Chapter 5

Okonta Daniel whizzed through Vertical Technologies’ Customer Care unit. He brought his wrist to view to check his timepiece and saw that he was late for the meeting. His colleagues could not help laughing at the comedy of a man as he ran across their cubicles with crumpled files loosely clenched under his left arm, and the other adjusting his glasses.

He knew he would have to apologize, once again, for his symbolic tardiness.

Normal employees would have lost their jobs if they tried to pull the stunts Daniel pulled. Everyone knew that it was Daniel’s significant skills that kept him in the job.

Daniel was panting as he darted up the stairs.

If only I had a girlfriend.

He practically barged into the room.

“I’m sorry, everyone. Sorry for keeping you all waiting.”

Grumbles all over the General Meeting Room.

The room had a whiteboard mounted on the wall close to the door. The center table was made of oak wood. It was roughly fifteen feet long and four feet in width with classical desk chairs. Olalekan, however, sat on a more majestic chair with his legs propped on the table, he was scrolling through his Twitter timeline, gawking over another beautiful social media influencer he was going to pester for some quality time. An influencer that would later give in after finding out who he truly was.

They always do.

Daniel slammed the files on the table to get the attention of the boss and the others whose attention has been greatly absorbed by their tablets and smartphones.

Everyone was still engrossed on their phones, so Daniel cleared his throat rather uncomfortably.

They looked up.

“You’re late.” Vanessa, a short and slightly overweight woman. She was the head of Accessories and Maintenance.

“I apologize. You see, the traff –”

“Stop right there. We don’t care. Has there been any progress so far with the tracking?” Olalekan tossed.

Mildly offended, Daniel forced a patronizing smile, picked up the files, and shared a copy with everyone on the table.

They opened the files.

After studying the files for a moment, Olalekan dropped his file irritatingly on the desk.

”So???”

“Those charts represent the irregular web imprints I have been tracking and these right here,” He lifted his copy of the file and pointed to a distortion in the frequency-looking signatures drawn-out. “This shows that the person we are looking for is aware of the tracking. That is why they created a distortion in their server, kind of like a web flutter, or a glitch. Whatever you want to call it.”

The executives seemed lost.

“So in other words, we’re being fucked in the ass?” Olalekan clarified.

Daniel chuckled. “Precisely.”

One of the executives leaned towards Olalekan and whispered something in his ear.

After a short while, Olalekan excused Daniel.

“Keep trying to track it, and get back to me as soon as there is a new development.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Daniel had reached the door when his boss called out to him.

“And Danny?”

He turned. “Sir?”

“Don’t be late again. You might get fired this time. Is that okay?”

Knowing fully well that he is a complete asset to the company and that they would not allow him to get sacked even on fifty more tardy accounts, Daniel made a promise not to be tardy again.

“You can go.”

Olalekan faced his Executives.

“My sources tell me there’s been little progress with the tracking and…

We have found Him.”

Wale had the lights of his hotel room dimmed as Seven found a comfortable spot to sit on at the foot of the bed. He studied the boy’s composition and was convinced that he was quite anxious and very conscious of his environment.

“Are you comfortable?” He was not.

“Uhmmm, yeah.” Seven lied.

“So,” Wale began. ”How long have you known… Janet?”

”We met on F******k last year and since then things have been super amazing.”

“I’m sure your life took a huge turn after she came along.”

“It sure did! She became the missing piece to my complex puzzle of a life.”

Yeah right.

“So, why did you not ask her for the full details of her family?”

“I did not think it was important at that time.” He said. “Plus, she did not want to share.”

Wale made conscious efforts to hide his chuckle, with the dimly-lit room, it was successful.

“So… Janet Kwesi.”

“Yeah,” Seven was skeptical. “So, who is she to you?”

“Well, you could say we are related of some sort.”

Seven’s demeanor changed. He nearly ran to where Wale was resting on the wall and he almost wrapped both arms around the man.

Wale dodged the hug.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re Janet’s brother!” Seven beamed.

“I AM NOT!!!” Wale held himself from spilling it all to the young boy. Such news is never placed so calmly.

Doubtfully, Seven slumped on the bed.

“So who are you to her and how do we find her.”

Wale was tired of pretending.

He moved closer to Seven. Sighing heavily.

The bulb overhead twitched.

“Look, kid, what I am about to tell you is probably going to make you dizzy and sick, but I must tell it so that you’d know.”

Seven was confused and at the same time alarmed.

“What do you mean?”

“You see… your girlfriend, Janet…”

“Yeah?”

“She’s not real.”

An impeccable silence ensued between both men with Seven staring deep into Wale’s eyes, searching for any hint of a joke.

There was none.

