The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 141

smell of the strong tobacco was rank and offensive.

"Very well, lieutenant," Nogo dismissed Hammed in Amharic. "Wait

outside. I will call you when I need you." Once Hammed had left the

room, Tessay demanded, "Why have I been arrested, Colonel Nogo?"

Neither man acknowledged the question. They both regarded her

expressionlessly "I demand to know the reason for this high'handed

treatment," she persisted.

"You have been consorting with a band of notorious terrorists," said

Nogo softly. "Your actions have made you one of them, a shufta."

"That is not true."

"You have trespassed in a mineral concession in the Abbay valley," said

Helm. "And you and your accomplices have begun mining operations in the

area which belongs to this company."

"There are no mining operations," she protested.

"We have other information. We have evidence that you have built a dam

across the Dandera river-'

"That is nothing to do with me."

"So you do not deny that there is a dam?"

"It is nothing to do with me," she repeated. "I am not a member of any

terrorist group, and I have not taken part in any mining operations."

They were both silent again. Nogo made an entry in the notebook in front

of him. Helm stood up and sauntered across to the window behind her

right shoulder. The silence drew out until she could bear it no longer.

Even though she knew it was part of the campaign of nerves they were

waging against her, she had to break it.

"I have travelled most of the night in an army truck," she said. "I am

tired, and I need to go to a lavatory."

"If what you need to do is urgent you can do it where you are standing.

Neither Mr Helm nor I will be offended." Nogo ditered in a surprisingly

girlish manner, but did not look up from his book.

She looked over her shoulder at the door, but Helm crossed to it and

turned the key in the lock, slipping the key into his pocket. She knew

she must show no weakness in front of these two, and, though she was

tired and afraid and her bladder ached, she feigned an air of confidence

and assurance and crossed to the nearest chair. She pulled it from the

table and sat down in it easily.

Nogo looked up at her and frowned. He had not expected her to react this

way.

"You know the shufta bandit Mck Nimmur the accused abruptly.

"No," she said coldly. "I know the patriot and democratic leader Mek

Nimmur. He is no shufta."

"You are his concubine, his whore. Of course, you will say this."

She looked away from him with disdain, and his voice rose shrilly.

"Where is Mek Nimmur? How many men does he have with him?" Her composure

was beginning to rattle him."

She ignored the question, and Nogo scowled at her furiously. "If you do

not cooperate with us, I will have to use stronger methods to make you

answer my questions," he warned.

She turned in her chair and stared out of the window.

In the long silence that followed, Jake Helm crossed the room and went

to the door behind Nogo that led through to the rooms at the rebir of

the hut. He disappeared through it, and closed it behind him. The walls

of the hut were thin, and Tessay made out the murmur of voices from the

room beyond. The cadence and inflection were neither English nor

Amharic. They were using a foreign language in there. She guessed that

Helmw'as receiving instructions from a superior, who did not want her to

be able to recognize him at some later date.

After a few minutes Helm re-emerged and closed the door behind him

without locking it. He nodded to Nogo, who at once stood up. They both

came across to stand in front of Tessay.

I think that it will be better for all of us if we finish this business

as quickly as possible," said Helm softly. "Then you can go to the

bathroom, and I can go to my breakfast." She raised her chin and stared

at him defiantly, but did not answer him.

"Colonel Nogo, has tried to be reasonable. He is bound by certain

niceties of his official position. Fortunately I do not have the same

restraints. I am going to ask you the same questions that he did, but

this time you will answer them."

He took the dead cheroot from his mouth and examined the tip. Then he

threw the butt into a corner of the room and took a flat tin from his

hip pocket. From it he selected a fresh cheroot, long and black, and lit

it carefully, holding the match to it until it was drawing evenly. Then,

amid a cloud of pungent tobacco smoke, he waved the match to extinction

and asked, ",Ihere is Mek Nimmur?"

She shrugged and looked away, out of the side window of the hut.

Abruptly, without signalling the blow in any way, he hit her open-handed

across her face. It was a savage blow, delivered with a force that

snapped her head around, Then, before she could recover, he swung back

again and slammed his knuckles across her jawline. Her head was thrown

back violently in the opposite direction and she was knocked flying from

her chair.

Nogo stooped over her and seized her arms, twisting them up behind her

back. He lifted her back into the seat and stood behind her. He held her

in such a surprisingly powerful grip that she could feel the skin of her

upper arms bruising beneath his fingers.

"I have no more time to waste," Helm said quietly, taking the burning

cheroot from his lips to inspect the glowing tip. "Let us start again,

Where is Mek Nimmur?" Tessay's left eardrum felt as if it had burst with

the ferocity of those blows. Her hearing buzzed and sang. Her teeth had

been driven halfway through the flesh of her cheek, and her mouth filled

slowly with her own blood.

"Where is Mek Nimmur?" Helm repeated, leaning his face closer to hers.

"What are your friends doing with the dam in the Dandera river?"

She gathered the blood and saliva in her mouth, and suddenly and

explosively spat it into his face.

He recoiled violently and wiped the bloody mess from his eyes with the

palm of his hand.

Hold herV he said to Nogo, and seized the front of her blouse. With one

heave he ripped it open down to her waist, and Nogo giggled and leaned

forward over her shoulder to look at her breasts. He giggled again as

Helm took one of them in his hand and squeezed out the nipple between

his finger and thumb. It was the dark purple colour of a ripe mulberry.

He held her like that, pinching her flesh with his nails until the skin

tore and a droplet of blood welled up and trickled over his thumb. Then

with his other hand he took the burning cheroot from his lips and blew

on the top until it glowed hotly.

"Where is Mek Nimmur?" he asked, and lowered the cheroot towards her

breast. "WHAt are they doing in the Dandera river?

She stared down in horror as he brought the burning cheroot closer, and

tried to wriggle away from him. But Nogo held her firmly from behind.

She screamed once, on an agonized drawn-out note, as the glowing coal

touched, the tip of her nipple and the delicate skin began to blister.

inter," said Royan, spreading the enlargement of the fourth face of the

stele from Tanus's tomb under the bright glare of the floodlamp. "This

is the side that contains Taita's notations, which I am postulating are