"You are hiding what is in here!" The major suddenly jabbed Marten"s forehead with the tip of a ma.s.sive finger. "What is in your mind, your head." Immediately he looked to one of the officers behind him.
In a blink the man stepped forward. Marten could see the swift grin, the glint in his eyes. He knew what was coming and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Still he did his best to cover himself. It didn"t work. The kick from the man"s combat boot drove into his genitals like a piston. Marten cried out and dropped to one knee, gagging, coughing, retching. His head spun. The pain was excruciating, focused nowhere and everywhere at the same time. For a long while he stayed where he was, his eyes closed, gasping, praying for the agony to go away.
Finally he opened his eyes. When he did he found the major squatted in front of him, his sweating face inches away.
"I want the photographs," he hissed. "The photographs and the memory card from the camera that was used to take them. Where are they?"
What Marten saw in his eyes was pure hatred. Whether it was because Marten was white or because he was getting no information from him seemed not an issue. The major, like those here and the others from before-the soldiers who had slammed rifle b.u.t.ts into the heads of Father w.i.l.l.y and the two young boys and the ones who had chased him in the rain forest-were not so much soldiers as killers. Human life meant nothing. They wanted what they wanted, nothing less. Right now that was information regarding the whereabouts of Father w.i.l.l.y"s photographs and the memory card from his camera, and those were things he couldn"t give them. First, there was no way for him to know for certain whether copies of the photographs or the memory card itself still existed. Even if they did, he had no idea where they might be. Second, they had no evidence that he had seen the photos and were simply a.s.suming it was true. That meant his continued denials of innocence were crucial because if they had any sense at all that he was lying they would torture him until he broke. Once he did, once he told them the truth of what had happened and what he had seen, they would kill him in an instant.
Marten brought his eyes up to the major"s. "I don"t know about any photographs or any camera or any memory card," he whispered. At the same time, he thanked G.o.d that Father w.i.l.l.y had had the intelligence to burn the photos on the trail instead of giving them to him.
"We shall see." The major grinned cruelly and stood up.
5:22 P.M.
The major went to the table, picked something off it, and came back. It was a tube, maybe two inches around and two feet long, and except for the twin metal electrodes protruding from one end, it looked like some kind of nightstick. It wasn"t. It was an old-fashioned high-voltage cattle prod.
"Holy s.h.i.t," Marten swore under his breath.
Suddenly hands grabbed him and he was flat on the floor on his back with the major standing over him. He brought the prod toward Marten"s face, then pressed a b.u.t.ton near the top of the handle. There was a stab of blue light and a loud crackling sound as electricity arced violently from one electrode to the other on the instrument"s tip. The major grinned and slowly moved the prod down between Marten"s legs to just brush his genitals.
"The photographs and the memory card and you go free."
Go free like h.e.l.l, Marten thought. They"d find out soon enough that he couldn"t give them what they wanted. Nor could they let him go afterward, no matter his condition, and have him start talking about what happened, so they"d have little choice but to get rid of him. All he could do was try to buy a little time and think of some other way to get out of the situation.
"I don"t know anything about photographs or a memory card," he whispered. "Nothing."
"No?"
"No."
From the corner of his eye Marten saw movement. He turned his head. The goat was right beside him. One soldier had it by the head. A second lifted its tail. The major touched the prod to the animal"s genitals and pressed the b.u.t.ton on the handle. The loud snapping sound of high voltage was drowned out by the goat"s scream as its genitals and the muscles around them contracted in wild spasm. The goat shrieked and kicked wildly, trying to free itself from the iron grip the soldier had on its head. It was no good. The man was too strong. The major smiled at Marten, then stuck the prod between the animal"s legs and touched the b.u.t.ton again. And then again. The terrified animal yelped and screamed in agony. Then it kicked up violently, knocking the prod from the major"s hand, jerking away from the soldier holding its head. Then, bellowing and dragging its hindquarters, to the laughter of the soldiers, it circled the room desperately looking for an escape. Finally it hid quivering under the relative safety of the wooden table. Whereupon the soldier who had been holding it walked over and knelt down as if to comfort it. Instead he grinned, drew his pistol, and shot it between the eyes.
