THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Two

       

                       
CHAPTER TWO
                   
            Few seconds later, the door to the bathroom was opened. Her eyes were closed, she did not want to see who killed Jason and who would kill her. She just wanted the killer to be quick with her. Tears were already flowing from her eyes. Jason would never know what she discovered, that she knew the secret. She only wished when students came out to see what happened nobody would take pictures of herself and Jason’s dead body.
  Someone held her shoulders, it felt like the person was trying to calm her vibrating body. He was calling her name but she was too consumed with grief to listen.
“Cindy, it’s me, it’s Jason. Are you hurt, did they hurt you?”
She heard everything but it took a while to register. First was the realization that it was Jason speaking. Gradually, she opened her eyes. It was really Jason. The relief was instantaneous as she threw herself on him, but she pulled herself away almost immediately.
“Did you just say they?”
“That is not important, they can’t hurt you anymore. Cindy are you okay? You are still in shock.”
“I thought you were dead, I …..” Jason did not allow her finish her statement, he wrapped her into him.
“Sssh it’s okay, breathe Cindy, just breathe. I was afraid I won’t get to you on time. I got you that’s all that matters now.”
He held her and only pulled away a little when her body stopped shaking.
“Cindy I know you have a lot of questions but that will have to wait because we must leave here right now” Jason said raising her up.
He still held her as they left the bathroom to the room. Jason immediately scanned the room, next he started packing her clothes and basics into her laptop bag. She did not notice Jason packing because she was frozen where Jason left her standing. She was seeing two bodies on her floor, one not too close to the bathroom while the other by her door. Blood was still pumping out from the hole at the center of the first body. Somebody tapped her, she jumped and screamed.
“Cindy it’s Jason, don’t look, let’s go. Take” Jason said giving her phone to her.
She took the phone but did not follow Jason.
“Jason, please I need to know something. Students will soon come out to find out what this shooting was all about and they will find these bodies, and……”
“Cindy, please I promise to explain. Don’t worry about the dead bodies, it will be taken care of, but if we don’t leave in the next forty seconds we may end up like them.”
That got her moving. Once outside the door, she saw another body. She looked away not wanting to see the details.
           The night was very quiet that even the nocturnal animals were silent. It was Jason’s car that broke the noise and as Jason drove out of Edo Street to Boundary Road, she tried to comprehend what had just happened within the past ten minutes but failed.
“You should at least tell me something. Who are those people?  What did you get yourself involved in?”
They were already at University of Benin Main Gate.
“George and I were on an undercover mission but our cover got blown. I believe someone in the military betrayed us. I was out when we were attacked.”
Jason was silent for a while. She knew he was trying to organize what he would say next. That was typical of Jason.
“George was able to forward the evidence of what we discovered to me. They are after it after destroying the others.” 
After a long silence, she knew that was what Jason would tell her. She became more confused than before. So many questions she wanted to ask, but she knew Jason wouldn’t answer. He hardly talked. Mum had once told her they had first believed Jason was autistic when he was younger. He could go a day without speaking to someone. The only thing that intrigued him was mathematics, shooting a bird down from the sky with a catapult until she was born……..
That brought her back to the secret she discovered. She had called Jason to tell him she knew the secret but Jason had said he would call her back because he was busy. She had immediately told Jason she wouldn’t pick when he called back. She had ended the call and Jason had called her back few hours later and she had refused to pick. But he kept calling. That was when those invaders came in. Something was not right but she could not place it.
   They were at Ring Road and Jason was on the route to Sapele.
  “Where are we going?”
“To Lagos.”
“But you are driving the opposite direction.”
“Yes, for now. They are aware I’m going to Lagos. I need them to be ahead of me.”
The answer was worse than the former. It seemed like the more she asked, the more Jason confused her.
“Trust me Cindy, the less you know the better” Jason said as if reading her mind.
He did that most times. She had asked him how he knew what she was thinking about most times and Jason had told her it was written all over her face, but that was not true as her hostel mates and course mates always guessed the opposite of what she was thinking. She later got to know she was not the only one. George had told her Jason could somehow guess correctly what he was thinking and also during combat training, Jason had a way of guessing his opponents’ attack by just looking at them. That was why he was one of their best both in combat and marksmanship, although George claimed he could beat Jason in face to face combat.
They had just crossed the by-pass when something clicked.
“Jason, how are you in Benin? I spoke with you and George yesterday and you told me you were at Onitsha?”
There was no answer. She remembered something else again.
“Jason where is George? You just told me that you were on an undercover missi…..”
She was not allowed to finish her statement as Jason suddenly brought the car to an abrupt stop. Her seat belt prevented her from being thrown out of her chair.
“Jason what the heck did….”
“They did not take the bait. We did not move on time.”
“What do you mean? Can you please speak English for once?” She shouted.
“We are being followed” Jason said coming out of the car.