₦airaland Forum

Kawo9ze:
Don't take too long!

Guy if you can't wait unfollow the story

iamL:
Hope you are Gud solo?

I'm good honestly, caught up in a hectic 9-5 presently and dont want to start updating until I have atleast 30k words penned down.

Hydriss:
Welcome back Souloho19...… Glad to know you're fine

Thank you bro

Drabeey:
Nice read

No problem bro, I’ll like to have it narrated Send a Pm let’s talk

Bodydiialect57:
Yeah, l actually read the suspense filled book. You left me confused as to who the rapist was, so that got me glued till l read to the end.

You are a very creative writer. More ink to your pen @ Souloho.

Pardon me for not commenting earlier please.


BTW, l am still waiting to know about the fate of Rex Obasi o. Lols.

Thank you, although you may be interested to know that there is an edition available on Wattpad which has a different ending concerning the palm-wine scene and pa Kenneth.

@ bolded the fate of Rex Obasi is being determined this very moment and would be concluded in a couple of hours �

bodydiialect57

Have you checked this out ma’am?

KelvinCoaster:
Haha...I can assist you with information about the north(any info).
Just send a mail.

You're doing gr8!

Bless bro

Elfaris:
Nice. That's what I love about your books. You do your researches well. But free advice, try as much as possible to avoid the excess stereotypes about the north. Would be a stain on the work tbh. Otherwise, fire on. Thumbs up bro.

Thanks for this bro, I’ll be conscious to avoid stereotypes

SECURING THE BAG II - THE SATCHEL OF EZIZA

Chapter 1


FUOYO


Treasure Hunting

It was hard to tell what time we landed, but it felt like 3 or 4 hours later.Everywhere was pitch black and I sat still and tried to calm my nerves as the helicopter began it’s slow descent, in a cleared area, whipping up blades of grass.

"okay you guys....if you're lucky we may find it here and you can all return to your old lives" The taller man said, Pointing his gun at Kanaku and instructing him to hop down from the chopper

"can you stop pointing that thing at me, unless you plan to use it then do it once and for all otherwise put that rubbish away and let's focus on the real serious matter like finding the location." Kanaku snapped and I held my breath

To my surprise the man complied, he seemed a lot more reasonable and grounded than the short bloodthirsty looking psycho

"fine...we have a camp already set up beyond those hills. We get 2 hours rest and by first light we move and you lead us to the next sight....move!"

The three of us got down from the helicopter and to my surprise the engine was switched off and the blades gradually ceased their fast rotation. The short gunmen called Jango shouted at the pilot, "fifteen minutes tops they'll be here to retrieve the equipment and you can take off"

"roger that"

We walked for about 15 minutes until we came to the foot of a hill which could very well be a mountain for all I knew. They led us round the hill to the other side and I was amazed at what I saw. Two large tents joined together with a seperating material zippable door, it was well lit with energy light bulbs, from a huge generator humming a few feet away, almost noiseless. There were boxes of canned food and other boxes with sophisticated looking equipment I had never seen before. One of the tents had roll up camp beds and mosquito nets with canned and cartons of foodstuffs, while the other housed the equipments. There were computer screens and laptops attached to thousands of wires which all seemed to connect to the biggest computer screen I’d ever seen in my life. It was manned by a smallish man in reading glasses and rolled up sleeves to his elbows. He wasn't alone however. There were about four more men, and I noticed two were dressed in the same combat gear as our trackers, with scary looking rifles hung across their shoulders while the other 2 were shirtless, sitting on some boxes and smoking cigarets. They looked more like foremen, for heavy lifting and probably setting up the tents and I was right, because Jango immediately barked at them. "Hey A and B! all you do is smoke all day and eat corned beef....the pilot is waiting for you at the field, go get the detectors and gears from the helicopter....and make sure you load it all tonight cause we leave very early tomorrow!"

"shun sir!" They both squashed their cigarette butts with their boots and immediately left the tent without even sparing us a glance.

Jessy and Kanaku had come to stand beside me and we observed them leave, before turning our gaze warily to the four armed gun men and then with interest to the man hunched over the computer.

"Hey...Scholari get your eyes off the screen for a second, our guests are here" one of the gunmen barked at him

The smallish man turned his head to glance at us for the barest second before returning his attention to the screen. He hurriedly hit a couple of buttons expertly then pushed his glasses up his nose once more then finally stood up straight and regarded us.

