An Evening With Eva

Episode 20

Ahmed got home to see the Colonel sleeping
in his bedroom.

“He must be exhausted. Tired Old man.”

Ahmed said quietly to himself.

He dropped the small bag he was carrying on
the floor, turned and made to exit the
bedroom. As he opened the door, he felt a
sharp pain at his back. He looked behind him
as he turned trying to touch his back where he
was hit. He felt his back soaked. He brought
his hand to his face. There was a reddish
liquid on his hand but it was not blood. It
was some form of poster color.

The Colonel who he thought had been asleep
was arched on the bed, a toy gun in his hand.

He had a raised eyebrow and the gun was
aimed at Ahmed’s chest. He fired again.

Another poster color ‘bullet’ hit Ahmed in the center of his chest.

“Ahhh!!!!!” Ahmed shouted in pain. “What the hell was that for?” he finished, wiping the
stain from his shirt and moving towards his
Uncle.

The Colonel sat upright and patted the free
space on the bed beside him.

“Sit, son.” The Colonel said.

Ahmed obliged him.

“Son, the fact that you need to be very very
vigilant can not be over emphasized. What if
it was the enemy, on the bed with a real gun?

We would not be having this conversation.

You have to be very very alert Ahmed.

Everybody is a suspect. Even me. Trust no one
at this point in time.” The Colonel finished.

“But Uncle, I left you in the house. I knew you
would still be here. There was no need to be
over zealous about this sir.” Ahmed replied
defensively.

“Keep quiet Ahmed!” The Colonel barked,
getting up. He was furious.

“What is wrong with you? Think boy! Think!
They got into your house, planted bugs and
you did not know. They even planted a banner
on your bedroom door while you were busy
snoring! Where is your sense of guard, boy?
You are lucky they did not want you dead!
You are being very careless and I will have
none of that boy. Just listen to yourself. You
knew I would still be here. What if I decided to
go get something outside the house and
someone else came into the house? Just look
at the way you came into the room. Totally
clueless and without any sense of guard! What
if they came in here and overpowered me? You
are a dead man. A dead man!” The Colonel
finished angrily.

He was upset and his face contorted with
rage. He had lost his son due to negligence
and saw Ahmed as a carbon copy of his
deceased son.

“Get up boy. I want fifty push-ups. Now!” The
Colonel said angrily.

Ahmed began to protest. The Colonel came in
front of him, pulled him by his collar, dragging
him to his feet. Ahmed used the back of his
right hand to hit the Colonel’s wrist
attempting to free himself from the choking
grip of the Colonel. The Colonel saw the move
coming just in time and released Ahmed.

Ahmed’s hand hit the air and he staggered
backwards. The Colonel moved closer to him.

Ahmed was angry. Why would the Colonel
hold him like he was a criminal? He was not
the least happy. He moved forwards too to
attack the Colonel. He threw his fists at the
Colonel. His right fist, then his left in a swift
one-two-jab motion. The Colonel weaved
Ahmed’s right punch and ducked the left
punch.

In his ducking position, the Colonel landed a
straight hard right hand punch into Ahmed’s
stomach, knocking the air out of him. Ahmed
moved backwards, gasping. He was out of
breath. He fell on the bed, holding his
stomach, turning and trying to catch his
breath. The Colonel towered above him.

“Have I not told you never to go into a fight
without a clear head? Always have a clear
head, you’re your anger is good but you do
not know how to channel it. I have always told
you. You should…”

The Colonel was still speaking when Ahmed
turned on the bed and kicked the Colonel with
all the strength he had. The kick landed on
the Colonel’s g—n. The Colonel grimaced but
it lasted only a few seconds.

“Impressive try Ahmed. But the mind is always
lord over the body.” The Colonel said.

Ahmed got up very quickly and tried a left
hand punch to the Colonel in the stomach. It
was meant to be just a decoy. Ahmed knew
his punch would be stopped. But he had other
plans. As the Colonel used his palm to deflect
the punch coming to his stomach, Ahmed
immediately swayed left and launched another
punch to the Colonel’s face with right hand.

The Colonel did not expect the punch but saw
it just in time. He countered the punch with
his left arm, wrapping his arm around
Ahmed’s punch and twisting the arm. Ahmed
yelped in pain. He kicked Ahmed by the feet
and swept him off the ground. He landed on
the ground with a very loud thud. Ahmed
turned and tossed groaning in pain.

