2
I was starting to get the hang of Akaki; he wasn’t a big fan of the long game.
He towered over Nana, pummelling her shoulder as he let her know what was on his mind.
Paata kept a watchful eye on the AKs just inches away from them as he translated for us. ‘He wants an interview, right here and now. He has an important message for his fellow Georgians, and wants his words to be recorded for posterity.’ He somehow managed to talk as calmly as if he was discussing overtime rates.
The three of us watched Nana’s hands emphasize every word of her response. She wasn’t backing down.
It was turning into quite a show. Even the guys guarding us were crowding round and tuning in.
‘He’s rambling,’ Paata said, as Akaki turned up the volume another couple of notches. ‘He says he wants to tell the world of his fight for freedom and against corruption. He says he will work to continue this battle, until victory – or until he meets God.’ An edge of concern crept into his voice.
Charlie nodded. ‘He knows he can come out with any old bollocks he wants to now. He’s got the papers, and Baz isn’t here to disagree.’
I was worried about Nana. ‘Why don’t you guys just let him have what he wants? What’s she giving him a hard time about?’
‘She’s telling him it’s a great idea, but we should go and film him in the village. He needs to be seen out in the open, among his people, not cowering in a cattle shed . . . She says his film needs to have an epic scale; anything less would not do his message justice. She’ll do the edit when she’s back in Tbilisi.’
‘Yeah, right. I bet he’s really buying into that.’
‘She has to try.’ He sighed. ‘He only tolerates people like us as long as we’re of use to him. And when we no longer are, or if we do something that offends him . . .’
‘We’re history?’
Paata nodded. ‘He slaughtered a French crew not so long ago . . .’ He cocked his head. He’d heard something he didn’t like. ‘Oh shit . . . He’s talking about the dish. He knows we can go out live.’
His eyes flicked anxiously between us and Nana. ‘She’s insisting they tape it, and in the village, not here . . . She’s trying to give us a chance to escape, I’m sure of it.’
I glanced back at Akaki. His arm was raised, ready to give her the good news again. ‘What’s his take?’
‘It’s not good. I’m sorry.’ The blood had drained from his face. ‘She was calling him murdering barbarian scum on camera last week . . .’ Paata’s voice tailed off.
‘Didn’t go a bundle on it?’
Paata nodded gloomily.
Nana was turning away. She knew when to concede. Akaki gave her a parting kick in the small of the back to help her on her way. It must have been agony, but she was determined not to show it.
She limped the remaining five or six paces to the bench. ‘Here’s the deal . . .’ The left side of her face was livid red and swelling. ‘No pre-record. We go live or he kills us all now. He wants to sit right here on the bench and address not just his fellow Georgians but the USA too – and he wants to do it live.’ Her eyes bored into Paata. ‘Go and fix up the link.’
Paata hesitated. He knew there was one thing missing from her instructions. I grabbed him as he stood up. ‘Take your time, mate.’
‘No.’ Nana was adamant. ‘Get it rigged, and set up the link. Tell them who we have.’ She looked him in the eye. ‘We – need – the – cavalry . . . Understand?’
We all did now.
Akaki had some more stuff on his mind. He charged over like a wounded bull, with two of his arse-lickers in tow. Up close, he wasn’t any prettier than he’d seemed from a distance. He was probably still in his thirties, but looked older, partly because any skin on his cheeks not covered by beard was badly pockmarked.
He raised one of his field labourer’s fists and pushed the others out of the way to get to me. His eyes burned into mine.
His two arse-lickers demonstrated how hard they were by grabbing Nana and forcing her to translate as he went into another major-league rant.
‘The murdering scum is telling you that he will kill the servants of the infidel crusaders as surely as we will kill their kings . . . He says he does this to avenge those of God’s children they kill.’
Akaki prodded me so hard in the shoulder I reeled backwards.
‘He says America has made many accusations against him; they have said that he is a man with a hidden fortune . . . These are infidel lies . . . He says that this is what he wants to say to the people of America.’
As I recovered my balance, I saw the screens in the Merc flicker into life again.
The two standing guard behind Akaki saw them too, and started gobbing off to their boss.
‘Excellent.’ Nana tried to look pleased. ‘Charlie and Nick, help me with the camera and lights.’
I returned her smile. It wasn’t all doom and gloom round here then. She was starting to call us by name.