The fasten seatbelts sign began to flash and Madari slipped the files he'd been reading into his briefcase, before stowing it for the landing in Kinshasa.

The files were those of his officer for his UN mission. One local man, the doctor, Captain Paul Elimu and two Australians, First-Lieutenant Geoffrey Ritchie and - the one he kept coming back to - Second-Lieutenant Karen Bennett.

A woman officer. Now that was something new to him. Other countries had them, he knew that, had even met some. Even other parts of the Army in his own country had them. But not the Royal Guard.

Ahmed would turn in his grave at the mere idea.

Of course, Madari was more modern and liberal than Ahmed had been. He believed women had their place in a modern Army in the medical corps and other support functions. But commanding men? Would a soldier listen to a woman, even if she outranked him?

He'd find out when he met Lieutenant Karen Bennett.

He met her at the airport, waiting at Arrivals, with his name on a piece of card. He'd travelled in civilian clothes, so she couldn't pick him out the way he picked her out - by her uniform. She needn't have bothered with the card though. A young white woman in uniform, with the pale blue UN beret stood out among the crowds of local people. He strode up to her, hauling along his trunk on its wheels, and produced his ID.

"Lieutenant Bennett? I'm Colonel Madari."

She sprang to attention and saluted him, before offering him her hand and a smile.

"Hello, Colonel. Was your flight okay? I've got a porter here for your kit."

A huge African man stood behind her and she gave him an order in French. Ignoring its wheels, the porter heaved the trunk onto his back and strode off, Madari and Bennett following.

"Can I carry your flight bag or briefcase for you, sir?" she asked.

"No, thank you, Lieutenant. Report on status please."

"Mr Ritchie and I arrived yesterday. Doctor Elimu arrived earlier today. And the men will come in tomorrow by air, on a troop plane. Picks us up and heads out to the nearest airstrip to our base. That's scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning, at ten."

"Excellent. And when we arrive at the airstrip?"

"I've been promised our transport will be waiting for us. Our UN Land Rovers and a couple of hired trucks for the boys." She grimaced. "I'm not worried about the Landies, I'm told they're already there. It's the trucks I'll bet don't arrive."

Rain poured down outside, but Bennett had a taxi waiting and hustled Madari into it. The porter loaded Madari's trunk into the boot of the car and Bennett paid him off before jumping into the back of the taxi with Madari.

"Grand Hotel," she told the driver.

"How's the hotel?" Madari asked. She grimaced again.

"Well, if it was in Sydney, I wouldn't stay there, but it's about as good as we're going to get around here. I just hope the headquarters we're staying in are better."

"I'm assured that the safari lodge has excellent accommodation."

"Fingers crossed," she said.

Madari watched the city for a while and then glanced back at Bennett as she sighed and fanned herself with a magazine.

"It's very hot," he remarked. And thought he sounded like an idiot, stating the obvious.

"It's the humidity though," she said. "I can cope with the heat, I'm from the Outback. But this bloody humidity. Ah, sorry, sir."

He smiled and nodded to excuse her.

"So, you're from the desert too, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir." She looked out at the rain. "About now, I'm wishing I was back there."

Madari nodded, looking out there too. Only a few hours ago he'd said goodbye to Kahil at his own airport, asking him to please visit Sophia when she came home. She was coming back a short time after he left.

When she told him that... well, he had to wonder. He'd been so nervous of the changes her husband's death would bring to their relationship that he'd volunteered for this mission and run off to Africa. Only in the last few days had it occurred to him to think that she might be delaying her return from Italy for the same reason. Did she fear he'd be waiting for her at the airport ready to propose marriage? He'd assumed that she must want marriage, assumed that's what all women wanted. But what if he'd been wrong? He glanced over at Bennett. Running away from one woman he didn't know how to deal with had brought him to another.

He frowned when she took off her beret to brush rainwater from the top of it, shaking her head at how much she'd been rained on just in the brief time between the airport doors and the taxi.

