​The summit reconvenes. The mood is expectant, yet jittery, hope and fear hang in the air in equal measure.

Heads of state hope The Method Committee that had been formed the previous evening has done its work and found a method they will use to choose between Way
Omega and Path Alpha. They fear their pick of committee leader might have killed this prospect even before it was born.

President Bangoura, the chair of the committee, has surprisingly told the heads of state that he had not read and will never read the documents.

There is a change in the sitting arrangement: Minister Zinto has moved to a place farther from the summit chair to create space for President Bangoura, the chair of The Method Committee.

The other two remain at the places they had sat before. Among the observers at the back row are three new presences:

Mr. Robert Manley, the chief of the local VOA bureau, Ms. Fiona McKenzie and Mr.Nicolas Sentinel.

Mr. Longway, Prof. Kimani and Pastor Chiamaka except Comrade Melusi are present. Comrade Melusi is not around because he was arrested the previous evening. The chair of the summit calls the
meeting to order and gets straight to the main business. He asks the chair of The Method Committee to present to the summit the findings on the wayforward on choosing between Way Omega and Path Alpha.

President Bangoura, the chair of The Method committee, makes his presentation.

The method they had settled on as a committee was a table with four cells. They called it The Choice Matrix. He further gives more details and explaines on how the method works.

Minister Zinto questions the method and terms it a total nonsense. Dr. Afolabi also petitions the method. He says The Choice Matrix sounds complicated. Trouble looms. Sensing trouble, the chair quickly moves in to avert trouble before it erupts.
He asks members to break for 15 minutes for a breather.

When the summit resumes, the breather seems to have done its expected job. It had rejuvenated the old man (chair) with second round youth.

President Bangoura picks up from where he had left. HC calls the chair of the summit, Minister Zinto and Dr. Afolabi in front to where he is standing and tosses a coin.

From the two tosses, it is decided and declared that Path Alpha was the choice.
To cap the meeting, Pinnacle Hotel informs the summit that ithas organized a closing ceremony on the mezzanine floor.

The summit is then declared officially closed. President Dibonso challenges the decision that Path Alpha has won. He also challenges the method used: The Choice Matrix.

An argument between him and the chair begins. President Dibonso pulls out a pocket size pistol, the other heads of state scramble to hide under their desks.

The summit chair presses a panic button hidden under his desk. Commandos armed with machine guns burst into the summit hall. They cock their guns. President Dibonso disables his little gun, hides it away and then slipps through an emergency exit.

All other heads of state rush to the exits swearing not to return for the summit's closing ceremony.

The commandos then escort the chair out of the summit hall. Mr. Manley and Nick

leave for their places of work; so are Dr. Afolabi and Ms. McKenzie.

Mr. Longway and his three other men (Prof. Kimani, Pastor Chiamaka and Engineer Tahir) are last to leave. As they are leave, they hug and cheer. Against all odds, their Path Alpha had carried the day.

Dr. Afolabi visits Fiona Mckenzie. He follows the directions he had been given by her.
He is warmly welcomed. It's evening. A few minutes later, there's a knock at the door.
Nicolas Sentinel comes in.

Dr. Afolabi and Mr. Nicolas Sentinel meet face to face for the first time. Dr. Afolabi has been looking forward to this great opportunity. He thanks Nick for having given him the tip of The Trick that enabled him manage to put Path Alpha on the summit's agenda.

Dr. Afolabi says that African prcsidcnts condemn trouble nnakcrs but ironically some of them are troublc makers. If the heads of state would have had prior knowledge of The Trick, they would have plotted mischief against it.

Nick reveals that his silent listener has told him that a method for choosing between Way Omega and Path Alpha had been found and that The Method Committee has named it The Choice Matrix.

Dr. Afolabi has organized for observer status for Ms. Fiona McKenzie at the summit the following day and he says he can do the same for Nick. Nick accepts and says he could ask his boss Bob (Mr. Robert Manley) to tag along.
They both leave, Nick first then followed by Dr. Afolabi.

​The national anthem for Gambia, our homeland strikes The Gambian president stands up and marches to the speaker's microphone and seated before him are 49 fellow heads of state.

​He digs out from a breast pocket a prepared speech. He then reads it. In his short speech he avers that the task of the summit is to adopt a common growth strategy for their people: Way Omega. Then he officially opens the meeting.

H.E Miniko Menkiti, president of an important country is the chair after the Gambian president declined. Flanking the chair on his left and right are two other summiteers: Mr. Tiku Zinto on his right, a Minister of Development Planning in an Island country.

Dr. Afolabi, here as an advisor is to the help the summit along if asked to is sitting on the chair's left.

