Chapter 12

July 2009, Sudan

I must have fallen asleep, since now when I opened my eyes I could see the first signs that the sun soon would be rising. I started preparing the breakfast, and at some point I again started hearing voices. But, they were different compared to those that had woke me in the night. I kept my back to the door but I followed both Hana and Pam from a mirror when they came out from the bedroom. I waited for a moment before turning around and giving them hugs and kisses.

It took Karen a bit longer to wake up but it seemed that she'd had a good night's sleep, since she looked a whole lot better than she had the previous evening. All the ladies were very happy to have fresh coffee and the breakfast I had prepared. After that, I made sure that they understood how important it would be that they stayed inside the house for the whole day. Karen, especially, needed to stay out of sight; though of course, I wanted my wife and daughter to be safe, too. Whatever would happen today, by this night our mission here would be over. Before leaving I told all the women what I expected them to do during the day.

My last working day was almost cathartic. I knew that the others would be well capable of finishing the project. It would only be reasonable that they would get the main attention when I wouldn't be there anymore. For a moment I wondered if I should inform my successors about the informants working there, but decided against it. They were not dangerous, themselves. Besides, there would always be new ones if the old ones vanished. It was early evening when I took a last look at the site I had been working on for the last ten months. The result was something that would make life better for the local people. I was only afraid that it would not last.

On the way back home, I stopped for coffee just as I had done several times before. The Frenchman was already there, waiting for me while nursing his own coffee. If somebody had been following me, it would have looked like any other meeting we'd had here during these last months. We exchanged the normal pleasantries while I tasted my coffee. After a moment he used the commonly agreed gesture in letting me know that we could speak freely. I took a sip of my coffee and smiled when I spoke to him.

"Today might be a good day to disappear, or this following night, at the latest."

I could see him pale a bit but he managed to keep smiling.

"Is he back?"

"He was. However, there is a possibility that he got lost in the desert while driving; but there are some others who may cause some hassle. That will probably not be a problem, but the aftermath can get messy. You know the politics here."

He nodded and looked pensive.

"Are you sure about these things, Greg?"

"Absolutely. Look, I know this will cause you some distress, but a week from now you'll get some interesting information at our usual drop point. I'm quite sure that it will be enough to put you back in good graces."

"You give me your word about that?"

"Yes."

"Then why can't you give me that information immediately?"

"Because."

He was no dummy and he had no problems understanding why I needed that extra time for something that should be a routine procedure. We continued talking about our homes and families and all the possible things two friends might be talking about in a foreign country. When we said our goodbyes, we both were quite sure that we would never see each other again; but none of that was shown to outsiders. He had a list of the things I needed, and he promised to take care of it. After all, he would not be doing business here next week, so emptying his stock would not be a problem.

When I opened the door to our home I could smell something delicious. As there was no reason to spare anything, Hana had probably used all the best supplies we had left. It certainly smelled heavenly. But that wasn't what stopped me in my tracks. There were no Hana, Pam or Karen to meet me but instead there were two girls and one woman dressed in niqabs which left only their eyes visible. Three pairs of eyes looked at me, two of them were dark blue and one dark brown. The appearance was simply breathtaking.

"Wow."

I knew that it sounded really stupid but that was everything I could say.

"Wow."

I was repeating myself but I just could not help it. I don't know which one of them started giggling but they were all soon doing it. I just shook my head.

"You have really done some excellent work. Really."

I did not lie when I said that. I had eye on details and I could not see anything that was out of place. When I looked down at their legs Pam showed that they had also that covered by lifting their dresses a bit, one by one. They were all covered and also had traditional shoes. Good. That was something a qualified observer would look at. Their hands had also been taken care of, and the Karen's skin color now matched Hana and Pam.

They surprised me by undressing in the living room area since the only clothes that they wore under their niqabs was lingerie. Even without directly watching I noticed that Karen still had a killer body. Hana and Pam were about the same height but my raven-haired wife was more - voluptuous. Like you could say someone with B-cup voluptuous. But that was what she looked like. My little wife, with issues enough for a whole classroom of shrinks.

After a marvelous dinner, they started working on me. I was already tanned but with some treatment my skin color turned to something that looked more native. They decided to treat all of my skin. I first raised my eyebrows a bit, but then noticed that they had done just the same for themselves. Suddenly it did not help to think about baseball statistics. Like I could remember any? There was no time to get embarrassed, and once they were satisfied with the results, I had myself under control. Then it was time to do my hair. This time we would not be using temporary colors but something much more permanent.

Once everything was ready I could hardly recognize myself. Not only my skin was darker but also my hair was different. Instead of my normal light brown it now was black with some light gray stripes. When I added my brown contacts I looked like someone from these latitudes. Add the clothing and nobody could see the difference. If I acted like a rich, ignorant bastard, I probably wouldn't need to talk much, or so I hoped.

