Dirty Diamonds Of Boko Haram Part 1 (8 page)

There was silence as the men all stared at
Alex.

“You make things sound much worse than I’ve
heard” said Samuel.

“It’s much worse” said Alex.

“It’s been nearly six months you left the
Army and the north entirely” said Rufai. “Things can’t be the same
till now. The newspapers say the military are beginning to make
much progress up there”

Alex shook his head firmly. “The newspapers
will say what politicians secretly pay them to say, presidential
elections are just around the corner and the politician know they
need to look good. With the number of fraudulent arms procumbent
deals coming to light now, if anything has changed up there it’s
for the worse. That war has gone off the scales and there is almost
nothing the military can effectively do about it. You’ll see what
I’m talking about soon enough, just be ready”

There was another long moment of silence as
they all stared fixed at Alex.

Mr. Audu cleared his throat uneasily and
glanced at his silent boss “Gentlemen, let’s keep in mind here that
this is just a simple ransom exchange mission which will be all
over quickly. I don’t think it’s a good idea to scare ourselves
before going to work, eh?”

Samuel actually laughed and Alex found
himself feeling more comfortable with him. When going into action
it was good to know that the person trusted to protect your back
could do the job very well.

“If those bastards come looking for trouble
from me, by god, they will find it” said Samuel.

They were all quiet for another moment, and
then Mr. Audu began to talk again, directing his words at Alex,
Rufai and Samuel.

“Although you are all going on the same
flight, each of you will be traveling separately to avoid any
suspicion from security agents who are at hyper-alert levels up
here in the north due to the terrorist problems. The cars that
brought you here this evening will take you straight back to your
hotels and the drivers will hand each of you a small suitcase in
which you will find your airline tickets and some spare cash. Mr.,
Samuel, you men should be getting delivery of theirs right about
now. The suitcase can only take two changes of clothes and a few
other personal items, these should be enough for the estimated
three-day duration of the mission. You will be traveling light and
fast through security conscious territory, gentlemen, leave most of
your things behind at your hotel and carry absolutely no weapons on
you. The cars will be back precisely at eight o’clock tomorrow
morning to take you to the airport to board your flight. Once you
arrive at the Keno airport, you will be identified by the bags you
carry and picked up separately by ordinary taxi drivers who will
take you to a central location within the city to meet up with our
man. It is he who will be responsible for transporting you all
together to Maiduguri and the safe house. Whatever you need from
there on, Rufai will provide as explained”

Mr. Audu glanced at the Alhaji as if to say
he was done.

“Gentlemen” said the Alhaji, taking over
again. He glanced at Alex and then Samuel. “I need not stress to
you the importance of keeping all information about this mission
completely secret from beginning to end. As far as anyone is
concerned this meeting never took place and we never met. All
contacts with me from here on will be restricted to my assistants,
Basil and Rufai” he gestured at the two men. “I want that girl back
at all costs and once you have her in your possession, Rufai will
take over at once. He knows exactly what to do with her from that
point and I expect you two to follow his instructions closely from
there so as to accomplish the rest of the mission to my
satisfaction and thereby earn yourself the bonuses I promised each
of you. When all is done and you return back safely to your hotels
here in Abuja, all payments will be made swiftly to your bank
accounts within twenty-four hours” the Alhaji was looking from Alex
to Samuel and back but more at Alex. “Do we have an
understanding”

A deep set instinct for taking orders before
a mission had Alex nodding his head and Samuel was doing the same
too.

“Yes sir, we do” said Samuel.

“We have an understanding, sir” said Alex,
and then glanced across the table at Rufai.

Alhaji Usman sat back in his chair “There are
only five days left to the deadline given for the ransom payment.
Before that time comes, I expect to have the good news from you
people that my troubles are over. Good luck, gentlemen”

The Alhaji picked up the glass of water on
the table before him and took a drink.

The meeting was clearly over.

Rufai and Basil stayed put with their boss
while the bodyguards at the double doors escorted Alex and Samuel
from the room and out to the front of the house where the Mercedes
and a Lexus car waited to take them back to their separate
hotels.

Both cars left the mansion together but split
up on the highway as they headed in different directions.

*******

After the two soldiers had gone, Rufai and
Basil sat quietly watching and waiting for their boss to speak.

The Alhaji took his time with the drinking of
his water and the thoughts his mind before he looked at his most
trusted lieutenants.

“What do you think” he asked finally.

“I think we’re good” said Rufai. “These men
definitely have what it takes to see this mission through. They all
have the skill, experience and fearlessness to handle any trouble
we encounter along the way. The Igbo guy, though, he’s exceptional.
His physic, the way he moves, his level of alertness and still the
calmness and complete control, he’s definitely very highly trained
and extremely dangerous”

“Yes, it’s exactly like his file says” agreed
Basil. “He’ll be a wonderful asset out there but I don’t trust him
to deliver on the last part of the plan. He strikes me as a man
with a conscience”

“Exactly what I’ve been thinking too” said
Rufai and looked at his boss. “We may need to take him out at that
point”

“His usefulness should be over by then” said
the Alhaji. “If he tries to become a problem kill him, but do it
very quickly and without mistakes otherwise he will kill all of you
and he will do it without the problem of a conscience. He was, and
technically still is, one of the very best fighting men the Army
has to offer”

“Samuel and his men are exceptionally good
too” said Rufai. “We will be four against only him when the time
comes, he can’t beat us all”

