Christian Jungersen - The Exception

Now Cathy and Mark have joined Iben and stick their heads around the other side of the curtain.

Some of the soldiers march the Luos along to the biggest hut and shove them roughly inside. Omoro is among these eight men.

His eyes widen when he sees Iben. He calls to her: ‘Iben! Iben!’

Silence.

The leader of the special unit walks towards the hostages. He is smiling. ‘Everything in order?’

Iben finds it hard to look at him and hard to concentrate on what he’s saying. She hears gurgling noises from the big hut. Maybe she replies something to his question. Afterwards she can’t recall.

The soldiers come out again. They haven’t been in there long. Their clothes and hands look clean but Iben notices the tops of their shoes where the leather is stained red.

None of the hostage-takers emerges from the big hut.

Iben cannot figure out what Paul is up to.

Just after Gunnar left DCGI, Paul told her to drop her work on Chechnya for the next issue of Genocide News and concentrate on Turkey instead. She has no problem with that — except that Paul is also insisting that Anne-Lise is to be her co-editor.

That’s simply too much. Anne-Lise has never done anything journalistic, never written or edited anything. She is sure to run to Paul every time she can’t grasp one of Iben’s decisions, with the likely result that she’ll ruin Iben’s relationship with Paul and, in the long run, with the board as well.

After the meeting Anne-Lise said she had a headache and went home — something to be grateful for at least. Now Iben has twenty-four hours to get over her annoyance before her new teammate returns.

Paul has closed the door to his office, so there’s no need to escape to the kitchen for a discussion with Malene. Camilla can hear what they’re saying, but it doesn’t matter. Malene acts distant and uninterested. Obviously she is still displeased about Iben voicing her opinion of Gunnar earlier.

After chatting for a while, Malene says she’ll pop down and get something nice for their afternoon coffee. She takes her bag with her, which means that the trip is just a cover for her to talk to Gunnar on her mobile.

When Malene returns, she has spoken with Gunnar, as predicted.

‘He’s really annoyed. During the meeting here, Gunnar realised that Paul didn’t have a mandate from the board as he’d said he did. It didn’t take long for Gunnar to figure out that Paul was trying to use him in some internal power struggle.’ Malene looks at Iben, not acknowledging that she was right about Gunnar after all. ‘He turned down Paul’s offer of a seat on the board.’

When Iben gets home that evening she tries not to think about the project with Anne-Lise. She checks her email and answering machine, and wonders for the umpteenth time if it would be right to phone Gunnar.

She slices a handful of vegetables, pours olive oil on top and adds some spices. After microwaving the mixture she eats it with pieces of crisp-bread while watching TV. She could say that she wants to hear Gunnar’s thoughts on the meeting today. She’s just a dedicated employee, nothing wrong with that, is there? That’s what she could tell Malene, if she asks her.

Standing next to the heavy, wine-coloured armchair she inherited from her grandmother, she dials his number. He answers the phone.

‘Gunnar, I hope this isn’t a bad time?’

‘No. Not at all. It’s good to hear from you.’

But Iben doesn’t learn much about the meeting because Gunnar says that he’s in a hurry, he’s on his way out.

Iben feels suddenly deflated. But then she thinks it’s just as well to know that he’s not interested in her. No need for any more rows with Malene.

Gunnar explains that he has promised an old friend to go to a showing of the friend’s documentary about a development project in Uganda. The film-maker is going to give a brief talk about his work and afterwards the audience will join in a debate about both the film and the project. Would Iben like to come along?

The answer seems to stick in her throat. One of her hands is scratching at the back of the old armchair, her body tense. She feels a familiar shiver, almost like fear. She covers the mouthpiece and breathes a huge sigh. No criminal this time, but she looks around her all the same.

They agree to meet in half an hour at the Nørrebro Street office of the development organisation Ibis. When Iben arrives, Gunnar is waiting for her. He looks happy to see her and introduces her to his friend.

The noise of the crowd milling around in the lecture theatre is quite different from the earnest atmosphere of the DCGI. The aid activists, and the audience in general, are colourfully dressed, talk in loud voices, laugh and call out greetings to people they last met on field projects abroad. Almost everyone is tanned.

A few older men wander about, working the crowd. Like Gunnar, these men seem to have many friends and acquaintances in the audience, the majority of whom are young, female and often strikingly attractive. Three women chatting near a window catch sight of Gunnar and wave. He looks delighted and waves back.

Iben keeps wondering how many of these people have slept with each other. In a hut in Zimbabwe, for instance, or in a shack in El Salvador. Or in someone’s flat, late one night after a party. It follows that some of them might have been with Gunnar. She can’t let go of that thought either. She regrets putting on a prim, cream-coloured blouse, which had seemed so perfect. Still, she can’t think what else she might have chosen to wear.

Gunnar introduces her to another ‘old friend’ even though she looks quite young. The woman leans into Gunnar as they talk. Iben can’t figure out why this girl’s turquoise dress is somehow provocative, given that it is high-necked and not at all figure-hugging.

Fortunately Iben hits it off with many of the people she meets. They still remember her from the media coverage six months ago — a Kenyan hostage crisis is especially likely to stick in the minds of Africa activists, of course.

Gunnar has reserved two good seats in the middle of the theatre. After a very brief lecture, the film starts up.

Iben and Gunnar are sitting side by side in the dark on the hard wooden seats. They do not touch. Iben leaves one hand resting on her thigh. It’s the hand closest to him, only a few centimetres away. Her hand senses the warmth of his body, but neither of them moves. Even the air between them is still.

When the film ends, four people carrying glasses of water and writing pads sit down at a couple of tables at one end of the room. They are introduced as ‘the panel this evening’. Twice they refer questions to Gunnar, saying, ‘Gunnar, you know all about this issue.’ Gunnar’s answers are lucid and well-delivered. He doesn’t exploit the opportunity and avoids sounding overly academic. He comes across so well that Iben half-suspects that he had it in mind when he invited her here. It makes her happy to think her opinion might matter to him.

Afterwards, in the throng of people, Gunnar invites her to the nearby Café Sebastopol. Outside in the night air Iben and Gunnar walk, pushing their bicycles along as they chat about the film. Once inside the café Iben tries to be relaxed but also to maintain a slight distance. Strictly speaking, this isn’t a date, she tells herself, and she is definitely not trying to seduce her best friend’s would-be lover.

They talk a little about Gunnar’s meeting with Paul that morning. When Gunnar and Paul said goodbye, Paul put his left hand over their clasped hands and told him that he would keep Gunnar ‘informed whenever the situation opened up’. Iben and Gunnar have a good laugh about this.