THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

          She had never been to Onitsha and she did not have the strength to study the route. She did not even know how long it would take to get to Onitsha but she knew it was not far from Asaba. Once during their journey, Nick made the driver to stop. He wore something on her head that covered up to her mouth. He shifted it and she could breathe through a hole cut in the cloth.
“If you don’t want me to be rough with you, don’t touch that thing” he said.
She did not answer him, she was not planning on removing it anyway. There were so many thoughts going on in her mind, how she was going to make sure Nick and everybody who had made her life a living hell pay. Nick wouldn’t kill her now because they needed her to get Jason, but she had to do something before they made Jason reveal himself. So any provocation from her would not work, she would rather get hurt. It was better one of them died than two of them dying and she had already made up her mind to be the one. But how to actualize it was what she could not fix. She had not yet gotten a plan when the jeep stopped. She thought Nick wanted to do another thing to her but was surprised when she heard the sound of the door being opened. Before she could ask what was going on, she was dragged out of the car and almost immediately, her hands where roughly pulled back and handcuffed.
“We are here baby, he can’t wait to meet you” Nick whispered to her ears.
"So quick?” she asked.
The only answer she got was being pulled towards a particular direction. A door was opened after few minutes’ walk. There were steps that one had to climb before getting to the door but she only knew when she kicked something strong. She felt the pain instantly.
They were now inside. There was no sound coming from anywhere. 
“Where am I?” she asked panic already setting in.
Nick did not answer, but continued pulling her towards the unknown.  At a point, Nick raised her and placed her foot on what felt like a ladder.
“Slowly descend or you will fall which will be fun to watch” Nick said.
After a long downward movement with Nick holding her, her feet touched the ground. She did not need her eyes to know they were in an underground house. Nick continued pulling her. She could hear a male voice. After another few seconds, the voice was clearer.
“Just who I was waiting for. Good job Nick” she heard a male voice say.
“What is the status?” Nick asked.
“No luck yet. Are you sure this man you talked about is around this area? We’ve combed this place but none of my men nor your company men have seen this man.” The man had an Igbo accent.
“Like I said we are trained on how to be discreet” Nick said pushing her to the ground.
Her knees hit the floor with force, it felt like something shocked her knees.
“I don’t think somebody can be that discreet. My men searching for him are the best, and if he is even at Onitsha, they would have detected him long ago. You guys from BlueAI are making mountain out of a molehill” the man said.
“This girl will make him reveal himself” Nick said.
She heard footsteps coming to where she was kneeling. She tried hiding her fear but her body had its own response because she felt herself shaking. He held her jaw and raised her face up but did not remove the blindfold covering all her face apart from her nose.
“How?”
Before Nick could answer someone walked into the room.
“Sir he has revealed his location. His line is on. He is about fifteen minutes’ drive from here just by that plantain plantation.”
Her heartbeat was suddenly too fast. She knew who they were talking about.
“Good, get the men ready” Nick responded.
There was a pause, nobody spoke for some time.
“The line is not connecting. That’s typical of Jason. He wants us to locate him in person not on phone.”
“That’s not a problem, I’ll just send some of my men very close to that area to pick him up.”
“That’s not the plan Faceless. The plan is to kill him once he reveals his location. There is no point for hostage taking. You can’t even take him hostage.”
“I’m in charge here” Faceless shouted, making her jolt.
“We are on the same side, I’m just trying to help” Nick responded.
“I’ve sent a message to six of my men close to that plantain plantation to pick him up. If he shoots at them they can kill him.”
“Faceless, I brought this to you” Nick said.
“What is this?” Faceless asked.
“A classified file on The Circle, a sub team of The Special Force. You need to understand the enemy you are dealing with.”
There was silence again but she knew Faceless was reading through whatever Nick gave him.
“Wild. Leader of The Circle. Strength-Combat and Motors, psychologist, guns and others. Ghost, Mark, Doc, blabla…Simply Jason. Okay, 26, Family-Fiancée-Cynthia…”
She was no longer listening to what Faceless was saying. Did she just hear Faceless call her name as Jason’s fiancée? Why would Jason do that?  That explained why Nick called her Jason’s girlfriend but it still left a hundred and one unanswered questions.
“I don’t see anything special in this classified file” Faceless said bringing her back to the situation on ground.
“It’s because you did not read the details.”
“There is nothing to read. Nigerian soldiers are powerless. The only thing people fear about them is their weapon. If not, an average Nigerian can beat them in a face to face combat. The other day you told me that there is a Special Force Team who are killing machines, which you were a part of. Now you are showing me a classified documents of another team called The Circle. What are you trying to prove?”
“That there are some Nigerian soldiers you should fear. Twenty of your army is one of them.”
He was answered with a thunderous laughter.
“I fear no one. That’s why I really want to meet him. I want to kill him with my bare hands” Faceless said.
A phone rang. It was coming from the area Faceless was talking from.
“Yes.”
There was a long pause.
"Okay.”
“So much for The Circle. My boys are with him now and there was no resistance. He only wants to confirm she is okay” Faceless said.
“Put the phone on loud speaker” Faceless said.
He must have also switched his own phone to loud speaker because she could hear the man speaking from the other side.
