₦airaland Forum

AuthorMan:
When Timi drove out of the hotel, he contemplated on which hospital would be the best to take Jane to. The closest and the best his mind opted for was St. Luke’s Hospital. It was owned by the Catholic Mission. And it was one of the best in the country as their services was topnotch. In the past, he had taken some of his clients there and it was on their recommendations he based his judgement.
Timi headed to St. Luke's hospital keeping an eye on the two sick people in his taxi. Jane kept sneezing all the way and was beginning to have a headache, while the wounded soldier groaned all the way too, because he was in a very bad shape. His broken leg was his source of discomfort.
Within forty minutes after leaving the hotel, they got to the hospital and they drove into its parking area. The car pulled up and they all got down from the vehicle. Timi locked his car and led the soldiers and Jane into the hospital.
The three kidnappers that trailed them to the hospital waited in the SUV they occupied outside the hospital premises. They had to be careful with the abduction so that the soldiers would not repel them.

At the hospital reception hall, he sat on the metal chairs and waited for Jane, while she and the soldiers were being attended to. The wounded soldier got the injury during their training the day before, and like his subordinate narrated to Timi on their way to the hospital, he had been attended to by the military doctors, who gave him injections and had assured him he would be fine. But when he developed fever hours after the medical attention and the pain escalated, he decided to visit a hospital immediately.
Timi watched Jane fill some forms on the counter and so also the wounded soldier. And after all the documentation, he saw her and the wounded soldier ushered into the consultation rooms.
He remained seated on one of the metal chairs meant for patients and visitors. A lady was sitting next to him. She was light complexioned. Timi accessed her to be a tall person, judged by her long legs and body frame. Glancing at Timi once in a while with the eyes that were almost touched by the flower designed facemask, there was no doubt she had an interest in him and wanted to start a conversation at all cost. She had started eyeing him the moment he sat beside her and Timi was aware of her body language.
“Hi! May I know the time please?” she gave Timi a smile that was seductive enough to attract even the Pope.
Timi took his phone out from his trouser pocket, took a look at the screen and replied, “2:58”.
“Thanks. The day is so hot and humid,” she turned to look at him.
“Yeah! So hot!” He replied and he quickly added, “it’s the season, or what do you think?”
“Yes, it’s the season. How I wish the raining season had started already,” she winked.
Although, Timi understood every of her gestures, ladies with small or average bosom never appeared attractive to him. He preferred ladies' bosoms large or extra large and that sounded like what Jane possessed in addition to her super curves.
They were still talking when a girl of about 15years of age came and joined her.
“Are you through already?” she asked, and the girl nodded in the affirmative, adjusting her facemask.
“Sorry, I need to leave. She’s my sister. She came for treatment and she’s through with it. I am Folake, I work with the Black Diamond Bank,” she gave him her hand for a shake.
“It's a pleasure meeting you, I am Timi, I drive Uber, and I am here with a client,” Timi shook her hand and gave her a warm smile.
She returned his smile with a smile as she grabbed the hand of the young girl and said, “bye”. But then, after three steps away from him, she stopped and walked back. She dipped her hand in her bag and brought out a card.
“Here is my card,” she said. Her smile, seductive.
Timi collected it out of polity and smiled again.
He was a ladies man and he knew it. He did not only have a handsome face but was tall and athletic also. Consecutively twice, he had won Mr. Uni-Ace in his undergraduate days at the Ace University. Wooed by ladies many times, and even fought over by them, he was never a womanizer. He was a one lover at a time kind of man. And in fact, despite his good looks, he had no girlfriend at that moment and had no intention to have one until he was buoyant enough financially. He was forced to believe money sustains love by a bad experience he had when his girlfriend of almost two years jilted him for a rich guy six months back. And in his words, the guy could pass for the record of the ugliest man in the world without a stress. Although the ugly man was famous and known by everyone as Tall Joe, a name that was contrary to his size being so short that he could be called a pygmy, in addition to his dwarf size, he had a head that could make Humpty Dumpty feel envious and a set of eyes that could win him a contest in the owl kingdom. But above all, his bank account was so fat that he won the customer of the year award consecutively for three years from the three foremost banks in the country. But when his time was up to be exposed of his source of wealth, he was arrested for fraud by the Interpol on the Christmas day of the previous year, and was promptly sent for trial in Bangkok and subsequently jailed there. And when Timi heard about his arrest on the 25th of that December, his belief about 25 being a lucky number was strengthened.
While waiting for Jane to be through, he thought it wise to call his mum to say hello. It was quite almost two weeks when they spoke last and he missed her. And when she received his call, she was more than excited. They had talked for almost an hour that he was not aware that Jane's consultation was actually taking a longer time than necessary.
He was still on phone when a nurse came to call him and he had to excuse himself from the phone conversation to give the nurse his attention.
