LIFE IMPRISONMENT 10
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
Discovering the mole in the Force and using him as a bait to get Danger became Mr Emmanuel’s latest strategy. He was careful and well calculated not to appear suspicious or make anyone sense that he knew some things about Danger already. The conversation he had with the man that appeared to him in his dreams made unraveling Danger’s case easier. He was able to get Danger’s phone number from the mole and he traced all their calls and listened intently to them. He shook his head, paused, rewind, listened again and even wrote down things as he listened to the tapped calls from the mole’s phone like someone preparing for an English speaking exam.
He got vital details and called his trusted subordinates to resume a stakeout immediately. They were able to capture Danger’s back view and the faces of some of his guys as they made their way into their mini van.
He jumped up excitedly when he saw the pictures and videos and knew that the next thing he had to do was process an arrest warrant which he knew would not be a long process due to the endless evidence at their disposal against Danger.
He sent the request for warrant to the CSP and was about to call him to check his mail when his phone beeped. It was the CSP calling…
“You are such an incompetent nincompoop! I have seriously overrated you and you have proved to me that you are just as useless as the rest.” The CSP spat at him and he swallowed his greetings in confusion. His mood changed and perspiration invaded his forehead. He scratched his temples gently as the CSP continued to rant.
“I’m sure you don’t have anything to say to this,” the CSP said eventually and he knew that he had finally been given a chance to talk. He searched his brain for the right words to say as the sudden outburst of the CSP had made him lost for words.
“Good afternoon, sir,” he began but could not go far
“Keep your shameless greetings to yourself. What is good about the afternoon? If the afternoon was indeed a good one then you will not be in the office when the entire city is on fire. I wonder what you do in that office of yours throughout the day. I think you should be replaced with a computer because I’m sure that device wouldn’t be as useless as you are.”
Mr Emmanuel was tired of the insults that was being hurled upon him and he was beginning to lose his sanity. He was not a young boy that had stolen something and was being scolded by his parents and even if he was, such heavy words of insults were too much for anyone to bear. He prayed under his breath that the Holy Spirit should give him the grace to remain cool. He kept quiet and listened absentmindedly until he heard…
“You have suddenly gone deaf and dumb. You are not only useless, you’ve added stupidity to the list.” He pressed the red icon on his phone’s screen and watched as the line went dead. He could not take it anymore.
If anyone was useless in the Police Force, it was the CSP, who only holds the title and attends ceremonial functions.
He had been working his butt out to unravel a case that had lingered for years and the ones that had gone before him had not been able to even get close to getting to the root of the matter.
The ones that had even succeeded in arresting Danger in the past could not press charges against him because he wielded a lot of power. However, he had been in the position for only a couple of months and had made a lot of progress. Many other criminals had been caught and duly punished and the city which was known for chaos had been enjoying relative peace.
He had almost gotten to the peak and had footage of Danger which was like a treasure. He knew where Danger lived and where he hung out with his friends and had also prepared his arrest warrant, just to get it signed, he was being insulted like a two year old.
* * * * * *
Danger continued to press his laptop while Trouble studied the map on his phone. Cheetah and some other guys checked the car engine, tyres, oil, fuel and other things to ascertain that the car was in a good condition and fit to be used for their next operation.
Some of the guys were busy preparing their weapons, outfits and masks while the others were preparing food and mixing the drinks they would use to step the food down. Danger checked his wristwatch and stood up abruptly, walked to the plasma Tv and connected his laptop to it.
“Listen up guys,” he said to get the attention of the guys in the sitting room.
“We have exactly four hours before this big operation and we need to finalize our plans and strategies. Like I always say before every operation, every operation is a risk and you should be ready to kill and be killed as we go on the field. I’m sure we don’t have any chicken heart here who is afraid to die or afraid of those fools called policemen. You are to maintain your position, listen to your team head and report immediately to the meeting point. Don’t get carried away on the field and start doing petty things, in short don’t do anything without permission,” he continued to dish out instructions to his guys and they nodded in agreement to all he said.
“This mission is a well-calculated one and we want to make 1 billion Naira from it,” Danger continued after a short pause and the guys screamed.
“You know we have not made that much from a single operation before and that means we are stepping into another level. And as you know, every level comes with higher tasks, risks and responsibilities. So, you have to be prepared and ready. Trouble, will read out each of your roles once again as a reminder.”
Trouble stood up and moved closer to the screen to explain the roles of each of the boys in details. Cheetah and the other guys that were checking the mini van walked into the sitting room and joined the meeting as well.
“Any question?” Trouble asked after explaining the roles of each of the guys.
“How long do we intend to keep them?” Tiny asked the question that had nudged at his heart since they started planning the operation.
“We don’t intend to keep them for too long. Just a day or two depending on how responsive the government is,” Trouble answered and Danger nodded in agreement.
“What if the government’s response is not favourable?” Tiny asked and they all went quiet.
The plan was to abduct 50 children from a government-owned primary school and ask the government to pay the sum of one billion Naira as ransom before the children would be released.
Danger started working on that idea after he watched it in an American movie and saw that it worked well for those guys. They had been so busy selecting the best school to attack, how they would attack, where they would keep the children and also what they would be feeding them until they get their money from the government. They’ve not thought of the possibility of the government not cooperating with them and hearing Tiny bring it up, made them think for a second.
“I doubt that possibility. It’s going to be a public demand from the government and since the victims will be children I don’t think they would refuse.”
“This is Nigeria and not the United States of America. We should begin to think in that line. We can reach out to the parents of those children instead. Because the government here does not give a damn about her citizens.”
“That’s true! The parents would be more cooperative and we can even make more from them.”
They continued to go back and forth and Danger carefully weighed the two sides of the coin. He was not ready to agree that the government would be complacent and also he knew that if they had to get the ransom from the parents of the children then their plans would change and that would mean they would not be able to carry out the operation that day and he did not want that.
“That’s okay, guys! We are going to push through with our plans. Peradventure the government refuses to adhere to our terms then we will know what next to do,” Danger said with a tone of finality and all the guys kept quiet.
“Let’s just eat and get ready to go,” he added and stood up.
To be continued…