“Sir, he can hear you. You don’t have to speak to him, we can bring him forcefully if you want.”
“Jason, I’m pissed, I’ve been planning this for a long time and a boy like you can’t stop me. You will soon find out what I do to my enemies.” The way Faceless spoke was enough to send chills to her body.
“Where is she?” she heard Jason voice.
“Jason” she shouted.
“Cindy, are you okay?” Jason asked.
“He killed my friend, I could not save her.”
Suddenly, all the tears came out. That was never her plan, but she could not stop the tears from flowing.
“Did he touch you?” Jason asked.
“That’s enough” Faceless said preventing her from answering.
But he still left the phone on loudspeaker.
“I’m not through talking to……”
“Sssh you have no say in this I’m the one in charge and I make the….”
Just as Jason was interrupted, Faceless was also interrupted by a gunshot, it turned to gunshots, there were more gunshots. She was not counting, she was filled with dread. She had no idea what was going on. She could not see but she was sure neither Faceless knew the reasons for the gunshots.
“What is going on Nick?” Faceless asked.
“Show time” Nick answered.
After what felt like a minute someone spoke from the other side. It was Jason.
“Cindy, are you okay?”
Shit, that was bad, Jason was not sounding like Jason. He sounded like he had lost it. He was panting.
“Cindy answer him now” Nick shouted.
Almost at the same time she felt a cold metal on her throat. And before she could stop herself, her mouth opened.
“Jason, calm down, I’m okay.”
Just that word made Jason’s panting to stop. She could not believe she was a coward. That was the opportunity she had been looking for. She should have kept quiet, Nick might have killed her and her plan would have worked. She felt guilty.
“There are no rules Faceless. Everything is just a game. Here is the deal. If you want to stay alive keep her safe if not I will wipe your Biafra from existence. You will witness it with your own eyes. Then I will kill you.”
“What the heck just happened? Ekene, Chuks. Where are my men?” Faceless asked.
“They are dead. You have nothing to worry, I will come in exchange for her. Send me the address. As for you Nick I am going to kill you” Jason said ending the call.
“Nick explain what happened?”
“What the fuck do you want me to explain? You only needed to follow my plan. Now you know who you are facing. Believe me, he meant every word he said. He has partial autism but Major Ahmed developed it to a skill. The Special Force Team are highly trained and a criteria for entering is defeating ten Nigerian soldiers in a face to face combat. The Circle are the best of The Special Force apart from defeating thirteen Nigerian soldiers in a face to face combat as just one out of ten criteria, he or she must be able to defeat six US Marine in a face to face combat. All their training methods are basically for killing, they don’t capture, they just kill. Jason is a member of The Circle. He just have to climb somewhere high and with his upgraded weapon and his high math skill he can pick a target from a thousand yards. It means he just need the location of this place, then with his missile, he will wipe out this building. Forget about being underground, his missile will find its way here. If you die, the bomb won’t explode. Trust me, your six dead men is considered nothing within the Circle Team” Nick shouted
The frustration was very clear in his voice.
Jason had told her a little about The Special Force but this was totally new. Suddenly, somebody slapped her on her left cheek. Before her body could react to the pain. Her face was roughly raised up. She felt something on her forehead.
“I just lost six of my men, give me a reason why you should not pay” Faceless said.
It was Nick that answered.
“Because Jason cannot lie. You can’t deal with Jason the way you deal with any soldier. He has autism, everything he does is calculative. If something is below fifty percent chance of succeeding Jason leaves that thing. So if you give him any signal that he cannot rescue Cindy you will lose everything. Like I said, he thinks differently, and he will wipe out your Biafra if she dies first. I have witnessed it before. A Circle member’s wife was killed by a notorious and dangerous drug Lord before he could get to her. The drug Lord and hundreds of his crew no longer exist.  If you kill her, I’m very sure he will know. I know your anger, trust me, I am mad at him too but she cannot die first."
She knew he was talking about Dark Prince.
“I guess you have a plan” Faceless said removing the gun from her forehead.
“Now you want my plan.”
“Say it” Faceless thundered.
“Send him the location but before that, we must make sure he never gets to this place. Give me few minutes to set things in motion, after that, you can send him your location.”
“I want to know.”
“Know what?” Nick asked.
“If you were a member of The Circle?”
“Nope, even after you pass all criteria, you still have to be chosen by the team leader Wild. I was not chosen.”
“Why?”
“Jason. He told Wild he did not trust me.”
“And he was right" Faceless said.
"Like I said Jason cannot lie" Nick said.
"I will study the classified document you gave me. I want to know exactly who I’m up against.”
“Good for you. I will send you a text when I’m ready to receive Jason” Nick said.
He was leaving. She knew because she heard his voice from afar. She became afraid, what if Faceless changed his mind?
“As for you” Faceless said pulling off her blindfold.
The influx of light made her blink many times. There were others in the room. About seven more soldiers. They were standing at different locations. She turned her face to look at Faceless but discovered he was really faceless. He was wearing a mask. She could only see his eyes, nose and lips. There was something wrong. He was staring at her, like he knew her and was surprised to see her. Even though she could not explain it, it felt different. But it was gone within a second, replaced by anger. But the feeling that she was missing something was overwhelming.