AN EVENING WITH EVA EP17

PREVIOUSLY ON “AN EVENING WITH EVA”:

“Do I have a choice?” – Sean.
“There is actually a choice. You can walk out
that door and call the police. You will not be
alive to finish the call. And they will never find
your body” – Sophia
“I know I am supposed to be scared right now.
But the funny thing is, I am not.” – Sean
“Thomas.” – Sophia
In one very quick motion, she pulled her pants
(Trousers) up at the ankles and brought out a
small gold embroidered pistol. From her
sitting position, five meters from where he
stood she pointed the gun at Thomas and
pulled the trigger. Blood splattered on the
wall behind him as he fell down in one heap,
the tray falling from his hands. He was
breathing softly and was in pain. He groaned.
Sophia got up, walked to the body and stood
in front of Thomas, looking at him. She aimed
at his heart and shot him again. He was dead.
“Lesson number one: Be Ruthless. Be very very
ruthless. Be as gentle as a dove and as
dangerous as a shark. Stop shaking and clean
up this mess. You have two hours to scrub
this room clean and get rid of the body. Chop
it into pieces and feed it to the dogs in the
fortress. Bring the head to me. See you at
11pm.” – Sophia
“Hello Eva.” – Shina.
“Where am I? Who are you? What’s
happening?” – Eva.
“You have been here for two days. You are at
The Mansion. Breakfast is at 8am. Someone
would like to meet you.” – Shina
“I have a situation here Bruno. Two dogs.
What do I do?” – Marshal
“I can see that. Take them out” – Bruno
“Shiittt! He is awake. Get out of there, now!!!!”
– Bruno
“BE CAREFUL AHMED. YOU WILL NOT BE
WARNED AGAIN.”
– Banner with Blood.
“Hello Uncle. There is something going on I do
not understand.” – Ahmed
“I will see you in 2 hours son.” – The Colonel
“The Colonel has finally come out of hiding.
Dispatch some of your guys at Berger and I’ll
be at the other entry point to Lagos. Ready
some of your best buggers. The Colonel is
coming to town.” – Tawo
“I changed my mind. I will drive myself. You
can take the rest of the day off. I will call you
when I get back.” – The Colonel
“He decided to drive himself. I had planted the
tracker in the car he asked me to wash. He is
currently driving a black Honda Accord with
plates AA106SMK. It is a very ordinary and
plain car. His rims are alloy and gold plated.
He just left.” –James.
“Where are we?” – Tawo
“The situation is dicey sir. He is driving a very
common car and he is going to be hard to
pick out.” – Agent Ope.
“Merge the connection between Saturn –U134
and Mecury-00A. Now, bridge them and
combine their transitions. Use the WSPTA
protocol to rewrite the imagery and log into
all CCTVs, mobile phone and every fuccking
device that has a lens and is in proximity.
Launch a new search.” – Tawo.
“Zoom in on that.” – Tawo.
“The Colonel is about to pass through Mowe.
Set up your guys at the MFM area. This
should be as easy as taking a pee.” – Tawo.
“Target was not in the vehicle. He somehow
maneuvered his way and we lost him. I put a
tracker on his decoy. Trace it and have a man
on him.” – Shina.
“Don’t you recognize me son?” – The Colonel
“Are you okay Uncle?” – Ahmed
“I am fine son. Tell me what happened in this
house. I saw the banners.” – The Colonel
“Don’t!” – The Colonel.
“After installation and boot up, these devices
must never be handled with bare hands. They
have been designed to be sensitive to the
touch of the skin and would immediately inject
the skin surface with a deadly toxin that
would paralyze the handler if held for more
than two seconds. If you had touched it, you
would have become a ‘vegetable’.” – The
Colonel.
“Oh my God! Who the hell are these people?”