"it's a big pleasure to meet you all....I hope we really have a good time working together and making history"

He held his hand for a shake even though he was a couple of feet away from us, then he made a strange move, moving his clasped palm vigorously in an arc, as if from that alone he had given us some kind of telepathic handshake.

"who are you?" Kanaku asked, his voice wasn't harsh or demanding, he wasn't even looking at the strange fellow but instead I noticed his eyes were on the four gunmen hurdled together and whispering amongst themselves while watching us idly.

"Oh I work for GED and i'm the lead archeologist of this noble expedition...I hear you're all colleagues of Brian and here to take his place for the expedition, the both of us have worked on so many successful expeditions together in the past, I wish he was here for the main discovery...because without him, we'll definitely not be as close as we are...It was dreadful to hear about his accident..I'm still shaken"

"What accident? you mean the murder you guys committed right?" Kanaku scoffed

The man actually blinked and I noticed he looked confused for a mini second. His reaction gave me an insight immediately; This man didn't know about Mr D's murder.....He was different from the rest , no gun, he didn't even have much interest in anything else but the huge computer screen. He was clearly not a killer, more like an academic and the most important thing I could observe was, he was crucial to the expedition, if not he wouldn't be here.

"Hey enough of the chitchat....Doctor the equipment you asked for has arrived, the boys are hauling it in right now" The guard snapped immediately

He turned his attention to the tracker/killer, "what equipment...oh you mean the gemstones detector?"

"yes duh!"

He gave a shriek of excitement...and looked at Kanaku "do you know with the tracker, we'll be able to get readings of Zircon gemstones from kilometers away, and majority of the other gems used to carve the satchel"

I took a step closer to him and for the first time studied the screen he had been so caught up in. "I thought the satchel was just rubies and gold...."

"Oh no...it's carved from a bronze wire curved like a necklace or bag handle...it depends...but the bronze wire is attached with gemstones, some of the most precious stones ever discovered in Africa and nowhere else.....I'm talking gemstones first discovered centuries ago....the pendant or satchel itself is what is made of the rubies and gold....it's rumored to be pure gold weighing an estimated gram that is almost unbelievable, but with the biggest ruby ever discovered...or soon to be discovered....crested in the middle like a star....." he drifted off dreamily before shaking his head, "here check it out," he pointed to the screen and I stared closer.

All this while I had never seen a detailed picture of the satchel, and had actually formed a mental picture of what to expect, but as I leaned over the screen, I was literally blown away. It was crazy cause at first it looked so much like a bag...the kind of bags common in modern times....like a roundish handle with beads lining up round the handle and a kind of bright star in golden purse at the center....but then after scrutinizing...it equally looked like a bead chain necklace and a big golden pendant with a red star...but here was what blew me away.....it wasn't a bead bag or bead necklace, cause it wasn't beads lining the arc but differently coloured diagonal stones which even in the screen was absolutely clear one won't need to hold this up to any source of light for scrutiny; it glowed and gleamed with an inner light...the kind of inner glow only common with priceless stones...almost like the movies , except this image in the screen wasn't a movie....the glow was real, even through the computer screen, I could feel the pull.

These were precious stones...gem stones....naturally discovered Centuries ago and unique to the black and naturally richest continent, Africa. and the bright yellow pendant or satchel, was pure gold melted and carved into a hollow arc which looked like an open satchel or hollow pendent with a huge gleaming star in the middle.. A ruby.....

My mouth dropped open. I could suddenly immediately envision it around the neck of the sacred Olokun deity centuries ago, and also around the neck of the General ....and the image had a crazy effect suddenly. I didn't envision or imagine...I saw it round my neck completely, with the gemstones glowing and the star ruby in the center gleaming like the bright stones round my neck.....it felt so real that I touched my hand to my throat, almost expecting to feel the satchel, it was a split second image but I felt a splitting wave of power so strong and swift, something I had never experienced before and as I shook the thoughts out of my head, the image cleared and I straightened up.

Kanaku and Jessy were beside me, staring at the screen and definitely not having the same sinister thoughts as me.

"so this is the satchel..."

