It was around 8 O’clock in the evening. A young lady and a gentleman sat facing each other in a five-star hotel in Abuja, the capital of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They were meeting for the first time and they were meeting for a very important reason. They were planning the death of a man who truly deserved to die.
The lady was Louisa Luiz, 26 years of age, extremely beautiful and a graduate of Financial Studies. For 16 years she had been thinking about this meeting and every day, she had patiently waited for it. Sixteen years ago, she witnessed the gruesome murder of her father, a union leader. Then, the military were ruling the nation and they were obsessed with power. Her father was among the very few people who dared them.
On the ill-fated day, when Louisa was 10, her father’s arrest was ordered by the military and he was to be brought to the barracks dead or alive. Her father resisted the arrest and the army officer that led the team did not hesitate to pull out his gun and shoot him right in the presence of his wife and daughter.
Her mother, who was also an activist died shortly after that incident in a hospital, but her last words to Louisa was to avenge her father’s death and Louisa was determined to do just that. Her uncle, who took custody of her after her parents’ death also promised to assist her in actualizing that dream and had been keeping tab on the army officer who pulled the trigger. The officer’s name was Stephen Brail, then a Captain but now a General.
The young man was James Sydney, 29 years of age and he possessed the best record amongst the hit men of his generation. He was born in South Africa and grew up there. At 14 he had been trafficking drugs and was arrested for same offence at 17. Because he was a juvenile then, he was not sentenced; he was rather deported to Nigeria his home country. On getting to Nigeria he joined the army cadet and was later fully admitted into the Nigerian Army. There he was trained as a commando before he was dismissed for a series of offences. After his dismissal from the army, he joined the dreaded Dragon’s mafia and the police believed that he was involved in all high-profile crimes committed in recent times. Louisa’s uncle suggested to her that if anybody could assassinate a serving general, it had to be James Sydney.
Louisa’s uncle had arranged this meeting and Louisa did not waste time in telling Sydney exactly what she wanted and her reason for it.
Characteristically, Sydney would never say something was impossible. To him, the first thing was money. After getting the money, then he would consider the possibility of the assignment. If it was something that was possible, he would do it but if not, he would just ignore it and assumed he had no contract with anybody. If the person that paid him complained that his job had not been done, he would shout and asked him how he expected anybody to do such thing. If that one asked for his money back, he would politely give him the address of the nearest police station and even offered the phone number of the divisional police officer there. So the moment Louisa mentioned the name of the person to be assassinated, he did not care to listen to the rest of the story again. How could anybody in their right senses expect him to assassinate a serving General, and not just a General but the head of the Military Intelligence Unit? Sydney knew Brail very well; he had trained under him when he was still in the army.
When Louisa finished her story, Sydney simply replied it, “It will cost you twenty million naira”.
Louisa laughed. “Where will I get such an amount of money? Look Sydney, we have done something that will make the job easier.”
“What is that?” Sydney asked.
“For over two years now, my Uncle has been monitoring this man and has discovered that he sometimes visits somewhere secretly alone without any of his aides”.
“Really?” Sydney asked.
“Yes”, she replied and produced a map of Abuja and its neighbouring towns.
“Look, this is how my uncle described his movement. This is his house.”Louisa pointed a finger at a spot on the map. “And these arrows show the path he uses to get to his secret haven”.
“How often does he do that?” Sydney asked.
“Randomly, maybe an average of once a week.”
“You’ve done half of the job, so your bill can be reduced to tenmillion naira”, Sydney said.
“Listen, Mr. Sydney. I earn a million naira in a year and I have only worked for one year. All these while, I have been living on my uncle, but this matter is my baby, I have to deal with it myself”.
Sydney stared at her.
“Miss Louisa, you are offering me a million naira to assassinate a serving General in the city of Abuja. It will cost more than that to kill a beggar living in the bush”.
“That’s all I have, James. If I have to pay you twice that amount, this mission will have to wait for another year”.
Sydney thought briefly. He reasoned within himself that since he was not going to carry out any mission, then any amount of money would be just fine.
“Alright, when will I have the money?” he asked.
“Gimme your account number and I will transfer it there now.”
