‘Akhī,’ Tarek said smoothly, ‘you may not trust us, and that is perfectly understandable given the position you’re in, and the history between our kind and yours, but to be honest, I don’t think that you have any other option at this point. You remain at our mercy—’
‘Mercy?! Ha! That is a word that does not exist in the vocabulary of the Huntsmen,’ Aboubakar spat. ‘Still, shayatin, you and your fellow serpents are correct. I have no choice now. I am … I am at your mercy.’
Tarek smiled and clasped his hands together.
‘And mercy it shall be, akhī! You—’
‘Stop calling me that,’ Aboubakar growled. ‘I’m not your brother.’
The smile on Tarek’s face remained unwavering despite Aboubakar’s surliness and defiance.
‘Regardless of that,’ he continued, ‘what I was saying is that we do wish to continue working with you, despite your recent failure to kill or capture Gisborne.’
‘Come on,’ Aboubakar scoffed, ‘all of you knew beforehand that he would never consent to come willingly with me. The mission you sent me on was a farce from the get-go.’
‘We suspected he would not cooperate, but you must understand that we had to at least try. There are many things that we would love to interrogate Gisborne about … even though we realise that the chance of taking him alive is very slim.’
‘You knew that he would fight to the death rather than be taken alive. I was just an expendable pawn in the game, and if he had killed me it would have been a victory for you nonetheless; one less beastwalker on earth for you to worry about.’
Tarek chuckled softly and remained silent for a few seconds; he could not deny the veracity of Aboubakar’s accusations.
‘In any case, we still need your help, Aboubakar,’ he eventually said. ‘I do hope that you will cooperate. Things will be much easier for everyone if you do.’
‘And if you don’t,’ Nathan added as he stepped back into the conversation, now that his temper flareup had receded somewhat, ‘we can put you through a lot of pain. Intense and immense pain, the likes of which I don’t think your mind can truly comprehend until it’s been there. You know how far we can push things while still keeping that big ol’ heart of yours beating. I think you have a good understanding of our capabilities, right son?’
‘I’ll cooperate.’
The words crept from Aboubakar’s lips like dung beetles emerging from a mound of faeces. Nathan clapped his hands together once and beamed a broad smile at Aboubakar.
‘Excellent choice, son, excellent choice. Well, in that case, get yourself ready to fly! We’re sending you out to China! The scientists and engineers in one of our tech companies, MANMO-M Technologies, have just made an incredible breakthrough, and we need your help to develop the product to its maximum capabilities.’
Aboubakar remained sullen and silent.
‘What’s the matter?’ Nathan asked with a toothy grin. ‘Cat got your tongue? Not excited about going to the Far East and being on the forefront of technological development? Well, no matter sonny boy, you will be when you get there. And don’t you worry, we’ll make sure you have a real pleasant flight. We’ll get some jacked-up chippendale dudes in nothing but their tighty-whities to be your flight attendants, how about that?’
‘I’ve agreed to cooperate. I have nothing more to say to you,’ Aboubakar muttered in a low tone.
‘We’ll send in some people to assist you when the plane is ready, and I’ll get the guards to bring you a good ol’ hearty meal. I hope you’re a fan of Southern Cajun fare.’
Aboubakar lay down on his cot with slow, measured movements and stared blankly at the ceiling, not bothering to reply.
‘Let’s go,’ the Duchess said. ‘We got what we wanted.’
They all turned around and started to walk out of the enormous room. As they did, Nathan pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled his wife.
‘Honey bunnykins,’ he said with a smile as she answered, ‘I’m done a lot earlier than I thought I would be, so get one of the servants to keep the beef roast and bacon piping hot for me. And remember to make sure that lil’ Sam says grace nicely.’
He put the phone back in his pocket, but as they stepped into the elevator to take them back up to the ground level, it buzzed again.
‘Deveraux,’ he said. ‘Hold on a sec, I’m stepping into an elevator.’ They waited in silence as the elevator took them up to ground level, and when Nathan stepped out he resumed his call.
‘The local Indians are talking of organising a social media campaign, sir,’ the voice said on the phone. ‘They’re really stepping up protests against the expansion of our cattle ranching land into the Amazon. Last night they vandalised five of our bulldozers – they ripped all the electrics out and poured sugar into the gas tanks. It’s gonna take three days to get an expert out here to repair them.’
Nathan sighed.
‘Well, we gave them a chance to shut the fuck up and vacate the goddamn rainforest peacefully. Since they’ve gone an’ spit in our faces, I guess it’s time for Plan B.’
‘Make them … vanish?’
‘Damn straight. Nice and quiet like, but make fuckin’ sure that every single one of them “disappears”. Dispose of the bodies somewhere remote, and for God’s sake don’t be fuckin’ idiots and burn the villages down. Make it look like they packed up camp and moved elsewhere. But don’t you leave a single one of them dirty vermin alive. Those subhumans better all be at the bottom of a pit by the end of today.’
‘Understood, sir.
