The Angel And The Fugitive – Chapter Eleven Part B
THE ANGEL AND THE FUGITIVE – CHAPTER ELEVEN PART B
© Reginald Obetta
Lost in a world of imagination, Evelyn finally awoke. The second van see was in had travelled through miles and was in the outskirts of the state, in Kaduchi. For a moment, she wondered if she was delusional or not. In her wildest dreams, she wouldn’t have thought she would be amongst some group of butchers, she mistook for her security guards. Her head ached so much from the hit. She opened her eyes further and realized she was in the dark, her hands were tied to something heavy, she felt it and noticed no one in the dark sight and the van was still in motion. She then, began barging her legs against the floor, hoping to scream but she couldn’t. Her lips were sealed with a cell tape and so, she gave up the struggle. The van slowly halted, she could detect till it finally came to a stop. Her heart leapt for joy for reasons that she would fully see the faces of her abductors and perhaps, the GPS on her phone could help the NIU track her location. The door slid open, paving way for much light to penetrate into her eyes from the torch. That was when it occurred to her that it was night already and must have slept for a very long time.
“Welcome Miss, this shall be your transient home for now”, Bin-Ahmed spoke, Binani and one other pulled her out of the van forcefully.
“Don’t get your filthy hands on me. Am very sure the police would come looking for you all”
“Take it easy in handling the lady. She is our guest”, referring to Binani and his partner.
“Hmmmm, the police can’t, am sorry. If you are hoping to use the GPS on your phone to get the attention of the police, well it’s not possible anymore because this location is encrypted and your phone has been disabled. Every camera here has been deactivated so , there is no way out. Your father is clueless, the government, the police, the military is. Your father must be devastated and afraid he would be next“
“No, he isn’t. He’s no coward, his bravery is unparalleled on the contrary “
“We will see about that. Pray it happens so“, he stroke her cheeks playfully, but received a spat on his face. He began to smile at her courage and gallantry.
“You seem so strong-hearted and willed. I bet you won’t survive the torture of thirty minutes. Take her to the inner room and keep her mouth closed up, “ he ordered. The building wasn’t the fanciest of all buildings and was way uncompleted, one of their hideout in the state. Bin-Ahmed sat outside on the grass, strategizing of what next to do. Rogers came out of the building, he knew his soul mate wasn’t in and wanted to know what troubled him. He brought out a pack of cigarettes to smoke and offered Bin-Ahmed one, which he rejected. It was unlikely for one who was a heavy smoker.
“I thought you were sleeping already”, Bin-Ahmed said surprisingly.
“I thought you were too”, Rogers said, sitting close to him. “what is troubling you? “
“Just thinking of what to do next, you know. I was told not to harm her till I get further instructions “
“You definitely know, the police will be looking every nook and cranny to get her. This place is not entirely safe. We can’t continue to keep her here. ”
“That I know. The police will be looking for her. It wouldn’t be so nice to move directly to Taglu. We will be burnt out from the journey. Besides, we will be trailed because we were monitored right from the point of the town hall. Their systems are upgraded. We needed to make this stop to divert attention. Our encryption won’t hold on for long before it will be cracked open. I have a plan. “
“Okay, if you say so. We believe in your leadership. Have a good night rest”, Rogers left him to continue to ponder over his thoughts.
The president arrived in the early hours of the next morning, non-expectantly due to the fact that his daughter’s kidnap was a worldwide broadcast in his visiting country. It was a shock and therefore, had to short-cut his stay at Gambia. Through his spokesman, he quickly summoned the all police and other security Chiefs on an emergency security meeting at the Apex house. It was time for the group to be finally wiped out even if it means investing all his resources in the fight but that is what his foe wanted. To get distracted from his campaigns to focus on the current epidemic. The insecurity was over the board and the kidnap of his daughter had made everything more worse for him, something he couldn’t breed to digest even when in the meeting, frequently, he lamented about the situation, howled constantly at them and banged his fist against the oval table where they all kept their hands and the computers on top. He dismissed them by telling them to buckle up in the war against the Al-hida and find her daughter within forty-eight hours but then, something came up. The D.P.O called the Police Chief who have in turn, informed members of the table about an incoming video call from Bin-Ahmed. The president quickly assumed his sitting position and waited for the time he will receive the call. Few minutes later, the picture of Bin-Ahmed, a wild bearded looking animal surfaced on their screens.
“Good morning officers of the federal Republic and our honourable Excellency, Mr President. I need more introduction and am quite happy to see your smiling sorrowful faces. Miss Evelyn is safe, quite safe. “
“You vagabond. I will come and get you sooner than you can imagine. Don’t ever come close to her because if you do, I will make sure you are executed “, threatened Mr Ajuwa Williams.
“Like I said, Miss Evelyn is safe”
“Prove it to us”
They waited for a response. Miss Evelyn was pulled out from the background in a swivel chair to the screen, her mouth was sealed but still chained to the chairs heavily.
“As you can see, she is safe “
“Let me speak to her. I need to hear her voice”. The seal on her mouth was taken away, allowing her freedom to speak.
“Eve darling, are you okay?”
“Yes dad, I am not bad. Don’t ever listen to what they say or do anything they request. They are all going to pay for the innocent lives they have taken. Am not afraid to die for my country “, just then, her lips was sealed and was pushed back to the background. The president was emotional, too emotional to look at the screen again when his daughter, his biggest pride was no longer there. He loved her more than his life and would give up everything for her. He strove to look at the screen again, Bin-Ahmed had returned.
“What do you want? I want my daughter’s freedom “
“Hmmmm. I have known you to be a very kind not cunny kind of person, who was always ready to listen. I admire your qualities but you might want to debate on this one because it’s a huge price you will paying for the life of your daughter “
“What is the huge price? “, anxious of knowing.
