SAME NIGHT
After watching the news, Mr Cliff grabbed his car keys from the centre table, but the wife retaliated before he could get to the door.
"Where do you think you're going to, honey?" she stood up from the cushion too.
"That girl standing on the landmine is among the kids that came here claiming to be my children." he replied, pointing the car key at the television.
"And?" The wife slowly stepped forward.
The husband's voice grew cold. "What are you saying?"
"Are you not aware that she's with other kids who had stolen a government property?"
"Those kids are luck to us."
"Those kids are problem to us" the wife retorted, standing closer to her husband. "In fact, we've partaken on this problem because sheriff..."
The sound of a police car interrupted them. Like prisoners in a cage, they looked through the window to see sheriff, coming with two other policemen. Mrs. Cliff glanced at her husband apprehensively.
"I told you." she whispered.
A knock came at the door. It was opened so they entered to see the couple staring at them. On sheriff's waist, above her belt, was a pistol, while the two other men handled heavy guns. None uttered a word except the broadcasting television.
"Cliff," Magi began. "It has come to our notice that the three kids are not your children. Therefore, you're under arest for conspiring to steal government property through the kids. Hence, you must know where they are and their teacher, Nwachukwu." she concluded.
The two policemen began to handcuff him. He couldn't deny the arest even if he had no knowledge of what the kids were into or where they are presently. He was just an innocent man that saved them from a lion's den. Nevertheless, the policemen pushed him towards the door.
"Please, my husband doesn't know anything!" the wife cried in vain.
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Mr. Yinka arrived to the landmine with the defusers. They were two, carrying a suitcase to Stephen and Ada. Policemen and journalists surrounded the premersis, though at a far distance, watching and capturing the activities of the two defusers.
Stephenie joined hands with Mr. Yinka in watching the scene. To their very sight, the men opened their suitcases and began to bring out mechanical devices such as flails and excavators which are sometimes used to clear mines. They brought out Sensors developed to detect vapor leaking from landmines too.
Sheriff arrived a few minutes later to see the men working. She meet Mr Yinka.
"Where did you get those men?" she asked him.
"They are professionals." he replied abstractly.
Sheriff placed her two hands on the waist. "Do you know what the kids took from the government house?" She was still inquisitive
Mr Yinka glanced at her. "No." he replied.
"We must find out." She concluded then the man glanced at her again, looking suspicious coz he knew that at the exposure of the content of the devices, the city will not only experience pandamonum but also exposes the secret of the people in power. Therefore, he said to the woman, "Sheriff, you must do your damndest to capture the kids and their teacher."
"Sure, sir. That's why we need the girl alive" she pointed at Ada.
Suddenly, the two men stepped aside after they ordered Ada to step out first. The girl exhaled then stepped out from the mines. Stephen followed suit, and immediately he came out from the mines, Stephenie ran and hugged him before the father, while Ada was handcuffed, taken to the police vehicle.
"Wait!" Stephen slowly pushed Stephanie away from him when he saw Ada being taken away like a thief. "Where are you taking her to!?" he yelled.
Nobody replied him. Ada looked back at him with tears before entering the car.
Stephen turned to his father. "She's innocent, Dad." he advocated
"No, she's not until she provides others." Mr. Yinka replied.
However, Stephenie had been jealous for not getting the attention she needed from Stephen rather the boy was more concern about Ada. So she couldn't help but to believe that there was a chemistry between them.
Ada was taken to the police station, pushed into a particular room where she saw Mr. Cliff, so both stared at each other....
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Back to the second love garden, one could see the kids at a dining table eating dinner with their teacher. As they ate, their ears listened to the news broadcasting on the television. They turned to the T.V when they heard that Ada and Stephen had successfully came out from the landmine but held hostage. Obi turned to teacher Nwachukwu.
"How can we get her back, teacher?" he asked him.
"Ada isn't coming back. In fact, regard her as our enemy for now." he replied, chewing a meat.
"But why?"
"Because she's from the family of my enemy which is Yinka." He swallowed the meat, dropped his spoon that made a disturbing sound on the ceramic plate then looked at the kids to already see them staring at him. "The war starts now. So this is not a time to ask stupid questions but a time to be wise." He stood up, walking towards the door to his room.
"Teacher, what war?" Daniella asked him.
He turned to her disdainfully with a hand on the doorknob. Finally, he clutched it and entered without saying a word.
The kids looked at one another in confusion. They directed their eyes to the two gaurds standing at the dining table too, yet didn't get an answer to the war their teacher was talking about. Suddenly, another two huge men entered with the other device. The kids monitored them as one of them entered into teacher's room, while another stood at the door also monitoring the kids and the guards with them. Just then, a gunshot escalated from the room.
The two gaurds wanted to go check what was wrong, the other man at the door pulled his gun, but unluckily, he was caught and shot dead first by one of the guards. The kids fell down, screaming like puppies.
The guards barged into the room, shot the other man dead too but couldn't believe their eyes; they saw teacher lying in a pull of blood and the two devices beeping a red light beside him.
"Murphy!!" The gaurds called.
The boy ran into the room.
"Take these two devices out of here immediately!" They told him.
Murphy grabbed them like a lion grabbing a wild prey. He ran outside with them to a more peaceful environment while the gaurds carried teacher up to the living room where the kids saw him then busted out in a thunderous cry.
"What happened? Is he dead?" Vivian asked.
Nobody replied her.
"Where are you taking him to?" Daniella added, yet no response.
An helicopter paved above the roof and landed expectedly. The kids watched on how teacher was taken into it then flew off instantly. Only a guard came back into the living room.
"Teacher has been shot badly and taken to a special hospital. We have a hazardous situation coming on the way." he announced.
