Deadly Diamonds (13 page)

While the fetid smell of the street seemed magnified in the captured heat inside the cantina, all Bantu could think of was the possibility of food. The unlikely twosome weaved through some tables, at which the local alcoholic product was already taking its evening toll, and others where whispered deals for the buying and selling of every illicit substance known to man were the business of the day. While drugs, arms, and other substances were on the trading block, it ceased to surprise Bantu from the snatches of whispered conversation that the overwhelming subject of trade was raw diamonds.

The giant, Jimbo, led him to an empty back corner table. A heavy fist on the table caught the attention of one of the cantina workers. Jimbo bellowed two words: “Food. Drink.”

Within a minute, the worker brought a bowl of thick stew, a dish of rice that would have fed him for a week in the pit, and some kind of liquid smelling of alcohol. It was the first food he had eaten in more than starvation portions in nine years. Bantu could not identify anything but the rice, but it made no difference. The giant let him eat in silence. The plates were cleaned in less than two minutes.

The giant pounded the table. “Again!”

The worker brought more of the same. This time Bantu slowed to a pace that was merely ravenous. In the midst of it, he paused just long enough to look up with one word. “Bantu.”

“What?”

“Bantu. You asked my name.”

The giant laughed that hearty laugh again, and Bantu went back to eating.

“Ah, so you speak. You call me ‘Jimbo.' It's not my name, but everyone else does.”

Bantu kept eating for fear that any interruption might see the plates disappear. When he finished, he looked up again with curiosity in his eyes.

“Why?”

“Why what, lad?”

Bantu just nodded to the plates.

“Ah! Why I treat you to this wonderful meal?”

What Bantu was really asking was why this man was treating him with the kind of human decency that would have been common in his village, but that he thought no longer existed in the world.

“Well now. Here's my thinkin'. When I see you in the alley, I say here's this boy dressed like any one of them RUF slime. But he don't look like 'em. He look like what they do to them young boys in the pits.”

The panic of recapture and return seized Bantu. He braced to bolt at the fist sign of restraints by the giant. But they never came.

“No fear, Bantu. Looka me. You know I'm no RUF. But I say to myself, he most likely escape from the pits. This boy must be something. Damn few make it out. Like, I think no one I ever hear of. Then I say something else. You wanna hear?”

Bantu looked into his eyes and let the question hang.

“Okay, so I say, maybe this boy bring something with him. You know what I sayin'?”

Bantu shook his head slowly.

“Sure you do, Bantu. You know. Like maybe you bring some them funny stones with you.”

Bantu just shook his head. The giant just smiled.

“Because you and me, we maybe help each other. See here, Bantu. I don't steal. Not my way. But if you have them stones, what you do with 'em? Can't eat 'em, right?”

Bantu just sat in silence. Trust had been too completely stamped out of him to return in an instant.

“Okay, Bantu. We say this. You get hungry tomorrow. You come back here. I be right here this table. You think 'bout this. I know people. I get you good price. Maybe even somethin' else. I don't know. We'll see. You hear me?”

Bantu rose from the table on legs more steadied by the meal than he could remember in years.

“So, tomorrow maybe, Bantu.”

Bantu nodded and made his way through the tables toward the door. His head was down to avoid eye contact, but a sense of something watching drew his eyes to a table toward the front corner. It was just a glance, but it put near panic in his step. He saw the faces of two of the RUF who had kept guard over him in the pit.

Did they see him? Did they recognize him? He couldn't be sure one way or the other. Once outside, he weaved his way into the motley crowd buying, selling, begging, or just aimlessly moving up and down the main street. He walked for at least an hour until he felt that as nearly as he could tell, no one in the crowd was paying him any particular attention.

He found his way back to the alley where he had stashed the bag of rough diamonds. He crawled in on hands and knees with the intent of retrieving the bag to find a more secure stash. He was about to put his hand in the hole in the cement block when a sense of impending danger washed over him. Something about the rapid cadence of two sets of footsteps approaching set off alarms.

Bantu just lay himself flat on the ground as if he had just found a quiet place to sleep. His eyes were shut, but he could tell that someone had blocked the dim light in the alley. This time the kick to the bottom of his feet brought a shock of pain through his spine.

“Get up, you!”

He was on his feet before another blow could cripple his feet. He was staring into the cold, lifeless eyes of the two RUF from the cantina. He could feel the rising surge of hope drain out of him.

“Outta there, you!”

The AK-47s in their hands emphasized the order with a gesture. He thought at that moment of letting them just end his agony with one burst of rifle fire. But again the words came back.
You are the man in the family
.

He moved in the direction indicated by the rifles. The only effect of the weapons on the disparate mass of humanity they passed through was to clear a wider path and discourage most of the begging.

A block beyond the cantina, the weapons gestured a command to enter one of the cinder block buildings. It was deeper than the others with a second room in the back behind a long cloth hanging for a door. The way was blocked by another child guard with a rifle. He stood aside as one of Bantu's escorts planted the butt of the rifle between Bantu's shoulders and shoved him into the second room.

The only light in the room came from a dust-covered kerosene lamp on a low table that barely lit the eyes and forehead of another RUF rising from a frayed army cot. He looked up at the two escorts for an explanation.

“This one's from the Koido pit, Captain. I know him. He was on the delivery that was ambushed. There were stones missing.”

The one sitting on the cot looked over at Bantu. He couldn't see features in the dark, but no matter. They were all alike to him, except this one had information. He spoke in a tone that was devoid of warmth, hatred, anger, anything human.

