Chapter 12

Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, Nigeria

The Messenger stares back at his image on the mirror in one of the airport's restroom. He pulls out various passports from his jacket pocket and shuffles through them till he finds a Dubai passport; he put the rest back in his jacket.

He opens the first page and compares the image on the passport to the face staring back at him on the mirror. He pats his forehead and rubs his neck to dress the rubbery face mask he had applied to suit the face of the man on the passport.

When he is satisfied with his look, he cracks a smile and frowns intermittently; he picks up the rubbery pieces of his previous mask and flushes it down the toilet.

He opens a small black case that had been lying on the sink and pries it open. He picks out a syringe filled with a caramel solution lying beside a sealed glass test tube containing the virus which he had salvaged from the rest in the computer suitcase.