"Are you going to stand there all day staring at me or will you open your door wide and let me in?" Mrs. Bukola asked and Tope realised that he had actually been standing there staring at her.
"Do come in ma'am". He stepped aside and she came in. His eyes followed hers as she scanned through the room. Tope could not place the impression the room created on her face. He wasn't bothered. The reason for her visit bothered him.
"Nice place you got here" She complemented without smiles.
"Thanks ma. Please have a seat" He offered the only armed seat he had.
"There's no need for that. As you already know, frivolities has nothing in common with me, and so i will go straight to business." She made the obvious clear enough. Tope could feel his heart in his mouth.
"I know my husband produced two copies of that lab result. I also know you have copies of the two results. We will not have this discussion again if you hand in the copies of that result." Tope's legs felt weak. How the hell did this woman find out about this?
"Don't play dumb with me. Patience is not an item in my trash can. Let's not waste time over this."
"I really don't understand the result you are talking about." His voice was squeaky, and his eyes found the brown large envelopes lying helplessly on the table. He had intended checking them out after dinner.
"Do you mind if i take a look?." Mrs. Ajoke was referring to the envelope.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Sharon sat up as David drove into Ilion driveway. Considering the numerous deaths and security problems lurking around, Ilion was the wrong place to be driving through. Ilion hadn't always been a back road. Before Orogbe road came along, Ilion had been a main artery connecting the two neighbouring states. Today, most travelers preferred the interstate, but there were still people who used it for shortcuts and other nefarious pursuits. A major reason why David wasn't meant to be driving in.
" Why are you taking this route?" Sharon asked.
" It's already past 7:00pm. Workers will be on their way home now and traffic is the least complication i want now." David explained and Sharon sat back.
" Keep this adage in mind. Better to be late than be a late." Sharon said softly.
" I'll have that in mind sweetheart." David winked at her. She smiled.
" What do you think about that pink diary?" Sharon asked.
" I think it's a vital document and belongs to our lost Tracy. We'll soon find out what it contains. Holy Shit! what was that?" He stopped as he bumped into something. Both of them rushed out of the car.
It was a waste recycle bin. "Who in his right senses would drop a waste bin in the middle of the road?" David asked as he stepped closer.
" I think it's something more than waste." Sharon observed as she bent beside it. Professional alert blew in her head. Lucky enough, a glove that she had intended discarding was still in her bag. She went to the car and wore the gloves. She didnt want to mess with fingerprints.

The bin revealed a tortured dead body. Sharon noticed that he was in the school age. He was completely nude. Bruises blackened his inner thighs - red bruises. New bruises. A burgundy film seemed to cover his torso, a rip at his side showing white bone. Sharon glanced at his face. The nose was askance. The eyes were swollen, lips chapped and split. Blood matted the boy's dark hair and pooled around his head as if in a halo. Sharon leaned closer, unable to stop herself. Something caught her attention. There was a gaping hole in his left side between the eleventh and twelfth ribs.

" What the hell happened there?" David spoke. He looked calm but for the telltale up and down of his chest as he tried to catch his breath. Sharon felt the ribs with her gloved hands. Either something was wrong or she was more exhausted than she'd realized. She felt and counted the ribs, not quite trusting what she was seeing.
David sensed her confusion. " What is it?"
" His eleventh rib," Sharon told him. " Its been removed."
David asked," Removed how?"
" Not surgically."
" You mean its missing?'
" Its not missing," She said. "It was taken."
" How do you think it was done?"
Sharon took out her legal pad and started drawing a bunch of carved lines that only made sense when she explained, " The ribs are numbered in pairs, starting at the top and going down, twelve each side, left and right" She tapped the lines with her pen. " Number one is just under the clavicle and twelve is the last one here. Now, eleven and twelve at the bottom are considered to be 'floating', because they don't have an interior connection. They only connect at the back not the front." She drew a straight line to indicate the spine.

" The top seven ribs connect at the back and then attach to the sternum - like a big crescent. The next three rows connect roughly to the ribs above. They're called false ribs. All of this is very elastic so that you can breathe, and its also why it's hard to break a rib with a direct blow - they bend quite a bit."

David was leaning forward, hanging on her every word. "So, this was done by someone with medical knowledge?"
" Not necessarily. You can feel your own ribs with your fingers. You know where they are in your body."
" But still..............."
" Look, you run your hand down the posterior axillary line until you feel the tip of the rib....eleven, with twelve a little farther back. You get a knife and slice into the skin and cut along the rib - the tip of the blade could even scrape along the bone as a guide. Push back the fat and muscle, dis articulate the rib from the vertebra, snap it off, whatever, then grab hold and yank it out."

" How did you come by all this informations?" David asked.
"My father was a doctor. He nursed the dreams of turning me into a doctor too. From my secondary school days, he started taking me to his hospital, he explained every bit of what he did. Sometimes, after questioning a patient, he will ask me to identify the problem. Like i was doing my housemanship. You can't imagine how boring it was. You know now, I had my own dreams. But when he died, the dreams died with him. So here am i." she shrugged.
" Oh i see!"
David was impressed. " But I thought men were missing a rib?"
" If I were you, I wouldn't believe everything I was told in Sunday school."
" We'll have to id the body" David put in.
Siren blared. The police were here. David had called them in when Sharon was checking out the body.




****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Jack held his laptop between his arms and hurried off. It was almost 9:00pm and he needed to start work on the portrait. He smiled to himself as he crossed the road. He had carefully chosen an office outside his compound, to accommodate his runz.
" Hey! watch were you're going." Jack chided as he bounced into a man walking towards him.
" I'm sorry. My leg is gradually getting worse. " The man apologized.
" Its not a problem. Just that I have a phobia for limping fellow. You should check the hospital and have the leg treated.
" I'll sure do." The man grinned. The thought of Jack having a phobia for limping fellow got him smiling. When you have a knowledge of the disease you're suffering from, the cure is easier.
" Can I take a look at what you have between your arms?" The limping fellow asked.
" Excuse me!"

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

The Id of the body was ready It belonged to Ayodele Bolaji.
End of chapter 9

CHAPTER TEN

FOR OLD TIME'S SAKE

WRITTEN AND SUBMITTED BY

HUMBLEDBYGRACE

Thirteen years ago...Ikoyi Estates

The pleasant morning sunshine descended like an amber shower bath on Lagos Island, that stately home of Obalende which so adorns the Estate of Ikoyi, lightening up with a heartening glow its ivied walls, its rolling parks, its gardens, outhouses and messuages and its inhabitants as chanced at the moment to be taking the salty air from the Atlantic Ocean.

It fell on green lawns and wide terraces, on noble palm trees and bright flower beds. It fell on the bare skin of Enike Obosola, the daughter of a successful widowed business man Victor Mobo Obasola.

Enike stood infront of her floor to ceiling wall mirror, her stamach was not bulging like most nine month pregnant ladies. It didn't give her out and went quite well with her thin body frame. The gods were really with her as her father, had no glue she was expecting.

She had argued with herself on what to do about the baby and had finally came to a not so fluttering conclusion. She would beg her father if she could visit her mother's people in Ghana. Then she would have a baby there and give leave it with her grandmother untill she was done with NYSC.

She sighed and trudged back to her bed. Her long neck poised a serious, quiet face, and her small black eyes never seemed to gaze outward, but inward. Guys never looked at her directly, they always had to look at her when she wasn't looking. She threw herself on her four poster bed, and picked up the novel she was reading the previous night.

The book brought back memoirs of the person she was trying to forget...her baby daddy. Enike had met him at the Independence day celebration at college nine months ago. He had just received a standing ovation for a wonderful speech about the country's security over the past years.

For a twenty three year old Nubian queen like her, it was hard to get boys off her back and the guy was no exception. He had proved to her that he was after her looks, it was like he had made some kind of a bet with his friends about getting her laid because he had winked at a guy who had nodded knowingly when they were making their exit at the campus hall.

The following morning she had woken up with a hangover, next to the guy she didn't even know his name, they had never met before the celebrations.

"Are you not going to be late for lectures?"

He had asked absent minded, picking up their clothes on the floor and tidying up his room. Enika had got up and excused herself, she never met him after their wild passionate night. A month later she missed her period, went for a pregnancy test which sealed her irrisponsibility certificate. She had been too hurt to ask him his name, he had shown no interest in her afterall. One of her many reasons why she didn't try to find him, it was a humiliating situation.

As for her father; he was too busy to notice that his daughter was not okay, he never had time for her. All he knew was to pamper her with gifts; expensive cars, designer clothes and shoes and latest gadgets.

Enike concluded that her father send her to school because he had no better idea of what to do with a female child.

She opened her half closed eyes but couldn't see anything, she was covered by an effiable darkness.

"Daddy!" She shrieked, confused and scared. "Daddddddy..." She added. She heard the door opening, it was her father.

"Enike, why are you shouting so early in the morning?" Her father roared.

"Dad,"

"Yes?"

"I can't see you." Enike's own words choked her, tears welling down her cheeks. She could feel her father moving towards her on the bed.

"Baby, is there something you need to tell me?" Mr Victor Mobo Obasola asked his bewildered daughter.

"Please don't scowl at me dad."

"I promise baby."

Enike narrated her one night stand story to her horrified father, she passed out before she could tell her father the name of the boy who was responsible.

Not that she knew him anyway.

Enike died five hours later at GOLD CROSS HOSPITAL . She had suffered ECLIMPSIA and the Doctors were not able to ressuruct her from coma after the birth of her daughter. They explained to Mr Victor Mobo Obasola that Enike had been at high risk as her mother had suffered it too.

Eight days later the Ikomo celebration was held at the Mobo Obasola household. Family members from across the boarders came to rejoice and grieve with Victor for his loss and the welcoming of a new life into his home.

The baby was named Igitioluwotilaiye Banjoko Halle Obasola.

thirteen years later...Ikoyi Estates

The rain had just stopped when Victor Mobo woke up, he had been sleeping the whole morning. The fresh smell of salty water from the beach brought a satisfied smile on his lips. He looked about the room, the newly painted walls reminded him that he was home.

Home

Yes he was home...where there were only two seasons, where the was no Winter nor Automn. Just the hot dry season and the cold wet season and that's all. He was accustomed to the climate in S.A he had forgotten how hot Nigeria was. He got up and turned on the shower. He showed like he was getting rid of the dirt that piled up on him while he was away.

Victor Mobo Obasola had been away far too long. Ten years had passed him by. He had resigned two months ago from being the Head Commissioner at the Nigerian High Commission In Pretoria South Africa. He had served his sentence abroad, just like a prisoners; they get convicted, serve their time and come back for revenge.

like sea waves in a raging sea. He had fumed but with time had learned how to deal with his worst fear; his enemies.
Like the old saying;

keep your friends close but keep your enemies close.

He had no other intention but to keep them all close, a social web where he could monitor each and everyone one of them without their knowledge.


"Daddy, there is someone at the door for you."

Halle called her father from the hallway. Eversince they got home, Halle had been too busy with the maid. She followed the maid everywhere and had slept at the servants quaters outside the main house.

The Igbo girl Anah was also happy to hear Halle's stories about South Africa. Victor Mobo was happy that his daughter had a female figure to talk with. He knew she was approaching a crucial stage of her life where she would need a female figure in her life.

Ever since the day he held Halle into his arms; he had made a vow to give her the best in life which was her happiness and to love her unconditionally, regardless of her flaws. Even if it meant giving up his own life for her.

"Who is it? Were we expecting someone? We have only a day here!"

Victor Mobo opened his bedroom door by an inch and poked his head out teasing his daughter, who frowned, and formed a pout with her small lips. Her face formed a heart like shape which always made Victor laugh at her, they both burst out laughing.

"My angel, tell Freddie to keep the visitor downstairs. I will call when I am ready."

Halle nodded and waved goodbye to her father. Victor Mobo frowned at the way Halle walked, he had never noticed that she sometimes walked like him. To be frank the girl looked like him, her lean frame, wide forehead with the hairline that left only three frown lines between the hair and eyebrows, big eyes, long narrow chin, small pointy nose and cuvy full lips. She resembled him even when she walks?

He waved her off and closed the door behind him. He remembered he had missed training session; a man has to look fit even at fifty five. He was indeed a well build man, whom young girls drooled over him because of his flat firm tummy and hard toned biceps.

Victor Mobo always had his head shaved, he liked it bald and always made sure he has no trace of a single bead on his face. Last night a young man had approached him at the Airport asking him to sign an autograph. The young man got dissappointed when he came closer and realised that Victor wasn't Stepthen Keshi. He was just a civil servant.

**********

Victor Mobo checked his reflection in a mirror and smiled before calling the gateman to send the guest up. Few minutes later Cathy was at the door, he opened the door for her and closed it behind him.

They exchanged pleasantaries and sat side by side at the couch facing the window. Victor had chosen the view so that he could keep an eye on Halle and the activities running down the main gate. Even though he had installed a tracking device on Halle's wrist watch; he felt like he had to see her all the time. Especially since they landed in Lagos the previous night. He had more enemies in the country than he had abroad.

"You look ravishing my dear." Victor complemented Cathy. She smiled and murmured a weak thank you. She was still good looking, had managed to mantain her weight after three children. He thought with a satisfying smile. In fact he she was about the prettiest woman after his wife and daughters that is. It wasn't so much her looks- although they were picture perfect- but it was the way she conducted herself. So proud and spirited. She was smart and independent, he liked that. In fact he liked everything about Cathy except her razor tongue and wicket temper. If she didn't marry her late husband, he would have had given her the opportunity to be mrs Obasola

He grinned at the thought. He wanted to get back his life and eliminate his obstacles and Cathy was a free ticket.

"Why did you come back Victor? I thought this task was mine?" At last, Cathy had gathered enough strength to talk to Victor. He hadn't been very friendly in their past dealings.

Victor Mobo smiled at her. " I have been offered Ibe's position and I thought it was time Halle came home." Cathy was watching his lips move like a death person reading the speaker's lips. He realized and added annoyed;

"And to finish up what I started, you have played your role but not in a way I had expected you to."

He moved from his seat and lit a cigarette.

"You can't take Ibe's old job!" Cathy retorted. "You killed him and you think it will be ok to just pick up where we left off? What about Tracy?"

Victor strode across the room back to where they had been seating. he ran his fingers on Cathy's shoulders, then kissed her forehead. He looked at peace with himself. A kindness came into his eyes and that frightened Cathy more than Ayodele did before they killed him.

"I want to take control of the situation. The killings have to stop, Ayodele wasn't suppose to die until he had served his purpose." Victor Mobo said

Cathy stared at him for a long time before she shook her head.

"He had to die, he knew too much. He had Halle's pictures in his belongings, he knew Koko was his father and he also knew Tracy was his half sister."

She looked pale

"So that gave you the go ahead to kill him? And of all people you send Bamo to do it? Ayodele didn't know that Bamo was his half brother. "

Victor Mobo sat down and took Cathy's hands into his. Cathy forced a smile

"What about Lucan?" She asked starring at the ceiling, avoiding Victor Mobo's gaze. "Are you going to kill him? He is fighting for his life...please Vic?" She pleaded with him.

"I will not kill him, I want everything back to normal. I don't strike my enemy when he is down. I have settled Koko's score, he was murdered by his sons, the other plotting while the other roasted him...." He spoke in a halting way.

It pained him to think about Koko. He never understood what it was his wife saw in that man, or any other women he dated.

Koko and his protruding belly.

His love for money and children all over the place like Aids in South Africa. He had so many times wondered how the man does it. He had provided for her but she still ran after him. Serves them both right that she had died but he had felt pity and resentment for little Enike who didn't understand anything. Enike was just a year when her mother started running after Koko and died when the girl was almost two. How on earth was he to raise a female child whose mother was a LovePeddler?

"Are you ok?"

"Yea."

"So your taking Ibe's position?"

"Yes, anything else?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Will you ever tell Halle?"

"Soon."

"Ok."

Neither of them said very much more and after a while Cathy left. Victor Mobo took out his Ipad and logged in.

