₦airaland Forum

souloho19:
(p.s; Solly1 if I doze in church I'm holding you responsible)

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:::::::
Benue
Back in the Obasi residence, the children were up and running about, it seems they could sense the tension had been lifted from their parents and now they could play freely. Emma was busy with her cousin and best friend Soma, making imaginary tea and plaiting the hair of their dolls. Both twin boys were busy playing 'police and thief,' shooting with their index fingers and dodging imaginary bullets, their mouths providing the bullet's audio discharge with their boyish adrenaline filled shouts.

Alli no joy sat at the dining table, watching his grand children. His face was expressionles, if there was one thing he had long mastered, it was the act of maintaining a poker face no matter the emotions going on in him. Especially when he was married to someone like his wife. Martha had the uncanny ability of sniffing out trouble or worries. A long time ago when he was a degenerate gambler and thought gambling would dig him out of the hole it had previously placed him in, his wife had seen through the facade and fake smiles and empty assurances.

That had been a trying period for their young family, but few months later she had gotten pregnant and their son had been born. Rex. Well he was proud of his son, proud of the man he had become, of the lives he had impacted, but.....

He watched as one of the twins (he always had trouble differentiating them, and the little rascals loved playing mind games on him) ran to the dining table and gripped his chest, staggering as if he had been shot. The scene disturbed Alli no joy and he couldn't hold himself anymore.

"Hey Peter....Paul, what kind of play is that? Stop that rough play this instant!"

The boy looked hurt, as if he had been slapped, then grudgingly ran out of the dining hall.

"Al"

He looked up to see his wife in the doorway. She had just come out from Olivia's room and had seen his little outburst. "Al, what is wrong?"

"nothing dear." He almost smiled but stopped himself. Martha could sense a fake smile from a thousand miles away.

She watched him but didn't say anything for a while, instead she pulled out one of the chairs and sat opposite him. "Olivia has been asking for Rex, I don't even know where he is..."

"Martha, you know Rex....He's pursuing a lead to make sure nothing happens again, but I'm sure he'll be back soon. We exchanged texts not long ago." At least that was true, they had exchanged text messages an hour ago. Alli had given him directions to a torture room or interrogation chamber if you will.

"Hmmm....Al, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"we've been married for 40 years, give me some credit. Now what's troubling you?"

"Excuse me sir," his in-law Paul, major with the Nigerian Army approached the doorway and Alli gratefully excused himself and made his escape.

"What is it son?" he said immediately they were out of earshot.

"One of the agents is back, he's outside, he said Rex sent him back for reinforcements."

"Reinforcements against what?"

"I think an attack is imminent." Paul sounded really tensed. His entire world was in the house. His three kids and his wife. "I think we should vacate the premises immediately."


:::::::::::

I've never really been a spiritual person. As a matter of fact, I realize, throughout most of my life, I was more religious than spiritual, going through the motions, when I was young; sunday school, the occassional communion on sunday, then back in school on monday, crushing on Sofie the class rep in those days, then as I grew older, and preteen hormones became wilder, I also began crushing on Amanda, the choir director's daughter in church.

Fome had even been the one to drag me to campus fellowships during our uni days, I guess I never really thought much about God, or heaven or even Jesus. Sure it was always at the back of my mind, usually the first exclamation to come out of my mouth whenever I was shocked, but I was as spiritually aware as a blind man looking at rainbows. Then something happened, I stared down the barrel of the gun countless times, faced death a billion times, held my breath while detonating a deadly nerve gas, with seconds to spare and somehow I had managed to save scores of women from an unknown but surely gruesome fate. Somewhere along the line, there had been a paradigm shift. I was not the same person I had been before. I had become a husband and a father but was I a better man?

I stood in the cramped apartment, looking at the injured driver who was still flat on his back, eyes open wide in fear. He really thought he was going to die, he thought I was going to shoot him, and I thought so too. After-all I had gotten every information I could get out of him already, Tonye was already on her way to the airport, heading to the hotel location the first minister was said to be lodged. As a matter of fact she could very well be on the plane already.