– Ahmed

AND NOW. . . Episode 17

Sean woke up startled. He was sweating
profusely despite the intensity at which the air
condition was blowing. He just had a
nightmare. Was it? He saw himself chopping
off a young man’s body limb by limb. Each
time the sharp machete made contact with the
dead flesh, little spurts of blood were
deposited on his face. The dead man was
screaming for help and begging for pity as
Sean cut him mercilessly. Ignoring the man’s
pleas, he took the huge pieces of meat with
the bones dangling on one side and
approached the den in the Fortress. The sight
of the dogs alone brought fright to him. The
dogs were huge and menacingly wild. No one
in his complete senses dared to enter the
fortress when the dogs were not leashed or
caged. There were three Rottweilers, two
German Shepherds, one Husky, and one Wolf
dog Hybrid. Ferocious dogs that were usually
made to go very hungry before they were fed.
The last time they ate was the evening before.
And they were quite hungry, and ready to
pounce. As Sean approached they began to
bark in their den, the Rottweilers spewing
huge amounts of saliva from their mouths.
Sean stood a few meters away from the Den.
Even though the cage was locked tight, he still
did not want to risk taking any chances. He
began to throw the pieces of flesh into the
cage. Some got in. Some did not. In the
demented rush for the meat, the Wolf Dog
Hybrid forced the cage open. It came after
Sean and the remaining pieces of flesh he had
with him. Sean ran for dear life. He ran as fast
and as swift as his legs could carry him. But
Sean was not fast enough. The Wolf Dog
pursued him and caught up with him. It
pounced on him, sinking its teeth in Sean’s
right arm which he used as a shield to cover
his face. He screamed.
Sean woke up.
He was sweating. He turned on the bedside
lamp, partially illuminating the room and
casting a small shadow on the walls. He
looked up at the wall clock. 3:26am. He could
not go back to sleep. He was haunted by the
dogs. He got up from his bed and opened a
door to his left. He entered the bathroom and
saw a large brown bucket stained with a
reddish liquid. He moved closer to inspect the
bucket. He was shocked at what he saw
inside. There was a human head soaked in a
pool of blood. His heart raced. So it was not a
dream after all. He suddenly wished it was all
a dream. He remembered all that happened
the evening before. He recalled how Sophia
had wasted the life of a promising young man
just to prove a point. A ridiculous point. What
in the world did they want with him anyway?
He stopped starring at the bucket and face the
small rectangular mirror on the wall by the
sink. He washed his face and looked up at his
reflection. He was looking very haggard. He
hadn’t shaved in days and looked very
unkempt. He made a mental note to ask for a
clipper in the morning.
Sean got back to his room. He switched on
the lights and looked around. He had
previously scrubbed the tiled floors clean. The
walls still had a little blood stain. That could
be ignored, he told himself. He opened the
drawer attached to his bedside table, pulling
out a file. The first few pages contained a
summary of his whole life and the past 4
months were summarized in more detail. He
skipped that part and concentrated on the
second module of the file. This contained a
list of things he was supposed to do and a
timeline for the completion of the tasks. He
was expected of produce a 90% accuracy at
the least.
There was a 3 months special online course
on Cybersystems and Cyberspace. After that, 2
months of Router Hacking and Password
Decryption. He had another four days of
Wireless Systems, Radio Configuration and
Cloud Redirection. His performance after all
these would determine if they would continue
with him to the advanced stage or discharge
him. He did not like how that sounded.
‘Discharge’. He had a feeling that he would
not be let go so easily. He feared the worst.
He closed the file and thought about his
girlfriend in Canada. He had not spoken to her
in over a week. He missed her. He missed his
mother. He knew there were agents at her very
doorstep and that really worried him.
He heaved a huge sigh. He was going to get
to the bottom of this. No matter what it would
take, he was not going to give up until he got
to the end of the line.
He closed his eyes and drifted into dreamland.
Tawo was furious. He was angry at himself
and at the whole team. He was raging and
venting his anger at anyone who as much as
spoke a word to him. He sat on his swivel
chair swaying left and right, both hands on
his forehead. He was rubbing his temple and
trying to find out where everything went
wrong.
“Sir, there is…” Agent Ope started but stopped
when he saw the bloody look of anger in his
superior’s eyes
“You have 15 seconds to say what you wanted
to blurt. If I am not impressed, I will have you
monitoring the CCTV at Park ‘N’ Shop by
tomorrow.” Tawo threatened.
