Chapter 17: Visit of the Editor-in-Chief Ernesto

Sunday morning, I woke up before sunrise. Although winter was just around the corner, a warm breeze greeted me on the terrace. The birds were chirping as if at mating time, welcoming the day with their song. The first rays of sunlight glistened in the dew on the trees. A beautiful day awaited us. Our valley lay peacefully before me, somehow surreal after yesterday’s struggle and dramatic events.

Normally everyone was free to enjoy the beautiful weather, but it was clear to me that the traces of the battle had to be removed as much as possible, especially the many dead, which we urgently needed to bury. I drove our Landcruiser to the helicopter wreck first. Many parts were scattered all over the place. A large pool of fuel had formed under the destroyed hull. The two extra tanks, mounted on the outside of the fuselage to extend the range, were running out. There was an unpleasant smell of kerosene. Luckily, I had parked my car at the first parts of the wreckage. Otherwise, there would have been a risk of the gases igniting. There was nothing we could do. The fuel had to evaporate first. Nevertheless, I got hold of one of those little inflatable children’s pools to collect the kerosene. I wanted to fill a couple of canisters with it so as not to pollute the ground next to the road too much.

In the village, life was already in full swing. The animals were taken care of. Smoke rose in front of the huts. Many villagers bake their pita bread on the outdoor fireplaces. They welcomed me in a very different way, not as reserved as they had been in recent months, but extremely warm and friendly. Their gestures showed their joy at our victory. First, two women hugged me, and then I couldn’t count the hugs anymore. Florence and Leonie thanked me on behalf of their children, which I clearly felt from the way they put the children in my arms one by one and whispered words of praise.

Liquids were also leaking from the armoured vehicle. Again, the floor was smeared with oil and diesel. Fortunately, there was no danger of an explosion, but the liquids had to be soaked up and disposed of. The jeep was badly damaged, but there was no fuel or oil spillage. However, it was blocking the access road. I got a strong chain from the container yard and used my car to pull the front of the jeep sideways.

Luca and Olivia had rushed over by now. Luca was to collect the leaking diesel in canisters from the container depot. I gave him the Landcruiser to transport the 20-litre cans and strolled with Olivia to the Casa. Alejandra and Carmen greeted me warmly and invited me in for breakfast, but I wanted to get back to the Palazzo. Zarina and Mayari were quick to give me a morning kiss. They were doing surprisingly well after yesterday’s excitement. They wanted to go back to their rooms at the headquarters during the day.

Something special was waiting for me at the palazzo. Someone must have known I was coming. They all stood on a trellis for me and clapped enthusiastically, as if I had won the victory all by myself. I pulled Daryna towards me. “Dear woman, stop the praise. Mrs Vernushina shot down the helicopter. She decided the battle and saved my life. Thank you, Daryna.”

The teenagers let Lenya’s mother celebrate and clapped fanatically.

“And Sula fought for Babette’s life and shot two attackers. Come to me, Sula, I want to hug you too.”

Again, there was a clapping and trampling of feet. The ten girls hugged their physical education teacher and gave her kisses. The atmosphere was uniquely good.

In the doctor’s room, Esther was sitting by Babette’s bedside, helping her to eat. Babette was in pain, but she tried to smile. Both teens received their kiss of thanks. I talked to Beth for a while and let her tell me how she had experienced the fight. It was an incredible heroic story. My assistants had hidden themselves between trees near the driveway, let the armoured vehicle roll up and fired the armour-piercing projectile from a short distance. Already the first shot was a direct hit. After that, the soldiers concentrated the fire on the firing site of the grenade, but they were without cover. Sula finished off the enemy. Unfortunately, a volley had hit Babette’s leg before.

Suddenly, Beth was crying. “Please, send Su to me. She saved my life. I want to thank her.”

I left the two teenagers alone and sat down at the big table with the others. It was only now that I realised how hungry I was. It was a great pleasure for Qesra to serve Luisa, Esther, and me. The others were enjoying the sun in the garden or looking after their children.