Blood still trickled down my arm from the shoulder where the bastard driver had aimed for my heart but missed, I didn't even feel the pain. I kept pointing the gun at him, as my blood went cold. Not in the way you're thinking but in another similar yet different way indeed. I don't know how it happened, but one second I was about to pull the trigger, wondering if I had it in me to be so cold blooded and the next second I went cold blooded, literally. It was like a dejavu feeling, but the last time I had felt this way, was when I had been jerked out of a nightmare. A nightmare which, 'big mummy' aka the Chief's wife aka the old witch of the west had stabbed me, repeating the phrase 'so you want to be a hero' over and over again while I drew my last breath.

Now there was a chill in my spine and heat on my flesh, for before my very eyes, my flesh seemed to burst into flames, it was like my spirit left my body and I could watch my body burn, the gun dropped from my hand as the flame began to spread all over my body. I didn't shout, I don't think I could. I didn't even try to put out the flames but instead knelt to the floor slowly and went still.

I began to sweat profusely but the chill still remained. Slowly the vision cleared and I became aware of the pain in my shoulder. I blinked rapidly as the room came into focus and the pathetic form lying on the floor, saying his last prayers, expecting a one ticket trip to hell, via the bullet.

What kind of hallucination was that? It felt like a warning, what kind of warning? Hell? Or.....

A vibration in my pocket snapped my thoughts clear and I staggered backwards till I rested on the small table. The driver remained on the wooden pile on the floor and when I dropped the gun beside me, I sensed him heave a sigh of relief.

I grabbed my phone and checked the ID. It was my father.

"Rex, we want to leave here....the other agent just came back, its too dangerous. And Olivia has been unable to sleep, she has been asking for you all day."

I checked my watch, it was quarter to 6. The day had flown by. I felt a pang in my heart at the mention of my wife's name. I suddenly had a strong foreboding, like I was never going to see her again, a shiver ran through my spine.

"Where....where are you planning on going?"

"What's wrong with your voice?"

"It's just a little cold. What will you tell Mama and the others?"

"Well Paul and I spoke about it and we don't think it's wise to wait for any attack that would likely be overwhelming. The smart move is to portray the possible danger to the family, although I'm still keeping the other part close to my chest for now."

The 'other part' was the alleged involvement of our in-law, our own honourable Sam as the first minister.

I nodded, but my dad wasn't finished. "Rex do you remember the corner in my room, beside the bookshelf that was forbidden to you?"

"Yes..." I was confused, I remembered my dad had flogged the curiosity out of me whenever I went too close to his bookshelf. Until I had finally grown older and lost interest.

"I'll send you a detailed message with directions, after this call. The thing is, back in the day, during the military coup there was massive political unrest and inter tribal killings, I fashioned something like an emergency exit."

"Okay...." I still wasn't getting him. Why was he telling me this now?

"I just felt you should know that, I didn't want you wandering about stumbling on it and getting lost, that was why I was so hard on you back then."

"Okay dad..." I continued eyeballing the driver. The pain in my shoulder was getting real intense now. Maybe I should just shoot the bastard, after-all the chill was gone.

"Transporting Olivia may be a challenge. You guys went with the ambulance, remember?"

"Oh that's true..."

"We'll think of something, I'll send the directions to you."

"To the exit latch?"

"No, well that too....but I mean the location I'll be taking the family. it's an old friend of mine from back in the day."

"Ok, i'll be expecting the text."

"Son....I know I never told you this while you were growing up but, I love you and I'm proud of you."

You know how they say some men go their whole lives seeking validation from their father? Well my father had just given me his but it left a strange vibration in my ear and a sour taste in my mouth and a lethargy in my soul.

It felt like an epitaph; here-in lies my son, whom I loved and was proud of.


::::::::::::::
Tonye was not yet on the plane. She had missed the first flight by few minutes and had to wait in the airport for another 30 minutes until a connecting flight from the north would touch down briefly and be off to Lagos again. She sat in the airport cafe, with a small box of juice and brought out her phone and stared at her husband's number for a full minute and finally, she couldn't hold back anymore. She dialled his number and almost gave up after it rang and rang but then he picked the call.

