrying rifles.

In the tent, Bababu's soldiers started to raise their rifles, but the guards covered them. The masked man rushed to Diana's side. His fist crashed against the jaw of the soldier holding the whip. The man fell through the canvas wall, tearing it. Then the stranger reached up, jerked the rope loose, and freed Diana. There was a jacket, Bababu's, lying on a camp stool. He put it around Diana's shoulders, then faced Bababu. All this had happened in a split second. As one soldier later wrote to his wife, "The stranger moved like a deer-fly, the fastest creature on earth."

"We've come for the medical team," said the stranger to Bababu. The general settled back in his chair, trying to catch up with the action. George Schwartz went to Alec, quickly opened a pocket knife, and cut the ropes that held his wrists. Ambassador Cari stepped forward in front of the masked man.

"I can hardly believe what I've seen," he said to Bababu. "These people came four thousand miles to help your people. They faced disease and danger in the jungle. What is the meaning of this horrible thing?"

"These peopl^are hiding my enemy. They know where he is," said Bababu awkwardly.

"Did you ask them?" said Cari.

"He asked us," said Alec Kirk. "We told him, not once but a dozen times. We don't know."

"I say they lie!" shouted Bababu.

"They're leaving with me now. I don't expect you

will try to stop us. I have informed my office and the press corps we are here," said Cari.

Bababu's eyes blazed.

"Get out. Get out—all of you." He looked at his soldiers. "You are all witnesses. I told them to get out. They are going out."

The stranger nodded and Cari, the team, and the guards hurried out. At the flap of the tent, the tall stranger paused, looked back at Bababu, then left.

Bababu was breathing hard, angry, frustrated— shamed by the little ambassador.

"Who was that one with him?" he asked.

Mokata shrugged.

Bababu slammed the desk with his fist, his familiar gesture. Then he grabbed his phone.

"Ambassador Cari or no Ambassador Cari, I won't let them out that fast. I rule this country. This is not the United Nations. I don't give a
gukaka
for the United Nations. I'll stop them at the gate. Bring them back."

He took the receiver from its cradle and started to bark his order into the phone, when the tall stranger returned. He reached the desk in one giant stride. His fist landed on the phone, smashing it into bits.