Elvis was stunned when he saw the face, the evil smile adorning the handsome face he had seen on Ellie’s phone, it’s the same face that had brought tear to the pretty pair of eyes Ellie has. If this is Ellie’s boyfriend, then Ellie must have a part in this or better still Ellie’s the snitch he had been frantically looking for. She must have been planted in the ICO to pass information across to the MSN camp.
His height of thinking got invigorated as he was been ushered into the middle of the large area, he was oblivious to the jeers and gibes been thrown at him by the standing guards, seems they haven’t known his identity yet. He remembered that Ellie was always passing or loitering around their meeting places. She had successfully and deceptively clouded his mind with illusions of emotional legerdemain, and he had fallen into it headlong and he couldn’t come out of it unscathed. He had fallen in love with her.
He regretted for the umpteenth time the rash and hasty decision of jumping into conclusion with Timi while Ellie was the real spy. He remembered her bumping into him on his first day at work right in front of the IG’s office, later that day she brought a file on the BTU bombing, something he hadn’t spoken with her yet, logically she has a crisp sense of hearing; all their subsequent meetings, she had always been around the meeting area, feigning visits to the washroom, feigning illness just not to conjure suspicions against her and he had been blind to it all. He hated himself for that.
He had been ushered into the middle of the gathering, a blow from the butt of a gun to the back of his knee sent him to his knees beside Ben, he groaned in pain as the pain shot through his back to his brain. Stringer walked silently with a hard face towards him, he raised the head of Elvis examining him censoriously and dutifully.
“What is your name?” Stringer asked after his inspection
No response.
A jab to his face sent blood trickling out of his just busted lips, he was sent sprawling to the ground, he managed to drag himself to his previous position.
“I asked you a question, and when I ask the questions, you answer.” Stringer said coldly examining the cup of wine he’s still holding before taking a sip. Stringer flicked his finger towards Elvis, four guards advanced towards Elvis immediately.
Elvis face had gotten a new shape; the trickling blood has now started trotting down a side of his face, his breathing has gotten heavy and his eyelids could house a ship with their new sizes by the time the guards were through with him. He coughed hardly and moaned in pain as he painfully tried to pick himself up from the sprawling position he was just given.
“Let’s start again, you know the logic, it doesn’t get easier but otherwise and personally I love being obeyed” Stringer said nonchalantly as he took another long sip from his cup. Elvis smiled awkwardly when he remembered Esiogu’s ‘been obeyed’ fanatics.
The smile caught Stringer’s attention.
“You are Elvis aren’t you?” Stringer asked. The silence from Elvis made Stringer laugh hysterically; he dropped his cup on the table and started clapping his hands. All the while, the guest and his men were watching in awe and obviously befuddled by the turn of events.
“Wow, Bravo, you are the man that almost stop my plan if not for contingency, you would have soiled everything” Stringer said all the while clapping admirably “Wow, you are really a hero and pious detective too, let me add nosy to that”
“The great Elvis right in my grasp, that is some achievement, I’ll add that to my C.V” Stringer continued still reveling in awe.
A foreign language incomprehensible to Elvis broke Stringer’s dominance of talking. All eyes turned to the speaker, it was the guest, he must have inquired about what is going on. Stringer stopped abruptly and replied him in the same language.
“Tie the two of them up” he said to some of the guards, the guards complied immediately and set to work, dragging Ben and Elvis to a new location while Stringer started a conversation with the guest in the foreign language.
The guard tied Elvis and Ben with their hands on their back to an iron pole in a secluded section of the warehouse, each sitting on the floor opposite the pole with their back on the pole. The guard left not after giving each of them a good punch on the face worsening the grotesque shape Elvis’s face is having.
“How did you find me?” Elvis managed to say after sometime.
“Your secretary came to us immediately you left, she was very concerned when we told her you have left, she was all mumbo jumbo about you going home. She said your home is dangerous and there are some people waiting for you at home to hurt you…..” Ben replied
“She was the spy amongst us…..wait, my house?” Elvis said.
“yes your house, we tried your mobile number immediately, it was switched off, that’s why I and Dauda decided to follow your car and tried to stop you.” Ben said
“You and Dauda?” Elvis said.
“Yes, Dauda is outside in the car, waiting for us” Ben replied.
“But how did you track my car?” Elvis asked.
“Timi tracked it using your car GPS, he directed us on where we should take, we were all surprised when he led us here, to the warehouse we were supposed to look into tomorrow….why did you come alone?” Ben asked.
