Fugitive: A Novel Read online

  “Are you going to meet me?”

  “No. I’m out of here as soon as I drop you off. Now listen up. A big, bald white man will contact you. His name is Evers. You give him the money. He’s going to fly us out of here, tonight.”

  “Tonight! But I just got here.”

  “And you’re just going to leave. Evers is a mercenary. He’s got a plane coming in on a bush airstrip a few miles outside the city. As soon as you give him the money he’ll contact his partner and we’ll all meet up at the strip.”

  “Is Evers going to take me there?”

  “Hell, no. You don’t want Baptiste’s men seeing you two together. All he’s taking is the money.”

  “Then how will I get there?” Dennis asked anxiously.

  “Ask the doorman at the hotel where the nightlife is, then have the doorman get you a taxi.”

  “Should I bring my suitcase?”

  “Are you stupid? Who brings a suitcase to a bar? No, you don’t bring your suitcase. You leave it in your room so no one thinks you’re skipping out.”

  “Hey, back off, Charlie. I’m new to this cloak-and-dagger stuff.”

  “You’d better be a fast learner because one stupid move could cost you your life. Now pay attention. As soon as you’re away from the hotel, tell the driver you’ve changed your mind and want to see an old friend. Give him these directions,” Charlie said, slipping Dennis a piece of paper. “This will take you to the expatriate compound so it will look like you’re visiting a white friend. When you get to the gate of the compound tell the driver to go two more miles. If he balks, slip him five dollars. He’ll take you to the moon for that kind of tip. Watch the odometer. Just before it hits two miles, you’ll see a dirt road off to the right. Take it a mile in and we’ll be there.”

  “I don’t know about this,” Dennis said nervously.

  “You have two choices. Do what I just told you and get out of this hellhole tonight, or use your return ticket to fly out tomorrow. The problem with choice number two is that you’ll have to be in Batanga in the morning, by which time President Baptiste will know that I’ve flown the coop.

  “Now ask yourself, who is the last person with whom I was seen and who do you think will be questioned about where I’ve gone? While the secret police are adjusting the voltage to the electrodes attached to your testicles, I’ll be flying to freedom and you’ll be wondering why you aren’t with me.”

  “Attaching electrodes! They can’t do that, can they? I’m an American citizen.”

  “You think Baptiste gives a shit? When he finds out I’ve escaped, he’s going to want to hurt someone, and you’re going to be the only one here.”

  CHAPTER 6

  The shower felt great. The cold water washed away the fatigue of travel and the layer of sweat that had caked his body ever since Dennis had stepped out of the plane into the African sun. The mere fact that he was in Africa was astonishing to someone who had never been farther than the East Coast of the United States. As Dennis toweled off, he thought about everything that had happened since he’d landed in Batanga. The events of the past hour both scared him to death and exhilarated him. The exhilarating part involved mercenaries, secret police, and the possibility of a thrilling escape in the night. The scary part involved the possibility that the escape would be thwarted by the secret police and he would end up with electrodes attached to his testicles. Dennis was terrified of being tortured, but he was more frightened of losing the most important story and the greatest professional opportunity of his life.

  After he changed into fresh clothes, Dennis carried his money-filled flight bag to the bar, which was packed with expatriates and wealthy Batangans. Charlie had told him to order a piña colada, which would identify him to Evers as the person with the cash. Dennis found a table and put his flight bag between his feet so he could touch it. He was halfway through his drink when a gorgeous black woman in a short red dress sat next to him.

  “That’s an interesting drink you have there. What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s a piña colada.”

  “You like that drink?” she asked.

  “Yes, I do. It’s good.”

  “Is it sweet?”

  “A little.”

  He felt a sudden pressure on his left knee and the heat rose in his cheeks when he realized it was caused by the woman’s hand.

  “I can be good too and I’m sweeter than your drink. Do you want to taste me?”

  Sweat formed on Dennis’s brow, even though the hotel was heavily air-conditioned. He had very little sexual experience and a situation like this had never before presented itself. Every nerve in his body was urging him to answer in the affirmative and whisk this stunning woman up to his room. Then he remembered his Pulitzer Prize and why he was in the bar.

  “If I wasn’t meeting someone I’d gladly accept your offer. Maybe another night.”

  Rebecca leaned in close and lowered her voice. “Mr. Evers wants you to go to the garden by the pool after you finish your drink. Take the path that leads to the hut bar.”

  Dennis started to say something, but the woman touched his lips gently with her fingers.

  “Maybe we will meet again tomorrow night, yes?” she said loud enough to be heard by anyone who was listening. Then Rebecca walked away, her hips swaying rhythmically in a manner calculated to attract the attention of every man in the bar. While all eyes were on Rebecca’s backside, Dennis worked on his drink, hoping the alcohol would help him calm down. When he’d drained the glass dry, he left the bar through the door that led to the pool.

  The temperature was in the eighties, but the air seemed cool in comparison to the 100-plus degree heat that had greeted Dennis at the airport. The back of the hotel was a tropical paradise. Lights illuminated oversize ferns, palm trees, a spectacular array of flowers, and several paths that led away from the pool into a garden. At the start of one path, a sign pointed toward a hut without walls that was covered by a thatched roof. A bar took up the center of the hut. Dennis was halfway down the path when he heard someone behind him. Before he could turn, a hand clamped down on the wrist that held the flight bag. Dennis’s blood pressure skyrocketed.