The chair calls Mr. Tiku Zinto as the first speaker. He underscores the need for change and is in support of Way Omega.

Dr. Afolabi is the next speaker. In his seven minutes, he makes two requests. One, to share the seven minutes with the five friends and two he presents another document he would say something about if he were given 15 minutes.

The chair accepts the two requests despite protests from Mr. Tiku Zinto.

The document titled Path Alpha is distributed. Dr. Afolabi as he had requested shares his seven minutes with friends who want to greet the summit: Tad Longway, Chineke Chiamaka, Prof. Kimani, Engineer Tahir and Comrade Melusi.

Comrade Melusi during his time to greet the summit, does not speak, he marches to where the ruler of Zimbabwe is he wants to avenge his wife Ziliza.

Pandemonium reigns in every corner of the summit hall. Only after great effort does the chair manage to restore order.

Dr. Afolabi then concludes by saying he had read both documents: Way Omega and Path Alpha very carefully and his opinion is that Way Omega is big on ideas and Path Alpha small (on ideas), on the other hand he says Way Omega is weak on the implementation of those ideas while Path Alpha is strong.

The debate by the heads of state gets off at a sluggish start. The heads of state then take a break and come back after an hour. Some of the presidents who make their contributions are Didier Bangoura, Simba Ibarosa, King Jemba Jemba IV, Bibo Dibonso and Wasi Wasi Wesiga. The latter is able to spot brewing trouble and introduces a new idea: The Trick. He proposes two measures to relieve tension: adjournment of the session and two to ask a small group among the presidents i.e Simba Ibarosa, Yamlaza Gamlozi and Didier Bangoura to form a committee and see how best the summit can proceed from that point.

The meeting is adjourned.

​Pastor Chiamaka goes through the Pinnacle Hotel's security clearance formalities without difficulty and enters the dining room with ease.

According to the program, heads of state should have had a small dinner at the Pinnacle Hotel the day before the real banquet on the last day of their summit. That small dinner at the Pinnacle Hotel dinner was cancelled without explanation. So Chiamaka's intended plan to meet his president and ask him about Way Omega failed.

Chiamaka's mobile phone rings, he picks it up. The caller on the other end is in jovial mood. It is the guide calling. The guide informs Pastor Chiamakathat he has scheduled a meeting that is soon to bring together Chiamaka and four other people alongside the guide.

Pastor Chineke Chiamaka is invited to room 2059, central wing of The Seamount Hotel. This is the room where the guide is.

Meanwhile, as Comrade Melusi is in bed flat on his back, day dreaming about his late wife, Ziliza, and reaches for his wallet and pulls out her photograph, his mobile phone rings.He answers. The caller reminds Melusi how he almost failed the security test when the security officers nearly uncovered him.

Comrade Melusi is also invited to the very meeting in an hour's time without fail.
Comrade Melusi returns to the wife's photograph. In an apostrophe, he promises his late wife (photograph) that he will see to it that the person who killed her shall die to underscore this promise, he rises on his feet, stands at attention, executes a wobbly salute and intones an oath. The following day, he swears he will have revenge.

In the meantime, as Prof. Kimani is brushing his teeth , readyino for bed, the mirror before him shows he was loose everywhere; his belly hungs over his belt like a half empty sack. Loose. He tries to suck it in. it stays put. His face had wrinkles like a dry prune. Loose. The folds of his skin ran on the left and right of his nose down to the left and right sides of the mouth. Loose. He tried to smile them away. They refuse to leave. The flesh under his chin hungs and shakes. Loose. Was getting old a process of wholesale loosening?

His mobile phone interrupts his analysis. Prof Kimani is invited in an hour's time alongside others to room 2059, central wing of The Seamount Hotel.

Elsewhere, Engineer Tahir is all set to turn in. his phone rings while he is still engrossed in thoughts about his eye. The caller had left a note for Engineer Tahir about an hour ago. HC gets the note. The caller reminds him that they will meet in an hour's time, room 2059, central wing.

The material day is here. Dr. Afolabi arrives early. Mr. Tad Longway had requested to come early to broach the meeting with him before if began.

Other participants of the meeting arrive. When all have taken their seats, Mr. Longway rises since he knows them all and they didn't know each other. He leads them through introduction.

Mr. Longway turnsto serious business. He tells the four that ostensibly that at the summit as observers were there for four reasons. Dr. Afolabi then takes over to describe how the mission is to be executed. Dr. Afolabi introduces himself and tells them that he is the one previously known as guide. The four could not believe their eyes and ears.