The world is a platform to the human race. Every man and woman is allowed an entrance free of charge but the stage is crucial and the exit is not always a witty one."

-Him

He didn't wait for the usual, he logged out and called Halle in.

-Jacks home office-

Jack looked down at his horrified wife, he didn't quite get the place. His head was still throbbing with pains. Whatever it was he was given was working.

Eno tried to speak but her own words choked her. Her eyes drifted from the man's handsome face down to his lower tatooed torso. What an incredible view! she licked her lips at the thought of a hunk doing her. She looks back at Jack but his face told her a different story. The fact that her husband was strapped to his own office chair didn't bother her at all. She had no idea why she was there but she felt light and happy.

"Jack!"

He only lift his eyebrows but he looked too tired. He tried to move his feet but he couldn't feel them, he felt only his upper body.

"Baby are you ok?"

Eno asked trying to move but she couldn't feel her lower part of the body. She didn't know that she had been drugged.
*******************

Bamo cautioned himself to be patient. He relaxed, letting his thoughts drift, but they did not drift to Koko or Ayodele. But to a beautiful nosy woman sitting infront of him, he saw her drooling at him but it was against his law of humanity to do a numb woman down there. He checked the time again. Fifteen more minutes before she recovers...it was worth the time. He pulled his bag from a nail on the wall, took out a syringe, which he filled it with Dianabol methandrostenolone and injects it on his right thigh.

He took out the second syringe and filled it with Somatropin and injects it on his left thigh, and enjoys the sensational burning that always accompanies the injections. He lies back on the hard cold tiled floor to wait for the chemicals to caurse through his veins. Very pleased with himself for his greatest achivements.

He was pleased because he had found Sharon Ojemen. The daughter of the late Doctor Osarogie Ojeman. He remembered the day so vividly. He could see every image as if the movie of his life was broken frame by frame, each picture stark and clear, colors brilliant and sharp. The day Judge Jackson Etim ruled in favour of the girl who died during the process of labour. Doctor O. Ojeman had argued that the medical student Bamo Oluwakose had induced General Anesthesia while he was supposed to use Regional Anesthesia on the patient since she already had Eclampsia. Bamo didn't follow the rules related to taking care of the patient and had also overdosed the patient. Bamo lost his medical practice licence and served ten years in prison, released on payroll and did community service for a year.

He was messed up for years, until he gained control of himself. Mustered his feelings and his life. Tears stopped and he opened his eyes. He wiped away the residue and got up.

He had a plan of venreance against the one who hurt him the most, and a list of conspirators. He took out his grinder and walked towards Jack and Enoh Etim.

David's apartment

VICTOR MOBO OBASOLA. The man who would be stepping into Ibe's shoes at the Police Department. David had promised Sharon that he would drive her home but that didn't happen. After a long wait for the paramedics and the police squard to arrive, they were pretty wasted. David had offered to sleep to let Sharon use the spare room. The two had become really close...they were trying way too hard to hide their feelings for each other and acted like sixteen year olds.

"David when are you going to sleep? We have a long day tommorrow." Sharon called from the bedroom.

"Are you inviting me madam?"
David teased. Sharon didn't reply but came back to the living room, where David was busy working on his laptop. She curled herself at the corner of a small couch. It made her look smaller and the light from the table lamp illuminated her face and made her glow and look younger than her usual. David realised that make up really made her look older than her real age.

"There is a new fish in town from S.A, it will be taking Ibe's position at work." David said without looking up from his laptop.

"What's his name?"

"Victor Mobo Obasola. Ring a bell?"

"Not the name...but that last name rings a bell." Sharon said trying to remember where she had seen the name....her mind drifted to the day her father had had a problem with a medical student who had been careless when delivering a girl with Eclampsia and the patient had died. Mr Ojemen had been furious that he had made sure that the young man end up in jail and loose his licence.

"Shaz....." David woke her from the world of the dead. She looked up.

"What? Oh! Forgive me, that Obasola. The girl who died in the hands of a Med student who was working under my dad's supervision was Enike Obasola."

She got up and volunteered to make sandwitch, it was a little after midnight and she was too tired to eat anything when they arrived at David's pad. She had a shower and then hit the sack. She had woken up by midnight and realised that the living room light was still on.

David the workaholic

"I will be in the shower, then go to bed." David announced clearing his desk.

"But I was going to make snacks for two..." Sharon said trying not to show her dissapointment.

"Ok, will see if my tummy allows me to eat at this time." came the curt reply from David.

Sharon shivered thinking of how David looked when he looked at her, then she laughed softly to herself as she prepared the snacks. David's kitchen was spotless...he was the kind of a man she could settle down with.

Grow up, Sharon.... she oredered firmly. your too old to go nuts about a guy.

She couldn't help but laughed out loud at herself.

"Did you find anything amusing with my kitchen?" David asked, entering the kitchen and sniffing the air. "Smells like you made cheese toast?"

"Great!" She switched off the toaster. She had forgotten about the it totally. They ate in silence, David cleared up and washed the dishes.

"Your in a generous mood this morning Shaz." David broke the deafening silence.

"I have done some soul searching." She admitted. "I threw away a lot of emotional garbage today, and I feel lighter than thin air."

"Tell me more." David sat back, waiting for her highness to continue.

"Well, I made peace with my old man."

"I didn't know you were at war with him." His big eyes searching her face for a hint of emotion.

"I was, in a way. I blamed him for things that were of no consequence. When you love someone, you have no right to try to change him or her. You have to love him for what he is and not dwell on what he isn't ."

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes and saw that he was regarding her intently.

"Dad had a generous nature. He loved people and wanted them to love him, but he loved his job more than a soul. Most of the Med students had to work had to get his approval or else they wouldn't graduate. That made him an enemy of the young doctors in practice."

"What let to his death?"

"He was shot from a distance one day after work."

She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Somehow I knew that dad was shot by one of his enemies. Over the years I have been trying to connect the dots on how he died but I can't. I was in my NYSC practising Med when he died, I wasn't there but my mother narrated the story to me."

"Shaz, if its too painful..."

"No, its fine. " Sharon insisted, suprised that she did want to confide in him. She hadn't told anyone about her father, but she wanted to tell David. She had to tell him, and then, she knew, she would close the lid on the memories and move on to what was important. Freeing Lucan Ode.

"After Dad died, I dropped NYSC and applied for a Bachelor of Law at the University of Cape Town. I only came back home five years ago, my mother had passed on when I was at school in South Africa and I was left alone. Somehow I feel like my fathers old enemies are onto me. And this serial killings makes me shiver."

"Oh, dear." David took her hands into his. "So you went abroad because you didn't want to be your father's shadow anymore?"

Sharon nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. "I guess my father was doing what he thought was best for me, not realising that he was killing me inside." She covered her face with her hands and covered a wave of tears.

"You finished what your father had planted in you, you didn't throw it away. You just buried it, it came in handy yesterday and there is a possibility that I might need your medical expertise again."

David put his arms around his shoulders.

"I don't like what I did," she said shaken. "My behaviour was unforgivable."

"It is well dear." David pulled her up from the chair and walked with her to his bedroom. "Let's hope you will feel better in the morning. I think you should take it easy on Lucan's case. He is still uncontious so that gives us a little bit of rest. Don't over work yourself." He turned back the top sheet and helped her into bed, then tucked the sheet around her and kissed her forehead.

"Your exhausted."

"Your coming to bed right?" She asked, needing him beside her.

"Yes." He stripped off his clothes, turned on his ipod and played JOHN LEGEND's SHOW ME. making sure that the volume was low. Climbed his bed and wrapped his arms around her and letting her rest her damp face on his shoulder. "I hope the music will make you sleep. Its my remedy when I am feeling down."

Sharon closed her eyes and breathed in the clwan smell of his Ganier for men lotion. " I pray that one day, we will be able to laugh this season off. Especially Lucan."

"Let's not talk about work dear."

David closed his eyes trying not to think of his own past. He had been the lucky one among his peers, he had no enemies, no rich father to make decisions for him but still he had to protect everyone. Life was cruel.

Somehow he too finally fell asleep.

Chapter 11
The Awakening
Submitted by Frosti
______________________________________

Someplace, Sometime

He awoke with a start and tentatively opened an eye. He could not immediately place where he was and felt instantly disoriented. He felt very dry and light, like he had no real substance. It was quite eerie but yet still sublimely peaceful. He felt at home, like he had been here before or his very being was attuned to it.

Picking himself up from where he lay, he decided to survey his environment. All around him shone white and bare. There were no trees, buildings or any sort of landmarks in sight. The was even no sun in the white sky. Just white sand on the ground stretching as far as the eye could see into the bleak white horizon.

Where am I? Is this a dream or a nightmare? Am I dead? Where is everybody? Why is everywhere so white? What is this place? These and a thousand and one other questions raged through his mind as he looked around him.

After sitting, contemplating and waiting for answers that were not forthcoming, he decided to explore more of his surroundings. As his bare feet crunched on the cool white sand, he walked off into the white horizon, his white robe billowing in the slight wind.
______________________________________________________

Gold Cross Hospital, Ikoyi Lagos
08:30hrs

Dr Kaboon was having a very shitty day. His wife's incessant nagging got to a new feverish pitch today just because he refused to give her money to purchase a very unnecessary piece of jewelry which she said many of her friends had and which she too wants to own. Damnable woman. Didn't she have enough jewelry already? He could remember the small fortune he spent on the diamond necklace he got her for her birthday just a few months back. And now she is giving him hell for this? His darling wife has totally changed from the soft-spoken woman he met and fell in love with. It was all he could do to hold himself and his anger and leave the house without beating her. He left the house on an empty stomach.

And now this idiot Pyguru is also giving him hell. Dr Kaboon would have given anything not to have to work under the same roof as his colleague, Dr Pynto Okuwati aka Pyguru aka Royal-Pain-in-the-Ass. His pomposity was way too high and totally undeserved. How could someone be so full of himself, yet know so little? It was a puzzle Dr Kaboon was not sure he was ready to find out yet. Maybe he will have to ask some of his Psychology colleagues later.

“I am telling you, Kaboon, that the patient in Room 004 should be moved to ward 2. I think it will be better if he is removed from isolation."

Why must this idiot have to use his surname, Kaboon? Couldn't he just call him Tijani or even Tj as some do? To say Kaboon was irritated was a gross understatement.

"No Pyguru, the patient is in that particular room for a reason. That is the only room that has the necessary equipment to treat catatonic patients. The MRI scan of his brain shows extensive damage to his cerebral cortex. He requires close attention and monitoring."

"He is essentially a vegetable. He needs to be moved from that room so that it can be used for urgent and much more hopeful cases. Or maybe we can even transfer him to another hospital."

From which planet did this guy come from? Dr Kaboon had to focus in order to control his anger and his face passive and his voice cool. At this rate people around him were pissing him off, he wondered how long he would be able to hold himself. Maybe he should see an anger management therapist. He mentally added that to his to-do list.

"For the umpteenth time, Pyguru, that patient stays put where he is. His bills are being taken care of and they come from somewhere far above our paychecks, from the hospital Administrator. This conversation is over. You may leave now."

"What of the other matter concerning the nurses’ welfare package?"

"I have work to do now. I will take it up with the Administrator later."

Pyguru mumbled a last retort as he banged the door after him. Maybe one of these days, I will just ........, thought Dr Kaboon as he buried his head in the patients reports files in his in-tray. As the head consultant out of the 6 doctors at Gold Cross Hospital, one of the perks of his high position was that he could he could overrule Pyguru and ignore his ramblings. But it also meant he was the one to peruse the patients’ reports in the morning before sending them to the required sections and doctors. And it was not light work.

He was still perusing the reports 30 minutes later when he heard a soft knock at his office door.

"Come in", he said.
And in glided a nurse. She smiled at him.
"It is time for you to do your patient rounds, Doc."
"Thank you, Nurse Veronica, lemme just tidy up". He smiled back at her. Nurse Veronica was one of his favourite nurses.
"The patient in Room 004 has really stabilized and his vitals are showing strong signals, though he is still in coma."
"Good. I will check on him too."
"Anything else I could do for you, Doc? You don't seem too bright today."
Yes, don't quit smiling, thought Dr Kaboon.
"Yes, hold these files and accompany me on the rounds. I am having a pretty shitty day and could do with your charming presence."

He had once flirted with the dark skinned beautiful nurse and since then she had been making advances towards him. Advances he had of course refused because he didn't want to hurt his marriage and his wife and their two kids. Maybe it was time to revisit this other option. He smiled as an image of his nagging wife crossed his mind. Banishing the image, he decided to concentrate on the sweet smiling face before him.

"Let's go."
Locking up his office, he followed the heavy swaying hips down the hallway. Maybe the day will not be that bad after all.
____________________________________________________________________

Same morning. Police State Command Headquarters.

Inspector David was excited. The source of his excitement could be seen flapping in his hands. It was an envelope addressed to the police Criminal Investigation Department, and in the envelope were some photocopied autopsy reports. The real autopsy reports of the death of Tracy Oluwami, Chief Koko's daughter and Lucan's girlfriend and fiancée.

The autopsy reports showed the real cause of death to be cyanide poisoning and also showed the real time of death. It also made note of the small needle hole at the back of her head.

This new development just blew the case wide open and he could now prove the innocence of his dear friend, Lucan. He thanked his stars that whoever sent in the envelope had decided to address it to the CID, who knew what could have happened to the envelope if it was addressed to another department of the police, especially with all the corruption in the force.

He knew he had to share this information with someone he could trust. Picking up his phone, he decided to call Sharon, Lucan's Lawyer and his lover. He and Sharon had decided that they knew each other well enough to drop their platonic relationship and try something much more intimate. They had made love a couple of times.

Sharon picked up at the first ring.
"Sweets, I got great news! Are you currently busy?"
"Baby No, today has been a slow day at the Chambers here. What happened?"
"I got something great. I think Lucan's case just blew wide open. I am coming right over to your office to pick you up so that we can really strategise on what to do. Am also getting a bottle of champagne."
"Okay baby, I will be waiting." Sang Sharon.

Ten minutes later, David was easing his 3-year old dark green Toyota Carina out of the garage and into the street. In his excitement, he failed to notice the sleek black car that entered the road three car lengths behind him.
_________________________________________

Same Time. Police State Command Head Quarters

Like Inspector David of the CID, Asst Chief Inspector Jay Brown aka JayB also received an envelope an envelope with the same contents. But unlike David, JayB was not a happy man. He had an open-and-shut case before him and had even shuttered investigations pending when and if Lucan recovered from his gunshot injuries. With this new unwarranted evidence, he was staring at the full possibility of having haunted a possibly innocent man to his present state. Damn you anonymous tipster. He caused silently.

He looked at the envelope and it’s contents again. It was quite a nondescript envelope, the type you could get at any bookshop for a few naira. The stamp on it showed on it showed that it was posted outside Lagos (smart bastard, he caused again). It was addressed to the officer in charge of the case involving the murder of Chief Koko and Tracy Oluwami and had just a PO Box as the returnee address. He instinctively knew the PO Box will be fake.

Picking up the intercom, he requested Sgt James Aproko to report ASAP.
Within the minute, Sgt Aproko was in his office and saluted smartly.

“You called sir”
“Yes. I want you to take this envelope to Forensics department. I want them to run a complete test on it and it’s contents – fingerprints, DNA, the full works. I also want you to check the PO Box on the envelope. I also want a full background check done on all the workers at Dr Suleiman’s Funeral Parlor.
“Yes Sir! But the background check will take some time”.
Then get on it. I want to know if this is real or just some or just a plank. I want your report on my desk ASAP. Dismissed!”
Saluting smartly, Sgt Aproko wheeled out of the office.

JayB was indeed not a happy man. The events of the past few days had not been very favourable at all. His boss, Chief Inspector Ibe, had been killed and while he was still trying to locate the killer(s), a new boss had been fostered on. This new boss had then proceeded to close the damn case as non-solvable. And coupled with the half dozen homicides of recent, no sane man could be happy.

