Cross Country
Chapter 105
“ADANNE, LISTEN TO me!” I was already pushing her back toward the car. “It's not safe for us here. We have to go right now. That man, the policeman, he almost killed me at my hotel.”
She nodded and seemed to understand, and then we were walking quietly. I got her up the block to her car and into the passenger seat. “We have to go.”
When I reached the driver's side, I could see the police commander through the windshield. He'd picked his way through the knot of emergency vehicles in front of the house. Then he broke into a run, heading straight for us. Two other men came running with him. I thought that I recognized one of them as the other man who'd come into my hotel room and tried to scare me out of the country.
“Adanne, fasten your seat belt! We have to get out of here. Right now.'”
I put the car in reverse and checked over my shoulder. The intersection behind me was too busy; I couldn't wait for the traffic to clear, though.
So I changed my mind.
I shifted into drive and drove right at the approaching cops. I began to blare the horn, hitting the wheel again and again.
Adanne's car was only a little Ford Escort, but I caught the cops off guard. I floored it and stayed the course directly at the men. The “commander” 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.
Cross Country
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.”
Cross Country
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
