The Devil's Kingdom by Scott Mariani

Author:Scott Mariani
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007486403
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

The compound was all quiet now, but the light and noise and the awful screaming of the victim still hung over the still night air like the echo of a bad dream. Rae would have to revisit her grief over Munro’s death later; right now, there was no time to stop and reflect as Jude and Rae stole away through the darkness. Rae stumbled on one of the tyre ruts that the vehicles had left in the soft earth. Jude caught her arm to stop her falling. He found himself not wanting to let go of her.

Fortune seemed to have blessed their timing. For some reason, the guards had all disappeared – perhaps to help dispose of Munro’s body, Jude thought, though he didn b share that with Rae. The two of them followed the tyre tracks to the gate. Jude risked striking another match to give them a little light, cradling the flame in the cup of his hand and shining its small glow up and down the gate to look for a way out. Like the fence either side it was nothing but smooth steel, twelve feet high at least, and offering no kind of handholds to climb up it. But the flickering match revealed that the ground underneath the bottom edge of the gate was just as dry and crumbly as the stuff around the huts. The compound had obviously never been intended to house loose captives, only caged ones, and for two slender people who didn’t mind getting their clothes even filthier than they already were, it was little problem scrambling underneath the gate. They scraped and hollowed their way out like dogs escaping from a pound, and sprang to their feet on the other side, breathing hard with nerves and excitement.

It was Jude’s first glimpse beyond the gate since his arrival, but everything had looked very different passing through in Masango’s car. It was a desolate place even in darkness. The dirt road that led up to the compound snaked away between great mounds of weed-tufted earth and scattered huts, rotting metal buildings standing here and there among the garbage and disused machinery. There was nobody in sight.

‘Come on,’ he said, and wanted to take her hand, but fought the urge.

They ran on, neither one sure which way to go. Rae was several inches shorter than Jude, slightly built and fast on her feet. Suddenly pausing, she gazed around her as if she’d realised something. ‘I’ve seen this place before,’ she said in a low voice.

‘You’ve been here before?’

‘I’ve photographed it. From the outside, during the daytime. This is part of Khosa’s slave labour camp, where they keep the coltan workers. They ferry them back and forth in trucks between here and the mining complex. Which, if my bearings are right, is just a little distance that way, to the south.’ She pointed in that direction, then looked back at Jude. ‘I know I’m right about this. We got so many images, I could piece the whole layout together in my sleep.

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