Dr. Afolabi explains that he had been invited to the summit as an advisor for Way Omega, while the four havr come as advocates of Path Alpha, a rival group. Such being the case, he feels he can not openly work with them without appearing to undermine his official role. He also discloses that he studied closely both PathAlpha and Way Omega closely and feels duty-bound to balancehis views on each of the documents in the advice he will give to the summit.

He seeks for their forgiveness under the prevailing circumstances. They agree with him.

Dr. Afolabi shares that nations don't host summits just for the sake of amusing foreign visitors and Gambia is no exception.

They do so out of self-interest and their presidents themselves usually accept the honor of serving as summit chair, but this time round Gambia's president declines the honor because he expects the summit to turn bitter and the chair to end up pleasing some heads of state and displeasing others. Since he reckons he can serve his country's interest best if he pleases all and displeases none.

Dr. Afolabi indicates that it's important to take care of this unique situation because the new chair has up his sleeves, a play he calls The Trick which is good for them.
This play opens the door for Path Alpha.

Dr. Afolabi proposes that they go and think about the whole thing so that the following day in the summit during the speaker's microphone session, they raise the issue at hand.

​The youth (Nick) phones her immediately after lunch Fiona McKenzie goes to see Nicolas Sentinel in his office. She's told to meet the silent listener.

From the recordings on the silent listener, Nick says that there could be something fishy going on at the summit; a secret agenda by people whose identities are yet to be figured out beyond their names. There is a network of people whom he refers to as nodes. Four nodes (people) are not connected to each other.

There are conversations over cell phones between a man and four others. While the other man knew names of the other four, he insisted they just call him guide, a fake name. it turns out the guide is a hub-node then those other nodes are the four men:
Prof. Kimani, Comrade Mclusij PastorChiamaka and Engineer Tahir. The nodes are at The Seamount Ilotel.

Nick says he uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a way of deterrnining location.

The four nodes are not in communication with each other. All the four are communicating to only one person- their guide, the hub-node. He is their leader. He is also within The Seamount Hotel, second floor, central wing. Meanwhile, at The Seamount Hotel's reception hall guests are flowing in.

McKenzie navigates her way across the hall, dodging guests and then makes some inquiries at the reception desk.

It's later revealed the person on the second floor, central wing room 2059 is Tad Longway.

Fiona McKenzie has come to check on Dr. Afolabi. In due course, she gathers more details about the hub-node on the central wing, second floor.

Using the telephone booth at the hotel, she calls Tad Longwaye She notices that Tad Longway had dropped an article that looked valuable, The article is in her custody.

She calls and manages to convince him to collect his article. He came over. They met. She hands over the article. She gives him a key card to her office at VOA.
He looks at the key card and returns it back to her. Mr. Tad Longway offers to buy a drink for Fiona McKenzie.

Elsewhere, Dr. Afolabi as he is preparing to go to bed, going through the notes on the presidents' debate one more time, someone knocks at the door. It is Ms Fiona McKenzie. He usheres her in. They share pleasantries.

Ms Fiona McKenzie informs Dr. Afolabi that she has tracked Mr. Longway and inquires if Dr. Afolabi knows him, after some hesitation he agrees that he knows him.
Mr. Longway and four other people alongside Dr. Afolabi, working from the periphery of the Summit, their guide, want the summit to adopt Path Alpha instead of Way Omega. The two are rival groups.

The greatest challenge is that Path Alpha is not even on the summit's agenda so Mr.
Longway and his accomplices want Dr. Afolabi to help them get Path Alpha on the summit's agcnda.

Dr. Afolabi came to advocate for Way Omega and he will. However, in doing so, hewill draw in other alternatives including Path Alpha.
Dr. Afolabi on learning that Nick is the source of all the information about the five people, he's keen on meeting Nick.

​After graduating from Abdelaziz Academy in Tripoli, Libya, Engineer Seif Tahir had left Libya and gone to study weapons development at the University of Paris. Some skeptics scoffed at him.

He returned from overseas (France) on the day the leader of Libya was celebrating his twentieth year in power. The leader's opponents were not happy with these celebrations. Engineer

Tahir dismissed them as "crackpots left alone and ignored." He believed the ruler had the right vision for Libya and so was the right person to rule it. He defended the ruler.

Engineer Tahir joined the "Fist for Allah" after his return from the overseas. In a happy coincidence, the leader of Libya adored the "Fist of Allah." He gave it all the money it asked for.

Al-Qaeda struck on the American soil. The leader of Libya knew America would retaliate and not necessarily with bounds of reason. He scrambled for his bases to shield Libya from America's revenge. He even dismantled thc "Fist of Allah" itself.

