The Devil’s Kingdom

Chapter 32

The compound was all quiet now, but the light and noise and the awful screaming of the victim still hung over the still night air like the echo of a bad dream. Rae would have to revisit her grief over Munro’s death later; right now, there was no time to stop and reflect as Jude and Rae stole away through the darkness. Rae stumbled on one of the tyre ruts that the vehicles had left in the soft earth. Jude caught her arm to stop her falling. He found himself not wanting to let go of her.

Fortune seemed to have blessed their timing. For some reason, the guards had all disappeared — perhaps to help dispose of Munro’s body, Jude thought, though he didn b share that with Rae. The two of them followed the tyre tracks to the gate. Jude risked striking another match to give them a little light, cradling the flame in the cup of his hand and shining its small glow up and down the gate to look for a way out. Like the fence either side it was nothing but smooth steel, twelve feet high at least, and offering no kind of handholds to climb up it. But the flickering match revealed that the ground underneath the bottom edge of the gate was just as dry and crumbly as the stuff around the huts. The compound had obviously never been intended to house loose captives, only caged ones, and for two slender people who didn’t mind getting their clothes even filthier than they already were, it was little problem scrambling underneath the gate. They scraped and hollowed their way out like dogs escaping from a pound, and sprang to their feet on the other side, breathing hard with nerves and excitement.

It was Jude’s first glimpse beyond the gate since his arrival, but everything had looked very different passing through in Masango’s car. It was a desolate place even in darkness. The dirt road that led up to the compound snaked away between great mounds of weed-tufted earth and scattered huts, rotting metal buildings standing here and there among the garbage and disused machinery. There was nobody in sight.

‘Come on,’ he said, and wanted to take her hand, but fought the urge.

They ran on, neither one sure which way to go. Rae was several inches shorter than Jude, slightly built and fast on her feet. Suddenly pausing, she gazed around her as if she’d realised something. ‘I’ve seen this place before,’ she said in a low voice.

‘You’ve been here before?’

‘I’ve photographed it. From the outside, during the daytime. This is part of Khosa’s slave labour camp, where they keep the coltan workers. They ferry them back and forth in trucks between here and the mining complex. Which, if my bearings are right, is just a little distance that way, to the south.’ She pointed in that direction, then looked back at Jude. ‘I know I’m right about this. We got so many images, I could piece the whole layout together in my sleep. The river’s over that way, and the hydro station, and the city on the far side. The whole thing is encircled by one giant fence, which we’re going to have to try and find our way through.’

‘Meaning we’re still well and truly trapped,’ Jude sighed, remembering the layers of security Masango’s car had passed through on the way in.

‘And meaning that we’re sitting right next to Khosa’s military base,’ Rae added. ‘His whole army stationed just next door isn’t going to make our escape any easier.’

Jude glumly agreed, but then realised what else it meant. If Khosa was using Ben against his will for whatever purpose, then logic implied that Khosa would want to keep Ben close by. Then, if what Rae was saying was right and Khosa’s base was just over there across the river, it occurred to Jude that there was a strong possibility that Ben might be there too.

The revelation stunned him. All this time, he’d assumed they were being kept some vast distance apart. Splitting them up into different vehicles and taking them by two completely different routes had just been a trick to make them think so.

And that suddenly changed everything for Jude.

‘Forget the perimeter fence,’ he said to Rae. ‘I have to get to the city.’

Her eyes shone with concern as she gazed at him in the darkness. ‘Haven’t you been listening to me? That’s the last place you need to be right now. I thought the idea was to get away from this hellhole, not deeper into it.’

Jude shook his head vehemently. ‘I know. But my dad’s in that city. Or at least, I’m pretty sure he might be.’

‘Then God help him,’ she said. ‘Because you sure can’t. Nobody can.’

‘You don’t understand. It’s not him who needs our help. We’re the ones who need him.’

‘You’re not making sense, Jude. If he’s in there, he’s Khosa’s prisoner. Which puts him in a way worse situation than we are right now. I’m sorry, and I understand how you must feel, but to try to go in there after him is insane.’

