when she faced the certain ruin of hers. He was almost comical.
“I have thought what you should do,” Fitzhugh said. “What you must do.”
Douglas noticed that he was in disarray. He fixed his buttons, tucked in the shirt, and in the process, collected himself. Falling back into the chair, long legs going out with a languid movement, he said, “Yeah, stop that story from getting on the air, that’s what.”
“No.”
“We have to get hold of that stuff. Without it, what does she have? Dare telling stories. Then all we have to do is deny everything and point out that Dare’s on a personal vendetta. It’ll blow over in a couple of days.”
“And how will you do that?” Fitzhugh asked. “Break into CNN’s office in Nairobi?”
“Yes.”
“And of course you know people with the required skills.”
“No, but Hassan does. Thugs in Special Branch or the Criminal Investigation Division who moonlight.”
Fitzhugh realized that he preferred the addled Douglas to this one—icy, calculating. “Which would require letting Hassan in on our little trade secret. Or would you expect him to arrange this burglary without asking the reason for it?”
Douglas said nothing.
“My thought does involve letting Hassan in on the secret, but no melodramas about break-ins, yes? You are willing to listen?”
“I’ll listen to any good idea.”
“The first thing you must do is end the gun-running operations, and you can do that right now, with one word to Tony. Then you go to Hassan, straight away, and inform him of the story Phyllis is working on. You tell all, but you assure him that Knight is no longer involved in these activities. I will go with you if you wish. And we both offer to resign.”
Douglas jerked his head forward. “Come again?”
“We offer to resign for the good of the company. Knight Relief Services should be safe from any actions from the UN or the Kenya government, because all this took place under Knight Air Services. But of course it will be noticed that the management people are the same, so we remove ourselves before the story breaks. We retain our interests in the company but not our positions. I think Hassan would want us out regardless. Possibly we can persuade him to put us on suspension and rehire us at a later date, but the offer of resignation must be made. We have some time—Phyllis hasn’t finished yet, and she herself doesn’t know when the story will be broadcast, I asked her this morning. When it is, Khartoum will react as we anticipate—call on the UN and Kenya to do something. But Hassan will be able to say that he discovered the illicit operations and put a stop to them and took action against those involved. Accepted their resignations, suspended them, whatever. Now it is possible that Kenya, to placate its neighbor, may wish to go further. It may ask you to leave the country, it may take some legal action against me. But Hassan knows everybody who is anybody in this country’s government, and I’m sure he can persuade them to go easy. It will cost him some money—this is Africa—but he can do it if anyone can.”
Douglas’s reaction was difficult to read—he looked on impassively. “You must have been up all night.”
“Most of it.”
“And what do we do with ourselves after we resign? Thought that out?”
“Not quite. If Hassan agrees to take us back on after things cool off, that problem will be solved. Otherwise we’ll just have to think of something.”
“How about the Nuba? What do those people do? Go back to chucking spears at gunships and bombers?”
“You know, for all your fine sentiments,” Fitzhugh said, “I believe that deep down in your white boy’s heart you think Michael Goraende is a dumb African nigger who cannot wage his war without you. He is a resourceful man. I am confident he’ll get on all on his own.”
“Happy to hear you’re so sure. The Nubans’ lives are at stake, too.”
Fitzhugh sighed. This redoubt of the American’s altruism, this crusader who dwelt inside the entrepreneur, could be the hardest to overcome. “I have given you my ideas. Maybe Hassan has some better ones. In any event, you must go to him and clear things up now. If you don’t, I have no choice but to quit. I’m prepared to do it immediately.”
After pondering the ultimatum, Douglas said, “There’s an old saying—when the decks are awash, follow the rats.”
This comment was predictable, Fitzhugh had expected something like it, but it was disappointing nonetheless.