"Cena," the major said in Spanish. Supper. He retrieved the prod from where the goat had kicked it and came back toward Marten.
Marten"s eyes followed the prod, then shifted to the major. "If I knew I would tell you," he said with all the strength he could manage. "I don"t."
"That is not a satisfactory answer, Mr. Marten. Besides, it"s early yet. Very early. I"m sure it won"t be long before your memory returns." Slowly he ran the prod between Marten"s legs, letting it come to come rest at the base of his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es.
Just then the hawk-faced soldier raised his hand. Abruptly the major left Marten and went to him. A brief, muted conversation took place between them. When it was done, the major nodded and came back to Marten.
"Get dressed," he said.
Marten glanced at the other man, then looked back to the major.
"Get dressed," he said again.
A storm of relief rushed through Marten, but he dared not show it for fear this was part of the game. Make him think he"d been spared, then start the process all over again. Quietly he stood and then slowly dressed. Undershorts first, then trousers, then his shirt. The whole time he carefully watched the hawk-faced man, wondering what he"d said to the major and what was next.
In the next moment the major looked to one of the young soldiers guarding the front door. Immediately the man picked up Marten"s pa.s.sport case from the table and delivered it to him.
"There is a ten-o"clock flight to Paris this evening." The major put Marten"s pa.s.sport case in his hand. "You will be on it."
Marten stared at him, then looked around the room, wondering what they were doing, if this was some kind of trick. There was only silence.
"Thank you," he said finally and as politely as possible, then started for the door. As he reached it the second young soldier flung it open.
Marten should have taken the gift he had been given and left as quickly as he could. Instead he stopped in the doorway and turned to look at the major.
"What happened to the priest?" he said quietly.
"Dead." The answer was sharp and stabbed across the room.
Marten had expected it to come from the major, but it had come from the hawk-faced soldier. It was the one and only time he had addressed him, and when he did he locked eyes with him.
"There were two boys-"
"Dead," the man repeated, his voice cold and flat. "Everyone in the priest"s village is dead. It is a tragedy that no one seemed to know where the photographs were. Certainly one of them would have traded his life, or hers, or"-he purposely emphasized the next-"his mother"s ... or father"s or ... child"s ... for them if they had. It would have been a simple thing."
Marten said nothing. Then, with a glance at the major, he turned and walked out the door.
5:40 P.M.
11.
THE HOTEL MALABO. 6:30 P.M.
Nicholas Marten stood in a tiny shower stall that was crammed, like the toilet, into a corner of his room. Head back, his eyes closed, he let the water run over him, relieved beyond imagination to be free of his army interrogators and on his way out of Bioko. At the same time, he thought of the cold bravado with which the hawk-faced soldier had told him of the village ma.s.sacre.
How many had lived in that village? Sixty? Eighty? Maybe more. He wondered what was so extraordinarily valuable to the army about those photographs that they would expend so much effort and take that many lives trying to retrieve them.
The only answer that made sense was that they wanted them as proof to the world that an outside force was fueling the rebellion and that their deliberate actions in repressing it-highly criticized by human rights groups, the United Nations, and any number of countries-were justified. Still, if they were so eager to uncover the pictures and had not yet found them, why had they suddenly stopped their interrogation and let him go?
Part of the puzzle might have been the condition of his hotel room when he returned. The place had been thoroughly ransacked. Every piece of his personal belongings gone through, his bed stripped, the furniture turned over. They hadn"t found the photos there, and they hadn"t found them on his person, but that didn"t answer the question of why they had let him go when they could have as easily killed him and buried his body somewhere in the rain forest where a missing man, no matter who he was, would never be found. A missed communication between them? Maybe. Goodwill? Not from men like that, particularly when they knew he"d seen firsthand what the army did to old priests and young boys and boasted about their slaughter of the villagers. So their freeing him had to have been for some other reason altogether. What that was he couldn"t imagine.
7:10 P.M.