“The doctor needs to see you in his office,“ the nurse informed him from some meters away.
Timi left for the doctor’s room immediately, wondering what could be the reason why his attention was needed. The consultation room being a few meters away from where he stood up from made it a matter of a few steps to be furnished with what he was wondering about. He got to the door, tapped it before opening it, and stepped inside the room. The room was of moderate size and in it was a leather top single bed placed by the left side of the room, and a writing desk in-between Jane and the doctor. And on the desk was a stethoscope, a sphygmomanometer, pieces of papers, two writing pens and a few bottles of injections. Like every other walls of the interior of the hospital, the walls were in cream.
On seat was Jane, directly opposite the doctor. She looked paler than how she looked before she entered the consultation room and she was quiet. The doctor wore a face mask and gloves and he instantly diverted his attention to Timi when he sighted him.
Timi’s instincts told him something was wrong, but he did not know what exactly it was.
“Are you the driver that brought Miss Jane?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” Timi answered and the question confirmed to him that his instincts was right. Something was actually wrong.
“You won’t be going home today Sir,” the doctor looked straight into Timi's eyes.
“Why?” Timi asked.
“I’m sorry, Miss Jane tested positive for COVID- 19, and you are one of her contacts,” the Doctor announced.
“What! Coronavirus?” Timi exclaimed in shock and he sharply turned to look at Jane. She had her eyes staring at the floor.
“Corona virus? Oh, my God!” Timi exclaimed again.
On the spot, a very strong heat arose within him and sweat formed urgently on his face for he panicked. The doctor continued talking but for some time, he could not really pick anything from all he was saying. His mind had traveled far. It was the social media videos of COVID-19 effect on China and Italy that started playing in his head. How it had killed thousands and rendered their government almost hopeless. He sighed and shivered for fear.
“I have pulled a call through to the government agency taking care of this, and you don’t need to fear at all. The government has made adequate preparation for it, and there are doctors already on ground to deal with the situation,” the doctor assured them.
Timi looked over to Jane and he saw tears roll down her cheek.
“Jane! Jane, you will be fine,” he summoned courage to utter the words to console her. But sincerely, deep down within him, he was terribly worried for his own life as well.
Jane looked at him and said, “I am sorry for the trouble I have put you through,” and tears strolled down her cheeks again. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and sighed.
“Miss, this is not a death sentence. A lot of people caught the virus and survived it,” the doctor said, to encourage her to be strong.
“Common! Take these and put them on. You are going to be fine,” he said again, as he gave them face rubber gloves.
They collected the gloves and put them on. And while the doctor was still talking, there was a knock on the door and two men and a woman came in. They wore face masks, gloves and overall suits of rubber. Timi looked at them and uttered inaudible words under his face mask. And Jane on sighting them, became more worried too. She hoped all that was happening to her was but a dream.
“You are welcome,” the doctor said.
“She is the one who tested positive and he is the driver that brought her,” he informed the health officers.
“Alright, the rest of our team are outside. They will help in sanitizing the hospital and also tell you other things you should do. Please don’t allow anyone in or out of the hospital from now on, until our team are through with their job. It is important for the safety of everyone,“ one of the men in overall suit instructed the doctor and afterwards told Timi and Jane to follow them.
Jane began to sob and Timi kept on encouraging her to be strong. But she continued to sob till they got out of the hospital.
Outside the hospital, Jane and Timi saw 13 medical officers who were in the same rubber suits as the ones who came to fetch them at the doctor's office. Some were holding spraying guns and tanks of sanitizers and were already spraying the hospital premises with disinfectant. Others were addressing the nurses and the doctors, while all patients were advised to stay where they were, so that the spots and places where Jane and Timi had contact with could be disinfected before normal movements and activities commenced again. The soldiers who came with Timi and Jane were sought after but they were discovered to have left back to the hotel once they were through with their consultation and treatment. Therefore, another team of medical experts were sent immediately to the hotel.

Monster-J remained at his spy post in front of the hospital. He did not know what exactly was transpiring inside but he saw the two soldiers left the hospital environment in another taxi. He sat on a pavement adjacent the hospital gate fiddling with his cellphone.
The three medical officers who were in the doctor's office with Jane and Timi occupied one of the white 16seater buses that brought the medical crew to the hospital and told one of their colleagues to join Timi and Jane in Timi's taxi. Timi opened the back door of his cab for Jane to sit, he walked back to the front of the car and entered the driver’s side, then he turned on the ignition. The medical officer sat in front beside him.
“Jane, you know what? Don’t panic,” Timi said and then, he drove behind the 18seater bus as ordered.
When Monster-J saw the cab come out, he noticed they were three in the vehicle and that the cab was following the white bus. So, he left the spot quickly to inform his team about the latest development. And quickly, their car driven by Luke-the-dude pursued after the two vehicles at once.
