Who else was with me in the room?
What did they want from me?
Chapter 149
THEN I WAS talking to Jannie. I was hugging her, and I was so happy that she was all right. “Where’s Ali? Where’s Nana?” I asked in an excited whisper. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Suddenly I came to and realized that I had been sleeping on my feet. Jannie wasn’t here.
It was only me.
I had the sense that I was in the second day of captivity, Or may be the third day. Suddenly I was startled as someone pulled the cloth hood up around my nose, still keeping my eyes in darkness.
“What?” I muttered. “Who are you?” As I spoke, I realized how dry my lips and mouth were.
I was given water, which splashed from somewhere, maybe a bottle, pouring down my throat and all over my face.
“Don’t be greedy, now,” someone said and snickered. A captor with a cruel sense of humor. “Eat this! Slowly. Don’t make yourself choke.”
I was fed three crackers, one right after the other. I didn’t choke, but I was afraid I was going to throw them up as fast as I’d eaten them.
“Water?” I asked. “More water, please?” My throat was tightening up again.
There was a long pause, but then the bottle was returned to my lips. Once more, I drank greedily.
“Too fast,” someone said. “You’ll cramp up. Don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
Then I was pushed into position again.
Wall-standing.
Chapter 150
SOMETIME AFTER THAT, I began to seriously hallucinate and I wondered if there was something in the water, or maybe even the crackers I’d eaten.
I was convinced that I was back in Africa and that I was lost somewhere in a vast desert. I knew I was going to die soon, and that didn’t seem like such a bad thing. I actually welcomed death and wondered if I would meet Nana, Jannie, and Ali on the other side. Would Maria be there too? And others I had lost?
I was struck hard in the back and I fell to my knees again.
“You were dreaming – asleep on your feet. That’s not allowed, hotshot.”
“Sorry.”
“Of course you are. Now, would you like this to stop? Would you like to sleep? I’ll bet that you would.”
More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.
“Where–?” I began to say.
“Right – Where is your fucking family? You’re nothing if not consistent, or is it stubborn? Or stupid? Now, listen to me closely. I will let you sleep. I will give you closure about your family… Are you with me so far?… Are you following what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
“Yes what? Tell me what you are agreeing to.”
“You’ll tell me about my family. Let me sleep.”
“Provided that what?”
I don’t attack and kill you, you sonofabitch. Where there’s a will…
“Provided I answer your questions.”
“Very good. Would you like more water, hotshot?”
“Yes.”
The cloth hood was lifted halfway and the water bottle was returned to my lips. I drank as much as I wanted to, but then there was silence. It frightened the hell out of me. Had he gone away? The one who knew what had happened to my family? The one who had actually talked to me for a minute or so.
“I saw terrible things in Africa, especially in Sudan,” I said. “I don’t think any of that interests you. A family – the Tansis – were murdered. In Lagos. Maybe because they were talking to me. Or because of what Adanne wrote in the newspaper. You can get her articles.
“Are you there? You wanted me to talk, right? Are you listening now?
“Anyway, Adanne Tansi and I were taken to a prison,” I continued. “She was murdered there. I saw it happen. The Tiger killed her. I don’t know who the other men holding us were. I don’t know who the hell you are!
“Before we got to the prison, Adanne told me about a long piece she was writing – it was to appear in the London Guardian… the Guardian. Maybe some other papers. I’m not sure.
“She had learned that the United States might be manipulating factions in the Delta… to ensure the oil fields would stay in the right hands. Adanne had tapes of interviews. They were taken from her.
“Whoever captured us… must have them now. You have the tapes, don’t you?”
I stopped talking and waited for an answer, any kind of response.
But no one said anything. That was the technique – and guess what? It worked. I kept talking.
“Adanne told me the man known as the Tiger was also being paid by our government. I don’t know if that’s true. You probably know, don’t you?”
I stopped again, then went on. “By the CIA, maybe. The oil companies? By someone from here. Adanne wrote that, and she told another writer, named Ellie Cox. She was killed because of what she knew.
“That’s what I know. That’s what Adanne found out. That’s all of it.”
I stopped again. There was still no response, not a word from the interrogator.
I waited.
I waited.
I waited.
Chapter 151
YOU THINK YOU know what’s going to happen in life. But you never do. And usually the surprises aren’t good ones either.
No one spoke to me for a long time, and I kept waiting for somebody to put a gun to my head, to finally pull the trigger.
Hours after I was interrogated, I heard footsteps in the room where I was being kept. More than one person. At least two.
I pulled myself away from the wall and moved forward. I stumbled and fell to my knees. I pushed myself back up and somebody grabbed my arm.
“Fucker can’t even walk by himself.”
I heard a door being slid open and then I felt cool air hit my face. I was pulled forward and then shoved inside some kind of van or truck.
“Let’s go!” said someone in the front. “We don’t have much time for this.”
For what?
What was happening now?
I had no idea where I was going now, but I knew the chances were good that I was going to die. At certain times in the past, I’d been pleasantly surprised that I’d lasted as long as I had. Still, it felt unreal that I would probably die in the next few minutes. I prayed for my family; and then I said a prayer for myself.
Good, moderately lapsed Christian that I am, I even said a prayer of contrition.
Then the van pulled to a stop. This was it. “End of the line!” I heard one of the bastards say.
I was pushed out and landed hard on the street, and then I heard the vehicle drive away, gravel crunching under spinning tires.
I crawled up and over a curb and then just lay there, partly on grass, partly on a sidewalk or walkway.
They hadn’t killed me.
I was still alive.
Finally I slept.
Chapter 152
THEN I WAS awake; at least I thought I was.
“I’m Officer Maise, with the DC Metro police. Are you all right, sir?” The patrolman spoke to me even as he lifted the hood that covered my head.
“Why are your hands tied? What happened to you?” he asked next.
“I’m Alex Cross. I’m a detective with Major Crimes. I was kidnapped.”
He had the hood all the way off now, but I couldn’t see much of anything yet, not even his face. My eyes were slow to adjust to the light – to the streetlights mostly. It was dark outside. Night.
“Yes, sir, Detective Cross. We’ve all been looking for you,” patrolman Maise said. “Let me call it in.”