Freshly shaven and dressed in a clean shirt, jeans, and sport coat, Marten left his bags at the front desk and headed for the bar. He walked gingerly, his b.a.l.l.s still swollen and achingly tender from the field-goal-like kick presented to him by the major"s "specialist." What he wanted most was to have a gin and tonic, or two or three to kill the pain, and then get the h.e.l.l out of there on the ten-o"clock flight to Paris. Yet suddenly there was doubt even about that. In the last half hour a tropical storm had whirled in from nowhere. Wind and rain pelted in never-ending sheets. The lights flickered and went off, then came back on. He"d been warned at the desk that the airport might close down.
"For how long?" he"d asked of the white, middle-aged desk clerk.
"For however long the storm lasts, senor. An hour. A day. A week."
"A week?"
"Sometimes, yes," the man grinned.
"The airport closes, you make sure I have a room. I don"t want to sleep here in the lobby for a night, much less a week."
"I don"t know if that is possible, senor."
"You don"t?"
"No, senor."
Marten reached into his jacket, took out a small roll of bills, and handed him a ten-thousand-CFA-franc note, the currency of Equatorial Guinea, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty U.S. dollars. "Now you do."
"Of course, senor. If the airport closes you will have a room."
"Good."
Marten walked off and shuddered as he did. The last thing he wanted was to spend another hour, let alone a night or a week, here.
12.
7:15 P.M.
Noise and tobacco smoke hit Marten like a wall as he walked into the riot that was the Hotel Malabo"s bar, a big, broad room furnished with rattan and packed to the walls with Westerners, most of them SimCo mercenaries and AG Striker employees. Both groups looked like they were straight out of central casting. The SimCo people were your cla.s.sic bada.s.s tough guys, hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, black-T-shirt-and-camouflage-pants-wearing, shaved-headed combat veterans from probably a dozen different countries and as many wars. The Striker crew looked like field people-drillers, riggers, technicians, and the like. Most of them still wore their grease-and sweat-stained work clothes, lightweight jumpsuits with a big AG STRIKER company logo stenciled on the back, and unlike the SimCo people, not all were men.
Four women who looked like office staffers, folded umbrellas still wet from the rain hung over the backs of their chairs, sat at a nearby table drinking and talking among themselves, and once in a while looking off toward a hunky mercenary or oil driller. Here and there were unkempt-looking women. They wore low-cut, slit-to-the-thigh dresses like uniforms and took up s.p.a.ce at the long mahogany bar or sat at cheap rattan c.o.c.ktail tables working any man who would pay for their attention.
Then there were the rest. Mostly they were men, ranging in age from middle twenties to late sixties. The majority of them wore tropical suits with dress shirts open at the neck. Some of the younger ones wore jeans or khakis with golf shirts under wrinkled, lightweight sport coats. Judging from their languages they seemed to be European or South African. Within a circle of twenty feet Marten heard smatterings of English, German, Afrikaans, Spanish, and Italian. His experience in his not-so-many-years-removed life as a homicide detective on the Los Angeles Police Department told him most were quick-buck artists-gamblers, manipulators, and hangers-on, wh.o.r.es of all trades-drawn to anywhere there was fast money to be made. And his sense of things during the few days he had been there told him there was plenty to be made in Equatorial Guinea. The dealings would be in drugs, guns, human beings, information-by the bundle or in snippets-anything at all they could sell for profit.
Marten pushed around a large man in a sweat-stained white suit and was trying to find the most direct way to the bar when he saw Marita and her medical students squeezed around a small corner table. She smiled and waved when she saw him. He grinned and nodded in return. He hadn"t seen any of them since they had been separated and the soldiers had taken him off for interrogation, and he was happy to see they had been released and were safe. He stepped around two arguing AG Striker oil workers and went to their table.
"We were concerned about you, Mr. Marten," Marita said as he reached the table. "Please sit down."
"I"m alright, thanks." They made room, and he sat down gingerly. "What about you? Everybody okay?"
"We"re fine," Marita said, then looked at her young companions. "Si?"
"Si," they nodded in agreement.
