Ms Pamela Evans sat silently on one of the multi colour sofas inside the posh office of her boss, her legs crossed, her slim fingers held thoughtfully under her chin and her green eyes stared confusingly with an unbelievable look at her stoned, but confident looking boss who appears to have things under control as usual this despite his odd manners. She reasoned, letting her mind think freely. She digested and tried to make sense out of what he had just told her. She was sure he was not joking and also convinced that nothing was going to make him change his mind from the mission and plan he had secretly prepared alone for the past few weeks. Although Pamela Evans was not happy that KS had secretly left her out of the deal and transactions from day one, but she knew and was convinced that he had no bad intention towards her. This was just part of the numerous surprises and eccentricity she knew him with. So she quickly believed him when he explained things to her.

“What! – I can’t believe this” she suddenly exclaimed to herself still finding it difficult to put herself in the new position he was offering her. She shook her head, and stared unbelievable at her amiable boss admiringly.
Ken Solomon sipped from a glass of juice and grinned broadly at her. He sauntered towards her and offered her a glass of juice.

“Take – please enjoy and cool down your surprise.” He advised, handed her the glass and then took a seat opposite her. He crossed his legs, sipped his drink with a wide smile which hide his troubles and worries from her.

“Jesus!-KS –this is one of the biggest surprises of my career. I mean, I am still finding it very difficult to place myself in the position…” She traced off again.

“Ha! ha! ha!” KS chuckled on his seat and then smiled up at her. “ I guess you must have felt just the same way Condoleezza Rice felt when President Bush appointed her as the Secretary of State, positioning her as one of the most powerful and popular black women in the world” He chuckled at his joke, sipped his juice, and then re-crossed his legs.

“God! This is different KS. Ms Rice case was a Federal Appointment and she has been in that system for long…” Ms Evans traced off again thoughtfully.

“So…?” KS asked drousily raising his eyebrows in a surprised look.

“ So, we are saying two different things here…”She traced off with a smile.

“ What makes them different? Are you telling me that you’re scared of becoming the Vice-President of the best telecommunication company that is coming to sweep all the others under the carpet”? KS boasted confidently still looking surprised.

“ No – I am not scared…” Ms Evans responded after some few seconds and then added. ‘’I am just worried about operating in an unfamiliar ground. I have never been to Africa and I don’t know whose door to knock on when I need ‘something’…”
Ken Solomon at this junction took a long sip at his drink and then stared thoughtfully away. This was just what he had been expecting her to say. He concluded silently. Yes – this was the right time to drive his point home and end this long discussion.

“ Yes – I agree with you, I guess you’re right here –Dimples” He finally said, calling her by the nick name he gave her on their first meeting.

“ I had not actually thought about this angle,” He continued, paused and stared thoughtfully away.

“ I think the sensible thing to do is to take a short trip to this place myself first, familiarize myself with the people and the setting. Then you and the other staff follow later. What do you think?”

He asked with a grin after making his planned suggestion. God! I wish I was actually telling her the truth. He told himself and then silently wished that the whole thing could just fly way like a bad dream and leave his troubled soul alone. He wished he could close and open his eyes and find himself just dreaming on his big cozy bed inside his expensive furnished bedroom.

“Perfect – I think this idea is perfect. Far better than sending me over to that jungle…it is like placing a shark in a pond, how do you expect it to survive?” Ms Evans asked with a mocking smile on her face. “Not with all those negative stories I have read and heard about this place and its people. I appreciate working in a well organized country with smart people, KS.” She added and her seductive voice brought him out of his reveries.

