After the news of Deoye’s death sentence reached Clement and other policemen who were concerned with the case, as well as other eminent personalities in the state. The lawyers who stood against Deoye were appreciated by the Speaker house of assembly Lagos state who when speaking with the reporters in the assembly premises after the court verdict claimed he had already written a petition to the Senate should the court verdict favour Deoye, then the judge deserved to be sanctioned on grounds of compromise.
Clement drove into the Federal school of Aviation in Lagos state just beside the Murtala international airport Ikeja. He headed straight for the Director General’s office. Clement who all through the night was busy with his colleague Amaka, a computer analyst who hacked into chief Obi Patrick’s computer and got all of his assets and their locations, most importantly, his houses within Lagos state.
He acted based on the firsthand knowledge he had about his father when many years ago when they were still young, he drove them including Victoria to one of his houses, which was located in a village on the outskirt of Lagos majorly dominated by fulani herdsmen, they did a tour around the house which was small compared to the house which they live in.
The kids asked their father questions about the owner of the house and during the course of the questioning, he told them this is his hiding place which he uses once in a while, maybe in two years or more. Clement was able to hold on to the fact and the moment Chief Obi Patrick went missing, he knew he surely had to be there which was what prompted him to invite Amaka after the close of work for some map searches. He believed Amaka who said it won’t take her up to an hour before she finishes, so Clement thought that by 9pm she should be done, then he’ll drive her to her apartment. But to their surprise, it was already 10:30pm before they realised how far they had gone into the night with no significant success recorded.
As a computer analyst, Amaka tried everything she could before she suggested the idea of hacking into Chief Obi’s computer. And since every computer that belonged to either Chief Obi or his sons have something in common, this they knew themselves. Amaka was able to do some sort of magic before Clement’s eyes and a page opened displaying every content of his father’s computer. He saw the icon, ‘assets’ and clicked on it, he saw the house around the number ten spot and after much check, he was sure that it was really the house he had in mind.
“Are you set to go?” The director General asked.
“I think I am. Or is there something I ought to have brought along?” Clement asked.
“Well, there is nothing. Everything would be provided inside the chopper.” The director general replied.
“Okay, lets go then.” Clement said.
“Drop everything on you including your phones and even pens and pencils, keys inclusive.” clement obliged and dropped everything that was on him that moment. The reason for which he didn’t know, but he had a feeling it is for the good that comes with it. And so the Director General of the school of aviation took Clement to the field where he entered an helicopter and off it took off with its usual loud noise.
Ten minutes later, with his binoculars, Clement could see his father’s hidden house from a million miles above the ground.
“Can we go down a little?” He asked.
“Its unsafe, going down and revealing ourselves to them would create a kind of awareness and they could decide to blow us off.” The pilot, a white man replied.
“Its unsafe for them to blow us off consider the fact that were a directly above them. Meaning we’ll both be affected in anyways.” Clement argued.
“You have a point, but I still stand on not going low to the last. I’ll take a hundred miles down, then begin to circle the building. I believe that’s all you need for now. Just know the security level of the house, then on your own you can think of how to take them out.” The man said as he took the aircraft downwards. –
A few hours after Clement returned from the School of Aviation after his investigative search with an helicopter, he had met with the police commissioner who he briefed his next line of action and they both reached a unitary conclusion, with no one disagreeing with the other. This is the kind of partner Clement has always craved for but the heirachy within the force seemed to enjoy giving him the wrong set of people.
Ngozi looked promising at first, but a few months later after he refused to help his brother out of police custody, she saw him as her greatest enemy. Sylvester was the best when he first came, very supportive, submissive and above all, ready to learn from Clement. But a few days of Clement’s absence gave Sylvester the chance to lead a police team to Mr Ayo Okorie’s residence which resulted into Mr Ayo fleeing for the fear of being caught. This success alone added a feather to Sylvester’s wing and he felt he could handle the case his own way which convinced the former police commissioner to handle the case to Sylvester who didn’t spend up to a week before he broke the duties in bit between himself, Clement and some other tops officers in the field. And shortly afterwards, all powers returned to Clement. How God works, a mystery.
