Imperishable Paradise

1

The gunman looked surprise when the young lady ran to defend her father. Before this operation his group had done an underground search on the family; a man and his daughter, only child. His wife was dead. From cancer, they'd discovered. He had wondered at the reason why cancer chose women to kill in Nigeria.
When he had come in with two of his boys, father and daughter were watching TV. They had caught sight of them and the father had shot an angry stare at his daughter before he had asked why she had forgot to shut the door.
The two obeyed when they were asked to lie flat on the ground.
One of the boys turned off the TV. There was no need to talk for the job had to be done and done quickly. With no footprints or fingerprints. Assassins worked carefully. The leader had pointed the gun at the man. Then out of the blues, Hus daughter had gotten up and ran to defend her father.
"You'll have to kill me first before you can touch him".

The leader with only eyes visible-the only visible part of his body, laughed.
" Emilia, twenty-two, only child. Already a graduate of the University of Canada where you studied psychology. Came back on your father's request and now going to be his successor if not for his stepbrother who also wants to head the company". He did not add that it was this stepbrother that wants both father and daughter dead by midnight.
Her eyes and those of her father seemed to widened: because of the shocking revelation or because this assassin knew so much about them. He laughed. "So, you see, I can kill you right now. It's not a problem since I was paid," 'no yet', by he didn't add this, besides it wasn't her business to know that part, "to kill you both".

" And how are you going to live with that fact?", Emilia asked. The leader had already cocked the gun and directed it at her. Emilia did not find it rocket science deciding that he aimed at her fore head. Obviously, she's not going to be the last person he kills and she wasn't the first. Definitely. But, she valued life and she did not spend close to twelve years in Canada with the best part of four studying Psychology, to come and die in the hands of a murderer or assassin.
The leader looked at her. Eye to eye.
"What? Fact? I dig up informations about my victims before I swing into action. Better know your enemy before the battle, someone said that, didn't he?".

"Not the fact that you know almost everything about me that does not concern you, but the fact of adding my father and I to the countless number of people you've murdered". Emilia, though afraid, who wouldn't be when a pistol was few inches from their forehead and the man holding the gun was an experienced shooter, did not show it. It was one of the hardest things she has ever done aside picturing her life without her father if they killed him. That motivated her having  the gun pointed at her now instead.

"I've not killed up to two hundred persons in the world", he said almost defensively.

"That's one hundred and something people less in the world, Sir", Emilia returned.

"Another million has been born and that covers the killings, don't you think?", this time in self defense he turned to his boys whose faces were also masked like his. The boys agreed. Emilia looked at all three. From the look in their eyes, the leader should be in his early thirties because though fully masked and dressed in black, his physique gave him out. The two boys with him should be between the ages of nineteen and twenty-two. Emilia wondered why they weren't in college or doing something more honest with their lives rather than killing other people or following someone that killed other people.

" But without the killing of those hundred and something, it would have been a million and a hundred something people. Those people had families who because of you they had to leave behind. You're cruel!", she lashed.

That made him angry. She knew he would be. He stopped laughing.
"Now I wonder why we were ever having a conservation. I don't talk to my victims".

" There's a first for everything, Sir", Emilia pointed out. Her father, she could tell, was just lying there, cowardly shaking.

"So is there a second. But not for death. If you die now you don't die again". Emilia knew that fact very well. And, she wasn't ready to die.

" You wouldn't kill me. You can't. You wouldn't dare to kill my father. You can't".
The last thing anyone could ever do in this situation is anger a psycho maniac of an assassin.
The man laughed again. Was this girl brave or was she acting foolish?. A gun is visibly in his hand and she is saying he couldn't pull the trigger. He realised that he was the only one finding the situation funny. He looked at her father. The man had already wet himself, teeth clenched, eyes red with tears. He hid behind his daughter. The leader could not blame him, the man was old and  not protective of himself from his own step brother.
"Look at your old man. He's dead anyway. I can't leave him. If I did, one, I'd be in so much trouble with my boss and two, I will not get the opportunity to kill him again because he'd surround himself with soldiers. I can't take that chance, you see. You should understand how I feel". He had cocked the gun but still did not pull the trigger. He looked at her. All his previous victims had cried or shouted when he pointed the gun at them but this young lady did neither. All she did was bite her lower lip and turn her face in a frightened way. It was almost as if she could not bear to take the bullet on her forehead so he should shoot the side of her head just above her ear.
He lifted the gun and shot the roof. Himself and the boys ran out.

Emilia stood, shocked. She dropped on her flowing gown. Her father held unto her as he adjusted his glasses, looking around still for those paid to take his life. Tears rushed down Emilia's cheeks.
" Dad?", she called out not turning to look at him. "Are you okay?, she drew her nose, " are you hurt? ".
" No, Emilia. No. What you did was brave, my child. If you still hated me you wouldn't have saved me".
"Hey Dad", she fired as she faced him, "don't you say that," he nodded. "I don't hate you neither am I angry with you. Do you know what motivated me to do this?. I thought of life without you and the next thing I knew a gun was pointing at my forehead".
"But the gun and the gunmen are gone", the man said rising to his feet and making his way upstairs the magnificent building to change his urine soaked clothes. Emilia just stared at the door the assassins used in exiting.

After what seemed like just a few seconds, Emilia stood. She ran to her room, got a pen and paper and started writing a letter beginning with,  " Dear Dad, I'm going after our assassins...".

Travelling box in hand, Emilia placed the letter on the parlour table, took one last look at the house, wiped her tears and was out the door, starting the car and driving into the darkness of the night out the gate.