31.
Interlude 3 (reprise): Elizabeth and Joseph arrive at Lake Manengouba
Joseph had not yet told Elizabeth that he would have to share her with his brothers and he wasn't looking forward to the prospect with any relish. Ordinarily as youngest brother, he was never allowed to touch much less share the Headman's women. The same was true of his eldest brother Hank, but that was more out of a sense of respect than tribal custom. Hank had been passed over by their father as his successor on the grounds that he was much too soft and less of a warrior than his middle brother. Hank had not minded, especially as things turned out. He had gone to Princeton and then to medical school, all the while living a life of total privilege. He had lost count of the number of women of all races he had bedded. Later, his gynecology and obstetrics practice plus the activities of Africa Rising had been extremely fulfilling. Only when he and Laura whom he had bred fled, a step ahead of the police did a return to Africa seem an appealing alternative.
Now all three brothers would be together in Nigeria, with their women. Now they would seek to consolidate their hold on the Europeans who believed they were exploiting the tribal "primitives." But with threatening militants at their tribal areas storm clouds of war were gathering, the reunion would be anything but trouble free.
Joseph stroked his chin as he looked over a view of his homelands on Google Earth on his monitor and began to plan for the future. Over his shoulder, his most trusted lieutenant Harun, his dark eyes unreadable in the reflected glow of the computer, planned too.
32.
Interlude 4: Elizabeth Arrives in Lagos
Elizabeth hated the heat and humidity of this part Africa from the moment she emerged from the family's private Gulfstream. It hit her like a hot wet blanket. Instinctively, she pulled at her neck as though an actual blanket was trying to cover her. The seemingly endless asphalt of the airport's secluded private arrivals compound radiated upwards and she began to sweat profusely between her pale thighs, her underarms, and under her breasts now grown to size 38 and swollen with milk for the black prince she carried in her womb.
Above her on a parapet overlooking the nondescript concrete and asphalt were at least six of the tribe's alpha males, sent here to escort her safely to one of the tribal lands that had grown so large as to encompass lands from the southern tip of Lake Tchad along the Nigeria-Cameroon border to Mount Manengouba, encircled by dense jungle and vegetation and ringed by mountain peaks. The ultimate destination was unclear and in fact was explicitly not revealed to her armed escort, to guard against possible treachery and betrayal. The Acuncumbie regime had not remained the unchallenged masters of their domain for hundreds of years by becoming overly trusting and this expedition was no exception.
Although the circuitous route would take them six to eight days by land, it was mostly within the lands under their control. Further, a pair of three man "shadow squads" made up of entirely of warriors under the control of Harun, the family's most trusted caporegime, would sweep the route to deal with any problems. Outside the few urban enclaves, the rule of semi-automatic rifles prevailed, and the Acuncumbie family was well equipped in that department.
They would travel through an area so vast that Teejan, the family's head bragged to infrequent visitors from Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, that he was considering becoming a separate country. Although the entourage would pass through urban areas as far north as Sokoto, and as large as Ajube, they would adhere to the practice of making camp nightly in the outback because it was easier to secure.
Observing Elizabeth's delicate features from their perch three stories above the tarmac, the alpha warriors were already daydreaming about which of them this white beauty would fall to. That she loved black men, and particularly the black men of their tribe, was obvious from the curving baby bump gracing her belly. Harun's shadow squad were in a copse of trees outside the high chain link fence and unnoticed by the 'official' escort, but they were thinking along similar lines. The tribe's policy was 'hands off' as far as the royal family's women, but if the woman herself by chance should initiate the sex, who were they to refuse? Besides, Elizabeth was already impregnated with Prince Jusef's sperm, so she was in some sense fair game.
Just two weeks previous, Harun's men had done a similar mission escorting a squad bearing a young woman - pale, redheaded and most definitely pregnant with one of the royals princes' spawn. She had been screwed repeatedly by two of Harun's men only because the main escort group had been instructed to route far north to act as a decoy, while Harun's men had driven with her through Gombe. The girl actually seemed to enjoy or at least accept the sex with them and if there had been a third in the squad, they had little doubt she would have taken him too. She seemed almost sad two days later when they rendezvoused with the main force, looking back wistfully at them as they disappeared into the bush. Neither spoke the others' language, but it was apparent she would happily welcome them when they arrived at the destination.
In the satisfaction of multiple couplings, the shadow escorts had completely ignored Harun's whispered instructions that "if it became possible, the fetus along with the girl could disappear without any problem or reprimand." He even suggested that they might say they were set upon by a stronger force of pirates and bartered the girl away for their lives, or that she miscarried and died on the rough roads. They both decided that the former was an affront to their manhood and warrior skills and the latter would deprive them of future sex and potential breeding with a most willing, and enthusiastic (and to their eyes exotic) western woman. In their minds, it would be easier to slip a snake into the newborn's wicker cradle and accomplish the same goal. Such things happened all the time, and it made the grieving mother all the more anxious to become pregnant again to ensure her perceived worth.