Engineer Tahir would have learnt to live with anything but not with the dismantling of the "Fist of Allah." This was the beginning of Tahir's dislike for the leader. The dismantling of the "Fist of Allah" was shirq or sacrilege, an offense so dreadful that it was eternally unforgivable.

Angry beyond words, Engineer Tahir now hated the man he had once liked. No more was the leader of Libya his hero. He had become a villain.
Meanwhile, dismantling of the "Fist of Allah" coincided with the peaking of unrelated crisis: "the accident."

Engineer Tahir fell in love with Rahma Mahmoud, a female member of the "Fist of Allah" and Engineer Tahir's junior staff mate at the weapons laboratory. He approached her. She did not say anything. Later, she smiled and after sometime, she said no.
Engineer Tahir misinterpreted the sweet no to a sour no and reacted to it violently.
Unwisely, he vowed to retaliate.

Engineer Tahir slapped Rahma Mahmoud in the name of administering discipline to her for shedding her head veil in public which was in violation of the Libyan culture.
But the truth was he did it to take revenge against someone who he thought had rejected his advances.

Discipline, revenge or whatever it in fact was, Rahma, did not take it lying low. She struck back and hit his left eye and slit it open. That was "the accident." Engineer Tahir lost his left eye.

Engineer Tahir was hospitalized and discharged after a month. Turned bitter and vengeful, Engineer Tahir to Ms. Mahmoud to court. After proceedings, the made a ruling basing on Hammurabic verdict: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
With this ruling, Rahma Mahmoud also lost her left eye through surgery.

Engineer Tahir sank into deep gloom. He refused to shake it off even after friends talking to him. When they (friends) persisted, he left Tripoli and moved east to live alone in Benghazi.

There were two reasons for Engineer Tahir's gloom. One was object, forcing and lifeless. He got it after losing an eye in what he used to call "the accident." The other was "the effect", deep and weakening. This he got when he decided to have an artificial replacement for the eye he had lost.

While at Benghazi, Engineer Tahir ran into a green-eyed stranger at a street-side café.
The two got talking, mostly about the history of Libya; one such story was that Libya was inhibitedby Phoenicians and Greeks.

The other man said he was a Berber. The two had long conversations about Libya.
The visitor introduced himself as Mr. Tad Longway.
Mr. Tad Longway described the mission that had brought him to Benghazi. Engineer Tahir enlisted on the spot.

In a flashback, the chapter introduces a reckless driver. The reckless driver is Chineke Chiamaka. Most people hated him for this careless and reckless driving except for one person; his brother Obinna an evening student at the University of Lagos. Chineke Chiamaka adores Lagos.

One evening after dropping off his younger brother Obinna, Chineke Chiamaka was to drive to his office at Earth Movers Limited. Unfortunately, by taking the route he chose, he drove into trouble: Holy Camp.

Chiamaka drove against the flowing current of vehicles and rammed into a mean machine; a fire engine, massive and unstoppable. His Mercedes flew off the road and spun in the air several times before landing on the road again.

He escaped without serious injuries. The fire engine was nowhere. Not a single motorist stopped to check on him. That was the norm in Nigeria. Motorists never stopped at an accident scene on Nigerian highways.

Because of the many miracles he had witnessed, he turned to religion-he became a preacher. Chiamaka with time acquired preaching skills. He preached everywhere.

​One Sunday he gave a very powerful preaching captioned, "God is watching you." The sermon was excellent. It was witty and persuasive.

The sermon for the following Sunday was totally opposite: combative. He preached about the government's failure to deal with the issues bedeviling her nation.

The following morning (Monday) police picked him up and for the next two weeks he shared a rat-infested cell with smelly inmates. At the beginning of the third week, his jailers set him free. However, his luck was limited. The police banned him from preaching.

Two years later, a deep voice called him "Listen to good news about Africa." Good news for change. Now good news about Africa is hard to find and difficult to hear. So listen carefully. AGDA has just come up with a fresh approach to Africa's development: Path Alpha.

Pastor Chineke Chiamaka did not hear more. He signed.

​Before the summit begins, the host thinks he should break the ice by going from guest to guest to create rapport.

He first goes to the president of Nigeria because of what was discovered later on as the poles of influence: pure power, technology, simple alliances with one or more of the other poles and sheer obstinacy.

He shares light moments with the seventy- year-old, a full general but now retired.
Pastor Chiamaka sits in a back row among the observers following the summit keenly and quietly.

The host president then moves to the president of South Africa then to the president of Kenya for he knew the strategic importance of associating with these two countries after Nigeria.

Prof. Kimani is in the hall watching the president of Kenya at the back of the hall.

