escaping was not easy
Chapter 25
Kuku Hill, Accra
The church and its buildings were in a walled compound. The entrance had a mesh gate and a Muslim night watchman in a flowing gown prepared for his evening prayers while keeping a watchful lookout. I was impressed that the church had prepared a wudu room for cleansing preparations for him.
My room was sparse. It had light green painted walls, a mosquito net over the open window and a single bed. There was no shade on the light. I shared the room with several moths. I flopped down on the solid bed and promptly fell asleep.
It was dark when I woke. I turned on the light, but rather than flying to it, my friendly moths seemed to have flown away. I had the surreal thought that the moths had flown to the Russian embassy and informed my former handlers where I was staying. I grinned at my stupidity. But I was far from at ease.
I heard a bell ring. It seemed to come from the far end of the building. I went out on to the balcony of what was the Victorian Basle mission house. From the darkness, I head a woman call out.
‘Mr Clark, your supper is ready.’
I came down to the ground floor and made my way to the dining room. There was one man engaged in his meal, dipping his right hand into the fufu and gathering some palm nut soup. As he did so, he made a slurping noise. I acknowledged him with a nod, which made him point to the chair opposite him. I sat down.
‘Are you a new missionary?’ he asked.
I hesitated, looking at my approaching meal.
‘No, not the church.’
‘Funny that. I saw you as a pastor, an agriculturalist, a doctor or a teacher perhaps, a missionary anyway.’
‘I must have that common look then,’ I said.
‘Then you’re a spy.’
I looked at his face. He remained fixed on his plate of fufu.
‘Good heavens, no. What made you think of that?’ I asked with a disarming smile, hiding my anxiety. How could he have known?
‘I met a white man here in Accra, a Spaniard. He said his friend was murdered in the north. Talk was that he was a spy, even more so, when he was murdered.’
‘Murdered? I didn’t hear about that.’ I hoped I was convincing.
‘You could not have been in Ghana at that time. It was all over the papers.’
‘I guess it would be. So this Spaniard, was he a spy or a missionary?’ I asked.
‘I don’t really know what he did. I never asked him.’
On Saturday morning I managed to wash some clothes. I thought they’d dry quickly in the sun, but it was so very humid that day that they took longer than I expected. In the afternoon I heard shouting coming in waves over the compound. I made an enquiry and the maid laughed.
‘It’s from the El Wak stadium. Oly Dade is playing Accra’s Hearts of Oak.’
‘Oly Dade?’
‘Great Olympics Accra football team. We call them Oly Dade. They are playing Accra Hearts of Oak sporting club.’
‘I see. They make a lot of noise.’
‘You can hear the game on the radio. Have you got one?’
‘A radio? No.’
‘Then I bring one to your room.’
And within a few minutes, she was as true as her word. I listened to the end of the first half and got the whole of the second. Oly Dade lost 4-3 in what must have been a very exciting match. Perhaps the goalkeepers were the weak links in each team.
Night fell between 6 p.m. and half-past six. It varied no more than that all year as Accra on the coast is just 4 degrees north of the equator.
As lights flickered on, over the compound wall I heard a car approach. I caught a fleeting glimpse of it as it parked on the far side of the building, but no more.
I heard some footsteps on the wooden staircase to the landing of my room and went out to see who was approaching. It was a Ghanaian with a large box. The man behind him put my mind at rest.
‘Mr Clark, a visitor for you.’
‘Ah, Mr Owen, I’m afraid I’ve no hospitality to offer you here.’
‘Call me Ralph, we seem to know each other pretty well by now.’
‘We certainly do, Ralph. So what’s with this box? I won’t fit into that,’ I said laughing.
‘It’s not to get into. Let’s see what’s in it. This is Christian by the way. Can we come in?’
They entered my room and Christian opened the box and laid out some suits, ties, and shoes.
‘Here’s a suitcase for all your current clothes.’
I opened it and agreed it would take all I managed to bring with me. ‘A red tie is out of the question for a start.’
‘Good point,’ Ralph said rolling up the tie in his hands. ‘It’s more a matter of what fits. The icing on the cake is still to come.’ A wicked smile came over his face. ‘Am I getting my passport back yet?’ I asked.
‘Not just yet, Robert. You will see why in a moment.’
It was plain that he was not ready to tell me everything.
I tried on the shirts with a 14-inch collar. I laid out two ties which seemed to match like cup and saucer. A pair of size eight brown shoes fitted like gloves—I was pleased with my new outfit.
‘So where’s the icing?’
‘Okay take off your shirt and come through to the bathroom.’
Christian had filled the sink with lukewarm water and placed a stool in front of it. In his hand, he had a bottle.
I bent over the sink and closed my eyes. His hands rubbed my scalp as if he were vigorously scratching a dog. It was pleasant—the first time I had had my hair washed by anyone since I was a small boy. When he had finished I opened my eyes to see the water as black as coal. He wiped my face clean and I stood in front of the mirror. My fair hair was as black as the night. He asked me to sit down once more.
‘I brought Christian along because he is a barber.’
He cut my hair and gave me a central parting. Now my face in the mirror was unrecognisable – even to me. Goodness knows what Morag would think.
A close-up photo was taken. In fact, three were taken. I realised why.
‘You guys are very thorough. I bet you have done this before.’
It was a somewhat rhetorical question and it deserved the lack of a reply it got.
