Chapter 2: Breakout in the Rainy Night

The rain was still falling, only changed from a downpour to a fine curtain. Ayo crouched at the mouth of the tunnel, pressing the last fragment of afterimage into his memory. Before the collapse, someone had shone a mining lamp down this abandoned roadway, and in the lamplight there had been a string of blurred numbers, like coordinates.

Kofi stood behind him, gripping a sodden gun in his hand. "Are you sure this is the road?"

"Sure." Ayo stood up and wiped the mud from his face. "Afterimages do not lie. Someone has walked here, more than once."

They walked deeper along the roadway. The air smelled of rust and damp earth, and most of the sleepers underfoot were rotten, giving a dull creak when stepped on. Kofi walked ahead, sweeping his flashlight across the walls on both sides, where the faces blasted open by explosives still kept their rough, jagged edges, plainly not formed by nature.

"This tunnel has not been used for at least twenty years." Kofi said. "But look at these marks. Someone has cleared it recently."

Ayo nodded. He had noticed it already. The pile of rubble at the tunnel entrance showed clear signs of clearing, as if someone had deliberately kept this passage open. It reminded him of the blurred figure in the afterimage, a person carrying a heavy basket on his back, hurrying as if fleeing something.

In the middle of the tunnel they found an abandoned duty room. The wooden door stood half open, and inside lay scattered empty wine bottles and a pile of mildewed paper. Ayo picked up a sheet and, by Kofi's flashlight, made out a crudely drawn map marking the positions of several mine shafts. One of them had been circled twice in red pen, with a line of small writing beside it: drop point.

Kofi leaned over for a look, and his face darkened. "That is Kwame's handwriting."

"Are you sure?"

"I did business with him for three years. I know his hand." Kofi pointed at the red circle. "This is a code black-market ore dealers commonly use. A drop point is where they trade ore in private."

Ayo folded the paper and put it in his pocket. Now everything made sense. Kwame appeared to be a respectable mine contractor, but in secret he was colluding with black-market ore dealers, smuggling high-grade ore out and using the abandoned tunnel as a transport channel. The storm blocking the highway was exactly the accident they feared most, because there were too many eyes on that road.

"So Kwame does not care about the mine collapsing at all." Ayo said. "What he cares about is this tunnel."

Kofi was silent for a while, then nodded. "For this channel, he may even be deliberately creating chaos. Storm, collapse, delayed rescue. All of it is cover for black-market trading."

The tunnel exit lay halfway up the hill behind the mine, hidden by a dense thicket. Pushing the branches aside, they saw the rain had eased a good deal outside, and a few lamps glimmered faintly in the valley in the distance. Kofi said that was the station of the mine's remaining staff, but they could not go back yet. Kwame's men were certainly searching for them everywhere.

"We have to leave quickly." Ayo said. "In the afterimage there is a wooden house on the ridge to the northeast. A person lives there named Amina. She used to be a geologist at the mine, but she was dismissed after exposing the truth about a mine disaster. She must hold evidence of Kwame colluding with black-market ore dealers."

Kofi raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

"Afterimage." Ayo answered simply.

They followed the mountain path along the ridge for most of the night. The rain had stopped, the air was bitterly cold, and moonlight leaked through gaps in the clouds, turning the mountain road deathly white. Ayo walked ahead and Kofi brought up the rear. They spoke no unnecessary words, and there was only the sound of footsteps and the occasional call of a mountain bird in the distance.

At daybreak they saw the wooden house. It stood alone on the hillside, its roof covered with iron sheeting, faint cooking smoke rising from its chimney. A slim woman was drying herbs on the open ground in front of the door. Hearing footsteps, she turned and looked them over sharply.

"Ms. Amina?" Ayo asked.

The woman did not answer. She only stared at their soaked clothes and mud-covered boots, and after a long while she finally spoke. "Who are you? Why have you come here?"

Ayo briefly explained why they had come. He spoke of the storm, the abandoned tunnel, the afterimage, and Kwame's dealings with black-market ore dealers. Amina listened, her expression never changing, until Ayo mentioned the drop point on the map, when her eyes flickered slightly.

"You brought that paper out?" she asked.

Kofi took the crumpled paper from inside his coat and handed it over. Amina took it, examined it carefully, and then looked up, her gaze growing complicated.

"Do you know what Kwame is trading?" she said. "Not ore. Radioactive mine slag. He has been selling the mine's discarded slag to the black market, where it is processed into industrial raw material with no protection at all, and people have no idea of its danger. That is why he needs this tunnel. Regular transport would be tested. The black market will not test it."

Ayo and Kofi exchanged a glance. They had guessed Kwame was dirty, but they had not expected him to be this dirty.

"I need you to do one thing for me." Amina folded the paper and put it into her own pocket, her voice calm but firm. "I have been collecting evidence against Kwame for two years, but I have always lacked one thing, his money-laundering ledger. That ledger is in the safe at his house. Help me get it, and I will hand over everything I have, including where that slag goes and the list of buyers involved."

She paused, her gaze sweeping across both their faces. "This is a deal. If you accept, we cooperate. If you do not, please leave now."

Wind swept over the ridge, rattling the roof of the wooden house. Ayo looked into Amina's eyes and knew there was no room to bargain. He turned to look at Kofi, who was silent for a moment and then slowly nodded.

"Deal." Ayo said.

Amina did not smile. She only turned and pushed open the door of the wooden house. "Come in. Eat something hot first. Tonight I will tell you the layout of Kwame's house, and the model of the safe."

Sunlight after the rain leaked through gaps in the clouds and fell on the open ground before the wooden house. Ayo crossed the threshold and smelled herbs and old books. He knew that from this moment on, there was no turning back on this road.