Mission of Honor

Chapter Twenty-Three

Leon Seronga looked down at the bloody shape on the bed. To his right, Donald Pavant finished cutting the throat of Deacon Canon. The Brush Viper had placed a strong hand across his mouth. The man had died with a single, muffled scream.

"It is done," Pavant said to him with defiance. "You had no choice. We did what was necessary."

Seronga continued to stare.

"Prince, this is the way you used to do it, the way that things must sometimes be done," Pavant said.

"I promised Dhamballa this would be different," Seronga said. "No killing. No black magic."

"That man would have bled to death," Pavant replied. He was cleaning his own blade on the blanket of the other cot. "You showed mercy. And if you had not pushed him, he would not have told us what we needed to know."

"What we needed to know," Seronga said.

"Yes. We cannot allow the bishop to come here. It would undo everything," Pavant said. "Dhamballa would have been seen as small, petty, ineffective. Besides, no one need know about these two."

"They mustn't," Seronga said.

The leader of the Brush Vipers felt sick. He had been pushed to this extreme by this man's stubborn resistance. It would have been so much easier if the clergyman had cooperated. Instead, his words were his own epitaph. He had said that if Seronga killed, it would be on his own conscience. If that was true, these two deaths were on the deacon's^oul. Had he answered Seronga's questions, they would have tied the men up. They would have hidden them here or in the field, in a cave, away from predators. When the kidnapping of the American bishop had been accomplished, they would have instructed authorities where to find these two.

The stupid, stupid man.

"I have the cell phone," Pavant said from behind the door.

"See if there are fresh bedsheets anywhere," Seronga said.

"I will," Pavant said. "But I won't listen to you blame yourself. We are lions. These men were prey. This is the way it had to be. This is the way you did it when you liberated the country the first time."

"That was different," Seronga said.

"No, it wasn't," Pavant insisted. "You were fighting an empire then. We are fighting an empire now."

"It was different," Seronga repeated. "We were fighting soldiers."

"These are soldiers," Pavant replied. "They fight with resistance instead of arms."

Seronga was in no mood to debate. He removed his own knife from the throat of his victim and wiped the blade on the pillow. Then he put the knife back in his hip sheath. He waited as Donald Pavant felt his way around the dark room. The only light came from the half-moon shining through the partly opened door. They had not shut the door for that reason.

"I have the sheets," Pavant said. He was standing by a closet in the back of the room.

The younger man hurried over. He set the sheets down on the floor. Then, together, the men prepared the bodies in turn. They removed the pillowcases and stuffed them in the wounds. That would help stem the leaking of blood. Then they wrapped the bodies tightly inside the bloodstained sheets on the bed. The blood was already soaking through, so they took blankets from the closet and lay them on the floor. The bound bodies were placed upon these. Then the beds were made.

Seronga decided that the bodies would be carried out into the floodplain. The sheets would be removed. They would be wrapped around stones and dropped in Lake Mitali. By dawn, there would not be much of the deacons. The authorities would suspect murder. But they would not be able to prove it. The soft tissue the knife had penetrated would have been eaten. And there were footprints everywhere. Those of Seronga and Pavant would not stand out. As far as anyone could prove, the deacons went for a walk and were attacked by predators. The Vatican would have doubts, but they would not have proof. Most importantly, they would not have martyrs. And as long as the other clergymen were held captive, there was a chance for a negotiated withdrawal. First of the Church, and then of all foreigners. The Botswanans would be able to profit from their own rich resources.

There was one last thing the two Brush Vipers would need: the vestments these men had worn. But Seronga did not want to carry them with the bodies. They must not be splattered with blood. He would come back for the garments when the deacons' remains had been disposed of.

While Seronga wiped up stray streaks of blood, Pavant checked the veranda. There was no one outside. The men slung the bodies over their shoulders. Even with the loss of blood, the corpses were lighter than Seronga expected. Obviously, Deacon missionaries did not eat very well. The dead men were also still very warm. Eager to get his mind off the killings, Seronga wondered if Dhamballa's ancient magic would be potent enough to rouse two such as these. Not just men who had died of natural causes but men who had been murdered. Seronga wished he could spend more time with their leader. He wanted to learn more about the few phenomena he had witnessed. About the ancient religion he had embraced on faith.

In time, he told himself.

For now, Seronga would continue doing things he did not enjoy. That was how Botswana had become free once before. Whether he liked it or not, that was how Botswana would become free again.