The Intern Affair (49 page)

71

The people of Islam
describe a Bedouin as
‘the one who makes coffee night and day’
, which means that he will welcome friends or foes in his tent any time the person is in need.
Anyone (even an enemy) can claim shelter, food and water from a man and he will be given hospitality without grudge for three days. Because, as any host should know, one day he may be the one finding himself without the merest means of survival in the desert, and in need of welcome from his guest.

Thus, preparing coffee is a man’s work. The man pounds fresh-roasted beans in a brass mortar with a stone pestle, making a bell sound at each thumping. The host then brews the coffee in a beautifully etched brass cafetière, which rests over the flames rising from the embers, slowly burning in the cavity dug in the sand, in front of his tent.
The guest, for whom the coffee is prepared, has to sit beside his host in a show of gratitude for the host’s welcome.

The next morning, and a few minutes before sunrise, Talya observed Samir pounding the coffee grains outside the tent.
She stood watching him until he sat down and poured the beans into the cafetière.

“How are you, Princess? Have you slept well?” He turned his face to her when Talya sat down beside him.

“Beautifully well, Samir.” A broad smile came across her face.

Samir returned the smile. He seemed peaceful and tranquil.

After a moment’s hesitation, while stirring the steaming brew slowly,
he said,
“I wonder which of my brothers you think should come with us to Sabodala.”

“You know your brothers better than I do.”

“Yes, but I can’t choose one brother over the other, and put his life in danger.
Both have the desire to accompany us, but only one will come down and the other will continue the journey leading the caravan to the next destination.
So I am asking myself which is the more capable to do either task.”

“I should think you know the answer already.
Ishmael has the blood of a warrior and
Abdullah
has the mind of a master.
In my opinion, Ishmael is the one to come with us to Sabodala, and
Abdullah
should lead the caravan.”

“Those were my thoughts. And now if you would like to taste a cup of this man’s coffee, I would be honoured.”
He poured some of the hot brew in a brass cup, and handed it to Talya. “I wish for you to accept my hospitality, Princess, and stay among us for ever.”

“In your heart, Samir, I will be.” Talya drank a sip of her friend’s coffee.

The Arab coffee is flavoured with cardamom seed and unsweetened, but smooth and delicious.

Bringing back ancient times to the present, was magical.
If the future was only a repeat of the past, all they needed doing was to relive the lives of their ancestors to foresee their destiny.
They sat silent for a while, watching the men and the boys, going about their morning chores.
The tranquillity of the scene brought peace to Talya’s thoughts.

As they were drinking their coffee,
Jasmin
came trotting along the other tents and sat down by them, depositing a tray of unleavened bread and biscuits in front of them.

“My Lady, time is short.
We have to dismantle the tents but we want you to eat and take some biscuits with you. Please eat now,”
she said
firmly. Her eyes were gleaming in the early morning light.

“These look good.
Did you make them?”

“Oh no,
Afilah
is the one who cooks and bakes.
But I am learning from her.”

“Where is
Afilah
?”

“She is taking down the tents already.
I will do the same in a moment but not before I know you have eaten and you don’t have any need for me until we reach Nbak.”

Samir was listening to their little exchange and was smiling in contentment.
‘His’ women were well organized!
Talya shot a glance at him, silently reproving his thoughts.
He started laughing under the startled gaze of
Jasmin
who was surprised at the outburst.

“Did I do something wrong, Samir, that you are laughing at me?”

“Oh no, child, not at all.
It is just that I could read the thoughts in the eyes of our lady and they were scolding me.
I will tell you one day what it meant.
But for now, I think you should be on your way and do your duty.”

“Thank you,
Jasmin
,” Talya said as the young woman rose, smiling.

72

“
Charles
, may I ask
you something?”
Alhassan
said as he reclined on the pillows behind his back. He was feeling much less pain today.
He was on the mend and he had
begun
eating the night before.

“Of course, what else would you like to know?”
Charles
knew that he had suppressed much of the truth from
Alhassan
during his previous visits.

“Why isn’t Talya with you?
And don’t say that she had to stay in
Vancouver
to finish some project
s
. I won’t accept the lies anymore.”

“Well, I couldn’t tell you anything because the truth would hurt.”
Charles
felt slightly embarrassed. “And you were in no shape to hear it when I arrived a few days ago.”

“Now that I feel up to hearing it
,
will you tell me?”

“Okay, here it is.”
Charles
recounted the events in detail from the morning Talya came into his office and showed him the subpoena she had received to attend
Kareef
’s trial.

“Do you know where she is now?”
Alhassan
’s voice faltered with untold emotions.

“No, I don’t.
Since she and Samir landed in
Nouakchott
we have received no news.”

“Do you realize in how much danger she is?
She will be killed after she surrenders the traitor to justice. I hope you can see that.”