I retreated to Pam's room, hoping that I would catch some sleep. Once we were on the move, there wouldn't be any sleeping for a while. I looked back at the three women in the kitchen while I was lying down on the bed, and I wondered how different my life could have been, if just a few things had turned out differently.

I had been sure that I would not be able to sleep, but when I was startled awake with my heart pounding on Hana's touch, I found out that I'd been wrong. At least I was really awake now. I drank some water and made some final checks on my looks and after a few minutes I was somebody else, a bit older, an arrogant-looking man from the Middle East. I kissed Hana and Pam goodbye and gave a careful hug to Karen. I noticed that they probably had everything ready and the satellite phone was there on the table waiting for my call.

It wasn't much later when I had filled the tank of the motorcycle and was on my way. After some time I put my night vision goggles on and left the road. After less than half an hour's ride, I had my bike parked and I was waiting high up on the side of the ravine. About twenty minutes later I noticed that it had been a good idea to be there early, since also the opposite party appeared to come a little early, too. In a way I was not surprised. Even if the guys were hard-assed professionals, who were familiar with handling explosives, a large amount of them tends to make you a bit nervous. Especially when you are following direct orders from someone who is known to be even more bigoted than you are.

My plan was based directly on the fact that Khalid (he whom I had left to die in the desert) was so famous and so feared even among his own people, that absolutely nobody would question his orders. Right now, it looked like they were following his orders to the letter. Once they had activated the remote controllable explosives, they should quietly begin to drive the last half a mile to the bridge and put them at the place one of my employees had prepared for them. Meanwhile I was supposed to keep the guard busy elsewhere, so that they could do the drop without being noticed.

I kept on following the group of four fundamentalist terrorists who had planned to blow up the whole thing after a couple of days, when one of the ministers would be there to open the site. They had it all planned with their friends in the government. The leaders would point to the minorities, and the resulting anger would give people a good reason to attack them. Of course, after a while both police and military would come and restore the peace. But ... not too soon, mind you. My family was supposed to be 'collateral damage.' This suited my boss very well, as he was one of the hawks. Attacking one of our own would also give them a good reason to start some countermeasures. I felt sick when I thought about all the levels of corruption, betrayal and mistrust. Of course the normal local people would be the ones who would suffer the most.

I followed the group of guys from my hiding place. Once it seemed that they were getting ready, I made sure that I was ready, too. There was fifteen minutes left when they had everything packed in the car, ready to drive to the bridge. The guys were congratulating themselves. I took off my goggles and used the phone to send the message while pulling away from the hilltop. For a few seconds I thought that my plan had failed - that maybe there was no service available in the ravine, which was half a mile away from the base station.

Then the echo of the explosion faded away. I did not waste my time checking if there was anyone alive down there. I just made quick call with my satellite phone, and then I was on my way to our meeting point. We had agreed that Karen would drive the car there and she would then follow me until it was safe to abandon the motorcycle.

I noticed that I did not feel any remorse about killing those four guys in cold blood. Some things you need to learn the hard way.

2007 – Togo, Africa

The year changed, and my relationship with Marie flourished. Pam was doing really well at school and I had managed to get the project inside the budget and ahead of schedule which was something unbelievable. That made the project executives very happy and some local people very unhappy, since their source of income had suddenly dried up significantly. I was not that naive that I would have believed that I could stop people giving and taking bribes, but I did my best to cut them down and to make deals profitable to all parties. But it turned out that my success got some unwanted attention.

Since my parents were not religious, I never went to Sunday school, but it did not prevent me from knowing that there used to be a problem while living in paradise. A snake. Our paradise turned out to be no different from the one they talked about in Sunday school - only this time the snake had two arms and legs and he was called a Deputy Minister. The more I found out about him, the less I wanted to do business with him. He was a handsome son of a bitch, who spoke with a forked tongue. It was quite unfortunate for me that he was the new state representative who wanted to bring his own subcontractors into the project. He was not at all happy when I kicked them out.

From that moment on I felt that part of my work was tilting at windmills. I kept on collecting evidence against him, and the more I learned the more sick I felt. But as soon as I had reported to the Company they made it clear to me that I was not allowed under any circumstances to reveal anything that I had found out, but I should rather support that asshole if it seemed feasible that he might be heading into a higher position. Considering his antics and history, I suspected that that would never happen, but those smart guys behind their desks thought that this kind of knowledge would give us some handle on him. Like someone would like to get a handle on a rattlesnake with a poisonous skin. However, since my future back in the States depended on those idiots, I had to play along.