The Code War (26 page)

Nancy checked her mirror and saw
headlights behind.

'Trouble?' she asked.

'Maybe, maybe not,' replied Lafi,
sounding less nervous than at any time since they'd met.

It was 4.15 am.

The headlights flashed, three longs and
three shorts.

'OK stop around this corner, pull into
the side,' ordered Lafi.

Sure enough, after the next bend a
lay-by appeared on their right and Nancy slowed as she pulled
in.

The children, she thought, how can I
save the children?

But Nancy was not about to rescue any
children that night.

A large white van pulled into the
lay-by behind them and stopped, keeping its engine running and
lights on. Lafi reached across and took the keys from the lorry's
ignition and then jumped down and ran back, greeting the driver of
the other vehicle with a handshake.

Nancy also
went to see what was going on.

'Thirty-five, all healthy and fit for
work, count them,' shouted Lafi above the rain.

The other driver nodded.

Lafi pulled the rear covers back and a
host of sullen faces looked out.

H
e let
the tailgate down.

Lafi shouted at the children in
dialect and began to pull them physically from the truck. He kept
shouting and pointing to the white van until the children proceeded
reluctantly to walk towards it. The van driver counted every head
and made sure they all climbed into his vehicle. He reached into
his pocket, counted a bundle of notes and gave it to Lafi. After
checking it, Lafi nodded and shook hands with the driver and then
turned to where Nancy was standing.

The rain was streaking down her face and
her clothes were already nearly drenched.

'Those poor kids, they're…' but she
didn't know what to say.

'Not your business,' shouted Lafi
brusquely. 'We go now.' He had successfully concluded his
non-Brother transaction and was now clearly relieved. And
confident. Nancy felt the balance of power between them had changed
again and that Lafi was now fully in control of matters. She
shivered in the rain, but not because it was cold.

The other driver shut the rear
doors of his van, climbed into the cab and within seconds had
pulled out into the road and was fast disappearing into the
darkness. It had all happened so quick. The thirty-five children
were still slaves. Nancy had helped them on their
journey.

Back in the cab of the truck Lafi
was now more businesslike and decisive. 'Thirty minutes' drive down
there,' he indicated a side road Nancy hadn't noticed before. 'And
then we pick up the drugs. No, not drugs. Medicines. Medicines,' he
repeated. 'And go back to Gambia. Then you go home. You like go
home?' he asked as though to reassure her that that was what he had
in mind for her.

'Yes, I like go home,' replied Nancy
calmly, taking the keys from him.

They drove for nearly half an hour
through dense forest until it was clear they were again approaching
the sea. The road was a mere track at this point. As they left the
trees behind, Lafi pointed across some sand dunes.

'I can't get this lorry across there,'
wailed Nancy.

'Only two hundred yards, but you must
also turn truck around.'

There was no obvious trail for a
lorry to follow across the sand dunes. They seemed to be virgin as
far as vehicles were concerned, there were no tracks of any kind.
Nancy drove slowly wondering if a wheel would become stuck. But
Lafi - or someone - had evidently scouted the place well for the
dunes were firm under the wheels and Nancy made solid, if bumpy,
progress. At the end of the dunes, she halted. There was a sudden
drop of about fifteen feet to the beach and continuing on was not
an option.

She turned to Lafi, but he was
already opening his door. 'Turn the truck,' he ordered. 'I start to
find boxes.'

Nancy sighed as she took in the
complexity of her task. She was feeling very tired after the recent
tension and driving in the rain at night. Now she had to haul the
lorry around to face the other way on a turning area not much
larger than the lorry itself. She crunched into first, pulled the
wheel hard down to the right and inched forward. Then smashed it
into reverse and pulled the wheel to the left, reversing only a
couple of feet. After what seemed like a 15-point turn the lorry
was at last facing the way they had come. Nancy poured with
sweat.