“Don’t be too sure of that” the Alhaji shook
his head, sitting forward. “I don’t even think you fully understand
what you are dealing with here, Rufai. Listen, Samuel and his men
may be well trained soldiers but Mr. Okoye is much better or rather
much worse. He was a highly trained
commando
who was
specially hand-picked, because of his unique
talents
, to
undergo more
special
trainings
to become Special
Forces. Not the normal kind, mind you, he was one of the few
trained fully by the Americans themselves, at high costs too, and
he emerged as one of the very best in that class. I was told that
was the real reason he never went to prison for the offence he
committed, some very powerful people in the military see him as an
invaluable asset that can be used again. Those blank pages you saw
in his file are actually the reports of a classified mission that
went so terribly wrong that all traces of it had to be completely
suppressed but for a time it made him something of a celebrity in
top political circles, that’s how I came to know of him in the
first place. At the early stage of his career in the Special
Forces, his unit was detailed to provide special protection for
some VIPs quietly doing some on-the-spot assessments in that
north-east region. Two senators were among those VIPs and that
information somehow leaked out to the terrorists. Their convoy got
ambushed by a large group of heavily armed Boko Haram militants who
killed a lot of the escorting soldiers, captured one of the
senators alive and retreated quickly across the international
borders into the remote Cameroon mountains where they knew the
Nigerian military would never follow. He went after them and he
went alone. Multiple eyewitness report has it that he just took off
running after the Pickup Jeeps the insurgent drove away in. He was
gone for four days but when he finally came back out of these
mountains, he was carrying the unconscious body of that senator
over his shoulders and he had thirteen Boko Haram masks with him.
Thirteen plus kills
! And deep in unknown enemy territory! If
not for the fact that he crossed the international borders the way
he did, he would have gotten a big commendation”

“Incredible!” said Basil in awe.

“Yes” said the Alhaji with satisfaction. “His
skill set and incredible level of commitment are what made me go
all out to get him. With him fully on board now, I feel completely
sure that I’m not wasting my time or money. If those bastards fail
to produce that girl for any reason, he will not hesitate to pursue
them into the pits of hell to bring her back”

Rufai was suddenly feeling sick. “I think I
will have to warn Samuel specifically about him. We will have to be
very careful to act all at once, shoot him without engaging him in
anyway”

“Yes” agreed the Alhaji with some relief.
“That would be best”

The three men sat in silence for several
moments, and then the Alhaji got to his feet. “Good night”

“Good night, sir” said Basil getting to his
feet.

“Good night, Alhaji” said Rufai getting to
his feet too.

The two men stood respectfully as Alhaji
Mustapha Usman walked out the room.

It was about nine-fifteen that evening when
the Mercedes dropped Alex off at his hotel and drove off again. As
he headed for the big front doors that led into the lobby, one the
doormen stepped close to him and held out a small piece of blue
paper.

“Someone dropped this off for you, sir” said
the man in a quiet voice.

Alex stopped at once and accepted the paper
curiously. It was folded in half. He unfolded it and saw at once
that the written inscriptions on it was in code, a code created and
used only by the Nigerian Military Intelligence.

Alex read the short message quickly then
glanced around to make sure no one was watching as he changed
direction and headed for the parking lot.

The hotel’s parking lot was a well-lit large
area that occupied the entire right section of its spacious front
grounds and a lot of expensive vehicles were parked there in
well-organized rows. Aside from the few people driving in or out,
the entire area was completely deserted as Alex walked briskly
through, heading for the north-west section which was the furthest
part of the parking lot. He kept a careful watch and even made a
detour between the parked rows of cars just to make sure he wasn’t
being followed.

Coming around the last car, Alex spotted the
blue Peugeot 507 saloon car right off. It was parked slightly apart
from other cars as the note said it would be. As he got closer, the
front passenger side door jerked open and a well-built man in
civilian clothes jumped out.

The man threw Alex a smart military salute
then hurried around to the rear offside door and got it quickly
open, holding it wide for Alex to get in.

As Alex walked up and get into the car
without a question, the man stood stiffly to attention and gave him
another smart military salute. The door was pushed firmly closed
after Alex and in a second, the man was getting back into the front
passenger seat and the car was pulling out of its slot.

As they drove off the man touched his hand to
side of his head and spoke briefly into a mic connected to an
earpiece then turned to address the other man sitting quietly
across from Alex in the owner’s comer of the backseat.

“He wasn’t followed, sir”

Alex didn’t know either of the two men in the
front seats but even in the darkness of the car’s interior, he
recognized the man sitting quietly across from him.

Colonel. Ernest Iyang, Deputy Head of
Operations, Military Intelligence, stared fixedly out the dark
window on his side like he hadn’t heard or seen a thing. He too was
in civilian clothes, white shirt sleeves and dark trousers.

The car was leaving the hotel now and heading
into the city.

“Good evening, sir” said Alex
respectfully.

The older man didn’t seem to hear for what
seemed to be a long moment, but then he turned his head to stare at
Alex.

It was six months since Alex last saw his old
boss with whom he enjoyed a special relationship, nonetheless, he
was a bit unsettled by the personal visit. When earlier that day,
he had put in the phone call to the secure line of a friend at
Military Intelligence headquarters and left the message on his
voice mail, the last thing Alex had expected was a swift visit from
the top brass who ran the entire department.

“What is an out of work, ex-Army officer
doing in the luxury suite of one of the most expensive hotels in
the country” asked the Colonel in his usual no-nonsense manner.
“And what is he doing calling a secure military line he should have
forgotten about six months ago?”

Alex took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s
a long story, sir”

“I suppose it is” said the colonel completely
unimpressed. “Mind enlightening me?”

“Yes sir. Two days ago, a man by the name of
Alhaji Mustapha Usman came to see me at my place in Lagos. How he
knew so much about me and where exactly to find me, I have no idea.
He’s the CEO of Goldfield Holdings, ever heard of him before?”

“Yes, he’s a northern billionaire business
mogul and the company has both solid and liquid mineral mining
interests. He normally likes to keep a low key profile but he has
lots of high powered connections both political and military. What
did he want?”