~~~~**Friday Morning**
1am
"No Omotara, No" Jefa was shouting as his eyes popped
open. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He used his
palm to wipe off the sweat on his face and stretched on
the chair. He realized that he had slept off while reading
the diary. His dream was consistent with his situation but
it somehow made him scared. He had seen seven year
old Omotara playing with some kids in his dream, in the
large compound of their house in Lagos as at then. She
was playing happily with the rest of the kids until he
walked in through the gate. She stood up from their
midst where she was and stared at him, looking terrified.
He wasn"t planning to flog or scold her, so he couldn"t
understand why she was terrified. She began to step back
slowly without turning back, towards the building of the
house. Her friends gradually disappeared into thin air.
"Come Omotara, come. I"m not flogging you" he said in
the dream. She refused and continued to step back,
looking more terrified with the steps she took.
"Why are you running away? Come and play with your
friends" he repeated but she was adamant. A tall man
appeared from behind her, looking deadly with a blood
stained dagger in his hands.
"Omotara stop" he cautioned, himself terrified also but
she didn"t listen. It was already late when she turned
back, the strange man was only one step behind her. He
was shouting her name as he woke up.
Jefa made a quick but deep prayer for Omotara"s safety
and ended it with the cross sign. The chair creaked as he
relaxed back, the diary was still open on his lap, on the
same page he read before dozing off. He flipped to the
next page.
"Today, we transferred Adunni to the General Hospital
where we work. I carried the baby to see Adunni, Adunni
fed her baby with her b----t milk for the first time. She
was glad to do it. But we couldn"t live her baby with her,
she"ll be sleeping most of the times and won"t be able to
look after the baby."
He scrolled to the next day, it was longer than usual.
"Adunni is gradually getting better and would be
discharged from the hospital tomorrow. She spoke with
us today, revealing to us the circ.u.mstances surrounding
her pregnancy and childbirth. Adunni who is just
eighteen year old was brought up by her single sickly
mother. She finished her secondary school education last
year. Being a bright and promising young girl, her village
decided to send her as their first female child who would
get a university education. She was sent to see a son of
the land who is a lecturer in the State university and
discuss about her admission process with him. She went
to his home in the village and met him. He promised to
help her secure the admission, asking her to come see
him in his office at the state"s capital where the university
was. She travelled to the capital the third day after. He
welcomed her warmly into his office and closed the
doors to have a quiet talk and career advice session with
her. All was going well until the man got up from his seat
and turned round the table to seat in front of her. His
first move was to encourage her to unb.u.t.ton the upper
part of her shirt since the place was hot and the power
holding corporation had seized electricity flow. To cut
short the matter, she was r*ped and forced to leave the
office immediately. He threatened her not to tell anyone,
else that would be the end of her dreams of the
university education. She made up her mind to keep the
ordeal to herself and take it as a sacrifice for her
greatness. But he didn"t keep to his own part of the
agreement. She was surprised when she got back to the
village that day and he had already called and lied to the
village King and Chiefs that she tried to seduce him.
They believed his story against hers and decided that it
was useless to help an immoral person. The whole village
turned against her and her mother for trying to spoil the
image of the most successful son of the land. Few weeks
after, Adunni discovered that she was with child. All these
resulted to her mother"s depression state and she died
two months after. Adunni was left alone with no one to
help her. She became sick at the ninth month of her
pregnancy and began to treat herself with local herbs.
She was gathering firewood in the bush when her time
for delivery came "
Jefa placed a finger on the page where he stopped and
closed the book. He let out a deep breath and got up, he
took the picture under the table and placed it between
the pages of the diary where he stopped reading.
~~~
8am
"Good morning Mr Sylvester" Henry greeted as he walked
into the control room.
"Good morning Mr Henry" Sylvester replied, raising his
eyes to look at Henry from behind the computer where
he was seated. He was looking smart in his black suit and
blue inner shirt, Henry was also dressed in the same way.
"Are you ready for the meeting?"
"Of course, I am" Henry answered, taking his seat behind
a computer on the row before Sylvester"s.
"We got another application last night" Sylvester
announced.
"Application for what?"
"Application for the job"
"Well…" Henry seemed interested. "Does it qualify for an
interview?"
"Yes, this CV is particularly interesting. Come take a look
at it" Sylvester invited.
"No need for that" Henry declined, putting his focus on
what he was doing. "Just keep it, we may review it later"
"It"s okay" Sylvester answered and got up from his seat.
"We"ll be leaving by 9am"
~~
"Agent James Elvis!!" hailed the deputy commissioner of
police, Kwara State. "Welcome once again to the state of
harmony"
"Thank your sir" agent James replied, smiling back to the
DCP. They were both seated in the extension of DCP"s
office, which had comfortable sofas to relax in.
"I believe you"ll have no problems in this state especially
as it is your state of origin" the DCP continued. "How"s his
Excellency, your father?"
"He"s fine, I believe"
"What was his response when he heard that you"ve been
transferred to this state?"
"I don"t know, he didn"t say anything. You know he has
never been in support of my work in the force" James
answered, taking a sip from the cup of juice on the table.
"That"s strange, considering his effort in tightening the
security of the nation. One would think he would even
compel his children to join the force"
"He thinks it"s too dangerous and that I"m not strong
enough" James answered.
"Well, that aside. Back to your job here." The DCP sat up.
