I have here a short story. I hope you enjoy it.

As most necessary, I want to salute the brains whose works I have read on this platform that has helped me learn more. Though I am far from been a prolific writer, nevertheless, I know some whose works has provided me great help.
My roll call
LarrySun,Divenpen,Safarigirl,Fiyah,SheWrites,Repogirl,AudreyTimms,Oyinprince,Just2day and lots more...thanks...
If I miss your name even though I have read your work, I apologize for that. I couldn't keep all the names but I will do better next time.

Please read, comment- correct, commend and criticize constructively..
No typoweapons abeg..
Na learner I still be. So that you no go kill son of man before he even begin write well...

SYNOPSIS

A boy of 10 years old who had witnessed his parents murdered ruthlessly by masked gun men grew up with one mission in mind- revenge.

Years later, he joins the special armed forces with a secret motive in mind- to prepare himself for revenge.

Will he accomplish the mission he had set himself out to do or will he discover another?

CHAPTER 1

TWELVE YEARS BACK

"To better understand the future, we need look back to the past"

Mr. Mark sat before the television with his hand on the remote. It was his way of watching the television, two eyes on the screen and a hand of the remote. In this way, it would be easier for him to change the channel if he found what they show as unpleasant or uninteresting.

It was 9PM and a Tuesday's evening. It was the time for Crime Hour, his favorite television program. Mr. Mark loved crime related stories and would have been a detective, which was his childhood dream but his dad would not let him. His dad had preferred him studying a conventional course or an everyday course which could easily secure employment in the labor market than an abstract course like criminology.

The man on the screen was dressed in an ash suit, a white plain shirt and a blue tie. He loved ash, it was his favorite cloth color. Almost all of his suits were ash colored. It was his wife, Helen that compelled him to buy two black suits and a blue one.

He looked at his phone as soon as it vibrated. It was a text message from his close friend, Colonel Jack. They had been secondary school mates back in the days and had grown closer over the years. While Jack had a father that gave him the support to pursue his dream of becoming a soldier, Mark's dad pushed him into becoming an accountant, neglecting his dream of becoming a detective.

I am on my way, the text message read.

Mr. Mark had called his friend to come and see him. He could not clearly say why but he felt uneasy and it made me anxious. Mr. Mark was not one given to anxiety but this time, he felt an intense measure of it.

He had tried to ask himself what could be the reason behind his feeling of anxiety but he couldn't state any. His wife, Helen had noted his restless look and had asked the same question but he had told her that it was nothing. He didn't want to get her worried. Moreover, he knew the kind of woman he had married. She was one of the smartest women he had met, and with her line of thisprofession as a psychologist, he would find it hard to stand her series of questions to know what the issue was.

His son Leonard was with his mom in the kitchen helping her to do some of the dishes. He was just ten years old and had been longing to have a younger sibling for as long as he could remember.

Mr. Mark and his wife had not had another child since they had Leonard. They had gone for series of medical checks and tests to know what the issue was but all the results indicated nothing as been wrong.

One doctor had told them, "Wait on God, His time is always the best"

Mr. Mark had frowned at that talk. He was not someone who had anything serious with God. He believed life was governed by laws and principles which run systems and not some so called big unseen person.

His door bell rang, he stood up and opened the door without looking through the door hole. He felt it was his friend, Colonel Jack. As soon as he did, a gun was pointing straight at his face being held by a masked man. Behind him, followed another.

The man commanded him to put his hands behind him and walk towards the center of the sitting room.

"What do you want?", Mr. Mark asked

"Shut up. We ask the questions not you", the first gun man answered hitting him angrily with the handle of his gun.

He groaned in pain as his head began to pound. He had had a hectic day and had some feeling of headache. The hit magnified the feeling.

"Where is your wife?", the first gun man asked. Without waiting for him to answer, he commanded, "To the kitchen. I smell something cooking. She must be there."

The other man pointed his gun towards Helen as soon as he stepped into the kitchen. She gasped in fear. But Leonard was not there. He was hidden in one of the big cupboards by his mum, who had commanded him to make no sound no matter what he heard or saw.

"Don't be scared", Mr. Mark told his wife.

"Don't listen to this fool of a husband. Better be scared because a gun is not a tool for joke", the second said.

The first commanded, "Sit on the floor". Husband and wife complied and he got the husband tied up first.

"Get us some food", he commanded Helen. After the food was served, they sat to eat while ignoring Mark's wife's(Helen) constant plea to let them be.

"Whatever you need, we will give", she pleaded.

"Its your life that the people who sent us need", the second said. The first looked at his colleague, who regretted saying what he just said.

