This is a thriller! I enjoyed every bit of the story. Good work, looking forward to the update.


I can't believed that I've been buried in this story since yesterday. its an Epic…

souloho19:









My people, sorry for the silence. I can assure you that the updates would come at a quicker rate from this week.
Eberechi you guys are fam na, it's not possible

The man is back ...
Welcome back bro... we've been waiting...

Hello my fellow readers, please let's endeavour to always click on share anytime there's an update... it helps the story to stay on the front page and automatically attracts more readers...
Thanks...

trust nobody. the devil that you know is ...

just so you know, i am still following this story, i may not comment as often as i want, but i read each update, almost as soon as it drops.

Meanwhile, check my signature.

Souloho19 where are you

Souloho!!!!

operation bring back SOULOHO.....

Getting intense. well done in ur new endvour.

#wemissoursoulohol

Where art thou Souloho19?

Souloho kilode!!!!!!!!

dedicated to
For your patience and sticking with me, you guys are the 'bomb' - >no pun intended

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Between the devil and the deep blue sea. Between the devil of a decision and a deep blue sea of endless, deadly possibilities. This kind of thing could drive a man mad.

I held on to Kristen's phone and continued looking at the picture. Zooming and turning it every angle I could manage. I even turned the phone upside down, all the time trying to convince myself the man dabbing his mouth with the paper napkin was not my brother in law but a doppelganger.

The ambulance hit a pothole and I turned to shout at the driver "hey driver, take it easy now!"

"it's okay sir, your wife is very fine, don't worry" the doctor assured me and I scoffed

"did I say I was worried? He should just drive responsibly, that's my own"

We were heading back home. My in-law had managed to pull some major strings and an ambulance was transporting Olivia as well as one of the doctors from the hospital. I was in the ambulance with them, my mother, sisters and the children were in the senator's jeep limousine coming behind while Clyde, Kirsten and Tonye were in the agency's car. My father and my two brother in laws were in Paul's military issued Peugeot.
It was quite the convoy.

But here I was, I couldn't believe the picture in my hands. A part of me was making excuses: maybe it was just a harmless dinner. It's possible he had no idea who he was dining with, after all there was still a third man on the table. That man could be the real person the shadow had come to see.

But who was I kidding? My in-law Sam was a politician, there was a very high possibility that he had met with the shadow to gift him a contract and put a hit on a fellow political rival. Politics was indeed a dirty game and I had seen enough evidence of that in the red letters at least.

The ambulance bounced into a pot hole again and I swore. But this time the driver apologized immediately

"my bad, this road is just very bad, it's an eyesore really"

"then you slow down at least" I cautioned and he did.

The ambulance reduced speed drastically and I watched Olivia in silence for a long while.

After what felt like eternity, I hit the side button on the device again and the screen sprung to life with the picture. I stared at it, trying to notice any and every little detail.
Something begin to dance around my brain. A realization that was probably fully formed in my subconscious but half formed in reality because I wasn't willing to consider it.

What if Sam hadn't just been meeting with the shadow to offer a contract? What if.....

My phone rang and I gladly dug it out from my pocket.
It was Bami

"yo Rex"

"Bami what's up?"

"nothing much, what's happening over there? How's Olivia?"

"she's fine"

"and everybody?"

"everybody's fine. We're just moving back to the house now"

"oh, Olivia has been discharged? That was quick"

I sighed tiredly "no, no.....she'll continue her recovery at home, it would be better for her and for everyone"

"are you okay Rex, you sound tensed"

I let out a deep breath and pressed my eyes with my fingers "it's probably just the stress of the past few days, I haven't really rested since"

"yea, I just woke up myself, I had a very long sleep. Are you with Tonye? I tried calling her but it didn't go through"

"no she's in another car with Clyde and Kirsten"

"okay, tell her to call me later. And remember, try and rest once you get the chance, you shouldn't be overstressing yourself anymore"

"OK"

"okay, bye"

"wait... Bami wait...."

For a second I thought he had already ended the call but his voice came back over the line
"what is it?"