So far so good, Mike is the only officer who had worked with him until lately when he started misbehaving. Because the Mike who became a force to reckon with was all thanks to the fact that he(Clement) took him under his tetulage, but at some point, an apprentice becomes better than his teacher, but not to the extent of disobeying your teacher. If he continued thinking about his colleagues, then he certainly would spend the whole day doing that. He cleared his throat to gain the attentions of his colleagues.
“Oh! You are back? How was your trip?” Ngozi asked as if she was just noticing him for the first time. Clement only smiled.
“I have a plan.” He said. Sylvester readjusted his sitting position just to listen to the plan of the ‘great Clement.’
“I have decided to go in against my dad, while I live you two to battle Khal corp. Not to worry, I’ll be out in a day or two, then together we’ll do it.” Clement explained. Sylvester loved the idea.
“So how do you want to do that? Is there a plan in place?” Sylvester asked. Clement loved the response.
“You guys will have to return to Mr Ayo’s residence, then from there I believe you could get something that’ll lead you guys to the khal corp.” Clement explained. Ngozi froze in fear.
“There is nothing in Mr Ayo’s residence, we can try a better approach. And I think the release of Kelvin should be our number one priority.” She replied.
“Well, by getting Khal corp, we have Mike. And I think Mr Ayo’s residence has a lot to offer, and by the way, Mike said you told him about a map while you were in the hospital. What’s it all about? Can I have it?” Clement asked.
“Its nothing and No, you can’t have it.” She replied.
“Okay, so are we in?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Sylvester replied.
“Good.” Clement enthused and turned to face a rather quiet Ngozi who was not like this twenty five seconds ago.
“Ngo, are you in?” He asked. Did he just call her ‘Ngo’? Does that mean that all her cold, hot and silent treatment does not in any way affect him? She must have been wasting her time all these while.
THE MAP.
The war against insurgency is similar to the war against HIV/Aids. The same was it is similar to the highly dreaded disease/virus in Africa, Ebola. In outlining the similarities, its is important to note that, a doctor treating an Ebola patient is at risk of contacting the virus, the percentage possibility is around seventy five to eighty while a policeman or any security agent fighting insurgency is at risk of being affected.
The percentage of the officer himself being affected is around sixty if he played his cards well, but terrorists as a tool of insurgency are not interested in the officers fighting them, they believed that killing a security agent is unjust. Therefore, they prefer killing their family members, most especially, the ones that means a lot to the officers. Its could be his only daughter, only son, his children, his wife or anybody else. The emotional trauma that this brings is the joy of the insurgents, and as a result of the trauma, such officer would make rash decision because he is psycologically and emotionally imbalanced.
Inspector Clement as a front runner in the war against insurgency is a victim of the emotional inflicted suffering from Khal corp. In a bid to stop the corporation he lost his precious wife, and still unable to get a grip on himself or getting over his wife’s death, he discovered that the big backbones of the corporation are two people whom he had spend the majority of his life with, his father as a political sponsor of the corporation and his brother as the main hitman who always executes the businesses of the corporation according to Jay, meaning, the possibility of Kelvin having a hand in his wife’s death is way above half. And if it turns out that everything he had heard were true, then he had to arrest his father and brother, get them killed then do the needful himself. But did he really want to commit suicide? He is not sure. Amanda needs at least a father figure.
He walked out of his room into the living room, a bottle of Mc’ Dowells between his fingers. He unziped his bag which lay on the couch, tucked the bottle into the bag, dropped a few weapons that he would be needing, he zipped up the bag, grabbed his phone and walked out of the house, after switching off all the lights and securing the locks. The time was 10:58pm. When he drove out of the compound headed for his father’s suspected hideout.
His phone buzzed and when he checked, he realised it was a reminder he had set for his appointment with his doctor the following day. He was expected to visit the hospital once in a week at least for check up so as to control the effect his latest lung problem could cause him. I’ll go next week. He had concluded.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ngozi walked out of the bathroom a towel tied around her body. She walked over to the dressing table, dried herself of the water on her body and slipped on her nightie after which she joined her fiancee on the bed.
