Square One

Funny and fearful tales is what you hear 24 hours each day in some quarters here these days. Can't just understand why some people's lives are full of stories while some others are as dry as the Sahara desert. Not as if the people of milfe autonomous community are enjoying the type of story their lives are full of and from the look of things, those suffering from dryness are thanking heaven and asking for the drought to be permanent.

That is what some people in the town of milfe can't understand. "Why me and why us" is the only thing dropping from their mouths. The gunmen have attacked again as usual killing vigilantes in their numbers once again. Not as if anyone is in doubt of what is actually happening, but what they read like many others is what they go with. Gun men. But they knew better. 

The rate these killings are happening in milfe leaves no one in doubt that some power tussle or business gone sour is going on around them silently. These days, gun killings are common there. Many prefer doing away with their enemies in spiritual ways and kidnapping of top shots and asking for ransom is the new best way of handling contract killings these days. If you must clear any wealthy shit, why not benefit from the two angles is a new theory, the new motto of these contractors these days.

Okiro had been in that line of contract killing for long and the new entrants that came with sense that never entered his mind have revolutionaries the sector and made it so enticing that many amatures can't just control themselves and are jumping into the arena they know nothing about and adding unnecessary sand to the diet of the professionals and giving the sector unnecessary bad name. 

Okiro and his group that had been in the line for ages know that there are unwritten rules and regulations, infact invisible constitution that every professional adheres to. But these youths that are lured by big money and dying in their numbers can't stop giving the sector a bad name and yet not succeeding.

Last week alone, the usual police force were beating their chest and vomiting all manners of delusion as being effective or some madness like that and yet all the job Okiro and those professionals like him have done spanning fifteen years now, none have been solved by these incompetent officers that knows nothing but intimidating illiterate and timid citizens. Imagine, they are not only beating their chest but are screaming for all to hear.

For three months now, they had been given these pitiful citizens hope that they are working and okiro and those like him knew that when they move, they move like ghosts and officers have nothing in their wake to follow unlike these kids that leaves leads here and there for them to follow.

What is worrying okiro and others like him is that little confidence compounds. That is exactly what they don't like these officers to have on their side. Confidence that compounds. It is always safer to be ten steps ahead of your enemies. When they move one step, move twelve and they will only choke on the dust coming from your sandals and nothing more. 

Now, what has disturbed Okiro's sleep for the past three weeks is that he had received a call from a valued client and has in his characteristic way asked all the questions that needed asking and followed all the rules that have served him for years he has never for any reason violated. In certain lines of operations, careless mistakes are no excuse. That is what these youths that resort to muscles instead of brain don't know. 

When you have a job to see through, make sure that you follow all the unwritten rules that govern the sector you are in. Don't rush for any reasons, never talk anyhow on the issue, never use your public line for business, don't start any act that will keep public eyes on you and never for any mad reasons use nonsense methods of payment that will lead these incompetent forces to your door.

But like Okiro noted, confidence compounds and watching the news and reading the papers, he can feel it wafting from those officers in no small measure that he is beginning to worry as a professional, this is nothing but bad news. Imagine having a double mind for the first time since almost fifteen years of being on the front line. 

Now, this client of his is the kind that doesn't have patience. And he always makes sure that he is the one in control of the events to ensure no nonsense afterwards. Patient is the core characteristic of the sector and no one has ever applied pressure like this guy from somewhere in the cooler south is doing. He wants this man and his wife out of the way by tomorrow and he is paying almost six times to see the operation out of the way fast.

That is another red signal from experience okiro has gathered over the years. Never act,never misbehaved due to money. Never succumb to client pressure. Overall, bear in mind that a dead lion is worth nothing more than a hungry skinny cat alive. Better be alive and hungry than fat, wealthy and dead. It's sucka shit for sure. 

But the money is something else and the guy is paying in hard currency. The story Okiro was able to pry out of him was that if the man and his wife  are dead, their son in cooler south can't afford not to appear back here in nigeria to see things for himself and once out of cooler south, he will corner the man son's customers that pays hefty for untested drugs and are assured customers so far from what okiro client have seen. But Okiro knew there was more to what he was told. 

But okiro has no plan of not reaping from where he sows. It is a new trend these incompetent new guys brought into the trade and it sounds reasonable enough to him. Never kill on the spot, kidnap and ask for ransom from the victim's family and then finish them off to collect another pay from your client for the work well done. Double gain from one venture. It's an intelligent move.

He has been able to prevail over his client pressure and the man seems to be seeing the sense in what he was saying and seems to trust him more with each passing day. That is the first thing any reasonable person must realize. Trust first before pay.

