Cross Country

didn’t budge from his path.
    At the last second, I braked hard, but I still struck him. His eyes looked huge with fear — probably the same way mine did when I was hanging out that hotel window.
    Now I threw the small car sharply in reverse. He took one of the windshield wipers with him as he flew off and rolled into the street.
    I backed all the way up to the corner and spun the wheel hard to face the other direction. A horn blared as an Audi wagon clipped the car, nearly shearing off the rear bumper.
    I picked a direction arbitrarily and punched those four cylinders for all they were worth.
    “Where are we going?” Adanne sat up a little straighter, almost like she was coming out of a trance.
    “Into the city,” I told her.
    If there was one thing Lagos might be good for, it was crowds we could get lost in.

Chapter 106
    “ADANNE?” I REACHED over and held on to her shoulder. “We have to get away from here. The policeman back there — when I was staying in Lagos — he nearly killed me. I’m sure it’s the same man. It’s all connected somehow, it has to be.”
    Adanne didn’t argue with me. She just nodded and pointed to the right.
    “Turn here for the Mainland Bridge. It’s the best way, Alex. We’ll go through Benin.”
    “Hold on tight, brace yourself!”
    “It’s too late for that, way too late.”
    I took the turn — without slowing down. We came out onto a wide boulevard lined with low-slung stucco shops, open lots, and old dusty cars and trucks. A freestanding billboard advertised Grace of Light Church, with an illustration of a woman in a choir robe, eyes on the sky and arms open to God.
    But it certainly wasn’t God that I heard next.
    It was the deafening chop of a helicopter, loud and very close to the roof of the Escort.
    They’d found us already
.
    They were on top of us, right over our heads.
    “It’s the police!” said Adanne. “They’ll kill us, Alex.
I know things they don’t want in any newspaper
.”

Chapter 107
    I CRANED MY neck to see what was up, literally. The small bird with white struts was almost directly overhead. There were no police markings, and the low altitude was another bad sign.
    The pilot was being increasingly reckless and didn’t seem to care about the safety of people down on the street, or about his own well-being, for that matter.
    The Mainland Bridge was still a mile or so off. I scanned the area for any kind of cover — parking garage, construction site. There was nothing obvious, nowhere for us to hide from the helicopter.
    What was worse, within a few blocks I saw lights in my mirror — red-and-blue spinners, at least three cruisers moving very fast, gaining on us.
    “Shit! That’s definitely police.”
    “I’m serious, Alex. They’ll kill us if they catch us. I’m not being paranoid.”
    “I believe you. But why, Adanne?”
    “Alex, I know terrible things. I’m writing a story about it. I have to tell somebody what I found out.”
    “Tell me,” I said.
    In the next frantic few minutes, that’s what Adanne did; she told me secrets that she hadn’t shared before. One of the secrets was that Ellie Cox had visited her in Lagos. They had shared sources and information. They had talked about Abidemi Sowande — the Tiger. And the group that he worked for.
    “Alex, he is one of the most dangerous mercenaries in the world.”
    I sped up and weaved through the traffic as best I could. But when I checked the mirror again, the police cars were still close. I was a little numb from hearing what Adanne knew about the Tiger and so much more. I still couldn’t believe that she and Ellie had met.
    Suddenly Adanne grabbed my arm.
“Alex!”
she shouted.
“There!”
    A police car had hopped the curb from a vacant lot on the left and was pulling across our path right now.
    I jammed down on the brakes —
too late
.
    The Escort skidded and caught the cruiser broadside.
    Our front end folded right in on itself, as if it were made of molding clay. No wonder Ford was losing market share. My chest hit the steering column hard, and I saw Adanne’s head smack the windshield.
    Already the other police cruiser was right behind us, siren screeching, spinners going like crazy.
    “Adanne?” I sat her up and saw that her forehead was swabbed in red. She raised her eyebrows and blinked several times.
    “You all right?” I asked.
    “I think so. Don’t tell them anything, Alex. More people will die. Don’t tell them a thing I told you. Do you