The Magellan still hadn’t got a fix but I started to follow the river south anyway, upstream, away from Nuka. We still had to cross it. Then the thing could ask its mates up in space where we needed to go.
I stayed four or five metres in from the track. The bank would be a natural route for the LRA to follow. In the jungle, rivers are roads, and big rivers are motorways.
Weapon in the shoulder, safety lever down two clicks to single shot, I navigated our way through the bush, using the cover to keep us out of sight from the bank.
My eyes scanned the jungle, but my mind kept veering away from the job in hand. What would happen to us when we got back? She hadn’t been overwhelmed to see me, and she was only with me now because Tim had had enough brain cells to know what was what. If it was over, then fuck it – I might as well come back here and take up Sam’s offer. Maybe helping the odd kid stay on the rails would help me get over it.
After an hour we came to a huge buttress tree, like a fat rocket with six big fins. The whole thing was covered with a mass of vines and moss. I gestured towards its base, then held up a spread hand for the Chinese. ‘Five minutes.’ As if they understood.
It sank in when Silky sat against the trunk and I knelt next to her, weapon at the ready, covering towards the river.
‘How did you get here, Nick?’ Silky was out of breath, but calm. One of the things I’d always liked about her was that she kept her head, even when the shit was hurtling in the direction of the fan.
‘I know a couple of the guys running the mines.’
‘But how do you know these people? They’re mercenaries, no?’
My eyes were busy scanning the river, and I kept them there. ‘No . . . Well, maybe . . . I know them from my army days.’
I knew she was tilting her head to catch my eye, but the terrain ahead was too interesting for me to divert my attention from it.
‘I don’t really know that much about you, do I?’
I was almost relieved that she’d gone straight in at the deep end. ‘It’s a two-way street, you know. I guess there’s quite a lot we don’t know about each other.’ I hesitated. ‘I didn’t know about your medical degree. I didn’t know that the moment you find things too complicated, or not going your way, you hit the road. Fuck what anyone else thinks. You’ve pissed me off big-time. You think this is a game we’re playing here?’
Yin and Yang looked even more frightened than they had when I’d bawled them out about their luggage. ‘Don’t you worry.’ I flashed them a smile. ‘You’ll be all right. Jan will be knocking up a
Silky wasn’t listening. She was staring at me. ‘Stefan?’
Finally I turned, but kept the weapon where it was.
‘Stefan told you, didn’t he? What else did he tell you?’
‘Fuck-all, really. But what little he did say made me realize I hardly knew you . . .’
We couldn’t waste any more time. I was worried about getting over the river. There hadn’t been any sign of a narrowing between the banks. I got up and waited for the others to do likewise, then moved off. We would have to keep punching through bush until we found a crossing point so we could head east.
I checked the sat nav. At least it was up and running. I keyed in the airstrip way-point, and the first thing Magellan told us to do was cross the river and head east.
5
We carried on upstream for the next hour. I did my job, looked, listened and checked the river periodically for a crossing point. It was like checking the chimney for Father Christmas. Nothing. It was still far too wide and deep, the current too strong.
We were due for another rest stop. Yin and Yang were fucked.
I led them away from the bank and headed uphill into a denser patch of jungle. We took cover behind a moss-covered deadfall, a buttress tree that looked like it had toppled over just before the Belgians pulled out.
I knelt down in the leaf litter and mud to cover back down to the river, and Yin and Yang dropped gratefully on to their backs, panting and sweating. They had a whisper and Yin produced a packet of John Rolfe from one of his pockets.
I mimed smoking and shook my head.
Yin thought he understood what I meant and offered me one. Then he started jabbering to Yang. I put my finger to my lips. ‘Sssh! No smoking! No talking!’ They got the message when I snatched the John Rolfe pack and crushed it.
Silky had stretched out on the leaf litter, her neck tilted back as she studied my face. There was a lot going on in that head of hers.
‘Why did you come here, Silky?’
She raised her upturned hands and hunched her shoulders. ‘I just—’
I frowned and very, very slowly placed a finger over my lips. Hers wasn’t the only movement I’d seen.
There was something in my peripheral vision, near the river.
Very carefully, I checked the AK’s safety lever was still fully down, then tried to minimize every single movement as I lowered myself behind the cover.
There was a shout from the other side of the deadfall, followed by laughter. A few seconds later there was another, and this time it was closer.
I was still kneeling behind the tree-trunk. My eyes darted around like they were on springs – as if I was going to see anything with a big lump of wood in front of me. What else could I do? For now, the AK wasn’t our biggest weapon; concealment was.
I opened my mouth to cut internal noises; external noise was what I needed to absorb and process.
A sharp burst of 7.62 shattered the silence, followed by an explosion of bird wings as hundreds flapped and screeched just beneath the canopy.
There was another burst of laughter out there in the trees. Yin and Yang whimpered to themselves as they lay on their bellies, their faces in the leaf litter, fingers clenching the mud as if they were digging a nice big hideaway.
I controlled my breathing through my mouth and slowly lifted my head. Using the foliage hanging from a branch as camouflage, I looked over the deadfall.
I saw movement down by the river, lots of it: maybe ten, fifteen bodies, blurred by the trees, heading downstream. If we’d stayed near the track, we would have walked straight into them.
They were mooching along in groups of two and three, all over the place, no hint of a proper formation, but all carrying. They had to be Kony’s men from the south.
The shouts and banter got louder. One guy lit two cigarettes and handed one to his mate. The smoke hung in a small cloud under the canopy.
I lowered my head again and, staying on my knees, got my mouth to Silky’s ear. ‘We wait. Keep still.’
I leaned down to Yin and Yang and tapped gently to get them to turn their heads and open their eyes. I motioned them to keep still. I put my finger to my lips and gave them an exaggerated smile, trying to bring down their pulse-rate. They looked at me as if I was a madman.
The first group of voices moved closer, then receded as they passed from our right to left, in the direction of the mine, and it wasn’t long before I smelled more cigarette smoke.
So far so good. No voices too close; no rustling of the leaf litter just the other side of the deadfall.
I breathed slowly and shallowly. Yin and Yang trembled, trying their hardest to hold it together. They screwed up their faces, eyes tight shut. Maybe they thought that if they couldn’t see they couldn’t be seen. Or maybe they were doing their best to block out what was happening because they couldn’t hack it.
Silky was curled up on the ground. Her eyes were wide open, but not to take in what was happening. They burned into mine.
Voices came from closer than the track – two, three guys muttering to each other. Following sign we had left?
