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Once everyone was gone, we walked to our spot. It was far enough from camp to be safe and both of us wanted to go back for a final peek. ‘You better not start shagging again,’ Adam said. ‘I don’t want to be a Granddad at my age.’ ‘You mean an Uncle, midget.’ I picked some of the yellow flowers and stuck them in Sami’s hair. She laughed, but you could tell she was still sad after saying goodbye to her Dad. Adam got hundreds of flowers and turned his scruffy hair into a bouquet. We sorted out the packs so Sami had the heaviest load. It was a bit shameful that she was stronger, but pride wasn’t going to get me home.

We looked at Captain’s hand drawn maps. He must have spent hours tracing pages off his own maps, filling in missing sections from memory and adding notes in tiny handwriting at the bottom of each sheet of exercise paper. ‘How far is the capital?’ Adam asked, looking over my shoulder. I flicked through the pages and added together Captain’s estimated distances. ‘About 2300 Kilometres,’ I said. ‘It’s like driving from London to Italy.’ ‘You’d need about a million years to walk that far,’ Adam said. ‘We’ll have to hitch a lift or steal a truck,’ Sami said. ‘I agree with Dad about us not going too far until

things calm down.’ ‘Billy Mango’s?’ I asked. Adam hadn’t been in the office when I mentioned it before. He looked pleased. ‘It’s as good a place to stay as any,’ Sami said. ‘It’s away from all the roads. We’ll be safe once we get

there.’ ‘It’s sixty kilometres’ I said. ‘Can we make that in one go?’ Sami shook her head, ‘I don’t want to be on the road in daylight at the moment, but if we don’t stick to the roads, we’ll get lost. We’ll rest now and set off when the sun drops. We should manage five or six kilometres an hour through the night. When day breaks, we’ll decide whether to rest or carry on, based on how many soldiers we’ve seen.’

After four hours walking, Adam broke down in the road and started to cough from all the dust. We’d taken his pack and all his stuff off him, but he still couldn’t hack it. ‘It hurts,’ he whined. ‘Where does it hurt this time?’ Sami asked fiercely.

‘Everywhere.’ Sami had run out of patience. She picked Adam off the floor and dumped him on his feet. ‘Come on, Sami,’ I said. ‘He’s only got little legs.’ ‘He’s got to learn to take pain,’ Sami said. ‘Or we’ll never get anywhere.’ In England, Adam moaned about his legs aching when we went shopping and Dad would carry him to

the car. In Africa, kids walked everywhere and got clobbered if they dragged their feet. Me and Sami grabbed one wrist each and marched Adam between us. ‘Captain used to play games with me and Edo on long walks,’ Sami said. ‘It makes time go faster.’ Adam didn’t look enthusiastic. ‘What games?’ I asked. ‘Take it in turns to name stuff. Or do times tables,’ Sami said. ‘We all have to say a boys name starting

with the next letter of the alphabet. I’ll start with A, for Adam.’ ‘B for Boris,’ I said. ‘Your go Adam.’ ‘I dunno,’ Adam moaned. ‘There’s one in your class at school,’ I said. ‘C is for Charlie,’ Adam said, grudgingly. ‘D is for Desi,’ Sami said. Adam walked better once he started getting into the games. We did girls names, makes of cars, TV

shows, pop groups. Adam even tried to teach Sami to play I spy, but it was pitch black, so it didn’t really work. We’d got about two thirds of the way when the sun started coming up. We hadn’t seen a roadblock, but there was loads of army traffic. At night, you can crouch at the side of the road and let it pass. Even if the conscripts driving the trucks did see us, they wouldn’t stop and investigate in case it was an ambush. It was different in daylight. You’d be seen from further away and you had to hide deep in the bushes.

We found an overgrown trail leading to an abandoned village. We checked out the rotting buildings, making sure they were empty. There was a stream nearby. The banks were all muddy, but it was clean enough to wash our sweat off and scoop drinking water. I made a fire and purified me and Adam’s water by boiling it. Sami’s guts were like cast iron, she could drink anything. I still got the shits half the time if I drank unboiled. Adam wasn’t as sensitive as me, but I made him drink purified. The last thing I wanted was a sick kid on my hands.