She walked
to the rear of the truck in case she was needed. Lafi
already had the tailgate down. On the beach lay a camouflage cover
in a rough heap. Beside it, in a large hole were several dozen
small wooden crates, all marked 'UN Medical - Not For
Sale.'

Lafi was hauling the boxes out of the
hole and piling them up at the back of the truck. When he had
finished he turned to Nancy and motioned to her to climb in the
back. He passed each box up to her and she took them and moved them
inside the truck. Within minutes they were done.

Exhausted and breathless, Nancy sat on
one of the boxes.

'Why bring them here? It doesn't
make sense.
'

Lafi was also breathing deeply.
But he was smiling too. 'Boat driver bad navigation. This wrong
place. Brother very angry. Need Lafi fix problem. That why you
here.'

So that was it. A monumental screw-up
caused by the smuggling boat coming into the wrong cove and then
having to stash the drugs, or whatever, till they could be
salvaged.

'So presumably, the drugs should have
come into a harbour in Gambia, then you wouldn't have needed me to
help you cross the border?' Nancy was piecing it all together.

Lafi just smiled and nodded. He was
starting to look quite smug about his accomplishment that night. He
had saved Brother's illicit cargo and made a nice little earner for
himself on the side. Not bad. He also hadn't corrected her when she
said 'drugs'.

'OK we go home now. Only one stop, but
after border.' Lafi jumped into the lorry and waited for Nancy to
climb in the driver's seat.

It was 5.00 a.m.

Thirty-five minutes later they
approached the border post and Nancy drew the lorry up at the
barrier. Rain was now sluicing across the windscreen as the guard,
the same one as before, emerged to greet them, this time dressed in
a waterproof cape. But in the intervening time his temper had not
improved. Humiliated by Nancy the first time around he was
determined to exercise his authority. Lafi was not in hiding now
and instead had donned a UN tabard, the same as Nancy's.

The guard pointed his rifle
directly at Nancy's head. Without saying a word he motioned with
the rifle for her to get down. Seeing Lafi, he summoned him too.
The guard went to the back of the vehicle and the two UN tabards
followed him.

'Open,' he shouted. Lafi, acting
mystified with all the skill of a professional actor, untied the
straps holding the cover and let down the tailboard without
question. The guard pulled himself up inside the truck and began to
survey the boxes neatly stacked in the centre.

'Where you get these?' he demanded of
Nancy. 'How,' he looked at his watch, 'in one hour?'

Nancy was the picture of
innocence. 'I told you, we are working closely with our colleagues
in the UN. They met us on the road. We have to bring these very
important medicines back to Gambia. Your President is waiting on
them.'

Nancy was wondering how she could
shout a warning to the guard and tell him she was Lafi's prisoner.
Unlike the police in Banjul who Lafi claimed he had bribed, this
man was clearly no friend of his. Lafi was standing too close to
him right now, close enough that he might seize the guard's rifle
if Nancy tried to warn him. It was just a matter of timing, Nancy
thought. She had to choose the right moment and then it would all
be over. She could talk herself out of any charge of complicity if
it came to a judicial hearing, she was sure of that.

Lafi seemed to sense the danger.
He had his arms folded, unthreateningly, and a bemused look on his
face but he stayed within a couple of paces of the short border
guard. That was another thing to consider. Lafi was strong and
could easily overpower the guard in a fight.

But the guard had other matters on his
mind.

'There is a charge for taking medicines.
You must pay. UN must pay.' He had declared his intention now and
his rifle was up and swinging back and forward from one to the
other.

Then Lafi started speaking to him
in dialect. They began to argue angrily. Lafi took some notes from
his pocket and threw them on the floor. The guard looked and spat
on them, shouting again. Lafi shouted back and threw some more
notes on the floor. He gesticulated with short, jabbing movements
and pointed at 'UN' on his tabard. The guard hesitated and demanded
more. But Lafi knew he had found the man's price. He refused and
shook his head. The guard looked from one to the other as though
briefly considering killing both of them. He stooped warily,
keeping his rifle pointed at Lafi and picked up the money. Then he
abruptly walked past Nancy and jumped to the ground.