"errm... I want you to help me reach Short Sam to run a background check on someone"

"okay, lemme grab my pen"

I heard a shuffling sound in the background and the click of what had to be a pen then he said "alright shoot, I'm listening"

"errm...his name is..." my mouth was suddenly heavy. I looked at the doctor, he didn't seem to be paying me any attention, I cranned my neck. The driver was also fully focused on the road.
But still.....

"you know what, I can't pronounce the name....I'll text it to you right now"

"okay, I'd be expecting it"

After the call, I located his number and entered a new text message

Re:
Get S.s to run a thorough background check on this name. Any flag that pops up I want to know immediately.
Samson Igyevure

I hit send.
I shut my eyes deep in thought, if there was anything to be found, I was sure Short Sam was going to find it.

My phone vibrated immediately and I checked the message notification.

It was from Bami: isn't that your brother in law?

I sighed and replied: yes

I thought of unlocking Kristen's device to continue checking out the picture but I didn't. The picture was already engraved in my mind. So instead, I shut my eyes and scrutinized the two smiling girls, the food spread before them on the table, then the three men on the table behind. The man with the side view was no doubt my brother in law, there was no two ways about it, but who was the third man then? Sir Holly?

That subconscious suggestion had somehow managed to sneak the possibility I had been trying soo hard to dodge; If the third man was sir Holly then he had to be his right hand man, the first minister.

::::::::::::::::::::::
The first thing Ada noticed when she got to the house was the darkness. The electricity was out. Even the street lights were out also. "That's strange, there seems to be a power outage" she muttered as Bright turned into the street.

The headlight of the Benz illuminated the pick up truck parked in front of the open gate with the inscription; Ikeja Electricity Company.

"oh....i think it's a fault, the nepa people are here already"

Her boyfriend parked behind the truck and they got down.

"why is the gate wide open?" she wondered to herself
"Mathias!" she called out for the gate man as she entered the compound slowly.

"honey, why don't we come back in the morning" Bright said from behind her

"oh come on baby, this is my brother's place" she held out her hand for him and he didn't have any choice but to take her hand and follow her in.

"something is not right....he has some nasty dogs and normally they'd be going crazy in their cages by now"
She entered the compound with her boyfriend behind her calling for the gate man "Mathias....Mathias..."

Mathias was a known dunk and her father had fired him two years ago after he had goofed and let Rex into the house and Rex had stripped him off his uniform and pretended to be him. But Emenike liked the man, mostly because the both of them were drug addicts and he needed a partner in crime to practice his narcotic vices with.

Now she peered into the small circular window on the side of his quarters.

"you said your brother has dogs?" Bright asked. He had come to stand in front of her, in a kind of protective gesture, but he observed the dark house with uncertainty. She thought it was sweet.

"yes...as in real killer dogs, that's why I want to get the gate man... He knows how to handle them...but everywhere is too dark.

She peered into the window again, squinting but she couldn't see anything.
She brought out her phone and selected the flash light app. She swiped the button and the powerful beam blasted from the camera flash at once.
She directed it to the window and gave a short scream. The phone fell from her hand and bounced like a health5 ball pumped to its limit.

Powerful arms where holding her. Bridge was trying to comfort her, amidst his confusion, asking what was wrong but she kept screaming. Shutting her eyes in an endeavor to erase the horrific image from her memory, but it was impossible.

Bridge picked up her phone, and checked out the window himself. "Jesus!" he shouted, and in his haste to quickly get the light away from the horror, the phone fell again, and the light went out.

The screen was no doubt broken.

But that wasn't even the case.

Mathias' face had been carved open. A kind of perforation had been made on both his cheek bones and a hole had been drilled in either side of his face.
That wasn't all, he had his tongue out, stuck in between his teeth, somehow like one would do when trying to mimic a dead person, with the head lolled to the side and the tongue hanging out.
But he wasn't mimicking anything, he was dead. His eyes were missing....
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and Mathias was definitely soulless, because his eyes were empty....as dark as the room he was in. It was like the eyes had been blown out.
If anyone has ever noticed the fuse in a socket blow out, the spark would most times leave behind a kind of black electrical soot, staining the white plastic base around the port. That was how Mathias's eyes were.

