Chapter 2 – Chapter 2
Shisa was still groaning from Townsend's own finish deep inside him, when the door to the corridor opened and the three suited men walked in. When the door closed, two of the men, visibly armed, stood on either side of the door, while the third one walked over and sat down in a nearby straight chair.
"Hello, Mr. Shisa. my name is Sam Winterberry. I'm on a temporary assignment to the American embassy here until we can reach some sort of accommodation with your country over the uranium mining rights in your province."
"What?" Shisa said, trying to shrink away into the wallpaper, but held fast by a still-impaling Brian Townsend.
"I think we have a trade that will please us both, Mr. Shisa," Winterberry said. "You may release him now, Brian, if you will. And go down the hall to the bath and clean yourself up. We should be ready to go in another twenty minutes or so."
And then, as Townsend got up with a grunt, pulled on his bush shorts, and went through the door to the corridor that one of Winterberry's colleagues held open for him, Winterberry turned back to a quaking Shisa, who now was buried in the bed covers.
"If you look up in the corners of the room, Mr. Shisa, you will see small video cameras. I'm sure we have some lovely footage of your encounter with Mr. Townsend. Now we would like to have a friend in the provincial office when it comes to giving out uranium mining rights, and I'm sure that your wife, who we understand is General Kirungi's favorite daughter, would not be pleased to see these videos. Would you like to make an arrangement with us? We would, naturally, be happy to put you on a consultant's stipend—all very private, of course."
Shisa hunched there under his covers, trying to speak but unable to do so.
"It is, of course, an offer of very limited availability, Mr. Shisa." Winterberry made a dramatic gesture of looking at his wrist watch. "Your general is a man who doesn't linger over his pleasures. I calculate that you have ten minutes or less to mull over this offer and be dressed and standing down by his Mercedes unless we want him figuring out what has transpired here. Do you really want him to know that you have broken his favorite daughter's heart?"
Shisa was standing by the Mercedes when General Kirungi emerged, all smiles, from the governmental office.
The U.S. team's SUV was parked behind the hotel. After the Mercedes had roared off in a cloud of smoke, Brian Townsend helped Eric get cleaned up at the hotel, while the two silent colleagues dismounted the video cameras. And then they were off, headed back to Kalaibo in the dust cloud that still lingered in the wake of Kirungi's Mercedes.
"How much longer will we be in Kalaibo?" Scanlon mumbled from the backseat.
"Oh, no more than five days," Winterberry answered. "We have Shisa. Now we have to set up his communications and give him instructions and some guidance in protecting himself. At least four days, maybe five. Why do you ask?"
"The general wants to meet me at Kojo House tomorrow night. Do you mind if I meet him again?"
Winterberry just smiled indulgently. He was in a good mood. One way or the other they had completed their assignment.