Beyond Life (17 page)

*****

While Gary was away Captain Saul set about getting the ship ready to sail. The scrap metal had already been loaded and so had the first four of the five containers carrying cheap clothes and handbags made by women and children who hadn’t heard the phrase
minimum wage -
they just wanted enough to be able to eat each day.

The final delivery arrived and the dockworkers set about filling the last container. The girls were sitting nervously in the small room where they’d been kept since their arrival. There were two potties in the corner which they’d been told to use, the only time any of them had been outside the room had been to accompany one of the crew when they went to empty their waste. They’d been fed and watered and didn’t want for anything – like farm animals thought Mary, remembering better times. They knew they were to be smuggled onto the boat and the captain’s men had seemed to become more nervous and tense when checking on them as the day wore on. The door opened and the small man entered. A few bottles of water were passed around for the girls to have a final drink; there was enough for them to have no more than a sip each. He pointed to the potties and told them all to use them and that he’d be back in ten minutes when it was time to leave. Mary rightly assumed that they wouldn’t be able to relieve themselves for a while. The door closed behind the little man and she could see her fear reflected in the faces of the other girls. Knowing they didn’t have any choice but to follow instructions she used a potty and the other girls quickly followed suit. He returned shortly after with two other men and told them to follow him. It was dark outside and it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust from the stark light of the bulb in the room. Although they were frightened, it was good to get outside into the air and there was a slight breeze coming off the water, which freshened their skin and made them all feel slightly cleaner. The walk was far too short and when they arrived at the container the small man whispered to his colleagues.

‘In you get, girls and quickly.’

They looked up at the green metal box. The doors at the back were open and it was full of crates, most closed except the ones the girls were directed to climb into.

Mary looked around at the other 27 girls, 23 who had travelled with her from Zambia and the newly arrived 4 who looked more terrified than the others. She wondered if they’d been kidnapped from their families or if like the rest of them, they were already orphaned. The men lifted their shirts and pulled out small guns and the girls realised they didn’t have any choice but to follow their orders. This wasn’t a surprise to the older ones who’d become used to doing exactly as they were told. Two of the new ones started crying and many others followed suit, terrified of dying in the big green box. The small man took a step toward one of the crying girls and slapped her with the back of his hand. The shock of the slap stunned her and took her breath away and she stopped crying, froze and looked at him, like a rabbit stuck in the headlights of an oncoming car.

‘Shut up and get into the container. Find an open box and jump into it, two in each box. Come on now and if I hear another sound out of any of you, my men will rape you and throw you into the sea when they’ve finished. Nobody will know and you’ll be fish food.’

Mary knew they were valuable cargo and it was unlikely that would happen, but she also knew that the boss seemed to be able to get girls from wherever he wanted so the loss of one or two of them might only be a minor inconvenience to him. The man’s words did the trick and slowly the girls walked into the container, quietly, one by one, resigned to whatever fate had in store for them. The last girl muttered to herself and started crying, despite what the scary man had said. Mary looked at the small youngster who couldn’t have been much more than nine years old. She couldn’t understand what she said but could tell from her gestures that she didn’t want to get into a box on her own. Mary pushed Tamara toward her and told her to share with the little girl and to offer her comfort. She got into a box on her own and started to pray. Eventually they were sealed into their boxes and the container was closed. Even though it had a ventilation hole, the heat was unbearable and the air thick and humid. Tamara held the girl she shared the box with and whispered to her, hoping she would calm down because her sobbing was making it difficult for her to breathe, and the more she cried the more she panicked. The loud noise from above silenced the girl. Her tears were replaced with trembles when they felt the container being lifted.

The driver stopped outside what looked to Gary like one in a row of shacks. He turned to face his passenger. ‘We’re here boss. I’ll wait here for you.’

Getting out of the car and walking towards the building Gary could see various items on display. A tall skinny man opened the door before Gary got to it and his smile lit up his black face. He put out his hand for Gary to shake and nodded his head in a small bow-like gesture. ‘I’m John, sir. At your service and to cater for your every need.’

Gary wanted a computer and nothing else and he impatiently explained this to the man. Bowing again, the smarmy John asked him to follow and took him through to a small back room. Despite Gary’s explanation he clapped his hands and two women appeared through a door at the back of the room. John sat back in his chair looking smug and told him to take his pick. Gary refused the offer and John unsuccessfully tried to hide his surprise. Gary told him he was in a hurry and wanted to get down to business and John fired up the laptop on the desk in front on him. He opened a website containing images not fit for any eyes except those of the most depraved people alive. Gary tried to hide his disgust and explained that the laptop was for a friend and that it should be encrypted so that messages to and from it could not be intercepted. From the look on John’s face he wasn’t convinced his words were getting through to the man. He leaned forward and further explained that there should be no shortcuts pre-loaded to illicit website addresses or anything else of an offensive nature emphasising again that the laptop was to be the property of a decent friend. In case there was any doubt, Gary added that if he later discovered his instructions had been disobeyed, he would hunt him down and remove his testicles with a chainsaw before burning his eyes out and killing him. As he looked into his eyes John knew that he would rather be thrown into a sea full of sharks than face the wrath of the white man in front of him. Business concluded, Gary left the shop satisfied with his purchase and that his instructions would be followed.

*****

Those that had them were told to bring their own laptops for the training.

‘Ooh that’s nice. I haven’t seen that before. Did you treat yourself?’ Val opened the lid on her new laptop and Gail remembered the last course that Val was on when she said she’d need to use one of the charity’s computers because hers was so old.

Marion could see that Val looked like the cat that got the cream so pretended not to listen and definitely didn’t want any part in the conversation, guessing where the computer had come from.

