Cross Country

rape,
genocide
.”
    The article I’d given Nana included coverage of the gang’s DC murders. There were two long and well-written stories from the
Post,
one on each family, including pictures from happier times — like when they’d had their heads.
    “Alex, I already told you. I know what’s going on there. I don’t want to discuss this anymore.”
    “Neither do I.”
    “You don’t have to solve every single case. Let it go for once in your life.”
    “I wish I could.”
    I put the folder flat on her lap, kissed the warm top of her head, and went up to bed. “Stubborn,” I muttered.
    “Yes, you are.
Very
.”

Chapter 30
    IN THE MORNING, I went downstairs around five thirty. I was surprised to see that Jannie and Ali were already up. Nana stood fiddling around at the stove with her back to me. She was cooking something cinnamony and irresistible.
    I sensed a
trap
.
    Jannie ferried glasses of orange juice from the counter to the table, where there were already silverware and cloth napkins for five.
    Ali was already sitting at his place, working on a big bowl of cereal and milk. He saluted me with a drippy spoon. “He’s here!”
    Et tu, Ali
.
    “Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” I said, loud enough for the whole room.
    Nana didn’t respond, but she had heard me, for sure.
    Only then did I notice a yellow-bordered National Geographic map of Africa Scotch taped to the refrigerator door.
    And also, set down with the napkins and silverware on the table,
my passport
.
    “So,” said Nana. “It was nice knowing you.”

Chapter 31
    A CIA OPERATIVE named Ian Flaherty was “babysitting” a hysterical family down in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The parents’ teenaged son and daughter had been kidnapped. They were gathered together in the living room, waiting to learn the ransom demands, and the atmosphere couldn’t have been more desperate.
    Oh no,
Flaherty had thought.
    His cell rang, and everyone crowded into the room looked at him with anxious faces and deep concern.
    “I’m sorry, I have to take this. It’s another case,” he said, then walked out into the lush gardens just off the living room.
    America was calling — another kind of emergency.
    Flaherty recognized the voice on the other end as that of Eric Dana, his superior, at least in rank.
    “We have quite a situation on our hands. A homicide detective named Alex Cross is on his way there. He’ll arrive on Lufthansa flight 564 at four thirty p.m. The Tiger is in Lagos?” Dana asked.
    “He’s here,” said Flaherty.
    “You’ve seen him yourself?”
    “I have, actually. Do you want me to meet the detective’s plane?”
    “I’ll leave that up to you.”
    “Probably be best if I meet him. Alex Cross, you say. Let me think about it.”
    “All right, but you have to watch over him. Don’t let anything happen to him . . . when it can be helped. He’s well liked here and connected. We don’t want a mess over there.”
    “Too late for that,” Flaherty said and snickered a nasty, cynical laugh.
    He went back to comfort the family whose children were probably already dead.
    But they would pay anyway.

Chapter 32
    WELL, THE INVESTIGATION had definitely taken a turn now. But was it for better or for worse?
    The plane from Washington to Frankfurt, Germany, was nearly full, and it was incredibly noisy for the first hour anyway. I spent some idle time guessing who might be continuing on to Africa, but it wasn’t too long before I fell back into my own dark reveries.
    Everything that had led to this trip ran through my head like extended case notes, going all the way back to my Georgetown days with Ellie, and then up to Nana’s grudging consent that morning.
    Nana’s going-away gift, such as it was, sat open on my lap. It was a copy of Wole Soyinka’s memoir,
You Must Set Forth at Dawn
.
    She’d bookmarked it with a family photo — Jannie, Damon, and Ali, cheesing with Donald Duck at Disneyland a year or so back — and she had underlined a quotation on the page.
    T’agba ba nde, a a ye ogun ja
.
    As one approaches an elder’s status, one ceases to indulge in battles
.
    It was her version of getting the last word, I suppose. Except that it had the opposite effect on me. I was more determined than ever to make this trip count for something.
    Whatever the odds against me, I was going to find the killers of Ellie’s family. I had to; I was the Dragon Slayer.

Chapter 33
    “AH, SOYINKA. AN illuminating writer. Have you read him