The man’s first impression was that he was very taciturn and blunt. He looked to be just over thirty, or maybe close to forty. His face, hard to guess the age from, was blended into the crowd in front of the gate.

When he carefully lifted the corners of his mouth slightly and showed a couple of wrinkles near his eyes with a smile, he looked surprisingly gentle and kind, but unfortunately, the man didn’t smile much. Most of the time, he kept a blank expression and his mouth almost never opened.

As he passed through the gate, among the many people waiting for guests, friends, or family, or those soliciting customers around it, the man immediately stood out. Three and a half hours ago at the Johannesburg layover there were quite a few white people, but Dar es Salaam International Airport was filled entirely with Black people. Among them, a lone white man standing was definitely eye-catching.

Even though it was an international airport, the small terminal building looked no different from a countryside bus terminal. The man straightened his posture as he saw those coming out from the gate.

“Long time no see, Rick.”

There was no trace of pleasure or happiness on the man’s face as he extended his hand saying it had been a long time. Only after exchanging a stiff, formal handshake with Ilay did the man turn to Jeong Tae-ui. Still with a face without a hint of a smile, he extended his hand and said,

“Mr. Jeong Tae-ui? I’ve heard from the boss. Nice to meet you. I’m Yuri Gable.”

“Ah… nice to meet you. I’m Jeong Tae-ui.”

Thinking that hearing his own name pronounced so precisely somehow sounded awkward, Tae-ui shook his hand.

He hadn’t expected anyone to come pick him up. Having flown here without any plans, he thought he’d have to ask at information for a hotel.

Reflecting on the name Yuri Gable, Tae-ui finally recalled. He’d heard it in passing before. A man under Kyle, who had wandered the Middle East searching for Jeong Jae-ui’s whereabouts. And he had eventually found a clue.

Tae-ui glanced at Ilay. Ilay was looking around the airport with an indifferent face.

“Lieutenant.”

“Is this your first time in Africa? Even at international airports here, most are about this size. Johannesburg is an unusually large airport.”

Gable said this matter-of-factly and turned to walk away.

Tae-ui quickly followed behind him, sensing Gable wasn’t inclined to wait.

“You must have waited a long time. Getting the visa took more time than expected.”

The local visa took longer than he thought. So he only came out after most others had passed through the gate. But since he didn’t expect anyone to wait, he came out leisurely.

“If I’d known you were waiting, I would have hurried. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Jeong Tae-ui.”

Tae-ui looked at him politely. His pronunciation was clear. But when saying “Jeong Tae-ui,” it slowed a bit as if he was paying special attention to the name. Tae-ui gave a small smile.

“You can just call me Tae. Please, be comfortable.”

Gable nodded but said nothing more. It had been a long time since he’d met such a taciturn, blunt Westerner. Of course, Kyle’s house had quiet guests and even the gardener Peter was hard to talk to before they got close, but this man was exceptional.

“Where’s Jeong Jae-ui?”

Ilay suddenly asked from half a step behind Tae-ui.

“He should be in Seringe.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s hard to say for sure.”

“What are the chances?”

“Well, about 70 to 80 percent.”

A short conversation passed between them. Ilay nodded. As they exited the terminal, a jeep was waiting right outside. When Gable got into the passenger seat, a Black man in the driver’s seat shifted into gear. After a brief greeting, the car started moving.

After nearly seventeen hours of flight from Hong Kong, Tae-ui finally felt like he was on solid ground. Leaning back on the hard seat, he let out a light sigh.

Seventy to eighty percent. It wasn’t a low probability, but after investing five weeks and risking it all, it wasn’t a high number either. He thought his uncle and Kyle wouldn’t gamble on such low odds.

If after coming all this way, he found out Jae-ui wasn’t here... then it would all be back to square one. Just a vacation spent in a distant country for five weeks.

Scratching his head, Tae-ui thought, “Couldn’t hurt, though.” Next to him, Ilay spoke slowly.

“If that man said seventy to eighty percent, then you can be sure he’s there. Now you just need to figure out how to meet Jeong Jae-ui.”

Hearing Ilay’s words, Tae-ui glanced forward. Perhaps hearing their voices, Gable’s eyes met his in the rearview mirror. The taciturn man looked at him for a moment, then unexpectedly spoke first.

“You said you’re Jeong Jae-ui’s younger brother, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Then he silently stared at Tae-ui carefully again. Though it was only the edge of his face reflected in the mirror, he looked him over briefly and said,

“You resemble him.”

“Oh, really?” Tae-ui answered, but that was all. He didn’t know what the resemblance meant. Maybe just a polite remark. Then again, Westerners generally don’t distinguish Asian faces well, so if the face is somewhat flat, the skin yellowish, and the hair black, they all look similar.

“Shall we head straight to Seringe?”

When Gable said this, Tae-ui nodded. He remembered it was an island. He had heard that from Dar es Salaam, they’d take a light plane.

The car entered the city. The market streets were lined with low, old buildings, crowded with people at every corner. People, people, people everywhere. The streets were filled with dark-skinned crowds, and the car crawled slowly like a turtle. Tae-ui felt faint nausea. He guessed the smell of burning tires didn’t help.

Usually, he didn’t get motion sickness, but after a long flight, riding immediately in an uncomfortable, bumping car on rough roads made his stomach uneasy.

“Is Dar es Salaam… large?”

Tae-ui swallowed some water and asked. Gable glanced at him through the rearview mirror and said,

“It’s the largest city in Tanzania. Its population exceeds one million.”