He had the black soot round his eye like an inexperienced make up artist had run riot with an eye shadow.
His hair which was usually an unkempt afro was standing on end, like the fur if a frightened cat.

Hmmmmmm....

With the absence of the eye, it was impossible to get any emotion or lack of emotion for that matter but it looked like Mathias had been 'shocked' to death.

Ada was still screaming hysterically, in her own state of shock.
Bridge was the one to finally grab her hand and pull her out of the compound. He was also in a state of shock. But fear overpowered all emotion.

"we need to get out of here" he shouted and when her legs seemed to turn to cement, he carried her and ran out of the house.

Bridge was a tough guy. A body builder, 6 foot 3 inches, well ripped with well toned biceps and abs that a toddler could use in learning to count.

At least 1-8

He balanced the screaming Ada on his shoulder and fished out the car keys from his pockets and hit the unlock button. The car blinked in reply. He opened the door and half threw Ada inside the passenger seat and half placed her inside gently.

His mistake was in the gentleness.

He placed half of his upper body inside his low car to place his screaming and sobbing, traumatized and terrified girlfriend on the seat properly but before he could come out fully he sensed a movement from the corner of his eye. He swiveled on his heels immediately, prepared to throw a three punch, one duck two punch combination with mean dexterity but the electric volt shot through his body from his lower abdomen, causing his body to go stiff like a statue immediately and sending him to the floor as he made a gagging noise from his throat and vibrated in a manner most electric boogie dancers would envy.

The tazer continued releasing bursts of raw electricity to his body as his assailant took a knee and continued the torture. Then a second man was there, he said one word "enough" and the tazer stopped. The 'shocker' stood up and Bridge continued to squirm and vibrate like a worm that came in contact with salt as his teeth vibrated and clattered together.

His attackers didn't even give him the chance to come out of the shock, a Beretta was whipped out and two bullets were fired into his face from point blank rage.

"we should have used the hand drill.... That'd be a bonus" the man with the tazer said

"no need....one hole is enough already...or should I say two...." both men laughed at their evil humour and the white electricity truck ahead came to life and the engine was revved.

A second man stuck his head through the passenger window "yo, this area is quite high class, let's get out of here before the cops show!"

The two assailants standing over the body, looked at the dark house in regret and anger. They hadn't gotten what they came for. The bastard had run away, just moments before they came and the stupid gate man didn't even know anything, although he was too stoned to even know what was happening on earth. Still they had turtured him till his response to stimulus became sensitive again, but they didn't have any location on where Emenike would be.

They had failed their mission.

Or had they......?

They both looked at the dead body, looked at each other and slowly looked at the girl in the car.

A lot of 'shocking' had gone on that night and Ada was the latest victim. Although she hadn't come in contact with any raw electricity, raw volts of unbelief, denial, horror and heartbreak were surging through her, as she sat, staring out the window and vibrating from the chill that followed after her lover was murdered in cold blood. Right before her very eyes.

She kept looking at his dead body, her eyes filled with inexpressible horror.

When both men looked at her, the current became too much suddenly. She opened her mouth and let out the deadliest of screams, with a very high current indeed.

Previous post too long, here is the concluding part....


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My parents house was a three bedroom bungalow. We were approximately 15 people, plus Sam's driver which made us 16 people.

Sam counted some money and gave his driver "take Junior, find somewhere close by and lodge...but make sure you're back here early in the morning. I have a flight back to Abuja by 9"

My elder sister interrupted him "but honey, I thought we agreed to stay for a couple more days..."

Cynthia was always like lady Morgana to me, she was older than me with a whole decade and unlike Utebo who had been my closest pal from childhood, Cynthia had been almost like another mother figure....at least in the disciplining aspect. She didn't take nonsense and even though she was my sister, I saw her as a bit of a snob, high classed with her nose always in the air. She belonged to the rich and powerful class of society, the wife of a senator who could very well be the president someday and she was fond of looking down on we her siblings.
But she was family. And you know what they say about family, they are like mosquitoes; they annoy you but they carry your blood.