He frowned because Lieutenant Ritchie, who was to be his second in command, should have come to the airport himself to meet his commanding officer. Did he prefer to send Bennett so he could stay in the dry? Perhaps Mr Ritchie needed some lessons in military protocol?

~~~~

The plane with the troops from Cameroon arrived almost on time. Madari and his officers were at the airport to meet it, but not to board yet. He'd decided the men deserved a break after their flight.

Madari introduced himself to the sergeant in charge of the group - Sergeant Bekono and ordered Lieutenant Ritchie to take the men to the transit area of the airport and see that they got a hot meal. After that he should join the officers for lunch.

"Thank you, sir," Bekono said, to Madari. "It's been a long flight, the men are glad to get off the plane."

"Don't lose any of them," Madari told him. "And keep them out of the bar. I don't want to delay our take-off."

The sergeant went to join his men and Madari watched the group split up into the various cafés and fast food outlets.

"Look like an invasion force," Bennett said with a smile. The airport security guards had looked quite nervous for a moment, when twenty soldiers had marched into the terminal, Madari had noticed. Of course their guns were still on the plane... which reminded him.

"Bennett, see to it that food is sent out to the men guarding the plane."

"Right, sir. I'll go sort that and join you in a few minutes." She hurried off.

That left only him and Dr Elimu, a quiet and very polite local man, who had studied to be a doctor in London before starting to work for the United Nations, and eventually volunteering for this mission here in his homeland.

"Doctor, shall we get our lunch now? The lieutenants will join us soon."

Madari and Elimu secured a table for four in one of the terminal's restaurants, and chatted about London for a few minutes until Ritchie and Bennett arrived and they ordered.

The meal was adequate, no more, but Madari made sure to eat well. Who knows how long the rest of their journey would be? If their trucks were waiting as arranged, then they could arrive at the lodge in the early evening. If not... Well, he'd deal with that if it happened.

After lunch they sat with coffee for a while, and he noticed Bennett gazing out of the window of the restaurant. A family, local people, sat out there, waiting for some no doubt late flight. The children looked tired, but also... thin and frail. Madari sighed and knew they'd certainly see thinner children in their time here. Those ones were about to get on a plane. They were obviously among the better off. He cleared his throat and brought the attention of the three junior officers to him.

"Captain, Lieutenants. I want to remind you, before we leave, that we have a specific job to do here. I don't have to tell you that this is a poor country. The people have many problems. And though we can help some of those people, we can't help all of them. We aren't here to feed these people, or school them, or free them. Our authority and power is limited."

He looked around at them. Elimu watched him steadily, from behind his glasses. Bennett looked down into her coffee. Ritchie... looked almost embarrassed. Well, I'm making a speech, Madari thought. But, this has to be said, before they make themselves miserable trying to fix what they don't have the power to fix.

"I know how hard it is to watch the innocent and helpless suffer and I'm sure you are all people who would do everything you can to help them. But we aren't here to save this whole country. We will do our small part in trying to make things better."

They were silent for a moment after he finished speaking. Then Bennett spoke in a serious voice. "Thank you, sir. Good advice."

Elimu nodded too. He probably didn't need the advice, Madari thought, being a local man. He's been brought up living with the suffering. On the other hand, if he'd gone to study to become a doctor, he may be from a privileged family. And young doctors had a tendency to want to save everyone. Bennett and Ritchie certainly needed the advice though. Even the poor in Australia would seem rich to many people here. The two young officers had almost certainly not seen daily misery on this scale before. Madari checked his watch. Coming up to their take-off slot.

"Now, it's time to catch our plane."

They rounded up the men and - after making certain all of the their luggage was loaded - Madari and his officers and men boarded the plane. It had rows of seats like a commercial airliner, but was considerably more cramped and basic.

They made their take-off, delayed by only a few minutes. Madari saw everyone settled, and spoke briefly to the pilots, before he settled too, to snooze for the journey. As he'd walked back to his seat he'd seen about half the men doing the same. An experienced soldier knows he should always sleep when he has the opportunity. He never knows when he'll get another chance.

Or she, he thought to himself, as he drifted off into a doze, hearing Bennett and Ritchie talking quietly in the seats behind him. He wondered what they thought of their commanding officer...

