Алистер Маклин - Time of the Assassins

‘We are meeting a friend,’ Laidlaw replied then glanced at his watch. ‘His flight is due in twenty-five minutes.’

The soldier closed the passports and gave them back to Laidlaw. ‘Thank you, Father.’

‘Thank you, my son,’ Laidlaw replied.

The soldier was about to give the order to raise the boom gate when he saw his commanding officer standing at the entrance of the small Nissen hut at the side of the road. He immediately snapped to attention.

The colonel, a dark-skinned African in his early forties, told him to stand easy then crossed to the Toyota and looked through the passenger window. ‘Your passports,’ he said to Graham.

‘Father Grant doesn’t speak Swahili,’ Laidlaw said with an apologetic smile. ‘He’s only been out here a few days.’

The colonel took the passports from Laidlaw and leafed through them slowly. ‘Get out of the car, both of you,’ he said, suddenly switching to English.

‘What’s the problem?’ Laidlaw asked suspiciously.

‘Just get out of the car,’ the colonel repeated.

They did as they were told and the colonel walked round to the driver’s side and took the keys from the ignition. He beckoned two soldiers towards him and gave the keys to one of them. He spoke to them quickly in Swahili and they immediately hurried round to the back of the car.

‘And what do you hope to find in the boot?’ Laidlaw said, sticking to English.

The colonel ignored the question and watched as the boot was opened. One of the soldiers immediately called out to him. He walked to the back of the car then looked round at Laidlaw and beckoned him forward with his finger. Laidlaw’s eyes widened in horror when he looked inside the boot. Two AK-47 assault rifles and a hand grenade lay beside their holdalls.

‘We know nothing about these,’ Laidlaw said, looking to Graham for support.

‘They weren’t here when we hired the car,’ Graham snapped.

‘You’re both under arrest,’ the colonel said then gestured towards a jeep parked at the side of the road.

‘Get in.’

‘This is outrageous,’ Graham said. ‘We demand to see your superior.’

‘I am the most senior officer on duty,’ the colonel retorted then barked out an order and five soldiers immediately unshouldered their M16s and aimed them at Laidlaw and Graham. ‘You have a choice. Either you get in quietly or you’ll be handcuffed and thrown in. It’s your choice.’

Laidlaw looked helplessly at Graham. Graham bit back his anger and clambered into the back of the jeep. Laidlaw glanced at the soldiers then reluctantly followed him. Their holdalls were tossed into the back after them. The two soldiers who had discovered the weapons got into the back seat and covered Graham and Laidlaw with their M16s. The Colonel ordered a soldier to move the Toyota to the side of the road then climbed into the front of the jeep and told the driver to go to the airport. The boom gate was raised and the jeep sped down the highway towards the airport terminal. The Colonel pointed to a slip road and the driver nodded before indicating and turning the jeep off the main road.

‘This isn’t the way to the airport!’ Laidlaw shouted above the noise of the jeep’s engine.

The colonel glanced at him but said nothing.

‘Where on earth are we going?’ Graham snarled but an M16 was pressed into his stomach when he leaned towards the nearest soldier.

The driver slowed down as he approached a stationary white Isuzu van then swung off the road and pulled up behind it.

Graham’s mind was racing. What was happening? Were they about to be executed and their bodies taken away in the back of the van? But why? And where had the weapons come from? Had they been planted by the soldiers? None of it made any sense. He was about to try and signal Laidlaw for them to tackle the two armed guards when the van’s passenger door swung open and Sabrina got out. Moredi climbed out of the driver’s side and they walked to the jeep.

‘Is nothing sacred any more?” Sabrina said with a smile as she eyed Graham’s outfit.

Graham jumped nimbly from the back of the jeep. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

‘I’ll tell you, later,’ she replied then gestured to Moredi and introduced him to Graham and Laidlaw.

Moredi shook hands with them then spoke briefly to the colonel who immediately ordered his troops into the jeep and the driver did a U-turn and headed back towards the highway.

Moredi led the colonel over to the others. ‘This is Colonel David Tambese, one of the few soldiers I would trust with my life. He was at Sandhurst when Jamel Mobuto and I were at Oxford together.’

‘No hard feelings, I hope,’ Tambese said, shaking Graham’s hand.

‘Not if you tell me what’s going on,’ Graham retorted.

Tambese glanced at Sabrina who nodded. ‘When Joseph told me you were going to pick up a message from the information desk at the airport, he asked me to check the area for any signs of Ngune’s men. There are at least four of them in the terminal. We had to stop you before you got there.’

‘Why didn’t you just arrest them?’ Laidlaw asked.

Tambese shot a glance at Laidlaw. ‘It’s almost certainly a suicide squad. Any attempt to approach them would result in a bloodbath. They would open fire indiscriminately. And who knows how many innocent people would have been killed? It’s a new form of terror Ngune has introduced in the last couple of days. We’ve already had to deal with two suicide squads in the city centre. Fourteen innocent people have been killed in those two incidents alone. We’ll wait for them to leave then ambush the car. It’s the only way to deal with them.’

‘How do you know they were waiting for me?’

‘We don’t,’ Tambese answered. ‘But after the attempt on Miss Cassidy’s life we couldn’t take any chances–’

‘What happened?’ Graham cut in quickly.

‘I’ll brief you later,’ she replied.

‘How did you know when we’d get here?’ Graham asked Sabrina.

‘I didn’t. I just knew you had to come to the airport sooner or later. I gave Colonel Tambese a photograph of you to make sure he’d stop you before you reached the airport. It’s the one I took to Beirut with me in case I needed it when I approached the Lebanese police.’

‘The three men in the jeep are trusted soldiers of mine,’ Tambese continued. ‘Most of the others at the roadblock are new recruits. We still don’t know where their true sympathies lie. I had to make your arrest look realistic. Arresting foreigners for no apparent reason isn’t exactly part of the plan for the new Zimbala. That’s why we planted the AK-47s and the grenade. Word is sure to get back to Ngune that you’ve been arrested.’

‘Which means Ngune will think you’re in custody, at least for the time being,’ Moredi added.

‘Why do I get the feeling this is leading up to something?’ Graham said, his eyes flickering between Moredi and Sabrina.

‘It is,’ Sabrina said. ‘We’re going to Kondese to find Remy Mobuto.’

Graham took Sabrina to one side. ‘And what about Bernard? You remember our agreement.’

‘You don’t have to whisper,’ Sabrina said. ‘They know about Bernard.’

‘What’s so important about Remy Mobuto?’ Graham asked.

‘He knows where and when the hit on his brother will take place. That’s why he was abducted.’

‘So where does Bernard fit into this?’

‘Ngune and his deputy, Massenga, are obviously the two brains behind this whole operation. But, according to Remy Mobuto, there is a third man, the assassin. And from what Joseph’s told me, it has to be Bernard. I think all this talk of a hit squad made up of ex-Security policemen was just a red herring to throw the authorities off the scent.’