The Delta by Tony Park

Author:Tony Park
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus Books PLC
Published: 2010-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

When Sam walked back inside Sonja opened the Land Rover and found her daypack. She took out her hairbrush, slid the rubber band off her ponytail and brushed her hair, leaving it hanging loose. She had no makeup, but she licked her lips and checked her teeth in the rear-view mirror before closing the door. She undid the third button of her safari shirt and turned up her collar.

The site office was made up of three cabins, set in a horseshoe arrangement on the ridge overlooking the dam. Cheryl-Ann and the crew were still in the cabin used for meetings and presentations. Sonja watched Deiter Roberts leave his office, walk to the meeting cabin, disappear inside, then re-emerge a few seconds later with a laptop under his arm. It was the computer Selma had used for her presentation.

Sonja waited a couple of minutes after Roberts had returned to his office, then walked over to it. She knocked on the door of the one next to it and asked to see Deiter. An African woman called through a partition and Roberts came out to greet her.

‘Yes?’

‘Hi, Deiter. I think I know all I need to about hydro-electricity and water storage facilities, so I thought I would see if I could get a coffee.’

He looked past her, towards the open door and the next hut where he had just come from. He was clearly distrustful of the media people, even if they were here at the company’s invitation. The laptop he’d taken from the conference room was on his desk, next to his PC.

‘To tell you the truth,’ she said, lowering her voice, ‘I need a break from my friends. Yes, but they’re worse than Englishmen.’

A smile fractured his face. ‘Come into my office. The aircon works better so it’s cooler in there. Frieda,’ he said to the African woman at reception, ‘please, bring us two coffees.’

‘Yes, sir,’ the woman said.

‘What did you think of the presentation?’ Roberts asked her.

Sonja shrugged. ‘It was pretty interesting. There are obviously a lot of sensitivities about this project, though.’

Roberts nodded and motioned for her to take a seat. ‘Hell, you don’t know the half of it. We have to watch every word we say and the Germans in head office check everything ten times. They’re forever changing brochures and documents and presentations to make sure every “i” is dotted and every “t” crossed. The big boss, Schwarz, is fanatical about communications – I only just loaded the version of that presentation half an hour before you arrived. You say the wrong thing to the wrong person on this project and it could cost you your job.’

‘Very political, hey?’

Roberts rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, then relaxed a little in his chair. ‘You came up from Botswana, but you’re not from there, I think. South African?’

She shook her head. ‘I was born in Okahandja.’

His eyes widened. ‘So you’re a Namibian.’

‘It said South-West Africa on my birth certificate. My family moved to Botswana after the war. I grew up in the swamps.

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