₦airaland Forum

The 1st season of NL Pre-collaboration is ongoing. Different prose writers have come together to create a suspense-filled story. Don't miss out. Link below:
https://www.nairaland.com/2163215/2015-writers-pre-collaboration-season-1#31012174

The 1st season of NL Pre-collaboration is ongoing. Different prose writers have come together to create a suspense-filled story. Don't miss out. Link below:
https://www.nairaland.com/2163215/2015-writers-pre-collaboration-season-1#31012174

DUOz:
Some characters still confuse me o. Nice job vonn

Thanks... Where do you still need help with?

DUOz:
Some characters still confuse me o. Nice job vonn

Thanks... Where do you still need clarification?

Dyoungstar:
Wow!

Vonn darling, you're good to go.
Kudos.

Awww.... I'm blushing

thronekid:
Really impressive one sweetie

Thanks dear

CHAPTER 7: DOTTED LINES
Written and submitted by Vonn
(vonniedreams@gmail.com)
The Past Revealed.
Locations: Lagos, Abuja Nigeria
Date: 1985-1990

___________________________________


The Red Paper with Irele wasn't red in colour. It was a normal thick white paper, light in weight but heavy at the same time; heavy because it had caused and witnessed the death of many. It had an aura of negativity attached to it.

The real Red paper contained not only names and signatures of TCM. It originally was the group membership document.

The first TCM-13 took it upon himself to attach short but key details of the group and happenings in the country. He was well connected, so he knew a lot.

He made a duplicate copy of the document and put in place before he wrote down those details. Afterwards, he handed over the document to Ahmad before he was betrayed and silenced.

With the death of the General and colonel just few months after Giwa became the group leader, things went wrong. Giwa sensed the presence of a mole in the group but couldn't fish out the culprit.

He saw himself as a failure. He had betrayed his father and the rest of TCM initiators. The group was falling apart in his regime and there was nothing he could do about it.

He was once diagnosed of a mental disorder as a child. Though treated, the illness resurfaced gradually just before he was initiated into the group.

He had been living on medications since then, but that present situation had further jeopardised his health.

In a bid to arrest the issue before it got out of hand, he became irregular in his medication..

With the irrational state of mind, he concluded to terminate all lives including his. They would all be martyrs.

When he called for the emergency meeting, he knew the mole amongst them might be directly transmitting their every move.

Therefore, he prepared a document containing the names and signatures of nineteen people who died in an arranged plane crash within the week. This document he kept amongst other papers in his briefcase.

With everything planned out, Daniel's bug conveyed information he needed to know, not necessarily what was true..

The 17-year old boy on opening the briefcase, sighted the document, took it out and as instructed, destroyed the rest of the papers, together with the cabin and everything in it.

The boy, David, fought and suffered for nothing-a price he had to pay for being over-ambitious and greedy. He was only a bait.

Everything was a perfect setup$ even the Higher Beings wouldn't know the real direction to look.

Eventually, David became a member of the Higher Beings. Hiding under their membership, he would strive to protect the interest of TCM should the Red Paper be taken from David.



__________________________________________________
The Present
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Date: 28th January, 2015
Time: 1810hrs GMT

______________________________________________

Scorpion drove into the bushy premises of an abandoned uncompleted building.

With a feeling of accomplishment, he heaped the half-conscious lady unto his shoulder and staggered into one of the rooms in the building, making sure not to hurt her in any way since she was wanted alive.

He dug out a half-burnt stick of cigarette from his pocket and settled with it to calm his rioting hormones. A text message got to his phone few moments later.
"Avail yourself by the water body. A vehicle will be sent at 4:35am."

Scorpion threw away the small piece of cigarette left on the floor and walked to the lady. He stared on while imagining how much would be transferred into his bank account once she was delivered.

He made to move away, then stiffened.
He bent over the lady and felt the neck. Then he dragged off something; it was a facial mask.

"Damn it!" Scorpion cursed, throwing the mask on the floor with fury.
Tiny beads of sweat condensed on his skin as he kicked the walls and rained curse on no one in particular.

He was confused. He was sure he had Tess... so damn sure. He had followed behind right from the...