Sami found some fruit and a nest of birds eggs, which we cracked open and ate raw. We had a lightweight tent that was stolen off a mercenary. We put it up in the shade, but it was still roasting inside. Laying in the open would have been cooler, but then we’d be fighting off snakes, scorpions, leopards and a zillion bugs and insects. I could never normally sleep in the daytime, specially not inside a tent, but I’d been up more than fifty hours. I stripped down to my boxers, rolled my sweaty t-shirt under my head and dropped off in about three seconds. We had to go eighteen kilometres the second night. Adam’s feet were all scabby and his ankles were puffed up. Sami popped his blisters with a needle and squirted out the pus. She tightly wrapped a length of bandage around his ankles for support and reduced the poor kid to tears when she forced his trainers on. It wasn’t nice to watch, but Sami was right to be tough: the longer we were out here, the higher our chance of getting captured.

We passed a couple of roadblocks on the last stretch. They were designed to stop vehicles, not pedestrians. As long as you spotted them in time you could creep through the trees behind, keeping your eyes open for a mine or a trip wire. We went by where Sami found me and decided to rest at Grandma’s burned out house. Going off road in the dark was hopeless.

We set the tent in the trees behind what was left of the house and grabbed some rest before it got light. Adam cuddled up between me and Sami and had a bit of a cry about his feet before he fell asleep.

Next morning, I crunched over the blackened wood and rubble to our wasted Subaru pickup. It felt sad, like visiting a sick friend in hospital. I stuck my head in the cab and choked on burned plastic fumes. The fire in the back had melted the pistols into a single lump that looked like something out of a modern art gallery.

Adam led the way through the forest. The prospect of seeing Billy again made him quite cheerful. Sami checked up with a compass, but she needn’t have worried, Adam remembered the route. We approached Billy’s hut cautiously, just in case. I thought he was out, but he was balled up in a corner with about ten animal skins over his head. Sami peeled a couple of them back. Billy was pissing sweat and shaking all over. He sat up and opened his eyes to check us out, but he could barely keep them open.

I knew it was malaria. Dad had an attack once after a business trip. Almost everyone in central Africa got it sometime. I’d seen a couple of people at camp get struck down, even though Amo gave us an anti-malaria tablets every week ‘Make yourselves at home,’ Billy shuddered. He managed a little smile for Adam, but he drooped back down and pulled the skins over his head. It

must have been sixty degrees under there, but Billy still shivered. ‘Can we catch malaria off him?’ Adam asked. ‘Not from Billy,’ Sami said. ‘You get it off mosquito bites.’ Adam had been looking forward to messing around with Billy. He was a bit miffed that Billy was ill. ‘Want to go spear fishing?’ Adam asked. ‘We’ll need food.’ Adam stripped to his shorts and led me to the lakeside. It was an ideal spot. The clear water was less

than a metre deep and there were more fish than you could count. ‘Watch for snakes,’ Adam said. ‘And move gently. The fish all leg it if they feel a strong current.’ We waded in. Billy left his spears wedged into the bottom of the lake. There were a couple of plastic

tubs hooked in the reeds. ‘Take a spear,’ Adam said. I plucked one out of the sand. Adam grabbed a tub. He liked being the boss for once. ‘Aim a bit in front of the fish. They’ll fly off when they feel the spear coming.’ I looked into the water. There were plenty of targets to choose from, but they all moved fast and kept

changing direction. ‘Come on,’ Adam said sarcastically. ‘It’ll get dark in ten hours.’ I made a couple of hopeless thrusts into the mud. ‘You would have got that one if it was five feet long,’ Adam giggled. I spotted this fat fish, forty centimetres long. It was drifting towards me, almost like it daring me. I stabbed at it once, missing completely. The second time the spear glanced off the side of the fish, making it charge away. ‘Mind your toes,’ Adam shouted. I’d been concentrating on the fish and only missed my toes by a few centimetres. Adam handed over

the tub and snatched the spear off me. ‘Now, watch the master at work,’ Adam said. He spread his legs wide apart and stared down intently, keeping the tip of the spear in the water and holding the shaft with both hands. He moved fast, narrowly missing on his first attempt. Before I had time to crow, he stabbed an absolute beauty and held the thrashing fish in my face. The sun reflecting off it’s silver skin blinded me. A stream of blood dripped off the pole, staining the clear water. I dragged the fish off the pole with one hand. It thrashed about inside the plastic tub, drumming against the sides. ‘Pin it until it stops wriggling or it’ll escape,’ Adam said. The fish had plenty of fight, despite the spear almost tearing it in two. While it suffocated, Adam got

another. He pushed the blunt end of the spear into the sand, with the fish flapping in agony over the water. When I had four dead fish in the tub, Adam offered me a second chance with the spear. He was all puffed, but he’d enjoyed showing off his skills. I didn’t try hard. I played it for laughs, pretending to loose my temper and crashing into the water. Adam had been through a rough time and needed cheering up. ‘You know how to gut them?’ Adam asked, knowing I didn’t. He crouched in the mud at the edge of the water, opened up the fish with a sharp knife and rammed

his hands inside. They came out covered in strings of guts and blood. I didn’t need to fake my disgust. ‘Want to do the next one? Adam laughed.

