ELVIS: EPISODE 26-27

 

EPISODE TWENTY SIX
Elvis almost slumped after the connection went stale. He couldn’t believe his sister; his only sister has been captured. He was dumbfounded and perplexed. His CNS went offline and he felt an emptiness feeling deep within him. Everything around him became still and he couldn’t breathe. His stiff self didn’t notice when the phone fell off his hands and hit the floor with a shattering sound, parts flying around on the tiled floor.
Ellie on the other hand was visibly shaken and couldn’t utter a word. She sat still in her previous location. Elvis was losing the inner war his mind is fighting against the dementing feeling quickly gathering within him. He will surely lose his saneness at this rate. The pounding on the door has increased and the apprehension shouts of his teammates reached him faintly as he sink deeper into himself. He managed to make for the door and open the door to meet the confused looks on his team members, other teams are already gathering at the door and some are
already planning on breaking down the door.
Timi and Dauda rushed in and was relieved when they saw Ellie safe and sound; they must have thought there leader has gone to the extreme. Confused and questioning looks could be seen from the bystanders at the door, Elvis beckoned to Ben- who was totally lost- to come in before slamming the door shut on the face of the nosy bystanders.
After flurry of questioning and pleading questions, Elvis managed to explain in details to his teammates, from the very beginning with Ellie to the call, they listened with rapt attention, the atmosphere in the room got thicker as they each tried to think straight. Their team leader has given them the first details of a mission without him diving into it alone, but this is quite bigger than they could manage.
America doesn’t bargain with terrorists but we are currently in Nigeria where terrorism walks nakedly on the highway daring anyone to come near. Elvis going will be a as disastrous as him not going, his sister’s life is at stake and his too is at stake if he goes; if they could abduct his sister, his whole family is at stake too.
“Wait, you said they sent you videos of them torturing Andrew, are they still on your phone?” Timi said suddenly breaking the silence at Ellie.
“I deleted them, they are too gruesome to look at save the last one they sent yesterday” Ellie replied.
“Where’s your phone?” Timi asked, now catching the attention of them all.
All eyes turned to the shattered pieces of the phone Elvis has unconsciously thrown down, the battery and casing are light-years away from each other, and the screen is broken. Timi rushed towards it and started breaking it further apart to the dismay of others, he kept breaking it till he got to the micro hard disk of the phone. He made for the laptop on Elvis’s table and managed to connect it to the computer after a visit to his own desk.
He rummaged through the files on the micro hard disk with the mouse. He had been joined by the other members of the team including Ellie; they had stood around the desk watching in awe at the screen of the monitor as Timi ransacked the files of the phone memory.
“It’s not here” Ellie said, “It’s on the memory chip” she added. All eyes turned to the phone mess on the floor again like they are automated. Timi hurried towards the mess and found the memory card, after a few clicks……and with Ellie’s guidance, he found the video.
The video showed Andrew tied to a chair and him being oppressed by some assailants who’s face weren’t shown, only threatening words and hands of the assailants could be heard and seen as they slap and beat Andrew who groan and mumble in pain as he was being beaten. One of the hands of the assailants has a tattoo below his thumb which Elvis has seen somewhere before. His crisp sense of recollection came into play and he remembered the tattoo located in the same position on the hand of the man from his dream, the man who was examining the unconscious boy-himself. That is why the dream keeps coming back, its showing him something, and right before him in the video is the BTU hall bomber. He tried to recollect the face from his dream but he couldn’t, the identity of the man before him is also unknown.
After threatening words meant for Ellie has been said, urging her to leak more information or else her fiancé will be the casualty, the video went blank but the audio was still on-a mistake on the recorder’s part- the voice of Andrew could be heard laughing hysterically mocking Ellie’s gullibility and credulousness before reiterating the impending storm on Elvis’s house to a group of men who must be close by with the proximity of their response to the recording area. The audio scrambled before stopping finally. The all heaved and took deep breathes as they excogitated over what they just heard. Ellie for one is already crying apparently at her absolute dumbness and sheer gullibility.
“What is the plan?” Ben asked after some minutes of silence.
“The plan is for me to go and get my sister out” Elvis said.
“You can’t go alone, it’s too dangerous, and there must be a way” Dauda said still trying so hard to think.
“We have to tell the other teams and storm them before they could react” Ben suggested.
“Jane will serve as forfeiture” Ellie replied between sobs, wallowing in the guilt of the consequences of her downright stupidity. Elvis patted her softly and understandably, she sniffed in response.
“Something is certain, we can’t alert the other teams and you can’t go in alone” Timi said bringing them out of their individual reveries “But we can do it as a team” he added.
“I agree with Timi, we’ll sneak in on them as we did at the Emeralds, we have to come up with a convincing plan of annihilating them before they could act, we can rescue Jane and if possible arrest some of them” Dauda added.