He sighed as he opened the file on his desk. Two idiots had caused a brawl during a football match involving two European clubs and had proceeded to wreck the match viewing centre. One person had died and 6 more sustained injuries of varying degrees in the fracas that ensured. He sighed again. It was indeed going to be a long day.
_________________________________________________________________________

Jakende Low-Cost Housing Estate 9:06 hours

Tope felt good with himself. He knew he had done something noble. After successfully fending off Mrs Ajoke by showing her a wrong envelope and telling her he had no such document, he had boarded a bus to a post office in a small town outside Lagos. There he had made two more copies of the autopsy reports. One copy he had addressed to the police CID and then another to the officer in charge of the murder case of the girl in question. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

He was now back his one-room self-contained and was now perusing a copy of his favourite book on the human anatomy. He knew he was going to get an A1 on his internship report. Thank you Lord for your mercies and kindness, he silently prayed.
__________________________________________________________________________

Somewhere in Obalende. 09:33 hours. Same day

Jack knew he was going to die. He felt it in his very bones. He knew he was a dead man the moment the limping man barged into their lives and interrupted their peaceful existence. But it was not like that now, this felt much different. he could see it in the mad glint in the eyes of the mad man as he worked on his beautiful wife earlier on. The man was no longer limping now, he had morphed into the insane one. The mad man had gone out to do who knows what, but not before slinging cold look his way.

Jack knew he had lost all sense of time and bearing. He had been drugged and transported from his residence to this place. And then he was tortured. He could still remember it vividly, the pain from the stump on his ring finger was still racking his body with convulsions. But alas,the greatest pain he felt was within, right in his heart. He had watched helplessly from where he was tied as his dear wife had been rough handled and then raped. Was that even rape? He was not so sure he could call that rape, because his dear wife had responded to the madman. Infact he was not so sure he was sure he was sure of anything anymore. Must be the drugs.

But one thing felt very sure. He could feel Death itself calling him to it's dark and cold embrace. He felt very defeated. Calling on his God, he asked for forgiveness for his sins and waited for death.
______________________________________________________________________

Same place. Same time

The fog was lifting and with it came clearer thinking. Eno Etim felt as if she had slept off for a decade. Her head felt very heavy, like it belonged to someone else. She also felt very dirty. She felt like she had been ravaged by something unclean and filthy.Then the memories started filtering in slowly.

She remembered the face, a face so full of malice she wanted to forget it. She remembered the man's hot breath as he kissed her deeply and also the touch of his dirty hands as he roughed her breasts. She could also feel the pain from the tiny wounds on her laps caused by the calluses on the man's hands. She prayed the mad man had used protection when he had entered her, she did not want to contract any STI. She felt real dirty for having responded to his touches. Mst have been the drugs which dulled her willpower, she admonished herself.

She knew she could never survive another such ordeal, it would break her spirit. Survival called. Looking around her, she surveyed her surroundings. The room was quite small, like an average sized room. At the center of the room was a small plastic table on which lay a tray containing several tools and implements too gross for her to try and identify and on the other side was her husband looking morose and dejected. She knew she could cut through her bonds with one of those tools, if only she could reach them. Shifting her weight, she found that she was quite loosely tied. The mad man must have forgotten to tie up properly after his last session. She found that she could reach now reach the legs of the table and she kicked very vigorously. The tray fell to the ground scattering it's contents as the table gave way. Using the tip of her toes, she dragged a knife towards her and picked it up with her hand.

Dextery, she cut through her bonds. Those training sessions with her fellow women Avengers was now really paying off. After cutting her bonds, she proceeded to where her husband lay and cut his bonds too. Still holding her knife, they both walked to the door. It was locked, from the outside. They would have to wait for their tormentor to come back. Sighing deeply, she proceeded to lie in wait behind the door.

___________________________
On the streets. Same time

"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers, powers that astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing, forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action".

Though he loved quotes, especially quotes about the human mind from great thinkers and orators, he was not sure he could remember the author of this one of his favourite quotes. He had another favourite quote;

"Whatever the mind can conceive, that it can achieve."

And yes, he knew and could remember the author of that quote, Napolean Hill, one of his favourite author, thinker and orator. He would have loved to meet him, but then again Bamo was not to dwell too much on the non-attainable.

During his medical school, Bamo could be seen burying his head in psychology books. He loved the human mind and its intricate little workings. He knew that the mind is capable of warping events in a favourable light in order to protect itself and it could also be affected either positively o negatively by the smallest detail. He knew that his 7-years prison stay has warped his mind and made him the creature that he is today. He had seen and done things while in prison he probably wouldn't have seen or done otherwise. He sometimes wondered what he could have become if his medical career was allowed to flourish without interruption. All this thoughts crossed his mind as he walked back to his abode.

He smiled to himself as he came within sight of his home and remembered the two current occupants. The plan was originally to eliminate the couple on the spot, at least that's what Madam K had told him in her instructions. But he had changed his mind when he had seen the dazzling beauty of the redhead. What better way to have his way with her while her husband watched helpless, he had bemused. She had been strong alright but the drugs had helped to erode away at her will. The husband will have to die soon, the pure aura of fear emanating from him was too pungent his liking.

He started whistling as he reached his door and unlocked it. He smiled again as he thought of the plans of what he wanted to do to and with the woman. He was still smiling and whistling when something hard and sharp smashed into his skull. His last image as he lay sprawled on the floor was of a redhead beauty holding a blood-stained knife. The knife slammed into him again.

_________________________

Dr Kaboon's Office, Gold Cross Hospital. 12:30 hours. Same day

The electricity in the room was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

"Thank you very much, Nurse Veronica, for accompanying me on my rounds."
"Anytime Doc". She smiled and bathed her eyelash coyly at him.

Dr Kaboon knew an invitation when he saw one and he be damned if was not going to accept this one. With his right hand he grabbed her waist and brought her closer to his body. Bending his face, he crushed her soft succulent lips in a deep kiss. Her lips parted willingly and he could taste her full essence. His hands not wanting to be idle while the mouth worked, sought for and found her twin globes and caressed it. The nipples were already hard and erect, but something brittle was blocking the way. His hands started to rip the offending fabric out of the way...

There came a sharp insistent knocking at his door. He was sharply back into the present. Who the heck had the temerity to interrupt his journey? Thank God he had remembered to lock the damn door.

"Who is it?" He queried.
"It is Pyguru. When did you start to lock your door from the inside?"
Today, of course, you idiot. Why must this idiot always be intruding? Couldn't he have come another time? I will have your hide for this, Pyguru. He promised to himself.
"What is the problem?"
"I have been instructed by the Administrator to come to his office for the meeting as earlier scheduled. You have less than 5 minutes."
Damn! How could he have forgotten?
"I will be there shortly."

He waited till the footsteps had faded and then turned to the pretty dark beauty beside him. The disappointed look on the face told him all he had to know. He mentally cursed Pyguru for denying him a piece of this sweet ass today. Well he could always go hunting another day.

"Am sorry about this, Veronica, duty calls."
"I understand". Reaching up on tip toes, she kissed him. Flashing her trademark smile at him, she glided out of his office.

After giving her time to have gone far and to allow his blood cool down, he stepped out of his office and locked the door. Humming some abstract tune, he proceeded to walk towards the Administrator's office.
_________________________
Somewhere in the suburbs of Lagos. 13:05 hours. Same day.

The room was not supposed to be stuffy but it certainly felt so. This was as a result of the thick smoke swirling around in the room and the mean demeanor of the 4 tough looking able-bodied young men sitting in various positions around the room. Any stranger that barged into this gathering could have sworn that the smoke was not from cigarette. At the centre of this room paced a huge bear of a man.

At 6ft3inches, Pajero Blaise gave the impression of a huge beast on two legs. His strength was visible in his huge biceps and on his face a scar from his right ear to his lower lips. In his left hand was a bottle of some sort of hot gin and in his right hand was a wrap of indian hemp. Intermittently he took a swipe of the hot gin or a lungful of the smoke.

"The Oga has a mission for us."
He bellowed.
"We are to hit a certain hospital and retrieve a patient in one of the rooms. The patient is that important that he is guarded round the clock by a team of 4 crack policemen. We will hit the place ten minutes after the change of shift at 4pm. We will hit them while they are still trying to settle in. We are to maintain as little casualties as possible."
"Pajero, I have a question. What about the policemen? What do we do with them?" Asked one of his men.
"Our orders are to maintain as small a casualty rate as possible. Shoot to disarm and not to kill. It would be bad to have the blood of a cop on our hands, it would be quite terrible to have them seriously pissed off at this moment. The Oga at the top specifically made that clear."

Sitting down with his men, he proceeded to give more details about their mission and to share weapons among his men as their waited.
______________________________

Sharon's Apartment, Isolo. 16:35 hours. Same Day.

The day had turned out quite well for David. After reaching Sharon's office earlier on, he had taken her to their favourite restaurant. There he had shown her the new piece of evidence that had come into his hands. She had of course been as excited as he was and they had strategised together on what to do. They had decided to present the new evidence at Lucan's court hearing in a fortnight. They were now back in Sharon's apartment, for they had elected to go their instead of his.

Looking at the beautiful lady in his arms, David knew he was a lucky man.
"I love you babe." He told her as he kissed her lightly on her lips.
"I love you too." She kissed him back.

His phone rang. He picked it up, and listening for some seconds, his countenance changed.
"Ok. Thank you, I will be there shortly."
" What is the problem?" Sharon asked him.
"It's Lucan. Some armed men had stormed the hospital, shot at the policemen and made away with Lucan in an ambulance. A civilian, a doctor working at the hospital, had died in the ensuing shootout between the men and the policemen. I have to go back to the office." He told her the sad news.
"That's not good. Should I come with you?"
"No, just stay here. I will be back shortly."

Minutes later, he was in his car on the street heading towards the office. Three car lengths behind him, a certain sleek black trailed faithfully.

Inside the car, the lone occupant brought out a phone and speed dialed 4. It was picked on the third ring.
"The subject is on the move. His lady is at her apartment. What's your instruction?"
"Still maintain your surveillance. That's all for now."
Mumbling some acknowledgment, the occupant ended the call. Any casual observer that had glanced at the phone during the call would have been interested and surprised at the identity of the number being called. It simply read 'The Oga at the Top'.
________________________

A Conference Hall, Police State Command Headquarters. 17:00 hours. Same day

Asst Chief Inspector JayB was quite livid. It showed in the way he sat and in the way the veins in his face popped. Around him in the conference room sat like a dozen police men. All wore somber looks.

"This is not a happy gathering. Less than an hour ago, some men of the underworld had the temerity to attack Gold Cross Hospital where some of my men were on guard duty. In the process, they had injured 2 policemen and made away with a patient, Mr Lucan Ode, who incidentally is also a cop. A civilian, a doctor known as Dr Pynto Okuwati, had been killed in the ensuing shootout."

"I want those men found and the image of this command and the force restored! We can't have policemen shot at. We have been giving all authority to bring the full weight of the law to bear on them. This is how we will do it."

He began to outline the steps.
_______________________
The Mobo Mansion, Ikoyi. 18:00 hours. Same day.

Victor Mobo was relaxing in his terraced garden, thinking and enjoying some of his exotic wine. Business has been moving just fine, at least according to the reports he received from his boys. Halle had made some new friends at her new school and seemed to be coping quite well with the change in environment. He had finally decided not take Mr Ibe's old job. It was too messy and put him too much in the spotlight.

He watched as one of his bodyguards approached.
"Mrs Cathy is here to see you, Sir."
"Send her right in."
He had given new instructions that no one should be allowed into the grounds with being properly vetted and screened.
He watched her as she walked towards him. By God, she was still as beautiful as ever. Maybe one of this days he should ..., he left the thought hanging. He knew he was not necessarily a lonely man, he had his fair share of women. But once in a while he could feel an emptiness and arching in his heart.

"What brings you here without calling first?" He asked her after they had exchanged pleasantries and pouring some wine for her into a spare glass cup.
"The Eagle has left the nest. Mr Lucan has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen."
"That's really bad. When did this happen? What about the policemen detailed to guard him?"
"Less than an hour ago. The policemen tried their best but they were caught unawares. I warned you about this, he should have been taken to one of the safehouses."
"Know your place woman! It is not your place to apportion blame." He bellowed at her.
She visibly blanched.

"Something needs to be done and fast. Lucan knows way too much about our organization. He needs to be found immediately and retrieved." He continued in a much gentler voice.
"I want you to contact the members of The Circle of the Stars. I am convening an impromptu meeting tomorrow, right here in my residence. They should all endeavour to attend. In the meantime, Cathy, you have my permission and authority to activate the Iron Claw. Mr Lucan needs to be found and brought back, preferably alive. I want to know how exactly how he came to possess the information he currently has."

As Cathy took her leave, Victor Mobo sipped his wine in silence. He had a certain foreboding that he knew who held Lucan. He hoped he was wrong.
____________________
Chapter 11 ends.

Chapter 12
**A different angle from a higher authority**
Written and Submitted by Mynd_44

The cool Atlantic breeze blew against her face; blew the hair in front of her eyes away and she was glad it came; she however regretted not visiting the saloon earlier to have the hair done.

Everything had moved so fast that she did not even have the time to totally think before going out that night, she slowed down a little and looked in from of her, she could not see anyone in front of her and for the main time, it was good, she did not want to see anyone at least for now. She knew very soon she will run into someone who had strayed away from the camp but the wind was so cold that if she had not been called out too, she would have curled into her bed or would have walked into a bar and found herself a lovely lady to please her that night. She was lesbian and did not care what law the senate passed. She would love to see the policeman that would come arrest her.

The pressure over the last few days had been so much; she did not have the chance to think well. The endless phone calls, the meetings and the reminder that she could not afford to fail was a constant reminder that she was on a knife edge and she had to do all her best in this situation. She was told failure was not an option and she did not intend to fail. She had not failed in a long while and she did not want to start now. Infact, she could not start to fail now. She wished she had chosen the time to come do this but the time had to come right now as the situation was going out of control and the pressure from her superiors demanded action and that was why she was there.

She held her had up and spoke into the communicator attached to it;

“Approaching the site, anybody seen anything yet?”

Hushed voices replied all in the negative. Of her team she is the only female and she is the leader, she is the arrow head and the point here, she is used to running solo missions but the guys over at command demanded she went in with a team and that was not up for a discussion or argument.

Her immediate boss had been kept up to monitor things and the chances of failure had been calculated. The different angles assessed and their choices analyzed. Every step they were to take before the main event was already chosen and she had been told to stick with it. she had a knack for going against the plan and wandering off but this is not one of those cases she could go on her own because that might just mean her career going down the drain.

All around her were palm trees as if they were planted there on purpose, she remembered her geography lessons from secondary school and the explanation her teacher gave being that since the palm fruits could stand years at sea without being affect by the salt water, they just rode the tides until they got to the next shore and planted themselves there, she had raised her hand there and asked the teacher;

“But who planted the first palm tree at a beach and what was he thinking?”

That was years ago when her questions were to pass exams but now her questions were for other things top on the list of thing is to save lives and protect the country against internal aggressors.

Tonight was a sting mission to rescue 4 foreign oil workers snatched off a platform some weeks ago. They had tried all possible methods known but the guys holding them did not seem to beplaying around. They were offered money for ransome and they rejected, they were begged and they still refused so it came to this. Their government had being on the backside of the Nigerian government worried about the safety of their nationals and they had every reason to. These guys were serious about killing them so they had to use force and in this case, excessive force. They had a kill order but to get the hostages out safely is their primary objective.

The intel on the group came 2 days earlier from the Directorate of Military Intelligence(DMI) who had been tracing the group’s sources of weapons for a long time, they had satellite pictures and had even send a guy inside the camp to know where the hostages were kept and the routine of the guards. The spy had stayed 4 days inside the camp without being seen by anyone and the fact that he even took pictures of the whole place and the hostages told her the guy was good; really good.

She would have asked the DMI to go get the hostages themselves because they had more than enough resources to but they had a matter of constitutional constraint to worry about before doing that. So the job was that of the State Security service who had kept watch of the situation and hence, she and her team were going in.