The full realisation hit him in the face.

*** *** ***

Ahmad was speeding and at the same time humming to the song track playing in the background.

He observed Tess occasionally from the front view mirror of the car. She wouldn't be awake for an hour and a half or more.

Ahmad smiled at his brilliance. He had earlier mapped out a plan in case he was trailed.

When he noticed a vehicle at his tail, he diverted into his friend's car wash where Tess was quickly exchanged with a drugged lunatic who had been arranged for the purpose, not forgetting to adorn her with Tess's pink gown.

A man had also been contracted to dump her at a particular location using Ahmad's Golf car.

Ahmad noticed the same vehicle stopped a short distance from the car wash with the driver refusing to alight.

He imagined the look of disbelief and anger on the man's face when he eventually realises he failed in the game. He wasn't threatened one bit.

He made a mental note to give himself a threat for a job well done.

__________________________________________________________________

The Present
Location: Ikwerre, Rivers state
Date: 29th January, 2015
Time: 0535hrs GMT

_________________

The investigation was proving tough and complicated. Even after series of thorough cross-checking, James still ended up with the same information; the document contained nineteen names and signatures of people who in 1990 were involved in an air plane crash which left no survivors.

He was equally confused as to why the twentieth, Mr. George Austin's name was on the paper.

Mr. Austin was a popular politician in the '80s. Though he was declared missing, he wasn't a confirmed victim of the crash. The circumstance surrounding his death was never recorded.

James tried so hard to understand the mystery behind those names but made no progress.

He couldn't comprehend why someone was killed and another in danger, all because of a paper containing names of dead men.



Irele woke up with a headache, probably as a result of the stress of the past few days, coupled with the fact that her cycle which was always accompanied with headache was only two days gone.

She massaged her temples and groaned when the pains hit her.

Getting herself steady once more, she let out a yawn and uneasily searched for her pair of slippers with her feet.

She slipped them on and pushed herself like a hungry zombie towards the sitting room.

It was empty. The front door was bolted from the inside, meaning her uncle was in the house.

Slowly, she searched with her eyes and found a card of Emzor Paracetamol.

She took out two tablets which she swallowed for pain relief, with the help of a glass of water on the dining table.

The water offered a cooling effect on her and she closed her eyes to savour the feeling, hoping the ache in her head wouldn't shoot daggers at that moment.

Flashes of Ransome found their way into her head instead and she frowned.

A crash from the study room sent her jumping out of her skin. Rooted at the spot, she stared on till her sight fell on her uncle coming out of the room.

Only then did she realise she had been holding her breathe.

"Did I scare you?....sorry. I thought you were still asleep."

Irele only nodded as she, with questioning eyes took a seat beside the already seated James.

"We'll have to wait for Ransome and his men to come to us. The guy is intelligent. We should be very careful in this case.." Irele only nodded again.

"Did you find anything else?"

"The Red Paper... It doesn't say much. I just found out the names belong to some air crash victims. Now, I don't know why this paper should be in existence.

If I say I'm not confused as to why these men are doing what they are doing now, then I must be mentally unsound. It's just... I don't know... something simply isn't right."

He finished with a sad tone, his face creased with frustration and defeat at the same time. Silence followed.

"What do I do now? Why did this man choose me of all people to heap his curse upon?" A close-to-tears Irele soliloquised.

"You'll stay with me till the issue is resolved. It's not safe outside. Nothing will happen to you, that I promise."
He reassured, en circling his arms around her shoulders.

Her phone chose that moment to cry out. Mum was indicated on the screen. She was probably worried that Irele hadn't called or stopped by as promised.

"Hello mum." Her voice sounded croaked and inaudible even to her, so she coughed to clear the emotions.

"Mummy, I'm sorry I forgot to call. I've been so busy with a lot of...."

"Mum?" There was still silence at the other end.

"Hello?... Mum?" She moved the phone away from her ear to check the screen. It was still connected, so she brought it back.

A deep voice filled with cruelty gave a short laughter.

"I'm watching her bleed to death."


***************************************
END OF CHAPTER 7

Sorry bout dat Zion