Chapter 29

 

“You’ll never catch up with them,” Giorgio said, from the back of the SUV. “It will take a tractor to pull us out of this hole.”

Elaine was sitting in the front passenger seat while Dmitry stood ankle-deep in the mud outside, jacking up the left-hand side of the vehicle. The Janjaweed had somehow dug out a pair of U-shaped pits that fit the tires exactly, with the same distance separating them as the SUV’s two axles. The entire undercarriage had sunk a few inches into the ground. It was a perfect trap, one that the tribesmen had obviously set before for militia and enemy forces.

She was fully dressed now, with Stan’s sat-phone in her hand, trying to pick up the signal of the GPS tracker that was hidden in the package of diamonds. But the little green dot did not appear anywhere on the map, only the dot that represented their own position.

She felt completely helpless now. And incredibly stupid.

“What does that mean, anyway? Ameerat el-jinn toreed zog?” The words were still ringing in her ears.

Giorgio laughed. “It means ‘The princess of the Jinn wants a mate,’ or something along those lines.” Dmitry had paused with his work outside, and was listening, too. “You see, according to the Quran, the jinn are made of fire and can appear in human or animal form. So those Janjaweed thought that snake around your neck was your dead husband and you were looking for a new one.”

Dmitry chuckled, looking at Cattoretti through the window as if impressed.

“How do you know so much about this subject?” Elaine said.

“When you spend years living in hiding, Elaine, you have lots of time to read.”

This annoyed her—he said these words bitterly, as if it was all her fault.

“Anyway, cara, you handled those guys brilliantly—I was impressed. But then you always impress me, Elaine.”

She turned around and glared at him—he was smiling his “Cat” smile, his bleached teeth gleaming in the dim light. He couldn’t have been more delighted the diamonds had been stolen by the Janjaweed. Now she had nothing to give to Raj, and no way to have him arrested.

“How did that old man know we were carrying the diamonds, anyway?” Elaine muttered, mostly to herself.

“I have a suspicion that Raj tried to hire him sometime back, as a way to find the mine, before we...joined forces. But what does it matter? The bottom line is, you really have no choice but to give me the location of the mine and come with me to Croatia.” Giorgio paused. “It’s time to face the music, Elaine. Game over. You lose.”

She ignored this, looking back down at the sat-phone, at the single dot on the screen. Damn it, why wasn’t the GPS tracker working? Had they already discovered the disk and destroyed it? That was hard for her to believe.

The far-off sound of a motorcycle interrupted her thoughts.

Dmitry stopped jacking the tire up and looked down the trail in the direction from which they had come.

“What is it?” Elaine said. She set the sat-phone on the dashboard and climbed out of the vehicle, wielding the Kalashnikov.

“I can see nothing,” Dmitry said, pulling out his pistol.

They both stood there staring into the blackness, only the scrub and the outline of a few acacia trees visible. They were like sitting ducks now, the SUV hopelessly mired down, unable to move. Still trapped.

“It’s a motorcycle,” Giorgio yelled, “sounds like a dirt bike.”

Both Elaine and Dmitry opened their respective doors on the SUV as wide as they would go, standing behind them for protection. Elaine chambered the rifle and made sure the safety was off.

“For god’s sake, don’t panic,” Cattoretti said. “It’s probably just some villager, maybe just a kid. We don’t need gunshots attracting the rebels’ attention.”

Elaine crouched a little more as the headlight finally came into view. The yellow light bobbed up and down as it rolled along the ruts in the trail. It slowed as it moved within about fifty feet of the SUV, then came to a stop, the engine idling.

“Whoever it is sees us,” Elaine whispered.

The engine stopped. All was silent except for the chirp of the crickets.

Elaine lowered her cheek to the rifle stock, slowly sweeping the sight back and forth across the darkened, muddy trail. Now she thought she could make out a shadowy form moving cautiously along the edge, staying low...

“They have a rifle,” Elaine whispered. “I can see it.”

“We’re armed!” Giorgio shouted. “Nahn almusallaha!”

The figure dropped to the ground in a way that told her whoever it was had military training.

Then: “Elaine?”

She nearly dropped her own rifle, recognizing the voice instantly.

It was Nick.

She was so taken aback she wasn’t sure if she was glad to see him or not.

“Who is it?” Cattoretti said.

“Over here!” she yelled back, raising the Kalashnikov with one arm and waving with the other.

Nick LaGrange to the rescue! Elaine thought angrily. Did he think he would just show up now and save the day and make everything alright between them?

Nick got back up off the ground and started walking towards her. No, she definitely wasn’t glad to see him—the mere sight of him incensed her. All she could see in her mind’s eye was that awful photo of him and Isabella together naked.

As Nick got closer, she could make out something white on his wrist.

It looked like a cast, or a bandage.

He was holding an AK-47 in one hand, a flashlight in the other, and there was a large backpack strapped to his shoulders. He was wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt, his hair swept back from riding the bike.

“What are you doing here?” she snapped, in an unmistakably annoyed tone, as if he were crashing her dinner party. The words flew out of her mouth almost without her thinking.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” Nick said. He came to a stop only a few feet away, glanced at Dmitry and said “Hey,” and then looked inside the car door, seeing Giorgio’s dark silhouette. “Who’s that?”

“Cattoretti,” Elaine muttered.

Nick frowned, and holding the rifle as if to defend himself, bent down and peered through the door and into the back of the SUV.

“Hello, Nick,” Giorgio said, as if they were both old friends.

“Jesus,” Nick said, glancing back at Elaine, then shaking his head.

