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doesn’t return Rhadi’s wave goodbye. They drive down the road.
    “He’s really cool,” Aliya says.
    “He’s all right, I guess,” unimpressed. “What’s in two weeks?”
    “He’s coming out to the camp so we can put an action plan together.”
    “To do what?”
    “Nothing in particular, yet.”
    “Watch yourself with him. He can be reckless. The lies on that case could have backfired. He doesn’t always lay out the best plans.”
    “Have you met me? My eyes are wide open. You’re just jealous.”
    Kennen swallows this hard and in complete denial. “How could I be jealous of that guy?  We’re just friends, Aliya.”
    She daydreams, gazing out the window at the wonder of this new world before her.
    #
    About an hour further along on their journey to Camp Kivuli, they approach some mean-looking guys who are parked on the side of the long dirt road. It is midday and the sun is high and hot.
    Kennen puts Aliya’s hat on her head.
    She takes it off, thinking he’s being playful and flirting.
    Kennen warns, “Put it on for now.”
    “I put on sunblock.”
    He puts it back on her head.
    She takes it off.
    “What? Are we gonna have to have this talk again? I told you I...”
    “No. It’s not that.”
    As they pass the parked car, the rough guys, looking through their window, set their eyes on Aliya. Aliya finally sees them.
    “It’s them.”
    “Seriously?”
    The drawn look on Kennen’s face assures her how very serious he is.
    “You want me to hide my skin? You are out of your effing mind.”
    “Bandits on this road pulled three cars over the other day. Killed everyone in them. And they weren’t even albino. I hate to think what they’d do to you.”
    She clenches her hat in her hand as she stares back at the men and deflects, “Who says ‘bandits’ any more?”

 
    9
     
    She Knew

    July 15
     
    Jalil is on the same road to Geita that Aliya traveled some weeks earlier. They’ve picked up more aides so it’s much tighter in the van. Rolf and Jalil now share a double seat, which is too small for them. It keeps them awkwardly close, but these men have smelled each other up close in bunkers for days at a stretch. They haven’t grown too soft to take this now.
    “Old friend, I must be honest with you. There is very little hope that Aliya is alive. And there is little I can offer to help find her.”
    Jalil glares at him with surprise.
    “I’m trying to save the lives of 138,000 Burundians. Can’t turn my back on them to try to find your daughter. You can’t ask me to.” Rolf takes out the paper he had been writing on when Jalil had walked into his office and hands it to him. “Here. Go see the District Magistrate Luamke. Aliya made quite an impression on him at a party I had. It was the one time I saw her.”
    “How did she make an impression?”
    “Called him out on a recent ‘trial,’ if you can call it that. Three men killed an albino boy and were released without a trial.”
    “Released?”
    “No one will prosecute them. They don’t want the bush knife coming down on them.”
    “Even the magistrate?”
    “Bureaucracy, politics, call it what you will. I wrote down Luamke’s address and that of the head of the regional police, Akida. I don’t know him.”
    “Who else was at your party? Will you give me a list?”
    “I’ll have my secretary get it to you, but I doubt anyone there had anything to do with it. You know me well enough to know that all my friends aren’t saints, but this would be well outside what I’d expect of anyone I’d invite in.”
    The squeaks and rocking of the van seats lull them. They both grow quiet and watch out the window.
    #
    Hours later, the paved road turns to dirt and kicks up dust. The industrial whistle of the Geita Mines blows. The van passes miners who are making their way off the property on foot after their shift. Jalil is watching them. He palms his phone and looks at the same picture of Aliya.
    Rolf sees it from over Jalil’s