Chapter 26

The first thing Luyanda decided to do was to see Ma Selina. He had procrastinated long enough. If Uru did not want him to see her, there was a good reason for it. And he was determined to find out why.
He decided to go immediately. He had a free period that morning. That would be enough time to go to Rochester and hopefully, be back in time for his next class. As soon as his African Oral History lecture ended, he bounded out of the lecture hall and headed to the nearest bathroom. He spotted a convenient shadow, waited until the coast was clear, and melted into it.
He flew through the dark of the day. He resurfaced in the shade of one of the trees in the swamp near the bus stop. From the edge of the swamp, he looked down into the sprawling chaos. He wondered how on earth he was going to find his way to Ma Selina’s house. He thought he had a pretty good idea, but he had learnt not to trust himself when it came to directions. Yet, he didn’t have much time. He took a deep breath, hitched up his backpack, and set off down the path. He breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized the winding lane that led to Ma Selina’s house. In a few minutes, he saw the well maintained house a short way ahead him. There was a group gathered around the house. Some sat on the bench. Some stood. Most were singing a slow, sad song. He cringed. He had been hoping to meet her alone, and get the whole thing over and done with as quickly as possible. Now it looked as though he would have to wait until she was free to speak to him. He was glad he had the money. That would probably speed things up.
As he came closer, he realized that the group gathered around the house consisted entirely of women. They wore sombre looks. He nodded at them. Some nodded back. One of the women intoned a new song, and the others joined in sadly. At that moment, Gigi stepped out of the house and joined the women outside. Her face was ashen with grief. Luyanda approached her.
“Gigi.”
She gasped in surprise.
“Luyanda, right?”
“Yes.”
“It was very kind of you to come. How did you find out?”
Luyanda gave her a questioning glance.
“Find out about what? I have an appointment with Ma Selinah.”
Gigi’s face drooped. She stood up.
“Come with me,” she said, and took Luyanda by the hand. She led him a few paces away and turned to face him. She dabbed some tears from her eyes and blew her nose.
“What’s wrong, Gigi? What’s happening?”
“Ma Selinah is gone.”
“Gone where?”
“She passed on last night.”
Luyanda’s heart fell into his stomach. In one instant, all his cherished hopes came crumbling down.
“I am sorry,” Gigi said. “It was all so sudden.”
“Yes,” he stammered. “Yes, it was.”
“Of course she was old. But she was still strong. I guess when someone gets to that age, you have to be prepared for anything. But still, it was all so weird and sudden.”
“Why? What happened?”
“The neighbours heard her scream and rushed over. But by the time they got to her shack, she was gone. It must have been a sudden heart attack.”
Uru’s words echoed in his head. He had said that Luyanda’s decision would affect everyone he knew. Luyanda’s mind raced. Was Uru somehow involved in Selina’s death. No, that could not be possible.
“Are you okay?” Gigi’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“I have to go,” Luyanda stammered. “I am sorry for your loss.” He wheeled around and raced down the path.
He had to get to university as soon as he possibly could. He needed to speak to Keita. He was certain that, somehow, Uru was behind it all. Keita had instructed him to keep his eyes and is open. And now, he had finally found something.
He melted into the shadows by the swamp near the shacks, and passed from shadow to shadow rapidly. Ten minutes later, he re-emerged in one of the bathrooms of the university. He sprinted out the door, and bounded down the corridor towards Keita’s office. He skidded to a halt outside Keita’s door, glanced at the time to make sure that he wouldn’t be in a class, and sure that he’d be in his office, he knocked hard on the door.

