Chapter 151

He approached the lying bodies to turn them face up. He bent down and examined them, his face contorted with anger, shaking their heads and limbs roughly. His whiskers were trembling. Sifah and Zaira returned a few minutes later, the lioness-girl sheltering inside the camouflage coat that covered her mid-thigh. Again, our eyes turned to her, but my father focused on what was important. He limped toward Kabir.

“Do you recognize them?” he asked the lion impatiently.

“That’s Gazini, there’s his scar. And I think this is Mwenye.”

“Friends of yours?” the sheriff’s wife asked this time.

“Two of the men who were escorting Haydar on the plane to France,” the princess responded, her voice hoarse. “I think we can assume that the rest refused to cooperate and are dead; my brother wouldn’t mince words. Look at the wounds on their necks, their track tags have been ripped off too. That’s why we couldn’t find them before.”

Kabir’s prominent jaw tightened, and that sam