“I was thinking Timi was the spy and i found it difficult to trust anybody again, that’s why I ventured into this alone, I regretted the decision on getting here and almost collapsed when I learnt that Ellie was the spy.” Elvis replied.
“Me?, a spy?” Timi said into the earpiece with Ben.
“Your secretary?, Ellie was the spy?” Ben said as if he could just decipher the sentence.
“Yes, her boyfriend was the guy that found me.” Elvis said “You have a wire on you?” Elvis added.
“I have the micro earpiece on, so she’s the spy we have been looking for?” Ben replied.
“Yes she is, I’m very sorry Timi, I know you can hear me, I’m very sorry to you guys too” Elvis said.
An uncomfortable silence engulfed them, each lost in their thought.
The silence was broken by strings of gun shots and shouts from the large area of the warehouse. Groans and bullet sounds reeling off the tanks ricocheted around the whole warehouse. Their view was blocked by the two large tanks so impeding their line of sights, making it difficult for them to see what is really going on. A guard rushed towards them a gun in hand; he walked haphazardly before falling down right before them, a bullet hole in his head. That summed up the situation of things going on outside. They have to get out of there ASAP.
They have not even thought of escaping, the thought exploited the situation at hand as a medium to get across to them.
“We need to get out of here” Ben sounded alarmed.
“The ropes are too tight and strong, we can’t wriggle out of it, any knife?” Elvis said.
“None” Ben replied getting more alarmed already trying to wriggle his hands out of the tight ropes.
Elvis started tugging at the rope too, but the rope held firm, he realized his hands slipped an inch in the tight rope, he remembered his oil smeared hands, he tugged harder and saw it slipped a bit more. After several minutes of exhausting tugging and pulling, he managed to wrestle himself free; he freed Ben too who was amazed when he discovered Elvis was free.
They both walked quietly towards the large space in the middle of the warehouse, bullets flying around; one specifically missing Ben’s head by a few centimetres, they lowered their heads and meandered their way between the tanks holding each other like kindergarten pupils. In the middle of the warehouse, a miniwar is ongoing, Elvis had always watched it in movies, now he’s having a live and free view, the men of the guests are at war with the men of MSN. Dead bodies littered the floor and more bodies are falling. They turned back and looked for another way to get out of the warehouse. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Stringer pointing his gun at them.
A shot rang and one of the guest’s men fell behind them, Stringer turned and walked away. They hurried to one of the windows and went over it, they landed outside the warehouse and hurried towards the space in the wire fencing through which they had come in. they met Dauda at the front of the warehouse.
“I’ve called the other teams, they’ll be here soon” Dauda said on sighting them.
Sirens could be heard closing in on the warehouse. Elvis had other plans. He collected the mini earpiece with Ben and hurried to where he had parked his car.
“Timi, is Ellie still at work?” Elvis said into the earpiece.
“She refused to leave sir” Timi replied.
“Don’t let her leave, I’ll be there right away” Elvis said opening his car.
“Okay sir” Timi replied.
“The pen you put on me in the old facility, does it record?” Elvis asked.
“It does sir, but it was stolen yesterday” Timi replied.
“I’m sorry I suspected you” Elvis said into the earpiece, kicked his car to life and zoomed of towards his place of work. He will surely kill her.
EPISODE 25
02:00 AM
The ride to ‘work’ was a disparaging one, he almost ran into a truck, he knocked over dustbins lying on the sidewalks in a bid to avoid onrushing cars after turning to the wrong side of the lane, he disobeyed all traffic laws and ran all red lights leaving colliding cars and strings of accidents in his wake. Curses and abuses- a normal vocal interacting medium in Lagos- flew after him after been thrown by incredulous and angry drivers and pedestrians.
He kept on rummaging about how dumb and blind he had been, his stomach churning in fury impregnated with anger. He slammed on the brake as he turned into the compound housing ‘work’. He slammed his door in anger as he walked furiously towards the lounge and towards the elevator. He tapped his foot in anger as he waited endlessly for the elevator to ding and stop at the 19th floor. It did and he stormed furiously towards his office.
Ellie’s not at her table, he walked into his office and saw her coming from his restroom, he slammed the door shut before rushing towards her, he gripped the neck of her flowing gown and dragged her to his table throwing away everything on it, he raised his fisted right hand to strike her face, but his hands stopped in its tracks when he saw the pair of swollen blood-shot eyes looking meekly at him.
