Place of Bones Read Online Free PDF Page B

someone else is, that small army of mercenaries will find its dangerous way into Zaire. Perhaps not to this - this Camp-One - because I am told that very few of you people know the key to its exact whereabouts - but into the country certainly. And, as a man well schooled in the art of jungle fighting, you will know that no normal ambush, and certainly no normal action, can hope to be one hundred percent successful. A percentage, greater or smaller, will survive to regroup, to fight again. What we, the west - sneer if you like...”
    I had sneered.
    “...what we need is an eradication of the Chinese threat, once and for all time. You are sitting there simply because conditions, at this precise moment in time, are ripe for it.” He hunched a shoulder. “The fact that we also stand to gain certain...yes, certain mining concessions from it, is neither here nor there, believe it or not. A certain icing on the cake. A deal has been made, yes. But it is secondary to the real issue.”
    I sneered again. “Like hell it is! What - ” Then I suddenly had another thought. “Incidentally,” I changed tack, “What’s to stop me agreeing to what you ask, then disappearing into the wild, blue yonder? Better yet, what’s to stop me doing a triple, with the Chinese? The minute I leave this - “
    “Your daughter,” Brown cut in smoothly, stifling a sigh, “Karen, I think her name is. Currently studying to be a nurse at the Saint Joan Nursing College in Johannesburg. A lovely young thing, so I’m led to believe. And very promising; as a student nurse, that is.”
    Rarely have I experienced moments like that; once when I was watching a horror movie as a kid; again in Vietnam when the slants decapitated a very close friend right alongside me; again in Angola when I saw the remains of a man who had been crucified then systematically skinned alive. And then, when Karen’s name appeared on the lips of that man. The sap, almost as a physical thing, drained out of my upper body and seemed to bloat my legs. I managed to croak, “What has Karen got to do with any of this?” But I really did not want to know.
    Part of my shock was that hardly anyone knew I even had a daughter, let alone what her name was and what she was doing, and where. A few close friends was all - I thought!
    Brown sucked in a long breath, his expression nondescript. “At present? Nothing. I hope it suffices to say that we know she exists.”
    “Meaning what?” I demanded shakily.
    Brown met my glare. “As I say, hopefully absolutely nothing.” But his eyes told a very different story. I was later to wonder why it was I hadn’t felt the urge to jump for his throat, as I had when Ian rammed a personal barb into me. Any other father would have done that, I’m certain. Why didn’t I? I just felt numb.
    “You’ll have to go the whole hog, Brown,” I said at last. “You’ll have to tell me what will happen to Karen if I don’t play along.”
    They told me.
    Checkmate!
     

TWO
     
    I stepped out of the door marked “Visas” as the crowd was siphoning through the immigrations barrier to the customs hall. No-one noticed me. No-one so much as looked at me. Everyone was in varying degrees of dishevelment. I loosened my tie and lifted one wing of my collar. Then, as the queue slowed to negotiate the customs bottleneck, I did what they all seemed to be doing; I started to straighten myself up again.
    “Bloody liberty!” mumbled the man in front of me; to anyone he thought might be listening. He shot me a doleful glare.
    I nodded. “Yeah.”
    As the queue shuffled messily forward I began to think about Karen.
    Everyone has periods of their life they wish they had handled differently, some self-styled event they occasionally have nightmares about. The “skeleton”. Mine, despite some of the horrors I have witnessed, even perpetrated, was how Karen came to be part of this world. Though I am certain that her nightmares are more horrific. I am also certain that