Chapter 13

July 2009, Sudan

I abandoned the motorcycle behind a ridge next to the road. I slipped into the drivers seat and continued driving south. At night the road was almost empty as it followed the railroad and the river on its way southward. Hana and Pam were sitting in the back with a sleeping Naiya, while Karen sat in front with me. It was only after a few miles when Karen asked me the question.

“Greg, we all heard the explosion. What happened out there?”

For a moment I kept on thinking how should I answer to her and decided against lying. Well, at least against unnecessary lying.

“A group of terrorists tried to plant some explosives at the bottom of the ravine under the bridge, so that they could detonate it during the opening ceremony. I guess they made a mistake while handling those explosives before they were able to plant them.”

I could feel Karen’s eyes on me while I kept my own gaze on the dark road.

“Mistake, my ass! You blew them up in cold blood, didn’t you? Couldn’t you just inform the authorities?”

This time I turned my head and looked at Karen for a second. She was disturbed but she was also serious. I shook my head slightly when I turned my gaze back to the road.

“Karen, I guess at least one or two of them were persons from an authoritative, governmental job. Most probably those explosives were taken from some military storage, just a few days before. This whole operation was part of a larger plan to make some minority people look like terrorists, so that the majority would have a justified reason for harder actions. The fact that I managed to stop this plan is only a small setback for them. I can only hope that it is enough for some decent people to notice and react. The really sad thing is that some of my own people would also have liked it to happen, because it would then justify their own harsh reaction. Lives of some innocent people do not count for much, here.”

“But I still do not understand how you have turned into such hard person.”

At that point I looked at the back seat through the mirror but both Pam and Hana averted my gaze.

“I don’t want to sound rude, Karen, but one of the things that I most regret in my life is that I didn’t take some harsh action when I had the possibility to do so. It might not have helped in the long run but still...”

I made a short pause and sighed.

“Look, this place is not like home, not at all. All the rules are different, the values are different, and it can be really dangerous out here. Especially for women. Mix that with extremist religion and you have half of it. For the next few days we all need to play our roles without any mistakes, or the results will be very bad.”

Luckily all of them fell asleep soon after that since I was not really in the mood for talking. The truth was that even if I didn’t want to show it to them, I really was wondering about myself, and what I had become. I had killed men before but at that point there really was no choice. Now I had justified my actions by saying that it was the only way of saving innocent people - and my family. But somewhere there, deep inside me, was the shadow of a doubt. Maybe I should just admit that I had become a cold-hearted killer.

Suddenly I noticed in the mirror that Pam was awake, and was looking at me.

“Dad, you did the right thing. You always do the right thing.”

Those words coming from my sixteen year old daughter made me feel a bit better. I just was not sure if she would feel the same in the future. In a way I was surprised that she felt like that right now, or maybe she was almost as good as me in hiding her real emotions. Somewhere deep inside me, I also wondered why it always had to be me who did the right thing?

Even though I drove slowly, it didn’t take me the whole night to drive the hundred-fifty miles to the city where I was heading. It was still dark when I gently stopped the car. All the others woke up looking very sleepy, except Naiya. Good, that is the way I wanted it to be. I turned to look at Karen, Hana and Pam.

“Look, there should be a house where we can spend the rest of the night, and also some other stuff that will help us to continue our journey. I’ll go now and check the place. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes you need to go on and drive all the way to Khartoum. The route to the French embassy is already programmed into the navigator, and here is a letter you need to show if you need to go there. In any case do NOT go to the U.S. embassy! Not in ANY case. Remember, fifteen minutes.”

Then I was on my way and a quick check showed that the place was just as it was supposed to be. The Frenchman was already on his way out of the country and he wouldn’t be need any of this stuff anymore. Besides, I had paid him well enough for those few extra things he had to purchase. In less than ten minutes, we had our car inside the gates, and Naiya was sleeping inside. It took the rest of us a bit longer to find a place to rest.