“One million…”

Thinking it was about the size of a metropolitan city, Tae-ui drank water again. Trying to settle his queasy stomach, he looked outside. Ilay glanced at Tae-ui and suddenly asked,

“The airstrip is near the port, right? Does it take long to get there?”

“It takes about fifteen minutes. From there, you transfer to a light plane and fly about forty minutes to Seringe.”

At fifteen minutes, Tae-ui sighed. That was bearable. He took another sip of water. The bottle was already empty. Shaking the empty bottle lightly and sighing, Ilay tossed him another bottle. Tae-ui caught it with one hand and looked at Ilay.

“With that stamina, even if you meet Jae-ui, you won’t have the strength to pull him out.”

“I never really planned to pull him out in the first place. If my brother doesn’t want to be pulled out, I have no obligation to do so.”

Tae-ui shook his head and opened the bottle cap. He drank without thinking, then suddenly puffed his cheeks with water and made a scowling face. Then he looked at the label on the bottle again.

“…Carbonated water when I’m already nauseous. What the hell.”

Seeing Tae-ui muttering with a disgusted face, Ilay smiled slightly, clearly on purpose.

Meanwhile, the car passed through the crowded market street and finally entered a proper road. Soon, just as Gable said, they reached a small terminal building next to the harbor.

The ordeal of the mind was less than the ordeal of the body, but it was truly a long and difficult journey. All the way to the end of the road, Tae-ui endured the hardship. Behind the cramped seat of the old four-seater light plane was a luggage compartment. Something like a large carpet roll stuck out from the luggage compartment and pressed against the back of Tae-ui’s neck during the forty-minute flight to Seringe.

Clinging tightly to the backrest of the front seat, listening to the noisy motor sound /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ for forty minutes, Tae-ui regretted not choosing to come by boat instead. Though it took several times longer, he would have preferred a slow boat ride to this shaking, crushing flight.

“Maybe the boat would have been better.”

Ilay muttered beside the nearly crawling Tae-ui as they got off the plane. Tae-ui looked at Ilay with a drained face. He wondered why this man suddenly showed such human concern.

“Looking down while coming, the sea looked gorgeous. It would have been nice to enjoy a slow boat trip.”

“…”

Tae-ui was a fool for expecting a moment of human concern. He blamed himself. On the other hand, knowing Ilay wouldn’t express any human admiration like “the sea looked gorgeous,” Tae-ui thought it was surely meant to provoke his anger.

The more I dig, the worse his temper seems. This must be a kind of endless source of bad temper.

Still, once his feet touched the ground and he took in the cold wind, Tae-ui’s nausea eased quickly. Rubbing his pit of stomach, he breathed deeply.

“The accommodation isn’t far from here. About ten minutes by car… If needed, we can walk the shortcut, though it would take two hours or so.”

Seeing Tae-ui’s still pale face, Gable said bluntly. Tae-ui tapped around his stomach a few times. After a few deep breaths in the wind, his stomach settled considerably. Ten minutes by car was doable. Besides, he wasn’t usually prone to severe motion sickness.

Tae-ui looked up at the sky. Evening was beginning to fall. In a couple of hours, it would be quite dark.

“Do you have a map?”

Tae-ui asked. Gable nodded, realizing Tae-ui intended to walk.

“I know the way. So, will you walk?”

As he said this, Gable briefly lowered his gaze. Tae-ui noticed his eyes checking his casted foot and said “Ah,” while moving it slightly.

“It’s walkable. I’m not running. Or is the road rough?”

“Not really, but are you sure?”

Tae-ui smiled and nodded at Gable’s repeated question. Then he added,

“My foot is fine, but as long as I have a map, I don’t think Gable needs to walk with me.”

“I’m quite good at reading maps, by the way,” Tae-ui added, but Gable shook his head without a word and started walking briskly. Tae-ui scratched his head and shrugged, then followed him. Although he started just a moment later, Tae-ui soon found himself watching Gable’s back about ten steps ahead and muttered,

“He really is a man of few words.”

“Yeah, that’s just how he is.”

Ilay muttered beside him. Tae-ui glanced back at him.

“You know each other?”

“Mm. He used to work with James. When I was underage, he often came to our house. But after the department changed, we hardly saw each other.”

Tae-ui recalled a man named James whom he had briefly seen once while staying at Kyle’s house. If he worked under Kyle, they probably knew each other.

Tae-ui followed Gable slowly, who kept a moderate distance, neither too close nor so far to lose him, while looking around.

After leaving the airstrip, they walked on the main road a bit, then turned into a wide alley. A normal street appeared—an asphalt road wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably, lined with trees and a quiet sidewalk. Although paved, cars were rare.

However, Gable stopped at a crosswalk up ahead and waited for the traffic light to turn red on a road without cars. Seeing Gable staring silently at the signal with a blunt face, Tae-ui smiled and stood behind him. Girls on bicycles passed by on the shoulder, casting curious glances. Their hijabs wrapped, with only small faces peeking out, the innocent eyes made Tae-ui smile. The girls disappeared, startled.

“I came thinking this was Africa, but it’s actually a Muslim city.”

“This island is basically supported by Arabs. There’s no environment for industry to develop separately, nor can it get aid from the mainland. Most people live off the money spent by Arab millionaires who stay here. Naturally, the culture is also Muslim. You can think of it as similar to a small Middle Eastern city. So don’t smile or talk casually to women.”

Gable said this bluntly. Tae-ui scratched his head and thought to himself, “Maybe I just did something dangerous a little while ago.”

The traffic light changed.