CHAPTER FOUR

Words could not possibly describe the way I felt, while thinking about my mother that Friday morning.

It had been two days since the ‘revelation’ about Ebie, as thoughts about my sister’s arrival crept into my mind. I removed the second button from the hole on my blue long sleeved shirt, while waiting for a taxi at the tail end of Sani Abacha Road.

Four or five minutes later, a taxi cab stopped with three other passengers, and opened its front passenger door for me to get in. My wristwatch showed ten-thirty in the morning as the taxi cab sped to my destination – Agip Junction.

The moment I came down from the taxi cab, I walked a few metres to where some bus conductors were shouting ‘Rumuokoro’, ‘Rumuokoro,’ and stepped into the passenger seat of a blue Mitsubushi L300 fifteen seater bus.

I sat beside a fair lady who suddenly reminded me of my sick mother’s complexion. The bus kept stopping to pick and drop passengers until it finally reached my destination – City High School Rivers State, Rumuokoro, where my mother once taught English language.

She always behaved and ‘acted’ in a different way, which made even her enemies to admire her. No one could ever believe that someone like her who had a very wealthy husband, would stoop so low to work in a place where the salary that was being paid to her was not even up to the amount she spent monthly on beauty treatments.

A selfless woman sacrificed by her selfish husband…so horrible. I thought to myself as I crossed the road to reach my destination on the other side.

Inside the vast school compound, I had no specific place, office or staff in mind, but rather wanted to feel the aura of the place where my mother always said she found…fulfilment. It was ‘stressful’ carrying out my task, because the school was vast and the buildings were scattered everywhere in it.

I walked briskly, trying to avoid some poodles, which resulted from the rainfall last night. My first point of call was the administrative block which was painted with a colour that one could describe as ‘deep orange’. I walked to the car park beside it, and looked over the lush green fields around the block.

I stood and watched the large assembly auditorium which could comfortably take up to four hundred students inside it.

As I walked past it, nobody seemed to notice me because I resembled one of the academic staff in a fitting blue long-sleeve shirt and a pair of black trousers. I also maintained a stern countenance till I left the premises.

I walked through a roofed passage towards the classroom section, where the JSS1-3 and SSS1-3 classrooms were located. I looked around like a tourist (without a camera), while the cold breeze swept past the grass.

After a ‘tour’ which lasted for about half an hour, I walked back to the administrative block, which housed my mother’s department – English department.

While walking to the second floor, my heart kept beating rapidly, and I kept imagining her walking past me. Standing in front of the staff room some seconds later, I leaned on the balcony as I faced the staff room, trying to maintain a look devoid of emotion.

I didn’t realise how long I leaned on the balcony until an elderly fellow, not more than five feet tall asked me what the time was. The moment he thanked me and left, I walked briskly downstairs, looked outside once more and strode to the main gate without looking back, as perspiration flowed down my back.

The moment I stepped quietly into Tarami’s apartment, I took a shot of her vodka and went inside my room.

I had a dEbieiled plan of every action I was going to take for the purpose of carrying out my plan. I pulled off the blue long-sleeved shirt I wore and put on a black long-sleeved shirt, knotted a black neck tie and a black suit.

I checked my outfit in the mirror in the sitting room, while I buttoned my suit. I stepped into the kitchen and took a small, but very sharp knife, and concealed it inside the left pocket of the suit. The knife was for anyone who would try to stand in my way.

Wearing a pair of black sunshades as I rode in a cab, I headed for MOTHY MARITIME SERVICES INTERNATIONAL, otherwise known as MMSI.

The maritime company was owned by my old course mate - Timmy Ihonvbere, whom I was going to meet. It was 4:15 in the afternoon, the time when most offices would be closing for the day, and workers preparing to go home.

The taxi cab sped through Aba road to the twelve storey building which served as the international headquarters of MOTHY MARITIME SERVICES INTERNATIONAL. The driver stopped at the wide entrance, and I literally jumped out immediately I paid the driver.

The number of security personnel which were scattered around the main lobby did not deter me, as I headed towards the reception.

“Good afternoon sir,” a beautiful lady of about five feet eight inches smiled at me.

“Good afternoon, I’m here to see the President -”

“Oh, you mean the CEO?” she cut in.

“Yes, I came to deliver a gold bar to him,” I responded, while presenting the well-wrapped Bible my mother had instructed one of the nurses to give me. She clicked rapidly on the computer beside her, as I admired the beautiful lighting facilities in the hall.

“Sir, I’m very sorry, I’m afraid your name’s not on the appointment list…the appointment list of the Chief Executive Officer is filled for the next three weeks.”

She spoke eloquently with a reassuring smile that didn’t seem to have any effect on me. With my left elbow on the marble desk, and the wrapped ‘gold bar’ in my right hand, I cleared my throat while forcing a smile which was, and would never be a part of my personality.

“Listen Miss…Aniefiok,” I called her name, looking at her identity card.

“One thousand six hundred dollars, that’s the price of an ounce of gold, if you do not know. I’m better off dead than walking around with this ‘rock’ in my possession.” I told her while trying to control the anger I’d been concealing.