“I'll ask this just once. You can answer and we end this. Otherwise, I give an order you won't like. Where are the diamonds you stole?”

Bantu had no fondness for the diamonds that had caused all of his misery. But these in particular could mean his chance for a life, a chance to find his father and brother. He simply stood silent.

The one on the cot shrugged. “All the same to me.”

He looked at the two who had brought him and again spoke without emotion. “Take him. Don't come back without the diamonds.”

One of the two grabbed Bantu by the arm while the other held open the cloth door. Light from lanterns in the first room fell full on the face of the one on the cot.

Bantu looked straight at the face. He screamed, “My God, my God!”

The one on the cot was beyond being moved by the anguished pleas of his victims, but something caused him to look up at this one.

Bantu's eyes filled with tears. He could only whisper, “My God. Sinda.”

For a brief second something alive came into the eyes of the one on the cot. He caught himself and stood slowly. He said to the two soldiers, “Never mind. I'll do this myself. Go to the cantina. Get me whiskey. Take him with you.” He gestured to the guard who had been standing at the door.

The three hesitated until he gave them a look that said his orders would not be questioned. When they had cleared the outside door, he came slowly around the table and stood looking at the one standing alone in front of him. Bantu spoke first. His face was covered with moisture.

“My God, my God, how could it be? Are you Sinda? Are you my brother?”

It had been so many years since the boy soldier in front of him had been permitted to feel anything remotely human that he was stunned that there was any spark to reignite. He just said in a whisper, “Bantu.”

Bantu moved close to him. This figure in a hated RUF uniform was a part of his flesh from a time he could hardly remember.

His tears would not stop. He held his arms out to the stone figure in front of him and slowly closed his hands around his brother's arms. The frozen shell that had encased Sinda's heart began to crack. He fought it, because he knew that that shell was his only protection against an unbearable self-hatred for the things he'd had to do since that day in his village.

Bantu held his brother close to his heart. Sinda's face was washed with Bantu's tears, and the shell dissolved. Soon it was impossible to tell whether the tears were coming from Bantu's or Sinda's eyes.

When he could speak, Sinda whispered, “There's so much to say, and so much I can't say. But they'll be back. You have to leave.”

“One thing has to be asked. Is our father alive?”

Sinda looked down. “Yes. He was taken by the RUF when he came back to our village.”

“Tell me quickly. Is he all right? Where is he?”

“He's alive. That's all I know. They keep him somewhere around Kenema.”

“How do you know?”

“I know because they let me see him once a year. That's how they keep me. After they took me from the village, they brought us together. They threatened to do things to him in front of me unless I followed their orders. As long as I do, they keep him alive.”

Bantu's heart ached at the thought of their father in RUF hands, but at least he was alive.

“Could we buy his freedom? I could give myself back to them in his place.”

Sinda shook his head. “They can get a dozen of you in a raid on one village. And younger. They only listen to money and the weapons it can buy them.”

“How much?”

“Does it matter? We don't have it.”

“Perhaps. Those men were right. I have a small bag of rough diamonds.”

“Probably not enough. The buyers in this hellhole won't pay much for the dirty ones.”

“But somewhere else. Keep your faith, Sinda. Nothing's impossible. Look at us standing here together.”

Sinda nodded without conviction.

“How much will it take?”

Sinda shook his head. “A lot. More than you could get for a bag of rough diamonds in this town. I've been of great service to them. They want to hang onto me.”

“Then I'll go somewhere else.”

Sinda pulled back the cloth curtain. He looked through the outer door for the returning soldiers.

“You have to go now, Bantu. They'll be back.”

“What will they do to you if I'm gone?”

“They won't question me. They'll assume I took a bribe. They probably expect it. Besides, I have the power of life and death over them. Go, Bantu. God go with you. I never thought I'd say that word again.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Bantu left and blended seamlessly into the mass of weaving derelicts and RUFs in the street. He knew now that it was only a matter of time before other guards from the pits would spot him. He went directly to the alley. He knelt down and pulled the bag of stones from the cinder block. His only plan was to run somewhere beyond the edge of the town. He felt he had better odds against the lethal creatures of the jungle than the human ones with AK-47s.

Before he could turn and straighten up, he heard a sharp, commanding voice behind him. He knew that if he looked back, he'd be looking into the muzzles of two AK-47s in the hands of the two RUF who had found him in that alley before. His fear both for himself and for his brother was that they had overheard the conversation.

At the sound of the voice, the breath went out of him. He was certain they'd take the diamonds, his only hope for his father. Then they'd take him back to the pit or kill him, which amounted to the same thing. For the first time in all of his captivity, he lost the will to cling to his life. He just lay down flat. They could do what they wanted to him.

He closed his eyes. Just as he was surrendering himself, he heard a resounding crack that echoed off the walls of the alley. He spun around to see the giant figure of Jimbo with one of the RUFs under each arm. They just hung there lifelessly. Bantu knew then that the crack was the collision of the RUFs' heads in the arms of Jimbo.

“Come on you, Bantu. My goodness, what you do widout Jimbo? Gotta get you outta here. Move fast. Bring them stones you got wicha.”

Bantu sprang to his feet. Jimbo dropped his two armloads into
the alley. He led the way at quick march through the main street and down a side passageway to a dark spot behind a pile of garbage. He pulled a large sheet off an old battered Jeep.