As I landed on the grass with a thump, a wave of pain shuddered up my left thigh. A monkey that had been sitting a couple of feet away let out a series of ear-shattering shrieks before scampering back into the bush, his fading cackle taunting me. I stayed crouched for a moment, willing the pain to subside, then peered around the edge of the building.

There was no wind. It had stopped raining and the air was thick with mosquitoes - they whined past my ears, and I could sense them homing in on the spots of flesh exposed by the rips in my clothing. Above, a sickle of moon cut through a starless sky, and I wondered for a brief moment if Anna was looking at it, somewhere not so very far away.

Focus, Dark.

Directly ahead of me lay a patch of grass as smooth as a billiard table. Beyond that was the road, pools of which were illuminated by streetlamps.

There were no men. Yet.

On the other side of the road was the tennis court, and beyond that, if my calculations were correct, the street where I’d earlier seen the Land Rover parked.

The three Nigerians quickly took up position behind me. I whispered to Gunner to move to my left, towards the Nissen hut I’d spotted earlier. He nodded and scuttled off, disappearing into the darkness and re-emerging a few seconds later, a dim shape against the wall of the hut.

I looked at the other two men. One I recognized from Aba: he had a boxer’s broken nose and split lip. The other was lean and tall, with skin so black and polished he looked almost blue, like a Senegalese. I suddenly felt very conscious of my whiteness, and wanted to scoop up a handful of mud and smear it across my cheeks. But there was no time, so I told Senegal to join Gunner, and took Boxer with me, towards the road. In darkness, it was best to spread out.

The surface of the grass was slick with rain, and I took care to keep my centre of gravity low and lift my heels after each step. In my peripheral vision, I could see Gunner and Senegal moving alongside us. There was still nobody else in view, but I didn’t give it long: soldiers’ ears are attuned to gunfire, and the camp was silent. They’d be putting on their boots and starting their engines. They’d be here, any moment now.

When we reached the verge of the road, I held out my hand and the three of them stopped. I told them to file behind me - we were approaching light, so we wanted to present a smaller target. When they had done this, I climbed up onto the road, and made for the space between two streetlamps.