‘Course,’ he replied. ‘Marcel said there’s a good little hospital in Goma.’ He was trying to sound offhand, but I knew he was worried. Who wouldn’t be? The state of the city – its poor roads and unfinished buildings – didn’t exactly inspire confidence that it would harbour cutting-edge medical care. We returned there in the back of the same pickup that had brought us out to the national park, driven by the same guy with the bloodshot eyes. But without Innocent or poor Patience. A sombre Marcel accompanied us instead. He sat up front with the driver while Amelia, Caleb and I tried to steady poor Xander and protect him from the worst of the bumps. We’d transferred him to a proper stretcher in camp. Though it was padded and had aluminium poles, it still had to sit on the pickup’s unforgiving metal tray. We jacked it up on our backpacks to try and soften the juddering of the road. When I noticed that Caleb had wedged his legs under the stretcher too, using them to help absorb some of the jarring potholes, I did the same, but it didn’t really help beyond giving us a share of Xander’s discomfort. We’d not been going long when the pickup hit a particularly unforgiving rut which bounced all four of us into the air. Xander yelped at the blow.

Caleb banged hard on the cab window and shouted, ‘Drive more carefully, will you?’

‘Why wouldn’t he drive as carefully as he can?’ asked Amelia.

‘I don’t know,’ muttered Caleb.

Amelia’s question was genuine, and maybe Caleb really couldn’t guess why the guy might not have been doing his best to drive steadily, but I thought I knew better. Catching sight of those red eyes in the mirror as we ploughed on, I saw them narrow with hostility. Marcel would have explained what had happened to Innocent. Was it any wonder that this driver might be at best indifferent to us feeling a bit of pain on the way back to Goma?

Amelia and I took Xander to the hospital with Marcel. I could tell Caleb wanted to come, too, but when Xander sighed that he didn’t need an entourage my cousin’s ‘It’s your call’ was gentle. He’d mind our stuff, he said. Before we set off I overheard him tell Marcel to mention his father’s name if he thought it would help. Though I bristled at the self-importance of this, I think he was genuine.