LIFE IMPRISONMENT
EPISODE 4
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
Danger sat with his guys in the exquisite living room of one of their houses. A bottle of beer in one hand, he used the other hand in handling his phone and giggled at whatever it was he was looking at. The other guys also had bottles of beer, champagne, assorted wine and chicken laps before them and they munched noisily as they chatted on. That was the typical afternoon setting for Danger and his guys whenever they didn’t have any operation to prepare for.
He tapped his stomach loudly and knew he needed something extra to make the afternoon more enjoyable than it already was. He would have just placed a call through to one of his girls but that luxury had been cut short and he was scamming for an alternative way to make the afternoon adventurous.
Spending the afternoon alone in the house was boring to Danger and he did everything his head could think of to stay above the clouds but somehow none of his tactics worked and he fought the depression that was threatening to win him over. Staying alone always brought him to that critical state and sometimes even in the company of his guys, he would still be dragged down by depression. His guys had gone on a stakeout that afternoon and he regretted his decision to stay back.
He scrolled through his contact list and contemplated calling a lot of the names he came across but with a second thought, he will decide against it and then move to the next. He finally found the contact that brought a faint smile to his lips. He called Lizzy and just as though she had been expecting his call, she appeared in the next fifteen minutes and his misery ended.
He had met Lizzy at a club house and he couldn’t tell what attracted him to her because unlike the other girls around who were either dancing or swinging their bodies around to get men to notice them, Lizzy sat quietly at a corner and looked like a lost lamb. Danger had walked up to her and started a conversation with her and though she seemed uninterested at first and gave him the cold shoulders, he did not bulge. Having her warm his bed few days later brought delight to him and he decided to keep her as one of his chics.
Lizzy made him forget his loneliness and he somehow got lost in the splendor that he could not remember how he got to the Police Station. Apparently, Lizzy was an agent that was sent from the Police Force to apprehend him and he simply walked into her nest the day he started the conversation with her. Against his rules, he had taken Lizzy to one of his houses and that had been their meeting place since then.
That particular day, Lizzy had been waiting in the Police van few streets away from the house and she and her other colleagues were awaiting the perfect time to storm the house and arrest Danger. All through the months they spent together, she had gathered information about him and pieced them together to be weighty enough to get an arrest warrant. She had tracked his calls and was able to listen to some of his conversations.
When his call came him, she knew that was the moment. She hurriedly dolled herself up and got all that would be needed to finally bell the cat. She made sure Danger didn’t suspect anything and she was quick to pour the content from a small bottle into his drink and she watched as Danger gulped everything down. Her colleagues had entered the house afterwards and carted Danger away victoriously.
Furious was a mild way to describe how Danger felt when he returned from the cell two days later. That was the longest he had ever spent in Police custody. Normally, he would be released after a few hours but due to the strong evidence Lizzy was able to gather against him, he had to spend two days there.
He immediately sold that house and told his guys that they needed to lie low for a while. He made sure he wasted all his girlfriends and made concrete rules that none of the guys should ever bring a lady to any of their houses. In fact, he discouraged relationships and he asked them never to do a lady twice to avoid a repeat of what had happened.
He personally beheaded Lizzy and sent her head to the police headquarters after which he set the whole place ablaze, while her body was delivered to the government house as a statement to them that he was above the law.
The longing he felt that afternoon continued and the presence of his guys could not do much as to excite him. He was about to declare that they spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach when a call came in through the receiver. Tiny stood up abruptly to answer the phone and he placed it on speaker for everyone to hear the conversation.
“Good day, Boss,” their number one informant from the Police Force said from the other end of the phone and Danger nodded in response. He was not ready for any chi-chat. He wanted to get high and no amount of alcohol he drank took him to that height he wanted.
“Speak!” Trouble screamed.
He updated them on the latest development at the office and the guys all paid rapt attention.
“If I understand you well,” Danger said adjusting himself on his seat. “A new boss was transferred here from another State to arrest me?”
“Yes sir,” the informant replied.
“Hahahaha!” Danger laughed heartily and his guys joined in.
“Guy, we don enter another level be that.”
“Abi o!”
“We need to drink to that!”
“Yes o!”
“So, what are the moves your boss have made to catch me?” Danger asked and the others quieted down to listen to what the informant had to say.
He briefed them on all the measures Mr Emmanuel was trying to put in place in other to apprehend Danger and his gang. He told them of all the traps that had been set for them and how troops were being sent out daily to search out possible hideouts.
“You need to lay low for a while, Boss. If possible, you can even travel out of the country for a while. Because this new man is determined to get you at all cost,” the informant advised.
“Don’t worry about us. Just make sure you always do a clean job from your side and keep us informed with the newest development. Let us handle ourselves,” Trouble responded and signaled to Tiny to end the call and the latter did immediately.
“This calls for celebration,” he screamed and the other guys joined in the screaming. They popped bottles of champagne and danced to the music that was playing from the stereo.
“They have not seen anything yet!”
“Even the President will have to come from Aso-Rock to get us!”
“Their father!”
They continued to chat and scream and Danger looked on smiling mischievously.
“You know what, guys?” He said and they all stopped dancing and paused the music to hear him.
“Let us shake this town up a little bit. Let us give this new SP an assignment to do.”
“Yes o!”
“But, don’t you think we should listen to the advice of our man in the Force? This new SP might be dangerous and be a big threat to us,” Trouble reasoned and some of the guys agreed with him.
‘No now. Don’t be a coward. The guy said the new SP was transferred to this city because of us. Will it be wrong for us to give him a welcome party?”
“Noooo! We gat to give him something to welcome him to the Danger’s territory.”
“I think Trouble is right. Guys, we need to test the waters. Study this new guy and see if he is actually strong and wise like they thought him to be so we can know how to put him in his place.”
“Chai, see this coward! No be only test the waters, we go test the seas. Boss, give us orders abeg make we scatter this town.”
“We are going to shake things up a little bit tonight. Prepare yourselves very well; tonight we are going to give it to them back to back.”
* * * * * *
Danger and his guys kept to their word and they really shook the city to its foundations. The entire city was thrown into pandemonium as gunshots invaded the quietness of the night. They went to about five Filling stations in strategic areas across the city. Huge sum of money was collected from the cashier at each station, the staff on duty were locked inside the reception and the entire place was set on fire. Malls and shopping plazas that operated on a 24-hour basis were not left out of the terror of Danger. Valuables were carted away and then the places were burnt with the people in them.
To be continued…