She walked slowly but confidently glad that the forest floor was free of undergrowth as a result of the tall palm trees.

“They would block out the sun so the bottom plants can’t get enough sunlight to survive”

Her teacher had said and that reminded her of the government.

The whole area was quiet accept for the voices of the insects and that of the waves from the ocean washing on the beach just a couple of hundred meters away. She walked on and guessed that she should be about 200 meters away from the camp. From the pictures, there were 3 sheds in all, one contained the hostages and was in the middle, one housed the top guys and the small boys took the third. The one in the centre was said to have minimal guards as the prisoners were thought to not pose a threat to their captors.
They had a couple of speed boats at the shore behind the camp as there was a channel that ran from the camp to the ocean.

A wreaking crew had been sent to plant some explosives inside the boats to prevent escape and the Navy already had ship waiting not too far just in case. She felt the confidence and hope they had in her and she did not allow it cloud her judgment. Even though she came with a lot of backup and her team consisted of a selection of the Joint Task Force, she had come packing a complete arsenal.

She had her standard issue 9mm on both sides of her waist, two behind her and two more in her jacket, she had two grenades and she had her Japanese samurai sword behind her, her superiors had always kicked against a field agent carrying a sword but that sword had come in handy in situations where she ran out of ammunition and there were bad guys on her back. She was trained and experienced with the sword which already has more than 15 kills. And all these were covered by her deep black jacket which seemed to blend into the night even with the moon smiling down at them

She looked ahead and she saw a figure move in front of her. she stopped, surely whoever was in front of her was not one of her team because no one had reported anyone, she moved behind the trunk of a tree and spoke quietly into her communicator;

“Guard up ahead. You boys keep your eyes peeled”

Saying that she put her hand into her jacket and brought out her 9mm with a silencer attached to the nozzle. She hate silencers as it takes the fun out of shooting but this case called for subtlety as it will be great if they had surprise. So the silencer would have to stay for now. Another member reported another guard but she was lost in herself now as she got into hunter mode, she walked smartly in the direction of the figure and she kept walking, she made out the shape and it appeared to be a man carrying an AK 47. When she was close enough, she said;

“Good day sir” the guard was startled and looked in her direction as she raised her gun up and pulled the trigger. The guard fell without uttering a word as the bullet sank into his skull and he died without even knowing who shot him.

The wreakers reported to have also made some kills and planted the explosives inside the boats as she got to the edge of the forest and the clearing which marked the group’s camp and she still stood in the shadow the trees gave. A couple of her team also recorded some kills. She looked out and saw that the intel was right to the very last detail as the camps were how they said it was and everything was in place, she could count 5 guards walking around the compound. And she saw about 3 sitting in front of the building in the middle obviously preventing and escape of the prisoners.

She spoke into the communicator;

“Remember, we don’t want them to know anything until we have the prisoners so keep your cool. One, two and four, take out a guard and leave the remaining two to me. Snipers kill those three guarding that building and the rest of you stand back. On my mark, we go.”

She waited about 30 seconds and said;

“Now”

Immediately, she and three men ran inside the compound, a guard turned and saw one of them but fell immediately he saw him another two others were shot down too as she pulled out both guns on her waist and shot them into the heads of the guards she had reserved for herself. She looked up and saw that the snipers had done their jobs withthe ones at the entrance of the building and she simply walked in. The hostages were all sleeping. Oblivious to what was happening she woke them up one at a time as other members of her team entered the building and helped them up. They looked at the hostages and reassured them of their safety and they all started running towards the forest.

She looked into the compound and saw that the place was flooded with men while the ones with the hostages were making their way across the clearing when a face showed from the window which was said to house the top guy and there was a shout. She knew the part she loved most was here, she looked again and saw that the hostages were now in the shelter of the trees and she removed the silencers on her guns, she said to herself;

“I could just lie down right here and let thoseboys settle this”

But she wanted to participate out of some moral code which says she was the leader and she had to lead.

90 minutes later, she was walking past of one of the trucks that served as communication and mobile command centers. There were a lot of trucks around this base. This was the base of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta dealing with the insurgency there and it was from there they had planned their assault on the Camp. The living condition was not up to par but for the past 9 months, she has learnt t call it home and deal with the issues there. She looked to her left and saw the ex-hostages being lead into a minivan to be driven to an hotel where they will be allowed to rest and then they will start another problem which majorly consisted of questions, medical examinations, psych sessions and a whole lot of crap which no one would want to pass through.

The message had already being passed to her superiors and they will be pleased. She imagined that some silly politicians will use this to score points from both sides. The opposition will probably say the intervention was too slow and they should have done it faster while some will say the intervention was not necessary as the condition of the Delta should be improved so the incident will not repeat itself. Those were not her concern.Her concern was that they finally caught the leader of the gang or as they called themselves no, “Freedom fighters”
He will probably not see the inside of a courtroom until he dies and she pitied him for that. The SSS will release a statement to the press that he was killed during the assault and some of his lower boys will be tried and given really long sentences but he will be transferred to one of the 5 holding facilities around the country for prisoners whose cases where special and they will be interrogated. Interrogation that will be extensive and broad. A team of EFCC, SSS, DMI and NIA will be there for the interrogation with each of them trying to find out if they can find information that will concern them. Where their funds came from, how the funds are transferred, how they move weapons, training sites will be the major aspects and when it is all done, he will be taken to some waste and shot in the back.

People like him don’t get anything else. He should have shot himself instead of allowing himself get caught, perhaps he thought he would get a deal with the government and that was why when he ran out of bullets and was looking into the nozzle of her gun, he got on his knees and surrendered. Smarter men would have done something else and got shot in the head, perhaps that was because she hoped he would give her the satisfaction of shooting him, but it was gone now and everyone could relax and wait to be debriefed independently. She had 9 kills in total that evening and it was a good count to her. it was not her highest kill in an operation(not by a long shot) but was not also her lowest. It was just one of those days.

She walked past another truck and looked into the glass and saw that her face was a complete wreck majorly because of her hair and she had some blood stains on her left cheek from some guy she had to knife beforeshe reloaded her gun. She said to herself;

“Nothing a cold bath would not remove”

And for the second time that night, she regretted not having her hair done because the hair was just all over the place. Not that she really cared who saw her neither was sheinterested in attracted anyone on the camp but with the operation out of the way, she thought of visiting the bar and see if the woman she was with last week had come visiting. She does not share numbers with lovers because she never had a number. She was a loner travelling from place to place. She had no permanent address and only saw her mother once a year or if fate would have it and she was posted to Oyo state, she might drop by for some Amala and Egusi soup. No luck as to that yet.

She got to the door of the room that had served as her’s for the past months and wentin. she entered went straight into the bathroom; her room was perhaps one of the only rooms which had a bathroom there since it was majorly for men but she was so far up the ladder here that when she was transferred, they had to build it for her. she got out of the bathroom, put on a pair of jeans and had barely sat down on the bed when there was a knock on the door

“Who is that?” she hissed.

“You are wanted in communications ma’am. The commandant said it is very urgent”

“Fine, I am on my way”

The person at the door obviously under strict instructions to make sure she comes with him replied;

“He said you should come with me right now ma’am”

Now she was getting pissed;

“If you don’t want to spent the night in the clinic for broken ribs, you will get off my door and tell the commandant I will meet him right away”

She hated pulling rank here but sometimes the junior boys wanted to act up because shewas a woman. She remembered when some Looney tried to get fresh with her when she came newly, he had actually tried to get her drunk and sleep with her but he ended up spending 5 months on an hospital bed. He still walks with a limp too.

The walk to the truck where she was wanted was annoying, the whole camp had suddenly come alive as their operation was not disclosed to everyone and everyone was just hearing of it.
The press was there and the state governor would be on his way soon to smile and look pretty so when the press conference was held he would be there. She walked into the little trailer and saw that it was empty;

“Weird” she told herself as her hand instinctively went to her waist as she touched the gun on her left side. It was a defense mechanism to always suspect danger and this could be some kind of trap.

“Put the gun away, no one is interested in killing you. At least not here because I can bet a number of people who would love you dead. Take a seat. We have a lot to talk about”

The voice did not sound familiar one bit but it was coming from the speakers in the trailer. The place is normally used when there is a private message for the recipient and conversation was not going to be recorded. She was hesitant to sit down until she knew exactly who was talking and why and so she asked;

“What is going on here? I really hope this is not some kind of sick joke?”

“Why not put on the monitor in front of you first and then we can talk about this?”

She moved forward and pushed the switch in front of here and about 5 monitors came on; all showing different angles of a room filled with 4 men. None of them looked familiar except one. The Deputy Director of the State Security Service himself.

Lukman Adamma had a look that made most people doubt his position but those who knew him closer know that he is one who was a strict as anything else. He was deputy director and he was in charge of operations. He kept field agents and no operation goes down without his knowledge. The fact that he is rumored to take over as director was not to be doubted because everyone who came n contact with him knows what he is made of.

The remaining three men in the room looked unfamiliar but had the same look the deputy director and they seemed like the type that would not smile even if a gun was placed at their head.

“Good evening sir” she said

“Actually it is Good morning one of the men replied and you should have at least said Sirs to acknowledge the rest of us. I wonder where they get you people without respect from”

Lukman shook his head and said;

“I am not in the mood for your courtesy issues John so let’s get this over with” Turning to her he said,

“Meet John from Narcotics, Ikechukwu from gun running and the other gentleman you don’t really need to know. ” The third dude smiled coolly and nodded

“I saw the performance of your team today and it was an impressive one, rescuing the hostages was a great feat and I am sure you would love to get back to investigating the different angles to this which will include the source of their weapons but I have something else for you to do”

She sat up, she was expecting this to be a de-briefing session but her gut told her something else was up.

The one called John spoke;

“Does the name Senator Koko ring any bells to you?”

The name did not ring bells; it set off nuclear blasts in her head

“Yes it does, I ran an investigation on him once before I was drafted here due to necessity”

“The deputy director came in now;

“Well, a couple of nights ago, he was found dead in a hotel room and that same night, his family was burnt to death in their home. These all happened in Lagos. Local police in Lagos have taken charge of this investigation as they claim they have found the killer which happen to be a police officer and his girlfriend is one of the cheif's lovers was found dead at his place so it is more or less an ‘open and close’ case. The matter has even being taken to court”

She sat up, first shocked at the death of the man she had investigated for months and now, it was over;

“So why bring me into this? Do you need something on the killer?”

The unnamed guy came in now, standing up and walking around;

“The police officer, Lucan did not kill the senator miss, the senator was killed by someone else and that is how this involves you. We have had a number of agents on this case operating a shadow investigation but you are to be the arrow head and wrap this case up. You will be going in with the full resources of the State”

Now she was almost smiling but still surprised;

“Why are you not coming through my direct superior? If I am to be sent out, he should be the one briefing me and I don’t see how the deputy director should be involved in this except this runs deeper than I thought”

“Your superior cannot be involved in this because he is under
investigations for belonging to a criminal organization and we have reasons to believe he is involved in this. You are going in on orders of the director himself and will report to us on any progress you make. A case file will be given to you, study it and become familiar with it. You were
chosen because you have been into the Senator’s operations before and you are familiar with it. Any questions you mighthave will be explained in the
files that sit in your mail right now so get with it. There is a plane leaving for Lagos in 30 minutes, I suggest you be on it, you will be using the agency’s room in Sheraton hotel Ikeja and a car is available for you
too. We expect your first report in 24 hours. You are to repot to us
directly and no one else should know of your reasons there except those you work with down there. Keep a small circle as we are playing this close to the chest.”

“So you are sending me in to prove that the officer is innocent?”

“No we are sending you in to find out why he was killed and the links that lead to his death”

She smiled inwardly and said;

“There is something you are not telling me, you just said you want me to find out why he was killed not who killed him which makes me think you already know who and you just want to create a link to that person. Chief Koko used
to be a major player in drug trafficking hence narcotics but what I don’t understand is why you are so secretive about it. Except of course whoever did it is so powerful, he has people inside the agency itself and might
influence the investigations”

“You have your assignment lady, get started and stop guessing”

At this, the screens went blank and she was left there. She told herself;

“There goes my night and a chance to do something with this hair.”

“Back in her room, she had only a few things to pack, a few clothes and it was done. She could not go with any weapon because she would be searched at the airport. She could have flashed her badge but since no one was to know
she was in Lagos, it would be better if her guns were kept back, she would call when for weapons when she arrived Lagos

A few hours later, she was sitting in a taxi heading to the hotel, she read the files sent to her on her ipad during the flight and it was crazy,whoever did the killing was smart but not too smart. It was okay to kill someone but setting another person is really silly and never ends well, if you commit a murder, do it and just move on, trying to play someone else to
take the fall leaves loose ends and that leaves a trail of bread crumbs
that leads directly to you. But the SSS already know who did it so it was no problem; all she had to do now is to find a link expose everything.

She got to the hotel and got out of the car. Checking in was easy as the room had been booked in her name and all expenses paid for 6 months with possibility for a refund if she stayed for less. The room was a large one, she was particularly happy about the room because the one she had in camp
was horrible and she wished she never had to go back to that crazy camp again. Those groups were beginning to drive her insane, she had a knack for gun fights but she preferred to investigate and then end it in gunfights not go into them to save lives.

She had profiled the late chief once and just when she was getting close, she was transferred and now she is supposed to come and catch whoever killed him? She knew she was happy he is dead and would rather shake the
hands of the killer in congratulations first. Another issue was the urgency
and secrecy, the deputy director was dragged into this which means whoever the person pulling the strings is, he is powerful and bad.

She walked into the room still looking around when she saw a bag sitting on the bed, opening it, she smiled. It contained her guns; service pistols, back up, two mobile phones, car keys and a little gift to even make her
smile more, when she got to the bottom of the bag, her sword was sitting there.

She did not get any sleep in throughout the flight as she was spent the whole time studying the files and making sure she did not leave anything out but now fatigue started setting in. there was obviously nothing to do
while she was tired and she needed to get sleep urgently as the first report would be due that night, she called for room service to wake her up at 9am and she went to bed with her guns and sword scattered all around her
on the bed.

When she woke up, she was a little better, she took breakfast and went downstairs to find the car assigned to her; asleek Benz ML 360 was the answer and she smiled more and said;

“These guys are going to make me too comfortable for this job.”

She spent the whole day making her hair and she called some contacts of her that were in Lagos, in the case files, a name came up more that “Lucan” and it was his friend in the Police; David.

According to the files, he is
trying to prove his friend’s innocence and he would be the best place to start. The SSS had a man tailing him and everyone involved in the case so finding him was too easy. She was told that apart from them, someone else was trailing and had been following him around a lot but she did not care, if she was seen, if she would make an entrance, it had to be soon so she got his route and set out to meet him.

David was on his way to the office when he noticed that he was out of fuel and he pulled up into the nearest filling station he could find to get some fuel, he also remembered that for a long while, he had not eaten anything so after, buying fuel, he walked into the Mr Biggs restaurant which shared space with the filling station and got a plate of rice and chicken. His appetite was not really strong but he managed to eat a couple of spoons
before he decided he could take no more.

He was about to get up and walk out when a very attractive lady walked up to him and said;

“That is a huge waste of money sir, eating your food halfway and leaving like that when millions are starving In Somalia, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

He looked up and he could not get his eyes off her, she looked like a
supermodel and her curves were full and rich but he realized he had to leave, he was in no mood for flirting;

“I am sorry but I lost my appetite halfway”
He looked at her as she smiled and said;

“You are worried about Lucan aren’t you? It is so cute, if I did not know better, I would say you two are lovers”

At the mention of Lucan, his eyes widened and he could not sit down comfortably anymore

“What did you say?

“Your partner, Lucan, that’s why you are so worried right David?”

“Listen here lady, I don’t know what you are up to but you better not be some reporter trying to get some info because I have none to share”

“Information to share would include how Lucan was abducted from the hospital, that you think he is innocent and that the coroner is part of an elaborate scheme to frame him up right?”