He sounded super stressed. "hello, babe."

"Bami...how are you....what's that sound, what's going on?"

She couldn't place it, it sounded like a banshee of some sort, a crazy and spiteful wail.

"Tonye....it's a long story, that's the chief's daughter?"

"Oh you found her..?!" She heard her boarding call and quickly got to her feet.

"well, something like that, actually she killed....."

Her husband voice faded to the background as she saw a peculiar man come out of the immigration clearing; 'Arrivals'

She didn't know him, his face didn't look familiar at all, yet.....yet she knew she had seen that face before, but she didn't know where.
She chewed her lip deep in thought and absentmindedly ended the call while her husband was still speaking. She handed the phone to airport security and was searched, before being cleared to board.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, she couldn't really place the face after all....maybe it was a look alike....but yet....

:::
25 minutes later and 10,000 feet in the air, she snapped her fingers and jerked so suddenly that the woman beside her flinched away like she was crazy.

She brought out her phone and powered it on. She had switched it off just before takeoff, now she waited impatiently for it to power on and activated the flight mode. She hurriedly scrolled through her pdf documents to the report Kirsten had compiled weeks ago. She could almost swear she had seen that face pop up alongside the Shadow's underground associates.
She scanned the pages hurriedly, ignoring the discreet cough from the sassy stewardess.

This time it was her turn to feel cold.


::::::::

Mynet11 found the car in the parking lot exactly where it was meant to be. He entered and drove out, consulting his google maps to the hotel which had been booked for him in advance. It was a stones throw from the Obasi residence and left to him, he would have performed the hit tonight and left the shitty town immediately. But the first minister wanted it done in the morning. So he'll have to wait, maybe get a nice LovePeddler to spend the night with. If not he'll spend the night branding his bullets. He never fired a bullet that didn't have the 11 mark.


::::::::::::::
Somewhere in Lagos..

The hand movements were swift, they sliced the air perfectly, causing a swishing sound with each strike. The movement was purposeful and painfully slow but yet almost fast at the same time. The tongue was glued to roof of the mouth, to enable the swift ride of the autonomic nervous system and to fully gain unremitting mindfulness that connects through body and soul, the breaths were short and deep, controlled with every movement, every stance. His heart had reduced drastically to 26 beats per minute.

This was no routine meditation, it was dangerous, energy was in the air. Sparrow was literally on the edge, but he had to. The heaviness in his spirit hadn't just been because he had killed a lot of men, well that was mainly the reason, plus the alcohol hadn't helped either. But there was something else. Something his QI was trying to tell him, he needed to literally toe this line. The birds continued to dance and fly about him, chirpping excitedly, increasing their pace slowly as he arched and rose, raising his left leg till it was high above his head, almost like a ballet dancer, that is if any could achieve such perfect gracefull movement.

Suddenly the birds began to move in one accord, round his body in one crazy frenzy, feathers flying about as they began to whistle and chirp. Only expert bird watchers would know that was a war cry, not a mating or playful cry. Sparrow slowly opened his eyes, flowing with the birds and immediately he saw the Crow. Perched on a tree a little way off. Watching him with the dead eyes crows are infamous for. The moment Sparrow saw the bird killer, the hundreds of smaller birds flying around him headed for the Corvus.

Most of them would be killed, but they had sheer volume and overwhelming force on their side. Their short but strong beaks together would tear the black bird apart.

Sparrow had just received his insight. He rushed out of the woods to where he had left the truck running.

He sped towards BROTA.

:::::::::::
Fidelis dropped his gun in the security gate and headed toward the pickup truck. He could recognize Old man Rosco holding a carton of bottled water, standing akwardly as he watched the glass doors, unsure whether to drop the crates or walk into the building.

"Bros Rosco, evening sir!" Fidelis called out, eyeing the other crates of beer on the floor. The other man was bent into the truck, probably trying to wedge free more crated drinks.

"Oh officer, evening. why the kit up, hope we're safe?" the old man asked playfully. He sounded a bit nervous.