He couldn’t do it. All his anger dissappeared, her eyes are well swollen, she must have been crying for long, the swollen eyes reached into the recesses of his inner self, he saw love and pleading behind the pair of bulging eyes. He felt himself going numb and falling back. He hit the floor weakly with his buttocks and felt himself crying. He now knows how much he loved her.
“I’m sorry” he heard, he raised his head to discover that Ellie had raised herself off the table, she’s now sitting at the foot of the table, he gown dishevelled but she heed not to that. her make-up is ruined, he cheeks paler and she looks forlorn.
“I learnt about it yesterday’ She managed to say.
“What?, learn about what?, you’ve been leaking everything about us, did you do all those yesterday?” Elvis asked getting worked up.
She was silent.
Elvis walked up furiously, and went to her bag, rummaging all through it, spilling and knocking out some items, he found her phone and marched towards her angrily. He had selected the picture and showed her.
“Who is this?” Elvis asked.
No answer.
“I said who is this?, did you just meet him?” Elvis asked again getting angrier.
Yet no answer.
“I said who is this?” he said shaking her furiously
“He was my fiance.” she replied shaken.
“was……your…..fiance?, so you met all those YESTERDAY?, he’s a key member of MSN’s gang” Elvis said screaming.
Knocks could be heard from the door, with Timi requesting what’s going on. Elvis entreated him to leave, saying all is fine.
Ellie was all the while silent, sucking underneath the furious Elvis. She kept on sulking, which wetted the remorse appetite of Elvis. He felt hurt but still reeling in anger.
“After my graduation from Hallmark, my parents died in a ghastly motor accident with my siblings, I was the only one left, jobless and felt abandoned. I was a stranger even to my extended families and relatives, no friends, I was alone in the world. I was so sad so much that I was closing in on committing suicide, then I met Andrew.” Ellie started.
“Andrew gave me everything most importantly happiness, he made my happiness his sole responsibility, gave me a reason to live. He was handsome and I was attracted to him, but wasn’t in love with him. I felt indebted to him and felt the least I could do is give in to his proposal for all he has done for me, and we started dating before he got me this job” she poured out
“How he did it, I don’t know but he said he wants me to put my brain into work after a long time of none, I oblidge and was glad I could do something myself and not burden him too much, more glad because I could go a long way in fighting the insecurity of this nation. It changed when I met you, a hero from my past, you captured my heart but I can’t hurt Andrew, so I decided to bottle up my feelings.”
“It all started when I got a call from someone telling me they need me to do something for them, that is to release information about the ICO to them, I declined but they sent me a video of Andrew tied to a chair with scars all over him, he had been beaten to stupor and they are threatening to kill him if I decline their request, I owe him my life, now is my turn to save his. I complied and give out the information in exchange for Andrew, but they never released him.”
“I was crying over the issue when you saw me crying on my desk that day, I saw the hurt in your eyes, too timid to be betrayed especially by someone you love, I’ve been wanting to tell you but you always turn me down, or wasn’t available, I did it all to save my own good Samaritan”
“I learnt I was been used yesterday and also learnt of their impending attack on your house, that’s why I tried to warn you, but you have gone.” Ellie said.
Elvis was dumbfounded when he learnt all that, he couldn’t say anything, its true he had been turning her down, also he had been coming to the office less often, due to him not wanting to see her and also to him been busy.
The shrill from the phone with him broke the silence, Ellie’s phone. The caller is Andrew. He handed it to Ellie to pick it, she did grudgingly and put it on speakers.
“Hello” Ellie said into the phone.
“Why did he give you the phone?, give it to him” Andrew said curtly. Ellie handed it to Elvis.
“If you dare talk to her like that again, I’ll kill…….” Elvis ranted but was cut short.
“Shhhssss……she’s mine remember, but seems I’ve lost her, but I guess you have other things to worry about” Andrew replied coolly.
“What will I worry about from a s**tload like you” Elvis replied shaking furiously.
“Someone wants to speak with you” Andrew replied.
“Elvis….please…..who are these people……..came to your house and met……..pls dnt let them take me…” Jane’s voice rang out from the other end. His head went numb again.
“Jane….Jane..Don’t you dare hurt her……I’ll kill you b-----d……son of a b***h……” Elvis screamed into the phone after Jane’s voice ended.
“Shsssh….you like shouting, bad for your health, if you want her, meet us under the Erinpa bridge by 10:00pm today, come alone and no foul play…..if you do, she’s a goner.” Andrew replied sternly…”Say hi to my sweetheart for me” He added sacarstically before dropping the call.
“Wait….wait….don’t hurt her please…. hello…. please……” Elvis pleaded into the dead connection.
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