“His wrists are tie-wrapped,” Elaine said, and then wished she hadn’t spoken—she didn’t need to explain anything to Nick.

He motioned towards Cattoretti. “How many times have I told you not to trust him, Elaine? You never listen.” Nick glanced disgustedly around the depressing scene, and then motioned to her. “I want to talk to you alone.”

Flicking on his flashlight, he turned and moved through the grass, towards the tree where the old Janjaweed man had dragged her. “Come on.”

Elaine reluctantly followed him. She couldn’t help herself and said, “Where’s Isabella? Couldn’t she come along?”

Nick glanced over his shoulder at her, and tripped on something on the ground. He shined the flashlight beam on it. “What the hell?” It was the dead snake Elaine had used to scare the Janjaweed, still in a circle on the ground, its tail fed into its mouth. “That’s a black mamba...”

“Yeah,” Elaine muttered, noticing that he’d been conveniently distracted and hadn’t answered his question.

“What do you want from me, Nick?” Elaine said impatiently, as soon as they were behind the tree.

Nick glanced over his shoulder towards the SUV and whispered, “We have to kill that bastard right now.”

“Are you crazy?”

“After what he did to you?” Nick said incredulously. “You’re crazy not to kill him. You’ve been in touch with Luna, and you know that he and Raj worked together to put us in that black site. The whole thing was a setup. He used you, Elaine, in the worst possible way.”

“I won’t kill him.”

Nick motioned to the dark African landscape. “Elaine, nobody will ever miss him—the animals will eat his remains. This is our chance to rid ourselves of him once and for all. Don’t you want your old life back? Don’t you want to live in peace and quiet, like we did before?”

“Nothing will ever be like before, Nick, and you know it.”

Nick just stood there, glaring at her, his chest heaving up and down. “I killed her.”

“You...killed who?”

“Isabella.”

Elaine stared at him, open-mouthed. Now, even in the dim light, she could see that he did not look like himself.

“You killed Isabella?”

“Yes. I only have one wife, and one family, Elaine.” Nick frowned at her, brushing his long hair back. “Don’t look at me like that—I’m okay with it.”

Nick had been in love with her, and had been engaged to marry her, Elaine thought. How could he be “okay” with something like that?

“The important thing is that she’s gone,” Nick said. “Out of our lives for good.” He paused. “Now the ball is in your court.”

“Janyet!” Dmitry called excitedly.

He was running towards them through the grass. When he came around the tree, he sheepishly glanced at Nick and said “Sorry,” and then turned Elaine. “GPS tracker working!” He held up the sat-phone and showed her the display.

Nick glanced at the phone. “What’s he talking about?”

 

* * *

They all went back and stood beside the SUV, Nick now studying the map on the sat-phone. “They’re only seven kilometers away now.” Nick glanced up at Elaine. “I can go after them.”

“They’re at least twelve of them, Nick. They’re all armed.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Cattoretti said, from inside the car.

“Shut up!” Elaine said, and turned back to her husband. Of course Giorgio thought it was a grand idea. “You don’t know what you’re getting into, Nick, these people are barbarians.”

In a whisper, Nick said, “I’m an extractor, baby. It’s what I do.”

“These are diamonds, not CIA assets,” Elaine hissed back.

“So?” Nick took her aside, away from the SUV and out of The Cat’s earshot. “Diamonds are easier. You never know what people will do when you try to help them.” He motioned for the phone in her hand. “I need the GPS tracking app—we’ll swap phones and meet up in N’Djamena.”

Elaine just stood there. “Nick, I don’t believe you’re thinking clearly about this.”

“My thinking has never been clearer, honey.” He reached for the phone. “Come on, give me your phone and let’s get this thing done.”

 

* * *

Nick spent the next couple of minutes hurriedly preparing to leave. He asked Elaine if they had any water or food he could take along, and also if they had any extra fuel he could carry for the motorcycle, and she rounded everything up for him. She didn’t like this plan at all—she was still shocked that he’d killed Isabella and seemed so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. You didn’t just murder your ex-fiancé and not have some serious issues about it. Elaine thought he was in shock, or in denial, or some combination of the two. But she knew her husband well enough to know that there was no stopping him once he made up his mind to do something.

She helped Nick carry the extra supplies down the muddy path to the dirt bike.

Nick glanced at his watch, and Elaine glanced at her own. They had made a plan to meet up at eight o’clock in the morning in N’Djamena at the Chagoua Roundabout, which would give them enough time to put the diamonds in a package and leave them at the hotel for Raj to pick up. Nick said that if he could make it back to Abéché, he could buy himself a space on a cargo plane to get back to N’Djamena, which was how he had arrived.

“Are you planning on taking the main road to N’Djamena?” Nick asked.

“No, on the back roads—we can use Stan’s maps. We can’t afford to run into any police checkpoints, not with Cattoretti tied up in the car.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Which is all the more reason to get rid of him.”

“I’m not going to kill him.”

“Why not?”

“We’re not going to start killing people in cold blood! My god—what kind of person have you turned into?”

Nick shrugged and said, “Suit yourself.” He started up the engine and looked up the path, at the SUV. Dmitry was already using the rope in the same fashion as he’d employed to pull it out of the river, which Nick said was called a Spanish Windlass.

“Are you sure he can get that thing unstuck?” regarding the Russian doubtfully.

“He can do it.”

Nick revved the dirt-bike’s engine. He looked awkwardly at Elaine, as if he were about to lean forward and kiss her goodbye.

“Be careful,” she said, stepping back, out of his reach.

“Yeah. You, too.”