The couple to be cut down isn't an easy job to see through. Okiro knows there is no way such double hijacking will succeed in the city with the type of security he sees in their mansion and the streets there. Gadgets, humans and dogs everywhere. Nah, its tantamount to committing suicide and okiro has no intention for any amount of throwing away his life for nothing.

He has reconnoiter the couple's base in their village two hours by car away from his base and decided that it is a far better option than the city, so the operation has to be done in the village.  

On d-day, he woke up to a bad dream that made him sit for hours in the dark moping at the wall. This has never for once, happened to him and he is not liking this job for anything each passing day. But, his boys have been trained, some commission paid and he have also forwarded some to his boys he had been using for years now and some are getting old for this kind of physical strength required job, so he had dropped some and recruited some more that needed extra training to catch up with some old hands. 

They have not disappointed in the training ground and he still has some doubt lingering in the back of his mind. But the operation must go on. The couple always travel with two or three convoys and the route they have chosen for the work is so isolated that Okiro can't stop wondering what is wrong with these wealthy guys? They can't even put the route they use back to their own village in order despite all this money floating around them?  Well, the losers today will be them, not okiro. 

The three hired cars by okiro and his boys were well hidden from any naked eyes and walkie talkie working in order and eighteen years girl they hired to throw the convoy off guard will walk in their parts in the designated spot carrying basket and once the car in front stops to find out what is happening, every person in that car are to be sent to their maker by his hiding boys while the girl were told to retreat backwards from the cars. Okiro doesn't need anyone alive except the couple. It is always good to tie up any loose ends to avoid bullshits afterwards. Dead men don't talk, but the wounded do. So, death is far better than maiming. 

When the time arrived, the girl dressed in local clothes carrying her worn out local basket like one of those early morning local farm girls were marching to her beat. The early sunny weather seems to be on her side but the security guys of the couple seem to have more knowledge and brain than okiro gave them credit for. Once  the girl appeared from the bush walking like those village farm girls do at times, ignorant of the honking from the convoy, the security guys instead of opening the door, wind down the glass and open fire on the legs of the supposed innocent girl, crippling her. Okiro boys decided to improvised and open fire on the convoy through the window. Able to cripple the front car that two others were thrown into disarray but the hell of bullets rained on the body of the remaining two cars was not penetrating the cars. They focused on the tires and crippled the tires but the car and its glasses seemed to be rejecting the advances of the bullets. They are not even denting it well.

Something not in the plan needs to be done. The middle car needed to be hacked open by any means and couples got to. The last convoy surrounded in all four in case any window flew open and they went to work on the car they suspected the couple were in. Axs were raining on it like crazy, just like they hack an old cars in junkyards without success and homemade bombs were fixed on a little opening made underneath the car. As if the occupants knew what was happening outside, the window of the attacked car suddenly flew open and bullets and grenades okiro and his boys never anticipated flying here and there. Some of his injured boys ran for cover, the dead lay in their numbers and few hardened experienced ones still alive and fighting suddenly figured out that the couple and their security convoy weren't boys in this field either. They have played them again. Okiro and his boys were attacking the wrong cars. From the look of things, nothing like the couple in the car that were fighting back, they must be in the car at the back and their cars seem to have that ability to withstand homemade bombs. 

The sunny weather was turning windy and leaves on both sides of the chosen spot were starting to dance to the sounds of the fire it was being assaulted with and the okiro boys have almost been halved by people the compartment they are in even limited their full potential. Whether the grenades they threw here and there are kinds okiro have never heard of before for they were behaving like dirty bombs. Some waited for almost fifteen minutes to start exploding and more deaths were being recorded on the side of the okiro group that he can visibly see fear and confusion on the faces of his most trusted that he at times wondered if they are even humans. Then…

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the last crippled convoy roared to life despite not having any functional tires and started shifting backwards away from the useless two cars in front of it and his boys followed and focused on the tires more. The attack seems to halt the movement but the engine is still rumbling there. They must have used a kind of phone to contact whoever they did for not long after the rumbling car made backwards movements, sirens were heard and the sound of it is getting nearer and nearer  and more fears on the faces of his remaining boys told okiro that it's time to cut the losses and fade. He signals them to pour fuel on the car and they do and then open fire on it hoping that it will be able to penetrate the car he doesn't know what the producers made from. Simply new beast Okiro is witnessing for the first time. He will not be surprised if the car is immune to fire too. 

His annoyance knew no bounds. The first time he is leaving his dead around, and the first he is leaving the scene of operation in a haste a loser. Mission unaccomplished. He just knew that head or tail, something serious is wrong with this operation and there is no way bad news will not be their portion afterwards. His despair increased as they made their escape from the scene leaving their dead he is not even sure is well dead behind.