Now he was really pissed, he knew some of his colleagues might have talked but this lady knew too much and he wanted to know how

“How do you know all these? You do realize that if you go public with this, you might be jeopardizing an ongoing investigation and it is a crime”

She laughed for a bit. Her face seemed to look ten times more beautiful when she smiles

“I am not a reporter rather, I am here to help you or perhaps help myself too”

“If you are not a reporter, who and what are you?”

“The name is Shade, and I am with the SSS”

With that, she produced a badge that showed authority, she carried her head a little bit higher than it was and seemed to be looking into his eyes.

“A badge? I have seen fakes that look like this”

“You are a computer analyst dude, should I give you my service code and you can confirm?”

Every SSS agent had a code which is used to know if they really work with them and David ran it through the system from his android phone and he saw
her designation there; it simply read; “Field investigator”


“So what do you want?”

“I don’t want anything. I am just here to help with the investigation. And also help you prove that Lucan is innocent”

“I already have proof that he is innocent andI intend to present it in court”

She relaxed into the chair and said;

“What proof do you have? That mail sent to you?”

“You also got it? Do you know who it is from?” now David started getting excited because if the person who sent the mail was known, he or she could be of help.

“No we were not sent a copy but we have one anyway.”

“And how do “You” have one”

“Since the murder of the Chief, we have had a shadow investigation which is unknown to even a lot of top people within the SSS. The purpose of the killers setting Lucan up is to make sure we stay out but you guys did not really think a sitting senator would be killed and the SSS would sit it out
did you? We had everyone involved in it tailed including the coroner since we discovered unusual phones calls between him and someone else.”

“So who sent the mail?”

“His intern did. He must have found the document sitting somewhere and he made copies of it and sent it to you people”

“Well, how come you have one?”

“The intern is smart but not smarter than us.We were watching him but when he took a trip out of Lagos to the post office in Abeokuta, we knew he was
up to something so we intercepted the documents, made copies for ourselves and sent it to where he wanted it sent. I know you feel like this help Lucan but it does not”

“It helps him, as it says exactly what killed the girl. All we have to do is get the judge to order another autopsy”

“And you think the Department of public prosecution will take that? It will be argued that you cooked this thing up. You could have colluded with the intern and made a copy of the document, photocopied it and destroyed the
original and worse is that it will make you suspects in the murder of the coroner too. What will you do then?”

“Since you people know the document was sent by the intern, you can bring him to testify”

“Testify that what? We got to know he did in an illegal way. You want us to tell a judge that we intercepted a private mail without a court order? You must be kidding”

“We could call the boy in and convince him to talk”

“The boy can’t testify in court, I checked his record, he is a member of a fraternity in his school, who will believe him, according to investigations, he has a couple of rape and assault suspicions on him too”

“Okay, you said you saw unusual phone calls between the coroner and someone, can’t we find that person and go through that channel?”

“We traced the calls illegally and we can’t really use that against anyone. Don’t you get this, the only way to find the save Lucan from being hanged for murder is to find the killers? I am here to help with that and we have
to move fast. I heard he has been abducted and we should find out where he is so we can get him out before he is killed”

David nodded in agreement. He could still not believe that his evidence had been torn to shreds in a matter of seconds. Finding the killers now seemed to be the only thing that can save Lucan.

“But how do we find them?”

“This might be a shock to you but the lady was once mistress of the chief which make Lucan look guiltier. A crime of passion, kill the other guy and the girl as revenge. But we can find out more about the two of them, look into personal documents of the girl, what groups she belonged to on FB, her friends, circles, who she follows on Nairaland, anything you can find and get back to me. In the mean time, I have to follow another lead. Chief Koko was also into smuggling drugs and that is an angle I will look into. I have
to go now before anybody suspects anything.”

“How can I reach you” David said.

To that, she did not answer, she simply got up and dialed a number on her phone, seconds later, David’s phone rang and she said, call me anytime you
have something.

“If I want you, I know where you live. And just so you know, a lot of people are compromised so I hope you will keep our little agreement between us ”

She walked out and kept walking, smiling to herself because she knew she had David. He wanted Lucan free and so would fight until the end to prove he is innocent. A fact she was not even bothered about. To her, Lucan can
die but she was more interested in who and why the Chief was killed because whoever killed him had made the guys over at the SSS worried which could only mean that person had more power than she knew for now. Lucan is just
part of an elaborate plot. One she is sure would still bring more bodies bags and a lot of bullets would fly.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MEDUSA'S LOCK
WRITTEN AND SUBMITTED BY LARRY SUN

Beyond the white expanse of the large room, through the window, the iron-black clouds that had masked the sky now hid themselves behind grey veils of trailing air. The wind went elsewhere with its lamentations, and the sodden trees stood as still and as solemn as witnesses to a funeral cortege. The scorching sun that had initially dominated this part of the world since the previous months had now ebbed, and rain, although not quite in the forecast, was certain to be released at any moment soon; definitely before the week subsided.

Green pigments of the garden flowers were beginning to lose their healthy touch, and the grasses screamed for the tears of the angels. This cloudy rebirth from the horizon could be seen eliciting as much smiles on the faces of farmers as scowls from bricklayers. The early December rain was, expectedly, deemed to come down heavily enough to make an umbrella more trouble than it was worth. And in the process, mayhaps, wash away the sins of humanity. Sometimes, however, this deluge could become so severe that families were baptized even in the sanctity of their homes, and many household ornaments had been seen floating on torrents. Hours after the rain, many streets would still have canoes being paddled from household to household. Romantic lovers would hoist their paramours around their necks as they make their ways through a mini-ocean that engulfed their whole bodies from feet to necks.

The moment hadn't brought any storm yet, though. But the sky was visibly put in the woman's way.

Due to the gunshot to the back of his head, Lucan's coma had resulted mainly from cerebral hypoxia; a lack of adequate oxygen to the brain for an extended period of time. But, albeit the catastrophe, he was actually lucky, because the results which were initially revealed on the EEG scrolls and by brain-imaging tests like angiography, CT scanning and MRI had led inescapably to the conclusion that if he had ever regained consciousness, he would have been profoundly handicapped; much like a vegetable. However, even amongst patients in the deepest of comas, where there was little or no apparent activity in the cerebrum, there was usually enough function in the brain stem to allow them to exhibit some automatic responses, which could trigger their neurones and, in the process, bring them back to life. But this usually occurred in very rare cases, mostly among patients with intelligent quotients greater than average.

In the case of Lucan Ode, though unconscious, he continued to breathe unaided. And once in a while, he coughed, sneezed, blinked his eyes, even yawned. Occasionally, he'd exhibited roving eye movements. His brain cells registered all these activities but his mind was lost entirely in a state of oblivion.

At a time, these automatic responses declined in frequency and ceased any iota of activity. These, as the doctors had observed, had suggested a steady loss of function in the lower brain stem. This had occurred because he'd been found conscious before he was abducted and one of the kidnappers had hit him in the occipital section of the head with the behind of his pistol. This had sent poor Lucan back to the paradise of coma. The silly thug had been shot thereafter by the leader of the gang. Like Lucan, he'd been shot on the back of the head, but unlike Lucan, he'd not survived the shot.

The emergency task of reviving Lucan had been performed again because his heart had stopped once more by the time they reached the location he was being trasported. Defribillation and injections of epinephrine had restarted the heart. The automatic function of the circulatory system was known to be maintained by the lower brain stem, and any brutal force to that part of the brain could lead to a fatal inaction of the ventricular muscles. So, it was clear his heart had failed because the brain-stem function failed.

This room which Lucan was placed now was like a glorified operating theatre. Everything a patient would need in a well-equipped emergency ward was present in this room. His respiration, heartbeat, and brain function were continuously monitored by doctors on shift duties; a standard procedure they had been strictly ordered to follow by men they did not see, but large sums of money kept finding their ways into each doctor's bank account. No question asked thereafter.

The EEG at the side of the patient's bed showed an unseen stylus that drew a continuous line left to right across an endless scrolling graph; these lines displayed the brain's electrical impulses as measured in microvolts. A monotonous series of peaks and valleys on the machine depicted Lucan's brain activity. The peaks were low and wide, the valleys were comparatively steep and narrow. These were known by most medical professionals as the delta waves which revealed typical pattern of normal sleep but not those generally associated with an ordinary night's rest. These particular peaks were broader and much lower than the common delta waves, with a smoother oscillation into and out of the troughs. The electrical impulses were few in number, attenuated, weak. This was Lucan in a very very deep coma.

But suddenly, just suddenly, the lazy, variant delta waves began to spike violently into something different; sharp, irregular peaks and valleys. Yet, few people in the medical field knew this prominent display not as delta waves but beta, quite extreme beta waves. The low, very fast oscillation indicated that the patient was concentrating on an external stimulus. In this case, a patient could come out of his coma, but Lucan still remained slack, unresponsive. Three doctors had gathered around his bed arguing about the cause of the mysterious waves. They later agreed conclusively that Lucan was only dreaming in his current state. But one of the doctors, a particularly more learned one, discounted the new theory. He explained that the wave patterns of dreamers were distinctive and easily recognizable. There were four stages of sleep, and a different signature wave for each stage. None of them was like the one being displayed on the machine.

The beta wave began to spike higher and lower than before. The peaks and valleys were mere needle points instead of the former rugged plateaus, with precipitous slopes between them. The beta waves were those of a conscious alert person. The beta tracery on the screen jittered wildly up and down, valleys growing narrower, the distance between the apex and the nadir of each pattern increasing radically, until it was reminiscent of the patterns produced on a seismograph during a mojor earthquake.

Lucan's respiration, however, was synchronized with the brain wave pattern. Each spike reported series of inhalation, and exhalation occurred between spikes. His heart function showed the standard three-phase action. Diastole, astrial systole, ventricular systole. Neither negative nor positive a sign. The ship of Lucan's mind had sailed into the Bermuda Triangle. It was now left for Lucan himself to sail the ship out of it. Lest the fate of his mind end up like that of the Mary Celeste in the century past.

With nary a remedy to the electronic mystery, the doctors exited the room, signed off their duties for the day and went to their various homes. Believing that Lucan Ode would not be waking up for a long time. Hell! The guy had been unconscious for weeks.

For the next six hours, the waves, peaks and valleys alike, continued their regular and irregular ascents and descents. It was almost midnight before it finally happened.

Lucan opened his eyes.

************************************************************************************

At first, his eyes were only open but unseeing; his mind totally blank. But that was only for a short moment. The fixed stare finally blinked, and the pupils swung like a clock's pendulum. The direct light from the fluorescent bulb above subjected him to shut his eyes tight in a show of a blind man's grimace as a sudden bolt of headache attacked him heretofore. Not enough pain to make him slip back into his familiar oblivion, not quite. He opened his lids as slowly as his retina adjusted to the sharp glare from the white bulb. He wished to hold his head but his left hand was encased in plaster and needle; the plaster held the needle firmly on the back of his hand. The needle carefully stuck in the muscle which connected the second and third metacarpals. Beside the bed was a stand bearing an IV drip from whence liquid dropped copiously like the penal activity from a damaged and distended bladder. The drip ran from the tube directly to his body system, evidently replenishing all what could have been lost since the past weeks from the absence of food and water ingestion.

Slowly, slowly everything was. Lucan slowly raised his head to have a clearer and most distinctive view of his new environment. Save for the EEG and those sharp series of scalpels which had, inadvertently, poked his scalp for a considerable number of times through the paws of well-meaning surgeons during his zilch state, the room was bare with enough space to hold the table alongside the victuals with Jesus and his disciples behind the Supper. Everything was in white; the walls, ceilings, bedsheet, even the door.

He raised his left hand, this one was free. He slowly peeled away the plaster on his right and systematically detached the needle from his skin. He was nak*d from the waist up. Something medically which resembled a flattened chewing gum was pasted on his left sternum, just above the black n*pple, and from this chewing gum extended two wires which connected to one machine which could easily be used to teach Graph to secondary school students of Mathematics and Economics alike. His shaven head was circled in white bandage which was wound so tightly that Lucan felt like he was wearing a baby's cap. And on some carefully selected part of his scalp were the same chewing-gum-like elements glued. Four of them, and eight wires passed to the machine which continued to show graphs and currents that could match those of the electronic engines found in elaborate music-recording studios. These too, he pulled out of his head, and the peaks and valleys immediately disappeared; they became a flowing stream. A short but audible tone took over the mantle. This was the kind of tone that signified total unresponsiveness by the patient, or worse, death.

He didn't look Lucanish in the least. He'd become visibly shrunken with eyes shallow and desperate. This wasn't a symptom which enough good food and exercises wouldn't easily cure. He needed a shave too; being a man naturally gifted with furs, the beard that sported his face could be used as a baby's shawl if shaven. There was a gash on the left side of his face where a bullet had grazed him, which ran from the front of the ear to his cheekbone. The wound was already healing but Lucan would carry the scar for the rest of his life.

He got into a sitting position, got his feet on the cold floor and walked towards the door. He turned the knob, it was unlocked. He pulled the door to himself and poked his head out to the corridor. There was a man sitting in an arm-chair by the entrance, but he was already deep asleep. The man was virtually a giant; steroid-pumped and bodily-built with massive biceps that made Bash Ali look like a sissy. Even seated, he loomed so large that Lucan felt intimidated by merely looking at him. He quickly stole his head back into the room, shutting the door carefully. Thankfully, the hinges were greased. He found himself pacing to and fro the room in agitation, trying to connect past events with the current. This was not a moment to give liberty to such thoughts, he reflected. All he needed to think about now was how to escape from this confinement. There was no way he would be leaving bare-footed and only in a pair of trousers; that, including the beards proudly germinated on his face, would make him look senile. He'd have to find something more modest to don, the beards could still wait. Escaping in this state would not be the best, because outside there in the world he could be committed to a hospital psychiatric ward for observation.

He thought back to the bear seated beside the entrance, he'd have to render the man more unconscious than he already was, so that he'd be able to UnCloth him and put on his apparel; a face-cap, silk shirt and khaki pair of trousers. Although weak Lucan was, he felt no qualm about incapacitating an adversary. There was no need for unnecessary bloodshed; you just had to hit the right spot on the body and the victim would collapse like a house built of cards. Lucan was going to use his palm to send the bouncer to a deeper slumber. He knew a little bit about a lot of things. To overpower an enemy, you didn't need the sharpest weapon or the heaviest. All you needed was the primitive, your hand. Never encumber the destruction inherent in the power of your hand. Lucan knew that a sharp blow with the heel of his palm to the bouncer's nose-bridge would shatter nasal bones and drive splinters into the brain, bringing instant death. The bones could only be broken and not shattered if the force of the attack was reduced, hence resulting in hours of unfatal unconsciousness.

He went to the door again and unlocked it, poked his snout out of the threshold, satisfied that there was nobody coming down the hallway, he stepped into the passage. He walked boldly but quickly towards the guard who was already drooling at the corner of the mouth, hoisted the heel of his right palm aloft and descended it squarely on the sleeping man's nose with a calculated amount of pressure in the blow. The man slipped from the chair down to the floor, he didn't even wake up. Lucan didn't waste any time, he bent over the man and dragged him into the room, shutting the door behind them.

Lucan came out of the room five minutes later, dressed in the guard's clothes. On his head, merely covering a portion of the bandage, was the unconscious man's cap. Because the guard was a big brute, wearing his clothes made Lucan feel like a school boy wearing his father's army uniform. The cap perched on his head though, gave him a touch of the American rap artist, Ja-Rule in his prime.

He walked briskly down the corridor. He counted the rooms as he walked; seventeen rooms on each side. He wondered where he was, and he fought the urge to open the door of one of the locked rooms. Perhaps, there were people like him straddled on beds with machines counting their heartbeats. He doubted it. This wasn't a hospital, he was sure about that. This was...he reflected, a perfect safe-house for kidnappers. They could place kidnapped victims here and their screams for help would not exceed the walls of the compound, let alone a nautical miles away. The building was in the middle of nowhere.