From here, he moves to greet the Zimbabwean president. In equal measure Comrade Melusi, now scowling at the man from a seat in a row back hates his president intensely.

Later, guided by the pole of influence that where everybody exercises powers within agreed rules, the simple refusal to abide by those rules exalts one as influential. The leader of Libya is good at this. On this account, the Gambian president (host) goes to greet the president of Libya. Engineer Tahir looks on uninterested. Engineer Tahir studies him from the back of the hall. Once he had been one of the man's greatest admirers, not any more.

​It's in Banjul, Gambia, the congregation venue for the summit. The summit kicks off.
​
Being the first day of the summit, the most important event of the day is the official opening of the summit. Key participants are the 50 heads of state.

Security at the venue is very tight. Comrade Ngobile Melusi waited in a line to be cleared, His turn finally comes. He is found with a needle, one of the many things disallowed into the hall. There is an argument between Comrade Melusi and the security officer but later on, he is cleared and allowed into the hall.

In the meantime, in a flashback, more details about Comrade Ngobile Melusi are divulged.

Comrade Melusi is having lunch with his visitor at Chaminuka restaurant in downtown, Harare. It's about 1:30 PM; the restaurant is empty except for the two:
Comrade Melusi and his visitor. The Zimbabweans did not eat in hotels anymore unless as now someone else was footing the bill. Their economy had crushed.

Lunch was the visitor's idea. There was a subject he wanted to discuss, he had told Melusi. His name is Tad Longway, a Director Special Projects at AGDA: Agency for Governance and Development in Africa.

The leader of Zimbabwe and Comrade Melusi had fought Smith side by side for years and that is why he used to call him comrade. Then Zimbabwe got her independence. A new national anthem was sang: in English, Blessed be the land of Zimbabwe,then in Shona, the language of Zimbabwe's largest ethnic group: Simudzaimureza weZimbabwe. In Ndebele (Melusi's mother tongue):
Kalibusisweilizwe leZimbabwe, national motto was "unity, freedom and work."

After all these, the new ruler did not appoint Comrade Melusi a minister after fighting for Zimbabwe together.

The ruler, a Shona, threw Melusi, a Ndebele out of government and he now deemed Melusi an opponent.

The leader of Melusi's group was sacked. When these news hit southern Zimbabwe where the Ndebele live, anti-government riots erupted. People went on rampage and attacked every government supporter foolish enough to come to their sight.

Retribution against them followed.

There swooped in the area the fifth brigade, better known as GUKURUHUNDI, Shona word for year's rainstorm that washes chaff off the fields so that soil tilling could start. It washed off the Ndebele insurgents like chaff. All this happened while Melusi was still at work, in a business office down town Bulawayo, the capital of Ndebele.

Comrade Melusi's wife, Ziliza, was one of those killed in the government's execution.
The ruler, a Shona, could not trust anybody away from his Shona tribesmen. To him, all Ndebeles, Melusi included had become rivals. The man had changed according to Melusi because he wanted to be life president.

Meanwhile, Comrade Melusi takes the visitor to Muponda restaurant at the northern edge of Harare for he had asked for traditional food.

Melusi initiated an opposition group: The New Independence Party (NIP) and ran for president just to irritate the ruler. The ruler got 99% of the votes while Melusi and all other candidates shared the 1% in the elections.

Elections had been preceded by a drought, thc worst of the time until the ruler declared it a national disaster. Moreover, the international community clamped on Zimbabwe a program called Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) with this they knew the ruler would flop for everything spelt defeat, so his win was through rigging elections.

Opposition leaders refused to unite and fight the common enemy. When they all lost, for half an hour they necdcd to declare that elections were a sham, they had to come together. Joint condemnation of the bungled elections led to disaffection. So Melusi went back to his business.

Inflation eroded incomes. Melusi relocated to a slum in a poor part of Harare. Then came Murambatsvina, Shona word for trash. Bull dozers went from one slum to the next evicting residents by tearing their homes to the ground.

All including Comrade Melusi were expelled without notice. Murambatsvina's real aim to the ruler was to prevent disease and crime. Instead, disease and crime increased. It is true the main aim was to punish the urban poor for supporting opposition parties.

Tad Longway cleared the hotel bill and reached out to his side pocket for another stack of American dollars and handed it to Comrade Melusi. Thereafter, he handed a document titled Path Alpha to him and told him that it contained the subject matter hewanted them to discuss i.e. mobilizing discontent with Africa in its present state into will to change it.

Tad Longway asks Comrade Melusi if he would join the movement.

​Before Dr. Afolabi was invited to Banjul to serve as an advisor to summit of heads of state, he had previously been guest at the Foundation for Democratic Rule in Washington to give a key note address at the annual conference.

