Elephant Song

he repeated.  He took a handful of her hair and twisted it just hard enough to hurt.  He was a master in inflictin pain, and her breath caught with masochistic pleasure.  I'm telling you this to show you how completely I am yours, how much I love you, she whispered.  After tonight you'll never be able to doubt where my loyalties lie.  He chuckled and shook her head gently from side to side, his fingers still locked in her hair, still hurting exquisitely.  Let me judge that, my little red lily.  Tell me this terrible thing.  It is a Terrible thing, Ephrem.  On the instructions of Daniel Armstrong I filmed the forced removal of the villagers from Fish Eagle Bay to make way for the new casino.  Ephrem Taffari stopped breathing.  For twenty beats of his heart under her ear he held his breath.  Then he let it out softly, and his pulse rate was slightly elevated as he said quietly, I don't know what you arc talking about.  Explain this to me.  Daniel and I were on top of the cliff when the soldiers came to the village.  Daniel ordered me to film them.  What did you see?  We saw them bulldoze the village and burn the boats.  We saw them load the people into the trucks and take them away .  She hesitated.  Go on, he ordered.  What else did you see?  We saw them kill two people.  They clubbed an old man to death and they shot another when he tried to escape.  They threw their bodies on the fire.

You filmed all that?  Ephrem asked, and there was something in his tone that made her suddenly uncertain and afraid.  Daniel forced me to film it.  I do not know anything about these events, this atrocity.  I gave no orders, he said, and with a surge of relief she believed him.

I was sure you didn't know about it.  I must see this film.  It is evidence against those who perpetrated this atrocity.  Where is the film?  I gave it to Daniel.  What did he do with it?  Ephrem demanded, and now his voice was terrible.

He said that he had lodged it with the British Embassy in Kahali.

The ambassador, Sir Michael Hargreave, is an old friend of his.  Did he show the film to the ambassador?  Ephrem wanted to know.  I don't think so.  He said that it was dynamite, that he wouldn't use it until the time was ripe.  you and Armstrong are-the only ones who know about it, who know that the film exists?  She hadn't thought of it that way, and now it gave her an uneasy feeling.  Yes, I suppose so.  Unless Daniel has told anybody.  I haven't.  Good.  Ephrem released her hair and stroked her cheek.  You are a good girl.  I am grateful to you.

You have proved your friendship to me.  It is more than friendship, Ephrem.  I have never felt about another man the way I feel for-you.  I know, he whispered, and lifted her head and kissed her on the lips.

You are a wonderful woman.

My own feelings for you grow stronger all the time.  Gratefully she pressed her own full body to his sleek feline length.  We must get that film back from Sir Michael.  It could do untold damage to this country and to me as the president.  I should have told you sooner, she said.

But only now I realise how much I love you.  It is still not too late, he assured her.

I will speak to Armstrong in the morning.  I will give him my word that the guilty persons will be brought to justice.  He must give me the film to be used in evidence.  I don't think he will do that, she said.

That tape is too sensational.  It is worth a million to him.  He won't want to give it up.  Then you will have to help me get it back.

After all, it is your film.  Will you help me, my beautiful red and white lily?

You know I will, Ephrem.  I'll do anything for you, she murmured, and without another word he made love to her, that beautiful devastating love of which only he was capable.

Afterwards she slept.  When she awoke it was raining again.  It always seemed to be raining in this terrible green hell of jungle.  The rain clattered and drummed on the roof of the VIP guest bungalow, and the darkness was complete.

She groped instinctively for Ephrem but the bed beside her was empty.

The sheets on which he had lain were already cool.

He must have left her some time ago.  She thought he might have gone to the bathroom, and felt the pressure in her own bladder which had woken her.

She lay and listened for him to return, but after five minutes when he had not come, she crept out from under the mosquito net and groped her way through the darkness to the bathroom door.  She bumped into a chair and stubbed her bare toe before she reached it.  She found the light switch and blinked in the sudden glare of white tiles.

The bathroom was empty, but the toilet seat was raised to prove he had been there before her.  She flapped it down and perched naked upon it, still groggy with sleep, her red hair tangled over her eyes.

Outside the rain battered down and a sudden flare of lightning hit the window.  Bo

She was slowly coming fully awake, and her interest was aroused.  She pressed her ear to the wall and she recognized Ephrem's voice.  It was crisp and commanding.  Somebody answered him but the sound of the rain intruded and she could not recognize the speaker.  No, Ephrem replied.

Tonight.  I want it done immediately.  Bo

Will you sign a warrant, Mr.  President?  It was Chetti Singh.

His accent was unmistakable.  Your soldiers could carry out the execution.  Don't be a fool, man.  I want it done quietly.  Get rid of him.

You can get Kajo to help you, but do it.  No questions, no written records.  just get rid of him.  All, yes.  I understand.  We will say that he went to film in the jungle.  Later we can send a search party to find no trace of him.  A great pity.  But what about the woman?  She is also a witness to our arrangements at Fish Eagle Bay.  Do you want me to take care of her at the same time?  No, don't be an idiot!  I will need her to recover the tape from the embassy.  Afterwards, when the tape is safely in my hands, I will reconsider the problem of the woman.  In the meantime just take Armstrong out into the jungle and get rid of him.  I assure you, Mr.  President, that nothing would give me more pleasure. it will take me an hour or so to make the arrangements with Kajo, but it will be all over before daylight.

I give you my solemn promise.  There was the sound of a chair being pushed back and heavy footsteps, then a door slammed and there was silence from the sitting-room of the bungalow.

Bo

Swiftly she groped her way to the bed and crept under the mosquito net.

She lay rigid under the sheet, expecting Ephrem Taffari to return at any moment.

Her mind was racing.  She was frightened and confused.  She had not expected any of this.

She had thought that Ephrem might seize the videotape and arrest Daniel, then deport him immediately and declare him an undesirable alien, or something like that.  She hadn't been too clear as to what Ephrem would do to Daniel, but she had never dreamed for a moment that he would have him killed, squashed like an insect without pity or remorse.  With a jolt she realised just how naive she had been.

The shock was almost too much to bear.  She had never hated Daniel.