Solange episode 5

SOLANGE

CHAPTER 5

THE END

“How did you know my name, young man?” He asked.

“Oh!! I did some research before coming here. You are a popular man. Everyone in town knows you.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and I noticed that he had calmed down a little. He turned his attention from his laptop, concentrated on me and asked.

“How may I be of help to you, young man?”

“Sir, I wish to enroll into your modelling agency.”

“Really? Have you had any modelling experience before?” He asked, becoming interested.

“Not really, Sir. However, I was into showbiz before I went out of the country.”

“Showbiz? What part of showbiz?”

“I was into acting, Sir.”

“Oh! That’s great. You are a full package, and you could become very popular around here with all the talents you have. So why did you abandon showbiz and move abroad?”

“I won the DV Lottery, Sir. I moved to America and became a soldier. But I am back now and want to pay forward to my community. I don’t intend to go back any time soon.” I explained.

He was very happy with my presentation. He gave me an appointment to come back the following day. When I did, he introduced me to the modelling department. A new movie was also in the works to be produced by his movie producing company called TACON Productions. He gave me the lead role and a script was given to me immediately to begin practicing and rehearsing my lines. Everything was moving swimmingly but I knew it was the calm before the storm.

I had come there for a purpose – revenge. That was my one and only purpose of coming there. So, I had to be careful not to get distracted. I had to carry out my investigations and once I found out that Mr. Conrad was indeed the one who had sent people to hurt Solange, I had to make him pay and then disappear. But how could I know he was the one? Ashley, the girl at the hotel hadn’t mentioned any names. Michael the traitor hadn’t mentioned any names too. How was I going to know that it was indeed Mr. Conrad who was behind everything?

There was one way I could know that, and that would be if I see the remainder of his gang. There were four of them still alive. I had been working for him for two weeks now and I still had not been able to see any of them. I was beginning to think that he was clean, and the killers had been sent by someone else. Or was he meeting them in secret?

He didn’t even look like a killer. He was calm, educated and handsome. He could pass more for a Father Christmas than a killer. However, appearances can be deceptive. I had to be on my guard. He just might be the proverbial wolf in sheep clothing. But my mind was still unsettled. I hadn’t met those guys. Where were they? I needed to find them some way or the other.

One afternoon, I was at Mr. Conrad’s office when he had an important conversation with me that made me become more suspicious of him.

“I had wanted you to meet some of my guys. Some of them model for me and also run some other little errands for me. However, I sent them on a mission almost a month ago and they haven’t reported back to me ever since.”

“What kind of mission, Sir.” I asked.

“Don’t bother about it. However, their absence has caused me a lot in terms of manpower. Thank God you showed up. I would love for you to work with them when they eventually showed up, especially their leader. He was the face of the company before you came. He is also as good looking as you.”

“Ok, Sir. It will be my pleasure to work with them. I am ready to give in my all.” I assured him.

“I know you will. You are a trustworthy person, and I can rely on you. My enterprise has been doing well since you came. Your experiences from America and all your contributions have been a great asset to me.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“If I am going to retire someday, I would be very confident and comfortable that I am leaving my businesses in a reliable hand as yours.”

“Thank you, Sir”

The leader of his gang was called Leeman. The name meant money. He was a handsome young man of about twenty-nine. He had come into the modelling agency with his group of rascals and had given the boss a condition to employ all of them or none of them. The boss had no choice than to employ them all. However, it didn’t take very long for the boss to notice that he had criminal tendencies. Instead for Mr. Conrad to fire him, he had instead used him for his diabolical purposes.

One of such purposes was the errand to pay Solange a visit. Their purpose was to get hold of her, defile her, record the act and bring the videos to Mr. Conrad. He had plans of using it to blackmail her into paying into his account all the money she had made when she unceremoniously left his agency. The plan had worked perfectly well but Leeman had still not showed up. He hadn’t reported to Mr. Conrad, and he hadn’t been taking his calls. This made the latter very angry and apprehensive.

One thing about Leeman was that whenever you sent him on an errand, because of his greed, he would look for another side errand to do before reporting back to you. That was exactly what had happened to him. After losing three of his men and the fourth guy, not haven’t been able to report back to him, he had considered them dead. He had then decided to go back to the city to report to their boss.

However, on his way to the city, they decided to rob a passenger bus. In the process of robbing the bus, two of his men were killed by an off-duty policeman. He and the remaining guy managed to escape. They had however been keeping a low profile and that why they hadn’t shown up at the premises of TACON Entertainment yet. But all that was about to change.

I was on location for the shooting of our new movie titled MY MARRIED GIRLFRIEND written by Tim Philips and Directed by Tabe Conrad and produced by TACON productions when Leeman showed up at Tacon Entertainment. Mr. Conrad who hadn’t followed us to the location was in his office when Leeman showed up with just one of his acolytes.

