DECEPTIVE REFUGE (part V).

     Gathering what strength was left in him, agent Mark in his terrible state, calculated his aim for the third time since the fight began and hoped that his accuracy would not fail him this one last time. He hurled the piece of broken metal statue upwards with much force as he could muster, even in his semi-conscious state he knew immediately that he hit his target because the vice-like grip on his neck immediately eased. He felt a rush of dizziness as his organs accepts the oxygen rushing in. The statue had hit his enemy at the soft bone just beneath the ear and he had slumped into a mild coma immediately.
      Agent Mark Edmund lay prone on the floor as he noticed a familiar pair of Italian shoes walk briskly into the room.
      "what do I offer you boss?" he said still on the floor.
      " I really wish I was here earlier" the director of NSCC said.
      " Why don't you tie him up," he motioned to the limp body of Joseph. Agent Mark propped himself up with a wince of pain as he went on with the task.
      "where are the others?" he asked as he bent over Joseph
      "I underestimated you Ed, I told him but he would not listen"
      "what exactly are you saying boss?"
      "you don't understand do you?" he asked as he wheeled around to face Mark whose mouth formed a capital letter O. Facing him is a pistol which the director brandished in his wiry hand.
      " for long the Igbo race have been denied the presidency of this country." he paused as he approached.
      "you're well aware of my political ambition and my hopes for my cousin winning the coming election. I can't let you  jeopardize what we have toiled for all these years." he said as he inched closer.
      "wait boss," agent Mark said with both hands in the air.
      "why waste a valuable asset when you can use me instead of Joseph who you know I am better than. The director of NSCC fixed him with a gaze for some seconds before he let out a guffaw.
      "You don't think I'll fall for that do you agent Mark Edmund?" his sinister smile turned immediately into a ferocious snarl.
      "remember I was the one who taught you the art of deceit, you've played your last card Ed," he said as he placed his finger on the trigger. Agent Mark shut his eyes as he waited for the last sound he was going to hear on earth.
      "Freeze" was what he heard instead of the "ka blam" of the gun. col. Ibe knew better than to make a move when he saw the four men in military camouflages that  poured into the  room,  these  men would  unhesitatingly shoot him in the head if he did as much as twitch a finger. They were some of the Hausa men who filled the Nigeria military, who has no regard for human life. where did they come from?. He stared with virulence as he was dragged out of the room.
      " Actually boss," agent Mark was saying
      " I had one more card to play" he produced the two-way radio phone the agency uses.
      "you taught me the art of deceit but the art of stalling, I learned of my own cognition." Agent Mark had ingeniously placed the device that would record every sound around perfectly and send it directly to the agency, just behind the unconscious body of Joseph.
      "You're dead!" the director barked as he was dragged outside.
      "Hello Mark," Bubo, a close friend of Mark said as he walked into the room beaming with smiles.
      "What kept you guys so long?" agent Mark Edmund queried.
                                       ***THE END***

DECEPTIVE REFUGE (part IV)