“Sir, I’m sorry…” I cut her short while I stretched my hand and pushed the red desk phone nearer to her.

“Give him a call and tell him I’m here, tell him it’s urgent, tell him one Taribo Stephenson needs to see him urgently.”

“Sir, please try to understand…” She’d barely finished her last sentence when a tall looking brother, dark in complexion walked up to the marble desk and asked what the problem was.

I noticed Miss Annie seemed somewhat relieved, though I knew that wasn’t going to last. I thought of my athletic physique, while I waited for him to finish.

“Young man your type isn’t needed around here, besides its closing time, so you better hit the road…” The security guard spoke and stared at me as if I was some piece of crap.

He placed his left hand on my shoulder and tried to shove me away from the reception, when all the skill and knowledge I possessed in martial arts, kept running inside me like a tank filling up with water.

I stepped backwards, looked at him, and unbuttoned my one button suit, as I moved my head sideways. I looked in the direction of the elevator and faced the security guard who seemed to hate everything about my presence in the building. 

Slowly, I removed the black sunglasses and placed them on the marble surface, beside the wrapped ‘gold bar,’ while I prepared for a showdown.  

As this was going on, the receptionist guessed what was about to happen and soon pulled a small device beside the telephone and spoke quickly into it in a panic stricken voice.

The SOS from her soon brought six other security guards to the reception. I always took things to the extreme, especially when learning how to fight. When other students practiced with punching bags,

I ‘practiced’ my fists on the walls in and around my late father’s house, until they were ‘hard as steel.’ The first security guard, who seemed to be the superior, kept ordering me to leave the building, while the others around him looked eager to beat me up.

When he realised his entire warnings fell on deaf ears, he rushed towards me in a rage trying to hit me with his right fist.

I held the punch with my left arm, turned to look at the frightened receptionist, then ‘responded’ my assailant with my right fist on his face, which caused blood to flow freely from  his nose. 

He staggered backwards in a daze with a surprised look, as I turned my attention to the other men who launched towards me. The next moment I clenched my fists and stopped a punch from a guard, while I made another pass out with a ‘chop’ at the back of his neck.

The men seemed untrained as I kept hitting, breaking, dislocating and drawing blood for over fifteen minutes, like a man suffering from ataxia. Soon, an unfortunate guard held me from behind, and struggled with me, as if the entire exercise was a local wrestling championship.

I managed to loosen my right hand as I drove my right elbow into his ribs. As he writhed in pain, I jumped up and kicked his head. While the last guard rolled on the floor,

I began to walk towards Miss Aniefiok, with heavy breathing, when the Chief Security Officer pulled out a knife from inside his suit and rushed towards me in anger. I leapt backwards as the knife cut through the front part of my suit.

I smiled at the angry man wielding a knife in front of me, while begging him to put it away, as we kept moving around in a circle. He suddenly launched forward again, as I ducked and grabbed his right hand which held the knife.

The next moment, I landed several blows on his face, neck and chest with my right fist, while the knife was still in his grip. The bleeding from his nose seemed to increase the rage within him, as we both struggled with the knife, while I had my back to his face.

One of the guards, whom I’d beaten up earlier, stood up with a wooden chair over his head and began to come toward me.

I twisted the wrist of the Chief Security Officer as he shouted in pain, pulled the knife from his grip and drove its point into the left shoulder of the man with the chair. Another punch to the Chief Security Officer’s temple made him slump to the ground.

“If you call the police, which I believe you haven’t, I’ll slit your throat,” I told Miss Aniefiok calmly while breathing heavily. I brought out the knife that had been concealed inside my suit, walked up to her, pointed to her cleavage and promised to cut her heart out if she went against my instructions.

I stood beside her as we watched several employees coming out of the elevator and heading for the exit. They were surprised at the sprawling bodies on the ground, while the receptionist, on my ‘orders’ kept smiling all through.

“It’s time we went up to see the C.E.O,” I whispered in a voice that sounded as if nothing had happened. Had she known my mind, she wouldn’t have attempted to be ‘foolish.’

A small red button in a milk-coloured box lay beside the computer keyboard, which as I later learnt, was an alarm connected to the State Police Headquarters at Moscow road. I pretended not to see it as I stood by her right side, pretending to arrange papers. Another batch of employees soon trooped out of the elevators, headed towards the exit and to the car park.

Miss Annie’s right forefinger was two inches from the red button when she screamed in pain, unable to move her entire hand backward or forward.

“I’m not very nice to disobedient ladies,” I turned, looking at the blood flowing over the keyboard as I twisted the knife right and left.

“Please, please, I’m sorry…” She screamed and pleaded, with tears streaming down her face.

“Sorry about what?” She mumbled something in a tear-laden voice, while I looked around. I thought of Miss Aniefiok as unintelligent for not alerting the Police before now.

“Anyway, I hope everything here was insured?” She used her left hand to wipe off the tears on her face, as an elderly man with a briefcase walked towards the door, while I resumed ‘arrangement’ of some papers that were before me.