"so how do we get it?" He and Jessy asked

"thats's where we work together....I understand you have the major locations...Nassarawa is out so you lead us one after the other, starting from Kaduna. but with my tracker tools this time and my calculation...not to mention these gun wielding security personel, ....they're really good trackers..you direct us close enough to the next exact location, my tools would pick out the gemstones signal from miles away, so we won't waste time digging random graves. cause I believe we have about 4 more locations?"

"Your camp beds are set, have some canned beans and sweet corn and get some rest. We have a long distance tomorrow, and you're leading us" The fourth gunman instructed us
I swallowed, I still had a lot to ask the scientist/archeologist, instead the sadistic gunman nudged us to the second tent, where 3 beds had been sprawled, with Mosquito nets above so we only had to tuck it in before sleeping

"Those lazy bastards are still bringing the tools from the chopper?" Jango asked exasperatedly.

"don't worry...." the second held a hand up, "professor, help our guests with 3 cans of sweetcorn and sausage. You 3 eat and go to bed, No water o! we have limited supply till tomorrow so manage!"


:::
Jessy sat on her bed, Kanaku continued pacing and so did I, until the professor entered our tent with a basket of the canned food and a big bottle water.

"i thought they said no water?" Jessy asked, gratefully taken the bottled water

"don't mind those brawns...been here for a week with them and they have nothing to offer, finally with the arrival of you people, we finally have progress, I'm not risking having you get dehydrated and getting dry ideas like those 4 brutes..."

I liked the man instantly.."you said you worked with GED?" I asked, cause I also remembered the inscription on the helicopter

"Yes"

"with Mr Brian?" Jessy asked

'yes...he was the best at tracking...I was the best at authenticating our finds.., we made finds worth fortunes working together ..."

Kanaku asked the main question I'd been trying to set up all this while,

"what is GED"

"Geraldine Exploration and Discovery"

"hmmmm"

"Geraldine....." My ears perked up and I connected the dot, "one Gerard is your boss?"

"you could say that...I previously offered services as a freelance authenticator to a lot of historical museums and private industries one of which was the GED, they've been funding searches for years in different countries...mostly African countries and underwater expeditions for sunken merchant ships along the pacific...His group is quite popular. I've been contracted by his company on a number of previous cases and worked really well with Mr Brian...we've worked in places like Egypt, Ethopia and made unbelievable finds...but I had to step back...I do what I do for knowledge, but it became clear to me our sponsor was not interested in sharing our finds with the world, millions worth of artificats passed through my table and I never heard or saw of it again..take an ancient staff that belonged to the great Selassie I for instance, never seen again and rumoured to have been looted by Mussolinni's troops, discovered by Brian a decade ago and appraised by me to be worth at least tens of millions of dollars and yet not even a word in the news, no word of such a sacred artifact ending in a museum where it belongs...so I stopped my freelancing and began lecturing in a University in Brimingham until sometime in 2017, an ancient Nigerian artifcat was discovered in a museum in Britain, stolen during the colonial raid on the ancient Benin kingdom by colonial attacks....it went viral and sparked a movement to find and return the lost artifacts to Africa and Nigeria... I wrote a lot of thesis and articles about the missing undocumented treasures we may never find because I'm a historian and no stranger to all that was stolen from Africa during colonialism and still continues to be stolen via neocolonialism and imperialism till this very day. once again it caught the attention of the GED....and after a meeting with Gerald and his team, I found out about the greatest treasure lost and undocumented, the main reason GED had been founded in the first place. It was decided GED would sponsor the expedition... but this time around they handed the grant to an archeoigst....me and signed me onboard to remain on the sidelines until Mr Brian made his crucial findings and we began our hunt, after which my contract gives me the sole right to document every session of the expedition for my book and scientific documentary-'

"hey that's enough chatter, you guys better sleep for your sake...proff...your device is here, come and crosscheck and sign for it.." One of the other gunmen swung open the tent and barked

The proff immediately rushed out of the tent, and the three of us looked at each other.

Kanaku finally spoke, "what the hell did we get ourselves into....which kain express our egungun enter like this?"