“Baby, you are not giving yourself rest these days.” Tobi complained. She smiled as she went under the covers. “I think you need to take more rest. Call the office and take a two days sick leave, then by monday when you return to work, you’ll see the difference. You look lean.” Tobi adviced.
“I can’t afford to miss an hour at work. At the stage that we are in, its either we have sleepless nights and stop Khal corp, or we sit back and watch them hijack this country.” She replied.
“But I thought you said, you only needed to arrest Clement’s dad and Kelvin. That shouldn’t be a problem or should it?” He asked. Ngozi bursted into laughter.
“Darling, do you think police job is similar to your job where you sit down comfortably in an air conditioned office?” She asked.
“That shows how risky the job is.” He replied in his usual line.
“I know that’s what you’ll say. But I want you to know that while some people work in the banking industry to make sure there is enough money in circulation, so people have to be the security for the bank, the money in it, and the customers.” She said.
“Okay, I agree.” He said smiling. Silence enveloped the room for the next five minutes, the highest that it takes before Tobiloba sleeps off.
“Sweetheart, are you sleeping already?” She asked putting her hand on his sholder.
“No.” He replied.
“I want to get your permission concerning one issue like that.” She said.
“And what is that?” He asked.
“At this crucial stage we have decided at work that every officer will work twenty four hours, meaning I won’t be coming home tomorrow. Its just for a few days actually.” she explained.
“And you think that’s possible?”
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The road was swampy and he could feel it as his car moved along the untarred road which leads to his father’s hideout. All thanks to the air condition of the car which was on, he would have suffocated behind the wheels as a result of the offensive odour of cow dungs and rotten animals which wafted through his nose as he moved slowly.
There were several houses on both sides of the road which couldn’t take two cars at a time, most of the houses were detached, while a few others were covered with corrugated iron sheets, but his instincts told him the sheets have worn out and the possibility of it leaking is very high.
“Is this a kind of an inhabited area?” He asked himself as he stepped on the gas to give the car more life. He was at the verge of giving up when he saw a burning candle from afar. This further lifted his spirit as he sped towards it, the odour that greeted him the moment he got there was enough for him to change the car to ‘reverse’ and back out of the settlement.
He tapped the car honk twice to get the attention of the people sitting under the very large shed. An elderly man approached him.
“Good evening sir.” He greeted. The man looked at him like he was out of his mind, then bursted into laughter. He turned back to face his fellows under the shed and said something to them in their local dialet, they all bursted into laughter, the cause of their laughter he couldn’t fathom.
“Please, I am a policeman.” He said loudly so as to stop their laughter, but this further increased their laughter much to his anger. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw a small boy rolling on the floor while laughing. The boy should roughly be in his mid teens.
“Any future for him?” He asked himself. Certainly, the present day government is a total failure. They continued laughing while he sat there in his car watching them, everything they did seemed to amuse him, but remembering the reason why he was there in the first place, he ignited the car engine and drove off when he heard a voice.
“Hey!.” He heard someone call him. He stepped on the brake and brought the car to a halt while he waited for whoever called him.
“Can I come in?” He heard the guy ask. So, someone who could speak English resides in this village? That sounds interesting.
“Yes you can.” He said unlocking the car door from where he sat behind the wheel. The young man hopped in and sat on the passenger seat. From his face, one could deduce that he is still in his twenties.
“I lived somewhere around there. I was hearing your voice from inside, so I decided to come and see what was amusing my naughty neighbours.” He said and smile escaped his lips.
“What are you doing here?” Clement asked, he knew the youngman beside him does not deserve to live in this kind of environment and he doesn’t belong here in any way.
“Am a youth corper.” He replied. Clement looked at the guy once again.
“A youth corper?” He asked. The guy nodded his head in the affirmative.
“You mean, you are a graduate?” He asked. The guy still nodded in the affirmative. “So what are you doing here? I mean, what’s your main duty here?”
“I teach in the only secondary school around here.” The corper replied.
“You mean there is a school here?”
