Frank Schätzing - Limit

‘She didn’t notice anything,’ Yoyo assured him. ‘I’m sure she didn’t.’

Jericho didn’t answer. He gazed thoughtfully over at Muntu. Yoyo paced on the spot, planted herself in front of him and then waved her hand around in front of his eyes.

‘Everything okay, Owen? Is there anyone at home?’

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Then he looked at his watch.

‘Fine, you don’t have to speak to me,’ she warbled. ‘We can write to each other. Yes, that’s a good idea! You can write everything down on a little piece of paper and give it to someone to give to me. And I—’

‘You can make yourself useful.’

‘Oh, you do have a voice!’ Yoyo bowed in front of an imaginary audience. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The man has spoken. It is with great pride that we present to you—’

‘You can shadow Nyela.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I’ve no idea whether she noticed your slip or not, but there’s one thing I don’t buy: her claim that Donner couldn’t be reached.’

‘Why?’

‘She was in the kitchen too long.’

‘You mean that Donner would be suspicious if someone wanted to include his restaurant in a guide?’

‘You said it yourself – a great idea,’ Jericho flashed back at her. ‘Your irony was clear enough.’

‘Could you stop being mad at me for just a minute?’

‘There are two possibilities. Either she bought it. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that he did. But it doesn’t really matter what story we dished up. Donner will be suspicious by nature, towards everyone and everything. The second possibility is that she didn’t believe a word we said. Either way, he needs to find out who we are, what we want from him and what we have to tell him. He needs to make quite certain. I’d hazard a guess that they’ve already spoken on the phone. If Nyela leaves the restaurant it could be that she’s going to meet him. Either that or he’ll turn up here.’

‘What for?’

‘To get here before someone can surprise him on his own premises. Or maybe just because he has garlic to chop. Things to do, whatever.’

‘Which means you’ll watch the restaurant?’

Jericho nodded. ‘Did you notice the camera?’ he asked, trying to make the tone of his voice more gentle now.

‘What camera?’

‘There was one installed above the bar. It didn’t look like one, but I’m familiar with them. Muntu is under surveillance. Perhaps Donner will want to look at the recording before he agrees to a meeting.’

‘And what if none of that’s right? What if you’re wrong?’

‘Then we wait until Nyela calls us. Or until she leads you to Donner’s private residence.’

‘I mean, if he’s not suspicious at all. If he really does want to meet us about the food guide, just not until this evening. Aren’t we frittering away the chance to warn him in time ? Shouldn’t we tell Nyela the truth?’

‘And have him take off? We didn’t come here to save his life, but to find something out from him. And to do that we need to meet him!’

‘I know that,’ retorted Yoyo irritably. ‘But if he’s already dead he can’t tell us anything anyway.’

‘Yoyo, for God’s sake, I know that! But what are we supposed to do? We have to take a risk. And, believe me, he is mistrustful! He may even mistrust Nyela.’

‘His own wife?’

‘Yes, his wife. Do you trust her?’

‘Okay, fine,’ murmured Yoyo. ‘So I’ll shadow Nyela then.’

‘Do that. Call me if you notice anything.’

‘I might need the car.’

Jericho looked around and spotted a Starbucks. They had parked the Audi a few metres further down, in full sight of Muntu.

‘No problem. We’ll sit over there, have a coffee and keep our eyes on the restaurant. If she goes anywhere, you follow her. On foot, by car, whatever’s necessary. I’ll hold the fort here.’

‘We don’t even know what Donner looks like.’

‘White, I guess. It’s a Boer name, South African—’

‘Great,’ said Yoyo. ‘That narrows it down considerably.’

‘I could easily widen it again. Donner might be from a mixed marriage. He wouldn’t be the first black person on the Cape to have a white surname.’

‘You sure know how to look on the bright side, don’t you?’

‘I’m renowned for it.’

Jericho had committed the faces of the other guests in the restaurant to memory. After he and Yoyo left, three more couples had gone in, as well as a lone old man accompanied by his incessantly yapping alter ego. In the time that followed, they watched as Muntu emptied person by person. The man and dog were the last to leave, and after that Jericho was convinced there were no guests left inside. More time passed. Yoyo drank tea by the bucketful. Shortly after three, a dark-skinned man came out onto the street, unchained a bicycle and pedalled off. Clearly one of the kitchen staff, perhaps Nyela’s sous-chef.

‘So this is what you do?’ Yoyo asked, somehow managing not to sound scornful. ‘Spy on people for hours on end?’

‘Most of the time I’m online.’

‘Uh-huh. And what do you do there?’

‘Spy on people.’

‘It’s so dull .’ She pulled a dripping teabag from her cup. ‘One big, long, boring wait.’

‘I don’t entirely agree with you. There are a lot of fun aspects and it’s certainly lively. From time to time someone sets a steelworks on fire. There are lovely little chases, you get to save people and fly halfway across the world at the drop of a hat. Is your life so much more exciting?’

Expecting her to protest, he stared back out of the window, but Yoyo seemed to be giving it serious thought.

‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s not. But it is more social.’

‘But society can do your head in,’ said Jericho, then brought up his hand to silence her. Nyela was just leaving Muntu. She had swapped the colourful folklore of her dress for jeans and a T-shirt.

‘Time for your mission,’ he said.

Yoyo dropped her teabag, gathered up the car keys and her mobile and ran outside. Jericho watched as she started the car. Nyela paced away in lengthy strides and disappeared around the corner of a house. The car followed her slowly. Jericho hoped Yoyo wouldn’t be too obvious. He had tried to give her a brief overview of the basic rules of a subtle observation, which included not ramming your bumper right into the behind of the person you were observing.

She phoned just ten minutes later.

‘There’s a parking lot two streets down. Nyela just left it.’

‘What’s she driving?’

‘A Nissan OneOne. SolarHybrid.’

A small, nimble town car, designed for heavy traffic, which could reduce its floor space by shortening the wheel base. Against that, the Audi was a cumbersome monstrosity, only superior on highways.

‘Stay close to her,’ he said. ‘Let me know if anything happens.’

After that he rang Tu and brought him up to date.

‘And how’s it going there?’

‘I’m having fun with Diane,’ said Tu. ‘A lovely program. Not top of the range any more, mind, but we’re having a good time nonetheless.’

‘The program is completely new,’ protested Jericho.

‘New is something that hasn’t been built yet,’ Tu advised him.

‘Get to the point.’

‘So, with regard to Ndongo: he seems to be striving for more balance than during his first time in office, and is resisting influence from the Chinese, but this time without snubbing Beijing. His sympathies clearly lie with Washington and the EU. On the other hand, he made it known at the beginning of the year that he wants to consider the interests of all countries equally, as long as they don’t show tendencies towards economic annexation. He also pushed a few scraps over to Sinopec. Other than that, he’s trying to clean up the pigsty that Mayé left behind.’