There was no response. He swore under his breath, and dashed off down the stairs. He glimpsed Keita’s shiny, bald head bobbing along, heading up the corridor. He sprinted towards him.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Keita said, when Luyanda caught up with him.
“Worse,” Luyanda replied. He pulled Keita to the side of the corridor, and told him everything that had just happened.
“That’s very bad,” Keita said, when Luyanda had finished his tale.
“Bad? Is that all you can say? The man is a murderer.”
“You and I know that. But we don’t have any proof.”
“We have to stop stalling. We can no longer afford to sit tight, twiddling our thumbs. We have to move.”
“Lower your voice please,” Keita said. He cast a wary glance around the corridor as a bunch of giggling students sauntered past them. “So what do you expect us to do?” he continued.
“I don’t know. Maybe we can get the police involved. We can’t pin him for murder because we’ve got zero evidence. But I’m sure it’s illegal to carry out genetic experiments on people without their consent.”
“Ha! Knowing what you know about Uru, do you think there’s any prison that could hold him?”
Luyanda didn’t answer. He hadn’t thought about that.
“I am sure you see that that is possibly one of the worst moves that you could make?”
“Oh, and you have a better idea?”
Keita nodded.
“What?”
“You know what it is.”
Luyanda’s jaw dropped.
“No. No more waiting,” Luyanda said. “I’m tired of us sitting around doing nothing.”
“That’s not what I said,” Keita corrected him. “Waiting isn’t doing nothing. It’s watching, and listening, and mustering strength to respond when the opportunity is right. Like an animal on the hunt. That’s what we are doing: we are lying in wait.”
“For how long?”
“A hunter never knows when he will catch his prey. All that he knows is that his life depends on getting his timing right.”
Luyanda groaned. The last thing he needed was poetic, airy-fairy wisdom. He wanted a concrete plan, a hard strategy. Keita saw the incredulity on his face.
“You don’t seem convinced?”
“No, I’m not,” Luyanda admitted, “but I’ll give this waiting thing a try. See if it will lead to anything.”
“It always does,” Keita responded. “Inevitably. I think you ought to get to your next class. Don’t you?”

Luyanda bit back his irritation and made his way to his next lesson. Keita was out of his mind. The time for waiting was over. It was time to move. The longer they waited, the harder it would be to stop Uru. Though they didn’t have much to go on, he was sure that they could at least make him answer to some charges about carrying out illegal experiments.
He voiced his thoughts to Nomsa as they waited for Dr. Kanu to arrive for their lecture. Jabu was seated at the far end of the room, acting as though Luyanda and Nomsa didn’t exist.
“I think that Keita is right,” Nomsa replied. “Think about it. Uru could wiggle out of that charge really easily.”
“Not if you and I testify against him.”
Nomsa shot a glance towards Jabu.
“You realise if Jabu and the others have their say, it would be our word against theirs?”
“Then we’d need to get more evidence. Something fool proof.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?”
“I don’t know,” Luyanda said, shrugging his shoulders. “I haven’t thought that far. But I’m sure that he must have left some evidence, must have left some kind of…” His face lit up in realisation.
“That’s it!”
“What’s it?” Nomsa asked.
“Jabu!” Luyanda dropped his voice to harsh whisper.
“Jabu’s the one that’s been helping him carry out the experiments.”
“Sorry I’m lost,” Nomsa whispered back.
“Think about it. Jabu’s been missing in action quite a lot lately. And he’s the only one that has access to the kind of equipment that Uru would need to create the elixirs that he did. I think the two of them have been working together.”
Nomsa nodded slowly, and leaned back in her seat. Dr. Kanu walked in at the moment, and silence descended upon the class as the students settled down for her lesson.
“It makes sense,” Nomsa whispered. “But you need to be one hundred percent sure.”
“Leave it to me,” Luyanda said. “I will find a way.”

He could barely concentrate during the rest of the class, and was one of the first people to rise to his feet when the lecture ended.
“Hey, Jabu!” Luyanda called out, and pushed his way past the students streaming out the door of the classroom. Jabu was already a few metres ahead, having made a beeline for the door once Dr. Kanu had ended the class. Jabu froze in his steps as Luyanda elbowed his way towards him.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m alright,” Jabu replied mechanically.
“Do you have a moment to talk?”
“What do you want?”
Luyanda forced a smile onto his face.
“I just needed your help with something,” he said. “It won’t take a minute.”
“I hope not,” Jabu replied, “Because I’ve got a meeting with Uru right now.”
“That’s actually what I wanted to ask you about. I noticed that you two have been spending quite a bit of time together lately.”
“So what? How is that your business?”
“You’re right. It’s not. I just wanted to find out what he thought about the way that I’ve been working at the museum. If he’s happy with my work and stuff.”
“I don’t see why he’d tell me that. Why don’t you just ask him directly?”
“I just thought that, you know, maybe he’d have mentioned something to you?”
“No, he hasn’t. We discuss far more important things.”
“Like how to create gene altering mixtures?”
Jabu stiffened and folded his arms across his chest.
“I think you’d better ask Dr. Uru that,” he snapped. “Are we done here? I’ve got to go.”
Without another word, he spun around and tramped away. He shot a sidelong glance at Nomsa, who was hanging around near the door, chatting with Gina. Nomsa peered at him as he walked past, then turned towards Luyanda. Luyanda walked up to her.
“And?” she asked.
Luyanda nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing as he followed Jabu’s disappearing down the passage.
“I think I know exactly where to get the evidence we need to nail these guys,” he said. “Now we just have to figure out how.”

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