“Those people got in here somehow,” Kevin said. “I’m counting on their having had a plan to get out. Running the main gate should be considered our last-ditch option.”

They pulled into the busy motor-pool facility. They had to squint under the glare of the mercury-vapor lights. They continued until they came to the repair section. Kevin parked behind a bay with the cab of a semi up on the hydraulic lift. Several greasy mechanics were standing under it, scratching their heads.

“Wait here,” Kevin said, as he alighted from the Toyota.

He walked inside and greeted the men.

Melanie and Candace watched. Candace literally had her fingers crossed.

“Well, at least they didn’t bolt for the telephone the moment they saw him,” Melanie said.

The women watched as one of the mechanics sauntered off and disappeared through a door in the rear of the facility. He reappeared a moment later, carrying a lengthy hunk of heavy chain. He gave it to Kevin who staggered under its weight.

As his face turned a progressively brighter shade of red, Kevin stumbled back toward the LandCruiser. Sensing he was about to drop the chain, Melanie hopped out of the car to open the luggage area.

The vehicle lurched as Kevin dropped the chain onto the tailgate.

“I told them I wanted heavy chain,” Kevin managed. “It didn’t have to be this heavy.”

“What did you say to those men?” Melanie asked.

“I said that your car got stuck in some mud,” Kevin said. “They didn’t bat an eyelash. Of course, they didn’t offer to come and help, either.”

Kevin and Melanie returned inside the Toyota, and they started back toward town.

“You’re sure this is going to work?” Candace asked from the rear seat.

“No, but I can’t think of anything else,” Kevin said.

For the rest of the trip, no one spoke. They all knew this was the most difficult part of the whole plan. The tension mounted as they turned into the parking lot for the town hall and doused the headlights.

The room occupied by the army post was ablaze with light. As they got closer Kevin, Melanie, and Candace could hear the music. This group of soldiers also had a cassette player, only theirs was cranking out African music at full volume.

“That’s the kind of party I was counting on,” Kevin said. He made a wide turn and then backed toward the building. He could just make out the window wells for the subterranean jail within the shadows of the ground-floor arcade.

He stopped the car within five feet of the building and put on the emergency brake. All three gazed into the room occupied by the soldiers. They couldn’t see much of the room and none of the soldiers because the line of sight was on an angle through an unglazed window. The window’s shutter had been raised and hooked to the ceiling of the arcade. A number of empty wine bottles were on the sill.

“Well, it’s now or never,” Kevin said.

“Can we help?” Melanie asked.

“No, stay put,” Kevin said.

Kevin climbed from the car and walked in under the nearest arch to stand within the shelter of the arcade. The sound of the music was deafening. Kevin’s major concern was that if someone looked out the window, Kevin would be seen immediately. There was nothing to hide behind.

Looking down at the window well, Kevin could see the barred opening. Beyond the bars was utter darkness. There was not the faintest light within the cell.

Getting down on his hands and knees first, Kevin lay on the stone floor with his head over the lip of the window well. With his face close to the bars, he called out over the noise of the music: “Hello! Anybody in there?”

“Just us tourists,” Jack said. “Are we invited to the party?”

“I understand you are Americans,” Kevin said.

“Like apple pie and baseball,” Jack said.

Kevin could suddenly hear other voices in the dark, but they were unintelligible.

“You people have to realize what a dangerous situation you’ve gotten yourselves into,” Kevin said.

“Really,” Jack said. “We thought this was how all visitors to Cogo were treated.”

Kevin thought that whomever he was speaking with would certainly get along well with Melanie.

“I’m going to try to pull these bars out,” Kevin said. “Are you all in the same cell?”

“No, we have two beautiful ladies in the cell to my left.”

“Okay,” Kevin said. “Let’s see what I can do with these bars first.”

Kevin got up and went back for the chain. Returning to the window well, he threaded one end through the bars into the abyss.

“Hook this around one of the bars a number of times,” Kevin said.

“I like this,” Jack said. “It reminds me of an old Western movie.”

Back at the Toyota, Kevin secured the chain to the trailer hitch. When he got back to the window well he gently pulled on the chain. He could see it was tied securely around the central bar.

“Looks good,” Kevin said. “Let’s see what happens.”

He climbed back into the vehicle and made sure it was in its lowest four-wheel drive gear. Looking out the back window, Kevin cautiously eased the car forward to take the slack out of the chain.

“All right, here we go,” Kevin said to Melanie and Candace. He began to press on the accelerator. The heavy-duty Toyota engine strained, but Kevin couldn’t hear it. The hum of the motor was drowned out by the frenzied beat of a popular Zairean rock group.

Suddenly, the vehicle lurched forward. Hastily, Kevin braked. Behind them they heard a terrible clanging over the sound of the music like someone hitting a fire escape with a curbstone.

Kevin and the women winced. They looked back at the opening into the army post. To their relief, no one appeared to check out the awful sound.

Kevin jumped out of the Toyota with the intention of going back to see what had happened when he almost ran into an impressively muscled black man heading right for him.

“Good job, man! My name’s Warren and this is Jack.” Jack had come up alongside Warren.

“I’m Kevin.”

“Cool,” Warren said. “You back these wheels up, and we’ll see what we can do with the other opening.”

“How did you get out so quickly?” Kevin asked.

“Man, you pulled out the whole friggin’ frame,” Warren said.

Kevin climbed into the car and slowly backed up. He could see the two men had already detached the chain.

“It worked!” Melanie said. “Congratulations.”

“I must admit it was better than I thought,” Kevin said.

A moment later, someone thumped on the back of the Toyota. When Kevin looked, he could see one of the men wave for him to go forward.

Kevin used the same driving technique he’d used the first episode. With approximately the same amount of power there was the same sudden release and unfortunately the same clanging noise. This time a soldier had appeared at the window.

Kevin didn’t move, and he prayed the two men he’d just met did the same. The soldier proceeded to bring a wine bottle to his lips and in the process knocked several of the empties off the sill. They shattered on the stone pavement. Then he turned and disappeared back into the room.

Kevin got out of the vehicle in time to see two women being extracted from the second window well. As soon as they were free, all four rushed for the car. Kevin went around to detach the chain but found that Warren was already in the process of doing so.

They all climbed into the Toyota without discussion. Jack and Warren squeezed into the jump seats in the back while Laurie and Natalie joined Candace on the middle bench.

Kevin put the car in gear. After a final glance at the army post, he drove from the parking lot. He didn’t switch on the lights until they were away from town hall.

The escape had been a heady experience for everyone: triumph for Kevin, Melanie, and Candace; surprise and utter relief for the crew from New York. The seven exchanged terse introductions; then the questions started. At first, everyone spoke at the same time.