Chapter 7: Chapter 7
The sun had returned early into her place of abode leaving behind the darkness and drizzling which shimmered against glowing streetlamps. At Lt., Gen. Nasir’s private guest house, all was silence and stillness except the distant traffic and the hawk floating in the sky. “I have never been so insulted in my entire life,” Aliena complained bitterly, her pretty face a mask of anger mixed with frustration, she sat down on the leather sofa and threw her handbag somewhere beside her.
Lt. Gen Nasir who sat opposite her, smoking a cigarette gently removed it, eyed it before saying, “I will deal with that old fool, don’t worry; let’s find a solution to the problem at hand first.”
“Now that he’s aware, I hope he won’t report to my dad?”
“He will not do such a thing.” Lt. Gen Nasir replied in an uncertain tone.
“I don’t want to keep the pregnancy, Nasir; do something fast!” Aliena squeaked bitterly as she remembered what her dad told her when she was brought back home from Oxford University; it happened that the President’s security officer; Inspector Fidelis invited the first lady to his daughter’s graduation ceremony as the mother of the day, Aliena was delegated to go and represent the first lady. Later that night, her father invited her for a heart-to-heart discussion, “Aliena, didn’t you grab anything from what happened today?”
“I don’t understand, Dad?” Aliena who was fagged out and was about to retire to bed asked and knitted her brow in disapproval of her father’s unusual summon. She had just had her bath and put on her nightwear. She was in her father’s study where he appeared to be going over some files. “Fidelis is my security officer, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Dad, I know him to be your security officer.”
“His daughter is the same age as you; she just graduated as a pharmacist, she doesn’t have the same opportunity that you have, Aliena. Does she?” her father spoke in a quivering voice. “What about your cousin, Sherry? She is in her final semester? You have dropped out of two Universities now. Haven’t you?” He stood up and walked towards her. “You are supposed to be a role model to young ladies, my dear.” He suddenly looked frail and older as if the burden of the whole world seemed to be weighing him down.
The tears seeped out of her bright eyeballs in fast torrents. She thought of shouting rudely back at him that he was the cause of all her traumas, but she quickly held her tongue in check. She had never bandy words with her father instead she preferred to suffer in silence and pretended all was well. He placed a comforting arm on her shoulder and gave her an assuring smile. “It is not too late my dear; as the saying goes, it is better to be late than never at all. I want you to make me proud by going back to the University and complete your degree course.”
She rested her head on her father’s chest as her body vibrated with sobbing. “I…I…I’m sorry…” she spluttered and allowed her grief to take the better part of her.
“Take a university of your choice in any part of the world...”
“No, Dad, I don’t want to be far from you. I promise to make amends.” She interrupted her father after she had managed to get a grip on herself. She peered into his face with her tear-stricken face beaming.
“You can never be far from me; your safety is more important; think about it, at least, you will feel free where your identity is not known than here where you are a prey to the press and political enemies.”
“I have found a solution to the problem at hand.” Lt. Gen. Nasir broke into her trail of thought.
“Have you?” She asked as she turned to look at him with a sigh of relief.
“Yes, I sent one of my trusted boys to work on Dr. Badmus’s staff and he picked one Dr. Manzi who indicated interest. I have him checked out and I can boldly say he is a brilliant doctor; he is capable.”
“Dr. Manzi? I know him; he attended to my stepbrother sometime ago.”
“I have him brought to my office and we discussed; I have even given him twenty thousand dollars as part payment so he promised he will do it in the midnight with a trusted nurse at the Babnamb Specialist Hospital.”
“Babnamb Specialist Hospital? Are you sure that place would be, okay? It is Dr. Badmus’s private hospital remember?”
“Don’t worry your pretty head, Aliena, it will be in the midnight and Badmus hardly do night shifts. It wouldn’t even take much time.”
She heaved a sigh of relief and resolved there and then to stop seeing General Nasir once the pregnancy was terminated.
“A penny for your thought, Aliena?” Lt Gen Nasir asked as he discovered she was occupied in her thought.
“I want us to stop seeing each other, Nasir?” She grimaced and blurted out.
His heart leaped but he tried unsuccessfully to conceal it. This made him quiet for some seconds, contemplating after which he brightened up and summoned courage. “I understand your fears, Aliena why don’t you let’s get the issue at hand done with before we discuss that one.”