‘There’s no choice,’ Jude said. ‘He’s the only one who could get us all out of here alive.’

She looked at him dubiously. ‘What is he, Superman?’

Jude chewed over his reply for a moment. ‘Fact is, I don’t really know all that much. He doesn’t talk about himself, or the things he’s done. He was in the military. Special Forces.’

‘Oh please, spare me the bullshit,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘If I had a dime for every asshole I’ve met who thinks he’s Rambo…’

‘I know how it sounds,’ Jude protested. ‘I’d probably think that way too. But I swear it’s not bullshit, okay?’

‘Right, sure, if you say so.’

‘Look, I don’t expect you to believe me, and you don’t have to come with me. But this changes everything. If he’s here somewhere, I have to find him. Go your own way, if that’s what you want.’

‘Where else do you suggest I go?’ she whispered angrily. ‘If you’re serious about this, then of course I have to tag along. No matter how lunatic an idea it might seem to me, apparently I don’t get a say in the matter.’

‘You won’t regret it,’ Jude said. ‘Trust me.’

‘You said that before.’

He studied her face, trying to read her expression. ‘Having second thoughts?’

‘Meaning would I prefer to be back in that cage? No way. I’d kill myself first.’

‘Then let’s go,’ he said.

They hurried along the dirt road, sticking to the side and ducking behind the dilapidated buildings that lined its edge. Jude dreaded returning to the spot where the burnings of the workers had taken place, for his own sake but even more for Rae’s. He kept her attention diverted from the horrific sight by whispering to her as they ran. So far, they hadn’t seen a single other living soul in the place.

‘Get down!’ he hissed as a blaze of lights suddenly appeared over the brow of an incline in the road ahead. They just had time to scurry behind a mound of earth before what looked like an entire fleet of vehicles came roaring over the rise and came bearing down the hill towards them.

Leading the speeding procession was Masango’s long, low Mercedes, ahead of a lengthy tail of armed pickup trucks and sundry four-wheel-drives that were all loaded with grim-looking soldiers. Masango himself was at the wheel of the limousine.

‘Did you see who I saw in the passenger seat?’ Rae whispered in Jude’s ear.

Jude nodded. He didn’t need to say the name.

Khosa. He’d have recognised that face anywhere. He saw it every night, in his dreams.

‘I don’t know what,’ Rae said, shaking her head. ‘But something’s happening and I don’t like it. Three days Craig and I watched this place, and we never saw so many soldiers the entire time. Now they’re marching through here as if the Marines had landed. And for Khosa to make an appearance in person, that has to mean something.’ Her voice trailed off for a moment or two; then her face set with determination and she said, ‘It’s no good. I can’t walk away. I have to know what he’s up to.’

Jude stared at her. ‘But you said—’

‘I wanted to get away from this hellhole. I know. But this could be important, Jude. I mean, imagine if Chen was here, in the flesh, for a meeting with Khosa.’

‘Who’s Chen?’

‘The minister in charge of overseeing African mining operations. Not that there’s ever been any proof of his actual hands-on involvement. Nobody’s been able to put him at the scene of a real-life coltan mine. Or it might not be that. It could be all kinds of things. They could be closing down the operation, for all I know. Or relocating the whole damn thing to some other place. If they do that, I’ll never be able to find them again and all our work has been for nothing. Whatever’s going on here tonight, I can’t just turn my back. Please. Craig died for this.’

‘Thirty minutes,’ Jude said, relenting. ‘That’s how long we give it. If we don’t find out anything in that time, we get out of here and we don’t look back. Agreed?’

She nodded. ‘Deal.’

The last of the vehicles had already disappeared down the road. Jude and Rae slipped out from behind the earth mound and doubled back the way they’d come, following the dust that still hung in the air. Before the road reached the gates of the hut compound, it forked off to the left. Judging from the fresh tracks, that was the way they’d gone.

‘They’re heading towards the mines,’ Rae said.