A minute later the barrier was raised
and the truck sped forward, kicking up mud and stones from the rear
wheels. They were back in Gambia.

But if Nancy was relieved to be another
step closer to the airport and a long flight back to Israel, the
look on Lafi's face reminded her of her predicament. He was grim
and resolute, not joyful at their latest escape. She thought she
knew the reason.

'I know what you're planning to do,' she
said coldly, flicking her eyes to Lafi and back to the road. 'You
mean to kill me, don't you?'

No answer. But the emotion of the moment
was beginning to show on Nancy.

'Look, I know what's going on inside
your head, Lafi, you laughing slave trader. You've messed up worse
than a pig on a guided tour of a scratchings factory and now you
want me to take the blame for all of it. There's just one thing I
ask. If I'm going to die I want to die in a place of my own bloody
choosing. You owe me that, after all I've done for you.' She
paused. 'Don't you?'

No answer. Nancy had no idea how
much of her insults he'd understood. But it made no difference.
Lafi leaned forward and reached under his seat. He pulled out a
snub-nosed revolver and showed it to her.

Great, girl. If he wasn't planning to
kill you before you insulted him, he is now. Well, better a bullet
than a knife.

Nancy wondered if she could crash the
lorry into a tree. Lafi was heavier than her and would certainly go
flying through the windscreen. But the impact might kill her too.
Or she could just drive really fast to Banjul and hope Lafi was too
scared to stop her. But he could easily shoot her in the side and
then hold the wheel steady until the lorry came to a stop.

'Don't you?' She wasn't letting go.

Finally Lafi turned toward her and
nodded his head. 'OK Nancy, where you want to die?' Big-hearted,
generous man, granting her last wish.

'By the sea,' she said miserably. 'If
I'm going to die here, far from home, I want to die on the beach
with the open sky above me, the forest in front of me and sand
between my toes.' She wasn't putting on the desperation.

'OK, you know where?'

'Yes I know where,' she replied. 'The
romantic place we came through on the way here.'

They continued on in silence for the
next 40 minutes but she knew he was watching her like a hawk in
case she tried anything desperate.

The rain was still coming down in
sheets as the road led out of the jungle and back onto the
beach.

To the right, shadows of huge
trees leaned over towards them like bully judges at a bloody
assizes, their beaky canopies nodding in agreement that the
punishment was right and just. You've been a bad girl. Drugs and
child slaves. Death is the only verdict.

To the left the ominous dark sea
grumbled its hunger while the waves begged for more seafarers to
swallow. Come, sleep deep in our belly. Unwind your mortal coil.
Rest and suffer no more. Give you up on Judgement Day,
promise.

In front of them the ribbon of sand led
back to civilisation and order but Nancy knew she wouldn't make it
if she tried to drive on. Lafi was getting ever more fidgety and
was pointing the gun anxiously towards her. She slowed the lorry
down to a crawl and began looking for a suitable place to make her
last stand. Eventually, just as Lafi began to inch towards her
across the seat, she brought the lorry to a stop and switched off
the engine.

It was 6.30 a.m.

The sky was just beginning to
lighten in the east, behind the tree line.

Nancy dropped from the cab and walked
forward, kicking off her shoes. Lafi followed her, the gun in his
right hand. He looked around and checked that they were in a
secluded spot away from any settlements.

Nancy pointed to a slightly raised
sand bar about twenty feet from the water's edge. There seemed to
be more beach visible than when they came through earlier. The tide
was going out.

'There,' she pointed, 'right
there.' Nancy began to trot towards the spot she had indicated,
still holding her arm out in front of her, pointing. Lafi was
walking but quickened his pace to keep up. He brought the gun up
level and pointed it forwards. His finger took a light pressure on
the trigger. Nancy knew he would easily explain her disappearance
to Habib. He'd simply say she got frightened and ran away. Would
Habib follow up? Hardly.