Delayed Diagnosis {Book 1 of the Rex Obasi Trilogy}

Chapter 47

Sunrise was a steel company which was presently one of the biggest in Africa.

'Sunrise steel' was the name in full. As I viewed the short documentary on strange eyes’ tab, I knew immediately that this was the company Fome and Mona's father had started up. He himself had told me just nights ago.

Strange eyes was quiet, still puffing away on his ciggaret, but I could tell he was sleepy. We were fast approaching the break of dawn and possibility of nightmares was at the barest minimum and so he was sliding further into the seat.

Me on the other hand, my eyes were glued to the screen.

Sunrise steel had really taken off in the late 90's, the brilliant owner; Chief  Amunike had gotten the brainstorm to start up with a foundry, and began in metal casting and the production of crude steel.

I knew for a fact that the brainstorm had been by his friend at the time who had been walking home tiredly, choked by poverty when he noticed unwanted and 'condemned' metal being carried away to be broken in pieces.

That was where Mr X had gotten to the night we spoke before emotions and bitterness had taken over but now I could connect it well and I also knew he had started it up two years before Fome's birth when Mona was still a baby and I knew for a fact it was in the late 80's not early 90's.

Anyway, the demand for steel was on the rise that year and it would infact increase rapidly in the next decade and so the little company began to grow and presently is one of the biggest steel industries in Africa.

So basically from melting metals, refining and solidifying it and marketing the crude steel, the Chief made a fortune and I could see it was truly a fortune because the slides also showed his 'official' net worth.

I blinked and counted the digits again, of course he was into other things, there was the ammunition, (I mean the drink now) he also had a line of cologne and perfumes and other string of businesses scattered around the Country.

I gritted my teeth. Businesses like drug dealing and human trafficking, once more I marveled at how he had managed to run his illegal businesses for decades and get away with it.

Anyway, the Sunrise Steel was one of the sponsors of the widows initiative and their major sponsor I was sure.

I wondered about the setup of it all, could the Chief be this dangerous? It felt like a stupid question really, I mean once a person is heartless that equals danger don't you think?

Somehow the Chief was linked to this group of assassins and mercenaries that did the dirty job, but the vibe I was getting was that theirs was more of a partnership. I couldn't say they worked for the Chief, that wouldn't quite fit with what I could percieve. They were assassins for hire and the only two that had ever been killed (and given us some inkling about their existence) had been on some kind of personal contract. I was one of the contracts recently and the other was three years back...all failed operations thankfully.

Still, these shadows of the sunset (if I could call them that) they were truly shadows in every sense. I thought back to the kill strikes and abductions I had read about. All were swift and most times nobody expected anything to happen or even knew anything had happened.

I had to act, I could sense something hovering on the horizon, there was the Chief on one side, there was Mr X on the other, and there was me. I could forsee some kind of clash in the nearest furure. It was some kind of  triangle; I could picture the three of us in a desert, circling and sizing each other up while each of our hands itched for the gun on our hip like in the last scene of the movie: 'The good, The Bad and The Ugly' the name was frightfully accurate and if that were the case, I planned to act exactly how Clint Eastwood had done, the way he had been two steps ahead of his two antagonists every time.