Chapter 18: Fear Transferred

Tuesday – Day 19 of the Rebel Advance

John moaned reflexively as the heat washed over him. Large drops of liquid ran down his face and he wiped his hands quickly over it. The day was already becoming hot and it wasn't even 11:00am yet.

It had taken Abe and him thirty minutes to get to the city center in James's Datsun, and with all the traffic that they had encountered, they were thankful that they had decided to leave early.

When they had finally arrived, they had contemplated going directly to the warehouse. However it had still been twenty minutes before their appointed meeting time with Kingugwa, and they weren't certain if he would be there yet. Instead, they had decided to have some refreshment and relax.

John emerged from the lavatory where, in an effort to cool down, he had splashed his face with water. Now, as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, he looked around until he saw a familiar face; Abe was about three restaurant stands away from him, apparently finishing up a cup of coffee. John glanced at his watch and hurried over to him.

"Ready to go in?" he asked pertly as he slapped his hands together as an indication of his own readiness.

Abe nodded and said, "Sure, it should be just about time." He pushed his cup away from him and joined John on the curbside. As they stepped off the sidewalk and waited for the traffic to clear some so that they could cross the street, they noticed a commotion off to their left.

"What's going on there?" John asked.

"I don't know," Abe replied curiously and he started drifting towards the gathering so that he could ask questions. Once he got close enough to understand what was going on, he rushed back to John and said, "It appears that a woman has collapsed in the street."

"What?" John asked bewilderedly, but his physician senses were already beginning to take over and he rushed towards the crowd.

"Docteur, Docteur!" John called out in French so that the crowd would understand and make room for him to pass. As people began to move back a little, he was able to see that the woman Abe had mentioned was on the ground with her chest and head folded over her knees. He didn't see any open wounds, but she could have been bleeding from her chest or abdomen.

"Madame, what's wrong?" John asked in French as he knelt down beside her. He didn't know if the woman could speak English, and he looked around to see if Abe was close enough yet to translate words that were beyond his vocabulary skills.

The woman didn't respond at first, but a few moments later she lifted her upper body off her knees and John could now see her face. He rocked back on his heels.

It was Kem.

"Kem?" he asked disbelievingly. His mind was trying to understand what she was doing here. She hadn't yet responded to his voice and she was staring at him blankly. It seemed to him as if she didn't even recognize him, and he began to wonder if she was suffering from a head injury. John didn't see any marks or bruises on the front of her head, but he knew that the injury could easily be to the back of it.

"Kem," he repeated urgently as he clasped her slender shoulders gently but firmly between his hands. He forced himself to resist the temptation to shake her, and instead brought one of his hands away from her shoulders and up to the back of her head where he gingerly searched for any sign of a bump or blood.

Kem couldn't take her eyes off of his face. When she had first looked up, she was certain that she had gone crazy, and that her mind had manufactured an image of him healthy and safe as part of her madness.

She had barely heard him when he called her name the first time, but when he called it the second time and put his hands on her she knew that, even if this was too good to be true, she had to say something.

"John," she said softly, tentatively as she reached out a hand to touch the side of his face.

"Yeah," he replied firmly and he nodded his head slowly, hoping that that simple motion might help him get through to her.

She hesitated a moment longer, then she pulled herself closer to him until her head was against his chest. Even though he felt real beneath her hands, she just couldn't be certain of her own mind. Oh my God, she pleaded silently, please don't let him be an illusion. Please don't let me be here in the middle of the street talking to no one and crying only to myself. Please…

John held her with a pained expression on his face. Despite the temperature outside, the hand that she had initially put against his face had been as cold as ice. Now her hands were wrapped so tightly around his back that he could feel her short nails dig through his shirt and into his skin as she tightly clung to him. What in the hell is going on here, he wondered, but he didn't ask the question aloud because he could tell that she was in shock.

Her unexpected appearance and condition had almost made him forget about the meeting, however he quickly remembered that Kingugwa was waiting on them.

"Abe," he called out, "go and tell Kingugwa…"

"No!" Kem screamed desperately. She looked up, grabbed Abe's wrist, and muttered a phrase in a native language that John couldn't understand. After she finished, John thought that Abe had paled slightly.

When she was convinced that Abe believed her, she relaxed back against John, and whispered into his ear in English, "It's a trap. It's a trap."

John looked at her askance, and he wondered if her fears from this morning weren't influencing her judgment now. Kem could see the confusion on his face but she didn't care because now, thank God,she would actually have the opportunity to explain.

After a moment, she asked, "What time is it?" She wasn't feeling all that calm yet, however she knew that she still had to be frightened for their safety.

"Five after eleven," John responded.

"We need to go," she said softly but decisively. She started to push herself up, and as she did, she encouraged John to follow her movement. His hand brushed her left pocket and he felt a hard object. He used his right hand to trace its outline and he knew that it was her father's handgun. John stared hard at her for an answer, but she simply shook her head and brought his hand up to her mouth where she kissed it.