‘No ta.’ ‘It’s only some guts,’ Adam said. ‘You’re such a pussy.’ He chopped of the head and tail, peeled out the backbone and dipped the fish in the lake to wash out

the last traces of blood. Then he flicked his wrist, splattering me with the bloody water. I jumped backwards. ‘I’ll get you for that, midget.’ ‘You can’t come near me,’ Adam giggled. ‘I’ll rub guts all over you.’ Adam slept with Billy in the hut. There was room for all of us in there, but me and Sami preferred the tent where we had more privacy. It was our fourth morning at chez Mango. Billy was on the mend. He’d eaten some fish and walked around a bit the day before, though he hadn’t shaved and still looked weak. Sami rolled on top of me and gave me a kiss. ‘Feel like some sex, Killer?’ ‘Always,’ I grinned. We got about three seconds of snogging in before the zip on our tent cracked open. ‘Leave us alone midget,’ I shouted. Billy cleared his throat, ‘Ahem.’ Sami clambered off me and pulled on her shirt ‘Sorry Billy,’ I said. ‘I thought you were Adam. He always butts in if were snogging or anything.’ ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Billy said. ‘I need to speak with the pair of you.’ We got dressed and sat outside the hut. Billy spoke while he cooked us fish and banana over his wood

burning stove. ‘A man used to go outside the TV studio and pick three girls from the crowd,’ Billy said, stirring the food. ‘I’d take the prettiest one back to my flat for a night of passion and kick her out of bed the next morning.’ I laughed. Sami gave us a killer look. ‘I had more cousins and relatives than I could count,’ Billy continued. ‘I never knew half of them existed until I got rich. Then there was my wife’s family. Total parasites. When the money dried up, they all vanished. Even my wife.’ Sami tutted, ‘I’m not surprised she left you if you were out humping one of your fans every night.’ ‘So I wasn’t a perfect husband,’ Billy said. ‘Who is? No man’s gonna turn it down when there’s twenty

girls jigging their goodies up and down in front of you.’ I laughed, ‘I could live with that.’ Sami punched my thigh. ‘Pig,’ she snarled. ‘You ever even sniff another woman and I’ll have two penises in my jar.’ ‘The people in the army were even worse,’ Billy said. ‘So I bunked out of camp and walked until I found the lake. I taught myself to fish and hunt, built the hut and I was happy with my own company.

‘All that changed when Adam left. I’d enjoyed rumbling with him. Teaching him things. Teasing each other. When you took him, this place seemed dead. I hated staring at the same trees and walking the same path down to the lake every day. It got very dark in my head and I started to think about ending it all.’ ‘Did you try?’ Sami asked. Billy shrugged, ‘No. I started thinking about heading west, but it’s hard on your own without maps. I

was wondering if I could travel with you.’ I shrugged, ‘I can’t see why not.’ Sami didn’t seem so sure, ‘You’ll get recognised.’ ‘That’s why I haven’t shaved,’ Billy said. ‘The beard disguises the famous Mango jaw line.’ ‘You looked after Adam for two months,’ I said. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I owe you one. You’re

welcome to come along with us.’ ‘But if there’s trouble, we’re not sticking our necks out to rescue you.’ Sami said. ‘Adam’s safety comes

first.’ ‘That’s fair,’ Billy said. ‘When are we going?’

Our next target was Kisumba, the nearest big town. It was 400 kilometres away on the western bank of the Maringa river. The Maringa cut the country in two, running north out of the mountains, before merging with the Congo and spilling into the pacific 3000 kilometres away. The river was a natural barrier, which the government used to keep rebel forces from the western part of the country. Captain’s notes summed up our options:

Crossing the Maringa
1) All bridges across have been destroyed.
2) Banks of river lined with mines, spikes and booby traps.
3) Gun boats destroy unauthorised river traffic.
4) Vehicles can cross on ferries, mostly army traffic. Vehicles are usually searched.
5) Do not try to get across dressed as civillians. The army assumes anyone crossing from east to west is a rebel and you will be interrogated and probably shot.
6) Best bet: Go over in a truck dressed as soldiers. Make Sami look like a boy. Adam’s too little, you’ll have to find a way to hide him.
7) Once you are over the Maringa and into the town of Kisumba you have travelled less than a quarter of the distance to the capital, but the most dangerous part of the journey is done.

