The Somali Deception Episode I (A Cameron Kincaid Serial) (6 page)

In front of them, the dark form
of the helicopter further materialized with each step.

Ari opened the side and then
front doors.
 
“Al, you want to get
your mates set,” said Ari, and then he climbed up into the cockpit.

Pepe leaned over to Alastair,
“Do you usually fly at night?”

“Heh, heh, no worries,” said
Alastair softly, “Most don’t.
 
Ari
can, by instruments or blindfolded.”
 
He clutched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and middle finger,
pressing his index finger into his forehead.
 
“Like a pigeon.”

A light flipped on inside the
cabin.
 
Alastair grabbed an interior
handle to pull himself up.
 
Pepe
grabbed his arm stopping him.

“I don’t want him to fly
blindfolded,” said Pepe.

“He won’t have to,” said
Alastair.
 
“Ari learned to fly in
the Israeli military, he can comb the bush and desert better than most
anyone.”
 
Alastair turned his head
to Cameron then back to Pepe, “Then there is the intelligence training.”

“Ari is Mossad?” asked Cameron.

“Was, is, does it matter?”

“Not at all,” said Pepe.
 
He let loose of Alastair’s arm.

Alastair flashed his eyes at
Cameron.

“It’s never mattered to me,”
said Cameron.

Alastair grinned and then pulled
himself up.
 
Alastair opened a panel
and then Cameron and Pepe in turn tossed him their duffels to stow.
 
After he secured the panel, he climbed
back out of the chopper, circled around to the other side of the cockpit, and
then jumped up front.
 
Ari was
finishing his preflight checklist.
 
Pepe and Cameron boarded the cabin and fastened their seat belts.
 
Panels separated Alastair and Ari from
the rear cabin.
 
Between the panels
was an opening.
 
Alastair leaned
into the opening and handed back two aviator headsets.

“I brought the good ones, you
can jack them up above,” said Alastair.

Cameron took the headsets and
handed a one to Pepe.
 
Across the
side of the large clunky headphones was the word Bose.
 
The headsets were heavily cushioned on
the top and around the large earpieces.
 
Cameron slipped the velvet pillow equivalent over his head.
 
When he jacked them the air sucked away
from his inner ears.
 
Cameron
pressed a hand up on each earpiece, opened his mouth wide, and moved his jaw
around to see if his ears would pop.
 
To his side Cameron could see that Pepe was doing the same.
 
While his jaw was twitching side to
side, he glanced up toward the front of the cabin to see Alastair smiling
back.
 
Alastair tapped a small switch
on his headset and then tapped his earpiece.

“These A20’s have noise
cancelation,” said Alastair.

Cameron could hear him through
the headset crystal clear.

“Christ these are great,”
Alastair continued, a sudden serious look across his face, “These would have
been so nice when we were lads coming up.”

Pepe said something that sounded
muffled.
 
Alastair placed his finger
near the switch on his headphones and Pepe found his.
 
Pepe spoke again, this time Cameron
could hear him clearly as well.

“These are nice,” said
Pepe.
 
“I need a pair of these.”

“No problem mate.
 
I’ll put a pair in the post for
Christmas.”

“This is style,” said Pepe.

“The best of the best,” said Ari
through the headsets.
 
“This is a Eurocopter
AS 350 B3plus Squirrel, also known as the Dark Star.
 
This little baby can go anywhere from
the bush to the top of Everest.”

Pepe pushed his lower lip high,
“You mean somebody landed one of these on top of Everest?”

“Heh,” said Ari.
 
“I mean I landed one of these on top of
Everest.”

Cameron and Pepe watched Ari
flip a switch above the windscreen and then heard his voice again.

“Dark Star 1 Requests engine
start, Mount Kenya, Flight Level 320, 2 passengers, 2 crew, 11 and a half hours
of fuel.”

A voice from the tower came over
the headsets, “Clearance to Mount Kenya Dark Star 1.”

* * *
* *

Laikipia Plateau

Pepe was finally able to
sleep.
 
Countless ops in years past
spent in the backs of planes, trucks, and boats, made the copter, gliding
softly through the hot Kenyan night, as comfortable as a waterbed.
 
The light ache of fatigue in Cameron’s
thighs and feet reminded him how they had spent the last twenty hours.
 
Cameron had slept as they crossed the
Atlantic.
 
Pepe had never closed his
eyes.

The dense blanket of lights that
had been Nairobi had funneled out into streams of wide lit super highways that
in turn diminished to single lane roads, and then eventually stray beacons in
the landscape.
 
The course of the
copter was a direct flight path.
 
The silhouette of the far off mountains remained constant against the
African sky and Ari maintained a bead toward the highest point in the horizon.

“Take a look to your left,” said
Alastair.

Cameron leaned forward and
peered down at the ground.
 
Below
them among a field of black was a large thick glowing white crescent.

“Beautiful,” said Cameron.
 
“Is that a hydroelectric dam?”

“No, not yet anyway,” said
Alastair.
 
“They call that the
Fourteen
Falls
.
 
The eight lane highway out of Nairobi may reach here soon.”

“Really,” said Cameron.

“Bloody shame,” said
Alastair.
 
