“We know about him. I know. It sounds ridiculous.”
“It is ridiculous,” she said, emphatically.
“The truth is the entire movement is underground. When West Berliners talked about changing government before the wall came down in 1988 they couldn’t do so openly. Instead, they had a series of communication codes, hand gestures, and signs to show what side they’re on. Our agents estimate if the DRC were to have a truly democratic election today, the leader of the USK would win with an approval rating in the high eighties. What’s more, we believe, he has the possibility of uniting a part of Africa that has struggled with rebel wars and famine for many years.”
She shrugged as though she really didn’t care what happened to the war torn nation. “And so what happened? He lost the diamonds in the desert, and the U.S. government thought to send you to find them again?”
Sam grinned. “Yeah, you’d be surprised how close you are…”
“Why go to the trouble? Why not send the dictator they want to support the weapons? It would serve the same purpose? Why the search for diamonds?”
“Because, as you said, the American government has a policy not to take sides in foreign policy. In this instance, we’re merely selling weapons to a private investor.”
“That sounds like a pretty weak excuse,” Zara said. “So how did you end up here?”
“The leader of the USK was siphoning blood diamonds out of the DRC to fund his regime. It was a dangerous game, but he has such a devout following that he was able to take great risks. He was able to access the diamonds, but the problem came when he wanted to get them out of the region. The least guarded, and therefore safest route, ended up being through the Sahara desert.”
“So what happened?”
“There was a system. One of his men would travel into the desert, stockpile the diamonds, and then return to camp. Then someone from our side, outside the region would go and retrieve the diamonds.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Six months ago, the transporter from the outside — our guy — disappeared.” Sam paused. “Without any means of discovering that his partner was dead, the first guy in the process, kept depositing the diamonds. Stockpiling a fortune. That was over six months ago now.”
“And you think he’s been throwing them into a waterhole?”
“Yes. Where else could you put them?”
“Why not bury them in the sand?”
“You’ve spent long enough in the desert to realize that people can always track a person in the sand. Especially one that comes out into the desert every week. No, he’s come to a waterhole, dumped his diamonds inside a secure vault and then returned. That way, if questioned he could simply argue he was searching for water and returned. All waterholes are covered in footprints.”
“So you’re still involved in the military?”
“No.” Sam laughed. “I’m done with that life. Tom and I are here, purely as treasure hunters, hired by the American government to retrieve some stolen diamonds.”
“Plausible deniability, if something goes wrong?”
“Something like that.”
“Any luck finding them?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Do you see me carrying a few additional bags of highly overpriced carbon?”
She looked at him and shook her head. “Where were you going to look next?”
“We weren’t,” Sam said, emphatically. He pulled out a map from his top pocket. It looked old. Maybe circa 1950s, but relatively little changed in the Sahara during that time. It had been recently laminated to protect it from water. Sam passed the map to her. “We’ve dived all of the waterholes in this region without any luck. We were going to head home tomorrow. That was before we met you, of course.”
“Have you tried expanding your search grid?” she asked, unsure why she even cared whether the American government received its diamonds to fund a war she knew little about and cared even less for.
“No. We’re certain it’s in there.”
“How can you be?”
“Because someone kept watch on our guy for the past six months leading up to his disappearance. We know exactly where he’s been. We know every single waterhole he’s been to.”
“You’ve been spying on him?”
“First of all, it wasn’t us. It was our employer. And secondly — of course they were spying on their own agent. You think they’d entrust a single one of their agents with a hundred million in uncut diamonds without keeping an eye on their investments?”
“Do you have a map of all the watering spots where you think he’s traveled?”
Sam nodded and handed it to her.
Zara shook her head. “Can I have another look at your map?”
“Sure, but like I said, we’ve dived every one of them now. We must have got it wrong somehow. He must have been using a different technique.”
She stared at it for a minute. “How do I know which ones you’ve visited and which ones you haven’t?”
“For starters, we’ve visited them all.”
“All of them?” She gently bit the bottom of her lip as she thought about the region. She’d traveled through the area many times and used every well and every waterhole at some stage, previously. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. Everyone on that map.”
“And the waterholes on this map are marked with a small circle?”
Sam nodded. “A U inside the circle means underground, such as a well, and an O inside the circle means aboveground, such as an oasis.”
Zara looked at the map again. “What about the ones not marked on this map?”
“There are no other waterholes in the region. This map has all of them. This is the same map as our agent.”
Zara grinned. “Then you missed one.”
“No. We’ve dived every single waterhole on this map.”
Her eyes glanced at the dozen or so waterholes and then stopped. “You’ve missed one.”
“No. We’ve tracked his movements through satellite imaging. These are the only places he travels through his round south to north and returned circuits which have matched up with the other seller.”
She shook her head. “No. You definitely missed one. There’s a secret well dug here. It’s very old, deep, and covered when not in use. Rumor is that the old Berbers built it more than a thousand years ago. Few still use it. And those who know about it try to keep it a secret. But it’s definitely there.”
“How can you be so certain it still exists?”
“Because I used it two months ago.”
She drew an asterisk on the map, approximately ten miles ahead of them. “It’s right here.”
She watched Sam study the map and grin. “Are we going to pass this spot, the way we’re going?”
She matched his smile. “You bet we are! In less than twenty-four hours I hope to be filling my water flask at that well.”
Zara looked at Sam. He looked pleased, but not surprised. Like a person accustomed to getting lucky, or making it when he was all out of luck. His grin said life was one big game and he wanted to enjoy every minute of it. It was arrogant and cute at the same time. Of course she was happy to help the man who’d saved her life, twice in the past day. But there was a small part of her, albeit not a very good part of her if she were to be honest, that almost wished he would search the well and discover the diamonds weren’t there — just to see the smug grin fall from his face.
A moment later she saw how that would look. Because in the distance, she heard the distinct sound of a single engine plane flying low, which meant they were either super lucky and about to be rescued, or General Ngige had a spotter plane in the air, and everything they’d achieved was about to come to nothing.