Twisted Times: Son of Man (Twisted Times Trilogy Book 1) (21 page)

Monday, 5
th
October;

I felt overwrought and a little uncertain myself. I was not sure I was about to do it, but I had to.

He was talking too much. I did not like it. I already knew what was happening but he kept on saying it over and over. After all I had secrets of myself he never knew, and no one was to know. I had to cut the Briton off, but with tact.

“There’s no better way to say this, Sir… James,” by the way, we were on first name basis with the British High Commissioner. That’s what he insisted. “I can’t even try to look for a better way to say it, or better time, so I’ll just say it direct and now is the time.” I paused as though to let that sink in. “I am here to tell you that I am leaving.
This is very easier said than done, and unexpected. I appreciate everything, I mean everything, you’ve done for
us,
for me, but I have made a decision for myself.” It felt like the same words I had used on Urbanas.

“What?” James Gordon said. “You can’t just do that. You can’t just leave… it’s very dangerous out there.” He paused. “This is exactly what they wanted, whoever is doing it. To inflict fear.”

“It isn’t more dangerous than when I’m in here.”

“You just can’t do it and you know that. I won’t let you go. You know that, right? I am not going to let you go. I can’t allow my...”

“One of your people to be out there without protection?” I finished for him. “Sir, there’s nothing you’re going to say will change my mind, nothing you can do to stop me,” I told him matter-of-factly. “I want out of this. All those people have been killed because of our report. I am sure whoever is after us is afraid of what we might come up with next, but I think it’s time somebody else did it.”

“You know that they’ll catch up with you, right? Please, don’t be driven by emotions, paranoia, to expose yourself to danger. You’re my business and I must...”

“Protect me, right?” Oh come on and spare me the drama, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. I did not know how much I could push him before he lost his cool.

He stared at me in stunned silence. I could only imagine what was going on on his mind – he was weighing the options. “You are making a terrible mistake, an atrociously horrendous mistake. But if that’s what you want I can’t prevent you. It was very nice working with you.”

My joy was almost debilitating. I got up without saying a word to leave his office. As I reached the door, he called, “Ken, I hope I can always count on you for anything. Uhhm! When the need arises?”

I gave him my best smile or so I thought. “Eventually,” I said. “But don’t you try to call me today, Sir. Okay?”

He smiled, winked at me and then waved me away.

I said nothing more. I was now a free man. My short-lived career with the British High Commissioner’s office in Kenya was now over and done with. Also, I was unemployed, jobless.

Then I went to Integrity House, KACC offices, and handed over my resignation in person. Evelyn tried to talk me out of it, but my mind was made up.

The next stopover was Nairobi Hospital.

Susan was not on duty or so I was told at the reception and I knew where to find her: Nashville University.

I couldn’t mistake her even from a thousand miles. That smile of hers, those eyes of hers, her walking style. She saw me and came to where I was running like a kindergarten school kid, wrapped me in a firm lingering hug and gave me the kiss of the century. She smelt nice. I liked, loved, how she smelt.

“I was actually on my way out. I had come to get my scholarship letter. I won, babe,” Susan said as vivaciously as though she were a kid who had gotten her first toy. “I’m going to the USA for my masters.”

Now what?

“Oh, really? That’s good. Congrats.”

I don’t like this now.

“Am I missing something here, sweetie? Isn’t that a twang of sarcasm I’ve picked in your voice?”

“I have never been sarcastic with you. Why would I? I’m happy for you.”

“You bet you are.”

We went to her place in Kileleshwa where she prepared lunch for two. You need to have tasted her cuisine. She asked me to stay the night and I did not turn her down. So, I delayed dropping my bombshell to another time, the following day.

Susan had plans for us over the weekend, just the two of us, at the Resurrection Gardens, but I had some work to do, preparations to make. I ruined it by telling her of my plan the sledgehammer way.

“But babe, know that it’s the most difficult decision I have ever made. With you away? How would it be? It would really be hard for me. I’ve gotten used to you near me always. I don’t think I can do this to you,” I told her when I was finished and saw the look on her face.

