Hey there, this is my entry for this week's inkwell prompt, I hope you enjoy it.
Ifeanyi sat at his fifth job interview, they had just promised to give him a call and he knew the driĺl. They were officially done with him, but wanted to let him do it easy. He closed his eyes as he felt hurt, he tried to focus on his breathing till the receptionist touched his upper arm then he burst out in rage and started to make a scene. In Lagos due to the heat and population of the city sometimes it eats you whole, everyday we wake up in pursuit of a better life. The security guards were told to take him off the property. He went home and sat in his rent overdue apartment as he stared at the notice of leave from the landlord on the table.
He held his glass cup he used to sip whiskey and threw it at the wall as he screamed on top of his voice. Then he saw a text from Bola, it said, "I have an opportunity for you, it will make you a lot of money but the issue is are you up for the risk, if you're interested, meet me at 5pm in Mrs. Ola pepper soup shop". Bola was an old friend of his from primary school, he had a lot of money after traveling abroad and going back but nobody knew the source of his income, but Ifeanyi saw this as an opportunity.
The next day he wore a suit and tie as if he had a real job interview, Bola saw him and laughed as they exchanged hugs. They both sat at the same table, Bola had changed over a short time, he added weight and was soon to be married. Bola pointed to the waiter and ordered pepper soup for Ifeanyi so they could eat as they talked. Bola lowered his voice and said,"I want to help you, I don't like this life you're living". "Ifeanyi you know nothing in this life comes for free", Bola continued. Ifeanyi felt a little scared and stopped eating as he stared at Bola with a serious face, he then said," what do you want me to do for you?"
Bola stopped eating too, as he said,"He pointed at a secondary school in front of them, he then said," My associates have use for young girls, if you know what I mean?" "What do they need them for exactly?", Ifeanyi insisted. Bola said,"Let's just say we take them outside the country and give them a better life". Ifeanyi didn't say anything for a while, he had just been offered to be a part of illegal human cargo transportation, he felt his hand start to shake as he steadied himself and looked up at Bola, he later replied,"If I do this, I do it my way, do we have a deal". Bola took out his hand and they shaked on it.
When Ifeanyi was in secondary school, he had some close friends, they were a group that was found together at almost all the gatherings. They were like his family away from home. They were Chidimma, Henry, Godwin and him. Only Godwin fell off the friendship wheel, but the others still communicated with each other through a group chat, they hadn't been doing great either, they had been struggling to make a living like him, so he insisted that they should meet.
Godwin after secondary school decided not to further his education, he went to hustle and try to make a business for himself. Even though he made a lot of money, he was a drunk and irresponsible man. He spent most of his money with strange women and on bottles of alcohol. But he left the friendship circle because he felt that Ifeanyi uses them because he can easily manipulate them to think the way he wanted them too. Godwin didn't like the idea of somebody dictating his life for him, so he cut ties with them and hadn't seen or spoken to any of them for quite some time now.
They all sat at the same pepper soup shop, Chidimma, Henry and Ifeanyi. He pointed at the secondary school and took them what they had to do, it was hard for them to take in, but they later accepted to hear him out because Ifeanyi had come up with a plan that would make them out of the picture completely and out of the police sight and free from all leads that would implicate them in the future.
Ifeanyi then said,"The owner of the school is a Bishop Dr .Okeke Chibuzor, he is seen as a man of honor in society, if we are going to frame him we need concrete evidence that would convince the police, they need to believe he is the kingpin to this whole operation, that's why we would go to police and report him as the kingpin to keep their attention hooked as we move forward to infiltrate the school". Chidimma said,"They would just follow us, they don't know who we are ''. Ifeanyi said,"we have some people on the inside that have given the girls a tale of people coming to take them abroad as an NGO trying to alleviate poverty". "They would trust us", he then put his hands in his bag and shared a T-shirt with the name of their fake NGO and face caps on them. The T-shirt had a picture of a child holding hands and their name on the bottom saying," Grace Foundation". Henry said,"It's a full proof plan but we have to be paid before we risk our lives``. Ifeanyi picked up his phone and credited each of them #500,000 naira each and promised to do more once the job was done, that it was an advance from Mr.Bola. They all agreed that the plan was a good one.
Chidimma first went to the police to report the Bishop as a consigned parent, they immediately went and arrested him and started their questioning and investigation. Ifeanyi and his team wore their uniform and their people on the inside gave them entrance to the school. It didn't take much convincing till they had a bus full of young girls moving out of the western border and moving out of Nigeria. Before long the police had found they had the wrong person, but by then Ifeanyi was half way out of the country.
The Head of Maryland police station, Mr. Awolo felt hurt that a bunch of people had made him look like a fool. This would leave a stain on his position that when he was in office, parents in the Maryland area lost their daughters, mothers would come to his office day after day emotionally threatening him with what would happen if he didn't find their daughter. Mr. Awolo loved the animal channel, loved watching Pride of the Safari, the programme was about how lions loved to protect their pride. They would circle thelr territory to scare other lions and big cats, then they roar on top of their voices to signify dominance.
Awolo saw himself as a lion and Maryland district was his pride, he had to protect his pride, he knew that the best way to do that was to find someone that knew his prey. He started to research how the trio who deceived him were connected and how they knew eachother, he then found out about Godwin. He picked up his phone and sent his officers to go and find Godwin.
Godwin sat in a bar, as he flirted with the bartender. Policemen walked in and asked that he follow them to answer a few questions, Godwin was a little tipsy and started to panick and think whether he had done anything wrong of recent. "Why were the police looking to speak to me", he thought. Mr. Awolo sat and welcomed Godwin as his friend, he then narrated what his old friends had done. Godwin froze in his chair as he tried to rack his brain around what he just heard. He looked at Mr. Awolo and said he can't help him, his reason being that he hadn't spoken to Ifeanyi for a long while. Mr.Awolo said,"I don't care whether you have talked to him, I want to know how he thinks, put your in his shoes and tell me what would his next move". Godwin said,"He won't try to cross the border, so he would go through the desert, resting in the day and moving in the moonlight"." If we are going to find them, we have to go the Sahara desert before 42hrs before they get to the border of Chile".
Ifeanyi had been walking for over 12 hrs, he felt dehydrated but he couldn't stop. He walked behind Camels that carried the girls, who thought they were on vacation. One of them smuggled a phone and took a picture and posted it on Instagram. The post was sent to Mr.Awolo by a journalist, then he contacted the air force for a combat helicopter so that his team can be taken to the Sahara Desert. They took Godwin with them and immediately they were off as it was a race against time. The sand was vast, it was as if they were looking for a needle in a haystack, they later found them. The police had ascended from the helicopter and surrounded all of them and gave the order for everyone to put their hands on their head, Ifeanyi, Chidimma and Henry couldn't believe their eyes as Godwin came out of the vessel, "What a reunion".
I used last week's prompt #Unlikely Hero to make this story, I hope you enjoyed it, Happy New Year
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