Dead Centre - Andy McNab [100]
There was a deep sadness in his eyes. But also, for the first time since I’d met him, I saw the rage in his heart.
‘Your factory ships sucked all the fish out of our sea. Your toxic waste killed everything else. So our fishermen became pirates to feed their children. To feed their children who are born like sick goats and die before their time.’
He busied himself finding the jack he was after, allowing his anger to subside.
‘Mr Nick, my job is done now. I’ll wait here for you. I’ll get you back to the airport. But what can you do? You have so little time before your friends are killed …’
I sat up, like he’d just given me the good news with a cattle prod.
He pulled a shoe from his belt and extracted the folded sheet of paper. ‘Tonight, it says, the criminals will be punished. After Maghrib. The Wahhabis – the advocates of Sharia law – they’re very strict.’
He started reading. ‘The Islamic Sharia Court of Merca District confirms that one man will lose his hand for stealing from another man’s house. Two men and two women have committed zina.’
‘Adultery?’
‘Yes. But it’s not like you think. Having sex with someone and not being married to them, that’s adultery to the Wahhabis. All of them will get ramj.’ He hesitated. ‘Do you know what that means, Mr Nick?’
The sweat on my chest and back went cold. I suddenly knew what those spot-lit holes in the ground were all about.
‘I can give it a fucking good guess.’
‘They’ll be stoned to death. They’ll be buried up to the neck, and then stoned.’
‘Tracy and Justin too?’
‘The same. They too have committed zina.’
The film on the memory chip replayed itself on the screen inside my head. ‘They think they have committed adultery …?’
‘She has another man’s child, Mr Nick. The Wahhabis. They’re crazy people.’
‘What happens to the boy? There are only six holes …’
‘He will live at the madrasah. He will become al-Shabab.’
‘What does it say about the other two white guys?’
‘Nothing. Do you know them?’
‘They came to do what I came to do – get the three of them out. But you were right. There’s no negotiating with these fuckers.’
Ant and Dec must have been linked into the same int as Jules had.
‘It gives me no pleasure to be right about that, Mr Nick. What is to be done? The ramj is tonight, after prayers.’
I took a breath; gathered my thoughts. ‘OK. Here’s the deal. You call Erasto. Tell him I need help to free my friends. Tell him I need as many men as he can send.’
He shook his head. ‘No, Mr Nick, it won’t happen. These people, they are not just crazy. They are very bad people. Erasto pays to keep them away. He will not—’
I pointed a finger at him. ‘Tell him I’ll pay him to fight them.’
He still shook his head. ‘No amount of money will persuade him.’
‘Tell him he can have the yacht as well. Fuck it, he can have every yacht out there, if he wants.’
‘Mr Nick, it wouldn’t be worth it to him. It would be war.’
‘So what have you got now? Peace?’
Awaale turned onto his side. ‘I am truly sorry. You’re going to have to do this thing yourself. I will wait here. I will make sure the skiff is ready to take you back, to collect my money. But Erasto will not help. He wouldn’t even listen to me. I am not my father.’
I glanced at the little red light on the Solar Monkey. ‘Well, get him on the phone then. Call your dad.’
‘My father?’
‘He’s got the pull around here, hasn’t he? Get your phone out, for fuck’s sake. Call him.’
I left him to it as I scrambled out of the shade. I didn’t want Awaale to listen in on my next conversation.
26
FRANK, AS ALWAYS, answered in two rings.
‘I’ve found them. They’re alive. But there’s no way I can negotiate. If we don’t act now, they’re going to be dead by this evening.’
If Frank’s heart missed a beat, he wasn’t giving any sign of it. Part of me was starting to admire this guy. ‘How much?’
‘Three