‘It’s a gift from Gary, arrived this morning. I didn’t want to accept it but it’s hard to refuse when something’s sent to you in the post, isn’t it? He’s so kind and obviously very keen to keep in touch.’

Yet again Marion wanted to vomit.

‘Very kind of him,’ said Gail with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, but both women could tell she wasn’t being sincere.

As with anything related to Gary, Val was blind to anybody else’s feelings and always thought something else was going on. She went for a comfort break and mentioned it to Marion when they were next on their own.

‘Do you think we should push it to see what’s wrong with Gail? Her reaction to my good news was so out of character and I’m quite worried about her.’

‘It’s the stress from work, Val. Like all charities People Against Poverty are struggling. Gail was telling me they’d had to sack a lot of the admin staff so they have to arrange their own travel, overnight stays, type up their own reports etc…all stuff that she used to have done for her.’

Made sense to Val and she could understand why Gail didn’t seem as bubbly as she’d always been.

‘She’s probably overtired as well as stressed out. Shall we offer to help?’

‘No!’ Marion’s protest was over the top and Val leaned back in surprise.

‘Sorry. You know how independent she is, she’d be mortified.’

‘Fair enough, Marion. Good job nobody else was about, you would have frightened the life out of them.’ Val had a feeling that something funny was going on but couldn’t quite put her finger on what. She’d have plenty of time to think during the nights in Romania, although her previous experience had shown her that after a full day’s work, her body told her brain to shut down and very often she was too tired to think. Sometimes that was the best way to find a solution as the harder she thought about something the more elusive it became.

‘We’ll see,’ said Val more to herself than anyone else.

Marion gave her a funny look but deigned not to comment.

The break over and the training continued. Despite Gail’s skills both women were in their own worlds and would have to read the hand out from the session to find out what the lecture had been about.

The two days of training and familiarisation flew by and Val and Marion said goodbye to Gail following dinner on the second day.

‘Take care, both of you and we’ll see you in a few months.’ It was the most serious that either woman had seen Gail and they said their goodbyes and made their way back to the station.

‘Gail was a bit over the top wasn’t she?’ Val asked while they were waiting to cross the road. She was too busy watching for a break in traffic to see the fleeting expression on Marion’s face.

‘I expect she was thinking about that business in Zambia and hoping there wouldn’t be any surprises this tour.’

‘Maybe you’re right. Funny how that Daniel disappeared before they had a chance to question him though... come on, looks like it’s going to tip down,’ Val grabbed Marion and they rushed across the road as the first raindrops started to fall from the grey sky that was slowly turning black. Marion was amazed that Val was totally blind to the link between Daniel and Gary, which seemed glaringly obvious to her. It wasn’t very often that she was grateful to the good old British weather that had put paid, for the time being anyway, to any further conversation about Gail, the events in Zambia and those horrible men.

Both wanting to get home and sort their gear out for Romania, they agreed not to delay their journey further with coffee or tea and to meet at the airport three days later.

‘We can always phone if we want to pick each other’s brains,’ said Val. ‘I still think Gail’s attitude was out of character though.’

‘Ah well, maybe she’s got other stuff on her mind. When’s your train due?’

The diversionary tactic worked and they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

*****

Back at the docks Gary showed his papers to the official and made his way to the ship. They sailed 30 minutes after the expected time, which meant the girls had been in the container for over 3 hours. Captain Saul said they’d need to get out into the open sea before opening the container and bringing out the girls, and he assured Gary and Daniel that there would be no adverse effects of their 4 hours or so in the claustrophobic box.

As they opened the container doors a little while later and the girls filed out gulping in great breaths of sea air, they heard the sound of an engine in the distance.

Captain Saul laid a hand on his employer’s shoulder. ‘Here’s our insurance.’

They watched as the large speedboat pulled alongside the freighter and Gary viewed from the higher deck as one of the crew threw a ladder over the side from a lower deck and six men climbed the ladder and jumped onto the ship. A rope was then lowered and one of the remaining passengers secured a box, which was pulled up and onto the ship.

‘Munitions,’ said the captain, stating the obvious.

This was repeated a further three times. The passenger then looked up and saluted and the captain called his thanks before the speedboat disappeared. The latest arrivals appeared on the deck and if looks were anything to go by, Gary was impressed. Had he not hired these six mercenaries he would have been extremely wary if confronted by any of them, and he was the meanest and most dangerous man he knew. Gary laughed to himself, so far so good. Captain Saul had fulfilled all his requirements and could find himself a regular employee of Gary in the future. Saul told Gary that he’d tell the men who the boss was but Gary wouldn’t be able to talk to them directly as they didn’t speak English. Happy with that Gary didn’t want any new friends, just confidence that any attacks by potential pirates would be met with savagery that brooked no forgiveness and no repeat offenders.

*****

For this farewell they’d decided to meet in the city for breakfast before Val and Marion departed for the airport.

They’d discussed whether dinner and a night at the theatre might be a more appropriate time to break the news but had decided against it. They’d already had a get together with a family dinner and night out a few days before Val and Marion started their training, and Val was delighted that Carl and his new girlfriend had been able to attend.

Jim called his mother to make the arrangements. ‘We have news,’ was all that he had said, under strict instructions not to let his mother wheedle any additional information out of him. Libby had told her mother that there was something they all needed to discuss. Carl couldn’t make it to the breakfast but his sister had already told him the plan and he’d been all for it, confirming enthusiastically that he’d definitely be at the wedding. Val and Marion discussed both calls and rightly assumed that an actual date had been set for Jim and Fiona’s wedding. They managed to work out that the blessing would take place round about the same time but having experienced the major disappointment of Libby and Tony’s secret wedding, neither woman wanted to build up her hopes too much, just in case their assumptions were incorrect.