  “I’m Evers. Don’t say a word. Just give me the bag and keep moving. Have a drink at the bar then head to the rendezvous.”

  Dennis released the bag and a huge, bald man walked past him and disappeared into the garden. Dennis was still shaking when he sat at the bar. A stiff scotch helped him relax a little. When he’d finished it, he went to the front of the hotel and asked the doorman where to find some action in town. As soon as he was given the name of a few bars and the street they were on, Dennis asked the doorman to get him a cab. The doorman blew a whistle and a taxi pulled up. The cabbie was a big man wearing a dashiki decorated with a picture of Jean-Claude Baptiste. When Dennis got into the taxi, he turned his head toward the backseat.

  “Where to, my friend?” he asked with a jovial grin.

  “Lafayette Street.”

  “Ah, you are looking for fine Batangan women,” the cabbie said with a knowing shake of his head.

  “Maybe,” Dennis answered nervously.

  “I show you the best bars.”

  “Great.”

  “You are American?”

  “Yes,” Dennis answered tersely, remembering Charlie’s admonition to talk to no one.

  “Not too many Americans come Batanga way.”

  When Dennis didn’t respond, the driver said, “I like Americans. They tip big.” Then he laughed.

  Dennis cast a few surreptitious glances out the back window of the taxi as it sped into town. He didn’t see any cars following him.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” Dennis said. “I want to go to Idi Amin Beach.”

  “That trip more money,” the cabbie said.

  “That’s okay.”

  The beach had originally been named after Batanga’s first president, but President Baptiste had rechristened it in the name of his boyhood idol. The compound wh
ere many of the expatriates lived backed on it. The driver cut through a few side streets before turning onto Baptiste Boulevard, the main road out of the city.

  “What kind work you do in America?” the driver asked.

  “I write for a magazine.”

  “Ah, Penthouse, Playboy, they are good magazines.”

  “Actually, it’s a news magazine. We report what’s happening in the world.”

  The cabbie shook his head. “That’s a good thing. It is wise to know about the world. Have you come to Batanga to write about our great country?”

  “Uh, yes. The American people want very much to learn about Batanga.”

  “That’s good. Batangans know much about America. We see the movies. Many gunfights and car chases. Have you ever been in a gunfight or a car chase?”

  “That doesn’t really happen. I mean, not often. They just put those in the movies to make them exciting. Most days of the year, it’s pretty boring in America. Americans just get up and work and watch television and go to sleep. There’s not much exciting going on.”

  “I would like a television. It would be a good thing to have. They show our great football team on TV.”

  The streetlights disappeared a mile past the executive mansion and the only hole in the dark night was created by the cab’s headlights. By the time they were close to the expatriate compound, Dennis was starting to feel confident that he would escape from Batanga. The cabbie kept up a constant chatter and Dennis found himself talking too, because it helped him relieve his tension. When Dennis saw the wall that sealed off the expatriates from Batanga, he told the cabbie to go on for another two miles. The driver asked for more money and Dennis gave him five dollars as Charlie had instructed. The driver responded with a big grin and drove on. He almost missed the turnoff, but Dennis spotted it. The cab backed up and began to bounce as it moved slowly along the unpaved road.

  Dennis began to worry when he didn’t see anything that resembled an airstrip. Then the trees disappeared and Dennis spotted a Land Rover and Charlie’s Volkswagen parked in the middle of an open field.

  “Stop here,” Dennis said.

  The cab stopped and Dennis handed the driver the fare and a big tip.

  “You want me to wait for you?” the driver asked.

  “No, thanks. I’ve got a ride back to town.”

  Dennis got out and Charlie walked out of the shadows.

  “So you decided to come along on our little adventure,” he said to Dennis.

  “I’ve never walked away from a story yet,” Dennis said, trying to sound like a hard-as-nails veteran reporter.

  Charlie started to say something else when he noticed that the taxi had not moved.

  “Did you tell him to go back to town?” he asked just as the cabbie stepped out of the taxi with a gun in his hand.

  “Down on the ground,” the driver commanded.

  “Who…?” Dennis started to ask just as the cabbie clubbed him with the gun.

  “On the ground,” the cabbie barked. Charlie dropped to the dirt and Dennis collapsed, dazed by the blow.

  “Is anyone else here?” the cabbie asked as he scanned the darkness. Before Charlie could answer, the taxi driver’s head exploded and red mist fanned out behind him.

  “Fuck!” Charlie said as Chauncey Evers appeared, cradling a high-powered rifle outfitted with a night-vision scope.

  Evers grabbed Dennis by the arm. As the mercenary pulled him to his feet, Dennis gawked at the dead cabbie. Then he threw up.

  “Get your shit together,” Evers said, tightening the grip on Dennis’s bicep. “Baptiste’s men will be here any moment.

  “Turn on the car lights and light the flares,” Evers told Charlie. “We don’t know how close the other bastards are and our ride is on its approach.”