While I was eating, the siren went off in the container warehouse. I stopped the agreed evacuation and changed plans! Olivia was on the radio reporting that a car with two men was at our temporary barrier. Who were they? Ernesto couldn’t have done it that early, could he? Who then?

“Olivia, send Luca over in the Landcruiser. But no one is allowed to pass through the barrier at all.”

I took a submachine gun, Sula too. Luca came driving like a madman and crashed into our fence, right in front of it. But what was one sheet of metal against all our other problems?

The boy was terrified, but I comforted him. He had to drive us to the entrance without causing any more commotion. I got out with the submachine gun in my hand. Sula covered me. Luckily, it was Ernesto, who had left with his father before dawn. Sula radioed the all-clear. We greeted each other warmly.

Luca opened the locks and together with Diego and Marc, who had joined us in the meantime, moved the two beams to the side. As soon as the guests had passed through, the three boys closed the barrier again. Ernesto was astonished that the scrawny Luca was our driver and the pregnant Sula was handling a submachine gun.

We drove the jeep the few metres to the destroyed armoured vehicle, where several bodies lay. Ernesto asked if he could take pictures. “For documentation, yes, but please don’t publish them, maybe later”.

He gave me thumbs up. Marc and Diego uncovered the dead, and Ernesto photographed each man. Meanwhile, his father had returned from the shot-up jeep. He shook his head in disbelief and asked in bad English who had blown up the armoured vehicle. I nodded to Sula and she blurted out, “My friend Babette and me. Babette fired the anti-tank weapon; I covered her and shot two men.”

Ernesto photographed Su. When he heard that Babette was badly injured, his face fell. He whispered a few expletives in Spanish.

Then we went to the helicopter wreckage. Ernesto photographed every man again. I pointed to our mutual ‘friend’ Katharina. Ernesto only recognised the dead woman when I wiped the dirt and dried blood from her face. Again, he clenched his fist and cursed. After seeing the passports yesterday, I knew that the man in the light grey suit was the gang leader, Alexander. Ernesto took a close-up of his face after I made it more visible with one of the dead man’s jacket sleeves.

Among the stones and bushes I noticed a black pilot’s case. It was slightly dented, but otherwise undamaged. It was definitely Akhmetov’s. Inside were two folders and several files of documents. I found photos of our valley, plans of the palace, overviews of the shares. There were even pictures of the Tsar’s treasure that I had found in the security room. Someone had prepared thoroughly for the attack and had an idea of what valuables could be taken from us. At some point I had to study these files. I had no idea where the gang leader had got the documents from. Maybe I would learn something important that I didn’t know yet.

Meanwhile, Ernesto’s father had examined the wreckage. He found that it was an American MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. But it was an outdated model. According to the number plate, it belonged to the Colombian army and had been used against the FARC guerrillas. How had Akhmetov managed to rent such a helicopter? Ernesto just said that in South America you could solve almost anything with money.

He wanted to know how we got it down. That would be almost impossible. When I said “Stinger” he looked at me incredulously. “You do has Stinger?” His English was a little rough.

I nodded. “The Rus had them and now they are ours.”

“You?” He made a gesture to shoot something down.

“No, a woman from there.” I pointed to the Palazzo roof. Still incredulous, he shook his head.

“There, on the bare spot on the slope, we had a big fire a few days ago and tried out two Stingers. We had no idea about these things.”

Ernesto spoke to his father. He shook his head again, as the officer had done yesterday. “It’s impossible to shoot down an American helicopter gunship,” Ernesto translated for me.

I laughed. “Then it was the shit of a flock of birds,” and pointed to the wreckage.

Laughing, we drove to the main house. We parked our two cars outside the front door. Our guests sat down at the big table. They wanted to meet the heroine who had dared to blow up the armoured car.

While Cara prepared coffee and some snacks, I went into the hospital room.

Babette smiled at me, although she was obviously in pain. I cautiously sat down beside her and whispered to her again my thanks and a few particularly kind words. She gave me a loving kiss and moaned. It was torture for me to see her suffer like that. The tears rolled down my cheeks again and then they were hers too.

“Can I bring guests to you?”

“Who?”

“You don’t know. Reporters.”