The four were people he knew only by their first names: the slim, ever-smiling Luis; baby-faced Rosa, a little overweight and looking like a wannabe executive secretary in oversized gla.s.ses and olive-colored sack dress; the quiet, chubby, seemingly overly serious Gilberto; and Ernesto, tall and gangly with an unruly mop of bright red hair and red Converse sneakers to match. Here, in this crowded, boisterous, smoke-filled room, surrounded by a crowd of hardscrabble players from a wholly different world, they looked a lot less like people who would soon be doctors than kids who should still be living at home and going to high school.
"They collected our things from the hostel where we were staying," Marita added, "and then brought us here, saying they would pick us up at nine and take us to the airport. We were told to leave the island tonight. From what they said we will be on the same flight you are taking."
"To Paris."
"Yes."
Marten smiled. "It"s a pleasant coincidence." Some coincidence, he thought. From what he"d learned at the front desk, it was the only flight out for the next two days, and the army clearly wanted them all off the island as quickly as possible. He looked around the table. None of them seemed to have been ill treated. Still, they had been questioned, and he wanted to know what they had told whoever had done it. He wondered if the subject of the photographs had come up, or if they even knew about them. He turned to Marita. "What did they ask you?"
"They searched us and then wanted information. Mostly about you. How we came to be traveling together. What we knew about you. The things you said to us."
"What did you tell them?"
"The truth, of course. That we saw you walking on the beach and you collapsed and we went to help you. After that all the things you told us," Marita smiled conspiratorially, the impishness in her rising up, then she repeated almost verbatim what he had told them on the beach and what they had gone over in the Land Cruiser on the drive to Malabo. "Afterward they asked what we were doing in Bioko, but we had already doc.u.mented our purpose with the proper authorities when we first arrived. So we were okay."
"That"s all they wanted, nothing else?"
"No."
"Nothing about a priest?"
"No. Why?"
Marten shook his head. "Nothing." Apparently the matter of the photographs had not come up. Perhaps because the authorities were satisfied with what he had told them and believed that the distance between Father w.i.l.l.y"s village and the beach where he had been found was too great to have involved a conspiracy to smuggle the pictures out. If that were the case, then the pictures would not have been mentioned. No reason to alert others to their existence if there was no need; that could only serve to complicate things later if some unforeseen problem arose, say, with the media and inquisitive reporters.
Suddenly Ernesto ran a hand through his pasture of red hair. "There was one other thing," he said in English. "When we collected our luggage we realized everything had been gone through, even our medical supplies. But nothing was missing. Why they did it none of us knows."
Marten half-smiled. "Don"t feel bad, they went through mine, too. Looking for what, I don"t know any more than you do." So they had been looking for the pictures. They weren"t that incompetent. "I guess they have a revolution on their hands and aren"t taking any chances."
At that moment a sudden gust of wind sent an avalanche of rain across a large window behind them. Seconds later a stronger gust rattled the entire building. Again the lights flickered, almost went out, then came back on.
"We"ll be lucky if we get out tonight at all," Marita said with not well hidden apprehension. She didn"t like being stuck here any more than Marten did. Too many things could still go wrong.
"That"s what I was thinking," Marten said.
Immediately something off to one side caught Marita"s eye, and she turned to look. Marten followed her gaze to see a tall, attractive woman coming toward them through the crowd. She was probably in her late thirties or early forties, had stylishly cut, shoulder-length dark hair, and wore expensive white linen slacks with a matching short-sleeve top. She also had the intense, almost severe air of someone used to being in charge and had something immediate and definitive on her mind.
With her was a handsome man in a tan suit with a light blue shirt open at the collar. He looked to be a little older than she, was well over six feet tall, had dark, close-cropped hair, and appeared to be more than physically fit. He, too, held the aura of authority. It was in the cut of his clothes and the way he carried himself: shoulders back, chest out; his movements smooth and fluid; his presence bordering on the aristocratic. It was a characteristic Marten had seen in some of his clients in Manchester, a studied military bearing born in the career officer ranks of the armed forces. There was something else, too, and it nearly took Marten"s breath away. He was one of the SimCo men he had seen in Father w.i.l.l.y"s photographs transferring weapons to the insurgents in the jungle.
13.
"I believe you are Mr. Marten," the woman said as she reached him.
Marten looked at them warily. "Yes, why?"