THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Twenty Seven

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
           She was crying again and it was one big distraction. He understood why she was crying before, but now the tears where affecting him on a personal level. He had not have time to think about how the message would be passed across to George’s parents. It was going to be difficult because he was their only son. George had always fantasized on becoming a soldier when he was young. Then his family was still in Nigeria. They had all moved to London just after he had completed his primary education. But his dream did not change. His dad was somehow a close friend of Major Ahmed and George had seen him as his idol. It was Major Ahmed who brought him to Nigeria.  The second thing he did after he had seen George’s dead body, was to deposit his corpse in a mortuary, then he drove straight to Benin.
“Cindy, please” he said.
He would never be able to concentrate if she kept crying. She stopped crying bringing a little relief and concentration. He had not yet hacked Faceless phone. He was preparing his tool box’s firewall to prevent a retribution after he must have hacked BlueAI’s control systems.
“How did we get here?” she asked.
“By car.”
“You know what I’m asking about. There is no way Nick did not attack you and you are not superman. There is no way you will drive all the way from where you were hiding to this place without getting attacked.”
She was right, he was not superman which was just a movie character, there was nobody like that. But the right gadgets could make one.  Like he had predicted, there was no further attack till he got to his destination. He had almost lost it when he saw Cindy.  He was definitely going to hurt Faceless after preventing the bomb explosion. She had blacked out on him after almost falling from the ladder after a bomb blast. That part of the tunnel would be damaged and there was no way the person that released the bomb survived. He now knew who he was.
He had been careful after getting Cindy. He made sure he changed in the hut, then he had worn a silicone mask before driving to their house.
“Cindy you need to rest. I will explain when all this is over.”
“I’m happy you are still alive” she said after some time.
There was a blink on his android watch. He removed his eyes from his tool box to look at what was going on. It was unbelievable.  The time was just half past six but they were close.
‘Where are you guys?’ he sent a message to Wild who had same gadget.
‘Less than an hour’ Wild replied.
He could track them within three hours distance but he had set the watch to alert him when they were close.
‘What route?’
‘Benin.’
‘What is Fast running?’
‘200.’
‘You know one can die by car accident?’
‘Not with Fast’
‘Took Cindy hostage, got her back.’
‘How?’
‘Faceless is her Uncle. Temporally on our side.’
‘Let’s say I believe you cause you don’t lie.’
‘About to hack his phone using his IMEI.’
‘Good. Nick?’
‘Still alive, Andrew too.’
‘Okay, what are the odds?’
‘Right now, 30/70 till I get hold of their system.’
‘Okay. Stay safe.’
For some reason, he felt energized. Help was on the way and they were going to end everything before the deadline.
Within twenty minutes, he was accessing Faceless’ phone. He raised his head to look at Cindy. She was already asleep. He wished he was there holding her. He had to force himself to look back at his tool box. He did not want to take control of the phone. He was very careful because there was a possibility the phone had already been hacked. He just connected his tool box to the phone. There was no other device after few minutes’ search. There was something not right. His location was no longer at Akwukwa. From what he was reading, Faceless was at their big building at Obosi.
  After browsing through to see if Faceless’ phone was plugged to BlueAI computer and discovering he had not, he took full control of Faceless phone. He immediately installed their listening app and opened it.  He wanted to find out what was going on.
“Faceless you just have to believe me. I could only help when Cynthia was here and when Jason was still in our radar. But we’ve lost both. You need to make the call now” he heard Nick’s voice.
“You said we should immediately evacuate the Akwukwa building because Jason would soon blow it up because Cynthia is no longer there. I listened to you. I stationed someone to monitor from afar. I’ve not gotten news that the house had been blown. Now you want me to do a call already fix for 11pm.”
“We just arrived, and the missile that will destroy that house is not something you shoot like a bullet.”
“All this wouldn’t have happened if you had discovered she was wearing a gadget.”
“Our device can only interfere with an active tracker. You are the one who is yet to understand the enemy you are facing.”
“But I can’t make that call now. Many people will still be by the stadium by this time. Remember I said no civilian should die. The best we can do is to trust your reinforcement to find Jason before he destroys my plan.”
“See, this is Lagos Stadium right now. No single soul, people are boycotting the road. You need to do it now before Jason track us here.”
“Okay, if this is really Telsim Balogun Stadium, then I agree. But how do we deal with Jason, making this call won’t prevent any attack?” Faceless asked after a short pause.
“That’s why I said we should do it now so we can disappear.”
“Are things set already?”
“They are on it.”
“Nnamdi, call Nwankwo for me” Faceless said.
“I need to plug my phone. The battery is low” Faceless said.
“Okay, I’m coming” Nick said.
He breathed a sigh of relief. He was almost thinking Faceless still wanted to make the call. For Nick to believe Faceless with no idea of Faceless' role in Cindy's escape, meant he was very good. The big problem they had now was the fact that Nick believed Faceless was not involved. But there was still hope. He waited for Faceless to plug the phone to the system.
