In the early hours of the morning, Rosedale and Cooper sat in the Toyota, discussing Father O’Malley on their way to a tiny village, south of their base camp.
Cooper said. ‘I liked him. There was something genuine about him.’
‘Father O’Malley?’
‘Yeah, where did you meet him?’
‘In one of the villages, when I was asking round about the plane.’
‘He seems a good guy. But…’
Rosedale turned left on the road. ‘But you think he was lying about not knowing Emmanuel?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘Oh yeah, hell yeah, without a doubt. Everyone in this place seems to have something to hide.’
Woods flashed into Cooper’s mind. ‘Believe me it’s not just here people are hiding things… Anyhow, listen, before we go to the village, I’d like to go and see a mine.’
Rosedale looked puzzled. ‘Which one? The Condor Atlantic mine? You thinking of going back there?’
‘No, about twenty miles from here, there’s another mine I looked up when I was back in DC.’
‘What about it?’
‘I’m just curious to see a conflict mine for myself, I guess. All this talk about the difference between conflict-free and conflict mines, and the stuff I told you about what Donald Parker and Nadbury Electronics are supposed to be doing with their mines and cell-phones and computer parts. Well, it makes me curious. So what do you say, Rosedale?’
Rosedale said, ‘I say, which way?’