Dr. Afolabi was married to Pamela from Boston, US.

Dr. Afolabi's invitation to Washington had given the couple a chance to visit Pamela's father, a widower who lived in Boston.

Dr. Afolabi fondly remembers Pamela's dad through a watch that could help one check pressure, memory among other things.

Dr. Afolabi while walking about Boston, he bought a razor at five dollars and twentythree cents. Later, he rejoins his wife at her father's home.

Later, while in a flight out of Washington back to Nigeria, Dr. Afolabi meets Tad Longway. Mr. Longway is the Director of special projects at the Agency for Governance and Development in Africa (AGDA). The two exchange pleasantries and contacts. From their talk, Tad Longway had listened to Dr. Afolabi's address and liked it and termed it brilliant.

Mr. Longway says Africa in its present state has two new arrivals: corruption and impunity. HC asks Dr. Afolabi if he would be interested in the adventure that is being sponsored by AGDA whose underlying idea is mobilizc discontent with Africa in its present state into a will to change it. Dr. Afolabi consents.

Dr. Afolabi confirms to Mr. Tad Longway that heads of state had invited him to the summit to give them his views on Way Omega.

Mr. Tad Longway introduces and proposes an alternative to Way Omega, and that is Path Alpha which differs from the former like day and night. Whereas Way Omega istop driven and lacks the will for implementation, Path Alpha is bottom-led and has that will; therefore he asks Dr. Afolabi to guide four Path Alpha travelers and adherents whom AGDA is sending as observers to the very summit he'll be as an advisor.

Mr. Tad Longway hands Path Alpha document to Dr. Afolabi and asks him to remainwith Way Omega so that they could find a way to they could get to the summit.
Meanwhile, Dr, Afolabi and his wife, Pamela, are back in Nigeria.

Their houseboy reports that while the couple were away somebody came to their house uninvited. When questioned, Issa, the houseboy did not give an answer. In fact he says he let the person into their bedroom.

The uninvited man surfaces. Dr. Afolabi and the man converse in Yoruba. Pamela is dismayed at the unfolding. She learns in utter disbelief that her husband and the man in question knew each other very well.

Femi, the uninvited guest and with a scar, is a cousin to Dr. Afolabi. The two grew up together in Kaduna.

Under instructions from the family, Femi had brought a second wife to Dr. Afolabi without his consent because Pamela was not giving bath. Pamela was not happy.
Furious and angry, Pamela runs out only to reappear with a broomstick chasing the young girl (Nimbo) she had found in her matrimonial bed. Femi discloses that the folks back at home are the choreographers of the whole scheme.

Pamela is extremely annoyed with the scheme of having Nimbo as her co-wife. She is worked up! She demands that the two (Femi and Nimbo) must leave her house. Dr.Afolabi comes to their defense arguing that it's late at night and that if the two have to leave then that should be in the morning. Pamela still insisted that they should leave that night. Her demands fall on deaf ears.

Enraged at her husband's lackluster in handling the matter, Pamela leaves that very night.

A week later, Pamela calls Dr. Afolabi from her father's home in Boston. She informs him that she had filed a divorce.

​Ms. Fiona McKenzie gets into a taxi, leaves The Seamount Hotel and heads back to her office. She had indicated to her boss that she would be at the office in an hour's time.

It takes longer to get to the office because of the roadblocks that were basically everywhere.

She is stopped at Arch Number 22. The police wanted a bribe from the taxi driver, an unemployed graduate. So she reaches her workplace/office late.

Ms. McKenzie goes straight to see her boss who informs her that he is pulling her from her assignment at the summit at the Pinnacle Hotel. He explains himself. He seconds her to the VOA. She is now on a two-year loan from the Gambian News to the Voice of America with immediate effect.

In retrospect, there was a time when US policy forbade the Voice of America to broadcast in America. The image was bad for VOA. It had to go. The more reason VOA was employing non-Americans.

Mr. Robert Manley, chief of the bureau, met her at the entrance then led her to the office. Mr. Manley instructed her that because there was a breaking story, she would start her job immediately.

Her new pay is better than what Gambian News was offering and paying.

She is introduced to a staff mate, a new arrival from America, Nicolas Sentinel, a communications Technician.

The breaking story is that a summit of Africa's heads of state would begin shortly at the Pinnacle Hotel. Sentinel would be handy in her working. She learns that Sentinel has records of many proceedings in Gambia including Ms. McKenzie's interview with Dr. Afolabi. From the recordings, Sentinel confirms that there is a man talking to a total of four other men.