I guess that none of us - except Naiya - slept very well; but even those few hours of disturbed sleep were surely needed, as we would be quite busy the following day. I considered that it would be safe to use the old car for one more day, and that was exactly what we did. I did some shopping myself, but the most of the shopping was done by the women. They needed more clothes. Some of Naiya’s stuff needed to be changed as well, since for the next week she would not be Naiya, but my son Tariq. And I would be Faisal.

Later that day I abandoned the empty car on the side road close to the railway station and left the door unlocked. I was sure that it would not be there the next morning.

A pompous Yemeni man took a taxi with his wife, two daughters and a son to the best hotel in the town. They would need to spend two nights there, before we could take a train to Wadi Haifa. Yes, I was a man who was doing this trip, so that he could marry his pretty twin daughters to some important Egyptian business partners. For some reason I had decided to make this trip by boat and train instead of flying. The businesses didn’t care, as long as my credit card had the same name as my passport, and was accepted. I just had to trust the Frenchman for that.

During the day there had been a few situations when I noticed that Karen was having some problems in staying calm. As soon as we were in our suite - or two rooms with interconnecting door - and I had checked and confirmed the place secure, I turned to her.

“Karen, if you keep on behaving like that you’re going to get us all killed. Or I’ll end up killed, since they’ll probably figure out some other nice activities for all you ladies. I’ll tell you now that I’m not going to let that happen, even if that would mean gagging you for the next few days and slapping you whenever necessary.”

I knew her well enough to notice that she was angry. She was about to argue with me, but at that point Pam stepped forward.

“You know my dad is right. You should really pay attention to what he is saying. After all, he has been able to get us away from several tight situations.”

Getting confronted by someone who is twelve years younger and at least four inches shorter than her took some wind out of Karen’s sails but she would not have been herself if she had given up that easily. She remained silent but I could see that she was not happy. I took a deep breath before speaking in a low voice.

“Look, the way I behaved almost certainly made sure that they have no interest in disturbing us or in giving us any extra service. However, we should always assume that there might be someone sneaking around. So, Karen, since you can hardly speak a word of the local language, you’d better be as quiet as possible. Girls, if possible you should do your whispering in Arabic. I checked the room for bugs but even if both the doors and walls are quite thick and there should not be much chances of disclosure it’s always possible that someone listens us behind the door. So better safe than sorry.”

We had our dinner in our room, and the most awkward moment came when it was time to go to sleep. Karen had her clothes in the same room with Naiya - sorry, Tariq - and me, while Hana had hers in the same room with Pam. I stayed in the bathroom long enough so that Karen could sleep in the same room with Pam and when I was in the bed I could feel Hana’s warm body come next to me. We had not been intimate for a while and I couldn’t prevent my body from reacting but I just couldn’t make love to my young wife. Not now. I could sense that she was surprised, but I couldn’t tell if she was disappointed or relieved. However, I did kiss her and I held her close. She took a hold of my hand that was over her.

The following morning I got some mystified looks from all the ladies. Karen looked at Hana and me but didn’t say a word, and I noticed from the mirror the quick looks Hana and Pam exchanged. All the time, I made sure that my own expression remained neutral. When the room service brought our breakfast all the women were fully dressed and Karen was holding Tariq and I made sure that my ‘daughters’ took care of the actual serving. I did my best to look angry and annoyed when the young man who brought the food took a look at Pam and Hana for a moment. As soon as he noticed me looking at him he hurried out of the room.

After the breakfast, I left the room so that Hana and Pam could give Karen a crash course about the clothes she would need to wear. I found my way out of the hotel to a cafe. I managed to buy a newspaper on my way there. The explosion near the bridge was mentioned, and it seemed that some of the more radical groups had already decided to put the blame on the minorities. I guess they had their statements ready and waiting, and they had just been published as soon as the information about the explosion became public. I assumed that it might take a day or two before the shit would really hit the fan. I hoped that it would be two or more.