The Intern Affair (15 page)

“Yes, please, two chamomiles will do, thank you,”
Alhassan
replied dismissively.

They started eating in silence.
Mansur
felt powerless and trapped.

“Now, I’ll tell you something else, which will complete your
‘informative’
folder,”
Alhassan
said, “Talya has acknowledged the memory of the events that occurred during her high school years to Yves.
And, Samir has decided to go to
Conakry
with her and retrace the events when they come back.”

“But—”
Mansur
tried to interject.

“There are no
buts
about it,
Mansur
.
And as for me I will get that injunction out by tomorrow to stop that insanity before the
defence
team gets their dirty minds in action at the reading of your folder.”

“The
defence
team? What are you talking about?
We haven’t had any request from
Kareef
’s lawyer—”

“And you won’t. The fact that our Prime Minister has sanctioned the use of the information at the trial, should have told you that
Kareef
’s lawyers would get hold of the folder, as part of their discovery motion.”

“I see. Tell me,
Alhassan
, and I’m going to ask you this as a first step toward my trying to redeem myself in your eyes—”

“Redeem yourself in
my
eyes?”
Alhassan
was in no mood to give any absolution or forgiveness to anyone at the moment.
His anger was fuelling his every word. “Why don’t you redeem yourself in the eyes of Allah first?
You are an offensive sight to Him. You have denied the woman, who saved your niece’s life, the simple courtesy of advising her of what our government had done in the first instance—to get a background check on her. And then you had the gall of keeping vital information from her attorney, let alone her devoted servant.”

“I know what I have done,
Alhassan
. I’m ashamed at the thought of becoming a coward in your eyes, and I don’t know what else I can do.
My orders were simple; the copy of the information I have on my desk was to be destroyed when I had read it.
The original file has gone to the authorities in
Senegal
.”

“What about
Sir Reginald
?”
Alhassan
asked. “Didn’t you tell me that his first request to assign Primature’s guards to Talya had been an official request, which triggered this whole thing?
So, shouldn’t he be in possession of another copy of the file?”

“If he is, it didn’t come from my office.”

“Well then, you’ve got to call
Sir Reginald
this afternoon. Actually, we’ll call him together and we
will
advise him of this latest development.
After that I’ll get Judge Keita to introduce a motion to have this folder removed.”

“What about the Prime Minister’s order, we can’t—”

“Oh yes, we can,
Mansur
, and we will.
And you know what else?
When we get back to your office, we’ll
obey
our Prime Minister’s orders and we will burn the file.
And I don’t even want to read its content.”

“Why? Don’t you want to know what happened?”
Mansur
was
taken
aback by
Alhassan
’s change of heart.

“No. I have an immense respect for this woman.
I am deeply in love with her, and if Allah sees fit for me to marry her, I will. I no longer have a desire to delve into her past without her knowledge. Samir reminded me of the words of our Prophet Muhammad,
‘who is there that can intercede with Him save by His leave?’
We didn’t have Allah’s leave to do what we did,
Mansur
.
I’m to blame as well for my insatiable curiosity about the woman’s past in the hope that one-day I could understand her.
But I can’t do that without Allah’s leave.”

Alhassan
pushed his plate to the side.
It was still nearly full.
He couldn’t eat anymore.
He was at the edge of a ravine.
The pain of it all was destroying him.
He knew that Talya would be back, but he also knew he was forbidden to see her alone from now on end.
The Laws of Islam were very clear: he could only see her in public, work with her, help her in any way that was authorized, but he had to respect her chastity until the day he would marry. If he were to redeem himself for any prior contraventions, he needed to observe his distance and that until she would become his before Allah, and only if she would accept him.

Mansur
was abashed.
Everything
Alhassan
had told him was the truth.
He knew he had been wrong from the word go.
He was relieved however, for
Alhassan
’s directions and intentions of not reading the folder’s content even.
What was even more mollifying was the fact that his friend proposed to talk to
Sir Reginald
, and get an injunction against making the document available at the trial.

Yet, something else had to be asked. “
Alhassan
, may I ask a question?”

“Sure, our friendship will not suffer because of this, if that’s what you’re worried about.
I’ve done more idiotic things in my life and you have always understood.
So what is it?”

“If our government was able to obtain the background check in the first place, couldn’t the Senegalese government get a hold of it as well, especially now that we are going to prevent anyone to put their hands on the document in our possession?”

“That’s another reason for us to talk to
Sir Reginald
.
He could stop all of this rigmarole. Talya is a Canadian citizen and as such, no one outside of her government has the right to invade her privacy. I’m hoping that we won’t need to go any further than
Sir Reginald
to stop this.”

Both men had calm down now.
There was resolve in their eyes. They knew what they had to do. They rose;
Mansur
walked to the car while
Alhassan
stopped for a moment at the bar to pay the bill, and hurried to join his friend in the parking lot.
There was urgency and determination in his footsteps.
He couldn’t vegetate in self-pity anymore.
He had to move forward if he was ever to hold Talya in his arms again.