"You sound like teacher a few munites ago before he was shot." Dave spoke up. "What hazardous situation are you talking about?"
Murphy walked in through the door that moment with the devices which had stabilized in his hands.
"Murphy might answer your question, Dave" the guard replied then Murphy glanced at him.
"Why me?" he asked surprisingly.
"Because you're the new teacher. You have to continue from where teacher stopped." the guard replied.
There was a long stretch of silence after the impromptu statement. To make it absolute, Daniella hastily walked to the television remote which she used to put it off. She returned to her fellow orphans.
"This is a joke. I guess this is another teacher's test or observation or plans!" she challenged.
The gaurd got upset, so he carried the dead huge man on the floor up and left him to hit his head on the ground without irritability which proved that he was really dead. Cynthia and Judith screamed!
"Does this look like a joke to you?!" the gaurd began angrily, kicking the dead body with his legs again. "He is dead! Go into the room and see his colleague dead too! Does it look like a joke to you?! Teacher is shot badly and the devices almost auto-crashed and you're calling it a joke!?" he stepped closer to them with a mean voice. "You kids think we're playing here. I heard one of you call it hide and seek game. Until you become lifeless like this dude, you won't understand what you're into" he kicked the dead man again. "You'll know that it isn't a joke neither is it a hide and seek game." he concluded.
Tension arouse among the kids. Already, Murphy had been staring at the devices in his hands, thinking critically. Where will he begin when he doesn't know teacher's plans ranging from the device to his secret diary. And how can he be as smart as him? He didn't know but he had to try. The kids standing before him also stared and wondered.
"Murphy, answer my question then." Dave broke the silence.
Murphy looked up from the devices to them. Quietly, he placed the devices on the centre table as others waited to hear from him.
"You address me as teacher now" he said.
"What?" His fellow kids exclaimed looking at one another.
"You do as he says!!" the gaurd interfered thereby bringing them back to order.
Murphy continued. "What does it mean for a girl to steal a boy's heart? That simply means the boy loves the girl so much with all his heart. What do you think he will do?"
Nobody answered, but he continued.
"The boy will chase after the girl. Why? Because the girl has stolen his heart and you know that without the function of a heart, the body will be dead" he took a step closer to them like teacher use to do. He knew they were wondering where he was driving at with his story and he must clear them.
"Those devices over there," he pointed at them. "are like the stolen heart. The police and government including Ada and Stephen are the boy whose heart has been stolen. So what will they do? They'll chase after us. That is the hazardous situation that is coming. Thats the war teacher talked about." he clarified cleverly to other's amazement. Hence, there were not seeing him as Murphy anymore but as their new teacher. He has proven it to them!
"So what are we to do, teacher?" Obi asked him.
"We fight them back. Though not with weapons but with love and cleverness." he smiled, while the fellow kids began to look at one another again.
"What I'm wondering is why these dead men tried to kill teacher." Cynthia spoke up.
"Its quit simple" Murphy walked back to the centre table, facing them again. "Your boy comes in contact with your greatest enemy then comes back home and shot you. What do you think that happened?"
"Bribery" Vivian answered.
"Yes, they were bribed."
Judith shook her head with a fictitious smile. She stepped forward to challenge him saying, "If you can detect this easily how much more teacher? I believe teacher knew about this before you, Murphy. I believe this is another part of his plans and test!" she concluded.
"But you saw teacher being taken off in his own pool of blood. What do you say about that?" Murphy challenged back. "Will teacher plan to hurt himself and all most sabotage the devices? It happened before you!" He added, while they stared at him. It seems like teacher's spirit entered into his body....
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However, at the police station, inside the interrogating sanctum, sheriff with other hacking professionals sat with Ada and Mr. Cliff on a rectangular table.
"You both must tell us where your teacher and other kids are." Sheriff's voice echoed in the room.
"Please, leave this man out of this" Ada looked at Mr. Cliff. "He doesn't know anything about this. We imposed the fatherism on him that day." She added.
Sheriff Margaret glanced at the man then back to Ada. "If i release him will you tell us what we want?" she asked.
Ada nodded her head.
"Okay, you have my words." She placed her two hands on the table. "We only need a phone number." She said.
Ada swallowed hard. She called a number for them which teacher told them to memorize. Of course that was their residential number. Sheriff dialed it while the hackers got ready to track it....
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Back to the living room at the secret house, Murphy and others stayed in silence.
"How do we win this war?" Obi broke the silence.
"By figuring out what teacher wanted to use this devices for." Murphy replied. Just then, the telephone began to ring beside him.
All watched him, waiting for him to pick. Murphy slightly bent to take the call with his hand on the handle, remaining to pull it up and place it on his ear, but he waited till the ringing duration expired before he straightened up.
"Why didn't you pick?" Daniella asked him.
"They've taken Ada and Stephen who must have given out our location number." he replied.
"Let's hear from them to know how we gonna strike." Vivian suggested.
"Hearing isn't the problem, but tracking our location is. They'll track our location by hearing from them." He replied cleverly..
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Back to the main love garden, teacher stood in his secret control room, touching his beards. He had listened and seen Murphy and others through a voice hidden camera. He smiled and walked out of the room. Only the pilot and other body guard was there with him.
"Sir, you're very clever. How did you do it?" the old pilot said with his two hands behind.
"I knew Yinka would bride them. So I wore a bulletproof and faked my own blood. I pretented to be shot in order to test Murphy's leadership. That is called using negative action to get a positive result." He smiled. "Murphy has shown a true quality of mine. He will rule this country." he went to his bar for a drink.
"But sir, don't you think that would bring hatred among other kids?" the pilot asked.
Teacher didn't respond. The question made him quit drinking from a glass cup, then began to think critically about it....