Melanie put her hands on either side of her face and squeezed. “I’ve got to get ahold of myself,” she said.

“I feel numb again,” Candace admitted. “We’ve gone from one form of captivity to another.”

Kevin sighed. “At least they didn’t put us in the jail.”

Outside they heard multiple car engines start and vehicles pull away. Kevin went out onto the veranda and saw all the cars leaving except for Cameron’s. Glancing up into the sky, he noted that twilight was deepening into night. A few stars were visible.

Turning back into the house, Kevin went directly to the phone. Picking it up, he heard what he’d expected to hear: nothing.

“Is there a dial tone?” Melanie asked from behind him.

Kevin replaced the receiver. He shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”

“I didn’t expect so,” Melanie said.

“Let’s take showers,” Candace suggested.

“Good idea,” Melanie said, making an effort to sound positive.

After agreeing to meet in a half hour, Kevin walked back through the dining room and pushed open the kitchen door. As dirty as he was, he didn’t want to enter. The smell of roast chicken teased his nose.

Esmeralda had leaped to her feet the moment the door opened.

“Hello, Esmeralda,” Kevin said.

“Welcome, Mr. Marshall,” Esmeralda said.

“You didn’t come out to greet us like you always do,” Kevin said.

“I was afraid the manager was still here,” Esmeralda said. “He and the security man had come up earlier to say you were coming home and that you would not be able to leave the house.”

“That’s what they told me, too,” Kevin said.

“I’ve made food for you,” Esmeralda said. “Are you hungry?”

“Very much,” Kevin said. “But there are two guests.”

“I know,” Esmeralda said. “The manager told me that as well.”

“Can we eat in a half hour?” Kevin asked.

“Certainly.”

Kevin nodded. He was lucky to have Esmeralda. He turned to leave, but Esmeralda called out to him. He hesitated, holding the door ajar.

“There are many bad things happening in the town,” she said. “Not only for you and your friends, but also for strangers. I have a cousin who works at the hospital. She told me that four Americans came from New York and went into the hospital. They talked with the patient who got the liver from the bonobo.”

“Oh?” Kevin questioned. Strangers coming from New York to talk to one of the transplant patients was a thoroughly unanticipated development.

“They just walked in,” Esmeralda continued. “They were not supposed to be there. They said they were doctors. Security was called, and the army and the guards came to take them away. They are in the jail.”

“My word,” Kevin commented, while his mind veered off on a tangent. New York reminded him of the surprising call he’d gotten a week previously in the middle of the night from the GenSys CEO, Taylor Cabot. It had been about the patient Carlo Franconi, who’d been killed in New York. Taylor Cabot had asked if someone could figure out what had happened to Carlo from an autopsy.

“My cousin knows some of the soldiers who were there,” Esmeralda continued. “They said that the Americans will be given to the Ministers. If they are, they will be killed. I thought you should know.”

Kevin felt a chill descend his spine. He knew such a fate was what Siegfried had in mind for him, Melanie, and Candace. But who were these Americans? Had they been involved with the autopsy on Carlo Franconi?

“It is all very serious,” Esmeralda said. “And I am afraid for you. I know you went to the forbidden island.”

“How do you know that?” Kevin questioned with amazement.

“In our town people talk,” Esmeralda said. “When I said you were gone unexpectedly and that the manager was looking for you, Alphonse Kimba told my husband that you had gone to the island. He was sure.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Kevin said evasively and preoccupied with his thoughts. “Thank you for what you have told me.”

Kevin went back to his own room. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he was surprised how exhausted and filthy he appeared. Running a hand over his beginning beard, he noticed something more disturbing. He was beginning to look a lot like his double!

After a shave, shower, and clean clothes, Kevin felt revived. The entire time, he mused about the Americans in the jail under the town hall. He was very curious and would have liked nothing better than to go and talk with them.

Kevin found the two women were equally refreshed. The shower had transformed Melanie into her irrepressible self, and she complained bitterly about the selection of clothes she’d been offered. “Nothing goes with anything,” she complained.

They settled in the dining room, and Esmeralda began serving the meal. Melanie laughed, after looking around at the surroundings. “You know, I find it almost funny that a few hours ago we were living like Neanderthals. Then, presto, we’re in the lap of luxury. It’s like a time machine.”

“If only we didn’t have to worry about what tomorrow will bring,” Candace said.

“Let’s at least enjoy our last supper,” Melanie said with her typical wry humor. “Besides, the more I think about it, the less likely I think it is that they can just foist us off on the Equatoguineans. I mean, they wouldn’t be able to get away with it. This is almost the beginning of the third millennium. The world is too small.”

“But I’m worried…” Candace began.

“Excuse me,” Kevin interrupted. “Esmeralda told me something curious that I’d like to share with you.” Kevin started by mentioning the phone call he got in the middle of the night from Taylor Cabot. Then he told the story about the arrival and subsequent incarceration of the New Yorkers in the town’s jail.

“Well, this’s just what I’m talking about,” Melanie said. “A couple of smart people do an autopsy in New York, and they end up here in Cogo. And we thought we were so isolated. I tell you the world’s getting smaller every day.”

“So you think these Americans came here following a trail that started with Franconi?” Kevin asked. His intuition was telling him the same thing, but he wanted reinforcement.

“What else could it be?” Melanie questioned. “There’s no question in my mind.”

“Candace, what do you think?” Kevin asked.

“I agree with Melanie,” Candace said. “Otherwise, it’s too much of a coincidence.”

“Thank you, Candace!” Melanie said. While twirling her empty wineglass, she looked menacingly at Kevin. “I hate to interrupt this fascinating conversation, but where’s some of that great wine of yours, bucko?”

“Gosh, I totally forgot,” Kevin said. “Sorry!” He pushed back from the table and went into the butler’s pantry that he’d filled with his mostly untouched wine allocation. As he was looking through the labels, which held little meaning for him, he was suddenly struck by how much wine he had. Counting the bottles in a small area and extrapolating it to allow for the entire room, he realized he had more than three hundred bottles.

“My word,” Kevin said as a plan began to form in his head. He grabbed an armload of bottles and pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen.

Esmeralda got up from where she was sitting having her own dinner.

“I have a favor to ask,” Kevin said. “Would you take these bottles of wine and a corkscrew down to the soldiers at the foot of the stairs?”

“So many?” she questioned.

“Yes, and I’d like you to take even more to the soldiers in the town hall. If they ask what the occasion is, tell them that I’m going away, and I wanted them to enjoy the wine, not the manager.”

A smile spread across Esmeralda’s face. She looked at Kevin. “I think I understand.” From a cupboard she got the canvas bag that she used for shopping and loaded it with wine bottles. A moment later, she disappeared through the butler’s pantry, heading for the front hall.