One Blood Read Online Free PDF Page B

investigate a crime in the Western Solomons would be akin to asking an Inuit to intervene in an inter-tribal squabble in Dahomey.
    ‘Do you have any idea who’s behind the attacks?’ he asked.
    ‘There’s some talk of an independence movement being involved, said Robinson. ‘Nothing concrete, though. That’s one of the aspects we’d like you to investigate.’
    ‘But carefully,’ added Chief Superintendent Grice. ‘The situation’s very delicate in the West. There’s even talk of themwanting to secede from the Protectorate. For God’s sake don’t go blundering in like a bull in a china shop. Show some finesse for once.’
    ‘Even more important than that,’ said the Secretary for Internal Affairs, wincing at the policeman’s bluntness, ‘we want you to be very careful in your dealings with the Alvaro Company. I don’t have to tell you how important their logging business is to the economy of the Solomons. Our total revenue in the Protectorate last year, including a substantial grant-in-aid from the UK, amounted to less than a million and a half pounds sterling. We need new industries in the Western District.’
    ‘Even if they’re ruining the forests there?’ asked Kella. ‘They used to have some of the largest freshwater crocodiles in the world on Alvaro. I hear they’ve all gone now.’
    Like they were on Guadalcanal, he thought. But that had been due to the activities of bored US servicemen stationed on the island after the war who had spent their weekends idly taking pot shots at the creatures.
    ‘Do you see what I mean?’ exploded Grice. ‘He’s a loose cannon! You can’t send this man up there. Who knows what he’ll get up to?’
    ‘I expect Sergeant Kella to do his duty, simply that, whatever his private views might be,’ said the Secretary for Internal Affairs crisply. ‘He will fly to Munda as quickly as possible, investigate the sabotage attempts at the logging camp and put a stop to them. Frankly, Mr Grice, I cannot think of anyone else in your police force capable of undertaking such a hazardous task. Are your duties clear, Kella?’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ said Kella, rising.
    A thought occurred to the official. ‘By the way, will you still have authority among your people when they are so far from their home island?’
    Kella had been wondering the same thing. He had spent afew months in the Western Solomons during the war, but all he knew about the islands was that the women were supposed to be sexually voracious, and that in the old days, known as the time before, before headhunters had been so successful that human skulls were still being retrieved in remoter areas.
    ‘I don’t know. I’ve never tried,’ he said. ‘It should be all right.
Ramo diingana.
’ He translated for the benefit of the others. ‘The chief is still a chief in his canoe, wherever he travels.’
    ‘I sincerely hope you’re right,’ said the Secretary for Internal Affairs. ‘Thank you, Sergeant Kella, that’s all. Chief Superintendent Grice, will you remain behind for a moment? Good morning, Sergeant.’
    ‘Mind you,’ said Kella, stopping at the door, unable to resist a final word, ‘the Roviana gods may be stronger than mine, and then the lagoon spirits will have home advantage.’
    Before he could close the office door behind him, Kella could hear the voice of Chief Superintendent Grice raised in anger as the policeman argued with the Secretary for Internal Affairs. Kella and Grice had a long history of disputes and the senior officer would not be happy with any assignment that gave his subordinate such a degree of autonomy as this one, especially in territory that was virtually unknown to the sergeant and was so remote from the control of his superiors.
    As he started to walk away, he heard the Secretary for Internal Affairs’ voice raised decisively in a tone that invited no denial. ‘That’s as may be. Kella may be a law unto himself, but he’s also a bloody good policeman. I don’t have