"Yes o, but we need to do this quickly. Just drop all the drinks, I'll do the rest."

The walkie talkie on Fidelis' arm beeped suddenly. "......(Static) approaching....(static) over?"

"Come again...I didn't get you....over?"

"I repeat, truck headed over, perceived as unfriendly..."

Fidelis turned to look at the gate on the other end, although it was pure steel and didn't afford any view.
The young man straightened up from the pickup. He had finally retreieved what he had been battling with, but it was a shotgun. He aimed it at the guard's chest and pulled the trigger.

::::
Cornelius had been feeling foolish, watching stupidly as his partner strolled towards the pickup truck when movement from the far end screen caught his attention. A camouflaged truck had branched of the road and was no doubt heading malevolently towards the gate. He immediately reached for his walkie talkie to alert his Fidelis but ended up distracting him and he couldn't believe his eyes when the young man with Old man Rosco shot his partner in the chest at point blank range. The man began running towards the security house and Cornelius' eyes flew through the different boxes on the screen, the different camera angles. The truck was outside the gate and armed mercenaries were jumping out.

"Oh my God, Oh my God Oh my GOd!" he shouted, almost freezing in fear.

He froze for what seemed like eternity and finally hit a button and grabbed a microphone off the desk. "We're under attack!"

::::::::::::
Meanwhile, just inside, Dagnet was catching up with Short Sam's wife, telling her about her perfect record of closing cases, as a matter of fact the only case she hadn't closed or was yet to close was the one with the hole in the wall.

"Your life is just so different from what I'm used to....." S.s' wife was saying, her voice filled with admiration.
"What was that?" She asked as a loud noise from outside vibrated the building.

Dagnet knew what it was, or what she hoped it wasn't. It sounded like a pump action gun. She froze, raising a hand and silencing the barrage of questions which was no doubt about to rush out from the other woman's mouth.

Then almost immediately there was a screeching sound in the speaker and the frantic shout of man almost fully mad filled the 2 story building.
"We're under attack! We're under attack!"

"Oh my God, where's my son! Junior where are you?!"


To Be Continued...

souloho19:
(p.s; Solly1 if I doze in church I'm holding you responsible)

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:::::::
Benue
Back in the Obasi residence, the children were up and running about, it seems they could sense the tension had been lifted from their parents and now they could play freely. Emma was busy with her cousin and best friend Soma, making imaginary tea and plaiting the hair of their dolls. Both twin boys were busy playing 'police and thief,' shooting with their index fingers and dodging imaginary bullets, their mouths providing the bullet's audio discharge with their boyish adrenaline filled shouts.

Alli no joy sat at the dining table, watching his grand children. His face was expressionles, if there was one thing he had long mastered, it was the act of maintaining a poker face no matter the emotions going on in him. Especially when he was married to someone like his wife. Martha had the uncanny ability of sniffing out trouble or worries. A long time ago when he was a degenerate gambler and thought gambling would dig him out of the hole it had previously placed him in, his wife had seen through the facade and fake smiles and empty assurances.

That had been a trying period for their young family, but few months later she had gotten pregnant and their son had been born. Rex. Well he was proud of his son, proud of the man he had become, of the lives he had impacted, but.....

He watched as one of the twins (he always had trouble differentiating them, and the little rascals loved playing mind games on him) ran to the dining table and gripped his chest, staggering as if he had been shot. The scene disturbed Alli no joy and he couldn't hold himself anymore.

"Hey Peter....Paul, what kind of play is that? Stop that rough play this instant!"

The boy looked hurt, as if he had been slapped, then grudgingly ran out of the dining hall.

"Al"

He looked up to see his wife in the doorway. She had just come out from Olivia's room and had seen his little outburst. "Al, what is wrong?"

"nothing dear." He almost smiled but stopped himself. Martha could sense a fake smile from a thousand miles away.

She watched him but didn't say anything for a while, instead she pulled out one of the chairs and sat opposite him. "Olivia has been asking for Rex, I don't even know where he is..."

