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"I see"

"I’m sure you do" He beamed "You have me all wrapped up like a parcel, but I’, aet no information from me, Tanner I’m not easily intimidated Pain does not move me, threats do not bother me We ork this all out my way"

"And what’s that?"

"You will untie irl ait here while I recover the fortune myself Then I will return-"

"Sure you will"

"Why, I still need your help to get out of the country I could do it without you, but why should I? You already know everything And we really do need each other, Tanner With your help I ht find your country a good home for my talents The market for African leaders is crowded now, you know As a superior African of some wealth, I could have a secure future in America"

"So you would come back on your own, and then the four of us would waltz off together"

"Precisely"

"And ould split the fortune according to plan, and ould all be satisfied"

"There is enough for all"

"Uh-huh"

"So it is settled Now if you will cut these bonds-"

"But nothing’s settled," I said "I may be crazy but I’m not stupid Not that stupid, anyway Even if what you said made perfect sense, I don’t believe you’d stick with it Your ego wouldn’t let you be equal partners with anyone in anything"

His face hardened "You will never get the treasure without et my help except on my terms"

"I know"

He frowned "Then ill you do?"

"I will get the hell out of this godforsaken country," I said "Your treasure can stay here, and so can you I don’t really care about your fortune I didn’t coet rich, and I don’t really have any use for thelike this one, except er, and without quite so irl named Katin Bazerian and adopt the heir apparent to the throne of Lithuania Heiress apparent, that is And then I have to live happily ever after, and I can do that without your bearer bonds and your diaot And without your o for company, for that matter"

"You will just… just leave?"

"That’s the idea"

"And the fortune? You will leave it for ht"

"Well," he said "That is-"

"But you probably won’t get much pleasure out of it Because I’ll leave you here, tied up like this, so that you won’t spoil our exit And I’ll leave Sheena here, too, because I don’t see how I could get her out of here under the circumstances, and because you’ll need souess I’ll leave her untied, because otherwise she ht starve to death, and I wouldn’t want that onat me

"And whether she’ll have any particular animosity toward the man who sold her down the river, and I do mean down the river, well, I wouldn’t know about that You’ll just have to see"

I got up and started for the door

"Wait," he said "Wait We must talk this over"

Chapter 16

A journey of a thousand le step, or so they tell me It occurred to me now that a journey of not too much less than a thousand miles could have been avoided if I had taken a few dozen well-chosen steps at the onset For we had indeed come full circle, and the final act of our little draan, and not fifty yards frorave where I had been buried alive

The moon beamed benevolently down upon us, and the stars contributed their conspiratorial winks Plureen bere sleeveless blouse, reinforced this illuht I still had the ed to some poor cannibal, and to some rather less fortunatefrom my belt – Mr Penner’s belt, that is, made suitable for me with a fresh hole courtesy of the belt-hole blade of the Swiss Army pocketknife And in un, a weapon in which I had more faith than I vested in the machete and the Swiss Arun were very sincerely pointed at Knanda Ndoro He, too, wore so trunks and a pair of beach sandals and nothing else And he, too, held an iarden shovel, hich he was opening a grave

It was, I felt, an ideal division of labor Pluht I served as the security force And Knanda Ndoro did the retrieving