the old tin cans lying beside it and helped myself to a scoop.
‘Get them back to the strip, Nick, and sort your girlfriend out. But promise me you’ll think about the offer. It’s important to me.’ He pointed to the kid. ‘And believe me, it’ll matter to him and his mates. His name’s Sunday, by the way.’
I chewed another mouthful of the gritty brown stuff from the pot and looked out over the hive of activity in the valley. ‘You reckon you’re going to be all right here?’
‘We’ve got good positions. I guess we’ll have to fight and see. I’m not leaving the kids to those animals, and I’m certainly not leaving them to Standish, so it’s all quite simple, really. We win or die. You go do your job – but think about what I said. We’d make a great team . . .’
He beckoned the two Chinese guys and they came out of the tent, both clutching their carryons. I scooped another canful of gloop out of the pot and pointed at their hand luggage. ‘No – get rid of it.’
They looked at me and each other, then at Sam.
‘They don’t understand,’ Sam said. ‘Just point and shout a lot like they do.’
I put the lid back on the pot, then pulled a bag away from one of them and shoved it on the ground. ‘No bags.’ I turned to Sam. ‘Let’s hope we’re not all history by the morning, yeah?’
‘Too right, son.’ He did his best to produce a grin. ‘If we are, someone up there has quite a lot of explaining to do.’
You don’t shake hands and hug at times like this. You save that sort of shit for reunions, weddings and funerals.
I started down the hill. After a few paces I checked behind me. Sam was back doing what he did best, soldiering, and Yin and Yang were waffling away as they unzipped their bags. By the time I’d reached the valley floor they were sliding down the hill behind me, pockets bulging.
3
I carried on down the valley with Yin and Yang stumbling behind. I caught sight of Crucial up on the high ground to my left, inside one of the sangars. He was pushing a long thin branch into the ground; it looked like it had just been gollocked off a tree. A soldier stood alongside, a bundle of similar branches in his arms. At first I thought it must be some sort of camouflage, then realized they were arc-of-fire stakes, sited each side of the sangar. Crucial wanted to make sure that when these boys squeezed the trigger, they didn’t take out some of their own.
As I walked on, a young head emerged from a hole in the ground in front of me, carrying a lump of rock the size of a watermelon. A couple of old guys sat and broke it into baggable lumps with two-pound ball hammers.
A volley of shouts in French came up from the valley entrance and people started running. Seconds later, the ground rumbled and shuddered under my feet. A mass of logs and wood shrapnel bounced into the air and I dived to one side, ready for an attack. Then I looked around. Everybody else had gone back to work. Life went on; they must be blowing another hole.
As the rumble subsided, I heard an urgent yell from Sam, up on the knoll. I couldn’t make out what it was about, but he was pissed off big-time.
I carried on to the re-entrant. Some of the sick from Nuka were still straggling in along the valley floor. Silky and a couple of MF guys were immediately alongside them, doing their caring and sharing bit. Tim was further back, putting a blanket over an old woman who lay motionless on the ground. He finished off by drawing the end over her head.
I walked through the throng to Silky. ‘We’re leaving.’
She didn’t bother looking up. ‘What? We can’t move them again.’
There was no more time to fuck about. I gripped her arm to let her know I’d drag her out of there if I needed to. ‘Otherwise you’ll die here. I’m taking you to Rwanda, to safety.’
Tim approached, his face etched with concern.
I pointed a finger. ‘You can shut the fuck up before you start.’
But he still kept coming. I let go of her and headed his way, part of me wanting to front him and see what he would do. It wouldn’t be difficult to blow him over.
Crucial jumped down from the high ground and landed between us. ‘Nick, hey, it’s OK.’
Tim walked round Crucial, ignoring the pair of us completely. ‘You should go, Silke.’ He spoke softly to her. ‘It’s dangerous and it’s only going to get worse.’ He swung to face me. ‘I have a duty of care here. The miners, the LRA, everybody’s done enough damage to these people over the years. I’m not going to desert them now. But you’re right. She must go.’
I turned back to Silky, annoyed at Tim for being so fucking honourable.
He placed his hands gently on her shoulders. ‘It’s futile staying. Please, go.’ His hands stayed where they were a while longer. Finally, she lowered her head and nodded. They hugged, then he turned and walked into the crowd. Clearly he wasn’t big on goodbyes either.
‘Good, let’s go.’
I shoved the tin can at her as she took one last look behind her. ‘Get this down you while we’re moving.’ I grabbed her hand and headed for the river.
Crucial yelled after us, ‘Wait, man, the bridge – they’ve already blown it.’
‘We’ll get over, mate, don’t worry.’ I tightened my grip. ‘And I’ll think about what you said, yeah?’
I gave Yin and Yang a nod and they fell in behind us.
4
The bridge had all but disappeared. The only bits left standing were two log piers on each bank. Sections of the main span were strewn along the track. Sam’s guys were making it as difficult as they could for the LRA to cross the river. Unfortunately, either things had got a bit out of hand, or the translation was crap, because they’d sparked up too early.
I pulled out the sat nav. It was a small, handheld Magellan unit encased in dark green armoured rubber. These things normally took a few minutes from cold to tune in and find satellites. When it was ready, I’d key in the airstrip way-point.
I studied the thirty metres of river that separated us from the other bank. The rain-swollen, surging torrent was the colour of the valley, and we were going to have to cross it at some point. But not here: it was too wide, too fast. The only thing that cheered me up was the thought that Standish would have to cross it the other way.
I turned to Silky as she forced down the last mouthful of sludge and placed the empty can to one side of the track. ‘There a bridge in Nuka?’
She shook her head. ‘If there was, they’ll have dealt with it by now, won’t they?’ She eyed Yin and Yang, who were standing there like a couple of dickheads, chatting away to themselves, pockets bulging with whatever they’d retrieved from their Louis Vuittons. ‘Who are they?’
‘Surveyors. I guess they cost too much to train to get dropped.’
‘Speak English?’
She was looking at them but I shook my head at the same time as they did.
‘They destroyed the village. I hate them.’
It wasn’t time for a debate. ‘OK, listen, I need your help.’ It felt good to stick my work head back on. I told her about the airstrip, its connection to the mine, how far away it was and why we were heading there.
‘If we hit any of the LRA, you’ve got to do exactly as I tell you, OK? You’ll get scared, it’s natural, but that’s different from flapping. Don’t do that, just get on with whatever I tell you to do. It’s our only way out of here.’
The ground sloped gently upwards for about twenty metres, then steepened. I pulled the bergen from my back and dumped it. It wasn’t as if I needed the shelter sheet to keep dry, or even had any food, water or dry clothing inside.
