Restart. That’s what I’d like. Restart my life once and for all so I never have to do this kind of thing again.
His cell phone vibrated. Noel stepped aside to answer while the nerdish whine continued as Cumming went over everything with Jaako one more time. It was Lohengrin.
He didn’t mince words. “Gardener has escaped from the People’s Paradise with a group of children. They’re starving, some of them are sick. Many of them are jokers. We need to get them to a hospital. Preferably the Jokertown Clinic.”
“And you’re calling me because…?”
“Because the UN cannot be formally involved, so I cannot send a plane. And you’re much faster than a plane anyway. And because I hoped there might be a human being hiding in you somewhere.”
Oddly enough it hurt, an actual physical grip in the gut. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. E-mail me their location so I can bring up a satellite image.”
A few moments later his iPhone chimed.
29
Katimba, Tanzania.
Thursday,
December 24
Katimba, Tanzania
Lohengrin hadn’t known how many children were with Gardener. It turned out to be a lot. Noel counted more than forty.
They lay in the shade provided by a large tree and the overhang of a corrugated tin hut. Gardener had her back against the tree. The girl looked terrible, wasted, gaunt.
A cold fist closed down on his gut. Noel had seen this before-in a hospital in Khartoum.
Five kids slept around her, their heads resting on her lap and thighs. Using a large leaf as a fan, Gardener kept the flies from their faces. Some of those faces weren’t very human. As Lohengrin had reported most of the children were jokers.
Gardener’s eyes widened as he appeared, and she reached a clawlike hand into her seed pouch.
She didn’t know him in his Etienne form. He quickly shifted back to Noel. The children who were awake cried out in terror as his body reshaped itself. Their cries woke the others, and the air was filled with wails, sobs, and cries.
Gardener relaxed when she realized who he was. “Hush, hush,” she soothed. “He’s a friend. He’s here to help us. In the blink of an eye he can have us in a city where there’s food and beds. Hush, hush.” Her voice had the quality of a song.
But Noel did the calculation, and didn’t like the tally. Assuming he could carry four at a time it would take him twelve trips. Thirteen to bring Gardener.
He dropped down on his knees next to her. “What’s your most pressing need?” he asked.
“Food. The kids are hungry. I had been growing food for them, but I’ve been too”-she made a gesture that indicated her emaciated body-“too weak to do much.”
“Look, I can’t carry…” Her eyes filled with tears, and Noel hurried to add, “It’s all right. It’s all right. I’ve got another way to get them out. A better way, but it’s going to take me a bit of time to arrange things. I’ll bring back food and some docs from the Jokertown Clinic to hold them until we can get transport here.”
“The roads are terrible. There’s no way-”
“Trust me.” It gave him an odd jolt when he said the words. He rushed on. “The girl I’m thinking of will make roads unnecessary.”
Kisangani, Congo
People’s Paradise of Africa
“Fuck me,” Joey said on the outskirts of the city. “This place is crazy.”
Michelle agreed. The jungle was moving back into the city, reclaiming it. The roads had been blown up. Trees were growing up through some of the houses. A few had been completely taken over by vines. Chimpanzees jumped from rooftop to treetop and back again. The city was silent except for the calls of birds and chimps. Occasionally, in the distance, they heard the popping of gunfire.
Adesina was closer now, and it was hard for Michelle to stay focused on what she was doing. They kept working their way through the torn-up streets, trying to keep their bearings. There were several groups of buildings visible in the distance. The pilot had told them one of these would most likely be the place they were looking for.
They pushed on. At the end of one devastated street, they found themselves at a small hospital. It didn’t look like the buildings Michelle had seen in her dreams, but she decided to go inside anyway. Joey’s leg needed to be looked at. The need to get to Adesina was raging in her. But if Joey collapsed, Michelle might never reach Adesina. And if she did, there would be no Hoodoo Mama to help her fight for the child.
The hospital’s walls were painted a pretty terra-cotta color. THE ALICIA NSHOMBO HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN was stenciled on the unbroken front doors in French. Through the glass Michelle could see an overgrown courtyard in the center of the building. “How did this stay intact?” she asked.
“I got no cocksucking idea,” Joey said. Then she giggled. This was so odd Michelle stopped and looked at her. Joey gave her a sweet smile for an instant, before her angry Hoodoo Mama face popped back up.
Michelle pulled the door open and Joey followed her inside. The reception area was tiny, a couple of chairs and a desk. There wasn’t anyone at the desk.
“Hello?” Michelle tried to make her French singsongy, the way Kengo’s accent sounded, but it mostly sounded stupid to her. There was no answer, so they went into the hallway. Sunlight filtered through the windows. There were monkeys in the trees in the courtyard.
They walked down the quiet corridor, passing in and out of patches of sunlight cast across the floor. The walls here weren’t painted an antiseptic green or white color. They were azure, cornflower yellow, and brick.
To the left was a large open ward. There were two rows of beds facing each other. Mosquito netting was draped over each bed. One of the patients saw them, and waved at them with her left hand. Her right hand was missing. Neither Joey nor Michelle waved back.
A nurse came over to them. “May I help?” she said in French. “Do you know one of our patients?”
“My friend needs a doctor to look at her leg,” Michelle said.
“This isn’t a clinic,” the nurse said, switching to English. “It’s a survivor hospital. The doctors have already done their rounds and have gone to another hospital for the afternoon. We don’t have many of them.”
“Well, can you look at her leg?” Michelle was getting pissed. Adesina was so close, and all they needed was to get Joey’s damn leg looked at. How hard was that?
“Lie down on that bed and I’ll be right back,” the nurse said, pointing to the only empty bed in the ward.
Joey collapsed onto the bed. The woman in the next pushed herself up, then pulled her netting away. She was young, no more than a few years older than Michelle. There were scars on her face. It looked as if she’d been slashed by a knife.
“Hello,” she said in heavily accented English. “You are a long way from home.”
“Yes, we are,” Michelle replied. Where the hell was that damn nurse? “My friend’s leg is hurt.”
“I see that. May I touch your hair?”
The request was so odd it snapped Michelle out of thinking about Adesina. “Uhm, well, I guess so.” She walked over to the woman’s bed and bent down. The woman stroked the top of Michelle’s head, then ran her hand down Michelle’s braid. “Oh, it’s very soft. I’ve never seen hair like this before.”
Jesus, Michelle thought, I cannot believe I’m having hair chitchat right now.
“I use to braid my daughter’s hair.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “Your braid has come loose. I could fix it for you.” The nurse hadn’t come back yet and even though the request was odd, it wouldn’t take long.
“Sure.”
The woman undid Michelle’s braid, and then combed her fingers through Michelle’s hair before she started plaiting it. “I’m Makemba,” she said. “Will you be here long? Kinsangani is an odd place for you to be.”
“I’m looking for a friend,” Michelle said. It was close enough to the truth.
The nurse came back carrying a metal tray with disinfectant, gauze, bandages, a curved needle, a packet of suturing material, and a syringe. She told Joey to roll onto her stomach. Joey jerked when the nurse started cleaning the wound. “These look like claw marks,” the nurse said. “How did you get these?”