Those teary eyes, my God, not now!

“Why don’t we go to the US together then? In that case we’d be together.”

“We could, but the Israeli is a very good friend of mine. He’s agreed to put me in the safest house where no one would reach me easily. I gave him my word, and I hate letting him down. I don’t want to be on the run still where I go. I have run for long. I need to rest, honey.”

“You are breaking my heart, Ken. I don’t think I can live another day without you,” Susan told me. She then held my face into her hands, let go of me and stared into the space. There was a moment of long silence before she said, “I gonna miss you so much, babe. I hoped we could go together, but if we can’t, what can I do? You’ve already decided. It’s okay.”

“You were to go and leave me here in the country after all.”

“Yes, but I could’ve been coming. My vacations would be spent here.”

“You can still come over to Israel.”

“It would be difficult, Ken. Don’t forget my father is the one paying the bills.”

“I know. But I won’t be staying there for long. I just want everything to cool down. I must come back before eternity ends.”

“I love you so much, Ken. Words cannot express how much I love you. Only that I do not want to lose you. I’m afraid.”

“I’m going nowhere, honey, nowhere. Don’t be afraid.”

“Ken, you’re too slippery. I know you. You’re mine.”

“I love you. I love you more than you think. Nothing’s gonna change my love for you.”

I slowly kissed her for the umpteenth time and this time I could feel the vulnerability of the kiss. Her lips were moist and cold, quivering. I could feel the tension and fear of a girl who was being kissed for the last time.

“Sue, I love you, never doubt that. I request you of only one thing, Suzy.” I paused to weigh what I was about to say and continued. “Do me one favour. Will you?”

She nodded her head and I told her, “Please, for God’s sake, be loyal to my love for you. Not that I don’t trust you, but the devil lurks behind the cross. Fancy me being always in your vicinity, but don’t let the imagination drive you to comparing me with another man.”

“Do you think I can love somebody else the way I love you? I love you, babe. No one else do I desire.”

Again, I promised her my undying love. It hurt to think I was leaving her.

But I had to leave.

I had some things to do before leaving the next day, so I told her to excuse me.

She offered to drive me to the airport.

It was not Ken only who was to be driven to the airport the following day.

Mandy, Samson Ndolo’s PA, was talking on the phone in her boss’s office. She had been on the phone for over an hour now. First she called her boyfriend and then her sweet little sister in the USA where she was studying law. They talked for good thirty minutes without caring that she was using the business’s credit.

After she was done with the people she wanted to talk to she called her boss’s travel agent to make the necessary arrangements for his following day’s flight to the US. She was the one to go with him. Edna had long taken full secretarial duties and was to be left to take care of the business when they were gone. Edna’s coming into the scene after the death of her boss, Job, had been a blessing.

Mandy was not only promoted but had more clout in Samson’s businesses than ever before. How Edna envied her. But she could not fight with Edna. After all Edna was his secretary, just a secretary, and Mandy was his Personal Assistant. Mandy took care of more business than Edna. And many a time Samson listened to no one else but Mandy.

But something was worrying Mandy. Since Edna had resumed her place as the secretary after Job’s murder, Samson seemed distant and aloof. She wondered what the heck was wrong with her boss. Not that she had not tried to talk him into talking to her if anything was the matter. However, he just waved her off telling her that he was fine
. Just doing a little bit of thinking.
She wondered for how long he would think.

It had been over two months now and he had not had his regular meetings with the employees, he had not had any meeting at all. He had spent all of his time in private meetings he had not told her or Edna anything about. Something must be wrong somewhere.

What the heck do I give a damn for? It’s his own damn business,
Mandy said to herself.
All I have to do is do my job.

*

Samson was at his study doing nothing but thinking. These last days were as if he was living in a world of thoughts. The melodramatic turn of events in the past six months had not only flabbergasted him but had also stupefied the G8. There were some things that were not meant to have happened but yet they happened.

