An excerpt from the Los Angeles Times mentions the American and Belgian hostages being held by the Simbas in Stanleyville and refers to the cruelties inflicted on the nuns they captured the month before.

Terrance’s injuries pain him as their captors drive in the Land Rover. He wonders where they are being taken. The vehicle stops when it gets a flat tire and breaks an axle.

Terrance remembers drinking at the West Hollywood hotel with Katie, David, Eva Monley, and Judy Caponigro. Eva was a location scout who primarily found shooting sites for movies set in Africa. Judy was an actress who moved to Kenya, married a British man, and began farming a coffee plantation. Judy argued that Nairobi would be safe for the honeymoon party, but David pressed for information about the violence taking place in the Congo. Judy described the Russians there as more like advisors than foot soldiers. A woman approached and asked to take Katie’s picture. Katie agreed but graciously introduced and included the others. Afterward, Judy said there would be no interlopers in Africa, and Katie replied, “No, we’ll be the interlopers […] We’ll be the ones interrupting other animals while they’re going about their lives” (260). Judy referenced Isak Dinsen’s memoir and told Terrance that her farm isn’t like a plantation in the American South. Katie reflected on the way Terrance was harassed after their movie Tender Madness.

In the present, Glenn and Cooper, two of their Russian captors, converse about the car repairs. When one of the Russians crawls beneath the vehicle, a snake bites him.

An excerpt from the Los Angeles Times suggests that “the real Katie Barstow has inside her as much venom as she has sugar” (265).

Katie watches the Russian die from the snake venom. They have two captors left, but Glenn is holding an automatic weapon. She remembers a few days earlier, when she was talking with Charlie Patton as she watched an elephant and her calf. Katie compared Charlie to a carnival barker inviting people to see the sights. He said leading photo safaris is easier than leading hunting parties, but she teased him that it’s “Not as manly” (269). She soon regretted this statement, realizing that Charlie was a top predator when he referenced David’s failing gallery in response.

Katie grabs Cooper’s revolver after Billy shoots off part of the man’s hand. Billy took the weapon from Glenn, who is dead. Katie sees that Terrance has also been shot and killed.

Carmen is exhausted from dragging Reggie under a nearby acacia tree. She gathers fuel to set the baobab on fire. She briefly considers using the rifle on herself, thinking, “She’d been perusing the Hemingway African canon in her mind, so why not end it the way Papa himself had?” (273). However, Carmen is not the type to give up.

She realizes that Reggie is dead and recalls a meeting in his office with Katie. Reggie told them the real name of the actor Michael Caine and asked if Felix felt hurt that Carmen didn’t use his last name professionally. Reggie told Katie and Carmen that he didn’t want to see either of their stars fall and flame out.

Now, Carmen decides that her fire will be like a Viking pyre. The fire takes, burning fiercely, and Carmen sits next to Reggie to keep the vultures off him. She thinks of the fire as her own burning bush. An airplane circles through the sky and then lands nearby.

An excerpt from the Los Angeles Times describes how, when Belgian and American forces entered Stanleyville, the Simbas brought out their hostages and began executing them.

Benjamin can hear news on the radio in the truck: It says that there is fighting in Stanleyville and that the Simbas are losing. Two vehicles appear in pursuit, and the truck races off. Benjamin recalls how Charlie’s group of workers used to include a Tutsi cook who had fled Rwanda after the Hutu revolution of 1962. When the cook tried to return to Rwanda, he was killed. Benjamin and Charlie pondered why Kenya has been spared the violence occurring in other African nations. Muema wished the Americans and Russians would leave them alone, but Charlie observed, “Any place that has natural resources? This continent is like a wounded gazelle with hyenas on one side and jackals on the other” (285). Charlie admitted that he feared the Russians and Americans far more than animal predators, saying, “We’re just pawns on the chess board [to them]. Harmless and expendable” (286).

The truck stops, and the two pursuing vehicles prove to be full of rangers. One of the Russian guards shoots one of the porters, a young man Benjamin knew. When the guard grabs Muema, Benjamin realizes that this is his moment. He attacks the guard, defending Muema. Shooting erupts, and Benjamin is hit. The Russians surrender, and Benjamin’s world goes dark.

Billy decides not to shoot Cooper because he doesn’t want to see another corpse. He recalls seeing health care workers who were exhausted by the flu pandemic of 1957. Seeing Katie’s grief over Terrance, Billy asks her if they were ever lovers. Katie says that they both acknowledged the chemistry between them but decided that it was less risky to remain friends. Katie says this nightmare is all her fault: “I’m the one who brought you all here” (293).

They interrogate Cooper, who identifies himself as Colonel Viktor Procenko. He admits that the kidnapping was arranged, in part, to get money for weapons for the Simbas. The Russians also know of David’s father’s involvement with the CIA and how the CIA silenced Frank Olson. Cooper admits that it was his sister’s idea to arrange the kidnapping; she is Nina Procenko, the painter who pretended to defect to the US but continued to work as a Soviet spy. The Russians blackmailed David using pictures of him having sex with the waitress at the diner, and David agreed to cooperate with the kidnapping in return for a cut of the ransom. Procenko says that they were going to take David to Moscow but had to kill him when he got hold of a gun. Katie shoots Procenko in the chest.

Carmen runs to the plane. Behind the rangers, she sees Charlie Patton. She tells him what happened and asks the rangers to get Reggie’s body. Charlie admits that when he saw it was Viktor Procenko attacking their group, he sneaked away to get help. Carmen thinks this makes him a coward, but she recognizes that he did manage to rescue her. Charlie doesn’t know what has happened to the others. Carmen is given animal crackers to eat and feels overcome by all that has happened.

In an interview published in the Los Angeles Times in 2022, Carmen describes how she got a recurring role as a nurse in a soap opera set in a hospital. Katie never acted again; she stayed out of the public eye, “the saddest person on the planet” (308). Billy wrote a memoir, The Soul in the Dark, which became a bestseller. He married again. Only much later did information come to light about MK-ULTRA and its experiments using LSD to brainwash people. Carmen thinks of herself as a woman in a Maasai fairy tale. She can’t escape the memories and thinks it all feels like it was only yesterday.