That’s it folks The Lagos Hustle has come to an end. Now for a sneak peek into the book II -The Satchel Of Eziza

:::::::::::
Kanaku

Killer Babysitters


In less than 10 seconds, a thousand scenerios had played through my mind...all had the same end result: The sleek white bastard slumped over the desk, dead. But I had to reign my emotions in check. This man was powerful and knew what he was doing he had definitely planned everything long ago. And now he had a sledge hammer over the three of us...hanging over our families and he was just rootless enough to kill them all. I knew it from looking into his eyes alone. This was a cruel bastard. Plus his bodyguard here wouldn't give me a chance...I refused to believe he was stronger than me and would best me in a fight but the way he had pinned me down earlier gave me second thoughts. And so when we were led out of the room, we saw two of our captors waiting in the corridor. They had their masks off this time, and I studied their faces. Emotionless eyes, thin lips, and a general demeanor that screamed violence. I immediately suspected they were the tracker assassins who had killed Mr D in the hotel and when the shorter one spoke; "There's a football field not too far, our pilot has the helicopter waiting....we move to Kaduna tonight"

I recognized the voice immediately from the bloody night at the hotel. He had seemed the more grounded and reasonable of the duo that faithful night, insisting they leave while the second had wanted to tear down the entire suite.

I glanced at Fuoyo and Jessy and I knew they were thinking the same thing too.

"we don't have all day...one complaint I make to the boss and you know what that means" The second chipped and my thoughts were confirmed. He was the sadist. Even looked the part, short man devil with a scraggly beard and 4 o'clock glassy eyes similar to a sewer rat's.

We marched down the stairs again and into the same van but this time the four remaining gunmen were nowhere to be found. They knew too much force wasn't necessary again, not when they had our loved ones for we would surely remain on good behaviour for their sake.

I still felt like slamming my body against them, and killing them with my bare hands but what about Barakat and Ruki? I'll surely sentence them to their death for sure with a risk like that.

It was a quiet 15 minutes drive and our two killers/trackers led us to what had to be the biggest helicopter I had ever seen. It had 4 different rotator blades instead of the usual 2 common with most helicopters and it was on standby, with blinking lights on both sides which made the letters, G.E.D visible.
We strapped in on a straight bench and fastened our seatbelts, while the trackers sat across from us. I looked around the dimly lit helicopter. There were big crates and cartons all sealed and looking really heavy. I couldn't even guess what they were but I had a hunch it was all related to the expedition.

The pilots started up the engine and the noise from the blades drowned off any attempted conversation until we were finally in the air and the sound subsided a bit, although we still had to shout if we wanted to be heard.

"Are you okay?" I shouted at Jessy

She nodded but her eyes said no.

"Hey! no talking except it’s about our next location and plan" the sadist tracker cautioned.

I stared him hard in the eye and he stared back, unwilling to blink or look away.

"You're the ones who murdered him that night right?"

"what...how do you-"

"shhh...." his partner cautioned him and stared at me, "what night?"

"The night you screwed up and missed the treasure map that was right before your eyes....I don't think you told your boss that the reason he has to depend on us to find the treasure is because you guys were too bloodthirsty to notice the clues and drawing on the floor before you messed it up with blood"

"how did you...what are you talking about?"

"you should have checked the remaining suite that night....maybe I would have killed you both then...quick and clean..almost painless...but now I promise you, your death is going to be horrible...both of you...for touching and threatening my family....our family-!" I spat the words with so much venom and conviction, it came out like a prophesy and I really meant-it.

Rat face pointed his rifle at my chest. "easy slick....we're going on a very dangerous mission, accidents can happen...especially if you continue talking like that, and then what will happen to your precious fa-"

"Jango that's enough....put that thing away for God's sake..." the second guy was definitely higher rank and more calculative. "And as for you....I don't want to hear anything from you until we get to Kaduna. If you're wise you'll get a little sleep cause you won't get the chance in a while"

I clenched my teeth, thinking and wishing I could throw them both from the helicopter. But I was basically hopeless. There was really nothing I could do but play along. If I wanted to see my family again...same with my friends too. Fuoyo still looked dazed, Jessy looked shocked. I was angry. We all had our different ways of reacting to such news. Mine was always anger and swift reaction but for the first time my anger couldn't do anything except make matters worse. So I clenched my teeth in annoyance and imagined killing the short man devil called Jango. Especially when they fell asleep, snoring loudly as if they didn't have a single care in the world, but I couldn't close my eyes without seeing Barakat's frightened face in my mind's eye. I hadn't even seen Ruki...Oh God! These bastards were going to pay, everyone of them from the cold blooded killers babysitting us to the refined white prick crazy enough to believe he was the reincarnated soul of his ancestor. I promised myself this as I tried to convert my raw anger to patient determination.

END