A few tables away, a woman wearing everything Chanel fainted, passing out cold, while another threw up all over her tiramisu.
As for Torenzi, he simply tucked the scalpel into the breast pocket of his Zegna suit before heading toward the kitchen to exit through the back door – back into broad daylight.
But before he did, he leaned down again to repeat his message into Marcozza’s chubby ear as he lay hunched over the table dying a slow, mean death.
“Justice is blind.”
Part One. A JOB TO DIE FOR
Chapter 1
THE WORDS I will never be able to forget were “Hold on tight, because this is going to be one hairy ride.” In point of fact, those words not only described the next several minutes, but the next several days of my life.
I had been lying fast asleep under nothing but the high, bright stars of an African night sky with only a frayed, moth-eaten mat separating me from some of the poorest dirt on the planet when suddenly my eyes popped open and my heart immediately skipped a beat. Make that a couple of beats.
Holy shit! Is that what I think it is?
Gunfire?
The answer to my question came the very next second as Dr. Alan Cole raced over to me in the darkness and grabbed my arm, shaking me hard. We’d been sleeping outside because our pup tents were like saunas.
“Wake up, Nick. Get up! Now!” he said. “We’re being attacked. I’m serious, man.”
I shot straight up and turned to him as the sound of more gunfire echoed in the air. Pop! Pop! Pop!
It was getting closer. Whoever was shooting – they were getting closer. And moving quickly.
“Janjaweed – that’s who it is, right?” I asked.
“Yeah,” said Alan. “I was afraid this could happen. Word got around that we’re here.”