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"Good God." She stared at him. "What a wonderful lie."
"No, I won't. I'll find some way to get you back to your Net."
"After the interview?"
He closed his eyes. "I'm not sure that's a good idea after all. You might have a future in the outside world, if you kept your mouth shut, about FACT and the Bomb and Vie
"I don't care," she said. "It's the truth and the world has to know it. I've got to tell it, Gresham. Everything."
"It's not smart," he said. "They'll put you away, they won't listen."
"I'll make them listen, I can do it."
"No, you can't. You'll end up a nonperson, like me.
Censored, forgotten. I know, I've tried. You're not big enough to change the Net."
"Nobody's big enough. But it's got to change."
He blew out the light.
Katje woke them before dawn. She had vomited and was coughing. Gresham lit the candle, quickly, and Laura knelt over her.
Katje was bloated, and radiant with fever. The scab had broken on her stomach and she was bleeding again. The wound smelled bad, a death smell, shit and infection. Gresham held the candle over her. "Peritonitis, I think."
Laura felt a rush of despair. "I shouldn't have fed her."
"You fed her?"
"She begged me to! I had to! It was a mercy...."
"Laura, you can't feed someone who's been gut-shot."
"Goddamn it! There isn't any right thing to do with some- one like this...." She brushed away tears: rage. "Goddamn it, she's going to die, after everything!"
"She's not dead yet. We don't have that far now. Let's go."
They loaded her into the truck, stumbling in darkness.
Amazingly, Katje began to speak. Mumbles, in English and
Afrikaans. Prayers. She wouldn't die and now she was calling on God. To whatever mad God ran Africa, as if He were watching and condoning all this.
The camp was a square mile of white concrete block- houses, surrounded by tall chain-link fence. They rolled up a roadway lined by fences on either side that led to the center of the place.
Children had rushed the fence. Hundreds of them, faces rushing past. Laura could not look at them. She stared at a single face among the crowd. A black teenaged girl in a bright red polyester pinafore from some charity bale of Amer- ican clothing. A dozen cheap plastic digital watches hung like bangles on her rail-thin forearms.
She had caught Laura's eye. It galvanized her. She thrust her arms through the chain-link and begged enthusiastically.
"Mam'selle, mam'selle! Le the de Chine, mam'selle! La ca
There were gates ahead. A striped military parachute had been spread for shade. Black soldiers in speckled desert fa- tigues, with broad-brimmed ranger's hats pi
An administrative center. Gresham slowed. "I'm not going into this fucking place."
"It's all right, I'll handle it."
One of the guards blew a whistle, and held up his hand.
They looked curious about the lone buggy, not particularly concerned. They looked well fed. City soldiers. Amateurs.
Laura jumped down, flopping in Gresham's spare sandals.
"Medic!" she screamed. "I've got a wounded Azanian, she's camp perso
They rushed forward to look. Gresham sat in his saddle, looming above them aloofly, in his flowing robes, his head wrapped in the veil and turban. A soldier with stripes ap- proached her. "Who the fuck are you?" he said.
"I'm the one who brought her in. Hurry it up, she's dying!
Him, he's an American journalist and he's wired for sound, so watch that language, Corporal."
The soldier stared down at her. Her stained tunic, a dirty shirt turba
"Lieutenant," he said, hurt. "My rank is lieutenant, miss."
She talked with the Azanian administrators in one of their long Quonset huts. Wall shelves bulged with ca
A camp trusty in a white jacket, his cheeks ridged with tribal scars, circled among them with iced bottles of Fanta orange pop.
She'd given them only the sketchiest version of events, but the Azanians were jumpy and confused, and didn't seem to expect much from a desert apparition like herself. The camp's director was a portly pipe-smoking black Azanian named
Edmund Mbaqane. Mbaqane was bravely attempting to look bureaucratically unflappable and very much on top of things.
"We're so very grateful, Mrs. Webster ... forgive me if I seemed abrupt at first. To hear yet another story of this genocidal Bamako regime-it does make one's blood boil."
Mbaqane hadn't boiled very vigorously-none of them had. They were civilians thousands of miles from home, and they were exposed, and they were twitchy. They were glad they had their hostage back-one of their own crew-but she hadn't come through government cha
The Azanian Civil Action Corps seemed to have been assembled for multiracial political correctness. There were a pair of black ("Coloured") orderlies. Briefly, earlier, Laura had met a little slump-shouldered woman in braids and sneak- ers, Dr. Chandrasekhar-but she was now in the clinic, tend- ing to Katje. Laura surmised that little Dr. Chandrasekhar was the life and soul of the place-she was the one who talked fastest and looked most exhausted.
There was also an Afrikaaner named Barnaard, who seemed to be some kind of diplomat or liaison. His hair was brown, but his skin was a glossy, artificial black. Barnaard seemed to have a better grasp of the political situation than the others, which was probably why his breath smelled of whiskey and he stayed close to the paratroop captain. The captain was a Zulu, a bluff, ugly customer who looked like he'd be pretty good in a bar fight.
They were all scared to death. Which was why they kept reassuring her. "You may rest easy, Mrs. Webster," the director told her. "The Bamako regime will not be trying any more adventures! They won't be buzzing this camp again.
Not while the Azanian aircraft carrier Oom Paul is patrolling the Gulf of Guinea."
"She's a good ship," said the paratroop captain.
Barnaard nodded and lit a cigarette. He was smoking Chi- nese "Panda Brand" unfiltereds. "After yesterday's incident,
Niger protested the violation of her airspace in the strongest possible terms. And Niger is a Vie
Vie
Bamako would care to offend the Vie
Laura wondered if Barnaard believed what he'd said. The isolationist Azanians seemed to have far more faith in Vie
He looked a bit offended. "Sorry."
"I wanted to see the label.... You know who makes it?"
He brightened. "Surely. A Brazilian concern. Unitika-something."
"Rizome-Unitika."
"Oh, so, they're one of yours, are they?" Barnaard nod- ded at her, as if it explained a lot. "Well, I have nothing against multinationals! Any time you fellows would like to begin your investments again-under proper supervision, of course ...