“We want half of the Laram oil Basin “
“That is ridiculously absurd. I can’t give you half of what the country is known for its export and sustenance of the economy “
“Oh, which do you prefer? A mineral resource to the life of your daughter, a human? Do you think her life has a duplicate? Think about it and get back to me within thirty minutes “
“Wait”, Bin-Ahmed ended. Ajuwa Williams relaxed back on his seat and pondered over their request. The security Chiefs and advisers were still present but was unsurprisingly silence and perplexed about the call. In their years of serving, no one has been able to manipulate their senses and IQ more than Bin-Ahmed. When he asked about their opinions, contrasting answers were all picked by his ear.
“It’s a trap His Excellency, there is no motive in what he said. What will a terrorist group do with a request like that? “, said the chief of Defense Unit.
“Are they trying to be an independent state or what”, said the chief of Army Unit.
“If they wanted it all along, they would have stated it so”, said the Air force Chief.
“They aren’t sincere about this”, in chipped his security adviser.
“And what if you all are wrong? They maybe, have been communicating something to us in a language we do not comprehend. Maybe they wanted us to act first by striking a truce with them. Maybe, we have been missing it from day one”
“Sir, with your pardon, may I remind you we do not negotiate with terrorists. It’s the law we have always abided”
“There is always an exception for everything, adviser. Not this case, not this that could stop the blood shedding, bring back my daughter hale and hearty. “.
It was evident they had come to an inconclusive answer. Ajuwa Williams continued to ponder over everything that had been said by the security Chiefs. They maybe right to call it a trap, but there was no better choice to undertake. It was two more minutes before the call will go live again. He resolved he was going to take the risk but with a plan. When their location is discovered, they wouldn’t be following the normal route from the front only but from both the back that is from the exit to their location and from the front. That way, they would have no way escaping and would be entirely surrounded and caught and would be more need in fulfilling their end of the bargain.
“What is your verdict? “, Bin-Ahmed asked.
“We will go with your request in exchange for my daughter “
“Good. You know where to get her, find my location and she will be there standing and will wave at you when you arrive”, he ended. Ajuwa Williams himself, ordered and mobilized the troops at all the neighbouring cities of Sham, which was detected by the NIU, and which was Bin-Ahmed’s location to prepare to move in immediately. Once he tried to move out of the city, he will be captured.
More than three thousand troops in total were at all the exit. The soldiers stormed the village of sham, dispersing into different units as their strategy, to the north, east and west side. Sham village was densely populated and hilly , so it was difficult for them to scale through the crowd but they notified the villagers to stay indoors and every activity shut down for the time being. The soldiers never imagined the Al-hida group would be found among villagers when it was discovered this was their location. Definitely, they assumed someone must have seen them enter or any strange incidence. They broke into small units, some questioned the villagers while the rest went into the search for Miss Evelyn. With every question raised, the villagers state they saw nothing. They were mostly illiterate, so they communicated more in their native Hausa language. Something was eureka that they haven’t found yet. There were a lot of bushes as they continued to advance. They have walked nearly more than a mile and were yet to detect the presence of the standing Miss Evelyn, nor gotten an information about the capture of the group in the guarded exits. They continued however till they stormed a lonely segregated building hidden among trees. The rest of the dispersed teams also arrived at that exact point but it looked like the building had been evacuated. Audio signals from the NIU department and compass suggested they were in the vicinity by the continuous red blinking of the compass and moreover, the widely publicised blue van was parked. Reaching for the door which was unlocked, the sitting room was empty, with the exception of cigarettes and spirits scattered on the floor and some scraps of wood. The whole building was searched and the presence of no one was still detected.
“We have searched everywhere, still no sight of them”, communicated one of the soldiers through a device on his uniform.
“Keep searching, there should be there somewhere. All systems hasn’t detected any strange movement before you all arrived”.
At once, a scout was sent ahead of them to survey the area. One place was still unsearched, with a binoculars, they could see a house on a hill side that looked like a store house. They all rushed inside, searched everywhere and found nothing except with a computer on a table. The scout returned, with some kind of negative expression on his face.
“I found no one. I got a call that one of our troops were found dead on hafsat Avenue.”
“What? How come? How did it happen”
“It was a hijack”, the scout answered.
They heard something beep, like a timer. They traced the bright beeping light to a timer at the back of the computer. It had been activated and at that juncture, they realised, they had been fooled into their snare. They ran as fast as they could but it was late, the explosion sounded and all the troops present were blown up. The NIU lost connection with them, tried to fix it back but they couldn’t. The Defense chief knew all wasn’t well and when they connected with the troops at one of the exits to move in, they reported that they were dead from a bomb explosion. The Defense Chief ordered all of the remaining troops at the exit to ransack everywhere possible.
Meanwhile, Bin-Ahmed and his men had gone past the major checkpoints in military outfits, stripped from the soldiers they killed on the Avenue and was close to Moguil state instead of the agreed Taglu. Five hours earlier, they were hidden in the bush with Evelyn, they somehow, knew the soldiers will definitely move through that way. Bin-Ahmed had spotted the first three vehicles with his binoculars from where he hid, allowing them pass, and distant from each other. When the fourth came by, Bin-Ahmed signaled Kamal into releasing a black trampoline, twice the size the normal, hung on two shrub trees across the road connected. The trampoline covered their views and immediately, Rogers and Binani, sat on the branches where they had a good spot to aim with their snipers shot at them and killed them all. They exchanged their dresses with the soldiers and left in their vehicle with Evelyn at the back.