“What was the red button for?” I bent down to disconnect the wire, with my eyes still trained on her.

“It’s connected to the State Police Headquarters”, she mumbled. My eyes went to the pair of black high-heeled shoes she wore, as I chuckled.

I peered at the computer screen, and the wallpaper showed the logo of Timmy’s maritime company, moving at random on the screen.

I pulled out the knife from where it was stuck on her right palm, atop the keyboard, cleaned the blade on the sleeve of my suit and returned it back inside my suit. Seconds later, I buttoned my suit, put on my sunglasses and retrieved my ‘bar of gold’ with my right hand.

“Ladies first,” I told her as she kept trembling like a leaf in the harmattan. She was about to say something when I suddenly grabbed her hair with my left hand and shoved her head into the computer screen. Afterwards, I dragged her by her left arm towards the elevator and pushed her inside.

“What floor is the C.E.O’s office located?”

“It’s on the twelfth floor,” she replied, almost in a whisper, as she pulled out a splinter of glass from the monitor and other electronic bits from her face. I pressed the No. 12 button and waited inside with my eyes closed, while humming to a music which was not playing.

When it stopped at the twelfth floor, and the elevator doors opened, I felt like exclaiming in surprise as I beheld my eyes.

The entire passage seemed to be made of diamonds, as the glass and silvery lighting seemed to ‘concur’ in the beauty they radiated. I pulled the once happy receptionist, while I walked through the hall like a sprinter running on television, viewed in slow motion.

After what seemed like forever, I stopped with my gaze on a golden panel, which bore in block letters: TIMMY IYDEN Ph.D. Underneath it, another bore: C.E.O MOTHY MARITIME SERVICES INTERNATIONAL.

I sighed deeply, paused and knocked three times on the door, which was smoother than the lens of my sunglasses.

“Come in,” a soft voice sounded from inside. I pulled the receptionist along, entered into the office and saw a young lady occupying a glass desk, which resembled polished glass. She looked exhausted as she filed and arranged all sorts of papers and documents in a small cabinet beside her.

Suddenly, a sober feeling took over me as I remembered how I was in a similar office two years ago, living in wealth and splendour.

“Miss Aniefiok, what happened to your face?” Timmy’s secrEbiery asked her, while standing up at the same time.

“She had an accident in the lobby…it was caused by my carelessness with some of the glass antiques.” I cut in, and removed my sunglasses, while Miss Aniefiok nodded. I could feel her trembling as I held her hand. “Anyway, Miss-”

“Florence, Miss Florence”, she snapped.

“I came here to deliver a gold bar to your C.E.O from the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce…” I couldn’t believe myself as those words came out of my mouth, such smooth lies.

“Okay, just give it to me and I’ll make sure he gets it. Who should I say delivered it?”

“I’m afraid I have to give it to him personally,” I began, once again unbuttoning my suit as I approached her desk.

“With all due respect sir, I can’t waive protocol…” She soon stopped when I pushed the receptionist onto a black armchair and pulled out my knife.

“I insist,” I said slowly, with the knife’s points near her smooth cheeks.

“I wouldn’t want a beautiful lady like you to end up like that.” I warned her, as I pointed to the receptionist’s battered face. I smiled at both of them as Miss Aniefiok sat quietly like a mouse on the chair, wiping off blood from several cuts and bruises on her face.

“Then you’ll have to kill me, because I can’t let you see the C.E.O.” She said slowly as her smile soon disappeared.

“What’s the C.E.O doing that you feel is more important than your life?” I asked while I admired her fair skin.

“He’s in there…fornicating,” she replied with a frown. I looked at the receptionist on the armchair, while I ordered Miss Adiya to sit down beside her and avoid doing anything ‘stupid.’ 

Before walking into Timmy’s office, I checked around Miss Florence’s desk for any red button, and locked the door through which I and Miss Annie had come in. The next moment, I pocketed my knife and placed my ear to Timmy’s door, while the women kept their eyes on me.

Although I knew Timmy to be a chronic womaniser right from the university, what I was about to see was definitely not going to surprise me for a very long time.

“Can’t you show some courtesy by knocking?” Miss Adiyamanaged to ask in a voice mixed with fear and courage. Turning slowly to her, I warned her to shut up or else she wouldn’t be able to use her computer monitor, while her face might end up like her colleague’s.

I paused and thought about Timmy’s concupiscence, before turning the door knob to open the door. The passage from the elevator was nothing compared to Timmy’s office, as the floor of his office seemed to illuminate the entire room.

There was a marble statue of a naked woman carrying a baby, some metres from the window.  At the head of his swivel chair, a large painting of Ebie in purple hung significantly.

It seemed to be the only inanimate object in the office, which was not white or silvery in colour. The main office desk was designed in the form of a large ice block, with smaller blocks protruding from its sides.

I shut the door behind me, as I walked some few steps, sat on the desk and watched the duo on a large white sofa close to the second window.

They both looked shocked as I concentrated my gaze on them and the marble statue intermittently, while rubbing my knuckles.