Foreign Hostage Read online

  “I won’t shoot you. I can’t trust you to drive with me, so I will leave you here. You can find your own way home.”

  “What? You can’t!”

  “You’re resourceful. I’m not worried about your survival.”

  “Simon!”

  That was different, Orszak using Simon’s first name. He was trying an old spy trick, say things that suggested their relationship held a deeper meaning than it did. To remind Orszak who was in control here, Simon stared down the barrel of his gun at the man, and considered again if it was best to put the rage-filled veteran out of his misery. But he couldn’t. They were the same.

  “Are you going to tell anyone? Mpenzi in particular? I — She’s my only friend here. I need all the friends I can hold on to. Otherwise… Otherwise it gets too… dark.”

  In that moment, Simon saw how broken the man was. “I won’t tell anyone, but that doesn’t mean the news won’t get out. Others will soon work out who you are too.”

  “I know what it is, that gives me this constant rage inside. I was never an angry kid—”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It was the underwater mine clearance work that did it to me. Do you know how fucking stressful that is? You can’t see a fucking thing down there. We defuse mines by touch. Can you believe that, by fucking touch? You’re aware of every thought in your head, knowing that if you are still thinking, you can’t be dead, the mine hasn’t detonated. You’re lucky. Because if your mind has gone quiet, you must be dead. You keep thinking this. All. The. Time. And when you’re not in the water, you live in fucking hyperbaric chambers so you don’t have to go through the long decompression cycle after being down so deep for so long. We lived cooped up in a cell for months and months on end. It’s fucked up. I’m fucked up. It wasn’t Bridgette who made me this way, it was the fucking military.”

  Simon nodded that he understood. “Your secret is safe with me, Orszak. But if you ever come after me, if I get even the slightest whiff that’s what you’re doing, I’ll release everything I have that identifies you as the vigilante assassin.”

  He nodded, clenched and unclenched his fist. “Thank you, Simon. I’m very grateful.”

  “Now step away. Step far away.”

  Orszak walked twenty meters down the road. Only then did Simon lower his weapon and climb back into his vehicle.

  “Where are you going now?” the American yelled through the fading light.

  “To right a wrong,” Simon called back. He fired up the ignition, released the handbrake and drove towards the sunset.

  CHAPTER 9

  Arusha, Tanzania

  It was late when Simon pulled up outside Mpenzi Isengwe’s apartment, on a dark street with only intermittent street lighting. Jacaranda and palm trees by the road swayed in the gentle breeze. They had grown tall and strong, despite patches of old garbage and rubble that, over time, must have leached toxins into the soil. Next to the apartment and despite the late hour, a small yard remained open for business, with men on bandsaws cutting wood into construction timber. The few cars and bikes that frequented the road honked their horns at each other on the pot-holed road. Simon parked Jack Orszak’s four wheel drive in the shadows on the opposite side of the street. He crossed and buzzed Isengwe’s apartment bell until someone answered.

  “Who is it?” A man’s voice.

  “Simon Ashcroft. I work with Mpenzi.”

  “It’s late, come back tomorrow.”

  “I need to speak to her. It’s important.”

  “No, not tonight—”

  “Simon?” It was Mpenzi. “What are you doing here?”

  “Can we talk?”

  “Can it wait until tomorrow?”

  “No. It can’t.”

  He waited a long moment while the intercom was silent. Then she buzzed back. “I’ll be down shortly.”

  A few minutes later she was at the iron gate, wrapped in a sarong over pajamas. She unlocked the door with a key, ushered him in then locked it again. Simon didn’t blame her. Arusha, like most African cities, was renowned for its nighttime muggings.

  “What couldn’t wait, Simon?”

  “Can we talk somewhere private?”

  She looked around as if someone might have already overheard them. “I’ve left my husband with my children. We can talk on the roof.”

  After weeks of working together, she had never once mentioned her family. She had also kept her maiden name, which was also unusual in Africa. This woman was an enigma.

  They walked four flights of stairs to a flat top roof that was little more than a concrete slab and discarded wood and rock debris. The Milky Way was clear with more stars than Simon could ever remember seeing on a clear night. He recalled Arusha was one and a half kilometers above sea level. The air was thinner here allowing more stars to twinkle through. To the northwest, the silhouette of Mount Meru was also visible. As Africa’s fifth tallest mountain, it lay across a good portion of the horizon.

  Mpenzi lit up a cigarette and offered one to Simon. He shook his head. Puffing on the smoke she said, “I come up here sometimes, when I just want to think. Be by myself.”

  “I’m afraid I have bad news—”

  “Jack Orszak is dead?” she interrupted.

  “No. What?”

  “Oh…” She lost her confidence. “I thought you’d come here to tell me about a killing? Of a friend?”

  Simon lowered his head. “I’m here to tell you that, but it’s not Jack.”

  “Who then?”

  He squeezed out the difficult words. “Your brother. Bakari. He was amongst the poachers we went after today.”

  Mpenzi looked away. She was silent for a long moment, the cigarette hanging in her hand. Tears ran down her eyes unhindered. She didn’t bother to wipe them away. Then she sucked hard on her cigarette, drawing in as much smoke as she could.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Did you kill him?”