19

It was Thursday
late afternoon, and Talya was finishing her report to
Charles
. She had suggested a few remedial actions in regards to Doug’s inexperience at handling the huge task ahead of him.
She proposed that one of the engineers from the team in
Toronto
come to
Vancouver
on a consulting basis, to put the Sabodala projects on tracks and teach some of the ropes to their Baby Face.

As for
Ousmane
and his repeated phone calls to
Jim
, after reviewing some of the most important agreements, Talya decided to place a call to her pestering friend. She purposely called him just before Morning Prayer.

“Ahmed
Ousmane
,” the voice answered.

“
Mr.
Ousmane? Talya here, I won’t take much of your time so I’ll get right to the point—”

“Madame
Gilmore
…, Talya, finally you’ve called—”

“Yes, I have called, and I’m not happy!
What we’re trying to do here is to save your dream from collapsing in front of your eyes.
God
, in his wisdom has allowed you to carry forward with your wishes with
our assistance
.
Now, if you continue with your interference in the work we have been chosen to do, you will have only yourself to blame for the wrath of
God
befalling you.”

“Madame
Gilmore
, how dare you speak to me in those terms?” He sounded wide awake—and outraged.

“I am, and I will,
Mr.
Ousmane.
We are only subjects and servants of His will. So, and I repeat, if you don’t stop pressuring me and my colleagues, you, and you only, will pay the price.”

“I see that your teachings haven’t been lost.
However, as a woman you should remember your place. You shouldn’t allow yourself such disrespect when talking to a man.”

“
Mr.
Ousmane, do you recall Hagar?”

“Of course I do, none of us would ever be allowed to forget the wife of Abraham.”

“Well, in that case, I suggest you go to the mosque this morning and ask forgiveness for the words you have just spo
ken
.
And now, before I hung up, I wish to let you know that I will be back in
Senegal
in approximately two weeks’ time.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this in the first place before your berating started?”

Talya could hear the pleasure in his voice, although the words were of reproach.

“Because you behaved like a man who has lost all senses of direction once more.”

“All right. I understand, but I won’t apologize.” Talya had never hoped for an apology from their Mr.
Ousmane
.
That would have been a little too much to ask of their conceited friend.

“I don’t mind if you don’t, as long as you show slightly more patience with my colleagues in future, that’s all I ask.”

“If you’re back in two weeks, you won’t hear a word from this man in the meantime.”

That was that.
Talya was
quite
sure he wouldn’t call any of them anymore, which was all she wanted.
Meanwhile, she also told
Jim
to get in touch with
Alhassan
. The latter, in her opinion, would provide the assistance
Jim
needed in all of their African projects.
After all,
Alhassan
was now
Tristan
’s Legal Counsel in
Africa
.
The two men should be able to work together without any more interceding from her.
Anyway, Talya felt that she needed the next two weeks, before going back, to be spent with Samir. Her sanity depended on it. She was recalling much of her school days now.
Every day a thought, a gesture, a word would bring her back and she didn’t want to sink in a mire of emotional instability. She needed to keep her wits about her if she was to see the end of these projects.

When it came to attempting to resolve
Thomas
’s problem with the gold-diggers, they resolved nothing. They just agreed that
Thomas
would fly back with Samir and Talya to
Africa
in two weeks.
Charles
was happy enough with that solution.

It was about six o’clock when Talya left the office to go home and on to the airport.
Charles
, as always, concerned for her well-being—Daddy was watching—had given her some recommendation before leaving, and he had asked that she bring Samir to the office the next day so that he could meet the members of the new team.
She had agreed to come in with her friend as soon as he had recovered from the trip.

Talya took the airport shuttle and arrived about fifteen minutes ahead of the flight’s landing.
She was a nervous wreck.
She had
taken
a quick shower, changed into navy slacks and a colourful sweater, and slipped into flat shoes, of course, as soon as she got home.
While listening to her voice mail, she chewed on a carrot to relieve some of her hungry tummy growls.
There was a message from
Ghali
. Talya had told him about Samir’s arrival and he wanted to meet the man.
She knew it would have to happen, but she wanted that meeting to be deferred for at least a couple of days. She decided to return
Ghali
’s call later either that night or in the morning.
He needed to know also how it felt to be waiting for a returned phone call.

When Talya saw the customs’ area door open once again and caught a glimpse of Samir, she couldn’t hold back the tears from rolling down her cheeks.
Although she was grinning from ear to ear, she was crying. Samir was dressed in his pilot’s uniform and was pulling only a small rollaway suitcase behind him.
He saw her at once amid the awaiting crowd, and walked toward her an arm extended for her to nestle against his chest.
When they were a few paces away from the lined-up people still waiting for the rest of the passengers to exit, Samir stopped and hugged her tightly.
He whispered, “My Lady, you will be fine now.
I am so very grateful to seeing you,” and louder he added, “Let’s get out of here,” as he released his embrace.