Chapter Four
The Portal
Zaire was hot. The second I stepped off the plane, the dry heat blasted me. I shielded my eyes and stared into the blinding sun above, grateful for the en route wardrobe change.
After I retrieved my luggage, I stood on the bright sun washed street, planning my next move. You’d think I would’ve already had my game plan firmly in place, but I didn’t, not really…not anymore. If I were to be truly honest, I would have to say I did not expect to make it this far. The biggest shock of the past week was that I was still alive. I sat down on my suitcase, braced my hands on my knees, and took a deep breath. Right then, I was unconcerned with how strange I might have appeared to the masses of onlookers coming and going around me on the crowded street.
I was suddenly very grateful to be alive. After all, I reasoned, I had cheated death several times in the last week alone. More than that, I had not only sensed the danger around me, but walked into it with my head held high and my blinders on. I smiled and tossed my head back, letting the sun warm my face. Even I had to admit that going back home armed with gardening tools and black skinny jeans was not a plan…it was a death wish. Although, personally, I thought the black headscarf and the pepper spray qualified as at least a sketchy plan.
If I thought back to that night, it was still vivid and fresh in my mind. The feel of the shovel in my hands and of blindly lashing out as hard as I could was all too real. I remembered the feel of connecting with the solid weight of the man in front of me; the frantic search for the gun in the cool damp grass; and the short lived but sweet relief when my hands had closed over the metal. I could still see myself aiming and hear the booming discharge in the still night air.
Even though I was not completely ignorant when it came to weapons, I was convinced it was more due to luck than skill that I had managed to hit my target. Of course, the fact that he had not been moving had helped greatly. I opened my eyes and sighed. Crazy as it sounded, the most frightening experience of all had been my escape from the backyard that night—retrieving the box and running down the dark alley to the car. After all, thug number one had fallen down next to the damn thing. The adrenaline had been starting to wear off by then, and somehow that made it worse. At least during the fight I’d had the instinct for self preservation spurring me on and helping to keep the nerves at bay.
Seeing those men on the ground and running past them was much worse. I think I half expected them to rise up like zombies in a horror flick. It had taken three hours and 170 miles to feel semi-safe again. The phone call from John had helped. There was nothing like getting good and mad to make you forget your troubles for a little while. And even though I was certain those men would have killed me, it was a relief to know that at least one of them was alive. The larger man—the one I shot—I thought, trying to recall that part of my conversation with John.
After a minute, I nodded to myself. Yes, that was the one he had told me would make a nice recovery. I had no idea about the man I’d hit with the shovel. For all I knew, he was dead by now. I shrugged and sighed again. Neither man had given me any choice other than to defend myself. I vowed not to lose any more sleep over either of them. And a very small, very elemental part of me thought that if someone broke into my house and held me at gun point in my own backyard, they deserved what they got. Once again, I closed my eyes and basked in the glow of being alive.
This brought me back to my current problem: my lack of planning. I had made it to Zaire and I was not dead. So now what? I stood up and looked around, dusting off my shorts and trying to focus.
Obviously I needed to get to the rendezvous site. I had no idea where that was and no clue how to get there. I had not been to Africa for several years. Besides that, I had traveled to Kenya—several miles away from where I now stood, and in the opposite direction from where I estimated I would need to go.
The pain in my stomach reminded me of more immediate needs. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed to eat, rest, and regroup for the rest of the afternoon and evening before I did anything else.