PROLOGUE
SUSAN
No matter how much you stick to procedures and play by the rules, in this game, you eventually get caught and all you have to do is hope that the day you get caught shouldn’t be your last day.
What most people in my line of work don’t really get is that you can’t be too careful. As in you can have the money to buy the best gadgets and tools science has to offer but in the end, it all boils down to you, your instincts, your will to survive. Even the most heavily armored personnel can still be gotten too, even they have moments of self doubt and distractions and once these creeps in I don’t think I need to tell you you are as good as dead.
I’m speaking out of experience, and unlike most people who tell their story after they have conquered their trials, I’m yet to conquer mine and to be sincere, I don’t think I have any hope of conquering it.
***
The room wasn’t properly lighted and wasn’t entirely dark neither. Rather, the 60 watts light bulb at the extreme left corner of the ceiling radiated barely 10 Watts, due to the low current of electricity that flowed through the wires I guess.
I really don’t get why torture rooms have to be so stereotype; I mean why do they all have to be poorly lighted, lack furniture (having just one or two chairs at maximum), why do they always have to have the ironical high voltage socket that can carry torture tools which need thousands of Watts to function while the light bulb struggle to even stay on, why do they all have to have a ceiling fan which spins at a very slow pace and makes an annoying creaking sound. Do they all have the mentality that all this factors makes breaking a “subject” easier or what?
I became fully alert as I sensed another presence in the room with me, as my eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom and I could see him… Or her. Their uniforms made it hard for me to make out their genders, the effect of their mind numbing drugs made matters worse. I tried to remember how long I had been here but I couldn’t. Days had blended into days and I had lost track of time, although my instincts told me I hadn’t been here for up to a week and I was seldom wrong.
I could see ‘mute’ as I fondly called my captor, setting up my dose of nutritional supplements, and some other chemicals which I guessed to be some form of truth serum, fingers working fast with efficiency and dexterity. You could tell that she had been doing this for a while. I guessed mute was female cause of the way she worked. I knew what would happen when those drugs would be injected in me but I no longer feared the darkness… I even welcomed it.
Mute came closer holding the syringe and I closed my eyes, waiting for the subtle pinch which would mean the needle had hit home but it never came. I opened my eyes and saw that the room was empty. I could still see the syringe on the table where she had left it. For a moment I thought I was all alone in the room when I suddenly looked up and saw two professional looking men in black suits wearing sunglasses standing at both sides of the door. The first question that came to my mind was: who wears sunglasses indoors and in a dark room like this? Were they expecting the sun to rise in the room? That thought had barely crossed my mind when the door swung open and another man wearing khaki trousers and a t-shirt walked into the room. As he came closer and the light showed part of his features, I saw that he had no strand of hair on his head (his hair stylist did a good job in making sure of that) with a scar running down the right part of his neck. As he came closer to the light, I saw his face, I felt the blood leave my face and my skin grow cold. He said only two words, “Hello Susan.”
I knew today was different.
SEGUN
Just yesterday I was in Lagos, Ilashe to be precise. I was supposed to be on vacation but apparently something was wrong and they had to call in the cavalry. We had been called in to retrieve a cell 6 asset whose last known location was here, the Sambisa forest. All communications had broken off six days ago and the reports stated that the asset never made it to the pick up point. HQ had traced the asset to Sambisa forest through some online chatter and message intercepts. Apparently there was some sort of military base due North deep within this forest.
As the four of us jogged past some herds men, I felt something was suspicious about them. I had thought about warning Commander but even I knew this route was the safest, considering the fact that we had seen a large number of Soldiers dressed in full Nigerian army uniforms patrolling the main route. And we didn’t want much attention so we had taken the route within the forest.
As we approached the walls of the military base, I looked up and saw Commander and Ghost running side by side, I could not see KC but I knew that he was somewhere up ahead. I saw Commander stop and flash a signal with his left hand and I immediately diverted to the right without thinking.
Over the years we had developed our communication skills to an extent that it was now instinctual. The signal Commander had made signified that some unwelcome personnels were at our right hand side and he wanted me to take them out quietly and quickly, so as I diverted to the right, I stopped a few meters from where the personnels were to observe.
There were two well built men patrolling the vicinity wearing black skin-tight shirts and military camouflage trousers. They would have still looked scary enough if the had no weapon, but unfortunately, they were all fully armed to the teeth with several type of military grade knives and they certainly didn’t look like the regular type of soldiers we had avoided earlier on. Normally this two men would have made any regular soldier shiver but the good news is I am not a regular soldier so I smiled as I laid low, barely hidden by an orange tree.
As I observed I figured one thing was sure, they were mercenaries and from the way the walked, they were probably well trained veterans so I knew taking them out was not going to be easy especially as they were together so I decided to somehow separate them first before I attacked.
I looked at the ground and spotted an orange that had probably fallen from the tree I was hiding behind, I picked it up and threw it to the other side of the clearing and just as I had expected, one of the mercenaries wandered into the bush in search for what had made the noise, I smiled and went after him, carefully making sure I made no noise as I walked.
He was about eighty meters away from his partner when I caught up with him, I stood directly behind him and asked, “Hey, looking for me?” As I had expected he pulled out his military grade knife and turned to face me. I let my instincts take control as he charged towards me, I took that as a yes to the question I had asked him earlier.
As he swung the knife at my face, I quickly moved to the right and in one swift move, I held the hand he attacked me with and spun it so hard he fell with a loud thud. Before he could get up, I brought out my knife and slit his throat and that was it… He was dead. I dragged his body deeper into the bush to hide it and waited for his companion to come and look for him.
I didn’t have to wait long as I had barely arrived at the spot where I had killed him when I saw a knife flying towards me, my instinct took over again and I squatted immediately as the knife flew over my head, slicing of a little portion of my hair and stabbing the tree that was at my back. For a split second I was wondering if it was normal for knives to be be flying around in this forest when a foot, almost twice as big as mine hit me at the back, I lost stamina and fell instantly right at the front of a tree. I looked up and saw it was the other mercenary that was attacking me, he was incredibly fast for his size. He brought out another knife and ran towards me and tried to stab me, I moved to the left, narrowly escaping death and he stabbed the tree, as he tried to pull out his knife, I kicked his ankle so hard that he had to hold it… That was my window to attack. I swept him off his feet and pointed my gun at him, the shocked look in his eyes was quite confusing, I didn’t know either he was scared or was just wondering how I was able to bring out my gun from its holster so fast. Before he could make any move, I hit him on the head with the butt of the gun and he passed out instantly… Shooting him would have made far too much noise.
I ran back towards the spot where Commander had instructed me to divert to the right. As I ran, the vicinity looked pretty normal from a distance only for me to get to the exact spot and see Commander, Ghost and KC all on their kneels with their hands tied behind their back. Before my brain could register what was happening a heavy force hit the back of my head, it felt like something unnaturally heavy had been hit on my head, and I instantly became dizzy and lost my stamina, I slumped on the floor involuntarily.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was a bald man on Khaki trousers and a t-shirt, he had a scar on the right part of his neck and he said some words that I couldn’t quite decipher considering the fact that I was at the verge of passing out, but it sounded like, “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you.”
Afterwards, everything turned black.
TO BE CONTINUED
Chistar's Hive 