At the sound of what sounded like another gunshot,Yusufu jumped to his feet and struggled vivaciously sliding his Lean self into his black bell bottom pants.He rushed to the window,,slid the drapes slighty and stole a peep outside .The street below the POP building was in chaos-persons dashing in different directions.Mothers galloping aimlessly,with wailing children strapped to their backs,vehicles colliding with themselves as their chauffers tried to maneuver their escape.Trays and stands which before now had contained for sale goods were deserted and goods like cigarette boxes ,bitter kola,TomTom were scattered allover.the streets abandoned by the sellers.
He fetched his glasses hurriedly from his pockets and pressed them to his face.Now he sighted them.At the start of the street they were advancing In their numbers looking like bees seeking the refuge away from a distorted hive -some had machetes some carried domestically made rifles,majority of the where holding fire touches qith which he saw them use to light whatever it was that they came across-The cars parked to the side of the streets,and the culprits caught by the stampede?they slaughtered.He shifted his gaze just in time to witness the knockout of an unfortunate woman by a machete blow to the neck.He hastily slid the curtain shut as the brute had started to raise the edge of the machete dripping with blood to his tongue.He waited backbent behind the curtain for a few seconds and then shifted softly,a little part of the fabric, creating just enough space to allow an eye to steal one peep at a time..When he saw how they had teleported close ,say a few blocks from the pop building, he panicked-a very bad time and place to spend ones last moments he thought.
Now he sensed her grip for the first time.Turning his head halfway he realised she had been leaning on him all the while ,stark naked with her right arm across her breasts.She looked as pale as death(death with teflon smooth breasts)he thought.She must have been like that for God knows since when but he just didnt care , not at a time like this one.He turned and stared at her curtly-.She was trembling like a sick fowl.A rather contrasting demeanour to what she had had last night when he had picked her up in front of the hotel Extravaganza after dropping the minister off at his duplex at the Barnawa GRA.The trip from Abuja had left the minister exhausted hence he had dismissed him earlier than usual .Hastily he had grubbed through a sharp meal and zoomed with the mercedes GLK to explore the city( after all it was TGIF).
. ...all these redlight district people and their formings....he thought .She had had the look of a diva straight outta the thickness of the amazon,sashaying carelessly on her stilleto heels and smacking noisefully on a bubble last night ,she together with her rauchy cohorts her paraded the premises of the hotel Extravaganza advertising joli joli and when the mercedes GLK had cruised to a halt she and her colleagues her strided towards its windows ,smacking noisily and shoving their tits in the face.
He dashed towards the bed grabbing his waistcoat from the hanger which stood beside the mirror and hurriedly added it atop his now loosely buttoned shirt .Ransacking his pockets while sprinting towards the exit ,he flung what was left of her balance on the floor with reckless abandon without as much as a stare towards her direction.He paused when he felt her hand jerk his shoulder."Dem dey hide for streets oo"it was the first time he had heard her speak with precision, the night before after she had hit the bottle,it was booze talk and then booze moan during the sex and then booze snore when she slept and then the morning hangover and alcohol breath plus panic which had muted her till now ."Who dem be?"he questioned "AA squad" she muttered,"wetyn be AA squad".Antiashewo squad na dem na ..he just stared at her like "what the hell was Anti Ashewo squad" .Anti-prostitution she continued sensing he was bamboozled. If you comot now na die you dey ooo.He stared blankly at her like she was some sort of runaway retard from a psychiatry and tried to fathom what she meant.The terror in her voice was clouding her reasoning and for a split second he wished he could make her sound a little placid at least til he could understand whatever madness she thought was going on down there and why she felt remaining in this sex cabin was safer than the outside or why she felt the mob out there were Anti Ashewo or whatever and not members of the revolutionary movement,because as far as he was concerned the militia revolutionary group was the only sect that rained such level of brutality as that which was been served in the streets below him now and would be brought up the stairs in little time to him and this confused wimp .
It was every where on the internet,the forewarn by the militia, to cripple the government in less than six months ,on the sixth day of the sixth month.They called it the 666 saga.Their deeds were on the covers of every newspaper, Their Apocalypse was what formed the topstories for bloggers -.vloggers had footage sessions with their key men dishing out threats.Faces inside dominos -the whole of the internet was flooded with headlines about their doings.It was either a mayhem on oil investors or massive arsonry or some headline that depicted destruction or genocide or danger.
Initially the government had called them bluffers until they had validated their potency by uploading a footage of the massive massacre of oil workers from WELLS PMS,breaking the internet with a whooping 0ne million views in 24hours and the one hour one man slaughter of victims held hostage at the departure lounge of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport.The hostage had lasted for two days and the casualties had been numbered in hundreds and had included ,a serving minister and his wife,an ambassador and a couple of celebs.
