“More reason to pull the slimebags out by their necks,” Scull said.

“Just like that, huh?”

“Right. You figure out where we’ve got leverage. And use it.”

A prolonged sigh of resignation over the phone.

“Okay, I’ll try my best,” Sherman said. “Where do I fax the docs?”

“You don’t. Send them by ’crypted e-mail,” Scull said. “You need to talk to me about anything, dial up my cell. And from now on, don’t forward any messages to me at the hotel. Not even a hi-how-are-you from my kids. Or that brunette I’ve been seeing.”

“The racked stripper?”

“Amber’s a sultry erotic dancer,” Scull said. “But, yeah, she’s the one.”

“Christ, this does sound serious.”

“I said it was important shit. What the hell, you think I just got an urge to jerk your chain?”

“Christ,” Sherman repeated. “I’ll get back to you fast as I can.”

“Do that,” Scull said. “I’m gonna be waiting at my computer.”

“Look, rush job or not, this could take a while—”

“I’ve got a while. In fact, I’ve got all day. Send me what you can, and make it plenty. Meantime, I need to find an Internet café and plug in.”

“You sitting with a crowd of backpacking hipsters at a cyber café? Somehow I can’t picture it, Vince.”

Scull shrugged in the driver’s seat.

“Why not?” he said. “If a guy’s main goal is to be an anonymous nobody, there’s no better place for it in the whole stinking world.”

The UpLink convoy made good time for the first twenty miles of its trip out of Port-Gentil. But it was barely past noon when the populous townships beyond the city thinned out across the low, barren countryside and the string of vehicles left the paved coastal road to drudge over rutted sand and laterite.

At the head of the column, a group of local guides drove one of the unmodified Rovers. Rumbling along after it was a big, squarish 6×6 cargo truck with a loaded-down flatbed trailer. Pete Nimec occupied the front passenger seat of the tricked-out Land Rover in the third slot, DeMarco behind the right-hand steering wheel, a group of four engineers and company officers in back. Then came another armored Rover for the company honchos driven by Wade and Ackerman, followed by a plain vanilla filled with Sword ops and local hired hands. Next were two more 6×6 haulers. Hollinger, Conners, and an assortment of bigwigs and technicians rode seventh and last in the only remaining armored vehicle.