from Chapter Seven - "Like a Lion"
Jenny awoke slowly, savoring the comfort of her pillow. It would be another long day.
She sat up with a start. It couldn’t be morning yet. What about dessert? She looked through the open flap of her tent and saw no light except for the dull glow of the dying fire. Her phone clock confirmed it for her: she’d slept through dessert. A sigh escaped her lips as she lay back and wondered what Nanci’s surprise had been. She zipped up her mosquito netting and snuggled back into her bedding without even changing her clothes or closing the tent flap.
She was almost asleep again when she heard voices. They sounded like they were right behind her tent. She tried to ignore them and almost succeeded, but then she heard her name.
“Why didn’t you want to talk in front of Jenny?” That one sounded like Seth’s voice.
“Because this is a sensitive operation. The fewer people who know, the better.” She was sure the second voice was Clayton Mercury.
“Oh, come on Merc, everyone knows what you’re digging up out there. You obviously can’t hide it from the men, who can’t hide it from their wives, so the whole village knows.”
“Yes, and that worries me. The only reason they know is because I need the workers. No one else needs to know.”
“But Jenny is a part of the village now.”
“She’s still one too many. It could get out at any time.”
“But no one leaves the village. And even if they did, they all hate the government, the Anti-Balaka, and the Seleka. Just out of spite they would never tell about it. The secret is safe in the village.”
Jenny was awake now and listening with both ears.
“Oh, yeah?” Mercury’s voice grew quieter, but more intense. Jenny had to strain to catch his words. “What about that swine Mohammedou Djotodia? You think he’ll keep his mouth shut? I know firsthand that he’s got some shady contacts that he’s already gotten in touch with since your little bout of mercy, and now he hates you. I have good reason to believe he’s ex-Seleka, too. If that’s true, then we’re only a step away from having them beating down our door. If the Seleka come into this area, Colonel Massi and his Anti-Balaka thugs will be right behind them.”
“Look, what else could I do? I will not become an executioner or a jailer, and I already told you that by showing mercy to Mohammedou, I believe that he will keep this place a secret.”
Mercury swore. “Then you’re a fool, boy.”
There was a tense silence and then Seth spoke again.
“Wait a second, how do you know that Djotodia has already been talking to his shady contacts?”
Mercury swore again, stronger this time. “I make it my business to know things like that.”
“You had him followed, didn’t you?”
“Of course I had him followed! You can make whatever little judgments you want, Seth, but I have an operation to run here. I had my boys track him all the way into Nola, but they lost him once he made contact with his old friends. They could have been Seleka for all we know. He’s lucky he got away, because I would have made sure that he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone our secret. Ever.”
“I don’t want to hear that!” Seth nearly shouted. Mercury hissed at him to keep his voice down, and he continued in a lower voice, albeit one that was still too loud. “You do whatever you want, Clayton, but we are not mercenaries like you and your men. We’re in the business of helping people, not getting rich. You involve me in something like that again, and I will pull all of our workers out of your camp!”
“Don’t be foolish, boy. You know good and well that your little science project here can’t survive without me and my men. You can’t survive without our guns and wages, and we can’t do our mining without your workers. Elias Sharon understood that, and so should you. We have a symbiotic relationship, you and I, and we both have to do our part to make sure it survives.”
Seth didn’t respond, so Mercury continued in a more conciliatory tone.
“We’ve got a hungry lion by the tail, Seth. We’re feeding Colonel Massi and his men just enough to keep them away, but we have to control all other information that leaves this jungle. If word gets out to anyone, Anti-Balaka, Seleka, or the government, everything we’ve built here will come crashing down. Our goals are aligned: neither of us want anyone coming out here and figuring out what’s going on. That means you have to trust me with security matters. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”
He said it as a statement, not a question. Seth sighed, and, in it, Jenny heard a hurricane of weariness and stress.
“You’re right. I’m sorry, okay? None of this is going according to plan anymore.” He sounded so tired.
“Keep it together, eh kid? None of us need you unraveling right now. Look, you keep the girl as close as you need to, all right? Talk to her, share a tent, whatever. Just remember what I said.”
Jenny heard the big man turn and walk away. Several moments passed before Seth did the same.
She laid back and reeled. This was the second conversation she had unintentionally eavesdropped on, and both had been about this Colonel Massi. Who was he, and what did he have to do with Clayton Mercury? Seth had referred to Mercury and his men as mercenaries. What were mercenaries doing running a mining operation? And what were they mining that was so special they couldn’t let any word of it get out? She tried to sleep, but slumber would not come. She was tired, but her mind refused to rest. What was going on?
Jenny’s eyes snapped open, and she exploded out of bed, entangling herself in the mosquito netting. She had fallen asleep again without realizing it. But something had awakened her violently. Her tent flap was still open and flapping in the wind, but this time the fire had died. She lay on the floor of her tent, her heart pounding against her ribcage.
Then, she heard it again. The sound started with a loud moan that rushed down into a series of rumbles like a waterfall crashing to rocky depths below. To Jenny’s racing mind, it sounded like a monster clearing its throat. She heard it a third time. The hair on her arms stood on end. She heard it a fourth and then a fifth time. The sixth time was followed by a repeating series of rough coughs, like a panting horse but faster, deeper, and more violent. It was uncanny—familiar, yet unlike any sound she had ever heard before. The village dogs began to voice those half-serious half-nervous yelps dogs use whenever they are frightened. Distant voices called out to one another as the village awakened in confusion. All the while the chilling roar, for that’s what it was, continued to resound. It was an animal, it was big, and it was close.
Jenny pulled her shoes on and scurried out of her tent into the humid night. Blackness surrounded her, but she could see the soft glow of distant torches towards the center of town. She turned her feet towards the torches, tiptoeing through the damp grass. Every shape in the darkness loomed out at her like some malevolent attacker, and every sound made her twitch. She was so nervous that she almost ran into a tall, dark figure standing at the village edge that seemed to spring up at her from out of nowhere. She froze for several seconds until she recognized Clayton Mercury calmly smoking a cigarette.
Without turning towards her he voiced a single word: “Lion.”
“Lion?” Jenny squeaked, not sure if she had heard him right.
He must have nodded, but she couldn’t tell in the dark.
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