“Whereas this guy is the real thing,” Owen said. “Doesn’t waste time on making threats. Doesn’t need to. We just watched him kill our friend. Somebody he thinks was our friend, anyway.”
“Our ex-friend,” Hailey said. Gwen felt the jittery laughter rising in her and didn’t fight it, because what better way to describe Scott? Ex-friend, ex-boyfriend, ex-human. Hailey squeezed her hand and the giggles passed.
“Bet he thought it was a big prank,” Hailey said.
“A dumb hazing stunt that went too far,” Owen said.
Then Gwen put the last piece together. “But it wasn’t his idea. James.”
“What about James?” Owen said.
“He did this.”
“You think the CEO of WorldCares set us up to get kidnapped?”
“She’s right,” Hailey said. “Think it through. Scott wouldn’t have given himself to Suggs without a guarantee he could get out. He wasn’t that crazy. And doesn’t James have that book coming out? We disappear for a couple weeks, come back, we’re all telling this story.”
“We got kidnapped for his
They lay in silence, contemplating James Thompson.
—
“Before, we were protected, even if we didn’t know it,” Owen said a few minutes later. “No more.”
“Maybe James set this up, too,” Hailey said.
“And got his nephew killed? No, they were going to end it. Bring us back to Dadaab. Until this Wizard guy heard about us.”
“How? If the Kenyan police didn’t?”
“I’ll bet he knows what’s going on around here better than the cops. Yeah, they heard, came for us, took out Suggs and the Joker, now we’re here.”
“Now we’re here,” Hailey said.
“What I’m wondering, he said lots of people are looking for us.”
“No,” Gwen said. “He said lots of people want to meet us.”
“You’re right,” Owen said, drawing out the word like he couldn’t believe it. “What I’m wondering, what did he mean by that?”
“Hopefully, some SEALs who will helicopter in, come get us,” Gwen said. She could almost see them, wraparound sunglasses and tight T-shirts. “That would be ideal. I’d be glad to thank them. However they liked.”
“Try not to go back to being idiot Gwen,” Hailey said.
Gwen felt a flush spread up her neck. She was amazed that she had the energy in this place to care about a casual insult. But she did. She didn’t want to go back to being idiot Gwen.
“Maybe,” Owen said. “Maybe our families have made so much noise that the Army, the CIA, they’re on the hunt. I don’t know how fast that could happen. What I’m worried about is, these guys took us out of Kenya. What if somebody grabs us from them, brings us another hundred miles into Somalia? And what if the next group is Shabaab, and they don’t want to ransom us, they want to hold us forever for the publicity?”
“That Wizard guy looks like he can handle himself,” Hailey said.
“Suggs and the Joker thought so, too.”
“We can’t do anything about it anyway,” Gwen said.
“Maybe.”
“You think—”
“I think even if there’s a real risk, we see a chance to grab one of those Range Rovers we’ve got to go for it.”
“Try to escape? From an armed camp in Somalia?”
“If we see a chance. That’s all I’m saying. Doing nothing isn’t always the safest.”
“We don’t know the roads,” Gwen said. “We don’t know if there
“I’ll bet we’re no more than fifty miles from Kenya. Less. We weren’t in the cars that long.” Owen turned the flashlight on both of them and then on himself. He looked tired, worn, his skin stretched tight over his face. Gwen wondered how much weight they’d all lost. “Say I’m wrong, there’s no chance that anyone else is going to take us. We’re still stuck here. We got kidnapped barely a week ago and none of us is holding up that great. You want this to go a month? Six months?”
“Our families—”
“They can spend every dime they have, every dime these guys ask for, and there’s no guarantees anybody’s going to let us go. Some of these kidnappings go on for years. Promise me this. When they let us go to the toilet, get food, whatever, we’ll all do some recon.”
“Recon.”
“Figure out where they keep their weapons—”
“I know what it
“If phones work here, Kenyan or Somali. Do they have dogs? Motorbikes? Stuff like that.”
Gwen couldn’t listen anymore. Like they could possibly get out of here on their own. She couldn’t bear the thought of being held for years, either. She closed her eyes, squeezed Hailey’s hand, tried to dream of soldiers in helicopters flying low over the dusty red plains.
—
She woke to find Wizard nudging her foot with his own. This morning he wore sunglasses to go with his black T-shirt and boots. “Picture time.” He was so young, yet he spoke with absolute command. She propped herself against the wall. He produced a cell phone and snapped pictures of her and Hailey and Owen. They gave him their email addresses and parents’ phone numbers and he left.
“You think there’s an Internet connection around here?” Hailey said.
“Let’s hope,” Owen said. “He emails from this camp, I’ll bet the CIA can trace it in about ten seconds.”
“He’s too smart for that,” Gwen said.
“He’s a kid playing at being a soldier. Probably can’t even read.”
“Scott talked down to him, too,” Hailey said. Owen had no answer for that.
Gwen’s bladder was uncomfortably full. She didn’t want to leave the hut, but she pulled on the sweat suit. It was cheap and scratchy. She would have sold her soul for a hot shower and a pair of brand-new undies and Lulu yoga pants.
The guard slumped on the chair outside was maybe seventeen. “Toilet,” Gwen said. “Latrine.” He pointed left. Gwen shielded her eyes, walked into the rising sun. The sky was mostly blue but the air heavy and moist, an unsettling combination. The camp felt dingy and temporary. Gwen didn’t see anyone older than twenty-five. Maybe Owen was right. If the Shabaab attacked, how could these guys defend them?
Something else bugged her, too. Women. There weren’t any. Maybe they were hiding somewhere, but Gwen didn’t see any high walls and all the huts looked the same. Maybe the ones with wives had sent them to Dadaab. Maybe they raided the local villages when they wanted women. Or maybe they just did without. And got horny. A couple soldiers stared at her like she was walking around in a bikini, not a sweat suit. Not that they said a word, but she didn’t feel great about being one of two women in a camp filled with armed men. Nothing to do with the fact that they were African, either. At least, she didn’t think so. Black, white, whatever, groups of guys this age could get ugly, sometimes without much warning.
She wondered again if Owen was right. At least she ought to try to work out the camp layout, like he’d suggested. Recon. It sounded good. A serious word. A professional word. She left the main camp area, walked to the latrines, three sheds of trash wood and burlap.
Up close, the smell overwhelmed her, sun-baked excrement and urine, eye-burning, throat-gagging. She recognized the odor from the night before. So they’d brought her along this path. Gwen decided to go past the sheds, see if she could find where the vehicles were kept. If anyone caught her, she would say she’d decided not to use the toilets, the smell had been too much. She double-checked to be sure no one was watching her and trotted past the sheds, away from the main camp. The path narrowed and curved around a low hill. A hundred yards on, a man sat on a lawn chair at the top of the hill. A floppy hat protected him from the sun. A rifle and binoculars were slung over the chair. As she watched, the man stood, shielded his eyes, took the binoculars and carefully surveyed