“Where have you been, Leeman?” Mr. Conrad asked, holding back his anger.

“We had a small problem, boss. We carried out the assignment perfectly. Everything was going on well until some of my guys went and attacked someone they shouldn’t have. He came after us and killed most of my men. Just Ibiang and me survived.”

“Jesus Christ, Leeman. I have always cautioned you and your guys against side distractions whenever you were on a mission. Now, see what has happened?”

“I am sorry, boss.”

Mr. Conrad was inwardly happy that Leeman’s men had been killed. He hated them because they gave Leeman an edge over him. Also, they were loud and aggressive. Hence, most of the staff at TACON Entertainment didn’t like them. The staff would be very pleased that they weren’t coming back. As for Leeman, now that I had come, Mr. Conrad had begun to figure out a way of letting him go. However, he was looking for a very civil way of doing it because he and Leeman had a lot of skeletons in their closets.

“There is a new guy working for us.” He told Leeman. “I want you to meet him.”

“Really, well, where is he?”

“He is on location. However, he will be back today.”

“Okay, boss. Do you have a picture of him?” Leeman asked.

“Of course, go to the board room and you will see a large poster of our new movie, he is the main character.

A few minutes later, Leeman came running back into the boss’ office, sweating.

“Sir, we have a problem. He is not who you think he is. He is on a mission. He is the one who killed all my men.”

“What are you talking about? Who do you mean?”

“Nick, Sir. The new guy. He is a US marine. He is the one who took out all my men. He has come here for you. He has come here for us. We have to stop him. He is a snake. He is on a bloody hunt for us all.”

“Are you sure, Leeman. Are you very sure about this?”

“Very sure, Sir. Very, very sure.”

That same day, around 4:00 PM, I arrived the premises of TACON entertainment to give feedback to my boss how the day passed. The rest of the cast and crew had gone to their homes. As soon as I entered the building, my soldierly instincts told me there was something wrong. However, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I went to Mr. Conrad’s office and knocked but there was no answer. As I turned around to go look for him in the ball room, I felt a hard knock on the back of my head, and I passed out.

I regained consciousness around thirty minutes later and noticed that I was in the board room. I had been tied to a chair and Mr. Conrad and Leeman were peering down at me.

“To think that I trusted you, Mr. Nick. So, you came here to kill me, and you had been pretending all along?” That was Mr. Conrad speaking.

“Yes, and you deserve to die because you are not just a thief but a criminal. You hurt my friend, Solange and you are going to pay.” I was defiant.

“But look at you now. How do you intend to make me pay? You will die any minute from now.” He laughed.

“You can’t kill me. You know you can’t. I am a celebrity now. If I die, people will ask questions. Also, I am a US marine. If I disappear, there would be a huge diplomatic row between our two governments. I believe you don’t want to get involved in something like this.” I threatened him, hoping he will be afraid.

“That’s true. What you have said is true, unless we make it look like and accident. In that case, no one will bother about you.” He laughed. “Leeman, untie him and take him to the fifth floor. You know what to do.”

As he said this, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at me. Leeman came behind me and untied me. He rudely asked me to get up from the chair but I refused. He struggled to get me up but I refused to go. Mr Conrad got annoyed and asked Leeman to move aside. He had run out of patience with me. As Leeman moved aside, Mr. Conrad pointed the gun at me and was about to shoot when the door of the board room burst open and Solange appeared with a gun in her hand. She fired twice. One bullet got Mr. Conrad in his arm and he dropped the gun. The second got Leeman on his head and he began the once in a lifetime business of dying.

All this while, I had not been idle. I had quickly picked up Mr. Conrad’s gun and both of us were now pointing our guns at him. He was bleeding seriously from the gunshot wound.

“Please, Solange, my daughter. Don’t kill me.” He begged. “I will give you whatever you want. Just spare my life, please.”

“Too late, Mr. Conrad.” She said and fired two bullets into his head. He died instantly.

As Solange and I walked out of the building, we found Ibiang’s body. Solange had shot him on her way into the building. I know you want to know what happened to Michael, the bartender. Solange told me he was shot during a police raid after they discovered he was involved in the all the heinous crimes happening in the surrounding villages. As to how Solange figured out that I was at TACON entertainment, she said she had learnt from a former colleague who still worked there, that I was now an employee. She knew my life was in danger and came to give me a hand. She came just in time too.

At last, Solange had been avenged. A month later, I went back to America. Sorry to disappoint you, Solange and I didn’t fall in love. I already had a woman back home in America and there was no way I could complicate my life by getting involved with Solange.

THE END

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