"Martha, you know Rex....He's pursuing a lead to make sure nothing happens again, but I'm sure he'll be back soon. We exchanged texts not long ago." At least that was true, they had exchanged text messages an hour ago. Alli had given him directions to a torture room or interrogation chamber if you will.

"Hmmm....Al, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"we've been married for 40 years, give me some credit. Now what's troubling you?"

"Excuse me sir," his in-law Paul, major with the Nigerian Army approached the doorway and Alli gratefully excused himself and made his escape.

"What is it son?" he said immediately they were out of earshot.

"One of the agents is back, he's outside, he said Rex sent him back for reinforcements."

"Reinforcements against what?"

"I think an attack is imminent." Paul sounded really tensed. His entire world was in the house. His three kids and his wife. "I think we should vacate the premises immediately."


:::::::::::

I've never really been a spiritual person. As a matter of fact, I realize, throughout most of my life, I was more religious than spiritual, going through the motions, when I was young; sunday school, the occassional communion on sunday, then back in school on monday, crushing on Sofie the class rep in those days, then as I grew older, and preteen hormones became wilder, I also began crushing on Amanda, the choir director's daughter in church.

Fome had even been the one to drag me to campus fellowships during our uni days, I guess I never really thought much about God, or heaven or even Jesus. Sure it was always at the back of my mind, usually the first exclamation to come out of my mouth whenever I was shocked, but I was as spiritually aware as a blind man looking at rainbows. Then something happened, I stared down the barrel of the gun countless times, faced death a billion times, held my breath while detonating a deadly nerve gas, with seconds to spare and somehow I had managed to save scores of women from an unknown but surely gruesome fate. Somewhere along the line, there had been a paradigm shift. I was not the same person I had been before. I had become a husband and a father but was I a better man?

I stood in the cramped apartment, looking at the injured driver who was still flat on his back, eyes open wide in fear. He really thought he was going to die, he thought I was going to shoot him, and I thought so too. After-all I had gotten every information I could get out of him already, Tonye was already on her way to the airport, heading to the hotel location the first minister was said to be lodged. As a matter of fact she could very well be on the plane already.

Blood still trickled down my arm from the shoulder where the bastard driver had aimed for my heart but missed, I didn't even feel the pain. I kept pointing the gun at him, as my blood went cold. Not in the way you're thinking but in another similar yet different way indeed. I don't know how it happened, but one second I was about to pull the trigger, wondering if I had it in me to be so cold blooded and the next second I went cold blooded, literally. It was like a dejavu feeling, but the last time I had felt this way, was when I had been jerked out of a nightmare. A nightmare which, 'big mummy' aka the Chief's wife aka the old witch of the west had stabbed me, repeating the phrase 'so you want to be a hero' over and over again while I drew my last breath.

Now there was a chill in my spine and heat on my flesh, for before my very eyes, my flesh seemed to burst into flames, it was like my spirit left my body and I could watch my body burn, the gun dropped from my hand as the flame began to spread all over my body. I didn't shout, I don't think I could. I didn't even try to put out the flames but instead knelt to the floor slowly and went still.

I began to sweat profusely but the chill still remained. Slowly the vision cleared and I became aware of the pain in my shoulder. I blinked rapidly as the room came into focus and the pathetic form lying on the floor, saying his last prayers, expecting a one ticket trip to hell, via the bullet.

What kind of hallucination was that? It felt like a warning, what kind of warning? Hell? Or.....

A vibration in my pocket snapped my thoughts clear and I staggered backwards till I rested on the small table. The driver remained on the wooden pile on the floor and when I dropped the gun beside me, I sensed him heave a sigh of relief.

I grabbed my phone and checked the ID. It was my father.

"Rex, we want to leave here....the other agent just came back, its too dangerous. And Olivia has been unable to sleep, she has been asking for you all day."

I checked my watch, it was quarter to 6. The day had flown by. I felt a pang in my heart at the mention of my wife's name. I suddenly had a strong foreboding, like I was never going to see her again, a shiver ran through my spine.

"Where....where are you planning on going?"

"What's wrong with your voice?"

"It's just a little cold. What will you tell Mama and the others?"

