when it comes to himself. He’s so certain of his inner virtue that he believes anything he does, even something this terrible, is the right thing. Am I making myself clear? The man cannot imagine himself doing anything wrong. It’s a blindness. He can’t see his own demons because he doesn’t think they exist, and so he’s fallen prey to them.”
“I don’t think he knows how to love,” she said. “People who can’t love are capable of most anything.”
“People have been known to do terrible things for love,” he said. “To kill for it.”
“That isn’t love. It’s obsession.”
She gave him a searching look and asked if he would like to stay to dinner. Of course he would. He was not to take that as an invitation to anything more. He would not. She went into the kitchen to give instructions to the cook and returned with two scotches.
“What are you going to do, then?” she asked.
“I am going to see Adid.”
“Adid? What can he possibly do?”
“We’ll see. I think he can . . .” He paused as the servant made another of his infiltrations, picked up the tray with the tea things, and drifted out. “I think he can help me to stop the voices.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand you.”
“I prefer to keep it to myself for now. He is in Tsavo at the moment, at the Tsavo West safari lodge. Some Chinese firm has got a contract to improve the highway between the park and Mombasa. Hassan is involved in the project—he’s meeting with the Chinese and the minister of tourism down there. I’m going to see him tomorrow.”
“How are you getting there?”
“I’ve hired a car. A damned long drive, but cheaper than chartering a plane.”
“I could loan you my Land Rover and the driver. That would make it cheaper still. On condition though—that I go with you.”
This was startling. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“I would like to be part of whatever it is you’re going to do,” she said “For Tara’s sake.”
“This has to be between me and Hassan alone.”
“I understand that. I would be happy to hang about the pool or whatever till you’re done.” She paused to set her drink down with a firm tap, then came to the sofa and stood over him. “Damn you, I love seeing you again, in spite of myself.” She flipped her hair, bent down, and gave him a brief kiss. “I want to go for my sake, too.”
God and the Devil
IN WESTERN TSAVO, in the shadow of the Chyulu hills, lie vast lava beds that in the supremacy of their ugliness attain a kind of beauty: lakes and fjords of black igneous rock, overlooked by flinty ridges in which a few trees or shrubs have taken root, spread over hundreds of acres. The eruption that created this lava landscape occurred a mere two hundred years ago, but the Taita people who inhabited the region experienced the awe and suffered the terrors that mankind’s primitive ancestors did when the world was in its boisterous, violent adolescence: an entire mountain exploding, the molten guts of the earth rushing in torrents to incinerate villages, farms, livestock, wild beasts, and human beings, and then, as the blazing rivers cooled and congealed, to entomb the victims under tons of rock edged as sharp as arrows. The survivors, touched by the hand that makes the earth tremble and the hills to breathe fire, gave a Swahili name to this place, and it persists among their descendants: Shetani, which is derived from Al-Shaitan, the Arabic mother of the English word Satan.
This was Fitzhugh’s destination when he picked up Hassan Adid in the afternoon, after Adid had finished his meetings. During the drive to the lava fields, Fitzhugh stated that Douglas was embezzling from the company, at times skimming as much as $36,000 in a single week. He wasn’t careful to cover his tracks, but had left a trail a child could follow in the form of wire transfers to a numbered account in Switzerland.
Adid was silent. Fitzhugh said, “I thought you should know.”
“I am aware of Douglas’s activities,” Adid grumbled.
Fitzhugh had suspected as much—and more—but pretended to be surprised.
“So these—may I call them withdrawals?—are authorized? They have your approval?”
“My friend, you should watch the questions you ask,” Adid remarked, or threatened, then fell into another silence.
A few minutes later, he let out a laugh and admitted that he’d known about “Douglas’s activities” for quite some time. He’d uncovered them months ago, before the