could not meet her eyes as he helped her down from the cab. He led her
to the door of the hut, and stood aside to let her enter first.
She looked around the sparsely furnished room, and realized that it must
be the company's administration centre. A conference table ran almost
the full length of the room, and there were filing cabinets and two
desks set against the side walls. A map of the area and a few technical
charts were the only decorations on the bare walls. Two men sat at the
table, and she recognized both of them immediately.
Colonel Nogo looked up at her, and his eyes were cold behind his
metal-framed spectacles. As always, his long, thin body was immaculately
uniformed; but his head was bare. His maroon beret lay on the table in
front of him.
Jake Helm leaned back in his chair with his arms folded.
At first glance his short-cropped hair made him look like a boy. Only
when she looked closer did she see how his skin was weathered, and
notice the crows' feet at the corners of his eyes. He wore an
open-necked shirt and blue jeans that were bleached almost white. His
belt buckle was of ornate Indian silver, the shape of a wild mustang's
head.
The sleeves of his cotton shirt were rolled high around his lumpy
biceps. He chewed upon the dead butt of a cheap Dutch cheroot, and the
smell of the strong tobacco was rank and offensive.
'Very well, lieutenant,' Nogo dismissed Hammed in Amharic. 'Wait
outside. I will call you when I need you.' Once Hammed had left the
room, Tessay demanded, 'Why have I been arrested, Colonel Nogo?'
Neither man acknowledged the question. They both regarded her
expressionlessly 'I demand to know the reason for this high'handed
treatment,' she persisted.
'You have been consorting with a band of notorious terrorists,' said
Nogo softly. 'Your actions have made you one of them, a shufta.'
'That is not true.'
'You have trespassed in a mineral concession in the Abbay valley,' said
Helm. 'And you and your accomplices have begun mining operations in the
area which belongs to this company.'
'There are no mining operations,' she protested.
'We have other information. We have evidence that you have built a dam
across the Dandera river-'
'That is nothing to do with me.'
'So you do not deny that there is a dam?'
'It is nothing to do with me,' she repeated. 'I am not a member of any
terrorist group, and I have not taken part in any mining operations.'
They were both silent again. Nogo made an entry in the notebook in front
of him. Helm stood up and sauntered across to the window behind her
right shoulder. The silence drew out until she could bear it no longer.
Even though she knew it was part of the campaign of nerves they were
waging against her, she had to break it.
'I have travelled most of the night in an army truck,' she said. 'I am
tired, and I need to go to a lavatory.'
'If what you need to do is urgent you can do it where you are standing.
Neither Mr Helm nor I will be offended.' Nogo ditered in a surprisingly
