SAME NIGHT
At the unknown part of the city, a building surrounded by forest was not only surrounded by forest anymore but by two hovering police helicopters too. The search light from the aircraft, pointing at teacher and others through a window was brighter than sunlight. It is adjustable in elevation (90°) and azimuth (360°) and provides a 1,000,000 cd beam for search operation at night. Like a slow motion, the light shone on teacher's face severally as he was thinking and listening to the voice of the police from the megaphone, telling them to surrender.
"Teacher!!" Obi held his shirt, shedding tears and dragging it in the same motion.
"What is going on, teacher?!!" Cynthia held the other part of his shirt, dragging it too.
Judith, on the same motion, walked to his front saying, "I thought you were shot, teacher! Why are you playing with our brains!?" she began to hit his hefty stomach with her delicate hands.
Teacher couldn't hear them. What he could hear that moment was the fainting slow sound of the police megaphone because he was lost in a very deep thought as if hypnotized. How would he escape from the police with the kids, the guards and the pilot?
However, Vivien had seated at a corner, crying her eyes out while Daniella stood still likewise Dave, knowing that it was the end of the road for them. Therefore, they became hopeless and helpless. Daniella glanced at Dave with accumulated tears in her eyes to let him know that she was correct about Murphy. Of course the boy comprehended the gesture. Suddenly, policemen entered into the house at gunpoint.
"Put your hands on your head!" one of them shouted.
Teacher slowly turned, doing as they said. Seeing him, the kids also put their hands on their heads. All began to walk outside. They were divided and put in different helicopters which took off immediately. Before attaining to a maximum height, Cynthia jumped off!!
"Cynthia!" Daniella shouted over the sound of the helicopter, looking down at her as she was falling under gravity.
"Go after her!" the commander of the
crew commanded.
Already, the girl had hit the ground, covered by grasses and disappeared never to be seen again. Others in the chopper wondered where she got the guts she used for that act.
Teacher observed everything from another chopper then kept quiet. All he could think of was Murphy's statement: "..don't think you can outsmart me on this second mission because I've spent years privately studying you too; the way you think, speak and react to situations. I'll be the one that will always be one step ahead of your plans." Teacher exhaled, looking down from the aircraft after remembering the gutsy statement. "..privately studying me.." he picked a point in soliloquy then began to think. "When I threatened to kill Dave, he never reacted like others not because he trusted me, but because he knew i wouldn't do it." He averted his eyes from the shadow trees to the building that appeared far to his eyes "I swear to my late wife, Murphy will never become what he wants to become with the devices." He concluded within him.
:
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Morning mist saturated the air as an evidence that day had broken. The bell of early morning prayer of some Pentecostal churches could be heard from a distant. Therefore, only such people and early morning exercisers could be seen on the road.
Mr. and Mrs. Cliff startled up from bed by a fatigue knock at the door. Both looked at each other and glanced at a wall clock; 5:15a.m.
"Stay here." Mr. Cliff told the wife. He stepped out from the bed on kicker, through the living room, he approached the door where the feeble knock continued.
"Who's that?!" He asked.
"Fa-fa-ther" A voice exhaustively stammered from outside.
Mr. Cliff opened the door to see Cynthia lying on the floor with a heavy wound on her leg. Quickly, he carried her inside to see the wife out from the room already, looking at him. Notwithstanding, the man placed the girl on a long cushion.
"Umm.. you'll be fine, girl. I have to call a doc..." a drag on his hand by his wife to the bedroom interrupted him.
"She's one of the kids, isn't she?" the woman asked.
"Yes, the one I have been meaning to see again."
"What do you have with her?"
Mr. Cliff kept quiet. He didn't know how to respond to that.
The wife began like cleverly. "Few hours ago, you narrowly escaped from the police regarding the one found on the landmines. Now, another is in our house and you know these kids are wanted not just by the government but by the police too."
"What do you suggest I do? Leave her to die?" The husband ignored her to his phone where he began to dial a doctor's number....
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Nevertheless, the morning mist had gone thereby giving the sun chance to rise. Inside the residence of Mr. Yinka, they assembled at the dining table to have breakfast. Ada and Stephanie who spent the night there, seated side by side, while Stephen seated alone. The parents occupied both end of the table. There was a television, broadcasting inside there too. However, Ada had not been told that the boy she dies for was her brother as all began to eat except her.
"What's the problem, Ada?" Mr. Yinka asked her.
"I feel like I've betrayed the people I call family." she replied.
"It's not called betrayal. It's being patriotic to the nation."
Ada kept quiet. Stephanie could see how Stephen looked at her thereby getting more jealous. Suddenly, a breaking news came from the television saying, "The kids and their master regarded as teacher Nwachukwu have been captured by the police early hours of today..."
Hearing that, Ada's heartbeat accelerated, activating her tears-gland. She stood up to run out of the house but stopped at the sound of the door that opened. Everybody watched to see who was entering. Lo and behold, Murphy stepped inside, looking very innocent.
"Murphy?" Ada called his name unbelievably.....