  He was almost switching off the audio app when things started falling apart.  First there was a gunshot, then there was a distance voice shouting Faceless’ name as if he was being chased by a wild animal.
“Faceless, you can’t make that call” the voice panted.
“Nalu, what is going on?” Faceless asked.
“Ikenna is dead and I know why Ebuka escaped with that girl” the new voice said.
“Explain.”
“We were doing patrol when we heard two of the BlueAI men discussing about four more bombs that will blow up when you make that call. Ikenna went to confront them and he was killed.”
“Lies.” That was Nick. He was not yet out.
“Your men killed my man Nick, and you call it lies?” That was Faceless voice and he sounded angry.
“Faceless” another unknown voice shouted.
“Nnamdi, what is going on?”
“I think Jason is around. Ikenna is dead” Nnamdi said.
“No, it was Nick’s men that killed him” the first voice said.
“What the heck is going on?” the one Faceless called Nnamdi asked.
“Nick can you explain why your men killed my man if this is all a lie?” Faceless asked.
“You are the one I don’t understand. You want separation from Nigeria without war?” Nick responded.
“That’s not what I asked” Faceless said.
“Hey, tell your man to drop that gun” Nick said.
There was a gunshot, followed by many other gunshots. He was already up from where he was sitting. He ran to their storage and brought out some weapons which he kept in his big military bag.  Bullets were still being fired and there was no way to know the number of casualties but he already knew the side that would lose.
Everything he needed was already in his bag safe for his tool box and their secured phone. The shooting had stopped but nobody had said anything.
“You should have known you will lose before engaging with us.”
That was bad. Very bad. He knew that voice and it was not Nick, nor Andrew.  He was once a member of the Circle. Even before he joined. But he was disqualified and even court-martialed for civilian casualties during a mission. He was to be tried for the death of civilians but had escaped. He was called Tiger. All the Special Forces he had faced were never part of The Circle but this one was. He majored in combats and he had 99 percent target accuracy. There could be more of Special Force Team and Faceless and his men did not have a chance.
“The only reason why you are alive is to make that call. As for this Nnamdi, we don’t need you” Tiger said.
“No don’t kill him. Not now” Nick said.
“I will never make that call” Faceless said.
“We shall see” Nick said.
He quickly searched the phone for the number Faceless was supposed to call. It was saved with Lagos Stadium. He copied it to his tool box and deleted it from the phone. That would delay them even if it was just five minutes, it could mean a lot. He temporarily closed the audio app. He switched on his secured phone and connected it to his tool box to prevent it from being tracked. After that, he sent a message to Ghost.
‘Ghost, still alive?”
He did not wait long as the response came almost immediately.
‘Yeah, just few businesses to finish.’
‘Can you try and defuse the bomb?’
He was very careful of what to write. Nick must not know he was already aware of his new plan and the shooting.
‘How?’
‘You can try. Find the phone inside the bombs and switch it off.’
‘I got it.’
He switched off the phone a bit relieved Ghost understood what he meant. During one of their trainings, after they had joined The Circle, they were told to stop a system from completing a one minute countdown that would ignite a bomb blast. Some of them switched off the system, some disconnected it from the power source. He and George hacked the system. But Ghost shot the system. According to him, his mission was to prevent the bomb from exploding and that was his way. Ghost would not be able extract the phones from the bombs, instead he was going to make sure the call wouldn’t go through. He would not be able to hack into networks and close it, but he was going to blow up all the mast of Nigerian network providers close to the bombs. Especially the stadium.
Next he sent a message to Wild. He needed to get there and hope The Circle would join him soon.
‘Things fall apart.’
‘How?’ Wild responded.
‘Biafrans now hostage, Nick has rescheduled the call time.’
‘What are your plans?’ Wild responded.
‘Will try hack the system, but I’m going there right now.’
‘Okay, we are almost there. Make sure to delay Nick till we come.’
‘Tiger is with him.’
‘That’s bad.’
‘See you soon’ he sent his last message.
Cindy would be safe because they had cameras installed almost at every corner and he could protect Cindy from anywhere. He went to meet Cindy on the bed.
“Hey, Cindy.”
“Jason, I must have slept off” she said opening her eyes.
“Your Uncle is in trouble and I need to go help.”
Cindy was too involved, he did not have the time to explain much.
“You are leaving me?” she said almost panicking.
“You are safe here. Don’t go out till I come for you. If there is any suspicious activity press this” he said wearing his security band on her hand.
“Wait, my Uncle is in trouble?” she said trying to stand up but he gently pulled her back.
“Yes. And I need to go now” he said placing a kiss on her forehead.
He stood up after putting his tool box in his bag.
“Jason” she called stopping him from opening the door.
“Please don’t let my Uncle die. Please come back for me.”
He nodded. He opened the door and within forty seconds, he was on his way to Obosi.