They stayed a further half hour, making sure I had made no other arrangements and that I would be ready at 6 p.m. on Monday evening to be driven to the airport, two hours before departure. I’d get my passport back then. Indeed it would show me with black hair and a somewhat comical central parting. At least that was how I saw it.
On Sunday it was far from quiet. Church bells woke me and the voices of choirs seemed to be everywhere. I found myself kneeling beside my bed. It was a prayer I felt I had to make, to help secure my return home without incident and to give me a sense of calm courage.
I could not eat breakfast. My stomach was in a spin. So I walked around the compound boundary wall like a caged prisoner waiting for his execution.
That afternoon, I slept like a newborn chimp but with no mother’s breast to cling to. When I awoke, the afternoon light was beginning to fade. My final preparations to leave Ghana were underway.
It was a black air-conditioned Daimler, Corps Diplomatique, of course. The flag on the bonnet was covered, which indicated that the British Ambassador was not inside.
I sat in the back with Ralph. As the car approached the diplomatic residential quarters I sat back and slunk down in the seat. Meanwhile, my heart was bounding like a cheetah.
Ralph told me we were passing the Russian embassy. I ignored, with a nervous laugh, his invitation to stop and say my fond farewells.
Ralph shook my hand. ‘I will stay with you at the airport, but I thought I’d like to shake the hand of a defecting Russian spy. We don’t deal with many of them.’
‘A very reluctant spy you mean? I was trapped from the day I wrote to them, to correct an error on the radio. It was so easy to get pulled further into their web.’
‘Seems so. Anyway, we are about to get you out. Remember to relax. You will be with your fiancée very soon.’
The luxurious car slowed down and the driver came to open my door. The oven-like heat of the country hit me once more.
Inside the airport, there were traders selling fruit, Pioneer biscuits and sweets. Pioneer seemed to a popular product name. I ignored all of them. British Caledonian would provide a sumptuous meal and I had that on my mind momentarily while a more pressing matter took over.
‘Am I getting my passport back yet?’
‘Yes, sorry. Gosh I should have given it to you in the car.’
Ralph handed the passport to me keeping his hand over its front face as he did so.
‘Okay, I’ll stand over there.’ He pointed to a window from where he could watch the runway. ‘You book in your baggage then come back to me.’
The British Airways check-in desk was staffed by a local Ghanaian woman. I stood in line and watched her as she checked through the passengers ahead of me. She did so very efficiently without making much eye contact. Unusually for a Ghanaian, she seemed cold, almost uninterested in her work. There was a minimum of conversation made.
I approached her with my ticket, passport and luggage. I saw her name was Betty. She took my case, labelled it and placed it on a series of metal rollers. She gave the case a kick and it disappeared along metal rollers and through a dark plastic sheet taking it out of sight.
Suddenly she smiled at me. ‘So, what do you write?’
I was taken aback. ‘Oh, lots of things,’ I said as my mind went into overdrive.
‘What did you cover in Ghana? What have you said about us?’
‘Good things. You are a friendly country with beautiful countryside, wildlife and a great supply of fruit and vegetables,’ I smiled.
‘But you have not been to the north. It’s almost a desert. Did you know that?’
‘Indeed I do, I visited Tamale and Bolgatanga,’ I thought that would show I had covered her country from head to toe.
‘Did you write about the murders in Sandema?’ she asked looking up at me.
I realised I had been stupid to mention the north.
‘I arrived too late to cover the story. Anyway, the investigation wasn’t making any progress. It lacked interest for the papers in Europe,’ I said returning my eyes to my passport in her hands.
She snapped the passport shut. ‘Have a good flight, Mr Clark.’ I thanked her and placed my new passport in my back pocket.
‘Next please,’ she said even before had I left her desk.
I returned to Ralph.
‘So far, so good.’
He took my wrist.
‘Don’t speak too soon. The Russian plane has just landed. Let’s sit over here besides some other travellers.’
We made our way over to a couple of vacant seats and sat down. Ralph had brought a Daily Graphic. He handed it to me.
‘Now cross your legs and bend over as if it is the most interesting thing you have ever read.’
I looked at the second back page, which featured a report of the Accra Olympics v Hearts of Oak game I had heard on the radio. I became engrossed in the report. As I turned back a page, I looked up. Standing only a few feet from me was Vitaly Karmanov, First Secretary of the Russian embassy.
My foot nudged Ralph’s shoe. I pointed behind the paper at the figure in front of me. ‘Russian diplomat,’ I whispered so quietly he bent forward.
‘What?’
‘I said, Russian—First Secretary,’ and pointed my finger as discreetly as I could.
‘Relax Peter,’ he replied.
But relax I could not. I turned to another page. Surely all Vitaly could see was a man with black hair and a central parting? For a moment he lingered and then he moved a few paces forward. I glanced up and he shook the hand of a traveller from Moscow. They were all smiles. Vitaly took his luggage and they passed us together. I heard his muffled speech. I wondered if Vitaly was telling him about the Russian speaking Scot who he would meet at the embassy. But it was my imagination out of control. They turned to leave the airport. Vitaly seemed to glance in my direction for a brief moment. Then he made for the exit without any further interest in me.
‘The sooner I am onboard the flight the better.’
‘We’ll just have to wait till it’s called, Peter. Relax, you are almost there. Don’t go and blow it now.’
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