"Well Paul and I spoke about it and we don't think it's wise to wait for any attack that would likely be overwhelming. The smart move is to portray the possible danger to the family, although I'm still keeping the other part close to my chest for now."

The 'other part' was the alleged involvement of our in-law, our own honourable Sam as the first minister.

I nodded, but my dad wasn't finished. "Rex do you remember the corner in my room, beside the bookshelf that was forbidden to you?"

"Yes..." I was confused, I remembered my dad had flogged the curiosity out of me whenever I went too close to his bookshelf. Until I had finally grown older and lost interest.

"I'll send you a detailed message with directions, after this call. The thing is, back in the day, during the military coup there was massive political unrest and inter tribal killings, I fashioned something like an emergency exit."

"Okay...." I still wasn't getting him. Why was he telling me this now?

"I just felt you should know that, I didn't want you wandering about stumbling on it and getting lost, that was why I was so hard on you back then."

"Okay dad..." I continued eyeballing the driver. The pain in my shoulder was getting real intense now. Maybe I should just shoot the bastard, after-all the chill was gone.

"Transporting Olivia may be a challenge. You guys went with the ambulance, remember?"

"Oh that's true..."

"We'll think of something, I'll send the directions to you."

"To the exit latch?"

"No, well that too....but I mean the location I'll be taking the family. it's an old friend of mine from back in the day."

"Ok, i'll be expecting the text."

"Son....I know I never told you this while you were growing up but, I love you and I'm proud of you."

You know how they say some men go their whole lives seeking validation from their father? Well my father had just given me his but it left a strange vibration in my ear and a sour taste in my mouth and a lethargy in my soul.

It felt like an epitaph; here-in lies my son, whom I loved and was proud of.


::::::::::::::
Tonye was not yet on the plane. She had missed the first flight by few minutes and had to wait in the airport for another 30 minutes until a connecting flight from the north would touch down briefly and be off to Lagos again. She sat in the airport cafe, with a small box of juice and brought out her phone and stared at her husband's number for a full minute and finally, she couldn't hold back anymore. She dialled his number and almost gave up after it rang and rang but then he picked the call.

He sounded super stressed. "hello, babe."

"Bami...how are you....what's that sound, what's going on?"

She couldn't place it, it sounded like a banshee of some sort, a crazy and spiteful wail.

"Tonye....it's a long story, that's the chief's daughter?"

"Oh you found her..?!" She heard her boarding call and quickly got to her feet.

"well, something like that, actually she killed....."

Her husband voice faded to the background as she saw a peculiar man come out of the immigration clearing; 'Arrivals'

She didn't know him, his face didn't look familiar at all, yet.....yet she knew she had seen that face before, but she didn't know where.
She chewed her lip deep in thought and absentmindedly ended the call while her husband was still speaking. She handed the phone to airport security and was searched, before being cleared to board.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, she couldn't really place the face after all....maybe it was a look alike....but yet....

:::
25 minutes later and 10,000 feet in the air, she snapped her fingers and jerked so suddenly that the woman beside her flinched away like she was crazy.

She brought out her phone and powered it on. She had switched it off just before takeoff, now she waited impatiently for it to power on and activated the flight mode. She hurriedly scrolled through her pdf documents to the report Kirsten had compiled weeks ago. She could almost swear she had seen that face pop up alongside the Shadow's underground associates.
She scanned the pages hurriedly, ignoring the discreet cough from the sassy stewardess.

This time it was her turn to feel cold.


::::::::

Mynet11 found the car in the parking lot exactly where it was meant to be. He entered and drove out, consulting his google maps to the hotel which had been booked for him in advance. It was a stones throw from the Obasi residence and left to him, he would have performed the hit tonight and left the shitty town immediately. But the first minister wanted it done in the morning. So he'll have to wait, maybe get a nice LovePeddler to spend the night with. If not he'll spend the night branding his bullets. He never fired a bullet that didn't have the 11 mark.


::::::::::::::
Somewhere in Lagos..

