The Mission

I closed my eyes and counted to 10 to calm myself down. I hoped to any and all of the gods that the houseplant gave me enough cover. I heard the hiss and I knew she was pissed. I made a mental note to strangle Daniel if I get out of this. . . .

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Daniel's head poked above my screen with a grin on his face. "So are you all ready for tonight?"

I rolled my eyes and kept looking at the blueprints on my laptop.

"Oh come on Remi this mission is huge, the command centre wouldn't have given it to anyone else", he said his eyes twinkling with that mischievous look.

I knew he personally made a case to the board for me to get this mission mostly for his own personal reasons and of course being the pro I am the board didn't hesitate to agree. I was one of the best in the field, especially when it came to retrieving the impossible. 

"We're talking about the ibeji crystals! How aren't you excited!!"

"Well Danny, excitement leads to distractions, distractions lead to mistakes, mistakes are bad for business", I said matter-of-factly.

"I understand  but these are the crystals of youth and vitality! They're as prestigious as they come!!"

I rolled my eyes again and twirled my braids while he kept talking, "No one has been certain of their location for decades and now we've traced it to a house in Banana Island, this is the break through of the century!"

"Don't forget that they are in the home of Chief Mrs Adedoyin", I countered.

"Well I didn't want to play this card but it is your obligation. You don't have a choice", he said folding his arms.

Easy for him to say, he's just a voice in my ear. But he's right those crystals couldn't remain in her home it was too dangerous and if we knew they were there anyone could figure it out. I looked at our duplicate of the crystals. Over the years they had been forged into an amulet and I had to admit it was a genuine duplicate. I'd be in and out with the swap and they'd be none the wiser.

I looked at my watch, it was 10:45pm, it would take 15 minutes to get to her house since we were already within the estate.

"Alright Danny boy, let's move"

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11:00pm, I squatted in some bushes rose to the fence as I surveyed the mansion.

The Chief lived on her own. I counted a total of 5 police men outside and according to Daniel's research there were 10 bodyguards where within the high fences and 5 inside the mansion.

I chuckled this was pretty trivial where I was concerned. The policemen outside weren't even a slight threat 3 were dozing and 2 were listening to the match on the radio. I stuck to the area that weren't touched by the security lights and climed the tree closest to the fence. There was another tree closeby inside the compound but I needed the fence as a stepping stone.

"Danny I'm at the top, cut the power"

"You have a 15 second window. . .now!"

Not wasting a second I dropped to the fence and balanced making the jump to the tree with a second to spare.

"And we've got a 10 from all the judges across the board", Daniel said in his best commentator impression.