“I just want you to be aware; I don’t want to have an intimate relationship with you again and don’t ever call me again!”
He pretended as if he didn’t hear. “I told him to meet us at the White Galaxy Restaurant at eight-thirty; can we go to see him now?”
“I’m not following you!” She snapped, “I will meet you there in my car!!” she concluded angrily and stormed out of the house.
ΩΩ
President Muriel Rehema had a troubled sleep; his wife, Vivada who was by his side was peacefully snoring away. He was about to get up from the bed to go to his study when one of the many telephones by his bedside rang. He ignored it at first, but the incessant noise made him pick up the mouthpiece. The information divulged to him put his hair on edge. “You can’t be serious?” He shouted into the mouthpiece making his wife who had woken up do sit upright. “What is it, my dear?” she asked worriedly.
“I have never been more serious; your Excellency, go to the Babnamb Specialist Hospital now!” The scrambled line went dead after passing the information.
“Please tell me what the problem is?” The agitated woman asked.
He ignored her and quickly rushed out of the room to his daughter’s room where he discovered she wasn’t there. As he turned and ran out of her room, he bumped into his wife, and both crashed to the floor. “What is happening?” She cried, “Is there a coup?”
“Someone called me now that Aliena is dying at the hospital!” He stammered, sweating profusely, “Call the Chief Security Officer immediately!”
“My dear, are you sure it is true? She told us she will be attending a Christian programme with Sherry in Rome; why don’t you authenticate the information before you start reacting this way?” She said, soothingly.
He paused briefly before replying, “You are right, but the call came through my private line and only a few people have my private line number though the caller used a scrambled line. Call the Chief Security Officer for me now!” He roared and went towards Aliena’s bedside and began to dial her mobile line, as expected it was switched off. He pulled a call through to his chief of staff and his Chief Security Officer; young Major Duncan appeared before him and gave a smart salute before he stood at ease while President Muriel briefed him on the anonymous call. “Your Excellency; let me go to the Babnam Specialist Hospital now.” Major Duncan suggested. “If there is anything that has gone wrong, Badmus supposed to have called me,” President Muriel pondered and turned to his CSO. “Duncan, I want to go to that hospital myself,” he declared flatly,
“Your Excellency, it is late, think about the security risk,” Major Duncan protested feebly.
“It is my daughter we are talking about here!” he argued sternly, “Duncan? You are my Chief Security Officer, are you saying you can’t provide the needed security?”
“My dear, you are the President of the Federal Republic, you can’t be going out by one-thirty in the morning on a wild geese chase!” His wife, Vivada cautioned.
He looked at her with askance, “What do you mean, Vivada? Going after my daughter is a wild geese chase?”
“Your Excellency, there will be no problem, sir!” his CSO interjected,
“Get the motorcade ready for me in the next ten minutes; I’m going to see my daughter at the Babnamb Hospital,” President Muriel said with finality.
Major Duncan saluted smartly, “Yes, Your Excellency,” He touched his right ear to adjust his earpiece for a tighter seal and began to issue instructions.
“I will go with you dear,” Vivada said as she joined her husband who was dressing up in the bedroom. As he didn’t answer, she dressed up and followed him. They got to Babnam Specialist Hospital, which was about five kilometres from the Presidential villa amidst tight security. Immediately they stopped in front of the big hospital building, the security agents alighted and took positions at different corners of the building brandishing their weapons. The bomb squad had already started sniffing around with their bomb detector. Major Duncan alighted from the front door of the President’s tinted glass and six-door black hummer and opened the back door for the President and the first lady. He saluted as they alighted. The hospital environment had an unusual serenity around it. As the President and first lady, flanked by six hefty security agents dressed in black suits entered the reception; one of the Security Agents who took a position at the gate post raised alarm and Major Duncan went to see what happened; what he saw put him on edge, dead bodies of a policeman and gateman. “They were shot,” the Security Agent who discovered the bodies explained.
“I guessed it was just some hours back.” He added,
“Could it be what I’m thinking?” Duncan said, looking expectantly at the Agent.
“What is that, Major?”
