sister of yours?” He came round the desk and shook hands with Jack, not letting go of his hand.
“Max, you’re looking well,” said Jack. “My mother sends her love. Beth would probably have some fighting talk for you if I’d spoken to her lately but I haven’t. She’s still in Boston, finishing her Ph.D.” He half turned. “Sir Maxwell Sandys, this is Natalie Nelson. Natalie, this is Max, deputy attorney general and the man who taught me to fly.”
Outside in the square Natalie could hear a band playing. Military music, if she wasn’t mistaken. Some political event or other? She’d been so obsessed recently by her discoveries in the gorge, and so removed from civilization, at least in its modern manifestation, that she had hardly kept up with the country’s countdown to independence.
Sandys stepped forward and took Natalie’s hand. His skin was very soft.
“So you are our star witness, eh?” He had cornflower blue eyes, unblinking. “No one told me you were so beautiful, Dr. Nelson. No wonder Jack keeps you hidden away in that bloody gorge of his.” He showed her to a seat. “How are you settling in?”
Sandys’s cologne wafted over her. How much did he put on?
“Apart from the reason I’m here in this office, Sir Maxwell, I’d say my time in Kihara has been spectacularly wonderful. Jack and Eleanor don’t keep me hidden. All the wild animals in the Serengeti couldn’t drag me away.”
He let go of her hand. “Splendid. You’re a Cambridge graduate, right? Me too. Corpus Christi. Which college were you at?”
“Jesus.” Natalie hated this sort of Little England conversation.
Sandys took out the watch in his waistcoat. “How do you think the Colonial Secretary’s visit went?”
“I think he got what he came for,” said Jack. “He saw enough trouble to realize independence has to come sooner rather than later, and that KANU have far more support—and far more impressive support—than KADU. They can create real trouble if they don’t get their way. That helps him know who to invite to the independence conference in London in February. Do you see it any differently?”
Sandys shook his head. “Not really. There’ll be major land reform, of course, and the white farmers are not going to like it. But the white-collar people—the lawyers, doctors, and teachers—will still look to Britain; that influence will remain strong. I remember you said that the last time we talked. Are you still involved with KANU?”
Jack nodded. “I’m still on their education committee, yes. We have our hotheads, people who want to switch allegiance to the Russians, or the Soviets, as the Americans now call them. But even the hotheads can see that Western medicine is better than the Russian, and as for law, Russia isn’t exactly known for its justice system. You probably read that they’ve just introduced the death penalty for stealing state property, and they shoot forgers. So yes, I still think education is the key, to keep Kenya in the fold and to help it find its feet.”
Sandys nodded. “Good, good.” He looked at his watch again. “Before we begin the deposition, I have some big news for you.”
He had their attention.
“Ndekei hasn’t changed his plea, or anything fundamental like that, but instead what he has done is more provocative, more newsworthy, more racially sensitive, more potentially catastrophic, and possibly much more dangerous. He is going to run a defense—a defense that is beyond him, intellectually speaking, a defense that has been concocted by the political sophisticates among his tribal elders—to say that he was acting under tribal law and that, according to Maasai tradition, what he did was perfectly legal.”
“Jeeesus!” whispered Jack, looking at Natalie.
Sandys nodded. “It won’t work, of course, not in law. But that’s not the point; the point is … it makes the trial a political trial straight off. It pits black against white, colonialists against the tribes, the past against the future. It will have all the trappings of a show trial, a circus, which Natalie here will be caught slap in the middle of.”
He fixed her with his eye. “I will explain the details after the deposition, over lunch. You need to understand just what you are taking on, what the risks are.” He smiled. “Those risks are not negligible, but I’m sure you’ll be just fine and that Jack will help.”
He turned to Jack. “Maybe we could have a drink later?”
“I don’t see why not,” replied Jack. “At the club?”
Sandys nodded. “Say six? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get