“We don’t know how large they’ll be in quantity” Elvis asked
“Abduction and terrorist negotiations doesn’t need large amount of personnel, maximum is six, that’s the basic” Dauda said.
“Okay, I think the plan should be like this, Sir, you have to get close enough to the terrorist and make sure Jane’s safe, Ben and Dauda will be close by on hand to act as a first hand help, the other teams will lie in wait at the adjoining street ready to attack in civilian vehicles and clothing.” Timi summarized like a pre-crammed memory verse.
“That’s fair enough” Dauda agreed.
“Great thinking Timi” Ben said knocking Timi’s head, “thought you have only computers in this head” he added playfully before readjusting himself to the sober atmosphere at play.
“I’ll brief the IG of the situation at hand and prompt him to get the other teams ready” Elvis said.
Since no objection is raised, they all set to work, Ben and Dauda working on how to be in the vicinity of the upcoming event, Timi went to get to work on the Information amenities the team’s going to need for the mission. Elvis was left with Ellie, he made to go to the IG’s office but was pulled back by a hand, he turned and a pair of luscious lips met his, he responded as he kissed Ellie deeply. They were in each other’s hands for some minutes before they broke apart with Elvis still trying to recover from the sudden moment of bliss he just enjoyed.
“Save Jane and kill that b*****d of a thousand fathers for me” Ellie said softly before nudging him softly to go on.
Elvis nodded stupidly, still flushed as he turned and made for the IG’s office. Few minutes later, he walked out of the IG’s office smiling, all plans are in place, this is going to be good.
……………………………………………………………………
10:15 PM
Elvis had been under the Erinpa Bridge for the past 30minutes, he’s punctual against his usual self maybe due to the sacrosanct nature of the situation at hand but there has been no glimpse of Jane’s abductors. Ben and Dauda are lurking under some large pillars of the bridge, his communication gadgets are in place and functioning pretty well, even Timi had insisted on injecting him with a tracker in case something unprecedented comes up, it’ll serve as a contingent to lead them to him. The other teams from the office are lying in wait in the adjoining street waiting patiently for any sign of suspicious movement.
The sound of a car rushing at him at full speed made him turn, just in time for him to jump out of the path of the onrushing van, two men in face masks jumped out of the van which has stopped right beside him, they rushed towards him and picked him forcefully, dragging him towards the van. Dauda saw what’s happening he rushed towards Elvis to help, a shot rang and he fell. Elvis was dumped inside the back of the van, an electronic device was used to scan him, it beeped at the location where Timi had injected the tracker, a knife is produced and the tracker was forcefully removed and squashed. He was searched and all communication devices are strapped off him and squashed. He watched helplessly as four masked men glare at him and one is holding him down, something he doesn’t think is needed; he can’t fight through five men.
“I told you to come alone, but cops are stubborn especially naïve and emotional ones” Andrews said smacking his lips lustfully.
Andrews dealt him a blow that was aimed to knock him out, it did its job, he felt himself falling helplessly as his eyelids close like a reflex action. Darkness engulfed him as the van gathered speed towards its location.
ITS ABOUT TO GET UGLY
KEEP READING


EPISODE TWENTY SEVEN
“Officer down, officer down” Ben screamed into his earpiece as he rushed towards the fallen Dauda while the van sped away, blood is already streaking out of Dauda’s mouth through the valley-like creeks on either side of his lips. He coughed lightly and more blood streaked out, a gunshot wound standing confidently on his chest; his cloth getting more soaked with each passing second, the blood diffusing from the source using the cotton material he has on as a medium till his whole cloth is bright red.
Ben took off his cloth and pressed it to Dauda’s chest in a bid to scale down the rate with which blood is been lost by Dauda all the while shouting to the other teams to get closer with the car, he was breathing heavily murmuring words of encouragement and hope to Dauda, who tried to smile but ended up in spurting more blood and wincing his face in a funny contorted manner, he demeanor depicts pain which gathered courage with every failed attempt of smiling. Ben is already crying, pleading for the other teams and Dauda not to go.
Within few minutes which seemed like decades to Ben, a car was brought and Dauda was lifted into it, Ben held his head in his laps encouraging him to hold on and also urging the driver to go faster, his cloth drenched in bloeat (a mixture of sweat and blood).
At the office, Timi is dutifully eating his fingernails, befuddled by the ease with which their plan has been vanquished and speed with which it went down the drain, losing two men –Dauda et Elvis- as casualties, one been rushed to the hospital the other’s lost into the thin air with the way the tracker dot went offline few minutes ago, how did they lose it, they have been easily outwitted and circumvented, he hugged the rushing feeling of disappointment and frustration as he held his head in his two hands conceding defeat.
Afar off the spy smiled and nodded satisfactorily with the perfect execution of his plan.