“Now guys, this is the time we have been waiting for!” Roja announced.
“Overtake them now!” he ordered Luke-the-dude and immediately, Luke-the-dude increase the car speed to overtake the two vehicles in front of them.
In minutes, the SUV overtook both the taxi and the bus, and slowed down before it stopped in front of the vehicle's right in the middle of the road forcing both the medical vehicle and Timi's car to stop.
Monster-J and Roja opened the doors of the SUV instantly and jumped down. They pointed their guns at the occupants of both vehicles who became afraid for their lives at the sight of rifles in the hands of the ones who forced their vehicles to a halt. Monster-J entered Timi's cab and sat at the back seat with Jane, while Luke-the-dude picked his bag and left the SUV to take over the driver’s seat of the 18seater bus after ordering the driver to go and seat with the other medical officials at the back seats. Roja sat in the midst of the medical team and he sternly warned them to obey his instructions and never try to free themselves or alert anyone of their abduction if they did not want to die. He ordered Luke-the-dude to turn on the ignition and drive the bus and also ordered Timi to drive his taxi behind the bus. The official bus of the medical workers and Timi's taxi sped off, while the SUV was left at the middle of the road.
Roja and his team knew the police must have been informed about the hijacked SUV and they must have been on their trail since it was hijacked in the morning.
Jane, who was perplexed watching the whole incident was not really sure if it was not a nightmare. She kept quiet but kept sneezing and wiping her drooling nose. She was seeing her father's fear about her trip to Africa playing out like in a movie.
“Timi what is happening?” She summoned courage to ask not minding the mean looking man that sat beside her, holding a rifle. She was in bewilderment.
“Jane, I don’t know, but I think we have been kidnapped,” Timi replied as he kept driving and following the bus in front, according to the order of the armed man who sat behind him.
“kidnapped?” Jane exclaimed and started another round of sob.
“Jane, be calm!” Timi urged her.
“Hey! Hello, you two. You. Should. Be. Quiet!” Monster-J said softly, picking his words one after the other.
Jane gave Monster-J a glance, and the look on his face sent down cold shiver into her spine. She sneezed again and she could feel a slight headache across her forehead. She held her head in her hand and Timi noticed her actions through the rear mirror.
“Jane, how are you feeling?" Timi asked as he drove.
“I have a headache,” Jane replied.
“Sorry,” Timi said.
The medical officer who sat at the front seat beside Timi kept quiet, wondering why the two abductees would not keep quiet as instructed by the daredevil holding a gun in their midst.

Luke-the-dude drove the bus towards the forestry reserve area of the City and Timi followed with his cab as instructed. In twenty minutes, they got to the bush and everyone was ordered to get down except Timi, Jane and Monster-J. The place was a thick tropical bush set aside by the government to preserve nature and promote tree planting for the local production of timbers and forestry research. It was a place that no one visited except the governmental researchers who did not visit the place often.
Roja ordered the four medical officials to sit on the ground, back to back in twos, he brought out a rope from his pocket, walked to the first two and tied them together and instantly walked to the other two, and tied them together. When he was through with this, he turned to Luke-the-dude and said, “I need the sealer!” And promptly, Luke-the-dude, hurriedly went back to the bus to collect his bag.
"Here it is,” he said giving Roja a role of black nylon tape. Roja collected it, and used it to seal the mouths of the four guys sitting on the ground.
“Pray someone comes around to set you free. Else, you will all die here,” he told the medical officials without a bit of pity.
He faced Luke-the-dude and ordered him to enter Timi's taxi. Luke-the-dude entered the back seat by the left, while Monster-J maintain his spot beside Jane. Now, Jane found herself in-between Luke-the-dude and Monster-J and helplessly, she felt like she was caught up in-between two demons. Roja sat at the front seat beside Timi who maintained his driver’s seat.
“Start the engine and drive Mr. Uber!” Roja said, sarcastically and Monster-J and Luke-the-dude busted into laughter.
“Follow my order so that you can stay alive and don’t play any silly pranks,” Roja warned Timi.
“Okay Sir,” Timi replied.
“Put on the radio!” Roja ordered him.
He did not wait a second before he obeyed Roja's order. And after he had put on the radio, Roja ordered him again to keep changing the channels until he got to a channel where News was being broadcast and he told him to leave it there. Roja wanted to know if any of the attacks had become news and also to know what steps are been taken by the police to track down the perpetrators.
He picked his phone and dialed Evans number. And his husky voice came online.
“Hello, Roja,” Evans yawned. He was woken from sleep by the ringing phone.
“Yes boss, operation successful. On the way with the target and her driver,” Roja reported.
“Wow!, good job guys, I'm proud of you. Expecting you,” Evans said excitedly and ended the call. He stood up from the bed and walked out of the VIP room to get prepared for the new captives who were on their way.