Читать книгу The Secret Price of History - Gayle Ridinger - Страница 3

Victoria Falls Bridge, Zimbabwe – September 1989

On top of one of the two green mountains hemming in Victoria Falls, Arne Anderssen watched mesmerized as the thundering water plummeted into the narrow gorge between them. Once the curtain of water split asunder, it shot up in the air in a mist that resembled smoke and created first one, then another and another rainbow for his enjoyment, .rainbows that evaporated and were replaced by still others and then others, as Arne lost all sense of time.

Then he felt a hand touch his.

"Arne, we have to go. We have to cross back into Zambia and we're on foot, my darling."

He was 'darling' to Cindy, the woman of his life. He, a poor Swede from a farm in Minnesota, was very proud of having been able to pay for this week together in Africa. He had done very well on the first assignment given him by IPCO Interpol—an investigation into the spread of counterfeit medicines in southern Africa, and when he'd received his letter of merit his first thought had been that he wanted to celebrate with Cindy in high style. She'd been so happy when she'd received the air ticket he sent that she'd cried on the phone. And now she was here with him. In this paradise.

When they'd paid the Zimbabwean guards to dispense with the endless border formalities, Cindy and Arne found themselves back where they'd been that morning: in the "no man's land" between Zambia and Zimbabwe where the Victoria Falls bridge spanned the first of the downstream gorges. When they were halfway over the bridge, Arne noticed that the two guys running the bungee-jumping business were still at their kiosk. What dedication, he thought. It was certainly after five o'clock.

"The last customer of the day gets a special price," one said with a smile to them. 'The Best Bungee Jump in the World' was hand-written on their sign.

Arne leaned over the bridge hand-rail for a look. Damn, what a drop.

"Viking, you're not getting the funny idea of leaving me up here all alone while you take a bungee jump, are you?" Cindy pushed her blond bangs from her eyes.

"All this water makes me feel like diving in…" He kissed her.

"But you're not really going to dive in, right? The rubber cord…stops you?" said Cindy apprehensively, and Arne knew at that moment that he could have things his way.

At the end of the short flight, while the elastic cord was jerking him up and down, Arne felt his heart pounding like a wild drum. Those few seconds had been fantastic. Blind to all but rushing light, he had felt one with the air and the water.

Too bad it couldn't have lasted longer. It was hard to fix such an experience properly in your mind but that was the way it was, he thought; it would return to him in its proper dimension later. Any moment now one of the two fellows would be descending in a harness with the recovery rope to attach to his legs to right him; then they'd winch him back up to the bridge.

Four or five minutes passed. Dangling head down as he was, the enthusiasm over his jump rapidly gave way to a disagreeable sense of cold—for there was wind blowing now—and dizziness.

Why were they taking so long?

Arne tried shouting but the noise of the water covered his voice.

He guessed there was some mechanical problem. He should have listened to Cindy and foregone this adventure. He didn't want her getting frightened. He could imagine her reaction if it turned out that the winch motor was broken. He could already hear her protesting with the two attendants. He knew that she would lean over the bridge and try to signal to him. He personally had nerves like steel but a normal fat tourist here would be risking a heart attack here. He tried to pull himself head-up again—an enormous strain on his stomach muscles. If he moved too quickly, the cord started to dance and jerk about and he with it. After several useless attempts he finally managed with a hand to grab the cord fastening around one of his ankles. 'Mustn't give up now,' he thought. With immense effort he righted himself, and then hanging on to the cord, he rested. The worry that his arms and hands would soon feel too strained started him climbing. His goal was to pull his weight up the rope to the bridge, and the anger he felt towards the two guys on the bridge was helping. Those assholes and their Best Bungee Jump in the World'; he'd demolish them.

What made it really a bitch was not being able to use his feet, immobilized in the padded ankle webbing; yet after an eternity, Arne made it to within a couple of meters from the bridge. He was completely soaked in sweat. "Hey! HEY HELP ME!" he called. Couldn't Cindy hear him? And where were the two guys, fuck it? He'd had to do everything by himself.

Then he heard the crack of gunfire.

On a sway maneuver that nearly sent him spiraling downwards, he came level with the bridge's steel girthing and pulled himself up its crisscrossing bars, hopping with his bound feet.

"CINDY!!" He grabbed the base of the launch trampoline and heaved himself up on it. He was in time to see soldiers arriving from the Zambian side, firing as they ran. They had old rifles from God knew where and their shoes kept flopping off their feet.

"NO!" he yelled at them. 'No' to what? He wrenched open the clamps and knots on his ankles, writhed free of the harness, and wobbled off the trampoline. In the middle of the bridge road lay the two Bungee-jumping guys with their throats cut. One of them was still having muscle spasms in his legs. Beyond there were more Zambian soldiers standing around something. He charged over to them, karate-chopping at their arms to divide their line. NOOOOOO! NOOOOO! He kicked the soldiers to dent his way in, but they pinned him to the ground. An officer bent over him. "There's nothing that can be done," he said. "They're mercenaries from the Congo at the service of Mugabe's ZANU party. They kill women for sport. I saw who they work for. The White Devil. But they have escaped back into Zimbabwe and we can't follow them."

"What White Devil?"

"They say he's American."

"I want a name."

"He has no name."

The officer told the soldiers to release him, and he caught glimpse of blonde hair on the ground between their feet. Then in the instant before the light of Africa changed to darkness, Arne saw Cindy. The four pieces of her body drawn by a machete.