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Chapter 14  (Page  173-185)  The Homestretch 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,  Fiona McKenzie and Mr. Nicolas Sentinel. Mr. Long...

Chapter 13 (Pg. 168-172) The Choice Matrix 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 Presidents condemn trouble makers but ironically some of them are trouble 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 Fiona McKenzie at the summit the...

Chapter 12 (Pg. 150-167) The Summit 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 averse 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 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 req...

Chapter 11 (Pg.141-149) Meeting the Guide 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 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 Chiamaka that 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, he reaches...

 Chapter 10 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 Melusi, PastorChiamaka and Engineer Tahir. The nodes are at The Seamount Hotel. Nick says he uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a way of determining location. The four nodes are not in communication with each other. All the four are comm...

Chapter 9 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 the “Fist of Allah” itself. En...