Mark was angry and was cursing under his breath, "Cowards", while the gun men gulped in the Eba and egusi soup set before them.

Leonard was furious at what was happening. He could see them through a slight opening by the door of the cupboard.

Suddenly, the door bell rang.

"I think someone is at the door. We have overstayed our time. Shoot them as we were instructed and let's go", the first gun man commanded the second.

A second ring of the door bell but with a knock on the door.

"Shoot, you fool!"

"I can't", the second stammered, shaking

"Coward", the first cursed and pulled the trigger at Mr. Mark and his wife as soon as another knock- a louder one landed on the door.

"Let's move!"

As soon as Colonel Jack heard the gun shots, he struggled frantically to break open the door, which he finally did but the gun men had escaped unknowingly to him through the kitchen door before he could get in.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw his friend and his wife lying dead with bullets stuck in their forehead. And he went mad.

There was a movement in the big cupboard, he turned swiftly to the cupboard.

"Who is that?", he roared.

"Uncle Jack, its me", Leonard cried.

CHAPTER 2

"It takes a few people with strategy and good coordination to do evil which would affect the many"

The common event that had been making headlines in the country had been the kidnap of elder statesmen. The first of such events occurred last two years and after the kidnapped persons were kept for a year and a month, they were released.

The circumstances relating to their kidnap and release was greatly unknown to the masses. The best the people could do was come up with assumed stories. No one seemed to know the truth, not even the media houses.

Some schools of thought claimed that the kidnaps were staged and were nothing but dramatics set up to confuse the people and distract them from facing the real issues at hand. They claimed that such news were directed intentionally at the poor masses who would get anxious for the rich few who never cared for their simple existence.

"The poor sympathizes for the rich, who laughs at how much strength they still have to weep for the rich", one said.

After the release of the first batch of kidnapped elder statesmen, which were twelve men ranging from late sixties to late seventies in age. One was a former vice president, two were former national senators of the second republic, while three were founding political party leaders. Two were former governors, while the rest were national unionists and renowned educationalists, the nation felt it was the last of such a case they would witness but it wasn't.

Chief Theo Okima; a senior advocate, Chief Beko Hassan; a multimillion naira businessman, Chief Uke Sam; another business tycoon, Alhaji Sule Kai; founder and chairman Kai Holdings, and Alhaji Usman Pika, a retired inspector general of police- the notorious five sat discussing. A private detective had been persistently trying to unmask the men behind the kidnappings.

The issue with Private Detective Paddy Laki was that he was one of the foreign trained detective with a die hard doggedness. Who ever was behind him, sponsoring him must be very wealthy. Whatever was his interest, one could not say.

"He must be eliminated. Remember twelve years ago, how Mark Dimka went down? He was getting too.close in discovering the leak in the account. He wanted to know how such huge amount of money was missing from the Ministry of Transportation's account. If he had traced to the source, our plans would have failed. We must not loose power. We must retain power at all cost, to do that we must be like ghosts that cannot be gripped or held", chief Okima said. All agreed.

As usual in few weeks time, Private Detective Paddy was found dead in a hotel room. His girl friend was handsomely paid to do the job. What he did not discover as a detective that he was, was that Salome was his Delilah. She was trained and groomed to bring him down. It was a project that had a year's preparation and costed much. But it was worth it.

Anyone who had worked with Private Detective Paddy would agree that he was a very creative and intelligent man, and a dogged and diligent man whose weakness was any woman with a very fair skin, with curved hips, round backside, an average bust who walks with much feminine gait.

The devil that sent Delilah on a mission to bring Samson down did the same for Private Detective Paddy through the notorious five.

As soon as he saw her, for they ensured that she was always positioned in a place where he could not miss to see her. She was a close door neighbor, a staff in an organization near his office and a student in his PH.D class.

He went after her for a while, chasing her with his all as though his life depended on getting her. Unknown to him, his death depended on getting her.

She played hard to get for a while and then she fell for him as she had been told to. They needed some time for him to feel that she was indeed his, until she was signalled to kill him.

She poisoned his drink, and he drank from the cup of death and gave up the ghost, while his eyes stared at her.

When the notorious five had put him out of the way, they felt invincible not knowing that nemesis was waiting for them. Karma, they say, is a bitch. And their karma was Mark Dimka's son Leonard, whose whereabouts no one knew except Colonel Jack.

The two gun men had told them that they had killed the boy when asked, even though a boy was not mentioned in the mission given to them to be killed. The gun men never knew that Mark and his wife Helen had a boy.

The boy had grown having trained as a special force man in the states, he returned with one mission in mind- to avenge his parent's death.

Nothing quite like a tale of revenge. Looking forward to how you handle the political angle and the reveals. Goodluck