“The President’s daughter is supposed to be here!” He said and stormed out of the gate post, dishing out orders into his earpiece. President Muriel saw the dead bodies of the two receptionists and two staff nurses at the reception. The first lady, Vivada burst into tears while the security agents and the paramedics took over the bodies. Major Duncan guided them to the VIP wards. In the VIP ward five where President Muriel had once been admitted, he saw the lifeless body of his daughter on the bed, covered with a white sheet; President Muriel Rehema couldn’t help it, tears swelled up in his eyes. “Your Excellency, please take heart, we will make sure we get to the root of the matter.” His chief of staff consoled.
He held his daughter’s cold hands and looked at her still figure, words choked him. Vivada placed a comforting arm on his shoulder. “Haven’t I failed as a father?” He lamented.
“You have not failed, my dear; she chose her destiny.”
“Major, we just discovered the body of Dr. Manzi in his office,” An Agent whispered to Major Duncan. “We discovered that the weapons used are sophisticated military riffles; this must have a political undertone though it is too early to ascertain. it might be a decoy.”
Major Duncan was speechless as he pondered seriously on the situation on the ground. The atmosphere became gloomy and sorrowful as the Presidential entourage left the scene. The same night, armed military men stormed Dr. Shaphat’s official residence, just a few houses away from the Presidential castle, and arrested him amidst protest from his family members. They took him to the President. “How have I offended you, Badmus?” President Muriel Rehema asked in an emotion-laden voice. “You know how precious, Aliena is to me. Don’t you?” he didn’t wait for a response before he asked again. “Is this how you want to pay me back for the good deeds I have done for you, by collaborating with my political opponent to hit me below the belt?”
“Your Excellency, I’m just hearing about this incidence, I don’t know anything about it.” Dr. Badmus protested, “I have never been disloyal to you.”
“You still have the guts to tell lies, Badmus? Didn’t Aliena visit you at the hospital in the morning?”
“Your Excellency, yes…yes she did but…but I didn’t have any…” He spluttered, sweating profusely as he beholds the President’s angry countenance. The two military men who held him at both arms could feel his discomfort.
“Badmus, you have stepped on a mamba’s tail!” Muriel declared in a menacing tone. “I don’t know what you will say that will prove your innocence, but I hope you get out of this,” He turned to the military men. “Take him away!” They bundled him to a waiting military range rover.
“Your Excellency, please, I didn’t do it!” He cried bitterly as he was being led away. he regretted not reporting to the president when Aliena informed him she was pregnant. That was where he knew he made a great mistake.
“I want his family out of the official residence immediately, his hospital sealed off and his bank accounts frozen until thorough investigation are concluded.” President Muriel Rehema instructed his chief of staff. "My political enemies must have paid him to carry out that dastardly act. Trace the sources of cash inflows and outflows and report suspicious transactions to me as soon as possible."
“Yes, your Excellency, everything will be thoroughly carried out.”
The next morning, Sherry was in school working on her project when her father called to inform her about what happened to her cousin, “Oh, no! Dad, I warned her!! I warned her!!!” She spluttered over the phone while the tears dropped in large torrents.
“You warned her about what?” Her ignorant father asked worriedly.
“You won’t understand, Dad,” She cried bitterly, “I’m coming home right now; I have to see the President!”
“Can you drive, Sherry? Let me send someone to pick you up?”
“Don’t bother, Dad; I will manage, when I come, I will tell you everything.” She said and hung up. She sat still, staring at her hands for some time, watching the tremor in them. She cried the more as she remembered the good times, she had shared with Aliena.
“Aliena had a good spirit, generous, friendly, and down to earth.” She quivered with rage as she stood up, picked her car key, and stormed out of the classroom where she had been working on her project. “Her killer must not be allowed to go scot-free.” She put her books in the back seat of her Lexus Jeep LX 470 and started the ignition. She expertly drove out of the busy campus and headed into the city. The bright sky was paving way for the sun to emerge and shed its hard, harsh rays over the land. Her heavy and grieved beclouded mind didn’t make her notice a black Peugeot 505 bearing down on her. As the Peugeot swept past, a burst of fire from the concealed, machine gun was devastating, the Jeep rocked crazily under the impact of the hail of bullets. Sherry seemed to fly to places as the whiplash of bullets tore open her chest and flung her on the steering wheel. The people on the street flattened on the sidewalks or dashed madly and stupidly into the malls and supermarkets for safety, cars swerved to avoid the black Peugeot car; some in the process mounted the kerbs. One bus conveying passengers to the city center crashed into another as the Peugeot swept on and disappeared around the corner.