~~~~

"Sir?" Elimu's soft voice woke Madari. "Sir? We're coming in to land. You need to put your seatbelt on."

"Thank you, Doctor." He sat up straight, and fastened the seatbelt. A glance at his watch told him four hours had passed. "Any problems?"

"No, sir," Elimu said. "We'd have woken you. I think most of the men followed your example and took some rest. It's been very quiet."

The plane's descent was obvious now and Madari looked out of the window to see the dark green land below them growing steadily closer.

"We could be up very late tonight," Madari said. "Our journey on from here may not be easy."

Elimu grimaced. "I should be amazed if it was anything close to easy, sir."

The plane landed with a thump that caused some muttering even among the soldiers and a muffled "bloody hell" from Ritchie. Small planes. Madari hated small planes. Anything smaller than a 737 counted as small. And helicopters! Well, he'd become used to them, with his work, but that didn't mean he had to like them. So far he hadn't even been up in a helicopter with Kahil at the controls. But Kahil would qualify soon and would surely want to take him for a spin.

As the plane taxied to the airstrip's buildings, Bennett took her seatbelt off and peered out of the window.

"I see our Landies, but I don't see those trucks."

The Land Rovers were hard to miss, even in the twilight. High, long and white, they stood out on the tarmac beside the building like a couple of beached whales. But Bennett was right that there was no sign of trucks. Madari hoped they were just around the other side of the building.

The plane stopped and Madari stood and turned to face his officers.

"Mr Ritchie, go and find the trucks. Miss Bennett..." He saw she was putting her boots back on, must have taken them off for the flight, and it made him smile when she shook each one out before putting it on. A fellow desert dweller indeed. "Take charge of disembarking. Organise the men to get all the cargo off. Doctor, supervise the unloading of your medical supplies."

The officers hurried off to obey. Bennett snagged Sergeant Bekono at once and with him started organising the men into groups to unload their luggage and equipment. It seems men did take notice of a woman wearing stripes. Though he felt sure he saw some of them give her... looks, they obeyed anyway. Perhaps like him they weren't used to women officers. But like him they gave the rank she carried the respect due to it. And she'd had the sense to go straight to the sergeant to help her organise the men.

Seeing the unloading evolution well under way, Madari strode out of the cargo doors at the back and looked for Ritchie, who he found a moment later, looking harried.

"Our contact says the trucks were delayed, sir. But they'll be here in an hour."

"Good, thank you, Lieutenant. Did the contact give you the Land Rover keys?"

"Ah, no. Sorry. I'll go and get them." He hurried off again. Madari sighed. Some initiative would be nice. He was used to officers who didn't need to be told everything.

One of the pilots approached him, for a signature. He signed and thanked them for their service, and the man hurried off to arrange refuelling for the return trip. As he looked around at the grim little building serving the airstrip, the soaked trees surrounding them and the heavy and sodden sky promising more rain soon, Madari had the urge to join that return flight and get back to his homeland, his unit and Kahil. This was madness.