The Colonel bent over him.

“You are very rusty boy! And as long as I am
here, I would have none of that. Training
commences at 04:00hrs. You’d better be
ready.” The Colonel said.

He picked the nylon bag from the floor and
left the bedroom.

Sean followed Sophia into a very small room.

He caught a glimpse of a small aluminum
caption on the room before they entered.

DEBRIEFING.

Sophia sat behind a desk and motioned Sean
to seat opposite her.’

“There are a lot of things going on that many
of our citizens are blind to. The current
government is corrupt. Its very bane is
corruption. I belong to a very strong
organization that seeks to end this corruption
and bring smiles to the faces of every
disgruntled citizen. We are raising a team to
help us with this. You have been selected to
be a part of this team. That is the major
reason you are here Sean.” Sophia said.

“What organization? What am I supposed to
do? How will you achieve this feat of ending
the corruption which permeates every fiber of
the nation?” Sean asked.

“Have you perused the file I gave you?”
Sophia
asked
“Yes I have. It’s quite a lot of work.” Sean
replied.

“What you have on that file is nothing
compared to what we have in store for you.

We just want to see if you have what it takes
to be a part of this team.” Sophia answered.

Sean looked at Sophia. She was really cool
when she was not blowing up heads and
asking him to chop off limbs. She was actually
very pretty. She looked amazingly s3xy in her
short rimmed glasses and her ponytail. She
wore a blood red lipstick and no earrings.

Sophia could read his mind.

“What’s going on in that slurty little head of
yours, Sean?” Sophia said removing her
glasses. She leaned back on her chair, her
b0s0ms heaving and her ambience relaxed.

“Nothing really. Just some progesterone stuff.

You know how it is.” Sean replied

Sophia unlocked her Ipad and swiped a few
screens.

“The last time you had s3x was two weeks
ago. With your girlfriend who travelled to
Canada. On the average, you have s3x every 3
days. That is not acceptable. And sorry, your
charms don’t work on me.” Sophia said and
smiled.

“You are free to go.” She finished.

Sean got up and left the room.

Tawo got an email alert on his computer. It
was from Bee Hive. It contained all the routes
that the commercial van plied as he had
previously requested. He transferred the
information from his computer to the large
screens on the wall. There were four detailed
pages, showing the four different routes he
plied, how many people got off and on the
bus. He was particularly concerned about
when the Colonel got off the bus. He got off
on the third route at Oshodi bus stop. There
were timestamps to every route.

Tawo shouted at Ope.

“Access the traffic surveillance at Oshodi
intersection. Rewind the recorded footage and
get it to 7:15am. That is the point where the
bus dropped the target.”

After a few minutes of fumbling, Ope spoke.

“Sir, I cannot seem to override the access
codes for the surveillance cameras. I keep
getting blocked out.” Ope said, sweating.

“Let me see.” Tawo said.

Ope moved his chair sideways as Tawo came
closer. Tawo bent low, inspecting the screen
for a few seconds. He touched his beard. He
was thinking

“This is a complex firewall. You have to first
mimic the algorithm, and then unlock its
psuedocodes.” Tawo said.

Tawo pressed the keys on the keyboard very
quickly, mimicking the algorithm of the
surveillance camera. He battled with it for a
while and then was prompted for a password
override. He got up and paced the room. The
password was just a one trial option. He had
to get it right the first time.

He faced Ope.

“Ash, question mark, Shift Delta, Raven,
Orange, Peter, twenty percent Gamma.” Tawo
called out.

Ope entered the password and the screen
changed. Ope smiled. Tawo kept a straight
face. He slowly retraced the video footage till
he got to the time stamp. They saw the
Colonel getting off the Bus. 6 minutes later he
boarded a taxi.

Tawo got the plates of the taxi and asked Bee
Hive to track its routes and location. Minutes
later, Bee Hive sent back its report.

Fortunately, the taxi made just one trip that
morning. The only place the taxi went to that
morning was Ahmed’s Estate.

He called Bruno.

“Target is now red hot on the radar. Get ready
to pull the trigger.”

For the first time in a long while, Tawo smiled.

A genuine contented smile.