THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Twenty

                CHAPTER TWENTY
      Jason had always driven her crazy with his ways of answering questions but she might have found someone worse than Jason. She had asked him if he was her dad as a rhetorical question, but he had answered and the answer he gave was more confusing than any answer Jason had ever given her. He did not say another word as he was immediately unlocking her handcuff with a key he brought out from his pocket. She did not feel any relief immediately. She felt the opposite. It was as if her arm close to her shoulder was already used to the new position. She tried stretching her hands to allow blood to flow back into her numb muscles and at the same time she followed Faceless’ movement. He was opening the wardrobe. He brought out a first aid box and was back to her in a jiffy. She allowed him take her to sit on the bed and reacted as she felt the sting of methylated spirit on her cheeks. If he was Jason, she would have already asked him tons of questions but she was still afraid of him. She just waited to hear what he had to explain. No one had told her the man with her mum in the picture she saw was her dad, but common sense meant he was her dad. But on a second thought, he could have been his mum’s brother. She just wished Jason had allowed her to read everything. Another sting on her knees brought her focus back to Faceless. He was cleaning her knees. She took another look at his face. Her eyes were not deceiving her, he really looked like the man in that picture, although older.
“Cynthia never told me she was pregnant. I saw her few days before the incident. I had even asked Harrison if he was soon going to be a father, but he had said no. I came back for her, but I was told she died in an accident alongside some soldiers’ wives on their way to meet an Alhaji who called them. I was told they were given mass burial because their bodies were burnt beyond recognition. She never tried contacting me. If I had known she was still alive, I would have looked for her. I’m sorry.”
That statement just answered nothing on who he was. At least she now knew Faceless was acquainted with her parents, but before she could ask him who he was, she found herself wrapped in the body of Faceless. He held her so tight that she could almost not breathe and the pains she had been feeling all over her body increased. She tried pretending she was okay but failed.
“Ouch” she said hoping he would get the message.
He just got little of the message, he was no longer suffocating her.
“I’m sorry, Cynthia I’m sorry. This feels like a dream.”
He was crying, like real tears. He called Cynthia but she was not sure if she was the one he was apologizing to.
“Living without them was like hell for me” he said, his voice now steady.
“You knew my parents?” she asked hoping he would finally clarify his relationship with her parents and also explain why he was the one in the picture with her mum and not her dad.
He gradually released her and made her sit back on the bed. For what felt like an hour, he just stared at her.
“You look just like your mum, exactly like her when she ran away to meet Harrison.”
“Sir I’m confused. You look like the person I saw with my mum in a picture.”
“That's not me. That was Harrison, my kid brother.”
“You are my Uncle?”
“Yes both from your dad and mum’s side.”
“What?” she asked.
“From what you said, Jason’s mum raised you but you are listed as Jason’s fiancée" he said.
That answered almost every question she wanted to ask.
“Your parents raised my mum?”
“My mum only. There was an orphanage here in Onitsha not far from our house. Every time my mum was coming back from the market, Cynthia had always helped her bring her goods home. There was a particular week she never showed up. My mum went to make inquiry, she discovered Cynthia was seriously down with malaria. With permission from the orphanage, she took Cynthia home, she never went back to the orphanage. She became my little sister, she was same age with your dad so I had two younger siblings. I was three years older. Your dad wanted to follow my footsteps, he joined the army immediately after finishing secondary school. Cynthia was helping my mum with her business, she was supposed to go to the University the next year. One day, I got a message from my mum that Cynthia was missing. I had to come home from Lagos which was my base. My mum did not report her missing because most of her clothes were gone, it meant she left by herself. A day later, we received a letter from Harrison that she was with her. She was twenty one then.  I had to travel the next day to Kano where Harrison was based only to discover they had already done court marriage. Apparently they could because they were of marriageable age according to the law. There was nothing I could do. I stayed there for a day. Harrison told me that there was something fishy going on. He gave me a file he had stumbled upon. He never told me how he got the file. I told him to ignore it and stay safe. I got a message from Cynthia three days after I had gone back to Lagos that Harrison’s barrack was attacked by Fulani herdsmen and he was killed alongside nine other soldiers. I could not leave immediately because I had to get another permission from my commander. By the time I got to Kano which was six days later, I was told Cynthia died in an accident with four of the dead soldier’s wives on their way to Kaduna to meet one Alahji. My mum died a month later. She fainted and never woke up. I never looked at the file Harrison gave me until after the incident. I opened the file and discovered Harrison and others were murdered. There was an ongoing coup plot, that was during the Third Republic and Babangida was ruling. He had not yet handed power to Shonekan. Harrison had gotten hold of a document that showed how their plans would be carried out, and he was killed for it.” 
Why was she crying? She did not even feel anything when Jason told her little about her parents, but now it felt as if those emotions were waiting for the right time to come out. She allowed Faceless to pull her to his chest.
