Ex Gratia (#1 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 28

Leaving her mother’s was all Akoma could think of. That was the first time she had gone to sleep so quickly with no clue about how she had made her way to bed. It was not an experience likened to dozing off. It was like taking a sleeping pill or being drugged. She finally packed her stuff and left hurriedly again, and Mama was worried about how short the visit had been and Akoma’s refusal to disclose the issues in her life to her.

Ender was silent, and Akoma was left in her anxiety and confusion again about what was coming up next again. It was difficult for her to resist the temptation of contacting Aba and Louisa because she had been asked not to, and to some extent she understood why. She was getting crushed by the restricted Ex Agent life and not even the money in her bank account was enough to compensate her loss of freedom. She was itching to discuss the form her own ex gratia would take with Ender but she also thought it would give her unfaithfulness away too easily. She seemed to have been made to believe that Ender was this ubiquitous villainess who could see, hear and feel anything in Akoma’s surroundings, and the coincidence of receiving calls from Ender whenever she was close to doing something out of place was just more incredible than weird sometimes.

Akoma kept having the nightmares about killing Gracefield again for the next two days, and each time she woke up, she would try contacting her but to no avail. The fear was increasing, and she kept having this sense of foreboding that the dreams were tied to Ender’s certain forecast that Gracefield’s wedding was going to turn out really bad. She did not want anything to go wrong for her friend. If only she could reach her or even her fiancé, Akoma was certain that at least something could be done to curb the unknown. Of all the things both of them had discussed, Gracefield had not even disclosed the venue of the wedding to her, and she had not availed herself to discuss it too. Akoma silently decided to find out from elsewhere if she could attend it, but intended to make her friend feel very sorry for being so unreasonably distant. She sent Gracefield a text message informing her to be careful, to pray or seek spiritual protection if she could not, and probably secure the wedding grounds. Gracefield did not return the message, and Akoma called her to prompt her but her line was busy.

“I am tired of you!” Akoma finally shouted and chucked the phone on the bed in her hotel room. “Find a way of saving yourself. I have tried! Are you the only person getting married? Ah!”

She managed to go back to sleep again, and later that night, Ender called. “There are two things I need you to do, and then your final assignment will come. I will talk about that one after you have completed the remaining two. Get to TUC right now. The interior décor company is sending a truck to setup for a wedding. I need you to intercept it and prevent it from going. You will be provided with what you need. Just follow my lead, OK?” Akoma did not respond, and Ender chuckled. “You sound tired already. Don’t worry. It will be over sooner than you think, but I would advise that you end it well.”

*******

The truck was said to be setting off after 9pm and Akoma got to the Pink Panther hotel road an hour earlier. Ender led her to find a long spike strip hidden in a  gutter nearby. She picked it up and dragged it across the road to hide in some bushes close by. Because of her black clothes, the mosquitoes were all over her, and she felt very agitated anytime she took a bite. She kept checking the time until it was 9:10pm.

“Where is this truck?” Akoma whined. “I could have simply gone to their shop or something and did whatever you wanted me to do. This is a total waste of time.”

“Your getaway plans are too loud,” Ender shouted at her angrily. “You made someone tear a shop apart just to create a diversion. That’s too loud. You have to be subtle to be a good Ex Agent.”

“I don’t want to be trained. I want to do what you want and get my life back again.”

Ender scoffed. “That wasn’t discussed that way. Once you have been appointed, you are working with us full time. The earlier you accept this, the better. This is just a probationary level assignment. There are heavier ones, and you need to shut your trap and pay attention. Don’t make this too hard for me. I still have a few things I can take from you. Stop giving me the melodrama and do the forsaken assignment!!!”