The caller squinted his beady eyeballs as he replaced the phone after his employer had permitted him to "contain the situation" and had hung up. His employer who prefers to conceal his identity even after two successful missions. He removed a shiny pistol, screwed on a silencer and advanced out of the dark where he had ingeniously concealed himself. He was in the agent's private room, rummaging through files when he heard footsteps. He had scurried to the bathroom and remained there until he decided to take a peek, it was then that he made the call that set him to his current task. This had always been an interesting task to accomplish, the frightened look on the face of his prey and the overwhelming feeling of superiority but this time, he only felt a great surge of remorse and regret for what he was about to do. More troubling was the fact that this situation could have been evaded if he had listened to his employer who was sceptical about his 'hidden in plain view' strategy. "I have no choice" he muttered and stepped out of the shadows. Agent Edmund Mark tried hard to fathom the situation but could not. This is someone he had known like the back of his hand. What had he turned into this few years he was abroad? "it can't be true" he said as he lowered his gaze to the objects lying before his feet- a black pair of boots with it's threadings matching the one on the paper, gloves, black ski-mask... "it's true Eddy," agent Mark snapped his head towards the door, at the same instant his hand reached to his belt where his gun used to be, he had dropped it on the couch in the sitting room. The figure that emerged from the door cleared any trace of doubt in him as he stared into the muzzle of a .45 hecklar and kotch pointed to his head by the hand of his best friend - Joseph. "I'm really sorry dear friend but you left me no choice" Joseph said with a sympathetic shake of his head. Adrenalin pumped into his blood stream as his instincts for grave dangers took over him. Joseph was a man of few words, his finger was already curling over the trigger when with a calculated aim and a flashing speed, Edmund grabbed a boot from the floor and sent it spiralling through the air. The projectile hit the pistol and it fell to the ground with a thud. Agent Mark needed only a second of distraction, he dived towards his assailant but was late, he was stunned when he saw the gun facing him again as it had been retrieved by his assailant. He reflexively rolled away from the gun's line of fire in time to hear a whipping sound past his left arm. A warm trickle of blood ran down his left arm as he was luckily only creased by the bullet which buried itself in a 1-foot metal statue of a woman with a basket on her head. With the agility of a mamba, agent Mark swung his leg upwards like a street dancer towards Joseph's hand which pointed down on him ready to release another bullet. He hit his target this again and this time, the gun flew out of his hand without a clatter. He had hardly staggered back to his feet when he received a deadly blow which emptied his lungs of air and left him clutching his abdomen. He opened his eyes in time to see Joseph's second blow aimed at his face, he deflected it with his left hand and at the same time, sent a heavier blow into his enemy's stomach. With Joseph's face now vulnerable as he held his stomach, he threw an upper-cut which almost lifted him off his feet and left his nose and upper lip in a bloody mess. Agent Mark wasted no time to charge towards his assailant who was still doubled over but was surprised to find both his legs lifted off the ground as Joseph's massive and strong shoulders plummeted him into a wall, he felt as though his ribs and spine had been crushed as he slid slowly to the floor with his back still against the wall. Joseph immediately clamped his throat with a strong elbow in a death- grip. He held his own right wrist to tighten the grip on Mark's neck between the joint of his arm. Agent Mark gurgled and thrashed desperately as his air passage was blocked. His struggles began to wane when his vision darkened with purple spots and his entire body began to yield to unconsciousness. Darkness seemed to stretch tentacles of fear to him as he began the decent into an endless void. His pupils dilated as his blood and lungs strained for oxygen. Agent Mark was almost gone when his left hand struck something hard on the floor, it was one half of the broken sculpture.

DECEPTIVE REFUGE (part III)

Agent Edmund Mark waited for some seconds on the phone until the deep voice of the director of NSCC replied, "what is it Ed?" they talked for a while on the phone until the director said a quick "just do what you can Ed, debrief me in the morning" and hung up. After series of edition and developement on the video clip; the enhancement of the video resolution and the clipping of images by a microprocessor, agent Mark had located the position of the shooter and had ingeniously lifted boot prints from the point. People at the shopping plaza were questioned but no one saw something unusual, only a female trader who offered an unclear description of a priest who had blessed her rosary beads and hurriedly climbed to the third floor at the time of the assassination. On reaching his apartment, one of the drab buildings that filled the Golden City estate, agent Mark slumped his tired body on the couch. He lived alone, only visited from time to time by a girlfriend who thought he works in a bank until a week ago when an old friend came to stay with him after returning from a long trip overseas. Joseph had left for Germany to further his studies after their secondary school and now he is back and wants to spend a few days with his best friend. With a chilled bottle of water which he took from the refrigerator in one hand, he pulled out the contents of the brown envelope with his free hand and stared in all directions of the sitting-room to make sure he was alone. Joseph must've gone out, he thought as he removed a high-resolution print-out of a beady pair of eyeballs behind a black ski-mask, followed by a gray-scale print-out of shoe prints with its threadings clear. Still staring at the print-out with the ski-mask, his mind searched and wondered at the familiarity of the eyeballs which he dismissed as paranoia. But agent Mark's instincts had never failed him in his line of work and he had learned to obey them. As if an unseen force urges him forward, he started pacing around his house and within seconds, he found himself in the room he had given Joseph. Then something crossed his mind which could explain the paranoia he felt previously- Joseph might be in the wardrobe with an indian hemp since he had warned him about smoking in his house. So he walked to the closet and threw it open half expecting to see his friend absorbed in smoke but was greeted by a number of clothings. If it was sheer curiousity or divine providence that made him notice the uneven base of his friend's echolac box, Mark could not tell but he did not need a sooth-sayer to confirm an external hidden compartment in a box, he had used them on numerous missions to conceal small but deadly weapons. It took him fifteen seconds to loosen all the screws that held the compartment then he pulled out a duffel bag and reached inside. He smiled to himself as his hands felt a satchet of dry grass, "can Joseph ever quit smoking?" he muttered and made to withdraw his hand until he felt something else. He immediately spilled the contents on the floor and was taken aback by the sight as his brain tries to process the stimulus it received from the eyes. He blinked continuously to clear his vision hoping to wake up from a dream but what lay at his feet was real... too real to be a dream. Almost immediately, a phone on a table in an office kilometers away rang as a man in his early fifties with a gray blazer suit answered "you shouldn't be calling." "yes but we have a situation." came a younger voice, "he knows" the caller added in a shaky tone. A brief silence ensued as the man stiffened at the news. His face contorted as he paced the office scratching his bald-head. "i can contain the situation..." the caller was saying when the man cut him off "i told you but you would not...! he made to scream out his anger but controlled himself when he saw his secretary appear at the door. "do what you have to, remove him from the picture" he said in a whisper before he hung up.