The Agent hesitated for a few seconds. He
kept quiet. He knew that if he still did not
speak, the same fate awaited him. He decided
to say what he wanted to and hope that it
impressed his Boss.
“Sir, upon gruesome scrutiny of the playback
tapes of the bugging operation, I noticed a
blind spot. We overlooked that little glitch but
upon proper inspection, I noticed that it was
actually not a glitch.” Agent Ope said.
“You’ve got my attention. Go on.” Tawo said.
“There was a point that the target was
stationary for about 90 seconds. That was our
blind spot. I decided to check it out. I was
able to override one of the surveillance
cameras around the Redemption Camp. The
nearest camera was a CAM70-Extreme. I
zoomed in on it and adjusted the capture
area.” Ope said, getting up and moving to the
large touch screen monitor on the wall.
“This is where the target was blinking for 90
seconds,” He said touching a portion of the
map. The touched portion grew large filling
the whole screen. He continued.
“From here onwards for about 500 meters,
there was no traffic and there are no fuel
stations, restaurants, shops, fast foods or
anything to make him stop. He was constantly
on the move.” He touched a smaller portion of
the now expanded map.
“This is the most acute angle that the camera
could pick. I will rewind the footage of the
camera at this point of the map sir.” Ope said.
He pressed a button on the screen and a
video footage appeared in very slow motion, at
the exact point the mechanic came out from.
It showed the Mechanic coming out of a small
hut which served as his workshop, crossing
the road and going left. There was nothing
after that. Exactly 90 secons later, the Black
Honda zoomed past.
“Impressive Ope” Tawo asserted a smile on his
lips.
“Thank you sir. The Colonel is very smart. He
had the Mechanic come meet him at the exact
spot where he knew that he would not be
captured by the cameras. He deliberately put
this Mechanic on the spot. We have no
records against the young lad sir. I am sure
he knew that. We can’t make him talk. It
seems he is going to win with this one.” Ope
concluded.
Tawo was thinking. His fingers were playing
with small beard. As the video replayed,
something caught his eye.
“Stop that. Yes. Start the footage all over. And
pause it on 03mins:14secs” Tawo ordered.
Ope obeyed. They watched the video all over
again. From the beginning, cars were passing.
At 01mins: 16secs, the Mechanic crossed the
road and started walking left. He was not
visible anymore. At 02mins:55secs, they
watched as the Black Honda zoomed past.
Nothing happened for the next 17 seconds.
Two seconds later, Tawo half screamed,
“Pause Now!”.
There was a Danfo in the footage, pause as it
was accelerating.
“That Danfo is just accelerating. Zoom in on
the front passenger seat.” Tawo barked
Ope did that. A blurred face with a white
background.
“Now take that that image and move it to the
facial ID defragmenter. “ Tawo commanded.
Ope pressed a button on the screen, used the
tip his fingers to trace the edges of the image
and pressed another button. With his two
thumbs, he flipped the traced image in one
very swift fast motion onto the next screen by
his right.
“Image received. Scanning and
Defragmentation in progress” came a
computer voice from the screen.
They waited 12 seconds and then an image
appeared before them.
It was The Colonel in his white linen,
Tawo smiled.
“Get me that bus registration plates.” He said
to Ope.
“Yes sir.”
Ope zoomed in on the registration plates,
defragmented it and printed it out.
“Done sir.” Ope said.
“Good.” Tawo replied getting the printed sheet
from him.
He pressed a button on his table. His voice
went into loud speaker mode in another office
on the previous floor below them. There were
eight trained search agents in that room. Give
them a tiny detail (a name or a place or a
phone number) and they would search out and
deliver every single information regarding it.
They had access to any electronic device that
had access to the internet or used a database.
They were the best.
“Bee Hive. This is Super-Agent Tawo. I want
all routes taken by commercial van with
registration plates BZ739FST between the
hours of 6:30 and 7:30. You have 15
minutes.”
He pushed back his chair, put his legs on his
table one on top of the other. He put his two
hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
“I am going to nail this b-----d.” He said to
himself.
To be continued…