He grimaced in response to the anguish that he saw on her face and he decided not to insist on a verbal answer to his unspoken question. Instead, he handed his bag to Abe, and attempted to pick her up so that he could carry her. However, when she resisted his efforts, he again decided not to press the issue because, on second thought, he felt that walking might help her improve her circulation and raise her body temperature.

"Is the car nearby?" she asked.

"It's around the corner and down one of the side streets," Abe answered.

The crowd that had gathered around them earlier had mostly dispersed, however there were still a few curious onlookers. Abe, John, and Kem politely but insistently pushed their way though the them, stepped onto the sidewalk, and quickly made their way to James's dented, white 1975 Datsun truck.

As soon as they reached it, they separated and Abe scooted into the driver's seat, while John and Kem walked around to the passenger's side. Kem slid in first, followed by John, and as soon as he slammed the door he took the black bag from Abe and tossed it on the floor by his feet so that Abe could drive unencumbered.

Abe and John exchanged glances as they wondered what they should do next. .Even though John knew that Kem was in no condition to stay there longer, he was still concerned about the deal and getting transportation for the camp.

"What evidence do you have that it's a trap?" John asked her quietly.

"The police chief is waiting for you," she answered simply.

Suddenly she sat up straight, and she hoped that the movement might also galvanize them into action. "It's time to go," she said urgently. "We need to get out of here before they come out and start looking."

"The only way for us to get back to the club or your apartment is for us to navigate the roundabout and go back past the warehouse," Abe said.

"I know," Kem said resignedly. "But with all this traffic it will take at least twenty minutes to do that. With any luck, they will have left the building before we get there."

John tensed his jaw, shook his head, and shrugged as Abe looked in his direction again. Neither of them understood what was going on in her mind, but it was clear that she believed the danger was real. John nodded at Abe and a moment after that, Abe started the engine and they proceeded to enter the traffic jam.

Twenty-five minutes later they found themselves still in the city center, however now they were on the same side of the street as the warehouse. When they were about a hundred feet away from the building, its door unexpectedly opened and Kingugwa stepped out. Kem immediately tensed and slid down in her seat. She jabbed and lightly slapped John until he reluctantly followed suit. As Abe watched John and Kem's actions, he understood that this was probably the smuggler.

The trio watched Kingugwa through the windows of the cars in front of them. At first, he stood outside the warehouse with his hands covering his eyes as he tried to peer across the street. A few minutes later, he sprinted across the street where he began to search through the myriad stands and stores.

John was certain that Kingugwa was looking for him, which was not odd in the least, since he was now over thirty minutes late for their meeting. John still wasn't entirely convinced that Kem's fright was based on fact, and he had been thinking about how he was going to make this up to the smuggler so that he wouldn't think that he had been double-crossed.

Their car moved a foot more before Kingugwa crossed the street again and entered the warehouse. He had been shaking his head; clearly upset at his not having been able to find John.

John bit his lip pensively, as he watched the man reenter the building. A few minutes later, John saw something that he hadn't expected to see. The door reopened, and five men in light blue shirts and dark pants emerged.

John glanced over at Kem with a shocked look on his face and he scooted down further in his seat until he could just barely see over the dashboard. He didn't know what the Police Chief looked like, but he knew police uniforms when he saw them. The men lingered for a moment as they laughed and shook their heads, however they soon moved off in the opposite direction of the Datsun.

A few minutes after that, another unexpected face emerged from the building and this time it was one that John recognized. Azel Mkese stepped out, followed closely by Kingugwa. John and Kem immediately slid down off the seat until they were kneeling on the truck's narrow floor.

Although Abe had never met either of those men, John and Kem's obvious fear was enough to make him very nervous, and he had to fight the temptation to join them. Abe inhaled deeply, and as he exhaled he bit back his fear because he knew that a driverless vehicle in the middle of traffic would look very suspicious; he just had to hope that those men would move on before their truck passed by them.

Abe noticed that Kingugwa and the other man appeared to be arguing. In fact, they stood in place for several minutes before the smuggler walked off in the same direction that the police officers had.

Traffic was moving faster now, and Abe was almost side-by-side with the other man who was scowling as he intensely scanned the street for something or someone. Suddenly the man's eyes locked onto Abe's face.

Abe gave him a look that he hoped came off as being nonchalant and disinterested, and then he turned to look at the traffic in front of him. A lifetime seemed to pass, but the man eventually went back into the warehouse and closed the door.

Abe was certain that it was a full five minutes before he remembered to breathe again, and that it was fifteen minutes after that before he felt comfortable enough to tell John and Kem to get up from their cramped conditions on the floor of the truck.

By that time, they only a few miles from James's club and from what they hoped would be safety.