Page 19 - Archangel

burning bush

Miraculously, MacIain, Collins and crew had put 50 yards between
themselves and the beach with scarcely a peep from the ragged refugees.
Skye could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest. Feverishly
preparing to start the outboard motor and sprint toward safety in Bukavu,
DRC, Sean suddenly scampered over bodies, lunged, and caught Skye’s
long, curly hair from behind. Pulling him within earshot and pointing to
the forested bank, he said, “Stop! Look at the shore, lad!” Peering over his
shoulder in both horror and elation, Skye saw the small flame burning
brightly from their departure point. The evacuation team’s standard signal
for ‘Immediate danger – life threatened.’
Dr. Collins said, “For Christ, His Mother Mary and all the Saints, we’ve
got to go back. It’s got to be Layla, mate! I know it breaks our lifesaving
protocol, but every soul in this tub would be dead or dying without her
courage and help, they would.”
Neither Skye, nor Sean, nor their 23 passengers ever wanted to return
to Rwanda in their lifetime, much less tonight when they and others they
loved sacrificed all to escape it. Their detection could still mean a grizzly
death upon their discovery. Yet with Sean’s entreaty serving as deciding
vote in the instantaneous debate already raging between MacIain’s head
and heart, he signaled with a rotating hand to those who paddled that
they were going back.
From the bateau’s mass of humanity came a swift movement and
the flash of a knife which was silently placed against MacIain’s neck,
brandished by a desperate father whose wife and child were lying in the
bateau. He croaked “We can’t go back. If we return we’re all butchered.
They’ve already killed 11 of my family, and we’re all that’s left.”
Staring calmly at the petrified father and husband, Skye whispered, “Was
the woman who saved you named Layla?” After 10 excruciating seconds
and following dejection, he admitted “Yes.” With hazel eyes flashing,
MacIain slowly drew nose to nose with the blade–bearing, panicked
parent, pointed to the burning shore signal, and said. “Y’all would already
be dead without her, and there in the dark waits the brave woman who
rescued you. So either kill me now, or start paddling the friggin’ boat. Or
we’re not moving another yard.” Locked in their stand-off stare for another

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