  Evers released Dennis’s arm. Dennis staggered a few steps. He felt woozy from the blow to his head. Something trickled down his cheek. When he took his hand away, it was covered with blood.

  “I’m bleeding.”

  “For Christ’s sake, grow up. Do you want to die here?”

  Dennis stared at Evers.

  “Well, you’re going to if you don’t get your ass in gear. There are a series of flares on either side of the runway and we’ve got to get them lit.”

  Charlie had already turned on the headlights of the Volkswagen and the Rover. He was lighting his second flare on one side of a narrow dirt airstrip when Dennis set off his first. Dennis was still nauseated from the blow to his head but he pushed through the pain and kept moving. Just after he set off the next flare he heard the faint sound of an aircraft approaching. Seconds after all the flares were lit, a small plane dropped out of the sky. It didn’t look much bigger than a pickup truck, and Dennis, who had flown infrequently and always in a commercial airliner, had trouble believing that this toy would be able to fly four grown men out of the jungle.

  The makeshift runway was about 2,000 feet long and the plane bounced along the ground when it hit the dirt. As soon as it reached the end of the strip it made a U-turn.

  Headlights appeared from the direction of the main road and Dennis heard car engines racing.

  “Move,” Evers barked. Dennis jumped into one of the two rear seats, next to Charlie. Seconds later, Evers was sitting next to the pilot and they were taxiing toward freedom.

  Two black Mercedes burst onto the runway and followed the plane down the dirt strip. A gun poked out of the rear window of the lead car and Dennis saw a flash.

  “Up!” Evers shouted.

  The nose of the plane jerked skyward and they began a steep climb. Dennis was pinned to his seat and thought he would throw up again. Then they were in the clouds and Charlie was laughing hysterically.

  “Thank you, thank you,” he hollered, “and God bless America.”

  CHAPTER 7

  At the height of her agony, Rebecca cried out to Jesus. Jean-Claude Baptiste nodded his approval. In addition to practicing an animistic tribal religion, the president of the republic hedged his bets by attending Roman Catholic mass regularly, and he approved of a woman who kept her faith under trying circumstances. The interrogator asked the bartender from the Mauna Loa another question. When he found her answer unsatisfactory he did something that caused her to scream again.

  There was a knock on the door to his office and Baptiste turned down the intercom that was transmitting the interrogation from the basement. Baptiste liked to conduct his own question-and-answer sessions in person when he could, but his position as president didn’t leave him much free time, so he’d learned to delegate and made do with listening to important interrogations over the intercom.

  The door opened and Nathan Tuazama entered. He was dressed in a tan business suit, a light blue silk shirt, and a forest green tie. Most men trembled in Baptiste’s presence but Tuazama was a man whom Baptiste feared. This was due to a dream Baptiste had had many years ago that featured him and Tuazama. In it, both men were being menaced by a lion in a clearing in the jungle, but the lion appeared to be unable to choose between them. Every time the lion headed toward Baptiste he grew confused, changed direction, and headed for Tuazama. Then, just as he was about to pounce on Nathan, he would again grow confused and start toward the president. In the dream, the lion was never able to make a decision about which Batangan would be his dinner.

  Baptiste had told Nathan about the dream. Then he had consulted an old man in his village, who was a magician. The day before the consultation, Tuazama paid the old man twenty dollars. The Juju man listened intently as the president recounted his dream. Then he read the entrails of a goat and revealed that the fates of Baptiste and Tuazama were inextricably entwined. Since then Baptiste had been very solicitous of Tuazama’s well-being and Tuazama had done everything he could to encourage Baptiste in the belief that he would stay alive as long as the chief of his secret police was well cared for.

  “Sit down and listen for a few moments, Nathan.”

  There was another scream followed
by another plea to Jesus for mercy.

  “She is strong,” Baptiste said.

  Tuazama shrugged. “That’s true, but she’ll tell us what we want to know eventually. In any event, this interrogation may be unnecessary. I believe I’ve figured out what happened and where Charlie has gone.”

  Baptiste leaned forward, eager for the information.

  “The night of the banquet at the mansion, Charlie sent an e-mail to World News, an American magazine, offering to give an interview. A few days later, a mercenary named Chauncey Evers met with Charlie in the Mauna Loa, where the bartender works. The man who saw this thought that Evers was a harmless drunk and didn’t bother to report the meeting. He has been dealt with.

  “Yesterday, Charlie picked up an American journalist named Dennis Levy at the airport. Levy works for World News and he was on the plane that flew Charlie out of the country. After driving in from the airport, Charlie dropped Levy at the Batanga Palace, where Evers was staying. My guess is that the bartender put Charlie in touch with Evers and Charlie arranged to have Evers take him to the United States.”

  “But Charlie’s a wanted man in America.”

  “He’s not stupid, Mr. President. He had to know you’d figured out that he was Bernadette’s lover. He knows what would have happened to him if you decided to punish his transgression. I’m guessing he chose American justice over yours. And then, of course, there is the matter of the diamonds. A child went to Marsh’s apartment yesterday. I suspect Rebecca will eventually confess that she sent the child to Charlie with the diamonds.”