Chapter 7

"Angelina and Lilly are going to be at the market in ten days, Mr Marcilenus. Karl has something arranged. Don't ask me what - he's not saying anything! But he wants you to organise a departure from Port Bemba on the following day. I shan't be able to concentrate on their fight! If we do all get away, what happens to you?"

"I'll be fine, Marina. I am more or less immune from prosecution. My family are too popular for the government to touch us. I'll be put under house arrest if they suspect me of aiding the escape - no more. And I rarely go out in any case!"

Marina had just come back from a meeting with Karl. He had approached her in the street, in the middle of the mid day crowd and hurriedly told her what she had just passed on to her host.

Despite the excitement, Marina was looking forward to seeing her best friend in action against Lilly. It had been three years since the two had met. Angelina had been working in the quarries for the whole of that time. She had been a robust girl even before going into prison. Now she would certainly be far stronger. But Lilly was by far the strongest woman Marina had ever seen! And Lilly was not only a powerfully built young lady, she was lightning quick. Angelina might be a natural athlete who had taken to boxing with enthusiasm and developed amazing skill, but Lilly was at least as good as she remembered Angelina to have been. Lilly had a palpable killer instinct and Angelina had treated boxing as a sport - not a matter of life and death. Lilly, a violent young women even before her arrest, had always fought virtually bare fisted and Angelina had worn gloves. She feared for Angelina, even though Karl had made it clear that no one was being killed when the pair met!

Meanwhile Lilly was fighting in the prison against the woman who had destroyed Emma some weeks ago. It was now the fifth round and Lilly was well on top. Hatta, the big local prisoner, was bleeding from her nose and cuts over both eyes. She was a pitiable sight, but Lilly had no pity. All Lilly had in her mind was this girl's efficient destruction now that she had asserted her authority after some punishing exchanges which had left the white girl with a black eye and bruised ribs.

She liked Emma and had cooperated with Angelina in order to train the brave, strong but unskilled woman to become a good fighter. Emma might not know it, but she was destined to become the prison's top white fighter in ten days time! Angelina was full of pity for her protégé, but Lilly was more callous. Emma had been a prisoner for just under a year and she, Lilly, had been in this dump forover two. Lilly had survived - in fact she had thrived - and Emma would have to learn the same arts of survival. Of course it would be Emma's lot to brave the wrath of the powers that be. She would be in that market square a lot more often that Lilly and up against some brutal opposition. But she was strong and, thanks to Angelina and Lilly, very skilful. She'd survive!

Lilly finally saw her chance, took it and added another victim to her growing tally! Although Hatta had been her victim twice already!

"Good for you, Lilly!" said Emma before Lilly was led away to be caned again. "I bet you knock Angelina out in just over a week! You're unstoppable!"

Emma had a crush on Lilly! She would miss her when the escape took place.

Mr Hargreaves had chosen a new Prisons Minister and had time to watch his least favourite prisoner destroy Hatta - again. He was too busy to watch more than a few strokes of her caning, though. Those five strokes hurt a lot! Then Karl ordered her to be freed and sent back to training.

"Don't be stupid, darling!" hissed Lilly. "They might suspect. We can't afford to slip up this late in the day. Let him carry on. You know me! I won't break!"

So she got the rest of her twenty, all viciously laid on. It did not help Lilly that the guard who was caning her had been silly enough to have a bet on Hatta and was now flat broke until next pay day!

"They did a great job on your arse, Lilly!!" said Angelina later in the day as they were being fed. She was inclined to think Lilly was not averse to their inflicting a bit of pain on that part of her body, which was just as well in the circumstances! It had made her eyes water just listening to her lover getting the latest in a series of brutal canings that had kept that sweet posterior permanently on fire for weeks now! Karl had whispered to her one day that he could get her punishments reduced but that Lilly had asked him not to. Her reason was that it might attract suspicion, but Angelina and Karl both suspected that Lilly quite enjoyed a good caning now and then!

"It was a very professional job indeed, Angie! That man is the best. His canings are what I would call exquisite, Cordon Bleu affairs! As a connoisseur, I cannot commend his work too highly! But I shall not miss him! I shall find fulfilment and happiness without his help!"

"What will you do for kicks when we are back in civilisation, Lilly!" asked Angelina a couple of days before their upcoming fight.

"Maybe I won't stay in civilisation too long! This last few years have made me a good fighter. I have the skill, the strength and the killer instinct - alas for Martha - and they will all be put to good use in some shape or form. And I doubt the police or the army would have me. I'm far too wild and undisciplined, Angie. My father tried to beat it out of me but I think he just made me worse. This prison won't be the last I see the inside of! Not by a long way!"

"Come home with me, Lilly! Or stay here and fight side by side with Karl in the resistance and maybe give your life for something fine and decent! There are plenty of good causes that cry out for your energy and courage! Don't throw your life away for nothing!"

But Angelina knew she was wasting her breath. Lilly was hooked on fist fighting. She would find a way of indulging this very violent passion and that was that! And the lingering guilt she still felt for her friend Martha would always be driving her to look for and ultimately meet the woman who would do to her what she had done to her closest friend to save her own skin!

Marina could hardly believe that the Day had finally dawned. She was at the market an hour before the fight was due to start.

She had a map of the route to the port and would set out from the town gate an hour before dusk and three hours after the fight was scheduled to end. A long duel was expected between Lilly and her friend. As Mr Marcelinus's supposed servant she was sent out to a nearby village several times a month to collect vegetables from a friend of his. It would take her all day and all night to reach the port, but she had pored over maps and knew the way by heart. She had no idea how Lilly and Angelina would get there, but trusted Karl implicitly.

Finally the prison van arrived. It was belching exhaust fumes every bit as dense as in her dream. Would the actuality of this fight follow the course of the dream and see Lilly triumph? As the two nude women stepped out of the back of the truck and walked to the ring, she was shocked at the way Angelina had aged in three years. There were grey hairs - that was obvious even from a distance. But Angelina had hardened physically. She had filled out a lot and her shoulder and arm muscles were impressive - until she compared them to Lilly's! Lilly was far stronger. If Angelina did not have vastly superior speed, she had no chance! And Marina knew just how quick Lilly was.