DECEPTIVE REFUGE (part II)

"Today is a very special day for our young and promising future leaders", the minister was saying. "so what're we old men and women doing here on a children's day?" he asked jokingly as a low rumble of laughter emanated from the crowd. The laughter had hardly died down when the minister's head jerked sideways with a tremendous force before he slumped to the ground. It took the secret service bodyguard behind him and people close to the minister a few seconds to comprehend what had happened as a bright-red pool of blood formed around the lifeless body of the minister of education dotted with chunks of brain matter. Furore broke over the crowd as screams rose from one corner to the other. A mother nearby shielded her child's eyes from the grotesque figure as she shouted a 'jesus christ!'. Another man had exclaimed 'Chineke!' with both his hands on his head as the once serene environment abruptly turned into a mixture of cries and screams. The left side of the minister's head was completely gone as the bullet passed into the left temple and had taken off a great part of the right side of his face in an exit wound, he was already dead even before his body hit the ground. Children were immediately hurried into their school buses by their teachers as many others took to their heels amidst the blaring of ambulance sirens. Immediately after watching his target fall, the assassin dismantled his rifle, removed his ski-mask to reveal a smirk and left the same way he came as the sounds of the melee rose behind him like the shadow of a gathering cloud. A few seconds later, the young priest quietly descended the stairs of the building. "what is the noise all about?" he asked a trader, "dem don shoot person" the timorous trader replied in pidgin english. The priest did a sign of the cross and left. * * * Agent Edmund Mark stole a quick glance at the brown envelope lying precariously on the empty seat next to him as he drove home in his old Vectra GT. Being an erudite member of the NSCC - an acronym for the Nigerian special crime control, he built his reverenced reputation on extraordinary performances in his duty, his stoic nature and sharp instincts. Standing handsomely tall with an innocent look always on his face, he never ceases to catch the attention of pretty girls who had no idea of the onerous nature behind the mask of his enticing physique. With his right hand under his chin and the other on the steering wheel, he reminisced on the events of the past few days - the enigmatic disappearance of two altruistic politicians on whom the whole nation depended on for the long-anticipated transformation of the corrupt leadership of the country. Then recently, the grotesque murder of the well-loved minister of education whose ascension to the presidential seat come next election, was obviously close to definite. Agent Mark had never failed in an investigation before in the history of his career but the recent case had hit him below the belt coupled with discouraging tardiness and occasional dead-end. Other cases took him not less than two days to "connect the dots" as his boss would always say but this one had gone on for three days without success until today. He remembered the words of the director of NSCC and smiled inwardly. "this case have dragged us all into the mud but I still trust in your instincts Ed". Col. Ibe had said as he patted his shoulder reassuringly the previous day. The intimacy between the both of then was one envied by other members of the agency who saw and feared the taciturn director as a demi god. He stared at the envelope for the second time as he was jarred out of his reverie by the blaring of horns on the busy road. A ray of hope creased his perplexed mind as he continued his journey home. Only a day before, he had received an information that elevated his optimism on the case, he had received a memory card from a digital camera which contained a blurry video clip. A school child had been luckily viewing and recording the ambience of the Eagle square when the camera caught something out of the ordinary from a building opposite his position at the same time that the minister was shot. Still behind the steering wheel, agent Mark picked up his cellphone from the dashboard and spoke into it when it connected after the second ring. "I need to ask you a favour sir," he said