Besides I was caught up with what excuse her husband would come up with.
Sam paid the driver and watched him leave before smiling apologetically at his wife "honey, I got a call...very important earlier today, our party has a very important meeting tomorrow because of the things that have been happening in aso rock recently"

"okay honey, I may stay an extra day or two" Cynthia said, looking round the dining at the small crowd that stared curiously at the husband and wife.

I was studying the senator closely and I saw the alarm light up in his face the moment she declared her intention of staying behind.

He looked like he was ready to object but he caught himself and looked round at us. His eyes settled on mine for a fleeting second then he looked at the driver who was retreating. "errm...Junior, wait let's go together....I have some documents in the car I want to take"

They left the dining, heading outside and my eyes met with Tonye's immediately. Her eyes were dripping with suspicion and I'm sure mine was too. I looked to Kirsten where she sat at the other end of the dining, observing all that had been going on and our eyes also clicked.

Believe you me, Kirsten is one in a million. That girl is a gem to BROTA.
Damn!!!
She read my intentions immediately and stood up, tapping Clyde who had been dozing beside her.
"come on Clyde, I think we better go with the driver so we can get a good place to sleep at the hotel too"

Clyde stood up and stretched tiredly, he looked to me for confirmation and I hurriedly nodded "yeah that's a good idea....you guys need to rest...go quick before Junior leaves"

Tonye added "hey Kirsten, call me if you come across any ant"

"what's an ant?" Paul asked me, he was military intelligence officer but the way of BROTA was not the way of the military. As a matter of fact we made up our own abbreviations and our own code words.

I just shrugged and smiled at him "I don't know, probably something related to fashion I'm sure"

Actually 'ant' was coined from the word 'important' and used in any context, it simply meant 'important info.'

My mother came out from the kitchen "woa, Rex where are your friends?"

"they're going to get somewhere they can sleep comfortably"

"toooh....but won't they eat first? The rice is almost done."

Indeed I could smell her famous delicious jellof rice assaulting our helpless nostrils from the kitchen.

My dad called out from the parlour before I could reply "Martha you worry too much, come and stay with me, have a glass of red wine, it's good for your heart. Let Cynthia and Utebo round up the meal"

My mum hesitated but my sisters insisted and she took off her imaginary apron and went to relax in the parlour, and I noticed how tired she moved.

While Cynthia and Utebo reported to the kitchen, although I obviously knew what would go on in there. Utebo would stand over the fire while Cynthia would sit somewhere and they'd talk and gist.

The kids were since asleep. We had tucked Soma and Emma together in the room with Olivia. They were on the bed and she was still in the hospital bed, which had the intravenous drip attached to it. Utebo was going to join them, while the twin boys were asleep in the other room, Paul and the senator would bunk in there with them. I didn't know how they would do it, although there was an extra mattress in the room, I didn't know who would use it and I honestly didn't care. My mother was going to stay with Cynthia, and maybe Tonye.

As for me and my dad, we had slept in the parlour too many times, it was nothing new.

I used to have a very careless wardrobe with a broken hinge in my room when growing up and the moonlight always used to trickle into the room and reflect the clothes hanging inside, giving it scary shapes in the dark that tricked my eyes with movement. That would always scare me and when it got too hard to shut my eyes and sleep off, I would run to the parlour.
Most times I saw my father stretched on the 3 seater, sleeping off the remnants of what could only be alcohol, judging by the scary snore coming from him. He usually sounded like an animal had escaped from the zoo and sought refuge in our home whenever he snored.
But those troubled nights in my childhood, the scary snore had been like a comforting lullaby, stilling my fears and lulling me to sleep.

But I doubted I could sleep tonight. My mind was in overdrive, overthinking and waiting for Bami to call and drop a bomb from Short Sam about my brother in law.

:::::::::::::::
Kirsten led a yawning and tired Clyde outside and to the car. They saw the driver; Junior outside, waiting patiently with his hands in his pockets.

