Sarah woke up with a start as the sun rays shot to her face! The sun was rolling up from the horizon yonder. She realized quickly that something was amiss! This had not been the plan at all. They were supposed to proceed on in the night to get across borders before Dati could find them.
Her gut told her they were in trouble and they had to move immediately! Jerry of all people should have known that the Captain never gave up any quest on pain of death. But why had he slept deeply so? When she turned in his direction, Jerry was not there at all!! Where in the hell was he?
Sarah scrambled to her feet feeling energized once more. But frightened. She looked at the spot Jerry had laid, with his backpack serving as an improvised pillow. The generous dew on the spot told her he had not been there for a while. She hurriedly removed her pistol, and began waging it this way and that!
She struggled to think but her thoughts were not forming. Just a vague pang of confusion and trepidation. When she saw that there was no one in sight, she dropped her trained hands and closed her eyes for a while, in a bid to recover her thoughts. It did help.
When the thoughts began to come through, they did so in torrents!! Had Jerry decided to abandon her? Was she being too much of a burden that he decided to cut her loose? What was to happen to their marriage dream now? Was he no longer interested in her? Had he only used her to get out of detention? Was she now damaged collateral? Why didn't he take the money with him?
On the last thought, Sarah went over to the backpack and began to search feverishly through. She confirmed that the money had not been touched. And if he didn't carry any money, how was he supposed to cope in a strange land? She checked her phone, the time showed 6:14 am. She decided to sit still for a while. Maybe Jerry had gone off to ease himself and would be back shortly.
Even as a nudge told her that her present hypothesis was false, she resolved to wait still. Wherever Jerry had gone to, he should be back in twenty minutes latest. As she sat there, she could hear her mother's voice now in the recesses of her mind. She remembered how her mother used to tell her she was different and how she should always trust herself whenever she faced danger.
***********
Sarah was the daughter of Uri, the god of thunder. Or so was the legend. It was said that Uri chose to bless a woman who was pregnant and was courageous enough to come out in the open on a rainy thunder night. This was the belief system in their hamlet. It was also said that mothers who ate python meat during pregnancy bore children with powerful python qualities. They were known as python children and made strong warriors for the clan. When such children found themselves in combat, their opponents had no chance of victory whatsoever.
It was said that it took Sarah's mother ten years in marriage before she conceived. When she did, however, her father, who was also a military man and a python son, had taken her mother back to the village for the traditional antenatal rites. She had been given a thunder bath such that thunder had stuck her to unconsciousness, or so it was said. As python meat was hard to come by at the time, her father had sent for the meat in far away Calabar and it was later administered to her mother.
When Sarah was born, she was both a daughter of thunder and python. And she was born with unique abilities. Since her childhood, nobody had defeated her in physical combat. Not even the men!! But there was something else. She could see!!!
When it had first happened to her, she had been so scared but she soon got used to it. She was still in Elementary school in the barracks. That night when she slept, she saw Corporal Zati, her father's colleague turn to a cat in their backyard. When she got up and went to the window, she saw the cat there. But she also saw that it was Zati in disguise. Soon, other cats had joined. About three of them. They were all officers in the barracks having a nocturnal meeting.
When she told her mother about the nightly meeting the following day, the impressed older woman told her not to say it to any other persons as they might destroy her sight. Since then she had been seeing strange things. She could read minds. She could decode anything that had a touch of mysticism.
It was once she had to talk to somebody else about her sight other than her mother. On that fateful day, Col. Okonjo, just a few months after they began dating, had taken her to the club. And as the dancehall became frenzied, a man approached her and asked her for a dance. The Colonel nodded his approval but she had declined. The stranger meekly turned and left. As he left, Sarah had removed her phone and snapped the man from behind.
The man had turned suddenly as if he had noticed something amiss, but Sarah hurriedly hid her phone. Asked why she had done such an uncivil act, Sarah explained to Okonjo that the man had no head, literally. That he was not human. A bemused Okonjo had laughed off the superstition, but when Sarah showed him the picture, his laughter had evaporated instantly as he stared in utter confusion. What he saw were just standing clothes. There was no sign of a body inside the clothes.
As they drove off that night, Sarah told Okonjo about her mysterious abilities. And since then, Okonjo had always made sure to keep her under his wing. Most people thought their closeness was only about the wild sex that many officers eavesdropped upon most times. Little did they know that the Colonel used Sarah to uncover a lot of hidden secrets to him, mostly about the superior hierarchy. Some against her will.
She had already gotten tired of been used physically, emotionally, and spiritually, long before he had started admiring Jerry.
********
Now that she sat still, it began to dawn on her that Jerry was in grave danger! She couldn't place exactly what had happened to him, but she was now pretty sure that all was not well!! With this realization, she decided it was time to get away from here. She was at the very top of the mountain and could be seen anywhere from both sides, now that the sun was climbing up.
As she got to her feet, she noticed a reflection a few yards away as if the sunrays had bounced off a mirror hiding in the ground. She thought something had dropped off from Jerry's paraphernalia and it could serve as a pointer to begin her search for him.
When she got there, there was no mirror. Just a flat rock. But wait!! It was not just a rock; it had codes on it… ancient codes. She squatted and peered at the markings. Right before her eyes, the ancient writing began to shift and rearrange itself into readable language!