  “No.”

  “Did Jack?”

  “No.”

  She spat her next words, her anger unleashed. “Then how did he die?”

  “A hippopotamus trampled him. I promise you it was quick. I don’t think he was in pain for more than a few seconds at most.”

  She flicked away the spent cigarette. She took another from the pack. He’d never seen her smoke until now, but he’d never seen her outside of work either. Her hands shook as she tried to light it. Simon thought to offer help, but didn’t believe she would appreciate the gesture. After a minute, she had it lit and was dragging down the strong aromas of smoldering tobacco.

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Just shut up Simon!”

  He nodded, said nothing. This was her moment of pain, not his. He had no rights in this conversation.

  “I saw the report,” she tried not to sob. “Kenyan Wildlife Authority emailed it through tonight. I didn’t know it was Bakari…”

  Again, he said nothing. He decided he would only speak if she asked him a direct question.

  “How did you know it was him? I mean, I saw—” This time a sob broke through, a deeper pain than her tears over the downed elephants. She must have seen the photographs of the trampled poacher and was now comprehending that she had been staring at her brother without knowing it. All in a days’ work for a veteran intelligence officer, but not when the victim was a loved one. “How did you know?”

  He handed her Bakari’s wallet complete with the money, bank card and driver’s license.

  Flicking away the embers of her second cigarette, she took the wallet in her trembling hands. She fumbled with the license until she could look upon the photograph of her brother. “I guess it will all come out now.”

  “It doesn’t have to—”

  “Yes, it does!” she snapped. “Lies always come out. Bakari’s fingerprints are already on the database, because he has a police record. I always knew he was no angel, but life never gave him the breaks I got. Now he is dead and the Kenyan’s have his
body. Others will make connections, with or without me. Or you. Everyone will know.”

  Simon felt awkward, standing there, saying nothing as he watched his peer experience the first awful moments comprehending the sudden death of a loved one. It would not surprise him if she worried this would affect her status with NTSCIU and TISS, and whether in the long term she would keep her job.

  She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Nothing is simple in the ivory game. In South Africa, Botswana or Namibia, my brother’s work could have been legitimate. Those governments cull elephants, otherwise they destroy too much of the landscape. They can’t roam like they used to a hundred years ago because we have no more land to share with them. Humans have taken too much.”

  “Terrorists, poachers, soldiers, spies, wherever I’ve encountered one human being killing another, there have never been easy answers.”

  She turned and looked at him for the first time tonight. “Why did you come?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why did you come here, to tell me? You could have pretended you didn’t know? You could have let someone else tell me? I could have found out when the fingerprint comparisons were run. Why will I always have to remember it was you who broke the news that my only brother is dead?”

  Simon shrugged. “It was the right thing to do.”

  She nodded as she crossed her arms. She no longer looked at him. “I need you to leave.”

  “Again, I’m so sorry.” He turned, stepping back when she spoke again.

  “Simon. I mean, you need to leave Arusha. Tanzania. Africa. Don’t come back at all.”

  He looked at her. Was it her pain that demanded he was forever out of her sight, or was this a warning that the Tanzanian Government no longer backed his presence amidst their operations after his and Orszak’s antics in Kenya? Simon couldn’t be sure. He had to assume the answer was both.

  “Just go!”

  He nodded and turned. She followed him downstairs only to unlock the gate, and then to make sure he kept walking. When he looked back, all he saw was darkness, and no lights on anywhere in the apartment.

  To Simon’s surprise, Jack Orszak was standing waiting for him at the four-wheel drive. He lent against the bonnet, hands in his pockets and the smug grin once more etched across his face. Simon considered drawing his Glock 19 to take control of this unplanned confrontation, but decided against it. The man made no threatening movements. He was out in the open and visible. He was here to talk.

  “You told her?” he asked, for once the sarcasm and anger were absent from his tone.

  Simon nodded. “How did you get here so fast?”

  “Hitched a ride right after you disappeared. Tanzanians are very polite. How did she take it?”

  “How do you think?”

  Orszak nodded and looked away.

  “I’m out,” Simon explained. “Away from Tanzania for good. The worst thing — I’m leaving with zero intel to take back to my superiors. I suspect I’ll be on a plane tomorrow afternoon. I suspect you will be too.”

  “We crossed a line?”

  “A big one.”

  He looked up at Simon. Unlike Mpenzi, he had no problem maintaining eye contact. “You won’t shoot me, I take it?”

  “Not unless you give me reason to.”

  Another nod, then he took a small Beretta Pico .380 pistol from his pocket and showed it to Simon. Simon had not spotted it when he insisted Orszak empty his pockets. “That’s good. Didn’t want to shoot you either.”

  Angry, Simon walked away. “I’m going back to my hotel—”

  “Wait!”

  Simon stopped, staring hard at the American. In the dim street lights, the crease marks on Orszak’s face created the same aging shadows he had seen on the road. He looked old and frail, but Simon knew that wasn’t the case. Jack Orszak was a hardened and angry killing machine, barely in control of his emotions. The less time they spent together now, the better it would be for both of them.