The report that was handed over to KACC by the British High Commissioner’s Office of Foreign Intelligence had his name and those of his friends, but that did not give him heart palpitations. What bothered him most was the thought of walking down the untrodden path of failure, destruction, doom and loss; loss of dignity and fame, glory and power.

For some outlandish reason he instinctively opened his study desk’s side drawer and took his licensed Taurus Millennium PT155 handgun. He was, according to the latest developments, supposed to return it along with his passport to the Police Commissioner.

Staring blankly at the black steel barrel of the weapon he had acquired for his protection but couldn’t protect him from the impending doom. He had a flash of brains being blown  out of the skull and splattering everywhere and the victim trying to fight off the effect to no avail; trying to fight the imminence of death but being unable to do so.

His hand, reflexively, lifted the gun to his forehead; his finger coiled around the trigger and started pulling it. His gun was always loaded. He wondered how people who were shot felt to have a loaded gun pointed at them.

A strange voice at the back of his mind kept on whispering to him
“You’re not ought to be alive. You’re ought to be dead. Why don’t you just pull the trigger?”

His mind was racing.

Death is sweet. Why don’t you just pull the trigger?

“I can’t.”

Do it.

“I just can’t.”

You’re a coward.

“No. I’m not.”

One thing you’ve never been, Sam, is a coward, he told himself.

He pulled the gun from his forehead and looked at it once more. Without further thought of it he returned it to its resting place. It was meant for self-defence not suicide; was meant to kill his enemies, those who threatened his life.

He had calls to make. That’s what he was supposed to be doing instead of contemplating self-annihilation.

Tuesday 6
th
October;

Nairobi, Kenya.

I strapped myself into my first class seat at exactly 1600Hrs.

A voice came over the intercom, “This is your Captain speaking. Please, fasten your seat belts we’d be taking off in five minutes.”

As I fastened my seat belt I couldn’t believe that only a few a months ago I had strapped myself into the same plane with Susan going to a holiday on the Maldives for fun. Now I was alone on the run.

My mind drifted off to the Maldives.

Having made the necessary arrangements in advance, the concierge showed us to our suite lackadaisically as though he was tired of janitoring all his life. He was a fiftyish looking man with lots of freckles on his Indo-Aryan face, too loquacious to bore even with his heavily accentuated Dhivehi English.

It had been a long journey all the way from New York via Dubai, yet we couldn’t rest before reaching this tropical paradise of pristine beaches, turquoise lagoons and rhythmically swaying palm trees.

From the Hulhule Airport in the capital Male, we headed straight to Champa where this concierge, Moh’d Nagib as he introduced himself in his best Maldivian English, received us. He was talking of how the Maldives’ resorts strove to enhance standards and excellence.

“We’ve won several international awards for the standards of excellence and the beauty of the island. Receipt of these awards confirms our unparalleled commitment to the complete and total fulfilment of our guests’ individual tastes, requirements and expectations which I’m trying to do now. You’d find it so interesting and captivating to visit us.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Nagib. I am sure we shall enjoy ourselves,” I said.

“Do not fret yourself. I’m here at your service, Señor,” he said respectfully. “Privacy of the guest rooms and ambience of the whole place would just thrill you. I’m sure you’ll come back again...” the guy was seemingly dedicated to his job as a concierge if they were not told to be so so as to carry the good will and name of the Maldives across the continents.

That night we had our dinner served at our suite, Maldives special: Maldives rudder fish
(Kyphosus cinerascens)
and vegetable casserole. Wine was Susan’s favourite – Madeira. When the dinner was over and had savoured and even licked the dessert plate clean until it shone, we watched the surf rise and fall occasionally as it was the custom, fiddling with our wineglasses and planning how our stay would be on the Maldives.

It was late at night when we crawled to bed and guess what? We’re not sleeping at all. We made love till the fabulous Maldives sunshine came up, giving us the warmest welcome ever.

