lost all track of time. It feels like it has stopped, like he and Veronica have been and will be forever crammed into this dark and ill-fitting pocket of space. The air stinks of gasoline, his head feels like it is being crushed in a vice. Even with the spare tire moved to the back seat there's barely room for them both in the trunk of the Toyota. Jacob lies curled in a painfully hunchbacked position, his left leg has gone half-numb, and metal protrusions stab him every time they go over a bump, which means several times a minute on the good stretches of road. The trunk is open only a crack, enough to let in a little air. Veronica shudders in his arms and moans with every exhalation, as if experiencing a terrible nightmare, but she is awake. It took a visible effort of will for her to get into the trunk at all, and this journey will occupy five hours at least. Jacob has no idea how many of those hours have passed. Time has no meaning in this stinking darkness.
The timbre of the engine changes and the vehicle slows down. Jacob sees flashes of light outside. Another police checkpoint.
"Quiet," he whispers into Veronica's ear. He isn't sure she can really hear him at all any more, her rational mind seems to have fled, leaving behind a terrified child - but then she stiffens, stops whimpering and starts breathing silently again. He squeezes her tightly. Her face is damp with tears.
"It's going to be okay," he whispers.
He hears Rukungu's voice, and that of other men, the police. They hold each other closely, muscles tense with fear, breathing through their mouths, until the conversation finally ends and the Toyota accelerates forward again. A few minutes later they turn sharply to the left and begin to move along a bumpy dirt road. Jacob's head groans, he feels like his whole body is shaking apart, his bones and muscles are being unknit by the endless, violent rattling. In one of the rare moments of calm that follow he wishes he could just hit his head and be knocked unconscious.
He is so dazed he doesn't realize the Toyota has come to a stop until the engine switches off. A minute later the trunk lid yawns open, ushering in a blissful wave of cool night air. Rukungu has to bodily lift Veronica to freedom, and Jacob too needs his help to emerge from the trunk. He falls back against the vehicle, next to Veronica, both of them so shaken they can barely stand.
"Where are we?" Jacob manages.
"Suam," Rukungu says. "Near the border. It is almost dawn."
Lydia offers them water. They drink greedily. Jacob looks around. One horizon is limned with light, outlining a huge mass to the southeast: Mount Elgon, on the Uganda-Kenya border. The Toyota has stopped beside a wide dirt road. In the distance, maybe a kilometre away, a single gas lamp illuminates a few wooden buildings and bandas. As Jacob's head clears and its ache fades away he slowly begins to realize they are on the brink of success. This border post is so remote there is no phone service, no way for the guards to know he and Veronica are fugitives. Not that Kenya is safe. They have to go overland all the way to Zimbabwe, across half of Africa, before they approach anything like safety. But this is a start.
"Is there anything to eat?" Veronica asks.
Lydia produces a packet of tasteless biscuits and a huge avocado that Jacob halves and sections with Derek's Leatherman. He has never eaten a finer breakfast in his life.
"We cannot cross with you," Rukungu says. "We have no papers."
Jacob nods.
"Do you want us to stay?" Lydia asks.
Veronica shakes her head. "No. You don't want to be seen with us."
Rukungu says, "Then we will go."
Jacob looks at him. In the predawn light he can see Rukungu and Lydia only in silhouette, in outline. He has never felt so grateful to anyone. They didn't need to take the enormous risk of spiriting Jacob and Veronica out of the country. He supposes they did it for Derek, really, but he doesn't know why they are so loyal to the memory of his best friend. He doesn't really know anything about them: where they are from, how they met, how they were parted, what Rukungu did in Rwanda and in the Congo in the years after, how Lydia came to Kampala, why and how Rukungu came