“Yes, I know, but there is nothing we can do now.
Actually, your father is contacting a few of his friends, as we speak, to see if he can uncover some information—”

“He’s what?”
Alhassan
raised his head from the pillow, grimacing from pain.
“
Charles
, I beg of you; stop him!
Or he would be killed the minute he goes home.”

“Why would you think that?
He’s only asking a few questions from friends—”

“I am telling you, if he doesn’t stop, these people will destroy him.
They won’t stand for anymore meddling.
You’ve seen the result when I started asking questions.
My best friend and a woman, a widow, are both in the ground because of my meddling in their affairs.
What’s more, I can’t return home until this is settled.
So please, stop Yves, or I might as well forget about living.”
Alhassan
sounded definitely distressed.

“Don’t get excited now.
I’ll get your father to stop as you wish, but
Thomas
and I feel we need to do more. We don’t want to wait and hear that the inevitable has happened without having done something.”

Alhassan
didn’t respond right away.
He seemed to debate whether he should pursue this conversation at all. He was recalling the time Samir and Johan, the mine site engineer, had gone to rescue
Karim
and
Helen
from their fate, which was to be killed if Samir and Johan didn’t find them in time.

Upon their leaving the site, the authorities had been alerted, and the site closed for investigation and removal of the nitro-glycerine that would have been used to carve the open-pit mine. Since then, everyone involved had been the subject of
Charos
’s retaliation—
Alhassan
was the only survivor, apart from Talya and Samir, who had not succumbed to the drug lord’s revenge. Then there was Madame
Gilbert
—
Alhassan
thought about her—he hoped she was still okay.

After a while,
Alhassan
said, “
Charles
, I had time to think of what happened before you left
Dakar
.
Several questions kept nagging at me. One of them was what happened after Samir and Johan left Sabodala.
Everyone assumed that the place had been vacated and that the villagers went back to the village.
We also assumed that the nitro-glycerine had been removed.
But then why wasn’t anyone officially advised that the job had been done?”

“And did you reach a conclusion?”

“I did in part. I concluded that a few men must have stayed behind to watch over something, and that something was the nitro.
If that’s the answer to the first question, then why hasn’t the nitro been removed?
And finally, I concluded that we hadn’t been advised of the clean-up being completed because
it had never been done
.”

“So what do you suggest we do about that?
We can’t very well go to the site and start cleaning up the mess ourselves, can we?”

“No,
Charles
, but you and
Thomas
should definitely go to Sabodala and find out what’s in the container
besides
nitro that warrants the authorities to delay its removal.
If I am right, you will also find something in the adits besides dirt.”

“And what would that
something
be?”
Charles
knew what the answer could be, but he needed to hear it from
Alhassan
. “And why would the authorities stall the clean-up?”

“Corruption,
Charles
. And I won’t go any further than that or you may end up joining me in the next room.”

“But there is no one here to hear us—”

“—there was no one to hear me when I asked the questions in
Bamako
, and the person who provided me with the answers is dead.
He didn’t even know that the information he had in hand was dangerous.
Now you’re asking me to do the same to you?
No,
Charles
, I won’t.
I have enough on my conscience as it is.
Just go to Sabodala and find out for yourself.
You have to go anyway to visit the site of the project, and no one could stop you.
As the prime candidate to claim all rights to the land, you need to go and visit it once again.”

73

Nbak is an oasis
located at the heart of the Trarza Desert, the southern most part of the Sahara, stretching from north-east of Nouakchott down to the Senegal River, another seventy miles directly south of Namjit. They reached Nbak at midday.
The sun was intolerably hot.
Talya’s black clothing didn’t repel the sunrays as well as the blue abayah that she had worn on the previous day.
She was burning up and feeling dizzy when Samir put her down when they alighted from Katoof.
The animal had been shaking its head more often and had seemed restless.

“You need to rest in the shade, Talya, and I’ll ask
Jasmin
to give you some salt tablets. It will keep the water from escaping your body. Come with me and I’ll stay with you for awhile.”

“Thanks, but I can’t
—
” Talya couldn’t finish the sentence, and she fainted in his arms.

“
Jasmin
!
Abdullah
!” Samir yelled at the top of his lungs. They came rushing to him. “Please, pitch a tent against the bush behind me and get me some water.
Our lady is sick.
She won’t be able to travel much farther if we don’t take care of her.”

“Right away, Samir,”
Abdullah
said, already walking away to advise the boys and the women to prepare to stay at the oasis for a few hours.

Once a makeshift tent had been erected and a basin of water brought to
Afilah
and
Jasmin
,
they proceeded to undress her and sponge her body with ample water until the sheet under her felt wet.
Then they covered her with another sheet and waited for the fever to brake.
The hours passed and after several bathing, Talya’s body temperature came down, and she woke up. She
saw Samir sitting
at her side his hand holding hers.