“I don’t understand. What are you talking about? You told me over the phone that you knew her…”

This is not happening!

The room began to spin for, and Seven’s source of oxygen flow stopped.

Wale studied the boy’s face and felt pity. If only he knew how messed up the situation was.

“Janet is just an alias. The person behind the profile was only performing a social experiment and you were his test subject.”

Seven refused to believe that all he shared with Janet was a lie.

Imagine the faces of all his friends when they hear this. His sister, dad, and mom.

The gravity of this made his legs jitter.

Shit, He cussed. They warned me!

But it was too late for any of that. He has come to realize that the internet never forgets. The world is going to laugh at him when the truth eventually, is revealed, that his super-cute girlfriend was just another guy behind stolen pictures.

Maybe he could run. Maybe he could just run away this very moment and never return. But no matter how much he runs, the internet never chases. It remains there.

Seven’s head hung forward, his shoulders slump. “Why?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why did it have to be me?”

“I’m deeply sorry,” He truly was. But you see, this guy never does things on anybody’s terms.

Wale saw tears run down Seven’s cheeks.

“Boy, are you crying?”

Wale wanted to put around Seven’s shoulders. He figured it would be too much.

How do you deal with a teenager who just found out that his online girlfriend is a catfish?

“What’s the guy’s name?” Seven asked, sniffing back the tears.

This is not a good idea but…

“David.” Wale said, “His name is David.”

“When we find him, I’m gonna punch him in the face.”

The chuckle could not stay in Wale’s mouth, he busted out laughing. There was an instant connection between these two strangers. Something about Wale made Seven feel safe.

Then a black cylinder fell through the opening in the window, releasing thick smoke that made Seven’s eyes teary, his throat itchy, and his lungs squeezed.

Teargas.

Wale had already sensed their eyes watching him some minutes before the boy came into the room, he calculated the time they were going to take before they made a move.

His calculations were wrong.

He crawled across the room towards the door, yanking Seven’s arm.

Follow me. His eyes said.

As both of them made it to the hallway, inhaling fresh doses of oxygen, they took to their heels. For a slightly huge man, Wale knew how to move his weight. Though terrified and confused, Seven paid close attention to Wale’s every body movement. His swift switch between sides of the hallway, avoiding close contact with the hotel room doors, and the direction of his head.

So man questions ran through Seven’s mind and he started to piece every clip together and reach an inconclusive idea.

These are bad men, they are trying to get David but they cannot get to him directly, so they try to abduct someone closely related to him with the hope of David coming to play Hero, and when he does they would capture him and do whatever they wanted to him.

Seven caught up to Wale at the second landing of the stairs that spiraled down to the ground floor and reception area.

“Listen, once we get to the reception, don’t stop running. Look ahead and push anyone who tries to stop you. Don’t be scared of anyone trying to catch you, they won’t. Just follow my lead.” Wale said between breaths.

Within a minute their legs shuffled on the reception floor, attracting onlookers and the security personnel who ordered both of them to stop.  Wale reached the entrance door and pushed it open wide enough for Seven to pass.

Seven slipped through the opening and Wale followed.

“Stop them. Make una stop them!” The hotel personnel called out to the Security Guards who in reaction, started to close the automated gate.

“Run faster, boy!” Wale increased his pace, his chest pumped, his toes barely touching the ground, and was almost flying. He landed close to the electric gate. Close enough to hold it open. Seven slipped through once again as the Guards punched the gate’s button in frustration.

Running down the lonely sidewalk that only had the street lights guiding their paths, Wale studied their surroundings.

There was teargas but he did not see the person who threw it. They must be close by.

Seven’s legs slowed to a stop with him almost collapsing. He wedged his body on his knees with his arms, struggling to gulp down oxygen.

“You okay?”

“W- w- who are we running from?” Seven was panting.

“People that are after David.”

“I figured that much. What did he take from them?”

Wale had his eyes fixed on something. He could sense stares coming from the white Hilux parked close to a well-lit semi-detached duplex across the street.

He placed a hand on Seven’s panting shoulders. “Boy, I’ll tell you everything. Right now we have to run.”

Seven did not understand why, yet he tried to pull all his strength together.

They jogged into the next street after the curve.

The white Hilux with tinted glasses revved its engines. Without turning the headlights, it moved slowly towards the street where those two had disappeared into.

Inside the glass were two huge dark-looking men clad in a black suit, putting on wire-rimmed glasses.

“Yes sir, they just entered Clover Street. We’re on their tail.” The driver spoke into his earpiece.

The man in the passenger’s seat cocked a gun.

“C4. Put that gun back.” The driver scolded. “We aren’t doing that tonight.”

C4 cursed as he replaced the gun in the car’s pigeon hole and hissed. “This nor just make any sense.”