For now, I'll like you all to submit everything valuable items you have with you. Your phones had already been collected, , so now, we need things of value such as money,, jewelry or any other stuffs you have with you" As he said this, the rest of the gang began to walk into their midst to collect their handbags, wallet and any other stuffs they could get from the captives. After that was done, Ahmad added:
"I'll love that no one throw a tantrum here, the boss lives his peace and detests noise, so for your own good, be of good behavior. You all are to rest for tonight. You'll be served dinner too but be rest assured that you will all need to reach out to your families for Ransome in exchange for your freedom. Peace and love" Ahmad finished, turned and walked away and two of the men who had gathered the collected items followed him.
Mikel who was an early riser, watched Dorathy from the tree above as she sat with other captives under the shade of the tree. Of course, she couldn't see him because he was sitting high up the tree, a few feets away from where the captives were kept, but he felt he could freely stare at her from that spot without her noticing Or being caught by any of his men or the feisty of Sandra.
Even since they had locked gazes the previous evening, he had been unable to get her off his mind. He noticed that not only was she beautiful, but there was also just something different about her. She didn't fit in with the rest of the captives. It was as if she was stucked with the wrong people at the wrong time and he was quite curious to know her story.
Some of the boys were already ordering the captives to call their families for a Ransome of 10million naira each. He could see that five males and eleven females were abducted and one of the women seems to be clinging into a girl of about seven to eight years old.
Fortunately, according to custom, his boys had ordered the captives to take their bags with them which could help them with some of their useful stuffs such as their clothes and underwear, comb, toothbrush and other necessary items any of them had. Mikel didn't know how long their release would take but he had instructed his boys to always let the victims take their baths and have a change of clothes since there was a stream nearby which supplies them water for cooking, drinking and bathing.
Although, they were deep inside the jungle, but whenever they cook, they made sure to keep the fire to the barest minimum in order to contain the smoke in order not to give away their location to anyone. However, the boys had ravaged this guests luggage and had kept for themselves whatever items they liked such as shoes, jewelry and clothes. He couldn't stop them from looting things from the victims, what was much important was that the captives were treated right. Any money or identification found on the victims had been submitted to Ahmad as it was supposed to be.
Mikel could still recall going through the identifications the previous night and had seen Dorathy's passport. He had found out that she was born in California but had relocated to Amsterdam. Her name had stuck to his head almost immediately and he had also found out that she was twenty nine.
"Do you think she's married?" He has asked Ahmad who has looked up with a confused look from the money he was counting. Mike turned the passport around, holding it up so that Ahmad could see whom he was talking about.
"Since her passport states Miss, i don't think she is" Ahmad licked the tips of his fingers and continued counting the money. They had gathered quite a big amount of money from all the new captives.
"She did this passport three years ago, that's enough reason to be married" Mikel said.
Ahmad paused now to give him a confused look. "Is her marital status going to be of any help to us? Sandra specifically stated that this lady is filthy rich. A lady who can buy a wig of four hundred and fifty thousand naira, think of how much money her family would be willing to pay for her release. Beside, she's based abroad sef".
"Hmmmmm" Mikel said thoughtfully.
"Or do you know her from somewhere?" Ahmad quizzically asked, still counting the money but not as quick as before.
"No....never seen her before now" Mike answered.
"Okay....." Ahmad finished counting the money then placed it on the three stumps between them which served as a small makeshift table. "Three hundred and fifty nine thousand naira in total" He announced. "That's all the amount of money found on the hostages, beside a few insignificant denomination; and this too" He placed several dollar bills on the nails notes. "Five thousand dollars".
"From Dorathy, yeah?" Mike stated more than he asked.
Ahmad gave him a Knowing smile. "I can see that you had taken to her name already".
"It's nothing" Mike said, trying to sound indifferent. "She just stands out and seems that she'll be our biggest randomly ever"
"If Sandra is so positive of such, i think we should trust her. Her instincts hardly fail". Ahmad stated.
"Fine" Mike rose to his feet. "Keep some of the dollars. We would buy more food stuffs to feed the hostage so that they don't starve or die on us. You can give Duna a thousand dollars so that he can go change it at bureau de changer in the nearest city. Are there still toiletries?"
"Yes, but we need to get more toothbrush and toothpaste now that we have more guests".
"Am sure You can handle that. Hopefully, they will be out of here within a week" Mike resolutely said.