"hey, we'd like to follow you to the hotel so we can lodge too"

He looked at her and Clyde and nodded

She looked around, searching for the Senator. She had come out hoping to see him do Something, anything that would prove without doubt that he was indeed the man in the picture and affiliated with the shadow. But he was nowhere to be found.

"what are we waiting for?" Clyde asked. He was almost sleeping on his feet. He had been on duty for over 24 hours, standing guard over Olivia during the darkest hour and he was beat.

"my Oga is making a call" junior the driver said patiently. It looked like it was a normal thing, that is, he standing outside while his boss made a call in the car.
Kirsten was about to ask where he was when she saw him. He was in the backseat of the car, she could make out just his silhouette but his hand was glued to his ear, and judging from the short tensed movements, he was having a very important and animated conversation.

:::::::::::::::::
Back in the house, I found that I did not have any appetite. The celebratory mood was still on and my dad and Paul were making good work on the bottle of red wine.
I picked around my food, with a restless spirit, I couldn't shake the feeling that a dark cloud was over us and the celebration was premature. I watched Sam closely through out, trying not to show it but I noticed his mood also wasn't as merry as before and he also didn't drink much and picked about his food. Also he was always the last to laugh at any joke, usually Joining in when everybody else had started laughing.

Before I could drive myself mad with theories and observations, I stood up and went to the room to watch Olivia for a bit. She came awake and we chatted for a while and I kissed her and watched her fall asleep again. The knee reconstruction surgery had been successful and she was going to walk. I took comfort in that, my daughter was on the bed asleep, safe and sound and my wife was not crippled. That was enough reason to be thankful. I mentally forced the dark cloud away and the ray of sunshine that burst through was welcoming and warming to my soul. I dragged the chair close to Olivia and held her hand.
I didn't know when I dozed off.

::::::::::::::::
Utebo tapped me awake hours later and hugged me before I stumbled sleepily out of the room. My father was sprawled on the 3 seater as usual and I folded myself into the 2 seater like so many times in the past. Although I was much taller now and didn't expect it to be comfortable, I was wrong. There was a certain calm assurance in my dad's alcohol induced snore. It had the same lulling effect and within seconds I was asleep.

:::::::::::::
The first minister was the last to sleep. His mind kept on replaying to the message that had entered his phone and prompted him to make the rare call he hardly made to his god. To sir Holly.
He had tried his best but there was nothing that could change sir Holly's mind. The instructions were clear.
He was to give the order to commence the purge.

The purge on The Obasi Family and the purge on BROTA.
It was going to be hard to sleep tonight.



The Morning

::::::::::::::
Andy woke up feeling refreshed and feeling happy. The ceiling looked strange to him and he spent some minutes lost, trying to remember where he was and remember why he was smiling like a fool so early in the morning. Then it came drifting to him.

It had been a long night. A long, long night of passion. He stretched like a cat, fully satisfied and happy. He had been celibate for 2 years but somehow he hadn't disgraced himself. His little soldier had been brave all through the night and he had made the reporter sing like a canary.

He smiled, not bad.

He stretched his hand, expecting to feel the warm, soft flesh he had come to love but the bed was bare. He got out of the bed and looked around for his clothes. He saw his boxers in a corner and wore it hurriedly but he couldn't find his other clothes.

He left the room, walking slowly and unsure of how to approach Helen the journalist when he heard her bustling in the kitchen. She sounded happy. That was a sign of hope.
He tiptoed into the kitchen and there she was, standing over the gas cooker and humming a Sia song about being titanium. She was making French toast and the aroma was wonderful, stirring hunger in his stomach, but she looked even more wonderful, in his oversized t, shirt, moving, full of life and wiggling her small bottom as she sang and flipped the bread over. She stirred a different kind of hunger, a little south of his growling stomach and he crept behind her and grabbed her waist, kissing her neck and she squealed in laughter.

"Oh Andy....i was planning to bring you breakfast in bed"

"there'd be plenty time for that later" he leaned over and switched off the gas "come back to bed"

Helen Koker was a dedicated professional with almost infallible work ethic. She was hardly late to the newsroom even when she was chasing a lead.
But that had been before she met Andy. She sighed with pleasure as he nibbled on her earlobe and allowed him carry her back to the bedroom.