We wouldn’t have had a chance without the notes. There was no point ambushing a truck. I’d never seen one where the truck didn’t end up with bullet holes and broken glass, which would raise questions at every roadblock. Our only option was to stick our head in the lion’s mouth one last time and raid an army base. We needed other stuff as well: diesel, a couple of days food, a uniform for Billy, some sort of cargo in which we could hide Adam and we had to switch our AK47s to army issue M16s if we wanted to pass for government soldiers.

We stayed three more days at the lake, making a full week. The best thing about Billy coming with us was it cheered Adam up. The two of them got on great, teasing each other and mucking about all the time.

Billy tidied and swept inside his hut, made a couple of repairs to the roof and stacked his fishing equipment inside. He’d probably never come back, but it had been home for five years and he took pride in it. We left an hour before sundown, giving us time to reach the road before dark. The air was even stickier than usual. A thunderstorm was pounding its way towards us.

According to Captain’s map, there was a base about ten kilometres down the road past Grandma’s house. There was no indication about it’s size, or what security was like. It might be a couple of sheds and a few drunks manning a checkpoint or it could be a big deal with mercenaries, tanks and all the trimmings. Whatever it was, the level of detail on our maps dropped dramatically once we got out of Captain’s old stomping grounds. It was better to face the unknown sitting in the cab of a truck disguised as soldiers than on foot.

The rain hit us on the road. The water was warm, like being in a shower. Our shoes got sucked into the mud, but it was cooler in the wet and the falling water cleaned the dust out of the air. We cut through trees behind a tough looking roadblock that had machine guns dug in and a metal gate across the road. ‘Last time I came out this far, there was nothing like this,’ Sami said She stopped moving and let out a little gasp. ‘I felt something under my boot,’ she said, sounding scared. ‘I think I’m on a trip wire.’ ‘What?’ Adam asked. ‘She thinks she’s standing on a trip wire,’ I explained. ‘If she moves suddenly, it might set off an

explosion.’ My heart was going mental. I pulled Adam out of the way, ripped off my pack off and fumbled inside

for the Aussie’s torch. I flicked it on and traced the path of the wire with the beam of light. ‘What can you see?’ Sami asked. ‘It’s hooked to a metal pin sticking out the ground.’ ‘Shit,’ Sami said. ‘That’s a mine.’ You had to step right on a mine. Attaching a trip wire to the trigger made it effective over a much

bigger area. ‘Any ideas?’ I asked. ‘Get me a strong branch,’ Sami said. ‘You better take my pack. It’s got all Dad’s notes inside and you’ll

need them.’ Billy reached above his head and cracked a branch out of a tree. Sami slid her pack off, taking care not

to loose her balance. The tiniest movement might blow the mine. ‘Give us the stick and move well back,’ I said. ‘If this blows up, they’ll be after you when they hear the

noise. Don’t wait around to see if I’m OK, I won’t be.’ I took the pack and handed her the branch. Me, Adam and Billy crouched behind a thick trunk. We should have covered our faces, but I couldn’t stand not knowing what Sami was doing. She pressed a fork in the branch against the wire and lifted off her boot. It looked easy enough, the second part was trickier. She had to wedge the branch against the nearest tree, so that the mine didn’t go off as soon as she let it go. The branch was slippy and she had no free hand to wipe the rain dribbling into her eyes.

A massive bolt of thunder cracked off, turning the sky blue and making menacing silhouettes out of the trees. Adam jumped with fright. The back of his head banged into my jaw, making me crack my teeth together and bite my tongue. ‘Sorry,’ Adamsaid.