“Yeah, but you’ll have to go further into the village, here is just a hidden part of the village, but driving in from the town, you’ll be tempted to drive into this part, but in the end you’ll realise that there is nothing here.” The corper explained. Clement seemed to be enjoying his conversation with the corper, but he knew time was not on his side.
“I am a policeman.” Clement said flashing his identity card befor him. “I am here on an official assignment, but I need your help.”
“If its something within my capacity, I’ll do it.” The corper replied. Clement switched on the headlight of the car from where they were such that it shown brightly on the gate of a house far ahead of them.
“Who owned that house?” He asked.
“Sir, I don’t know. I started here a few months ago, but lets ask around.” The corper replied already opening the car door.
“Ask who? Your naughty neighbours?”
“They are cool actually and friendly too. They just enjoyed laughing at English speakers.” He explained, this time he had entered their shed.
—
The corper who later introduced himself as Peter spoke to his ‘naughty neighbours’ as he called them in their local dialect that one would think he was born and brought up in the environment. One after the other, the people sitting under the shed came to Clement and hugged him. It takes the grace of God to reciprocate such gesture without throwing up. Clement squeezed his face in disgust, the odour emanating from their bodies alone was enough to kill him, the way his skin felt their skin, most especially, their palms was enough reason to create marks on his smooth skin.
“Can we leave now?” He asked Peter when he had exchanged pleasantries with them.
“No we can’t. I am yet to ask them the question you asked me.” Peter replied. Clement felt like removing his gun and boring a hole into his head because he couldn’t imagine the exact thing he had been discussing with them for almost three minutes which prompted them to exchange pleasantries with them.
“Please be fast about it.” Clement urged as he took a few steps backwards, out of the shed to breathe in fresh air which has been polluted by the cow dungs and another odour which he guessed must have been coming from a big drum where a young boy was stirring its content with a big stick, while another elderly woman was removing something which looked like a thick cloth and dipping it back for the boy to stir. He could hear Peter conversing with them.
“They said they have never seen the occupants of the house.” Peter said to him.
“But people live in there right?” Clement asked still looking at the boy who was stirring the content of the drum with expertise. He must have been doing this even before he was given birth to. The thought of this amused him.
“I think people live in there.” Peter replied.
“Since when did they begin to notice movements in the house?” Clement asked. Peter turned to his neighbours who were laughing as Peter conversed with Clement.
“They said, just recently many cars drove into the house and they never came out.” Peter replied. Clement opened his mouth to ask another question.
“I think they are tired already. They all claimed they would answer my questions no more.” Peter chipped in. With the little he had learnt, all thanks to Peter, the intermediary, it should be enough to gather his thoughts and make it whole.
Not too long ago, several cars drove into the house and they never came out. Not too long ago, Chief Obi Patrick went into hiding. It could be a coincidence assuming he was just a senior police officer, but he was dead sure because the house belonged to his father.
“What was that boy stirring inside the drum?” Clement asked, this time they were back in the car.
“that’s the first stage in the process of leather and other things that could be gotten from cow skin.” Peter replied. Clement watched with fascination. Even though he had a perfect childhood, grew up like every normal kid, played with toys like every other kids, rode bicycle like every other kids, made friends with other kids in the estate, fought with the big boys around just to show his strength and impress the pretty girl next door. He knew he was still ignorant of some certain things. He still couldn’t differentiate between some things that a ten year old boy would differentiate extensively in minutes. It was too late to start learning some things which he felt were useless, but he still planned on making sure his daughter experience everything such as moutain climb with village kids, fishing and snail hunting with village kids and some other plays that impresses kids from Lagos and other big cities.
“Where do you plan spending the night?” Peter asked. It was then Clement realised he didn’t plan ahead of his visit, even though the thought of sleeping inside his car once came to his mind. “You can pass the night in my apartment if you don’t mind.” Peter added. Clement smiled. It may end up being one of the worst night rest of his life, but it was an experience that is worth it.
As he lifted his small bag out of the backseat which Peter dutifully collected from him, he quickly sent a text message to his colleagues, mainly, the commissioner, Sylvester and Ngozi, which reads;
“Everything is currently under control. Get back to me, once the backup team is in place. Moving in by 2am.” –
to be continued–