……………………………………………………………………
He had been floated in and out of his unconscious state for the umpteenth time, he must have been injected with something which made him so weak, a punch can’t do that. His whole body is aching-a similar feeling to that of a man who a train just ram through- his heart’s pumping rate is very low about 50beats per minute, each heart beat stressed, his whole head have a large amount of furious Igbo women, who were pounding with maximum dexterity and total abandon, they are tearing his head apart, the low point is that he couldn’t raise his hands to hold his head because his hands have shot-put weights attached to each of them mentally, they weight like a sack of cement. All he could do is lie in the astride manner in which he was dumped and hang onto the ironical slogan ‘hope for the best, expect the worst’ before he glide into another state of momentary unconsciousness.
The heat from the afternoon sun was scorned him, worsening the pain in which he was before, the pain dragged him out of his unconsciousness, he couldn’t shield his eyes from the piercing sun rays he managed to turn his head from the piercing rays; seems he’s finally awake. He laid still as he took his immediate environment. He was in a small room, small but exquisite judging from the foreign tiles and the superfluous design of the ceilings. Apart from himself, the room is bare; totally empty. The window blinds have been open wide with the burglary-proof metal bars crushing every weak hope of escape; he must have been placed at his exact position so as for him to feel the wrath of the hot dry-season sun of September.
After lying still for some minutes, he managed to drag himself from his lying position to a sitting one with his back against the wall. His abductors must be very confident of his slim chance of escape with the unbound nature of his hands, or maybe the building is heavily fortified, he thought, right now all thoughts of escape aren’t forthcoming, replaced with Timi’s mutual feeling- disappointment and resignation-, all he could think of is how best he would plead to die, hope he would be given the privilege to choose how he wants it, he had always hated gash deaths, he preferred serene ones or quick ones.
He remembered Jane, her location is currently unknown, what his parents must be passing through right then; when the realization of the unknown location of their only pair of children hit them; his mother must have cried herself to stupor, he tried to guess the present countenance of his hard dad, he hadn’t seen his dad broken before even after the death of his elder brother many years back, his dad had handled it like a man. He wished to see how well his dad will handle the loss of his last pair of children alive, what word of condolence and self-pity will he come up with, what word of commiseration will he sooth his wife with?.
He remembered Dauda who had tried to save him, he could recall seeing him fall, Dauda’s dead, dead while trying to save him, what must his sick wife be passing through. He remembered all Dauda has discussed with him and confided in him. how he had lost his sterility to the Craters Empire (a smuggling and crime ring before its wiping out courtesy of MSN), Dauda had been the inside agent in the Craters for many years before his cover is blown, he narrowly escaped with his life, he did escape but not as a man but an eunuch. His wife had been fighting a battle against cancer for many years; they have two kids who are just in their junior secondary schools.
After escaping the gang narrowly, his escape been made easy with the coming of MSN into the picture, his wife’s health deteriorated, his first child died miraculously from a water disease epidemic, left with only a child and a dying wife and above all an eunuch. He took to drinking to avoid slumping into the emotional crater building up. The drinking smeared his medical record at the organization and the credibility of his utterances and actions are always doubted, which led to him been suspended and his well-deserved promotion to the post of the IG was denied.
After years on the sidelines, things turned a bit better, his wife’s health got better and she was discharged, his only son left gained admission into the university and nature seems to be smiling at him, he went back for his job and got it, hence, him working with Elvis.
Elvis had lost track of time, he doesn’t know how long he had slept or how long he had been thinking, all he knows is that he’s still alive at least for now. Now he could arguably criticize and fight in support of two different sayings: the lazy hand is not the devil’s workshop because right then all he could do is lie down just thinking, maybe thinking is the devil’s handiwork; he commended the man who said ‘the prison is the best place to think’ because you’ve got all the time in the world especially if you are not getting out soon, you’ll see things in a different and unbiased sense and your thinking expanse would be greatly enlarged. He felt woozy and then passed out; into his fits.
“Get me a fan, he had had this before” he heard a familiar voice commanding someone else.
After some minutes he managed to regain his consciousness, he was dumb-stricken to see Ellie bending over him.
“Ellie?” He said softly, “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, welcome back, I’m sure you’ve met my daughter Bridget” MSN said leaning on the wall of the room.
“Bridget?” Elvis said confused, “Ellie, what’s going on?”
“I’m not Ellie, I’m Bridget, so you’ve heard, I just saved your life needs at least a gesture or sign of appreciation” Ellie or Bridget replied.
Bridget stood up gloriously and walked towards MSN, she gave him a warm full hug.
“I miss you dad” She said.
“Well-done my daughter, I missed you too” MSN said returning the hug.
The hug was broken and Ellie (forgive me, still trying to get used to Bridget) made for the door exiting the room, she stopped at the door and faced the dazed Elvis.
“I never attended Hallmark” she said before walking majestically out of the room, swinging her hips provocatively and seductively, he knee length down flowing with the sway of her hips.
Elvis couldn’t close his mouth, his jaw had lost its retractiveness as it dropped.