But the two Land Rovers with their UN markings reminded him of his duty and he strode into the building to find their local contact.

~~~~

The trucks arrived almost two hours later, with profuse apologies from the contact, a local government official. While they waited, Madari had Ritchie check the Land Rover contents very thoroughly against the inventories before he signed for them. The men ate a rather meagre meal of mostly bread, cheese and cold chicken, that the contact had arranged. It looked as if it had cost considerably less than the UN had paid for. Bennett had wrinkled her nose at the sight of the inadequate food, and took Sergeant Bekono and two of the men on some mysterious errand to the village beside the airfield.

Twenty minutes later they all returned with the two men carrying a huge metal cooking pot between them, thick cloths wrapped around its handles. A boy followed leading a donkey that carried saddlebags that made clonking sounds.

"I knew there had to be a pub in town, sir," Bennett explained, "and thought it might sell food." The boy started unloading thick china bowls from the saddlebags. The men crowded around and Bekono ordered them to line up in an orderly fashion.

"It's only stew, sir, but at least it's hot," Bennett said as Bekono brought Madari the first bowl.

"Thank you, Sergeant. And well done, Lieutenant. Excellent foraging skills."

"Call it instinct," Bennett said. "Oh, thanks, Jules," she added as one of the men handed her a bowl of stew and a spoon. "Australians hit town, we can home in on the pub like radar."

"I'm sure that must be a very useful skill," Madari said. He eyed his stew mildly suspiciously though.

"It's not pork," Bennett said. "I asked. It's goat." She watched him speculatively, waiting for a disgusted reaction. He just smiled.

"Oh, I haven't had goat in years." He tried some. Rather tough, as it usually was. "Not bad. I usually prefer it with more spices. Curried preferably."

"Curried goat?" Now she was the one reacting at least dubiously, if not disgusted.

"Yes. You should try it." He smiled. "I think one could call it a taste explosion."

~~~~

Eager to get on the road before dark, Madari led his people to the trucks as soon as they they arrived and refilled their petrol tanks. The sergeant got the men into the trucks, and assigned drivers for them and the Land Rovers.

"Oh, I can take one of the Landies, sir," Bennett said. "I've been waiting to have a crack at driving one of these beauties."

"Um, no," Madari said. "It shouldn't be an officer driving." He tried to recall if he'd ever driven his own staff car back home. No, he didn't think so. "Anyway, these are very heavy vehicles. I don't think you could manage the steering."

She looked down, biting her lip, presumably disappointed. Well perhaps he'd let her try one of them some time, on better roads.

A local man, acting as their guide, got into the Land Rover, sitting up front. The driver turned back to look at Madari after he spoke on the radio to the trucks and the second Land Rover.

"All vehicles report ready to go, sir."

"Thank you. Please proceed. Stay in touch with the other vehicles at all times."

They headed out, the three other vehicles lining up behind the first Land Rover. Driving off the paved areas of the airfield and onto the potholed local road bounced the occupants around.

