“Yes. Yes!” Mobo’s tongue had been loosened, and the entire story poured out. “She made Jidda promise to let her go if she healed him. Jidda wouldn’t let her go, but he protected her. He would not share her. Peter and the others planned it. Peter shot him in the back and dragged the woman toward the hut to have his way. Then the drone came.”
Samuel worked through Mobo’s gibberish. Jidda had made a deal with the nurse—her help in exchange for freedom. Of course, Jidda couldn’t let her go, but he’d done the best he could by claiming her and protecting her from the others. He’d kept his word as best he could. Peter, who had always been jealous of Jidda, had shot him in the back. The woman’s husband had clearly taken advantage of the confusion to distract them with the drone—and then attack.
Then something hit Samuel. “You said ‘others’? Did others help Peter?”
“Others planned it with him.”
Samuel got right in Mobo’s face. “Which others? Are any of them here?”
“Yes! Yes!” Mobo looked up. “Uvo. Chibunna. Everyone else was killed.”
Leaders were chosen by the Sky Kings, not by Samuel or the men who served beneath him. Loyalty was an absolute. Betraying one’s leader meant death.
“Were you one of these conspirators, Mobo?”
Mobo writhed. “No! I had just come back with firewood.”
“Take him down.” Samuel walked over to Uvo, who sat trembling in the dirt. “Is this true? Did you conspire with Peter to kill your leader over awoman?”
Uvo looked up at him, the truth mingled with terror on his face. Then Chibunna jumped to his feet and bolted for the door.
Joshua stopped him, threw him to the dirt.
“Peter got what he deserved, and now you will, too.” Samuel turned to Akunna. “Kill them.”
But what was Samuel going to do about this woman and her husband?
Oh, he didn’t care about the woman, not really. Jidda had made her a promise, and Samuel could respect that. But her husband—that was another story. Samuel needed to find him and take him to Lagos, where the Sky Kings would make him pay in blood.
11
Kristi walked with Malik across the tarmac toward the terminal, rolling her bags alongside her. “That was actually nicer than flying in a plane.”
“It’s not always that smooth.” He glanced up from his phone, a lopsided grin on his face, duffel bag on his back like a backpack. “Helicopters like to crash.”
“You tell me this now?”
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
She had to ask. “Have you ever been in a helicopter crash?”
“Twice.”
“Twice?”Good grief!“And you’re brave enough to climb aboard anyway?”
He seemed to find this funny. “Risk goes with the job.”
He stopped walking, his attention back on his smartphone.
“Are you checking in with Shields?” Kristi hoped one day she got to meet this woman who had done so much to help her.
“Yeah. Also, I bought two plane tickets to Cairo with Cobra’s credit card. Tower can chew my ass off when we get home. I’ll pay them back. I just want to keep my name off the transaction.”
“Cairo.” Kristi had always wanted to visit Egypt. “That’s exciting.”
Inside the terminal, Malik printed their boarding passes, and they went to stand in line at the ticket counter to check their bags.
“I can’t believe I’m going home.”