Anyway, I could barely see anything in the bright light. And it was hot, at least a hundred degrees, give or take ten or twenty.
The guard didn’t stop until he got to the high razor-wire-topped gate on the far side.
A locked door was opened to a passage through a building, through another door, then a gate, and to what looked like a parking area in the distance.
I asked Grasshopper Man what was going on. He didn’t answer. He just opened the door and let me through.
He closed it behind me, locking me into yet another passageway.
“It’s been taken care of,” he said.
“What has?”
“You have.”
He was already walking back the way we’d come, leaving me there. My heart sped up and my body tensed hard. This sure felt like an ending, one way or the other.
Suddenly a door opened on my right. Another guard stuck his head out. He gestured at me impatiently.
“Get in, get in!”
When I hesitated, he reached out and pulled me by the arm. “Are you deaf? Or are you stupid? Get inside.”
The room I entered was air-conditioned. It was like a shock to my skin, and I realized that all he’d wanted was to get the door closed again.
I was standing in a plain office that seemed quite ordinary. In it were two wooden desks and several filing cabinets. A second guard, bent over some paperwork, ignored me. Also present was the first white man I’d seen since arriving at the airport.
He was a civilian dressed in light trousers, a loose button-down shirt, and sunglasses. My guess was CIA.
“Flaherty?” I asked, since he didn’t bother to volunteer any information.
He tossed me m
y empty wallet. Then finally he spoke. “Jesus, you look like hell. Ready to get out of here?”
Chapter 44
I WAS WAY beyond ready to get out of this nightmarish prison, but I was also stupefied by everything that had happened to me since I had arrived in Lagos.
“What—? How did you find me?” I asked Flaherty before we were even out of the air-conditioned office. “What’s going on? What just happened back there?”
“Not now.” He walked over and opened a door and gestured for me to go out first. The two guards didn’t even look up. One of them was scribbling in a file and the other was jabbering on the phone when we left. Business as usual here in the bowels of hell.
As soon as the door closed behind us, Flaherty took my arm. “You need some help?”
“Jesus, Flaherty. Thank you.”
“They break your nose?”
“Feels that way.”
“Looks it too. I know a guy. Here.” He handed me a small bottle of water and I started to empty it down my throat. “Go slow, fella.”
He steered me over to an old off-white Peugeot 405 parked under a shade tree nearby. My duffel was already in the backseat. “Thank you,” I said again.
Once we were moving, I asked him, “How did you do this?”
“When you didn’t show up on Thursday, I figured there were only a few possibilities. A hundred got me your name. Another five hundred got you out.”