Part 33 (1/2)

She cant tell how much time has pa.s.sed when she discovers that her head has cleared a little. She is still lying on the sofa, but now she feels able to phone Henrik to ask if he can pick up the children today.

Without moving the rest of her body, Anne-Lise reaches out and takes the phone off the hook.

She can hear voices. Has Henrik come home while she was resting? Since her car isnt parked outside he wouldnt know that she is home already.

It is Henrik. At first she cant grasp what hes talking about. The other voice belongs to Nils, Henriks brother. She wants to say something but has an awkward moment trying to turn the phone around.

as if I havent told her that a hundred times already. To tell you the truth, its all been very tough going.

Nils sounds sympathetic. Henrik, I believe you.

A pause, but Anne-Lise is so baffled that she cant think of anything to say. What are they talking about?

But have you thought of speaking to her doctor? Nils adds.

We saw him together. And we agreed afterward to do what he advised. It went well. But shes refusing to see him again.

Nils sounds more serious than Anne-Lise had ever thought possible.

Henrik, you can always phone me. Remember that. And you can always drop by to talk to us, anytime. Stay the night if you like.

Henriks voice is dull. Well. Thanks. But there are the children.

Everything filters slowly through her headache.

She screams.

She runs.

She cannot endure the living room now but doesnt know where she wants to be. Shes in the hall but cant stand it there either.

Henriks footsteps are on the floor upstairs.

Anne-Lise runs around as a rush of thoughts overwhelms her.

Why should I have believed that they could bear to live with me? Im bursting with evil thoughts. All the time! How Ive kidded myself! Theyll have to move out. No, Ill have to move. They can have the house. Ill go away.

Henrik catches up with her in the kitchen. She has collapsed. He shouts: I didnt say anything bad about you! I didnt!

But now the rapist in the red tracksuit leaps out from between the tall rushes. He strikes me. He gets out his small black razor. He holds it against my neck and forces me into the bushes.

Henrik shouts: Anne-Lise, dont! Dont!

I must hit my face as hard as I can. I deserve to be punished because Im a horrible wife. Im a bad, bad mother.

The rapists pimpled face is grinning at me. I can see his small pointy teeth.

Henrik is holding my hand in his. I can hit myself with the other hand. He tries to grab it too, loses his balance, and falls over me. His belly on my head. His elbow between my legs.

He shouts: Anne-Lise, stop it! Stop!

He holds me around the chest. He has clamped my arms so I cant move them. He presses his cheek to mine. His mouth is close to my ear.

Hit Malene! Shes the one you should hit, not yourself. And Iben! Not yourself. Them!

iben.

chapter 34.

Something glitters on the wall at the other end of the hut when it catches the feeble light of the oil lamp. It is the sh.e.l.l of a dead beetle. At first Iben thought the creature was alive, but time has pa.s.sed since then.

For thirty-five hours or thereabouts she has been looking at the s.h.i.+ny black sh.e.l.l of the beetle. She has touched it and then tried to sc.r.a.pe it free from the walls cementlike mixture of mud and cow s.h.i.+t.

Iben is the only one of the prisoners who hasnt thrown up. She is only suffering from the diarrhea and the fever. Under normal circ.u.mstances they would never have touched the water in the hut, which is kept in calabashes and old plastic bottles.

One of the hostage takers is called Omoro. He has come along to crouch by her several times, asked her if she is very ill, and prayed for her to get better soon.

Through the fever haze she has heard him argue again and again that it was essential to capture them. His tribe must chase the SEC out of the slums of Kibera.

No one contradicts him but still he repeats himself. Look, we are not criminals. That is not what we are! He sounds unhappy.

Iben cant make out his features in the darkness.

Omoro is the man with the machine gun who sat next to the driver in the SECs white truck. Now that he is walking about she notes that he is tall and well built. The lower part of one of his ears is missing.

The fever makes it hard for Iben to think of a reply to his insistent questioning.

Please, can you not see that we are right to do this?

She watches the lamplight flicker across the blade of the knife that rests across his thighs. An awful stench fills the enclosed darkness of the hut. The hostage takers wont let their prisoners out except when they have to go in the muddy trench just outside the door and, with the sickness, all four hostages are having to go several times an hour. Roberto doesnt always get there in time. Once he didnt even get up off the mud floor he was too weak but tried to clean up after himself with a handful of straw. There are more flies and insects crawling about in his corner than anywhere else.

They all s.h.i.+ver, because the night is cold and they are wearing only their T-s.h.i.+rts and trousers. Soon the sun will rise and its furious heat will make the air in the hut even denser.

Iben is lying on her side. She is very still, but now and then she stretches out her index finger and pushes at the beetle, as if it were a b.u.t.ton and pressing it could stop something from happening. She knows that the others are awake too, but none of them speaks.

She has never felt fear like this. It is not like a sudden shock, a pa.s.sing state. The hostages could be taken out and shot in five minutes, or in ten, or in fifteen. Half a night has pa.s.sed, but the shots might still be fired at any time. Nothing changes. There is no letup in the awareness of danger, only increasing fear.

The fever makes Iben limp and exhausted, but even so, she only manages to sleep for short breaks. The others have had a worse time of it, though. Yesterday she had to clear away what Roberto had thrown up when he was groggy with fever. It seems that the Luos regard her as stronger than the rest and now they turn to her when they need to address the captives.

What does this mean for her chances of survival?

Four other aid workers from another section of SEC had been taken not that long ago. The negotiations to free them had ground to a halt and the hostage takers decided to shoot one of their prisoners, and then one more, before they agreed to let the other two go.

Who from their group would the Luos pick first? Would it be the prisoner whom they regarded as the strongest?

But she couldnt have left Roberto to lie there in his own vomit. Something had to be done. They all have to keep drinking because they are losing fluid fast, but it has meant that their only alternative to thirst is to continually boost their gut infections.