***
The splattering of gunfire increased and police sirens were now blaring on the streets.He edged towards the blinds but felt the sting of teargas hit his eyes and hurriedly sealed the curtains and backed away,returning to the centre of the cabin,he hunkered on the bed .Ransacking his pockets,he grasped his phone scrolling down his contact list in a pell-mell way pausing only when the ministers name appeared .He pressed the phone to his ear and waited for response.
"Yusufu?"..the minister sounded sleepy
" Sorry Sah "he started off apologising.. " Oga sah there is a little problem oo sah",he panted emohasing his accent of western northern root.
"Na wetyn" the minister replied suppressing a yawn and propping his head on his left elbow ,staring blankly at his palatial bedroom.
"Oga sah there is a problem here ooo" ...wetyn be dis one na the minister snarled .
"Oga "he continued hurriedly sensing the ministers irritation.....I think the mlitia are having a session ooo and i have been trapped between a combo of arsonry and massacre... Wer you dey...Oga at the hotel extravaganza sah... Okay replied the minister and the line went dead...
He knew better than to attempt a redial....he got up and paced mechanically back and forth of the cabin while she leaned on the wall ,hands crossing her head and waited.Then his fone beeped...it was the ..." Sah!"..find your way down ...and the line went dead.The tone was authoritative. He knew who it was.
He turned and galloped towards the vestibule,and she nimbled along,he opened the door to the hallway ,it was deserted except for a couple looking confused and contemplating their next move.They walked stealthily down the hallway towards the stairs .At the start of the staircase ,leaning on the guardrails, he peeped down the rails at the reception hall -it looked deserted too-cautiously he ebbed down and she threaded softly behind him .Halfway through their descent they heard the swinging doors of the recption below burst open -he paused abruptly ,pressing himself to the wall and peeped down,he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw khaki men filing in,with rifles in hand in arrowhead military formation..
****
Leviticus Ladejo was in no mood for petty worry.When he ended the call with yusufu,he suantered sluggishly to the bathroom .And undressing from his bedrobes,he sank into the tub and made himself one with the water that oozed through in slow currents until he felt his mass floating and the refreshing chill percolate his flesh-every part of it.In his minds eye he still saw the student unionists from yesterday.Infact he was gonna use them, he knew better than to underestimate the effect of these political underdogs.The meeting yesterday with them had ended well(and by well he meant that they had smiled out of his office looking like well caressed bitches)no be anyhow politician dey give hundred thousand naira as "take this for your transport na".He thought about how he had fooled them into thinking he had been bamboozled by their kowtow. Especially the blogger girl...He nestled in the tub and pressed his lids against themselves.
She had been intimidated by the supercilious air in his office,the bimbo blogger,he knew she knew then to appreciate the broad demarcation between between ranting on the internet and a man-face-man talk,she also knew that he knew that she was doing all within her power to mask her inferiority complex...
" Ha ha ha"he had bellowed scornfully when she had squeezed her appealing frame passed her colleagues from the rear to front,asking "your Excellency can you elaborate on the projects you have executed thus far during your four year stay as the minister for transportation? "
"Uhmmm", he had began ,then midway he relapsed into a bout of laughter,as if buying time to fiddle with the question before giving her the obvious answer that she didn't deserve.Because he knew her type, the kind that never ply government roads.The sugar daddy book flight ticket for me type.He wondered if her knowledge about interstate roads, and major Railtrack lines , within the country was sufficient enough to permit her relate to the answer to her question..
" When last did you ply the Kogi -Abuja express ?"she had hesitated before replying looking baffled.. In a bid to paint the clear difference between gallivanting on the internet to source for information about what the govament did and did not do , and been practical jaunting these hellish expressways and really seeing the drawback demons sitted as potholes and bandits infected narrow single lane roads,he continued. "Portharcort-owerri express....he had continued ,not waiting for her baffled expression to die off,port Harcourt baba express?Lagos-ibadan?"Not in recent times Sah" flustered as she was,she managed a whisper visibly regretting the question.
"How about the Ifaw-ilaro railtrack line?" "No sah"
"Minna-Baro?". No sah...." Kuru-Jos"..no sah...
Kaduna-kafanchan-kuru-bauchi-maiduguri?
Now he had them where he wanted.He had swivelled halfway ,forcing himself to suppress a smirk.Then standing halfway,he had leaned on his office desk,his necktie floating freely hypnotising their stare behind the margins of his swish mahogany desk.Then he had stolen a brief peep at his image in the mirror and even in its reflection,they seemed browbeaten -He had then strolled to the dispenser,and poured himself a drink.
***
He heard the Glk hoot from outside the gates ,rising from the tub,he stretch his limb for the towel and anticipated the sound of the doorbell downstairs.
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