"We want to strengthen our anti a.s.sa.s.sination and
terrorism squads and we believe that you can make it
work. That"s why you were sent here, your job would
begin fully on Monday. Now you"ll be taken to the house
and allowed to rest. You"ll find every information you
require for your job in your office when you resume on
Monday"
~~~
Officer Dakolo was in his office, gathering the files he
would be taking along for the meeting. He was dressed in
his special agent"s uniform for the occasion.
His doorbell rang. "Come in" he said without paying much
attention"
"Good morning sir" officer Ken saluted after closing the
door.
"Good morning officer Ken" Dakolo replied, without
looking up. "You may have your seat" he offered and
waited for Ken to sit before he continued. "Are you
prepared for the meeting?"
"Yes sir, I am" Ken smiled. " I actually came to ask if we"ll
be moving together"
"Yes, of course. No need to go separately" Dakolo
answered, taking a glance at Ken"s face. "What"s the time
now?"
"It"s 8.15am" Ken replied after taking a brief look at his
wrist.w.a.tch.
"Okay. Hope you"ve got all files ready?"
"Yes sir and there"s something new" Ken answered,
sounding serious.
"Something new?" Dakolo turned his eye focus to Ken.
"Yes sir and I think it"s important we look into it"
"Now?" Dakolo frowned. Ken nodded in affirmation.
"What are you talking about?"
"It"s the reply from the US headquarters. It just came in
this morning" Ken removed a paper from the file in his
hands and handed it to Dakolo.
Dakolo read for two minutes. "Have you sent the
substance sample they sent to the forensics?"
"Not yet sir, I wanted to tell you before I do" Ken replied.
"You should send it immediately." He said and stared at
the paper again. "It would have been nice if we got this
earlier. With what it states, the a.s.sa.s.sin team in Nigeria
here is related to the one in the United States. They
function with the same instruments and similar
strategies. "
He handed back the paper to Ken, "let"s handle the
meeting with what we have gotten before, we"ll come
back to this"
~~~
**Sat.u.r.day Morning**
The meeting with the President went well. All attendees
left there fired up and determined to stop the
a.s.sa.s.sination menace at every cost. The Vice President
had during the meeting warned the security officials to
be careful and always remain optimistic. "The
a.s.sa.s.sinations have not yet began, they are still doing
their test run" he had said. "I believe this group have a
more dangerous motive and what they"ve done so far is a
ploy to weaken the security by making the concerned
bodies give up their hopes of capturing them. Once this
is achieved, they would launch more attacks and aim for
more government officials."
The vice president also promised to work closely with
them as an experienced officer that he once was and see
to it that every useful knowledge he has would be
provided to them.
Amidst several other things he said, the President, Emeka
Vincent finally ended the meeting encouraging the bodies
to put in more effort and ensure that their purpose was
achieved in two months.
Sylvester had arrived into his office not long ago and
settled down when he received a call from the reception
that someone was waiting to see him.
"But you know I don"t see anyone on Monday early
mornings" he answered the caller.
"She insisted that you asked her to come" the secretary
replied in low tones.
"I did?" Sylvester asked, trying to remember if he really
fixed an appointment with someone.
"Yes, that"s what she said"
"What"s her name?"
"Kimberly Alexander"
"Huh?" Sylvester squinted, trying to remember where he
had seen or heard the name before. He remembered, in
the new CV. Could it be that he had mistakenly sent her
an invite?
"Let her come in" he finally said and ended the call. He
hurriedly logged on to the company"s mail to confirm if
he sent her an invite.
His doorbell rang. He minimized the mail window and
opened the app to check the monitor cameras outside
his office. He saw the person at the door, a lady dressed
in black suit carrying a small black bag. "Come in" he said,
unlocking the door with the remote control on his table.
She opened the door and walked in gently. "Good
morning sir" she bent her knees slightly after closing the
door.
"Please come in" he repeated and she walked forward
briskly and stood beside the visitor"s seat. "Have your
seat"
"Thank you sir" she sat down and placed the bag on her
lap.
"What may I do for you?"
"Sir" Tarasha began. "I"m Kimberly Alexander, I read about
the urgent vacancies and I decided to check here"
"I"ve gotten your mail already, why didn"t you wait for a
reply?" Sylvester frowned.
"Sir, since it was announced as an urgent vacancy and I
didn"t get a reply immediately. I decided to show in
person in case my mail wasn"t delivered."
"It was delivered, you should have been patient. In fact,
your mail came late" Sylvester intensified his crown. "And
how come you were referred here directly? Someone
else was supposed to attend to you before sending you to
me" he said with slight anger in his voice. He picked the
landline and began to punch the keys.
"I asked directly for you" she said softly. "I demanded to
see Mr Sylvester"
"What?" He stopped dialing. "How did you know my
name?"
"I read about the corporation and I knew you would be
the one to attend to me"
"Well…" His doorbell chimed. Sylvester paused and
checked the computer again to see who was at the door,
Henry was the one. He unlocked the door.
Henry walked in slowly staring into a tab and reading
something. "Oh! You have a guest" be exclaimed on seeing
the lady seated on the visitor"s seat facing Sylvester.
"Yes"
"Okay, let me drop this with you and go" Henry said and
began to step forward slowly.
"You may need to see her, she"s the lady who sent in the
last CV" Sylvester explained.