He turned left at the end of the corridor and came to another shorter hallway, this one led to the exit. As he moved closer to the door, he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. He opened the door a crack; a black car was advancing toward the building, the headlights shinning brightly. The vehicle stopped a few metres away from the building and three men dressed in white emerged from it; two skinny men and one fat. The fat one was having a stethoscope hanging from his meaty neck. He was flabbily fat with bulbous cheeks and lips and necks, and a great soft pillow of a belly that was his torso which protruded visibly from inside the white overcoat he wore, he was also gifted with pendant cones for arms and legs. As he walked all his bulbs rose and shook and fell separately with each step. He was flanked on either side by the other two skinny doctors, and the pair resembled the number 181. They were walking towards the house, toward the door concealing Lucan Ode. The doctors were aparently resuming for their graveyard shifts.

Panic gripped Lucan's heart. He would not be able to overpower these three men if they caught him. He was too weak to subdue them all. He stepped back from the door and looked behind him, there was another exit door; the one leading to the back of the building, he ran towards it and turned its handle. Unlocked too. As he opened the iron door and stepped to the backyard, he heard the other door as its handle was being turned. He could hear the noise of the generator coming from somewhere close-by. It would be a matter of a short time before the doctors found out that a captive was escaping. Why he was being kept there, Lucan could not fathom. The night was dark; there was neither moon nor stars in the firmament, and he had no torch.

He hopped through the shrubbery at the rear of the house to the side. He momentarily came to the front and beheld the car already parked by the doctors. By now, he was certain, the doctors would be looking around for him and contacting everyone they needed to contact. He scampered towards the vehicle. The driver's side window was rolled down and he quickly extended his hand into the space to unlock the door from within. He sat himself in the driver's seat. The key wasn't in the ignition. He could hear nervous shouts of order now coming from inside the building. Amidst the coldness of the night, Lucan found himself sweating in this precarious situation fate had tossed in his direction. He hurriedly searched the glove compartment, the key wasn't there. His panic level increased, he was close to losing his equilibrium. He could not stop the trembling in his hands, or halt the progressive obvious tick that drew his lower lip in short, abrupt spasms. He thought about getting out of the car and running. But how long was he going to run before exhaustion set in and his captors catch up on him? He slammed the glove compartment close in frustration. He opened the door to get out, stopped himself at the last second, he dipped his hand in the space above the visor which was beside the rear-view mirror. His hand came out with a bunch of keys. He quickly inserted the right key into the ignition and turned; the vehicle responded immediately. The sound of the car had reached ears in the building, men were running out and bounding down the steps in pursuits. These men weren't the doctors, they were as big as the man he had sent on a dream errand. He didn't know they were in the building. They were thugs, a menagerie of thugs, and in their hands were weapons; knives, cutlasses, guns.

Lucan immediately hit the gear lever into R and pressed hard on the accelerator, the car went into reverse at full speed. Having estimated the distance between his location and the exit, he transferred the gear lever from R to 2, with foot still pressed firmly on the accelerator. He did not even look behind him to check. He turned the steering-wheel so sharply that two left tyres were suspended in mid-air for about three seconds. He drove very roughly out of the compound, leaving an apothecary of dusts and flying stones in his wake. Lucan knew that this was the only vehicle in the compound, the men would never catch him. He drove without a definite destination, he just continued to drive far far away from where he was being held.

Lucan had escaped.

The morning was as clear as a baby's conscience, and it brought with it a freshness; the sun shone brightly from the east and the birds sang merrily in the trees. But the brightness of the day did little to illuminate the gloom in Lucan's mind. He didn't know where to go; his home was not an option as policemen would be watching it closely and expecting him to surface. Lucan was a fugitive. He remembered waking up in the hospital prior the moment he was abducted, he's seen policcement swarming the place. They were only waiting for him to wake up before they hurl him from the hospital to the courtroom. He'd attempted to escape the clutches of the police but had landed in the nest of his abductors. He was between a spear and a bull now. All for what? A series of crimes which he didn't commit? This fate was enough to make a man lose his mind. But Lucan knew that he needed to focus, he must gather his thoughts and try not to take any irrational step. Unlike when he'd broken out of jail the first time, leaving a slumbering guard behind him, with the determination of seeking revenge from whomever had killed Tracy and pinned Chief Koko's murder on him. His careless method of searching for the truth had made him pass out in a burning building and later subjected him to nodding a flying bullet. The rabbit hole was deeper than the length of his arm. There were powerful people behind the killings and they were bent on making sure that the lids stay closed as many more people continued to kiss the dust.

But something didn't jive. If these evil men were behind the shooting in Amina's abode, why would they kidnap him from the hospital only to keep him alive in a secluded facility? Except, except if the shot had been a mistake. If the killer had not meant to shoot him, then someone else was his target: Amina! But still, they could as well have left him to die. Why would they go out of their ways to keep him alive? Was his survival so important to them? All these and a couple of thousand other questions churned in his mind.

He was hungry now, very hungry. He got out of the car and searched the pockets of the clothes he was wearing, the ones he'd stolen from the big bear hours earlier. From the right pocket he came up with seven pieces of fifty naira notes, four pieces of twenty naira and two ten naira. Four hundred and fifty naira altogether. The left pocket yielded more; seventeen thousand naira in a thousand naira denomination. He had found a pistol in the back pocket as he drove away from the compound the night before, he'd kept the gun in the glove compartment. First and foremost, he'd need to find a worthy restaurant and refuel the empty tank in his stomach.

The first restaurant he found was a fancy one at the side of the road. The neon sign had not been switched off the restaurant's title yet. The name Food Island stood proudly on its roof. He walked inside and got a seat facing the entrance. A waitress came around with the most meaningful literature Lucan could think of at the moment: menus. His order took up more than anyone else in the restaurant. This was partially due to the fact that he salivated and had to swallow as he spoke.

When his food came he ate every bite of what he ordered with total concentration. He drained the yoghurt so completely that the sucking noises of the straw against the bottom of the plastic caused nearby adult diners to glare at him because of the bad example he was setting for their children. After the meal, he left a pitiful leftover of bones in the ceramic plates.

He paid for his meal with the giant's money and went out to the car. He sat behind the wheel for soome minutes before he drove down to a local call centre to make a call to the only person he knew he could reach. He placed the call.

"Hello."

"David, Lucan speaking," he spoke quietly into the mouthpiece. He could hear the sharp gasp that emitted from his friend's mouth.

"Lucan? Is that really you? How are you?"

"Still breathing, I guess."

"Where're you? We've been looking all around searching for you."

"Listen, David, where I am is not important now. What's of the utmost import is the fact that I'm still breathing."

"Tell me where you are, I can come and pick you."

"The police are looking for me."

"I know, the police are wrong, you didn't kill those people. I'll never give you up to the police. We have so many things to talk about. I've got a lot of things to tell you, Lucan."

"I'm sure you do. Do me a favour, David, don't repeat my name again, we don't know who's listening to our conversation. There's something I need you to do for me now."

"Anything. You just tell me."

"I want you to get me the model's phone number."

"Amina Dasuntu?"

"Yes, Amina Dasuntu."

"She's a suspect already. The police will be watching her closely, if you approach her you'll be arrested."

"I'm well aware of that, I'm not going to approach her. Do you have her number?"

"No, I don't. But I can get it for you. You'll have to call me back."

"How long will it take you to get the number?"

"Say thirty minutes latest."

"Okay, I'll call you in exactly half an hour's time." he terminated the call, paid for the airtime spent and drove off. He wasn't going to use the same number twice. He needed a phone. He parked the car and walked into a mobile phones store to buy the cheapest mobile phone he could find. He drove a kilometre farther and reached the under a bridge where he bought five ready-made illegal SIM cards. The cards were already registered with wrong address and names. But they're still liable to being traced.

He parked the car under the shade of a big tree. He opened the glove compartment again and extracted both jotter and fountain pen from therein.

The first thing he wrote on the blank page was 0781831608432.

The strange number which was used to call him that early morning.

He dialled the number, it was the same recorded voice telling him that the number he was trying to call existed not. Lucan was very sure that this was the number that had been used to call him, he'd memorized it. One of the secrets lay in this number. He would have to crack it open and find that secret out. But it was high time he called his friend for the model's phone number.

"Did you get the number?" he asked David.

"Yeah, I did."

David gave Lucan the number.

"Thanks David."

"You're welcome, my friend. Where are you? Let me come and pick you."

"Not yet, David. There's still something else I need you to do for me."

"What is it?"

"It's tough, David."

"Just tell me."

"The police confiscated Tracy's mobile phone. I want you to get it. I also want you to get me the photographs of Chief Koko's corpse, all the photographs of his body. Can you do it?"

There was a short moment of silence before David replied, "Yes."

"How soon can you get ahold of everything?"

"Tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow to let you know where you'll be meeting me. Don't fret, David, I'm okay for now."

"Lucan, there's something I need to show you."

"It'll have to wait till tomorrow. Bye, David." he terminated the call, switched off the phone, detached the SIM card and flunged it out the window. Then he inserted another card into the phone and dialled the model's number.

"Hello." The model said.

"Amina Dasuntu?"

"Speaking. Who's this?"

"Listen very carefully to me, Amina. Keep your countenance passive, don't show any reaction."

"Who is this?" Amina asked again.

"This is the guy who has made an habit of passing out in burning buildings." He could hear her gasp too, "Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Are you alone?"

"No."

"Where are you?"

"In a meeting."

"Excuse yourself and visit the ladies. I'll call you in five minutes' time."

"Okay,"

He ended the call and redialled in exactly five minutes.

"Are you there?"

"Yes, where are you, Lucan? I've been very worried. What happened to you? Are you alright? How is your wound? Is it healing? Who are those men that abducted you? How..."

"Easy, lady," Lucan cut her short, "I can only answer a question at a time, but most of the answers would end in 'I have no idea' because I really don't have an idea about everything going on. And I'll need your help."

"That day you were shot..."

"The gunshot was an error; it wasn't meant for me, you were the target."

She gasped again, "Why would anyone want to have me killed?"

"That is one question amongst a load of others I want to ask you: the Avengers club, the dream, Tracy's death, a lot more. But we can't do that on the phone." Lucan was talking fast now, he was spending too long a time on the phone. "We need to meet."

"Where are you?" Amina asked.

"Do you know the Double K restaurant along Allen Road?"

"I'll find it."

"Good. We'll meet in the restaurant. How soon can you reach there?"

"In about two or three hours."

"Okay," he said, "And Amina."

"Yes?"

"Bring some cash along and make sure you're not followed."

"Okay."

Lucan ended the call, removed the SIM card and threw it away. He drove another kilometre before he stopped again.

He pondered about the mysterious number. He mind would not block it off. He brought out the notepad again and stared at the number. 0781831608432 stared back at him. He picked up his phone, inserted the third SIM card and dialled the customer care line. He waited five minutes to connect with the representative.

"Hello, my name is Opara James. How may I help you?"

"Hi James. This is Inspector Ibe from the District Police Command, Lagos South-East. ID number 77491. Check your archive." Lucan gave his late boss's identity number. Chances were the agent wasn't aware of Inspector Ibe's demise. It took two minutes before Opara came back on the line.

"Okay, Inspector Ibe. How may I be of help to you?"

"I need to trace a certain number and I want to know the identity of the caller."

"Okay, sir. May I have the number, please?"

Lucan gave the number.

"It'll take a few minutes before I get back to you. Can I reach you on this line with which you're currently calling?"

"Yes, you can indeed. I'll be waiting."

Ten minutes later, the agent called, "Sir?"

"Did you get it?"

"No, sir. Our log didn't register any number among our lines passing through this number. It didn't come from us. I'm sorry."

"But this number was used to dial a number from your service provider, not the other way round. Are you people telling me that you don't monitor calls that come into your network? Is that what you're telling me?"

"When was the call made, sir?"

Lucan gave the date and time he received the call that early morning.

"Give me the number on which the call was placed."

He gave that one too.

The agent paused for two minutes and then said: "Oh, Inspector Ibe, I'm very sorry. It was Bola Tito on duty at the time you stated."

"Then where the hell is Bola Tito?"

He was looking at the number as he spoke angrily to the polite agent.

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm going to pull her records, check the calls she monitored and..."

"Wait," Lucan interrupted the agent sharply. He was looking at the number on the jotter with eyes wide open.

"Sir?"

"I will call you back." He disconnected the call and picked up the jotter. He wrote the number again: 0781831608432

Lucan knew already that it was not Chief Koko who had called him that morning. It was someone else; someone, perhaps, who had killed Chief Koko and impersonated the rich man on the phone. Lucan didn't know any Chief Koko at the time he recieved that call. So, why did the caller call him of all people? Why would he kill Chief Koko and later call someone else to investigate the death? That wasn't plausible. What did the killer hope to achieve by placing Lucan's name and phone number beside the murdered victim? Lucan shut his eyes and tried to recall the conversation he'd had with the mysterious caller. The caller had said something. He didn't take it serious at the time, but it was clearer now. The caller had said:

'I read about that crime you easily solved three months ago.'

He snapped his eyes open. That was it! A reference to a case he had tackled three months earlier. In a way, the case of Sarah, the twelve-year-old murdered girl, was connected to the present. It was the case that had brought him and Tracy together. The caller was trying to tell him something. Lucan felt it deep in his marrow. What was he trying to say? It was in the number!

0781831608432

Lucan saw it! David had told him that no number was untraceable, but this particular number didn't require any tracing. All it required was shrewd reasoning. He counted the numbers altogether, they were thirteen.

He underlined the last three numbers: 432

He smiled. He'd finally unravelled the mysterious number. He rewrote the three numbers backward:

234

Nigeria's [country] code. All he had to do was insert the '+' sign in the front. He looked up at the remaining numbers and nodded. He was right. Adding the necessary sign, he wrote the numbers from behind:

+2348061381870

A phone number! Or rather commonly 0806-138-1870.

Lucan picked up his phone and dialled the number. The recipient was even using a familiar callers' tune: Ólekú. He smiled at the irony of the lyrics as he waited for the call to be answered.

"Hello, who is this?"

Lucan's eyes opened wide, his pupils were dilated, his jaw dropped at hearing the voice. He could not believe his own ear.

"Who is there?" The voice asked again, "Can you hear me? Hello?"

Lucan cancelled the call immediately. He was sweating. He could not afford to hear any more. It was a voice with which he was very familiar. He was not mistaken! It was him! It was the same voice! The same voice that was known for uttering the word 'runz'!

It was the voice of Jack Etim!

Lucan's former room mate.

*************************************************************************************

The Double K restaurant was an elegant one occupying a mammoth side of the road. A rich man had built it for his wife and initially named it King Kong restaurant. When people refused to dine in a restaurant supposedly named after a breed of gorillas, the wife changed the name to the current, and diners began to fluorish in thereafter. Even though the price for a single plate of rice could knock a sumo wrestler unconscious, people in large numbers still patronised. Most people who dined in Double K were lavish spenders. Both movie and music stars had chosen this restaurant to provide their daily meals.

Lucan parked his car at the other side of the road to await Dasuntu. The model didn't appear in two or three hours she had promised, she came in five hours; two or three hours later than she had stated. Lucan watched as she drove into the restaurant's parking lot. It was a long straight but slender leg that firstly came out touching the ground from the iron steed before the other parts of her whole body came into view. He watched her walk gracefully into the restaurant. Lucan did not follow her immediately, he wanted to be very sure that she was not being followed. He waited for another ten minutes, watching the road carefully for any sign of a stalker around. He knew that Amina would be trying his number by now, but the line wouldn't connect. He'd gotten rid of the SIM card. Certain that no one had followed the model, he crossed the road and entered the restaurant.

The restaurant was crowded. The time at the extreme wall showed 3.15. It was lunch time. People were masticating vigorously all around the tables and chattering like monkeys in a barrel. So much for Double K indeed. He caught sight of Amina at the left corner of the restaurant; she was having her back to the entrance and looking furtively around her, evidently searching for Lucan. He could not help but notice the full black hair that covered her head like a crown and descended like a waterfall down her back. He studied her ebony skin, the contours of her body, and the legs that went on forever, the way a Hausa farmer would study a cute cow he was thinking of buying. Amina Dasuntu was a pretty lady in any setting. He walked up to her.