"Oh yeah," Bennett muttered. "This is gonna be a long trip."

~~~~

Jahni ran. In a trance really, eyes barely even focused on the treadmill's display. The paperwork from earlier in the day, the paperwork he still hadn't finished, floated before his eyes. Should he go back to the office and try to finish it? Did Madari always finish his paperwork before leaving?

Jahni hated the paperwork. As second in command of course he'd had some to do. But as temporary commander there seemed to be ten times as much. He supposed he'd have to get used to it and get faster at it. Or he could just requisition a big paper shredder. No. Probably not allowed to do that.

So for now, he ran. Escaped. Except... well, how could you escape on a treadmill? No matter how fast you ran, you never got anywhere. He should have gone outside, run home. Fresh air, the darkness. But the road was hard on his ankles and knees in a way the treadmill wasn't. He couldn't risk an injury. Must stay in top shape.

A glance at the treadmill's display showed him he was at around nine kilometres. He'd get to ten and then take a shower and go for dinner. Probably in the officer's mess, find someone to talk to. He'd already grown tired of eating alone every night.

They relied on each other too much for company, he and Faris, and were lonely without the other. Actually, no, Jahni thought. Faris had Sophia. He had nobody. He'd started telephoning Murdock quite often, to talk about flying. He was close to qualifying now, after all those months of helicopter lessons. His work too often forced him to cancel them, so his training took longer than it should have. But he'd qualify soon, and Murdock was very encouraging about it. And when they finished talking about flying, they talked about other things. Sometimes trivia, nonsense - Murdock was good at that, made him laugh - sometimes more serious things. About combat. About what it did to a man. What it made him feel.

Perhaps he'd call Murdock when he got home. But there was a limit to the number of international calls he could afford.

He just... needed someone to talk to. So strange. He was the one Faris talked to. That was his thing, his special skill, he listened and when he talked it was to soothe, to reassure, to support. He hadn't realised how much he needed that too, as much as Madari did.

Would Faris manage without him? They'd been parted before of course and he'd... well, he'd found Sophia. But out there, he had nobody. He shook off the thoughts. Ridiculous. Madari wasn't helpless. He was a senior Army officer. And he was strong. He still had his problems of course, but they weren't what they had been.

So long ago, and yet such a clear memory, of meeting him for the first time. How damaged he was then. How... fragile. But even then, he'd had that strength still inside him, because he'd fought his way back. Climbed out of that pit. Jahni had helped him, but only his own strength could bring him all the way back

A glance at the treadmill again and he saw he was now close to twelve kilometres. Might as well get to twelve then. The sound of the door from the locker room opening made him glance up, expecting to see one of the unit's other officers, but to his amazement Colonel Rahama stepped into the gym.

He wore workout clothes - quite clearly brand new, along with his brilliantly white running shoes - and carried a towel and a water bottle.

"Ah, Captain Jahni." Rahama came to the treadmills and took the one beside Jahni, who slowed his now, ready to do a cool down anyway. "I hope it's no trouble, my using this gym. I'm told it's quieter in the evening than the main one."

"Of course, sir. I, ah, I've never seen you, um, in the gym before."

"No indeed." Rahama chuckled. "Could you show me how to use this infernal device? I'm sure you're quite the expert."

Jahni pointed out the buttons and started the belt, at a nice slow pace.

"My doctor has told me to exercise," Rahama explained. "Too much rich food." He patted his stomach. "My tailor has had to let out my uniform twice this year."

"Oh, I hadn't noticed, sir."

Rahama chuckled. "You're a diplomat, Mr Jahni. A diplomat."

Jahni smiled. He'd never been called that before.

"And the cigars and coffee don't do much for my blood pressure, apparently. Neither does being chauffeured everywhere. So here I am. Wondering what happened to the svelte young fellow I used to be at your age."

"Well, you're always welcome in our gym, sir."

Rahama adjusted the speed of the belt, frowning at the display, making it a little faster. Jahni watched him carefully, in case he lost his balance, or made the speed too fast. He'd hate to see the Colonel fall off. He'd probably have to get a transfer back to the Rangers. They'd never be able to look each other in the eye again. But Rahama kept the speed manageable, and hung onto the hand holds as he walked.

"So, how are you adjusting since Colonel Madari left?" Rahama asked.

"Oh, fine, sir." He smiled. "I'm finding out why the Colonel orders twice as many pens from stores as I do."

Rahama chuckled in appreciation at that. "Oh yes, I quite understand. You'll also find out why he hates meetings twice as much as you already do. I'll try to spare you as many of those as I can. Some are unavoidable though. The monthly meeting with his Majesty of course, non-negotiable."

"Of course." He'd been to a few of those before, with Madari and Rahama, especially if there'd been a high profile operation during the month. But would it be different, being there not just as the second, but the commander?

"Don't worry," Rahama said, seeing the look on his face. "We'll have a nice long prep session beforehand. You'll do well. The king likes you, Captain."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. And I'm told the crown prince considers you his hero."

Jahni nearly fell off the treadmill himself. "Me?"

"I'm sure many people in the country consider you a hero."

"And many other people in the country consider me an enemy." Jahni bit his lip. A snappish tone, hardly one to use with his commanding officer. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Those people are fools, Kahil." Rahama's voice lost the light tone it usually carried. But when Jahni looked at him, he smiled again. "Now, are you free for the rest of the evening? I'd like you to come to my home for dinner."

He was free of course, and the invitation surprised him only a little. Rahama was a sharp old bird, and he'd be keeping a close eye on Jahni, while Madari was gone.

"I'd be honoured, sir."

He'd learnt a good deal from Rahama in his time in the Royal Guard. But he didn't kid himself that he'd learned even a tenth of what the old man knew about the Army, and war, and soldiering. He'd take every opportunity to learn more.