My mouth started filling with blood. Sami got the stick wedged into a spot where the tree trunk joined one of it’s branches. Ideally, it would stop the wire setting off the mine for hours, but I’d be satisfied as long as it held long enough for Sami to back away. ‘Give me some light,’ Sami said. My mouth was in agony, so Billy took my torch and walked up close. Sami inspected the spot where the branch met the tree. Adam had his hands pressed together and kept mumbling the same words over and over: ‘Please god. Please god. Please god. Please god. Please god…’ Billy stepped back behind the tree with us. Sami gently lifted one hand off the branch. She took the other off quickly and dashed towards us, stumbling and just saving herself before she ran head first into the trunk. Adam gave me a high five and mouthed, ‘Yes.’ Billy shone the torch at the tree, ‘I think that’s gonna hold the wire down a while.’ ‘I’m a genius,’ Sami grinned. I had both hands over my blood filled mouth. When Sami realised she couldn’t kiss me, she ducked

down and smooched Adam on the mouth. ‘Oi,’ Adam moaned, swiping his lips on his sodden t-shirt. ‘What happened to Killer?’ Sami asked. I tried to answer, but a load of blood dribbled over my bottom lip and spilled onto my uniform. ‘Typical,’ Sami said. ‘I step on a mine and Killer still comes off worst. We better be ultra-careful the rest

of the way. There could be hundreds more mines about.’ Sami kept close to the ground, flashing the torch before taking a couple of steps. We stepped over a couple wires and a lump of metal sticking out of the ground that was probably a mine. I felt sick with fear and there was no easy way out: we were as likely to get blown up going back as forwards. It took us an hour to walk less than a kilometre to the edge of the base.

There were freshly cut trees piled along the edges of a huge clearing. A roar broke out and all the leaves around us started shaking. It was the unmistakable pulsing of helicopter blades. We leaned against the stacked logs and watched a chopper lift off in a cloud of fine droplets. There were three more choppers on the ground. A crew of conscripts was hammering fence posts into the mud on the far side of the clearing. ‘What do you reckon?’ I asked, looking at Sami. ‘Bet this is the new headquarters,’ Sami said. According to Captain, the commander of the old headquarters was a slacker, mainly interested in grabbing truckloads of booze and selling them to his own men at inflated prices. He kept his job by marrying the defence minister’s cousin and cutting his superiors in on the profits. He’d been killed when we took headquarters and his replacement was made of sterner stuff. It wasn’t just that the camp had sober conscripts in it. It had sober conscripts building a fence, in a thunderstorm, at midnight.

‘Jake, give your rifle to Adam,’ Sami said. ‘The AK47 is a giveaway. Billy, stay here with Adam. We’re going shopping.’

‘Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘This camp looks rock hard. We could go around the edge and look for a smaller base further away.’ ‘Reverse the logic,’ Sami said.

‘Eh?’ ‘Killer, I thought you’d been on enough missions to pick up a bit of sense. This is a well protected new

base. They just kicked our asses and no rebel in their right mind is going to stroll in and raid the storeroom.’ ‘I nodded, ‘That’s what I just said.’ ‘Military strategy 1A,’ Sami said. ‘Always do the last thing you’re expected to. If anyone asks questions,

act cool and say hello.’ ‘You’re a smart girl,’ Billy said. I looked back at him, ‘You’re not the poor sod going in there.’ ‘True,’ Billy said. ‘Rather you than me, especially without a rifle.’ Sami buttoned her jacket. She always wore one that was too small, so her tits got squashed flat. You couldn’t tell she was a girl unless you put some thought into it. We ducked low and stepped over the trees into the clearing. The rain laid a couple of inches deep over the cleared ground. We only splashed three steps before there was a gun pointing at us. ‘What the hell you doing back here,’ the gunman said. He was part of the Presidential Guard, wearing fancy waterproof boots with tucked in trousers and the yellow and black presidential shield embroidered on his jacket. I had to do the talking, Sami could make herself look like a small man, but she sounded daft when she attempted a man’s voice. ‘Sorry Sir,’ I said. ‘I cut my mouth. We’re looking for the medical tent.’ The guard let his gun drop onto its shoulder strap and pointed his torch at my blood streaked face. He smiled, ‘Looks like I missed a good punch up.’ ‘I just bit my tongue,’ I said. The guard started laughing, ‘You’re one dumb arsed conscript, aren’t you? ‘Yes I am, sir,’ I said. ‘Try the building with the big red cross painted on the front,’ the guard said slowly, as if he was talking

to a little kid. ‘It’s a dead giveaway.’ ‘Sorry sir,’ I said. We walked past rows of tents. They were lightweight jobs, all different colours and sizes. The ones on

lower ground were flooded. ‘Looks like over sixty,’ Sami said. ‘Mercenaries?’ I asked. ‘Must be with tents like that,’ Sami nodded, ‘Let’s check out the trucks and find a storeroom.’ There were about thirty trucks and tankers parked up, plus some APCs and tanks. Sami opened one of