  “NTSCIU will work it out now,” Simon said through gritted teeth, “who’s been killing the poachers.”

  “I know.”

  “They’ll know it was you, even if Mpenzi doesn’t tell them.”

  “I know.”

  “Which is why you need to get out. If you’re caught, you’ll spend the rest of your life in an African prison. Or they’ll hang you.”

  “I know!”

  “Then what do you want from me? Why are you still here?”

  “I have something for you.” He handed Simon a data stick. “‘An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend.’”

  “What?”

  “It’s an African proverb… or Turkish… who knows, or cares. The first time I heard it, it stayed with me. Now this situation reminds me of it. I came here to kill you, before you could tell anyone about what I was. But…”

  Simon didn’t know whether he felt wary, angry or relieved. “You want me to tell you you were doing the right thing, killing those poachers? Taking them out, one by one?”

  “I don’t regret what I did. I’d do it all again, given the choice. Bridgette didn’t deserve what happened to her. The elephants don’t deserve their systematic slaughter either. I don’t need your approval to seek retribution.” He pointed to the data stick in Simon’s hand. “I wanted to know what kind of man you are, before I gave you that.”

  “What’s on it?”

  “All the intel I’ve been collecting over the years. Everything I could download off the NTSCIU databases without being noticed, plus my own extensive notes and findings that I’ve shared with no one. Names, places, smuggling routes, holding companies, shipping companies, corrupt officials, everything I could find. I’m sure if you sift through it long enough, it will tell you everything you need to know to find your connection in the Philippines.”

  Simon nodded, turned the data stick over in his fingers, then placed it in his pocket. “Thank you,” he said, knowing as he spoke the words he felt them. “You carry this with you everywhere? I’m certain you didn’t have time to get back to your apartment before coming here.”

  Orszak nodded. “That’s right. I think about elephants all the time, so I’m always collecting information about them. Humans aren’t that much smarter than elephants you know, maybe five, ten percent smarter at most, but it is enough to make a huge difference in how we each control our environments, and each other. Elephants clear trees and scrub and dig up roots and waterholes. We build cities, cars, computers, satellites, the internet, make movies and create vaccines, but most of all we make sure we control every aspect of this world. As a result, their survival now depends on us. We choose when to save them, and when not too. We choose when to put them in captivity, and when to set them free. They have no say in the matter!”

  “I know you are passionate about saving elephants. I’ve never questioned that—”

  “Let me finish, Ashcroft. What you want to know is the reason why I executed all those criminals? It was Bridgette who fired up my passion. She gave me a purpose. She gave me perspective. When she died…” He clenched his fists tight as he grappled to get his emotions under control. “She once said to me, ‘Jack, what if aliens came to Earth? What would it be like?’ She said ‘To get here, traveling across the vast distances in space, they would have to be smarter than us. Five, maybe ten percent smarter, but that would be enough to make a huge difference in everything. When they got here, they could manipulate the world in ways we couldn’t even imagine or understand. They would choose which humans lived, which became food, which became pets and which they would let live in their natural habitat or in zoos, and we wouldn’t have any say in it.’ That is why I fight poachers, because if we were in the situation the elephants are in now, I’d want to know at least a few intelligent beings were fighting for me.”

  Orszak was silent then. He looked drained, as if this conversation was exhausting for him.

  “I want the person who has that data to be fighting on the same side I do. On th
e side of the elephants.”

  Simon didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. He wasn’t used to men expressing their emotions, especially not bitter ex-soldiers like Orszak. This was a new experience for him. No wonder he had had so much trouble trying to understand the man.

  He felt again for the data stick in his pocket. If Orszak was true to his word, there would be intelligence here he could use. As much as Simon wanted to save elephants, his loyalty was to ASIS and the Australian Government. He would pass on this data and his superiors would use the intelligence it contained to fight insurgency, but in doing so no one would help the elephants.

  Saving elephants was a battle for others, but that didn’t mean Simon couldn’t help. An idea was forming in his mind. He could spread this intel far and wide and maybe that was what Orszak wanted him to do. He already had a mental list of many local and international organizations, who fought for elephant rights, with whom he could share this data. He even had the means to send the data without it ever being traced back to him or Orszak. There was a risk he would compromise the intelligence ASIS needed, but what he had witnessed these last few days compelled him to save elephants, in his own way.

  “Don’t worry bud. It only gets harder from here.”

  He turned to the American vigilante. “Why me? Why not give the data to Mpenzi, or Kiwango? They are better equipped to use it, to take the poachers down, than I’ll ever be.”

  Jack Orszak grinned. He wasn’t happy, but for the first time, Simon could see that he had found a semblance of peace.

  “Why, Jack?”

  “Because you told Mpenzi what happened to her brother, that’s why. That takes guts, bud. I didn’t think you had it in you. I don’t know anyone else here who would have done the same. Not even I would have done it. So, you have my respect. I know you are a man who will do what is right.”

  Simon heard a police siren. Turning towards the noise he saw the flashing lights of an approaching police car. Someone had worked it out already — who Jack Orszak was — and were on their way to arrest him.

  He looked back at the American, to advise him to run.