When we broke fast or brunched as it was almost noon, we went to tour the much famed Maldives. I had read in the
Readers’ Travel
that Maldives was the world’s leading dive destination and Indian Ocean’s leading destination. This led to Maldives receiving the greatest number of tourists than any other tourist resort in the world, and WHO later voted it the best tourist destination thus receiving the most prestigious awards.

Walking hand in hand along the pristine beaches with the finest white sands we watched and played with the beauty of the Neo-Eden on the Indian Ocean. No wonder it was called ‘Jewel of Indian Ocean’ and ‘The New Eden’. Where on earth would you find friendly sharks if not in paradise? The Maldives has an array of friendly sharks, even when you invade their privacy they just swim affably towards you, play with them and shoo them away when you’re tired of their games.

Susan marvelled at the giant turtles, rode on them, played with the stingrays imprisoned in the turquoise lagoons, sheltered from the equatorial sun under the palms, and took pictures of ourselves as memories to carry back to Kenya.

On the last day of our incurable romance tour I gave her a present. I had arranged with Moh’d Nagib to have it made the way I wanted – a gold medallion engraved with her image in bikinis, a photo I’d taken on our first day. In the photo, she was standing akimbo slightly tilting her svelte chocolate willowy figure to the left, lips pouted and the ocean in the background. When she saw it she was so happy that she jumped to me and asphyxiated me with a kiss. I knew it was the right time for what I wanted and dipping my hand into my briefs’ inner pockets I took the casing. It had the softness of fine satin to the touch, and when at last she let go of me I handed her the casing. She stared at it in surprise and I prodded her to open it.

I could see it in her eyes. She was not ready. Holy moley! She didn’t even open it. She just handed it back to me leaving me more perplexed than how she was.

That night we did not make love, cuddle or huddle. We just lay in bed, lost in our own worlds spinning our wheels.

It was almost morning, the day we’re to come back when she turned to me. The whole night she’d looked the other side, sleeping or just pretending. When I saw her turning to me it was my turn to pretend I was asleep. She was so smart to be fooled, even tricked, though.

“Ken, I want us to talk,” she said after a minute or so.

“About what?”

“Me. Us.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I can’t do this. I cannot do that, but...” her voice trailed off. Were she a statue she couldn’t have reacted such coldly. She didn’t even stir.

“I’m so sorry, Ken.”

“So am I.”

“Ken please, you haven’t asked me why?”

“That’s not important. All that matters to me is you.”

“What do you mean?”

She stared at me as though reading my mind, as if she comprehended what I was driving at.

“I asked you, Ken.”

“I heard you... “

“Ken, I am not ready to marry you, and not just
you
; I mean, to get married.”

“When would you be?”

“Time is the best healer.”

“And why didn’t you tell me so?”

“I lacked the words. I couldn’t get the courage of such pride, the pride of turning you down. I’m afraid there’s somebody else.”

I said nothing. This wasn’t time for arguments. I was not in the mood. The thought of her having somebody else paralyzed me. I could not stand another loss. Not after Kate.

“Susan, you know that I love you.”

“Yes, I know that; but I don’t want any of us getting hurt. Marriage is commitment. Are you ready for that yet?”

I could say yes but I didn’t. I just kept quiet. “You know I will never leave you. I love you for God’s sake, Sue.”

“Ken, you’re too slippery. No woman won’t want to cherish you. I’m afraid of you cheating on me.”

“That’s ludicrous now. Are you nuts? I love you, Susan. I want to marry you.”

“Please, Ken, if you love me, just give me some time. I’m not ready to marry you, I mean to get married. I know we’ve dated for long, but I need time to myself. I want to marry you,
who wouldn’t anyway,
but I just can’t now, not yet.”

We’ll be landing at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv in ten minutes
, a voice crackled over the intercom jotting me from my dream that had started as reverie. I had slept immediately after takeoff and I was surprised that I had slept the entire flight.  “Would you please fasten your seat belts?”

I breathed the Israeli air, hopped in on a taxi which took me to the Sheraton City Tower Hotel.