Nina was taken aback by both reasons, though her offence at the former took second place to her dismay at the latter. ‘But… you couldn’t possibly have known. I wouldn’t have blamed you for it — it wasn’t your fault!’
Eddie shook his head. ‘Mac taught me in the SAS that if something goes wrong, someone’s got to take responsibility — so they can set it right. It took eleven years, but I finally got the chance to do that. I caught Mukobo, and turned him over to the cops so Interpol could deal with him.’ He looked across at the Congolese, who stared back with disdain. ‘He was supposed to be going to the States on trial for killing the aid workers. But somehow, he ended up back here.’ He returned to his prisoner. ‘How the fuck did you manage that, “Le Fauchet”?’
Mukobo let out a nasty laugh. ‘You were afraid of your wife? That little woman? You are no man, Chase!’
Eddie smashed his boot heel on to the other man’s kneecap, making him thrash in pain. ‘Answer the fucking question. You should be dead! You were on the 747 that went down in the Atlantic last year — I saw a news story about it. Everyone else on the plane died, so how come you’re still shitting up the world?’
Breathing heavily, Mukobo glared at him. ‘I had help. From Mr Brice.’
The Yorkshireman was startled. ‘Brice? How did he help?’ There was no reply beyond a look of smug defiance. ‘How the fuck did Brice get you off a plane at thirty thousand feet?’
‘When my people rescue me, you can ask him yourself,’ said Mukobo. ‘Before I kill you, I will let him tell you how completely you have failed, Chase. Not just here, now, but ever since we first met.’ He leaned as close to Eddie as he could. ‘All the people who have died since then, at my hand or those of my followers, every single one is on your head — because you were too weak to kill me when you had the chance!’
Eddie brought up the gun. ‘I’ve still got the chance.’
Mukobo made a spitting sound. ‘Which you will not take. I am unarmed, I am tied to a chair — I am a helpless prisoner! To you, it would be murder. And you do not believe that you are a murderer, do you, Chase? You believe in your laws, your rules of war. Your conscience cowers behind them. But even though I am the one who is tied, I am stronger than you — because the only rules I follow are my own. In the jungle, the law is for me to make, not obey.’ He drew back. ‘And this whole country will be my jungle.’
‘What about your friend who runs the LEC?’ Nina asked, sensing that Eddie was too furious to speak. ‘Won’t he have his own ideas?’
‘Kabanda?’ The name emerged as a sarcastic snort. ‘I tolerate him, that is all. As I do Mr Brice. He thinks I am some tin-pot warlord he can control, but I am ahead of him. They are both useful to me now, but when the time is right, I shall sweep them away.’ He looked back at Eddie. ‘You know that time is coming, Chase. It is inevitable. One way or another, I will rule this country.’
‘Thought you just wanted to rule the eastern half,’ Eddie growled. The gun lowered, but did not move away from the warlord.
‘To begin with. But unlike you, I see no reason to limit myself.’ Mukobo sat as straight as he could, a small smile appearing. ‘And as the future ruler of the Congo, I am prepared to make you a most magnanimous offer, Dr Wilde.’
‘And what would that be?’ Nina asked suspiciously.
‘It is very simple. Let me go, and return my gun. I promise you that the only person I kill will be Chase. I have no interest in the others. You can all go free.’
‘You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.’
The warlord shrugged. ‘Whether you do or not, the offer is real.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Eddie muttered.
Nina was more vocal. ‘You’re seriously suggesting I let you go so that you can murder my husband?’
‘Is one life not worth it to save more?’ asked Mukobo. ‘You, Dr Ziff, the others in your team will all live to return home. I am sure the other woman, the one who complains so much, would certainly take my offer.’
‘Maybe she would, but I wouldn’t. It’s not going to happen.’
His expression became darker. ‘Then you are condemning yourself to death, Dr Wilde. All of you. When the militia come for me, they will kill everyone they find. Should any of you survive, I myself will remove you from this world. After I have had my way with you, and all of my men have done the same.’ Nina felt a sickening chill at the threat, but tried not to let her fear show.
‘You should probably stop talking now,’ said Eddie with an unnerving calmness. ‘Before you say something you’ll really regret.’
‘I have no regrets,’ Mukobo replied, getting louder. ‘For nothing I have ever done, nothing I will ever do. I have killed men, women, children — burned babies in their beds! And I will do it all again, I promise you. Anyone who opposes me will be slaughtered like pigs. If you do not let me go, now, then your friends in this place will not be the only ones who will be killed. Your little girl, your precious Macy, will die too!’
Shock hit the couple at his use of their daughter’s name, Eddie as still as a statue while Nina went pale. Now fear entered her voice. ‘How — how do you know about her?’
‘Why, from Mr Brice, of course,’ said the warlord, cruelly pleased at her reaction. ‘He has told me much about you. Your family, where you live — New York, 78th Street, yes?’ Nausea roiled in Nina’s stomach at the revelation that he knew how to find their home. ‘He has powerful friends in the world of spies. They will bring your girl to me. She is five, yes?’ He closed his eyes, drawing back his head as if smelling a delicious meal. ‘So fresh, so innocent. So… undefiled.’ The last word was drawn out, savoured, before he opened his eyes again. ‘She will be most popular with my men. And the last thing she sees before I let her die will be your severed heads! Unless,’ he said, fixing them firmly with his unblinking gaze, ‘you let me go, right now.’
Nina was too horrified to speak. She tried to retreat, but almost stumbled as her legs shook.
Eddie, in contrast, remained utterly still, looking back at Mukobo with equal intensity. Finally, he spoke. ‘You’re right. Yeah, you’re right. It is worth one life to save more.’
The warlord smiled. ‘I knew you would agree with me in the end, Chase. Now. Give me my gun.’
The Yorkshireman nodded. ‘Here.’
He lifted the revolver again — and fired it at Mukobo’s groin.
The Magnum’s echoing boom was like cannon fire. Nina jumped in shock — first at the near-deafening noise, then at what her husband had done.
Mukobo himself was no less stunned. He stared at Eddie for a moment, wide-eyed as blood gushed over the seat… then the pain hit him. He screamed, thrashing against his bonds and howling French obscenities.
Eddie was unmoved. ‘You’re not going to touch my daughter. Or anyone else. Ever.’
Mukobo looked back up at him, realising what he meant—
Five more Magnum rounds erupted from the gun as the Englishman emptied its cylinder into the warlord’s chest. The bullets ripped right through him, cracking bloody craters in the chair’s stone back. Mukobo shuddered, then slumped forward, dead.
The rolling thunder of the gunshots faded. Nina slowly lowered her hands from her ears as she gaped at the quivering corpse. ‘Oh… oh my God, Eddie. Jesus Christ! What did you do?’
‘What I should’ve done back in 2006,’ he replied, opening the revolver’s cylinder and tipping out the spent brass.