Ms. McKenzie is taken to her new office and Mr. Manley rushes to a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign affairs.

Meanwhile, Dr. Afolabi tosses in his bed sleeplessly for nearly an hour before he finally dozes off.

Dr. Afolabi's phone rings. He answers it is Miss Fiona Mckenzie Ms. McKenzie asks Dr. Afolabi if he could nicet her.

He comes out to meet her but does not find her. While he readies to go back to his room, a voicc of a woman, about 30 years cries out for help.

The young woman is in a company of a man. The hotel attendant looks detached and aloof.

The young woman being whisked away is noted to be McKenzie.

She shouts out Dr. Afolabi's name and this strikes him to rush to her aid.

Dr. Afolabi faces the alleged abductor who says he's Leo otherwise referred to as Liberian mauler.

A fight between Dr. Afolabi and Leo, the Liberian Mauler erupts. Dr. Afolabi wins the war and whisks McKenzie away to his room.

They go to Dr. Afolabi's suite where she scraps his face and he helps her change her clothing and freshen up.

In the meantime, a phone rings. The caller is Chineke Chiamaka After the call, his mood darkens.

Fiona McKenzie shares a lot about VOA and the story in Nicolas Sentinel's machine, silent listener, which has recorded so many things in the last two days.

They spent the night at Dr. Afolabi's suite.

​The chapter unfolds with a flashback into Prof. Kimani's life. Prof. Kimani joined the University of Nairobi directly as a senior lecturer straight from the University of Oxford where he studied.

A month after his arrival, Prof. Kimani launched a noisy debate in which he dcmandcd that thc Univcrsiy of Nairobi henceforth strive for bcing rclcvant to the society rather than simply focusing on dclivcring cxccllcncc in work, Six months later, his clarion call prevailed. The University's official motto became "Relevance to the society."

After winning this first war, he wedged another one which was even noisier. He wanted the university to be an agent of change not a mere spectator of it.

In the meantime, he married Asiya Omondi. He became a Professor and now felt complete.

A global economic recession hit Africa. Jobs and incomes shrank. To get out of the crisis, Africa had to make changes and donors were the architects of these proposed changes. Donors demanded for change and Africa obliged.

Prof. Kimani had a daughter, Tuni, a name she owes to Tunisia, her country of conception.

Parliament staged an economic coup to improve on their remunerations. When he started teaching, Members of Parliament (MP) earned less. what professors took home as salary. After the coup,
an MP rakes up to a hundred times the income of a professor.

A family discussion is underway between a father, mother and daughter. From the discussion, it's clear that the state has failed terribly in discharging its mandate and therefore the only way is to be the agent of change oneself.

Meanwhile, Tuni shares what an instructor told her on why women are susceptible and fall easy prey to predators as lack of awareness of where women are, a look of weakness & helplessness and a temptation to stray.

A comparison is drawn between Prof. Kimani and Newborn Walomu, professor's former junior colleague and now a Member of Parliament. From the comparison, Kimani who is stuck at the university, is doing poorly while Walomu is doing very well after joining politics and having become an MP.

Tuni, the only daughter and child to Prof. Kimani dies in a road accident. Tuni had to use public service vehicle because his father's car was not in good condition. This infuriated Asiya Omondi.

Prof. Kimani and his spouse Asiya Omondi were inconsolable over their daughter's death.

In the evening, Asiya drops a bombshell to her husband that she would be leaving.

She says Newborn Walomu, the MP and Professor's former junior colleague, had asked to marry her. Asiya Omondi feels Tuni would be alive if Prof. Kimani had — she wouldn't have used the public service vehicle a real car that caused the fatal accident.

She left the following morning to Newborn Walomu's place.

Prof. Kimani goes for Newborn Walomu and petitions why he had decided to take his wife. A scuffle begins at the MP's office. The police come in and arrest both.

Prof Kimani is charged with "assaulting a Member of Parliament." His university demotes him from a full Professor to a senior lecturer, the point he started at when he joined the university. A six months' jail term follows. He's a dejected man.

Meanwhile, Prof. Kimani hears a knock at the door.

A white man of about 50 is standing outside, ICs Mr. Tad Longway.
After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Longway asks Prof. Kimani to join AGDA whose mission is to question Africa's status quo.

He further asks him to follow Path Alpha, a strategy built on the idea that a present, public discontent exprcsscs itself in acts that cancel out instead of adding up.

Path Alpha will correct the anomaly by "mobilizing civic discontent into will to change." Mr. Longway tells Prof. Kimani if he joins Path Alpha he would go down for orientation at their headquarters in Cape Town and he will also attend the next summit of Africa's heads of state in Banjul, Gambia.