:::::::::::::::
One hour later, after they had showered together and finally had breakfast, Andy watched Helen as she stood on her tiptoe and opened an empty Danish cookie tin. There were some old photographs and some papers and she smiled at him before he could ask
"pictures from my childhood and my report cards, I always planned to show my children important things from my childhood and I've kept this box since my thirteenth birthday. My dad bought be the cookies" she smiled in remembrance

Andy suddenly had the sensation of falling from a thousand stories. It was quite exhilarating and he was almost suddenly out of breath. He just stared at the beautiful woman.

"what" she laughed, a bit embarrassed "why are you staring at me that way?"

He just shook his head and smiled. He wasn't sure he was able to speak at the moment.

She placed a flash drive in the tin and returned it to the top of the shelf.

"I always keep a back up of whatever story I'm working on in here till it comes out in print. It's a kind of superstition of mine....now the story of the hole is backed up in there...I like to think of it as some kind of Goodluck, being among the things I hold most dear"

:::::::::::::::::::
He followed her to her car and watched her while she fumbled with her keys.

"I'd call you today, say by noon" Andy said, smiling with stars in his eyes.

"please do, maybe you'd come over after closing and we'd come home together?" she asked hopefully.

If he had stars in his eyes, she had the whole galaxy in hers.

Andy nodded immediately. "I won't miss it for anything in the world"

She finally opened the door and got in.

He waved her and retreated to where he had parked his car the night before.

"are you not going to kiss me?" the words halted him and he turned immediately with a smile.

He hadn't been as happy as this in a long while. He had never really been living, now all of a sudden, everything was bright and colorful again. Life was worth living.
He approached the car and he was a couple of feet away when she swung her legs out to stand up.

The force field from the blast slammed into him like a shield. The heat was searing, the sound was deafening and the flash was blinding.

:::::::::::::::::
In kirikiri, a frantic Amunike paced round his palace of a prison cell. He had just gotten a message now and he was doomed. The light of his dark life, the one and only true joy he had. The only person he really, really, really loved in the whole wide/wild word had been kidnapped.

Ada had been taken last night and he had less than 48 hours to provide his rascal and bastard son if not she would be on the crime news. The description of what would be done to her had been very vivid and chilling.

Done to his angel, his very own Adaobi.

Blood of God!

His teeth were chattering and his hands were shaking as if he had spent the night in a deep freezer, he grabbed the phone receiver from the wall and dialled a number.

He screamed like a mad man "operator get me Rex Obasi!!"


To be continued

Wow...thanks for this lengthy update Boss

This Hole thing is getting serious oooo, Andy has been stripped of happiness by the death of Helen Coker

Welcome back bro

For your book cover designs

Thank you Souloho for this long update.
Hope you are back fully.
Just as I am being to love Helen

You are not welcome. My blood pressure has been stable until you came back bow it's elevating at lethal speed.

finally thanks Mr soul

The wait was worth it.

Ammunition calling for Rex? What's on his dirty but beaten mind now?

Now let the rest come in torrents Soul

And Souloho delivered!! Please don't take Helen away from Andy, it'll break him. Abeg. And Rex, he's in for more drama.

It obvious from the last update death has come to town........operation annihilation initiated.

THANKS' MAN
.
U'RE STILL THE BOSS

Dear Souloho19,
You never cease to amaze me with your writing prowess.
No matter how long it takes for your updates to come, I'm never disappointed when they come. So it's always worth the wait.

Is Andy still alive?

Amazing as usual..

Hmmmmmmmm. Thanks for the update man, this is getting hotter

OMG! Just reread the last episode, Don't take Helen away from Andy, it will really break him.

Nawaooo the hole is getting more tensed and lethal by day, souloho ur talent is really amazing. Tanx for d very long update. I just hope Andy made it

Thank you souloho19... you're the man.

Souloho and suspense I think your name should be changed to suspense ,thank you for the long update you a genius,