Chris Simms: Savage Moon

Now Jon could see the lights had split into two groups. From somewhere in the black sky came the chopping sound of a helicopter. 'I don't know what to call you.'

'Jammer. I'm neither James nor Njama.'

'Well Jammer, we need to discuss what's about to happen. That's an armed response unit coming across the fields.'

Jammer raked a claw across the concrete. 'It's not important. Just listen. Magayu survived the beatings and torture at every camp, but nothing could prepare him for Hola and the rule of

Kiboroboro.'

'Sutton was the camp commander?'

'He had many ways of trying to make prisoners confess. Sometimes he'd put them in coils of barbed wire and kick them round the central square. But his speciality was his Land Rover, Gitune. That means Big Red. The prisoners called it that because it was so covered in blood. Kiboroboro would tie an inmate to the rear bumper by his ankles. Then he'd say, “Last chance to talk, Nugu.” That means baboon. If they didn't, he'd drive round and round the camp perimeter until the body was just pulp.'

Jon remembered Clegg describing how Sutton had dragged the carcass of the dog back to its owners in the same way. Behind Jammer heads began to peer round the corners of the courtyard. They disappeared for a moment. Then armed officers ran out, forming a line. An amplified voice boomed out. 'Drop your weapons and move away from the officer!'

Jammer crouched lower. 'Because my grandfather was literate, he was given basic tasks in the camp office. He learned Kiboroboro's real name from memoranda he saw there. He also stole paper and smuggled out letters detailing the atrocities. They went to people in authority, both in Kenya and here, in Britain. He knew the letters reached their intended recipients.'

'How?'

'Because the people he wrote to returned them to the camp, demanding to know how such letters had leaked out. The treatment of prisoners was sanctioned at the very highest levels. They signed his death warrant. Kiboroboro tied him to the back of Gitune.'

'Jon, are you injured?'

He glanced over Jammer's shoulder, saw Rick by the left hand wall. He gave a slow shake of his head. 'It's OK. We're talking.' The same loud voice again. 'I repeat, move away from the officer!'

'Shut up!' Jon shouted back. 'Listen, Jammer, we can talk about all this later. At this moment in time, it's more important you don't get shot.'

Jammer smiled. 'I said in my letter that death doesn't scare me. You know, when I met my relatives in Nairobi, I realised they were from a different world. Thing is, I don't belong here either. Children's homes and white parents. All my life I wondered about where I was from, who I was. My eyes, my nose, my hair. My anger. Where did it come from? On Sundays in the children's home I would hide when other kids' parents came to visit. I was so jealous. And when I found out the truth, it made me even angrier. Kerrigan raped my mother, but it was people like Sutton who really created me. You know what my grandmother's work detail in Kamiti was? Burying dead bodies, even though she was pregnant. They brought them to Kamiti by the truckload from surrounding camps. She gave birth to my mother, then bled to death in the bunk house. The guards' first question when they unlocked the doors each morning was always, “How many have died?”'

The sound of the helicopter had been growing steadily louder and suddenly the courtyard was lit by a brilliant white light. Jon counted fourteen armed officers forming a cordon across the top of the courtyard. 'Jammer, let's just stand up slowly and walk out of here.'

The other man raised his voice to be heard. 'The West always uses the same excuse when it invades a country of dark-skinned people. As it occupies their land and steals their resources you say you're there in a civilising role. Helping the people to shake off cruel rulers, bringing freedom and democracy. Benevolent, kind. But then some of the people you came to save start to resent your presence. They fight back with bombs, ambushes, booby traps. They strike quickly and melt into the crowds. And when your soldiers look to see who attacked them, there are only people in strange clothes looking back. Kukes, gooks, ragheads. So the soldiers vent their anger on them. And what has your civilising army become now? It can't be savage or barbaric. No, because they invaded to eradicate such things. But the evidence is there. Villages ransacked, homes burnt, old men, women and children murdered. The ones who invaded my country ended up massacring the people in their thousands.'

'White settlers died too.'

Jammer thrust a claw into Jon's face. From beyond those curved spikes officers tightened their grips. 'How many white settlers died? Do you know?'

Jon shook his head. 'Hundreds?'

'Thirty-two. More were killed in traffic accidents in Nairobi during the war. How many white members of the security forces died? Sixty-three. Freedom fighters? Eleven thousand, five hundred and sixty-three.' He paused. 'You think the KLFA were terrorists, not freedom fighters? I can see you do. The president of Kenya announced this year that the body of Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, leader of the KLFA, will be exhumed and given a state funeral. And the number of Kikuyu people who died through internment, starvation and disease? No one knows, because the normally meticulous colonial government didn't keep count.'

Jon lowered his head as he thought of Alice's obsession.

'Kenyans have estimated over one hundred thousand Kikuyu died during the emergency. Some think double that. Once the Pipeline was closed down whole villages remained empty, the inhabitants simply never reappeared. Always the same story. The French in Algiers, the Belgians in the Congo, the Americans in Vietnam. Whites killing in the name of civilisation.' He inclined his head slightly to the side. 'How many of the soldiers pointing rifles at me are black?'

Jon didn't look. 'They're not soldiers, Jammer, they're police officers.'

'They represent the same thing. How many are black?'

Jon glanced beyond Jammer's shoulders. 'I don't know, they're wearing balaclavas.'

'We both know the answer.' He looked down at the claws.

'This thing that I've become. It was invented by the Government's press office in London. I became it to show that any heart of darkness in Kenya was created by the British. If anything threatens your way of life, you hunt it down and destroy it without mercy. Look at the hysteria I've created and think about how you've responded. The cats and dogs that have died, the number of officers sent to deal with me. Now it's time to end this.'

Jon saw the claws were trembling. He looked into Jammer's eyes. Fear shone there. 'Don't do this.'

'It can't end any other way. Just keep low.'

Jon leaned to the side and shouted. 'Don't shoot. Do not open fire!'

Jammer stood and from the line of armed officers a voice barked, 'Drop those weapons, now!'

Jon saw Jammer's eyes were shut as he raised his hands high above his head.

The rifles erupted, multiple flashes still visible even as Jammer's body was thrown against the wall. It connected with a wet thud before sliding down on top of Jon.

Summerby's office was pleasantly cool as Jon sat down. In the seat next to him was McCloughlin, who had moved his chair to the corner of the desk. Just to make sure we all know you're not on my side, thought Jon. Summerby was asking for his calls to be put on hold. 'So Jon,' he said, replacing the phone. 'There's a rumour going round that you're thinking of contacting the Manchester Police Authority.'

Jon nodded and Summerby's eyes instantly connected with McCloughlin's. When his senior officer spoke again his voice was devoid of any warmth. 'What are you thinking of saying?'