He nodded at her, half listening to what she was saying. He almost burst into laugh on hearing her complains about organized and smart people. He was almost tempted to tell her how smart and well organized these people were. How smart and organized they had been in outsmarting him of his millions and how stupidly he had plummeted so cheap to their smart tricks. She might not know it, but his common sense had since told him that it takes a smart and well organized people to dupe a smart American like him of his hard earned money. Millions of dollars he had prudently accumulated over the years, using his smart brain and connections. Yes- it takes a well organized smart people to siphoned that amount of money from America, especially from a Wall Street whiz kid like him. He concluded silently and allowed himself to listen to her seductive voice some more by making himself more comfortable on his seat.
Ken Solomon suddenly wished he could tell her the truth about this smart Nigerians and the horrible things they had done to his wealth and reputation, but his years of experience with women had thought him one good lesson: Never-never-tell a woman-the –whole-truth. So, with this doctrine on his mind, he sipped his glass of juice and then nodded approvingly to her babbles with rapt attention. One lie he reasoned, leads to another and the other many lies he realized he should be ready to tell her. The lies he reasoned were his only temporary protection from the disgrace and fall. He glanced casually at his watch and realized that they had actually been discussing for more than three hours, and every second now was very important and precious to him. Thank God, no visitor was waiting to see him at the moment in the waiting room.
They had both thought it wise to canceled all his appointments that day and agreed to both sit down in his office, lock the door and discuss the ‘good things’ KS was proposing. And Ken Solomon had sat her down, braced himself and told her some of the most thoughtful lies he had ever said in his life. He acknowledged that he was able to tell the lies more easily than he had anticipated. He believed the weed must have contributed to his easy flow because he noticed that he was confident and not ashamed as the lies tumbled out of his mouth. He was surprised that he was able to answer all her inquisitive questions to her satisfaction and approval; an endorsement that spurred him to happily tap a key from his laptop. He proudly showed her the copy of the approval letter from Naija-Phones that designated him as the new owner of the telecommunication company. Though, he now knew that the mail, just like the other mails from the company was a hoax. All the same, he controlled his anger of falling so cheap to their trick, smiled at her and allowed her to read the content of the well organized spear phishing mail. He noticed that she was excited and carried away by the smart write up, just the same way he had felt when he first read the letter few weeks ago. But all the excitement has since disappeared from his countenance once he realized the whole truth about the whole transactions. This was his burden and he was not ready to tell her or anyone else. This weight, he must be ready to carry alone all the way, just the same way he fell a sucker to the whole thing all alone from day one.
So with this conclusion on his mind, Ken Solomon allowed a broad happy smile to grease his face and gently explained or rather lied about the whole transactions to her. And she believed him which was also very important to him because she was the only trusted and qualified person he could leave his company with while he was gone. Again, Pamela Evans was the most reliable human being on earth who could protect his ass from curious Federal Financial Investigators who might invade his office the moment the news of the fraud licks out and he was certain that could happen any moment, unless he quickly does something about it. And the only quick solution on his mind right now was to go into hiding and where better to go if not to Nigeria where some faceless smart crooks were busy enjoying his hard earned money.

He imagined thoughtfully. His smile never left his face as she kept rereading the letter and allowed him to continue his silent plan.
The quick solution was to go straight down to Nigeria and trace the smart criminals wherever they where and get back his money then return home before those sniffing financial detectives start putting one plus one together which could lead to a free invitation to the wolfish press to set in. He calculated. He knew the moment one newspaper carried the story, the rest would swamp in like bees, and he and his company would be the next sweetest honey to be lick and feed to the curious American public, including the rest of the world. Although KS derived great kicks from making newspaper and magazine headlines, like the ones TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, GQ and the Washington Post had ran on him a year ago when the going was good. They had been well organized positive interviews and write-ups that really assisted in lifting and shaping his image and captured more admirers for his over publicized and embellished success story. The publications also brought and encouraged more investors to his company and made it one of the sorts after Stock Broker firms on Wall Street. His happy smiling face had appeared as cover page in all the popular news print with more pictures of himself, his staff, his corporate headquarter, his house, his cars and even his pampered dogs adoring the centre spreads and few more pages. This was the kind of publicity he craves for, not negative destructive ones like the one likely to happen to him any moment. He reasoned and then flinched as he tried to imagine how the headline might look and sound like. He even created one on his mind as he smiled at the confused looking Pamela who had finished reading the letter and had walked up to the glass wall were she fed her eyes thoughtfully at the busy images below.

The headline he had imagined read: ‘WALL STREET WHIZ KID DUPED BY SMARTER BRAINS IN NIGERIA.’

“ No! No! No! Not me…” He suddenly announced aloud, forgetting that he was not alone in the office.

“Not- what? – what is it, KS?” Pamela turned and stared confusingly at him.

“Oh – nothing- Dimples” He replied and quickly composed himself with a broad smile. “ I was thinking about something I wanted to do, but right now I just realized that I might not have the time for it” He lied and glanced at his watch.

“ Is it something I could do for you? You know I am always here for you…” Pamela offered, her eyes now relaxed with her dimple smiles reappearing on her pretty face.

“ I know, Pam –but thanks, this is something strictly for the boys.’ He smiled gratefully at her, unplugged his laptop from his office printer and then packed it into its bag.

“I think that will be all for today. I have to start making all the necessary preparation and arrangement for this Africa trip, and you know we need all the time for this special project right now. Like we have agreed, I need to be on ground to spend few weeks to familiarize myself with the people and the setting and make some few links, then pronto, I am back to sweet America” He reminded her, and walked away from his large desk.

‘ Yes, I know and agree with you. I just hope you know exactly what you’re doing as always, KS” She replied, smiling back broadly at him.
He paused and smiled back at her before answering. “You know I have always known what I wanted to do and exactly what I am doing… Just be a good girl and trust me as usual.”

With that, Ken Solomon strolled up to her and kissed her gently on her cheeks. And then slowly lifted her chin and gave her a full French kiss on her lips. It came as a surprise to her but not to him because he felt deep inside him that he was probably kissing her on her lips for the first and last time.


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