He's enlisted as a member of Path Alpha the following day. The loss of his daughter, desertion by his wife, mistreatment by his university and state had tested him hard and long. He had reached the boiling point.

Chapter Two (Pg.16-20)
At the Seamount Hotel

A mobile phone rings at The Seamount Hotel - west wing and pastor Chineke Chiamaka answers it; it is 9:00 p.m.

The caller wants to find out the progress. Pastor Chiamaka affirms that everything is fine. The caller inquires whether the briefcase is open and further asks what Pastor Chiamaka has seen in the briefcase. Pastor Chiamaka confirms that he sees a letter from Agency for Governance and Development in Africa (AGDA) and a copy of a document dubbed Way Omega. He also says he sees a copy of Path Alpha, the development strategy that AGDA believes is superior to Way Omega and that it hopes to slip in and replace Way Omega.

Pastor Chiamaka also confirms to have seen leaflets, pamphlets and brochures from AGDA. He further confirms to have seen the mobile phone he is using.

​The caller/guide is still reluctant to give his real name. The caller is the only one to initiate the conversation between them. The guide tells the pastor that they are on the same mission, so he should not worry. The caller further says he cannot share his name because he feels their mission is still at a very delicate stage.

AGDA asks Pastor Chiamaka to be fully familiar with both documents: Way Omega and Path Alpha. The caller reminds the Pastor that he had seen him at the bar at The Seamount hotel taking pepsi.

Meanwhile, another mobile rings at The Seamount Hotel's south wing. Comrade Melusi answers. Another phone rings in the east wing. Prof. Kimani takes the call.
Still another phone rings in the northern wing. Engineer Seif Tahir responds.

The time is now 11:00p.m

​CHAPTER SUMMARIES
Chapter one (Pg. 1-15)
The Four Strangers with the Same Mission

​It is evening, four strangcrs check in at The Seamount hotel in Gambia's capital" Banjul
 
None of them knows the other three

First to check in is about 609 Karanja Kimani, a professor in the Institute of Development at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He's assigned a room on the fourth floor, east wing.

Ngobile Melusi, about 70, a comrade and a citizen of Zimbabweis second to check in and is allocated a room on the fifth floor of the south wing.

Third to clock in is about 50, Chineke Chiamaka, a pastor at the Church Inside Africa (CIA) in Lagos, Nigeria. Chiamaka is booked on the sixth floor of the west wing.

Last to report is another stranger, about 40, his name is SeifTahir, an Engineer formerly employed by the Ministry of Defense in the Tripoli- Libya. He is assigned a room on the third-floor north wing.

In less than an hour after the booking all the four "strangers," receives a call from the same caller who declines to divulge details about himself, He only identifies himself as the guide and gives the same set of instructions about opening their briefcases using a similar code: one, one, two, four. The code number fails to open the briefcases in all the four cases.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abiola Afolabi, another guest at the hotel hears someone call him from behind. From the introduction, Dr. Afolabi meets Fiona McKenzie, a reporter with Gambia News, a Gambian who was adopted by Ian and Elspeth McKenzie Scottish missionaries. She was brought up in Edingburg, Scotland and is now back to Banjul.

An interview ensues.

Dr. Abiola Afolabi, is disclosed, he schooled at Harvard University in the US and currently teaches at the University of Ibadan. He's forty-five and is an advisor to the heads of state.

Africa's heads of state are soon to start a debate at Pinnacle Hotel, a hotel that is two streets from The Seamount Hotel.

The Heads of State are soon to discuss a document titled Way Omega. If adopted, Way Omega is expected to change African politics drastically; there are to be no more military coups, no more rigged elections, no more foul play.

Dr. Abiola Afolabi is the author of Failure of States in which he is so pessimistic about Africa's state of affairs and yet in Way Omega he's very optimistic, He was invited by the presidents.

The interview ends prematurely after her boss calls her to the office.

On the other hand, 49 foreign heads of state are in Banjul for the summit. They still look happy.

For Gambians, the presence of so many visiting dignitaries isn't fun. Here, before dignitaries came, bull dozers were dispatched at night in slum clearance 'exercises,' demolished road side kiosks on which whole families depended upon. Roads got rare layers of tarmac at times of maximum traffic. Checkpoints sprouted everywhere. Water taps dried up because all water had to go to the new water foundations built to mesmerize visitors.

Catastrophes can happen even at summits. All heads of state are to be put in one hotel; Pinnacle Hotel so that security is concentrated at the hotel instead of having fifty places to be manned.

A few challenges are noted on how well to take care of the dignitaries in terms of sitting arrangement at the summit and the hotel arrangement.