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21

Wednesday turned into Thursday which turned into Friday, before the trio finally arrived in the oppressive humidity of the towered chaos of the capital city, Kinshasa, which spread and sprawled out from the shoreline of the Congo River.

It had been a long trip, with the heat hitting them like they’d just opened a stove door. The twenty-mile taxi ride from the airport hadn’t helped either. The driver hadn’t seemed as if he’d known what he was doing; swerving precariously and speeding, weaving along the city’s half-built tarmac roads like he was the emergency services.

The city was a mass of contrasts; high-rise luxury apartment blocks and offices stood centrally, surrounded by eroded housing with bad sanitation, and crumbling roadways. Kinshasa was home to more than six million people. Homeless young children hid amongst the rubble of derelict buildings and the displaced sat alongside the roads as the disorder of the traffic mirrored so many people’s lives, and poverty roamed the streets like a predatory beast.

And as Cooper stood contemplating all this in the hotel lobby, dressed inconspicuously in casual blue jeans and t-shirt, he stared at Rosedale, dressed in a gaudy canary yellow suit.

‘Do you have to wear that?’ It was Rosedale who spoke.

‘Me?’ Cooper looked at him incredulously. Said nothing else. Took a drink from his water bottle to help the two pills he had under his tongue to go down easier, and walked across to Maddie.

‘You okay?’

‘Yeah, I’m cool, Tom. Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘You just seem quiet. How does it feel to be back?’

‘I’m fine and it feels fine.’

‘You don’t have to pretend.’

Snapping, Maddie said, ‘Well you’d be the expert on that wouldn’t you? It’s a bit late to start worrying about me now… God, where did that come from? Sorry. I’m just tired. Listen, why don’t we go straight to the address we’ve got once Tweety Pie over there finishes checking in.’

Cooper grinned. ‘I know, right. But as long as I’ve known Rosedale, he’s dressed like that. But don’t ever be fooled by him, when he wants to be he’s one of the most dangerous…’

‘Okay, guys, you want the good news or the bad?’ Rosedale’s voice boomed across the lobby, interrupting the rest of Cooper’s sentence. Then Maddie, with zero tolerance of Rosedale, sighed.

‘Just tell us already.’

‘Well the bad news is the booking’s been messed up and they’ve only got one room. But the good news is, it means you, little lady, will be sharing a bed with me, and maybe if you’re lucky, I’ll show you what a real Texan cowboy can do with his lasso.’