"Hello lady, is this seat taken?" he asked her.

Amina looked up at his face briefly before she replied, "Oh yes, it is. I'm waiting for someone." She did not recognize him.

Lucan occupied the seat opposite her.

"I said the seat is taken, Mister." Amina protested sharply.

"How is your ankle?" Lucan asked solemnly.

She opened her eyes as wide as a cocoa pod and looked scared, "How do you know about..." Then she recognized the man before her and exclaimed in excitement, "Lucan!"

Startled diners glared in their direction. Some men looked from Amina to Lucan, trying to determine what excited the pretty lady about the vagrant before her.

"Keep your voice down," Lucan whispered, and then said, "Next time, never tell a stranger you're waiting for someone; it'll give room for conversation. Just say the seat is occupied and stop there."

"I didn't recognize you at first, you're not the most handsome man now, Lucan. You look like hell."

"I know, a bath won't hurt."

"And a shave. What is it with the beard and the mark on your cheek?"

Lucan only shrugged and said, "I tried to kiss one of the flying bullets but I missed." He smiled and fondled the towel that had grown thickly on his face while Amina beckoned to the waitress. They ordered their food and spoke as they ate.

"What happened to you, Lucan?"

"I was abducted, I'm sure the kidnappers would have sent you the ransom note."

"Don't be naughty. Who abducted you."

"I didn't wait to ask for their names when I was escaping."

"Who was the man who shot you."

"Someone who is not yet born-again."

"Where were you kept?"

"I'm sure it's not in a sarcophagus."

"Why..."

"Listen, Amina. There're so many questions I've been asking myself but couldn't find a meaningful answer to any one of them. But I know you'll have answer to some of them, that is why I called to meet you. We can't discuss here, we'll have to find a less crowdy place to talk. Christ! This restaurant is a jukebox. I need a bath and a change of clothes, these one on me I borrowed from one of the men that held me, but I'm not planning to send them back to him."

"You'll also need another bandage around your head, and some drugs for the wounds to heal fast."

He nodded, "I guess so. I'm so tired."

"I've got some cash on me as you have instructed; when we get out of here we'll drive down to a boutique and get you something more decent, then we'll lodge in a hotel for the day. We've got a lot to discuss."

"Thanks a lot, Amina."

"Come off it. I should be thanking you, I owe you my life. That bullet you took was meant for me. I can't thank you enough."

They consumed the rest of their meals in silence. Amina paid for the lunch and they went out of the restaurant. As Amina walked towrads her car, Lucan pointed towards the black car at the other side of the road.

"See that black car over there?"

Amina nodded.

"I'll follow behind you in it."

"Lucan, how did you get the car?"

"Let's just say when I was bading goodbye to my friends last night, I was given the car as a sent-forth gift, unwillingly."

She was impressed, "You're full of surprises, Mr. Lucan Ode."

"I'll ditch it when the time's right."

They drove to the first boutique they could find and Amina bought him a week's worth of clothings. She also bought some for herself. They drove farther away and lodged in a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Okoro. They took the hotel elevator to the top-floor in the company of an elderly couple. The couple held hands as though they were young lovers.

Overhearing the word 'anniversary', Lucan asked how long they had been married.

"Fifty years," the husband answered, aglow with pride that his bride had chosen to spend most of her life with him.

Amina saw the hurt in Lucan's eyes and pressed his hand in comfort. She knew he was mourning his own loss, Tracy. The elevator door opened and they walked to their room. Room 94. The room lived up to the model's taste with adjoining apartment; the bedsheet was new and the curtains at the windows were fanciful.

As soon as they got in, Lucan took a new towel and headed towards the bathroom. He shaved the beards off before taking his bath. His bath took him more time than usual as he scrubbed the mountain-load of dirt off of himself. Lathering and relathering so vigorously that by the time he was through, a hotel-size bar soap was reduced to a tiny sliver. He came out of the bathroom a newer and cleaner Lucan Ode. Amina helped him to get the old bandage off his head, the bullet wounds were aready healing but the hole at the back of his head was still horrible-looking compared to the exit wound at the top of his ear. She cleaned the wounds carefully with Lucan wincing with pain every now and then. She covered them neatly with a new bandage and gave him some painkillers. He dressed in the clothes Amina had bought for him; a black T-shirt and a blue jeans. Then he slept.

He dreamed about Tracy.

Amina woke him up three hours later for dinner, she had ordered for hot Semovita with vegetable soup garnished with beef and snails. The succulent molluscs were so delicately prepared that Lucan kept savouring the delicious taste with relish. The aroma alone was enough to make a condemned man smiling through his last meal.

After the food, Amina gave him some aspirin. He dropped the two tablets into a glass of water and waited for them to self-destruct before he downed the medicine.

"Can we talk now?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"Tell me about the dream."

She looked perplexed, "What dream?"

"I had a dream where I was trying to rescue you from a burning building. You particular told me in that dream that you sprained your ankle. When you saved me from Tracy's burning room and got me to yours, I saw you limp slightly as you rose to get me some drugs. And the grandfather's clock in your room has a close resemblance with the one I beheld in my dream. How do you explain that?"

"The only explanation I can give about that is that it's either your dream was merely a coincidence or you're a descendant of Joseph. In addition, you could be psychic."

"That's not enough explanation, Amina. I hadn't met you in person when I had that dream. And I didn't hope I'd ever meet you."

"Do you read Sweet Love?"

"Yes, I do. How do you know? As a matter of fact, I have all the issues of the magazine. It's the only mag I read."

"That explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Your seeing me in your dream, of course."

"What are you talking about? How can reading a magazine affect one's dream?"

"Every issue of the magazine has my picture on its front cover. Because you read the magazine, your mind has stored my image in a place there. It wouldn't be a surprise if I appeared every now and then in your dreams."

Lucan scoffed, "Do you really expect me to believe that?"

She drew closer to him, "Listen to me, Lucan. I'm a model, I'm beautiful, granted, but I'm not one of those beauties without brains. I read a lot too, you know. A model is expected to know stuffs. I learnt that from Agbani Darego. There are many theories about the cause and meaning of dreams. But not one can be scientifically proven to contain the whole truth."

"Continue." Lucan said.

"One theory is that dreams are caused by something affecting your body: If your bedclothes becomes twisted round your neck, you might dream that you were being strangled." she paused and continued, "This, however, would not explain why you dream you were being strangled by your best friend."

"So, in that case, there will be another reason aside that of the bedclothes, right? I never imagined a blanket could be murderous."

"You may recently have had a quarrel with your friend, for example. In a dream though, a friend may appear as an enemy, and this may turn out to be true."

"You're confusing me, Amina."

"Relate this theory to the burning building in your dream." She continued her explanation, "Perhaps, over a period of time, all sorts of tiny hints about your friend's true character have been stored up in the unconscious mind, and for the first time they add up in the dream."

"Wow!" Speaking of friends, Lucan thought about Jack Etim. He could not believe that Jack was among the league of killers.

Amina continued, "Sigmund Freud was the first person to put forward the theory of dreams as 'wish-fulfilment'. Everyone, according to Freud, has subconscious wishes and fears of which their possessor is not consciously aware. A middle-aged man, who never gives a thought to girls during the day, might have a dreeam in which he was a sort of James Bond, with lots of glamorous girlfriends. Hence your dream of rescuing the striking model, Amina Dasuntu." she winked at him.

"Siggy must be out of his mind to come up with that. Where did you learn this, Amina?"

"As I said, I read a lot." She smiled warmly and continued educating the astonished Lucan, "On waking up the man might be quite shocked at having such a dream, but perhaps because of his shyness he has covered up and long forgotten his secret anxiety about his lack of contact with the other sex. Freud took his theory to the point of saying that unless people were able to express their secreet wishes and fears in the form of dreams, they would not be able to sleep, and that therefore dreams are essential to our health."

"You amaze me, Miss Dasuntu."

"Have I been able to answer your question?"

"You've given me something to ponder about."

"And about claiming to have seen me limping, I sprained my ankle at the Koko Mansion but it was not severe until I aggravated my injury trying to save you in Tracy's apartment. Relating that to your dream could only be sheer coincidence. Your mind gave you what your heart ached to do; saving a model by carrying her in your arms. The only way that can happen is if the model can't walk."

"What were you doing in Koko Mansion?" he asked sharply.

"I wanted to see the chief."

"What for?"

"He wanted to give me something. But that's not important now, what's important is that as soon as I reached the building a text message got into my phone. The message was an order for me to get out of the building if I needed to stay alive. In my agitation, I sprained my ankle while trying to escape.

"Do you still have the message on your phone?"

"The message self-deleted as soon as I read it."

"Is that possible?"

"I've never witnessed anything like that before."

"Do you know the phone number through which the message came in?"

She shook her head, "No, I don't."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Tell me about the Avengers."

She sighed, "Who told you about the Avenger? Tracy?"

"I learnt about it on my own."

"It's strictly confidential. Can I trust you to keep your mouth buttoned?"

"Your secret is safe with me."

"The Avengers is a secret organization for women, devoted mainly to protecting its members against any possible danger of attack from an outsider. If a member is having any problem, all she has to do is to let the rest of the members know on our social networking thread and steps would be taken about it."

"What networking thread?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"I already know. Continue."

She smiled at him, the site wasn't really hard to guess. "We don't communicate directly. We place our comments in quotes in such a way that only the members would understand the deeper meaning behind it. Any outsider can just read it and not get the message per se."

" 'Seductive charm may mask lethal injections. A woman's charm can be hard to resist but her deceit is impossible to escape' " Lucan quoted Amina, "Whatever does that mean?"

"You don't want to know, trust me."

" 'Our insatiable greed destroys livelihood and lives' " he quoted again, "Who wrote that?"

"Your late girlfriend, Tracy Oluwami. She posted that quote after the unsuccessful meeting with Chief Koko."

"What meeting? What are you talking about?"

"You don't know? Koko summoned Tracy to meet with him hours before his death. He wanted to tell her something."

"Was Chief Koko screwing Tracy?"

She was shocked, "Who told you that?"

"Someone. Is it true?"

"It's a lie! Koko was a pathetic womanizer but he wasn't sleeping with Tracy."

"How sure are you about that?"

"I'm very sure. Chief Koko was Tracy's father."

The information did not register in Lucan's mind at first, "But..." then it did. He stopped himself and screamed, "What!"

"Calm down. It's true, but unfortunately, Tracy didn't know. Chief Koko summoned her to the hotel the night he died. But he was already killed before Tracy could reach him."

"She didn't tell me that."

"She couldn't, because she didn't know what the chief could possibly have wanted from her to summon her. She was a reporter so she took up the job of trying to find out the truth behind the death of the man who had called her. I believe that was part of why she was killed. I didn't know that Chief Koko's death was connected to the Avengers until Tracy was killed too."

"How did you know that Koko was Tracy's father?"

"The chief told me himself. I thought he was having an affair with Tracy, so I confronted him and he told me the truth. The man liked me a lot, he could not hide anything from me."

"How did you know him?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm listening."

"I met Chief Koko through Madam K."

"Who is Madam K?"

"She's part of Avengers. No one among the members knows her except me."

"How did you know her?"

"She's my sponsorer, she made me who I am today."

"What's her name?"

She became silent, reluctant in devulging The One.

"Amina, what's Madam K's name? Aren't you getting it now? Your Avengers club is just a facade. There's something more dangerous beneath. Some powerful people are manipulating you ladies, using you to do horrible things of which you're not aware. When you make any error, they kill you off. They've killed Tracy, Susanna and her husband are dead. They tried to kill you, remember? Is it after you're dead that you'll come to your senses? They know that the Avengers club is exposed and they're killing off all the members to keep their mouths shut. Give me Madam K's name now!"

Her lips shook as she uttered the name: "Honourable Cathering Adams."

Lucan jumped up, as if goosed by a loose string in the chair, "The same Cathering Adams? The woman of the people?"

"The same. But there's a sixth member, HIM."

"Him? Who? I thought you said Avengers is only for ladies."

"H-I-M," Amina spelled, "We don't know the identity of HIM, neither do we know his gender. None of us knows his identity. Madam K, perhaps, but no one else."

"Then we need to reach Madam K. She'll lead us to HIM." he paused and asked, "Did you sleep with Chief Koko." The question shot out like the forked tongue of a serpent.

"I don't have to answer that, do I?"

"No, you don't. But I'll like to know."

"Yes, I slept with him. More than once, actually. Madam K made me do it when I was still struggling in my career. It was like she sold me to him. Something of that sort. I knew Chief Koko had paid her a large sum of money to bring me to him. Chief Koko had been humping me ever since then, till he died. He paid me handsomely too, and I clunged to him."

"I'm sorry, all these are none of my business."

"Having taken a bullet for me, I think you have the right to know the whole truth."

"I appreciate that." Then he asked, "Is Enor's husband aware of your club?"

"You mean Jack?"

Lucan scoffed again, "Does she have any other husband except Jack?"

"Not that I know of."

"Is that the answer to Jack being a part of your group or Enor having any other husband?"l

"Both. Why did you ask?"

"Ask what?"

"About Jack belonging to our group."

"Because I'm flummoxed. That morning I dreamt about rescuing you from a burning building, I got a phone call as soon as I woke up."

"I heard about everything."

"I cracked the number today. Guess who picked up when I dialled the number."

"Tracy's killer?"

"Jack Etim."

"Are you sure?"

"I can swear on a stack of bibles. I'm very sure."

"There must be an explanation for that. I don't believe that Enor's husband is behind all the killings."

"I'll find out tomorrow when I meet David. He's got something to tell me."

"It's late , Lucan. I should got and take my bath." She rose and went into the bathroom. She spent almost an hour doing God only knows what women do in bathrooms. By the time she came out of the bathroom, Lucan was already dozing in the armchair he sat.

When Lucan came awake, Amina had already towelled herself dry and donned a pyjamas. The pyjamas was flimsy, mildly transparent, and Lucan could make out the outline of one of her naked inner thighs. There was something marvellously wanton about her; the way her long black hair fell over an eye, the way her almost bare shoulder moved, the outline of that fleshy thigh. She tied the cloth carelessly. Her pyjamas had come stylishly apart above the waist. He could see the milky mound of her cleavage. She caught him watching, it was too late for Lucan to cast his eyes away now.

She walked towards him seductively.

"Amina, what..."

She placed a finger on her lips, "Shh!" she hushed.

She kissed his mouth, pressing until she found his tongue. Lucan stood up and had her in his arms, embracing her roughly, shoving his body against hers until she could feel his erection. He slid his hand around the back of her neck and eased her closer towards him.

She felt herself grow moist and damp, her body preparing for what this kiss had promised. And there was a lot more promise in that kiss. Holding him in place with her own body, she raised him up and rammed him against the wall, she undressed him frantically as they kissed and romanced, as if time was of the utmost essence. She pushed up his T-shirt, exposing his hairy chest and stomach. Finally, she pushed the garment over his head and tossed it onto the floor like a gauntlet.

She ran her fingers over his hairy chest and had the thrill of hearing him suck in his breath, barely touching his chest, with just her fingertips. He grumbled softly when she moved her fingers to trace the outline of his left n*pple. She lubricated one finger with the fluid behind her full lips and stroked the right n*pple with the wet finger. He gasped. Even half-naked, Lucan had that bad-boy image. Desperado muscles in his arms, that I-dare-you look in his smoky bright eyes. His mouth, still wet from their kisse, looked edible. And it really didn't surprise Amina to realized that she had a sudden yearning to put her hands on Lucan and all that badness. The heat rolled through her. She leaned in and took his mouth again, and she felt it all the way to her stomach when he made a deep male sound of satisfaction and pleasure. She pushed him on the bed and eased all the way on top of him. Aligning her body until she felt the solid muscle of his chest against her bre*sts. Felt the sinewy strength of his arms. She especially felt his erection.