The hand movements were swift, they sliced the air perfectly, causing a swishing sound with each strike. The movement was purposeful and painfully slow but yet almost fast at the same time. The tongue was glued to roof of the mouth, to enable the swift ride of the autonomic nervous system and to fully gain unremitting mindfulness that connects through body and soul, the breaths were short and deep, controlled with every movement, every stance. His heart had reduced drastically to 26 beats per minute.

This was no routine meditation, it was dangerous, energy was in the air. Sparrow was literally on the edge, but he had to. The heaviness in his spirit hadn't just been because he had killed a lot of men, well that was mainly the reason, plus the alcohol hadn't helped either. But there was something else. Something his QI was trying to tell him, he needed to literally toe this line. The birds continued to dance and fly about him, chirpping excitedly, increasing their pace slowly as he arched and rose, raising his left leg till it was high above his head, almost like a ballet dancer, that is if any could achieve such perfect gracefull movement.

Suddenly the birds began to move in one accord, round his body in one crazy frenzy, feathers flying about as they began to whistle and chirp. Only expert bird watchers would know that was a war cry, not a mating or playful cry. Sparrow slowly opened his eyes, flowing with the birds and immediately he saw the Crow. Perched on a tree a little way off. Watching him with the dead eyes crows are infamous for. The moment Sparrow saw the bird killer, the hundreds of smaller birds flying around him headed for the Corvus.

Most of them would be killed, but they had sheer volume and overwhelming force on their side. Their short but strong beaks together would tear the black bird apart.

Sparrow had just received his insight. He rushed out of the woods to where he had left the truck running.

He sped towards BROTA.

:::::::::::
Fidelis dropped his gun in the security gate and headed toward the pickup truck. He could recognize Old man Rosco holding a carton of bottled water, standing akwardly as he watched the glass doors, unsure whether to drop the crates or walk into the building.

"Bros Rosco, evening sir!" Fidelis called out, eyeing the other crates of beer on the floor. The other man was bent into the truck, probably trying to wedge free more crated drinks.

"Oh officer, evening. why the kit up, hope we're safe?" the old man asked playfully. He sounded a bit nervous.

"Yes o, but we need to do this quickly. Just drop all the drinks, I'll do the rest."

The walkie talkie on Fidelis' arm beeped suddenly. "......(Static) approaching....(static) over?"

"Come again...I didn't get you....over?"

"I repeat, truck headed over, perceived as unfriendly..."

Fidelis turned to look at the gate on the other end, although it was pure steel and didn't afford any view.
The young man straightened up from the pickup. He had finally retreieved what he had been battling with, but it was a shotgun. He aimed it at the guard's chest and pulled the trigger.

::::
Cornelius had been feeling foolish, watching stupidly as his partner strolled towards the pickup truck when movement from the far end screen caught his attention. A camouflaged truck had branched of the road and was no doubt heading malevolently towards the gate. He immediately reached for his walkie talkie to alert his Fidelis but ended up distracting him and he couldn't believe his eyes when the young man with Old man Rosco shot his partner in the chest at point blank range. The man began running towards the security house and Cornelius' eyes flew through the different boxes on the screen, the different camera angles. The truck was outside the gate and armed mercenaries were jumping out.

"Oh my God, Oh my God Oh my GOd!" he shouted, almost freezing in fear.

He froze for what seemed like eternity and finally hit a button and grabbed a microphone off the desk. "We're under attack!"

::::::::::::
Meanwhile, just inside, Dagnet was catching up with Short Sam's wife, telling her about her perfect record of closing cases, as a matter of fact the only case she hadn't closed or was yet to close was the one with the hole in the wall.

"Your life is just so different from what I'm used to....." S.s' wife was saying, her voice filled with admiration.
"What was that?" She asked as a loud noise from outside vibrated the building.

Dagnet knew what it was, or what she hoped it wasn't. It sounded like a pump action gun. She froze, raising a hand and silencing the barrage of questions which was no doubt about to rush out from the other woman's mouth.

Then almost immediately there was a screeching sound in the speaker and the frantic shout of man almost fully mad filled the 2 story building.
"We're under attack! We're under attack!"

"Oh my God, where's my son! Junior where are you?!"


To Be Continued...