She nodded. Beth looked at me curiously. I called Ernesto and Alvaro over and led them to my heroine. Ernesto said some nice words to Babette. I allowed him to take a few photographs, but first I combed her dishevelled hair. Babette smiled as she sat up. We uncovered her heavily bandaged, recently operated leg for the next photo. I called Sula over and sat her next to Babette. Sula kissed her friend on the cheek, so happy to be able to smile again. I was asked to stand behind her, but I refused.

“No photos of me, please,” I said seriously. Ernesto nodded in understanding.

Then the siren went off again. I ran to the jeep where my submachine gun was. It was a white helicopter hovering in the valley. I ran up the stairs and aimed the machine gun at the helicopter. It would be easy to bring it down with the strong weapon if it came any closer. Something was announced over the loudspeaker. Ernesto looked out of the roof hatch and called to me: “Policia – Police”.

I put the submachine gun down and climbed down. They were coming closer and closer, apparently intending to land on the helipad. I called to Sula to block it with a buggy. The man on the loudspeaker was furious. I ran to the gate and showed him that he could land outside.

A policeman ran towards our gate with a gun pointed at me while the pilot was still turning off the engine. Two more policemen followed. Sula came to me with her Wieger and crouched behind the buggy. One policeman, apparently the boss, shouted something and shook the gate. I didn’t react and calmly said only, “Good morning” and asked what they wanted. None of the three spoke English.

Meanwhile, Ernesto had approached with his father. The officer obviously knew the reporter and greeted him, visibly shocked. Ernesto told me that the police wanted to talk to me.

“Why?”

The policeman smiled uncertainly. “There were fights here yesterday. We need to investigate.”

“With pleasure. There are seven bodies over there, eight on the other side. Investigate. I’ll have a list of names and information brought to you. Two of the attackers, however, had no papers with them.”

Ernesto translated.

“I need to talk to you and the people who shot.”

“They came in a helicopter and immediately fired at us without warning. The armoured car did the same. We just fought back.”

When he insisted on coming in to take a statement, I told him that the adjutant of the head of the military command had recorded my statement, which lasted more than an hour, on camera.

“We are the police. We have to do the investigation.”

“My pleasure. There are seven bodies here, eight there. Have a look, investigate. I’ll get you a list of names and dates. But as I said, we don’t even know the names of two of the attackers.”

He spoke in a very angry tone. “You are in my country. You have to cooperate. We are the police, responsible for law and order.”

I could also use that tone and replied with mock anger, “You should have protected us yesterday. We don’t have time for your games; we have to work to live. We miss yesterday. And now we have to get things in order.”

“Are you taking the bodies?” I asked ironically, as they only had a four-seater.

“They have to be buried here,” he said. “And you have little girls here that you have raped and impregnated?”

That’s where the wind was coming from. Luckily, I hadn’t let them in.

“We want to see the girls and children.”

“You have no right to frighten children here. What happened yesterday was bad enough.”

He swore and threatened with his gun. Sula loaded her submachine gun and it became quieter outside the fence. Smiling, I let Daja and the ten younger girls walk up in single file. “Do you see any pregnant girls?”

When he continued to insist on coming in to question the children, I simply said, “Surely you know that you are on my property. You have no right to enter the valley without a court order and without my consent. Investigate what happened yesterday, there were deaths. Even some of us were injured. This is much, much more important than disturbing our women and girls.”

Ernesto asked me in surprise if this was really my private property. The policeman didn’t think so either. I quickly ran into the house to get my mobile phone. I had taken Sula with me so she wouldn’t make a mistake with her gun. When we got back, the policeman was still trying to crack the code on our door lock. Sula and I laughed. He waved his gun around again. I briefly considered loading my submachine gun, but decided against it, not wanting to escalate the situation any further.

Ernesto studied the document carefully. Then he said something to the officer. After a brief exchange, the reporter asked me if he could send it to the policeman.

“There’s no network here, I’ll send it to you when we get home and you can send it to the policeman when you get back to Trujillo.”

As I said goodbye, the head of the police operation swore. “We’ll come back with a search warrant and an arrest warrant.”