شروع کانال ارتباطی

CHAPTER ONE

The Beginning of the Pipeline

The large bush stood in the moonlight at the meeting place of three African countries. The man from the diamond mines had waited under the bush for nearly two hours. Suddenly, he heard the noise of a helicopter. He looked up and saw it coming towards him from the east.

He waited.

When the helicopter was just above the ground, an arm came out. A torch switched on and off, dot-dash, the morse code for the letter A. The diamond smuggler flashed back ‘B’ and ‘C’, and the helicopter came down safely. After a few moments, its engine was silent. The pilot opened the door and climbed down to the ground. The other man walked across to him.

‘You’re late again,’ he said.

‘I had engine problems,’ said the pilot. ‘Well, if you’ve got it, let’s have it.’

The man from the diamond mines reached into his shirt and took out a packet. He gave it to the pilot. The pilot dropped the packet into the pocket of his shirt.

‘Things are getting difficult at the mines,’ said the diamond smuggler. ‘A man has come from London. His name’s Sillitoe. The Diamond Corporation has sent him. Some of my men are afraid. One day one of them is going to talk.’

‘Do you want me to tell this to ABC,’ asked the pilot.

‘Yes,’ said the other man. ‘They must know about Sillitoe. Our mines are losing more than two million pounds a year because of smuggling. The Corporation wants the government to stop it. And that means “stop me”.’

‘What do you want,’ asked the pilot. ‘More money?’

‘Yes,’ answered the diamond smuggler. ‘Twenty per cent more.’

‘I’ll pass the message on to Dakar,’ said the pilot. ‘If they’re interested, they’ll send it on to London. But don’t push them too hard. Already three men have died in the last twelve months in “accidents”. Two were stealing diamonds from the packets. The other man tried to run away.’

For a moment, the two men looked silently at each other in the moonlight. Then the pilot climbed up into the helicopter.

‘I’ll see you in a month,’ he said.

The diamond smuggler watched the helicopter fly away to the east. With it went the diamonds, which would be sold for one hundred thousand pounds. His men had stolen them from the mines during the past month.

The diamond smuggler got on his motorcycle and rode off towards Sierra Leone. He rode fast towards the hills. Away from the great bush, where the pipeline for the richest diamond smuggling operation in the world began. And the end? Five thousand miles away, around the necks of rich women.