the truck doors to see if the keys were in the ignitions. ‘See him,’ a soldier walking by said, pointing at a skinny man holding a clipboard. The clipboard man looked imposing, he had a fancy uniform and a bull necked conscript keeping his

paperwork dry with an umbrella. ‘Truck?’ Clipboard man asked. ‘That’s right,’ I said. Clipboard started scribbling on a form. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘We’re taking supplies out,’ I said. ‘Re-supplying a group out hunting for rebels.’ ‘Do you have a weapon requisition?’ I shook my head, ‘Should we?’ Clipboard tore off one of his sheets of paper, ‘That’s what you need. Can you write?’ ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Take this to the store room and get whatever you need. I’ve already signed it. Make sure you write down everything you take.’ ‘Yes sir.’ Clipboard handed me a set of truck keys. A helicopter was coming down, spraying the rain in our faces ‘There’s extra fuel cans over there if you need them,’ clipboard shouted. We could barely hear each other over the noise. ‘Thank you sir,’ I said. The supply hut was built from metal sheets, the same as the ones we melted at the old headquarters.

Three guys stood at the counter inside. I showed one of them my soggy form. He grabbed it out of my hand. ‘Who gave you that?’ He asked. I shrugged, ‘Guy out there under the umbrella.’ He screwed the paper into a ball and threw it across the floor. ‘You’d think an army runs on paperwork,’ he said bitterly. ‘Just tell us what you want.’ I went for the works: four M16s, three boxes of ammunition, grenades, food and uniforms. People might be starving in the city and soldiers might not get their wages, but nobody ever seemed to be short of weapons. ‘And a 20mm machine gun,’ I said. Sami gave me a funny look. I turned to her and whispered, ‘We can hide Adam in the crate.’ Sami nodded, ‘Good thinking Killer.’ The stockroom guys helped us carry everything through the mud and put it on the truck. We got in the cab. Rain plinked off the metal roof and torrented down the windscreen. I put the key in the engine. ‘This is like a dream,’ I said. ‘It’s too easy.’ ‘And you were crapping yourself,’ Sami said. ‘You sneak off and get Billy and Adam. I’ll deal with the

helicopters and meet you fifty metres past the front gate in about thirty minutes.’ ‘Helicopters?’ I said, shocked. ‘This has all gone so smooth, why do you want to risk messing it up?’ ‘Those choppers can drop on a camp and kill rebels. If I can take them out, we’ll be doing Captain and the others a big favour.’ ‘No way,’ I said. ‘We shouldn’t take any more risks. Captain wants you safe, not out trying to be the

hero.’ ‘Just try and stop me,’ Sami said. ‘You’re mental,’ I said furiously. ‘You’ll mess everything up.’ She jumped down out of the cab. I got out my side, walked around the cab and grabbed her arm. ‘What are you gonna try and do?’ I asked. ‘See if I can find the fuel tanks and pour in some diesel. They won’t fly with the wrong fuel.’ ‘I just want to go home, Sami.’ She shoved me up against the truck and waggled her finger in my face. ‘Those people were my life for six years, Jake. There’s never going to be a time when I’ll stop helping

them.’ I shoved her away from me. ‘Do what you like,’ I said. ‘You’re an idiot.’ ‘Don’t shove me Killer. I’ll kick your arse.’ A friendly voice interrupted our row, ‘Hello Jake, Sami. How is married life treating you?’ We both spun around, shocked. It was Father Desmond, the priest who’d married us. We only had

pistols. We’d never get out alive if he grassed on us. ‘Umm, hello Father,’ I said. ‘Married life is great.’ ‘Yeah,’ Sami stammered. ‘Great.’ ‘Should I be keeping my head down for any reason?’ The father asked. ‘No,’ Sami said. ‘We’re only here for a truck and some supplies.’ ‘Captain told me you’d be trying to get home after the wedding,’ Father Desmond said. ‘He warned me to stay out of headquarters the night you attacked. I’d have been asleep in one of the huts otherwise. Where’s the little fellow?’ ‘Adam’s hiding in the trees,’ I said. The man with the clipboard was walking towards us, with the umbrella holder shuffling awkwardly

behind him. He spoke to Father Desmond. ‘Do you need a guard, Father?’ Father Desmond shook his head, ‘I’m going out with these two. I’m sure they can look after me.’ ‘If you’re sure,’ Clipboard said. Father Desmond turned to us, ‘I can escort you the next fifty kilometres. I’m well known around here.