Finally, she’d fashioned a mobile cistern out of branches and a sheet of plastic he’d found, allowing them to collect water from the occasional rains and reducing the number of times he needed to make the dangerous journey to the river. Food was completely fruit based but provided them with enough calories to keep them from starving.

All in all, they could probably just outwait Auma’s men if it hadn’t been for one very big glitch: Matteo Ricci. The inevitable infection from his burns had set in and Chism was powerless to stop it. Antibiotics were the only thing that could help, and they were in short supply in the Ugandan jungle.

When he was dead sure the two men were gone, he glanced back at Liu, who was crouched with a jagged rock in her hand.

“We’re safe,” he whispered.

She dropped the rock and retreated to her homemade cistern. After wetting a piece of cloth, she crawled to Ricci and pressed it against his forehead. He was lying at the back of the cave, slipping in and out of consciousness. One day soon, he’d drift away and never come back.

The Italian reacted weakly to the cloth touching his forehead so Chism crawled over. “How are you feeling, Matteo?”

“Nothing a nice Barolo couldn’t fix.”

Like Liu, he’d turned out to be a lot tougher than Chism expected. His sense of humor had turned dark for sure, but it persisted.

“We only have the Cabernet,” Chism responded, but Ricci was already out again.

“Not good,” Liu said simply.

He nodded, staring down at Ricci’s stubbled, sweat-streaked face. “Could you walk out of here by yourself, Jing?”

“What?”

“It’s pretty much impossible to get lost. If you follow the setting sun you can’t help but hit the road.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, we know what’s going on here. Those guys spent days shouting my name, not yours. They want to kidnap me and ransom me to Nick. If I give myself up, there’s no reason for them to stay here. They’ll go back to the rock they crawled out from under. When they do, you go for help and get Matteo to a hospital.”

Ricci’s head lolled toward them and his hollow eyes opened. “That’s the stupidest idea I have ever heard, David.”

“What? Why?”

“You’re just going to hand yourself over to one of the most sadistic psychopaths in the world?”

“It’s not like I’m excited about it, Matteo. But why would they kill me? I’m the golden goose, right?”

“They’ll kill you because they’re pumped full of drugs and ecstatic visions.”

“Maybe,” Chism said. “But…” He found it impossible to finish his thought, so Ricci did it for him.

“But I won’t last the weekend?”

“Probably not.”