“Now, wait a minute!” said Ethan in what sounded like a poor attempt at passing for the guy with all the men and the guns. He was about to reach for his ankle knife when Nicole burst into laughter and said in-between:
“I mean, where’s that vaunted, sense of humor, huh? Jesus, Ethan, you take everything too seriously.”
The man nodded and extended his hand in what seemed a genuine gesture, motioning the boys to lower their guns as well.
“Ms. Heurgot and I have met in the past. Isn't it to meet again under so similar circumstances?”
“I wasn’t searching for a corpse back then, Yenkele,” said Nicole, shaking her head.
“No, but you looked just as wonderful and sleepless,” Yenkele replied with the tiniest hint of a bow.
“You can tell?” said Nicole, with a smile and a nod. Ethan asked Yenkele in all seriousness, “Can I at least have my watch back then, if your friend would be so kind?” to which he received the frank answer, “Oh, I’m keeping the watch. War contribution.”
“Ah, I see. Any more surprises?” Ethan said with an almost shrill, irate voice.
“I’m all out of vodka,” said the Swede and everyone let out a small laugh, except for Ethan, who couldn’t help looking at Nicole like she had stabbed him in the eye.
“Come, let’s walk over to the truck.”
“Opel?” asked Nicole with hands in her pockets, Ethan walking a few steps behind her.
“Unimog from Angola,” replied Yenkele and nodded enthusiastically. Nicole then said, “Going up in the world, I see.”
Soon they were sitting inside the cabin of the truck and the last of the cargo had been loaded. The Swede was waving goodbye as he and the boy turned the boat around and headed upstream, when Yenkele started the engine with a powerful rev that blanked out everything for a few seconds. When the noise died down, he asked Nicole:
“Where do I drop you off?”
“The morgue,” said Ethan uninvited and Nicole nodded. There was a strange look of bewilderment on Yenkele’s eyes that quickly gave its place to a mild indifference, when he said: