On Target

excitement, not confusion. “I would have thought the Chinese would use their own equipment.”

“The Chinese? Why are you speaking of the Chinese? We Russians are experts in oil. Much oil in Siberia,” Gennady said with a smile that he likely thought was sexy.

Court’s research of the Sudan and the oil situation during the last two weeks afforded him with knowledge that, obviously, this Ellen Walsh woman would also have. The Chinese had control over all the oil exploration sites in the Darfur region. It was clear that Gennady did not know this.

“Oh.” She feigned surprise, but Court picked up clues that she recognized that the Russian pilot was lying to her about the cargo. She let it go and began spooning dingy gray sugar into her tea even as the waiter placed it in front of her.

Was her hand trembling?

“Why are you in Al Fashir?” Gennady asked.

She hesitated, again reaching a hand across her body to rub her other arm, both covering herself and comforting herself with the action. Obvious tells of anxiety and deception to a trained body language expert such as the Gray Man.

“I came out to survey the Zam Zam IDP camp. Unfortunately, my staff didn’t have all my documents and permissions in order, so they won’t let me out of the airport. I’m really desperate for a ride out of here.” She looked at the pilot again, and he back at her. He raised his eyebrows suggestively but did not offer her a seat on his aircraft.

Gennady said nothing.

“Have you been to Darfur before?”

“Yes,” the pilot answered cockily. “Many times.”

The woman nodded, still smiling. “It’s horrible out here. Four hundred fifty thousand murdered in the past eight years, and no end in sight. Millions more in the camps, either here or over the border in Chad.”

“Da,” said Gennady. “War is very bad.”

Court wanted to reach across the table and slap the insincerity off his face.

After a few seconds Ellen said, “That plane of yours is awesome. It’s an Ilyushin, isn’t it? Looks like some we have in our inventory.” Quickly she added, “I ship a lot of cargo in my job, though I’ve never actually been in a cargo plane.”

“It is an Ilyushin. An excellent Russian aircraft,” said Gennady, and Walsh nodded along with him, seeming to fawn all over his words.

“Here is some pilot trivia for you,” Ellen said with an excited smile. “Did you know Amelia Earhart landed here at Al Fashir on her attempt to circle the globe?”

Gennady cocked his head a little. “Who?”

“Amelia Earhart. The female pilot? The famous female pilot who disappeared flying around the world in 1937.”

Gennady just looked at her.

“Surely you have heard—”

“I have never heard of this woman, but I am not surprised she disappeared. Women do not make good pilots,” he said, as if this were the most basic fact of aeronautics. A dismissive wave of his hand and a loud slurp of tea followed his comment. Court caught the woman dropping her veil of admiration for the Russian man and revealing her true feelings of disgust.

But the veil rose again almost instantly.

“Well, I’ve heard great things about Russian aircraft. And the Ilyushin. Our UN planes do the job, but they are a bit boring. Do you think I could possibly get a closer look at your beautiful plane? Don’t worry, I won’t try to fly it. I’d probably just disappear.”

Her smile was wide, friendly, and, Court recognized, a total sham.

Gennady just smiled back at her a long time without answering. He gave his shoulders a shrug, but it was a shrug that indicated anything was possible.

Some of the other Russians asked her questions in broken English. If she was married—no. Where she was from—Vancouver. How long she’d been in the Sudan—a month. Court saw no deception in any of the answers she gave. But he did notice her looking at him, perhaps picking up on his scrutiny of her, and this caused Gentry to look away again.

They are all buying it except the darker one. He is suspicious. He knows I am full of shit.

Ellen tried to give a big smile to the man at the end of the table, but he turned away, bored. Unlike the rest of the crew, he did not leer at her. No, other than his earlier comment to Gennady, he had not been a part of the conversation, but it was clear to her he was listening. Either he understood her perfectly or he was struggling to do so.

But more important than the quiet man at the end of the table was the big airplane at the end of the taxiway. She just had to get a closer look at it, take a picture or two, somehow get some more intelligence on this flight into the heart of north Darfur. She wondered if even now the GOS army was taking the cargo off the plane.

“Will you have to unload your airplane yourself, or do you have someone from the oil company to do it?”

“The Sudanese will do it,” said Gennady, and immediately followed with, “It will be an hour more, at least. My men will go back and help them, but I can stay with you and enjoy another tea.” He smiled, she smiled, and the quiet man at the end of the table looked to his pilot. He spoke to him in Russian; Ellen did not understand a word.

“I don’t trust her. Too many questions,” Court said it in Russian and was totally unconcerned that the woman would recognize his distrust from his tone.

Gennady looked away from the woman and towards Gentry. His reply in Russian, as well. “I don’t need to trust her. I am not going to marry her. I’m going to fuck her. She’d look okay with a bath and some makeup.”

Court sighed. “We leave in two hours.”

“I don’t mean now, although that is plenty of time. I mean on my next trip to Khartoum. I am setting the table right now. When I next go to Khartoum, I will eat my meal.”

Ellen followed the conversation around the table with her eyes. Obviously she did not understand.

Court sighed again. He thought about dropping Sidorenko’s name. This would likely terrify Gennady into complying with his unauthorized passenger. But he did not. “Let’s just get our food and return to the plane.”

“That is a good idea. You and the boys leave me and Miss Canada alone.” Gennady laughed heartily, as did the other men.

Court just looked away, angry but controlling his anger.

“Why do I get the feeling you are talking about me?” Ellen Walsh asked with a smile.

Court stood without a word and began heading back to the aircraft. He wouldn’t wait for his food. He’d just eat the dry rations in his bag.

SEVENTEEN

Gentry stopped again in the restroom. He washed his face slowly to calm himself. He decided to pop some hydrocodone when he got back to his backpack; it would help him relax on the flight back to Belarus, and it couldn’t hurt anything; he wouldn’t be operational again for a few days.

But first he had to watch out for this Canadian woman. Personally, he was all for someone taking note of what the Russians were doing here, calling a newspaper, an international organization, blowing the lid off of the sanctions violations. But just not right now. Court would need this shady arrangement to continue at least until his operation was complete. A Westerner making trouble for the Rosoboronexport flights, thereby throwing a wrench into his means of insertion into the Sudan, absolutely could not be tolerated.