“We’re on a bit further
on.
 
Relax if you can.”

Soothed by the subtle
vibrations, Cameron rested his head against the wall of the copter and closed
his eyes.

* * * * *

Christine shifted her weight to
her side and threw a hand onto each of Cameron’s shoulders, pinning him on the
picnic blanket.
 
The loose strands
of her mussed chestnut hair glowed from the sunlight above, creating a halo
around her smiling face.

“Hey,” said Cameron.

“Why can’t you just tell me when
you are going back to the island,” said Christine.

“Why so many questions?” asked
Cameron.
 
Before Christine could say
another word, he reached up and pulled her next to him on the blanket, so that
they faced each other side by side.
 
Christine lifted her brow, sighed, and rolled onto her back.

“So that is it.
 
You are the man of mystery,” said
Christine.

Cameron remained on his side
facing Christine.
 
He softly drew
his finger down the bridge of Christine’s nose then onto her lips.
 
She lightly kissed his finger then,
staring up through the branches of the oak, took his hand into hers.

“I like that, your man of
mystery,” said Cameron.

“Does that please you to taunt
me?”

“Taunt you?
 
How so?”

“You tease me by not telling me
when you and Pepe have to return to base.
 
You make me anxious,” said Christine.

Cameron rolled from his side
onto his back so that they were both now gazing up into the branches of the oak
tree.

“I thought there would be less
pressure if you did not have to count down the minutes until I left again.
 
I thought that if we could enjoy all of
our time together, our time would not diminish.”

“Men,” said Christine.

“What does that mean?”

“You think of yourself
always.
 
You know when you are going
to leave.
 
By doing this you do not
spare me anxiety.
 
You make me
anxious.”

“I make you anxious?”

“You upset me because I do not
foolishly think we have all of time.
 
I feel you could leave at any time.
 
I feel you are always going to leave.”

* * * * *

Cameron awoke to the jarring of
the copter touching down.
 
Ari
switched off the rotors and began to power down the engine.
 
Through the windscreen, the shrub filled
flat landscape to the east rolled far out to a predawn eastern horizon, lit
with hues of fuchsia and vanilla.
 
Through the side window, night still held.
 
Through the thin tree line, Cameron
could make out a structure in the dim light, not far from the copter.

“Here we are,” said
Alastair.
 
“Lanta Resort in the
heart of the Laikipia wild country.”

“Wild country?” asked Pepe.

“Well Lanta is a bit of an oasis
as are a few other resorts about the area.
 
We are however in the central highlands of Kenya.
 
Laikipia covers almost two million acres
from the Rift Valley in the west to Mt Kenya in the East.
 
The main lodge is over the ridge.
 
You will be bunking with us in the
cottage.”

Alastair glanced to the back of
the cabin to inspect Cameron and Pepe and then pulled the jack of his headset
out of the console to stow.
 
Cameron
and Pepe did the same and the three exited the copter leaving Ari to finish his
post flight duties.

Alastair led Cameron and Pepe to
a slate path that slightly inclined toward the cottage, a fairly modern
building, new perhaps forty years prior, built on a small ridge.
 
The light was coming on fast, and though
they could not see far into the surrounding morning, the ground and grass at
their feet and the trees nearest them were detailed and clear.
 
At the top of the path were wooden steps
that led up to a deck.
 
Pepe and Cameron
trudged behind Alastair across the deck and then waited for him to unlock the
glass door.

“Pepe, will you look at that,”
said Cameron, looking back at the copter.
 
Their climb had been short and gradual.
 
The deck was above the tops of the small
acacia trees, elevated enough to exaggerate their vista of the horizon.

“Hmm,” said Pepe.

Having unlocked the door
Alastair now joined them.
 
“She’s a
beauty.
 
The sunrise is close to
breaking.
 
Wait ‘til then.”

Pepe turned toward the door,
placed his hand on Alastair’s shoulder, and then walked past.
 
“I’d rather not wait.”

Cameron and Alastair peered at
each other.
 
Ari stepped onto the
deck.
 
“Is he okay?”

“Not yet,” said Cameron.
 
“He will be, when his sister is safe.”

* * *
* *

Laikipia Plateau

Behind the billiards table a
large artificially aged map of Kenya and the Northeast African Coast filled the
wall.
 
Crackled decoupage and hues
of patina gave the map, no more than a few years old, an antiqued quality that
dominated the decor of the game room.
 
Tribal knick-knacks, carved as tourist souvenirs, were scattered across
shelves along with a myriad of classic novels.

 
“While you were sleeping I checked the
service Pepe set up,” said Alastair.
 
“Your friend in London not only left a name for us.
 
He also told us the location of the
Kalinihta.”

“My sister,” said Pepe.

“Yes, your sister, and the
crew.”

Alastair put his finger in the
center of the area of the map marked Kenya.
 
“We are here, and he said,” he dragged
his finger across the wall to the southern Somali coastline, “the Kalinihta was
brought to port here.
 
A bit south
of where we would expect.
 
We knew
the GPS coordinates from Langdon of course.
 
Now we have specifics.”

“I am guessing that
intel
came quickly,” said Cameron.