Spy

Backfire

"You were not supposed to come straight to my office to claim your payments you have almost messed me ,but since you are here. Tomorrow take a flight to Ibadan state and remain silent for a while till i put things straight.

Where are your boys?did you kill the girl.? Where is she? Hey look up! did it look like a clean job or you left traces?. I respect you but just abandoning the girl in your hideout is disastrous. You guys should have also tried to make the girl think she was being kidnapped for a different reason. Boys this mission is a fail.

You have to keep our name like we always did. You are not going to fly anymore until you clean the mess with the boys. You now have no option other than killing her to safeguard your names but don't open fire. Silencers must be intact. Thats a new change of plans. " The lady speaking this words was all alobg standing at the doorway of a big office and she silhouetted her face in a black hijab like head scarf or a duraag or whatever it was that was masking her face from anyone who knew her real identity

Graduation preparations started and all graduands that had issues within the school started streaming in for clearance, to ensure, their names were in the graduands list. The elder boys were the luckiest as those that had younger girlfriends were hosted and even enjoyed 'stolen' conjugal rights from their once, school wives.

Those who had money 'the first class' enjoyed nights at the canteen and inns around the mission drinking and exchanging women waiting for their turns. "The second class of merchants' this included those known thieves of beddings and small school items spent nights at a tent pitched at the center of the school football pitch. This tent was erected purposefully for this function.

Anabel wasn't among them. Those that knew her started sensing her absence might be linked with some evil. Some though thought that she had finally decided to look for her family. Two days later things were still not adding up and others thought she had decided to spend time with her former boyfriend because he too hadn't arrived. Their colleagues started calling their numbers which were equally switched off.

Trouble started smelling here. The exercise was almost complete. Where could these guys be? Those that had time with the dailies later confirmed to their doubting Thomases that it was all over the papers that Annabel was missing even from her guardian's home.

Who was this guardian? Where was he or she when nobody was there for Ann? The same rumours had it that she was kidnapped and it was also linked to her boyfriend. Anyway why could someone of sane mind kidnap their girlfriend whose background was a mystery?

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On the light of a tin lamp in a tiny smoky room a woman held up a newspaper. She had received the daily from a curious neighbor who claimed that someone with the resemblance of her missing daughter was also being searched for by someone who claimed to be her guardian. A big ransom was being given out to anyone who could give out information that could lead to her whereabouts.

When she saw the full page photograph she almost fainted. It was her daughter yes it was her but the name wasn't hers. Even though her eyes were teary from the smoke and the newspaper picture was black and white, she could tell this was her girl.

She might have left home and changed her name so that she can earn a living either by crime or maybe she had messed up with a politician or big government official and had decided to hide. There was no way someone could bear such great resemblance with her long lost daughter. The description was all hers but the bit where she attended the biggest medical school in the country was the only thing that made her mom think they were wrong.

Her Maureen(Annabel's real name) couldn't afford fees to pay for medical training and neither could she find herself in a mission training medics. She was naive back in the days and the family had no godfather big enough to secure her a chance at any local university.

Even though she doubted she decided to go to the police station to give her own account on the issue. She also planned that once she had been found they could let her talk to her long lost daughter. Least did she know that her information could land her into more trouble the next day and neither did she know that in the police station nobody went there carrying gifts for the officers.

Once the now old and almost back bent woman arrived at the station the next day and gave her account of story, she was locked up in the female cell for more interrogation. She wished she had stayed silent