‘We saw choppers working on the lake,’ Richard said.
‘Not just working. Once they cleared an area near the dam, they brought in attack helicopters with floats. They’ve a regular little air force up there.’
‘But you saw one of the workers go over the dam,’ prompted Anastasia, bringing Ivan back to his original focus.
‘Yeah. There’s only the main dam left now. They have it rigged but they’re waiting before they finish it off. They’re still working on the down-slope side. Upslope are the old Japanese pearl fisheries and they’ve been told to stay clear of those while Ngama and Fola work out what half a million huge black pearls will fetch if they’re released carefully on to the jewellery market. That’s why they’re waiting. Max is advising them on that, too, needless to say. That’s where they have us corralled. But, long story short, I was working up by the dam when I saw the strangest thing. This young Chinese engineer was up there on the dam itself, laying charges or checking circuitry or whatever, when suddenly the water beside him started boiling. The air wavered, like a really intense heat haze. And he just pitched over and was washed away. The guards saw it and ran over, but he was gone downstream so fast they didn’t even have time to raise the alarm. So I thought to myself: Ivan, if you’re going to go, then that’s the way to do it. And I started planning how to get myself up there.’
‘There was no other way?’ asked Anastasia.
‘No. They have a pretty effective little gulag up there. Razor wire, guard towers. At least they let us sleep in tents. Feed us on what they give the army.’
‘And how are they treating you?’ asked Anastasia, her voice gentle at last.
‘My face, you mean? I’ve had worse. I got worse when I was earning the red beret. But by and large if you’re square with them, do what they tell you and don’t talk back then this sort of thing doesn’t happen to you.’
‘But there’s no way out other than over the dam?’ persisted Richard.
‘Not that we’ve found. And shit, the wire works both ways. Keeps us in, and keeps whatever’s out there out.’ He shivered. It wasn’t cold.
‘Whatever’s out there …’ said Richard, frowning.
‘In the jungle. That’s where Odem’s men are. Odem’s men and more. Ngoboi — but not just Ngoboi, you know? There’s other stuff out there. Panthers. Leopards. Some of the men have seen them. We’ve all heard them.’
‘If Odem’s men can make it out there, then so could you,’ countered Anastasia. ‘You came up here to take down the Army of Christ and now you’re scared of some tosser dressed as Ngoboi! What the fuck, Ivan!’
‘What does Mako say?’ asked Richard. ‘He knows the jungle best.’
‘Mako doesn’t say anything,’ said Ivan shortly. ‘Ngoboi cut his tongue out. They have him crucified in the middle of the camp. Every now and then another bit of him gets chopped off. Or peeled off. A finger, an ear, a nostril. The skin of his forehead. But they won’t let him die.’
‘And none of you can help him out?’ sneered Anastasia. ‘Find some way …’
‘No,’ said Ivan shortly. ‘Every now and then Ngoboi comes round trying to decide who’s turn is next when Mako goes. Everyone has a vested interest in keeping the poor bastard alive.’
That conversation was enough to silence all of them and they remained quiet through the next couple of hours as the three men at the front slashed with brutal energy through the jungle undergrowth. While Richard walked his mind was racing, constructing, testing and discarding plans of action. And every now and then he would ask Ivan something. ‘So, only one dam left standing, Ivan?’ was Richard’s first question. Ivan nodded. ‘But they have it rigged?’
‘As I say, that was what the engineer who went over was doing.’
‘OK.’ He added after ten minutes, ‘and how much water hyacinth is left?’
‘Looks like about half,’ Ivan shrugged.
‘But the lake is only half full now — so it’s pretty tight-packed still?’
‘At the far end it is. The end by the dams is clear.’
‘That’s where they have their attack helicopters on their floats?’
‘Yes.’ Ivan looked ready to add more detail. But several more minutes passed.
‘Anything else? Boats? RIBs? How do they cross the lake?’
‘Couple of RIBs, now you mention it. But they mostly use the choppers.’
Richard nodded. Lapsed into thought. Then, ‘Where do they get the fuel?’ he asked suddenly after a few more minutes.
‘Bring it in over the volcano, I guess. They have engineers making some kind of makeshift road using the lava flow. That’s pretty broken up down-slope but I hear its pretty smooth upslope — it’s almost all in Congo Libre in any case.’
A few minutes later again, Richard suddenly said, ‘But that means they have effective communications. Ours have been jammed.’
‘There’s a radio shack on each side of the lake,’ said Ivan. ‘The upslope one on our side looks the bigger. I’d guess that if they’re jamming all the frequencies except their own — which is standard battlefield practice after all — then that’s the one the equipment’s in.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Richard asked at once.
Ivan chuckled and answered in fluent Mandarin, ‘The guys from Han Wuhan told me. They don’t know I speak their language.’ He switched to Yoruba. ‘And neither do the mumu soldiers …’
‘I thought they were all over the other side,’ said Richard in Russian after another lengthy period of reflection. ‘On the down-slope bank.’
‘They are. The Chinese are the ones who put us to work. It’s the army that make sure we do what we’re told. They’re all bivouacked over there. The Army of Christ is on this side — upslope, where they can keep an eye on us. You’ll be able to see for yourself soon. We’re nearly there.’
Richard dropped his voice, but added intensity. ‘Wait! If the Army of Christ are upslope, aren’t we just about to walk into them?’
‘Not at this time of day,’ Ivan assured him. ‘My men are at work. The Chinese are directing them and Ngama’s soldiers are watching them. No one’s got a chance to make trouble. The Army of Christ won’t be out until after dark.’
Even so, they approached the edge of the jungle with the utmost care, moving forward in an arc that swung them up the mountainside, then down to overlook the wire-walled camp that housed the Russians at night. A little way back from the edge of the jungle itself they came across a tree that had lost some of its purchase on the sloping ground and leaned over towards the lake. Richard, unobtrusively taking command now, sent Oshodi up this with the binoculars.
Abiye pulled the tablet out of his backpack and, before long, Richard, the corporal, Anastasia and Ivan were poring over the vivid pictures it showed. Oshodi started with a slow panorama that showed the last dam standing across the northern end of the lake, its sluices wide, grey water soaring in arcs from its foot, visible behind it only because they soared out along the river valley before plunging out of sight below. The top of the dam was bustling with figures. Some were in the white overalls. Others were in uniform. The rest were in cargo pants and vests. These were obviously the Russians because everyone else seemed to be shouting at them, shoving them and hitting them.
This side of the dam, the razor-wired compound with the skeletal watch towers they had seen from the lookout tree below, stood apparently empty. Behind it, sitting on floats on the still water of the lake there were three Chinese Z10 attack helicopters, with their undercarriages adapted to take floats. All of their considerable weaponry was pointed directly at the prison camp. Oshodi focused down. The cramped and filthy space — still far too limited for the choppers to use — was packed with ragged tents around a rough square, in the middle of which stood a cross. Even from here and looking from behind, it was possible to see that there was someone standing lashed to it. And Ivan’s description made it clear enough who that was.