“The coup was successful as Abacha took over power in December. There was something else I read in that file that was disturbing. One of it was the marginalization of the Igbos and Niger Delta. Power will completely be held by only the Hausas. There was another plan to Islamize Nigeria. Although there were many Hausas that were against that plot, most of them were even Muslims, those who believed in Wahhibism which is an extremely strict form of Sunni Islam, were more. Boko Haram is a product of that plan. I had to do something to protect my people. Major Ahmed was my partner. I even showed him and two others the file. He was against it but never openly spoke against it when we were with other soldiers. I think he was the one who ranted me out. After I was attacked, I faked my own death and disappeared.”
She tried following everything he said but could not comprehend all. What caught more of her attention was Major Ahmed’s name. He knew him.
“I’m sorry Cynthia, I loved your mum, and I still miss her. Your dad was my only brother but I’m sorry I can’t allow Major Ahmed and his men destroy my twenty year plan” he said gently pulling her away from him.
Two things registered. First, he loved her mum, and second, he would still attack Jason.
“No, no Uncle, you cannot, please, you cannot attack Jason. They are not the bad guys” she said grabbing Faceless hands.
Faceless held her face with his palm, she tried shifting as a result of the pain she felt, he understood and placed his hands on her shoulder. She looked at him pleadingly.
“Cynthia, there is nothing I can promise you except that I will keep you safe. You are my niece, from the two people I cherished. I can’t hurt you but you have to know this is war. I have gone through a lot to get this far and I won’t let them stop me. You need to know that this fight is for our own good, you are a Biafran too.”
The way he said it made her case hopeless. It was obvious there was no way she could convince him to change his mind. There was something but she could not remember.
“You will stay here till this fight is over. I will send somebody to get you something to eat, and some clothes” he said standing up and walking towards the door.
He was almost opening the door when she remembered.
“No” she shouted racing towards him.
He paused and turned to face her.
“No, you don’t understand. You cannot make that call, if you do, millions will die.”
“Is that the lie Jason told you? There was no casualty the last time and this one won’t be different. Everyone have been told not to be around the Stadium today.”
“No Jason does not lie. He does not know how to lie that’s why he is not sociable.”
That was not the way she wanted to put it, but the right words were not coming out.
“There is no match that will be played at the stadium today. Jason must have been deceived by Major Ahmed.”
“No it’s not the stadium. You have been deceived by Nick and the weapon company. There are four other bombs in residential areas which will explode when you make that call. Jason’s original plan was not to come here. He was supposed to take the files containing the exact location of the bombs to Lagos but the attacks were delaying him. He had to change course which is to stop you from making the planned life call” she said very fast.
Faceless was no longer by the door, he was by her side.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know much about The Circle but I think they won’t bother if the bomb will explode like last time. Jason told me the weapon company supplying your weapons want war because war means money. You said it yourself that George impersonated one of them. They discovered there were four more bombs in areas housing Hausas and Yorubas. They are all connected to the call you are to make today. Once you make that call, the bombs would explode.”
Faceless went to sit down on the bed after her last speech.
“Are you sure?”
“Nick himself said it, Jason cannot lie. He was not told by Major Ahmed. He and George discovered the true intention of that company by themselves” she said joining Faceless on the bed.
But Faceless stood up from the bed, he moved towards the wardrobe. She did not wait long to find out why as he started punching the wooden door. For no reason she was afraid again. She knew he believed her but she could not talk to him about Jason in his current situation. And Jason should almost be at the premises. She wished there was a way to tell Jason that there was a trap. She wished she could tell Jason that she was safe and he should not come. Her eyes caught her pink hand band. She started rubbing it absentmindedly. Jason had given it to her after Mum and Dad’s burial.
“This contains my heart. It means no matter how far I am from you, my heart will always be with you. So anytime you miss me just press the middle of this hand band and I will be there” he had said.
At first she did not want to collect it because it was pink and larger than the normal rubber hand band. Jason knew she was not into pink, yet he made a pink hand band for her. Jason had said it was pink because nobody will suspect a girly colour. He never explained what he meant neither did he explain the meaning of the heart statement. It had felt weird then. She was already having feelings for Jason but felt it was one sided. Then, she almost believed Jason had feelings for her but after Jason had said no one suspected pink colour she knew Jason was just being a brother. She had never removed the band from her hand because Jason made her promise not to.
Her hand was vibrating, it was like the feeling one get from touching a vibrating phone. She had been pressing the band tightly with her right hand as she stared at Faceless while her mind was on Jason’s predicament. She quickly looked down to see what was causing the vibration. It was the hand band. The middle was opening. She watched in shock as it opened up to a device that looked like a small version of Jason’s wrist watch. It was like those wrist watches that had calculator with up to fifteen tiny buttons but flat. This one did not only have the numbers 1, 2, 3 written on the buttons. The buttons looked like a Nokia touch phone buttons. The first button had letters A, B, C and number 1 written on it. The tiny screen was displaying blue light.
“What’s that?”
She jolted and almost fell off the bed but was held back by Faceless.
“I have no idea. It was a gift from Jason. I think I might have activated it” she answered showing Faceless her hand.
She pulled her hand back after Faceless had studied it. She had no idea what to do with it. But there was one thing she was sure of. The buttons were not there as decorations. She typed the first thing that came to her mind.
‘Jason.’
Nothing happened. She studied the buttons again. There was a button having the word ‘send.’ Without wasting time, she punched it and watched as the word she typed disappeared from the tiny screen.