"Hey!" Mike called loud enough so that she could hear him.
"I thought i was pretending that you aren't here?" She asked over her shoulder in irritation.
"That's not necessary now, i think you should get out of the water right now!"
"Like hell i will! I am not going to give to you the privilege of reveling in my nudity" she huffed.
"Yeah, right....., i have seen enough nudity to last me my life time, so, there is no big deal about yours".
"I would really appreciate it if you would go away let me bath in peace" she said over her shoulder.
"In all honest, i think you should get out of the water for your own good" Mikel insisted.
"Why?"
"Because there is a snake in the water" He told her.
She scoffed. "Yeah, right...., you think am going to fall for this trick by running out of the water entirely naked so that you can feast your eyes, uh? Try a better trick, i presumed you be smarter"
"Okay, Okay...let's get this straight, misuse, i already know what you look like, am good at creating my own imagination so i already had a vivid image of your body stucked n my head. Secondly, this not a trick, there's a snake in the water, and its Venomous and if you get bitten, you will die in less than twenty minutes because there's practically no Anti-venom here. And you will not even make it before i drive you out of here to a STANDARD hospital" He emphasis the adjective.
She slowly turned around to look at him, covering her chest with her arms again. "You are not joking, aren't you?"
"Two o'clock" He flinched his brows and glanced towards the direction of the impending doom.
She slowly turned around and dreadfully followed his gaze and when she saw the snake suddenly making its way towards her, she suddenly let out a shred then rushed out of the water, stumbling and falling several times but that didn't stop her from running out blindly and when he rose to catch her so that she didn't fall on the boulders and injure herself, she ended up making both of them fall when she fell against his body. However, the snake crossed several feet away from them, got on land and soon vanished into the bush.
Mikel was laughing so hard on his back and she slowly pushed herself up on her arms and glared down at him in anger and confusion. She had never seen or heard him laugh before, this was the first time.
He day up and leaned back on his arms. "You nearly killed yourself before it even got a chance to kill you"
She sat up and moved over to the big boulder where she kept her clothes and his eyes followed her with interest in them. "Uhmn" He nodded his head in approval. "Nice butts"
"Shut up and get your eyes off" She snapped over her shoulder as she reached the big boulder. She didn't care about her nakedness anymore, he could stare at it all he wanted! What matters is that she wanted to get away from him, he was a bad luck.
"Its sandy though" He said as he got to his feet again. "I think you should get in the water and wash that off".
"I'll clean it, there is no way am getting into that water again after what happened. No way!". She huffed and dusted the sand off her ass with her hand then started to out in her clothes.
"So, will you tell me your name?" He asked as she got dressed with her back turned to him. She had put on her jean trooper first.
"I know that you already know it" she replied as she slipped her shirt over her head. "You ate the ring leader of this kidnapping team, you must have seen my passport; it was taking from me".
"There was so many identification and at least three passports collected. I can't even remember the names" He lied.
Fully dressed now, she turned around to look at him. "Why did you want to know my name anyway?"
"Because am curious about you".
"Why?"
"Still beats me"
She stared at him for a moment, as if contemplating Whether you tell him or not. "My name is Dorathy blaq"
"Uhmmmm.....Dorathy, uh?" He said, testing the sound of it. He had never said that name aloud until now. "I will call you D"
She frowned. "That's the initial of my name".
"I like D better" He said.
"That doesn't only sound ridiculous, it sounds awful" She said in distaste.
"Well, consider it your nick name from now on"
"I don't like it" She said flatly.
"I didn't ask for your opinion, D it is, start getting used to it" He stated.
"You are over bearing" She shot him a glare.
"Am i?"
"Very much, Yes"
"We are even,. You like to get what you want so for i " He stated, then turned his head towards the direction if the path leading to the camp then called out loudly. "Bosco!" He waited then called louder this time.
"Bosco!!!!"
"Cap" Bosco replied with a loud voice, suddenly appearing from behind a bush.
"Take her back to the camp" Mike said. His eyes fixed in her.
"Oya, sisi, this way" Bosco beckoned her over.
Dorathy glanced at a moment at Mikel before walking towards Bosco who was holding up a gun in one hand.
************************
Mikel was cleaning his gun which he had dialed in his private tent. The night was windy buy he could smell familiar scent of impending rain. The leaves of the trees surrounding them kept rustling the branches shook as the breeze whooped through them. The sky was tumbling and turning dark and he could see obscure flashes of lightening Within the cloud.
So., the wind picked up dust and fluttered the dead leaves off the ground and scatter them into the air. As he continued to clean out hiss gun, Sandra walked in. She stood their and watched him for a moment until he could not bear the awkward silence anymore.
"What's?" He asked, not looking up.
"I want to know why that girl is being given ridiculous privileges" Sandra stated. "It's obviously to everyone in this camp that you had been giving her some preferential treatment since she got here".
"What girl'" He looked up to meet her displeasing eyes which were fix down at him.
"She get fed properly, she's let to take bath at odd hours, she's bedding" She said.
"Do you have a problem with that?" Mike asked.
"I want to k ow that? Why is she treated as a VIP? This is not good for our reputation and this business, Mikel!"
"I gave the order, Sandra, it's not a big deal".
She gave him a flustered look "what the hell is that all about, Mike? Are you suddenly going soft?!"
"Do you think that I'm?" He asked.
"I don't get what is going on or why you are doing this but news reached me that you haven't asked for any ransom concerning her yet. I told you that she is the gold fish and we ought to use this opportunity to wrong enough ransom out of her, not stalling"
"I'd rather that we finished the others first"
"And when did we start doing it turn by turn? How do you expect us making reasonable ransom when you kept ruining things? You even ask for a One million ransom! Who the hell demands such a low amount of money as ransom?!"
"Sandra" Mikel called softly, then focused on his gun.
"What?"
"Where is your father?"
"In the village" She hesitantly answered, wondering how that was related to their discussion.
"Can your father afford ten million naira if you were kidnapped today?"
"No"
"What if eight?"
"No"
"Six?"
"No" She huffed in frustration.
"Four million nko?"
"No! What the hell? His a fucking farmer for God's sake! Why this dumb question important anyway and how has it got to do with the situation at hand?" She asked in irritation.
"Alright....." Mike stopped what he was doing and stared up at her with a sober look. "Let's be considerate here, how about five hundred thousand naira ?"
"What the hell would you expect my father to get such money from? He would sell his farm and small hut.
"Good. Noel, try to imagine that this victims are poor and incapable as your father".
"Why should we care? This is a business?! They ought to get it someway. They could sell off properties or borrow the money. What matters is that we get paid!".
"Just how hardhearted are you" Mikel stared at her in disbelief.
"Being in this game requires much, Mikel, and you know it! Am doing my best to get this working out but you just enjoy fucking things up! You have turn this camp into something else and am beginning to get fed up with it".