The Devil's Waters Read Online Free PDF Page B

dropped the bag at Yusuf’s bare feet.
    In the beached skiff, Captain Ashwin ducked, to peer over the gunwale.
    Yusuf spoke to Suleiman at his side. “Do not raise guns. There’s no need.”
    “You and I define need very differently.”
    “He’s your family. I’m sorry.”
    “He’s a
footo delo
.” An asshole.
    Yusuf chuckled. He let the laughterstay in his voice when he called across the beach to Madoowbe.
    The man shouted in reply, “
Salaamu alaykum
.”
    “I have your money. A very good amount.”
    “How much?”
    “Three hundred thousand dollars.”
    Wiil Waal’s men whistled and stirred around him. Though he would surely cheat them, this was enough to go around. The tall man took several strides ahead of his clansmen. When he did, he revealed the woman behind him. Suleiman’s sister, Aziza.
    Bold Boy would put his wife in this sort of danger. He would use a Darood woman as a shield against Darood men. Yusuf spit in the sand where Guleed had.
    He propped a hand against Suleiman’s advance.
    “You do not lead while I’m alive.”
    Suleiman did not retreat, but did not press forward.
    Madoowbe called across the darkening beach, “How much do you have in your own bag, Yusuf?”
    “
We’el
,” someone behind Yusuf muttered. Bastard.
    Yusuf held it up for Bold Boy to see.
    “Four hundred thousand.”
    The Rahanweyn leader strode farther away from his clotted guns. He stood alone and fearless halfway to Yusuf like a gladiator on the sand. Bold Boy waved his arms as he spoke, agitated and high.
    “I have fifty men here who worked for you for three months. Hauling everything you needed back and forth to that fucking ship.” This lash at the
Bannon
struck hard in Yusuf’s ear. Bold Boy spoke like a farmer, with no love of the ocean.
    “Your men did a fine job.”
    “We did. And now you tell us that you, one man, are worth more than my fifty. We had expenses!”
    He yelled this as if it were some final argument that could not be overcome.
    “You keep our bag, Yusuf. We want yours.We earned it.”
    Ten steps behind Bold Boy, his wife, Aziza, pressed hands to her mouth. Yusuf knew her, and she him. He would never hand over the satchel on his shoulder, for it was not money he would surrender.
    Yusuf heaved his duffel to the sand.
    “Come get it,” he said. “
Ha cabsan.
” Don’t be afraid.
    Madoowbe turned to his fifty clansmen for a short, manic laugh. He asked them, “Why would I be afraid?”
    He pivoted back to Yusuf, pointing with the barrel of his gun. “Bring it to me.”
    Yusuf bit his lip. Bold Boy had forgotten his place.
    Madoowbe waited halfway between the two armed clans. This looked like courage. Yusuf hefted his satchel. To Suleiman, he whispered, “Do nothing.”
    Yusuf took the fifteen strides slowly, kicking his sarong with his steps. Madoowbe covered him with the rifle.
    “Will you shoot me?” Yusuf closed the distance until he pushed his chest against the black ring of the rifle’s barrel. “In front of the elders? My clan?” Madoowbe’s eyes were wide and wild,
qaat
-stained and seeing more than he ought, that he might kill Yusuf the pirate and take all the money.
    Yusuf dropped the satchel. He had no desire to die today. To live, and to save his clansmen, he gave himself over to wickedness.
    “Wiil Waal.”
    Madoowbe slatted his eyes. Yusuf dared him to his name. Be bold. Boy.
    Yusuf surged forward and pushed his chest into the barrel, moving the gun backward, for an instant raising Madoowbe’s finger off the trigger. In the split second that gained him, Yusuf shoved the gun barrel down, aiming it into the sand. Madoowbe squeezed, firing near his own feet. Yusuf flashed his free hand to the small of his own back, snatching the onyx-handled knife from his waistband under the
khameez.
In a blinding backhand sweep, the well-whetted blade hackeddeep below Madoowbe’s left ear, slicing the neck vein. Swiftly, with a crossing flick, Yusuf slashed again at the