He didn't even try to pull back, her scent was all around him, covering him, drowning him, yet he wanted more of her. This was catharsis; a purgement of emotion, of emptiness. A reward for the days he'd spent without his beloved Tracy. Amina turned slightly, her loose pyjamas slid off her shoulder, exposing the right curve of her white bra. And exposing the top of her bre*sts. Yanking off her pyjamas, Lucan unclipped the front closure of her bra and had the satisfaction of her generous bre*ast slipping into his hands. She was full, firm and perfect. Man, she was beautiful. He skimmed his hand over her bre*sts, just enough to make her n*pples tighten, just enough to make her arch her back and thrust her body closer. Lucan took her up on the nonverbal offer. He levered himself up and nipped her right n*pple with his teeth. Not hard, but it was enough to make her moan softly. Since he liked the way that sound shaped her mouth, he did it again, and again.

She evidently liked the sensation because she immediately began to fight with his clothes, she went after his zipper. Her hands hurrying but she failed. Only because he went after her black tight shorts first. Basically, he played dirty and outmuscled her. She grappled with him, and just when he thought he might lose, he played even dirtier and took her n*pples in his mouth.

"Oh," Amina said.

Just "Oh." Breathy and needy, with a few extra syllables added to it. It was everything he wanted to hear. And it was just enough of a distraction that he peeled the tight right off her. While he was at it, he took off her bra totally as well, leaving her with just a pair of flimsy white panties. Lucan took a moment to savour and appreciate the view. Amina also did some dirty playing of her own. She slid her hand over the front of his jeans, this was certainly the way to get his attention; the fastest way actually. It was a not-so-subtle move that had Lucan going from seriously aroused to rock hard. She tackled his zipper again and this time she succeeded, he succeeded as well, and got her out of the pant, the only barrier left between his hands and her smoking region. He moved his fingers down her stomach and between her legs. Lucan wished he had four hands, no, eight. He touched lightly, testing her response and learning what she liked in the process. He slid his finger deeper and heard her say a very naughty word not meant for the ears of a pope. He touched her again, his finger going deeper until he found her sensitive spot. Meeting his gaze head-on, she rocked against his hand. A long lingering caress that brought on another 'Oh', another erotic hitch of her breath, and he was sure he had her close to climax but he was wrong.

She located his mouth again, kissing him roughly as if her life depended on it. Frantically, she caught the waist of his jeans, tugging and trying to rip them apart off him. With his help, his jeans came off. And when she had him naked and lying beneath her. She arched her back like a cat and slid her hands slowly over his chest. Her fingers gliding through the sweat that had already beaded on his skin. She snared his gaze, gave their bodies a necessary adjustment, no fumbling, she got it right the first time, but she gave him one last dirty playing shot by skimming the sweet heat of her body right over his erection, not once but multiple times. Until Amina was sure he'd soon beg for mercy. By degree, an inch at a time, until she had taken all of him. Amina paused a moment, maybe to catch her breath, maybe to savour the moment, or both. Lucan was certainly doing some savouring and breath-catching of his own.

Bracketing her hands on his chest, she began to move, slowly at first, then faster and faster, no frantic rhythm. But each move calculated, precise, each time sliding the moist of her body over the entire length of him. Her unique scent and taste lingered around him and made him crazy. A long, deliberate sigh left her mouth; a moan, and a gasp of pleasure. Once again she moved in an ancient rhythm, and she moved against him; deeper this time, so deep. She took him, claimed him, and sent both of them spiralling out of control. She rode him vigorously. Out of control was the only place Lucan wanted to go, and he wanted Amina to take him there. With their blood raging with passion, face-to-face, body-to-body, wet skin whispering against wet skin, him inside her and feeling the shaft of Lucan's rigid Instruments. Her moving, clutching, gripping, sliding to a frantic feverish pace that built and built and built until it was no longer pleasure, but a necessity.

"Come with me," he managed to say.

She drove her body one last time, one last heavenly thrust, until neither had a choice. They slipped into that spiral together and surrendered. The eruption within her was warm, milky and sticky.

She collapsed on him and in minutes, both slept off like spoons in a drawer.

****CHAPTER 14*****
** ENLIGHTENMENT **
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__The rays of light that penetratated through the little space in the window sill was the only light that illuminated the room, making it look like a room used for romantic date with act of candle lighting done in the early 80's.
__The rays fell on a body lying on a king-size bed in a well furnished bedroom, a light skinned, naked body. The body was immobile for some minutes untill the person rolled over and revealed, a body with biceps and triceps that'd make some ladies go gaga, the kind of 'Iyanya's 6 packs', this, and many other features made the sleeping man more sensual, what ladies will call; IRRESISTABLE.
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__Lucan woke up with renewed energy, even though he was awake, he had his eyes closed reminiscing yesternight's fulfilled fantasie's of his, 'Bedding a model, not just any model, Aminat Dasuntu'. He thought he was feeling great, "Happy'' should be the right sub, maybe it was due to the healthy S.ex he had with the person lying beside him.
__Eyes still shut, he brought his hand to the weight beside him, praying for it not to be one of those 'almost real fantasies' of his. He felt the object, this was no human being's body!!! True, it felt smooth like Amina's skin but it was 'textile like'.
"HOLY SH¡T!!!", Lucan exclaimed and jumped up from his lying positon, glanced beside him to the sight of the smooth cotton pillow,
"Where is Aminat?, or am I in a kind of trance? Had she been kidnapped for divulging confidential secrets? But, no one knows about these except she had been wired, maybe she was practically toying with him'', all these were part of the questions out of one thousand and one questions racing through his mind as he got himself quickly dressed., picking up his trouser that was neatly laid on a chair beside the bed,
''That is odd, our cloth was tossed to 'God knows where when....''
''Holy Jeez, does this confirm my suspicion that she had been kidnapped?'', he musterred silently to himself and hastily wore the sandal Aminat bought for him and darted towards the door without even having a second thought, that was 'Non Police' of him and he knew it, but what does he care.
__He would have collided with Amina who had a tray on which had a hot, brimmed filled tea in a tea cup, tin milk and cubes of sugar, was neatly placed on her right hand and cell phone on her left hand placed to her ear.
"What is it, Lucan?'', Aminat asked frightened and quickly ended her call and also had the full tray placed on a table by the bedside,
"Nothing, I...I...I thought you had ran away after tricking me''
''I'm sorry, I shouldn't have thought like that'', Lucan lied, not wanting to tell Aminat that he felf responsible for her. He scanned her and noticed that she was now on a pyjamas that either had the buttons wrongly placed or she had intentionally decided to button it halfway dow, it was revealing a lot of skin. This made Lucan's skin crawl and made him feel like wrapping his arms around her and have her, for himself only.
"No, you don't have to be sorry, no one can and should be trusted, but as for me, I TRUST YOU'', Aminat replied, she was aware that her choice of clothe had done a bit of the job she opted it for, seducing him till she have him for himself, she smiled to herself and moved over to have his tea prepared.
'I TRUST YOU!!!' the statement rang continuously in Lucan's head until his thought was put to halt by the noise from the stirring of the tea,
''Mehn! Just the sort of thing I needed to calm my nerves and set my brain to thinking'', Lucan blurted out to change the topic to ease the tense room condition.
''By the way, I've been trying to get across to....'' Aminat stated and halted mid way,
"Across to who?'', Lucan asked in anticipation,
''Madam K'', she continued,
"But she has not been picking, Well! That's not surprising, because she's always busy in Honourable Cathering Adam's form, we all know that. Interviews here and there'' she announced
"Oh! Don't you guys have any secret meeting place other than the Avengers Forum?", Lucan inquired, his detective form beginning to come in to play,
"Nope, Not with Madam K, I understand it's so that she wouldn't be caught among that sort of thing, you know, so she commands and we obey'', Aminat explained with brillian American accent. Girls and forming or wash wash...
"Meaning that she can call you guys not the other way round'', Lucan completed the puzzle-like statements,
"sort of'', Aminat replied and handed over the creamed tea to Lucan, who in turn took it and would have gulped it at once if not for the hotness of the content. He was eager to know more.
__Aminat picked up her phone and dialled away,
''I won't stop calling, until she picks up, we've got to get this over with on time, so that I can live my life afresh... Just the way I want, with my new found interest'', she said and flashed Lucan a smile,

__"Oops! The plantain!!!'', Aminat hastied away towards the kitchen with the phone still by her ears. The smell of fried plantain and egg enveloped the entire room, making Lucan farmished, hungry for his best food, it has been long he had tasted it.
__Lucan stood up, paced around the room, reminiscing what just took place, starting from yesternight's fun to Aminat's statement. ''Does this mean that she fantasizes a 'happy home' with me?'', Lucan thought. He let his thought wander to Tracy, Late. Tracy, his first and only lover who got herself killed in setting him up, what a life. Yet he missed her, missed her smile, her sweet voice, but dammit, she was involved in his ordeal. He was careless to have let his lover be murdered, murdered in his home. He thought he was not fit to be anybody's lover because he couldn't save her, Tracy.
His thought was cut short by the hasty entrance of Aminat, he initially thought she was running because she had burnt the food not until he saw panic written all over her.
"Sh..sh..she has picked it'' was what Aminat was able to mutter while shaking profusely. Lucan silently helped her to calm down, instructing her to breathe in and out till her panic faded before telling her to pick the call and ordering her to put the call to loudspeaker,
With Lucan by my side, why fear? Aminat thought and picked the call not forgetting top place it to loudspeaker.
''Hello, Aminat Dasuntu... I want to speak with Mada... Sorry, Honourable Cathering Adams'',
''Aminat Dasuntu? As in the real Aminat Dasuntu? The topmost Nigerian model?'', A male voice spoke,
''Yes'', A surprised Aminat replied,
"Wow! Wow! I'm Honourable Adam's personal Assistant, she's delivering a speech right now so she can't speak with you now.. But, Miss Aminat, If we ever meet, I would like to have you sign me an autograph'', the excited P.A replied, Lucan giggled and whispered,
'' I'm guessing, he has crush on you'', Aminat eyed him,
"Oh! Okay, but could you please pass the phone to her, its urgent'', Aminat demanded,
"and I mean, Now'', she demanded flatly,
"No, No, that's against the protocol miss, but wait, I could make an exception, if only you'd promise to sign the autograph if ever we meet, which I know will happen'',
''Yes, I promise, just do as I instructed. God dammit''. There was silence for sometime and eventually, a voice spoke, a calm, female voice,
''Hello, Honourable Adams''
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Meanwhile, at David's home

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__David had gotten up and had his bath as early as possible, he had fixed breakfast for himself made up of bread, butter and coffee. Sharon had been away for few days due to work, thereby leaving David to be 'home alone'.
After the breakfast, David sat down, as his usual custom, he browsed the day's news on his android phone, nothing on Lucan. He was relieved to have heard from Lucan, he had even sent him to get some document for him, that should be quite easy to get, but with the revealation from Shade that he was been watched, how was he going to get the document across without giving his friend away?, David thought,
Well! Thanks to Internet, it could be done but how was he going to connect him, not without any contact.
"Moreover, what is he upto again?''
"I just pray he doesn't get himself into another mess''. He got up, wore his shirt, adjusted his trousers, wore his gun pouch, took his car key from the Italian designed glass table. With his phone on his right hand and a briefcase containing his gadget on his left, he could never leave for any place without his gadget. David strode out of his luxurious apartment.
__He got in his car, switched on the ignition and moved the car away from the garage and out onto the tarred road of his street. He was off to work, at the same time off to render a helping hand to a friend.
While driving, he thought about the person in charge of Tracy's murder? Because that would be hard to get without permission from the person in charge. He brought out his phone, making sure that he was concentrating on his driving and dialled a colleague's number who picked after two rings,
"Hello, Dave how are you? Hope no problem?"
"I'm fine, No problem but where are you?", David asked,
"Office, you?"
"I'm on my way, bro, I need a favour from you", David stated,
"I'll like you to get a copy of Chief Koko's file and I'll also like to know who is in charge of Tracy's Murder'',
"As per the Chief Koko's file, I would get that for you but Tracy's murder I.P.O, I don't know but I'll find out, anything else?''
"No, thanks, that's all for now, I'll be with you guys in the next fifteen minutes'', David thanked his friend and ended the call, he adjusted the car's side mirror and noticed that an unlicensed toyota camry was behind him. After five minutes behind the wheel, turning and driving the car and the toyota was still behind him, he concluded that he was been trailed, yes, he was been trailed, ''but by who?''

__''but by who?'', David asked himself again, braced himself and stepped on the gas, time to put all those 'fast and furious get away scene' to play.
__The assailant's Toyota Camry was no match to his double booster Suzuki Jeep, within two minutes, he was far ahead of his assailant, but was not going to lose them, he had another motive in mind, he was going to find out who sent them. He opened his glove compartment, brought out his assigned pistol, time for action and he swerved the jeep to the left turn making sure that his pursuant had a view of him taking the turn.
"What a way to start a day'', David muttered after halting the car, getting down as fast as possible to a cover near the car before the assailant's car would turn in to the street. He had noticed two occupants in his assailant's car earlier, with his security skill and God's help, he could overpower them, provided they hadn't call for backup.
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__''Hello, Aminat Dasuntu on the line",
"So I heard", came the sharp reply from a calm, female voice,
"And, why are you calling me? when you know the protocol except if its not on what I'm thinking",
"Ofcourse, it is not", Aminat replied, watching out for Lucan's hand sign, indicating for her to say what he demonstrates.
"I'm relived, so what do you want? Be fast, I was interrupted in the middle of a speech",
"Oh! I'm very sorry", Aminat apologized,
"Fifteen seconds more'', was the cold reply from Madam K, even her voice portrayed the real kind of woman she was and not the one she was acting, in the form of the benevolent Honourable Cathering Adams who people respect and honours a lot due to her benevolent attitude towards the masses. It was rumored sometimes that, she had agreed to part with 5% of her salary to charity organizations which no other famous politicians had ever done. No one knew that it was like ''wolf in sheep's clothing''.
"Ma'am, I would love us to talk, one on one'', Aminat interpreted Lucan's hand sign
"For what?", Madam K asked,
"Something important Madam, I'm in a kinda fix and I'll need your help"
"So I heard", Madam K replied, mistakenly giving herself away, even a fool would know from that cold reply that she was involved in the attempted assassination,
"By the way, where are you?", Madam K asked,
"I'm in a safe place, can I come and see you now? Its important Ma'am" Aminat interpreted again,
"Ofcourse, where are you? Let me send my driver to come pick you up"
"No, you tell me where you are so that I can come'',
"Young lady, don't waste my time, its either you tell me or hang up", Madam K's voice rose. Lucan demonstrated a ''NO'' by shaking his head sideways,
"No, Ma'am",
".. .. .. ..", Madam K hung up.
__Lucan thought of what next to do, the woman is playing hard to get, "this is getting interesting, why does she want to know your location?",
"Its either you are being funny or just being dumb, Simple, to have me killed. That's all..", Aminat replied angrily, Lucan didn't feel insulted by the comment, he knew the answer, he just didn't know how he spoke that out.
"Ofcourse, but why?", Lucan asked no one in particular.
Aminat kept pacing around the room while Lucan took a seat on the chair by the bedside, An idea suddenly struck his mind, which made him jump in awe.
"Yea, I've got this.. You know the P.A we initially talked to?" Lucan asked,
"Yes", Aminat replied surprised, not knowing what that has got to do with the issue at stake.
"Call the number again, he'll be the one to pick the call, thats if our Honourable Cathering Adams Alias Madam K has gone to the stand to continue her speech'', Lucan continued,
"Ok, what am I supposed to do with that?", Aminat asked,
"Why don't you flirt with him and see wether he'll help to reveal the venue that they are",
"Wow! Brilliant idea", Aminat agreed and had quickly retrieved her phone was lying carelessly on the bed and within two seconds, thanks to Network Upgrades, the call had engaged,
"I had no shoes", was the callertunes that blared out loud from Aminat's blackberry Z10's speaker. Lucan and Aminat couldn't hold the laughter that followed at the callertunes.
"Nigerian politicians and their numerous lies sha''.

-_-