"Who were those men?" Jimiyu asked.
"The less you know, the better," Fisher said. "They were highway bandits. They ambushed us, and we never saw them coming. When you woke up, the Rover was lying on its side, and the men were already dead. You didn't see anything, didn't hear anything, and you don't remember anything after your window shattered. Got it?"
Jimiyu nodded. "I understand." Then, softly: "You killed them, Sam." There was no reproach in the Kenyan's voice, only astonishment.
"I'm sorry I got you into this."
"No apologies necessary, my new friend. What do we do now?"
The police were going to be involved; there was no way around it, which is why he'd chosen to not use the M-14 and to dispose of it. The better he could play the lucky victim, the easier things would go.
He hit speed dial on his satellite phone. When Grimsdottir answered, he said simply, "Napper, three, mess. Stand by." Then he hung up and dialed Aly. She picked up on the first ring.
"My God, what happened?" she asked. "I heard shots over the phone--"
"Have you called the police?"
"No, I wanted to hear from you."
"Good. How do you feel about not calling them?"
She hesitated. "Do you want me to not call them?"
"I'd be grateful."
"Okay."
Fisher thanked her, promised to be in touch, then disconnected. He cleared the phone's call memory.
East down the road he saw a car round the bend toward them. He jogged to the shoulder and started waving his arms.
THEWestern District Police and an ambulance from Kendu Adventist Hospital in Kendu Bay were there in twenty minutes. As Jimiyu was loaded into the ambulance, Fisher walked the one constable through the shooting and the accident while the other covered the bodies of the Kyrgyz in green plastic tarps and searched both vehicles and jotted notes.
Fisher stopped and restarted his story a half dozen times as though confused, asked for water, to sit down, then wondered aloud if he should go to the hospital. At last, after fifteen minutes, he got the whole story out.
"And you say these men just began firing at you?" The constable spoke perfect English with the barest hint of a British accent.
Fisher said, "I didn't even realize it until the third or fourth--or was it the fifth?--shot. I don't know; it was a blur."
"And this," the constable said, waving his pencil at the three bodies. "You did this?"
"Yeah . . . uh, I guess. I was in the . . . in the army, the U.S. Army--the first Gulf War. Training, I guess. It just took over. I don't know, it happened so fast. I don't feel so good . . . Can I sit down?" The constable cupped Fisher's elbow and guided him to a rock.
They watched as the ambulance finished loading Jimiyu aboard, then pulled away.
"Is he going to be okay?" Fisher asked.
"It appears so. So tell me again how his happened. From start to finish, if you please."
Fisher did so, telling the same story, but not the exact same way.
"And this knife you used . . . it's the one in the dirt there?"
"Yeah, that's it. Am I in trouble? They didn't really give me a chance. When I crawled out of the car, they were pulling up. I stumbled around the Rover, and there he was, with the gun . . ."
"I will forward my report to my chief, of course, but providing we find nothing contradictory here, a written statement from you and your friend should suffice. You are staying here locally?"
Fisher nodded. "In Nairobi, at a friend's." Fisher gave him Aly's contact information.
"Do you wish to go to the hospital?" the constable asked.
"Uh . . . no, I don't think so."
"I will call your rental car agency and inform them of the incident. They'll arrange another vehicle for you, I'm sure."
"Thank you."
"How long will you be staying in Kenya?"
"Another day or two, I guess. I'll go to the hospital, I think, and see how Jimiyu's doing, then . . . I don't know."
But he did know. More than ever he wanted to find out what was so important about Niles Wondrash and the Sunstarthat Bolot Omurbai would send three killers halfway across the globe to keep secret.
33
0deg 17' SOUTH, 34deg 50' EAST
FISHERsteered the Toyota Highlander off the road and coasted to a stop, his tires crunching on gravel. Through his windshield was a chest-high stockade fence bearing a sun-bleached, vine-entangled sign: RAKWARA WHCP (WATER HYACINTH CONTROL PROJECT) HEADQUARTERS. Through the trees he could see a ranch-style building. Faint strains of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," mixed with the chirps and buzzes of the jungle, filtered through the trees.
He checked his GPS unit. This was, literally, the end of the road. From here, he walked. He climbed out, walked to the rear of the Highlander, and pulled out his Granite Gear pack, then started sorting through the gear he'd managed to salvage from the Range Rover.
The constables had waited with him for the arrival of the tow truck from Kusa and a replacement car from the rental agency in Kisumu. Ostensibly making conversation, Fisher had asked the constables about the area--terrain, geology, history--and gotten in return much more than he'd bargained for. Both men had grown up along the shores of Lake Victoria and knew it intimately. In fact, one of them said as boys they used to search some of the shallower caves for pirate treasure.
"Caves?" Fisher asked.
"Yes," replied the constable. "Our word for them does not translate well." He thought for a moment, then held up an index finger. "In Mexico, I think, they have something similar--deep ponds--like shafts--with underwater caves."
" Cenotes," Fisher said.
"Yes, that's it. Cenotes."
A lightbulb came on in Fisher's head. The climbing gear in Wondrash's plane . . . He'd assumed it was climbing gear, but in what direction? Up or down? According to the legend, Wondrash and Oziri had flown straight into Kisumu then set off for Addis Ababa a few days later.
"No mountain climbing nearby?" Fisher asked.
"Mountain climbing? No, not near the lake. Mount Kenya, perhaps, but that's closer to Nairobi."
So, what,Fisher thought, had Wondrash and Oziri been doing with climbing gear?
ONCEsatisfied with his pack's contents and weight distribution, Fisher set it aside and dialed Grimsdottir. Lambert was also on the line: "What's going on? What happened?"
Fisher explained, then said, "Jimiyu's going to be fine. I called the hospital and talked to the doctor personally. As for the police, I'm pretty sure they bought it. I'm due in the Kisumu District headquarters day after tomorrow to write my statement."
"And you're sure they were Kyrgyz?"
"I'm sure."
"Then clearly we've touched a nerve. The very fact that he sent his own men rather than hiring locally says something. Grim, what can you give us on topography?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. If there are cenote-like caves in the area, they are not listed, and they don't show up on satellite. Sorry, Sam."
"If there's something there, I'll find it," Fisher said.
THEpath led him away from the WHCP Headquarters building and deeper into the forest, winding northwest toward Lake Victoria. The terrain steadily lost elevation, and the forest slowly turned more junglelike. On either side of the trail, the ground appeared spongy, and soon Fisher heard the croaking of frogs.