The lantern shone low and golden on the large circular table as the six of them sat patiently waiting for the arrival of their leader. Each of them heavily clothed as water droplets from the ceiling entertained them with its rhythmic beats in the already set old buckets at every corner. The log walls providing little to no insulation as the sky rumbled violently.
The old wooden door groaned loudly as it was swung open and all head swung to see who it was. They quickly stood up in unison as he hung his raincoat on the coat rack at the doorstep.
They watched closely as his leather boots rhythmically carried him to the table, complementing the beats of the droplets in the buckets, some now half full. He slowly sat down, his boots littering mud as he listlessly crossed his feet on the table, synchronizing the action with the fold of his hands. His face giving away no emotion.
On cue the six bodies sat down, all looking at anything but the man before them.
"Mr. Kolawole, I got good news." The young woman at the right closest to him announced, finally meeting his eyes as she passed him a pad of a neatly arranged papers. "We are successfully in touch with the State President of South Africa. They are actively on our side as we speak."
"Excellent work Emily." He commented not too enthusiastically.
"In addition, we have finally recruited enough undercover armies." The man sitting by the left chimed in.
"Good. Where is Mike?" he asked lackadaisically.
"He is still on the hunt for the young girl." Emily answered nervously.
"We have been keeping in touch with him recently and he updated us an hour and twenty-three minutes ago about the location of Mr. Bamuyiwa's abode." The dark man sitting next to Emily said as he adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses which reflected the dim lights of the lantern.
"And…" the cloud growled flashing bright lights which disappeared as quick as they light.
"We have gotten a pinpoint location of the station." He quickly passed over a map on the table pointing at the spot with the big red 'X'. "That is the only good and, unfortunately, last news we got from Mike. We believe he is in danger, because even his GPS is out of the radial.
"We have set up a search team who are actively investigating at the location as we speak."
"Any sign of the girl?"
"None so far, Sir." He quickly wiped the droplet of water running down his forehead.
"Deploy more search team to investigate the area. The more the team the faster and more accurate the information." He commanded, "We need her unharmed. That young girl is a very important asset in our campaign."
"Yes sir."
"Emily"
"Yes sir."
"Gather as much useful resources we can get from the State President of S.A. We need to take action quickly. Remember, no information or resources are too small."
"Yes sir."
"And Temilade. How is the science team working out?"
"Same as old, sir" The fair man sitting next to the thick-rimmed glasses man sighed indolently. "We are still on level two of the development stage. However, we are making progress. It might be of your great interest to know that our team found one of Mr. Boris research papers."
Mr. Kolawole nods. "Good to hear."
"Moreover, we finally came up with a drone that has the capacity of reaching 7.2 miles above ground with our latest and most sophisticated microprocessor. This device will assist the intelligence team in carrying out their research."
"Excellent work." Mr. Kolawole smiled in satisfaction. "You have to deploy five hundred of those drones to the intelligence team before the end of the week." He stood up with a grunt. "With that said, Goodnight." He said as he walked to the door.
Mr. Kolawole meticulously wore his coats before slamming the door shut which bellowed on impact behind him as he exit.
***--------------------------------------------****---------------------------------------***
She slowly peeled her eyes open, using her hand to shade her eyes from the bright rays reaching out to her face from the small crocked window. The wooden floor rough and irregular.
"Finally, someone decided to wake up."
She quickly shot up to a sitting position as she stare round eyed at the blonde girl before her. Her vision dull.
"Wh…" her voice cracked and her mouth tastes like acid.
"For the record you are such a heavy sleeper." The girl smiled. "Good afternoon."
'G…' "What time is it." She asked, her voice raspy.
"I don't know, but it was twelve minutes past two the last time I asked the captain."
'Captain!' "Where are we?"
"On our way to Egypt, duhh." The girl rolled her eyes.
Dian gasped in surprise. "Where is Kinsley?"
"Who?"
"My brother."
"Oh, I have no idea where he might be, maybe in another cell. Hay, what are you doing?" The girl asked, surprised as she watched Dian rattle the cell door bars, screaming loudly. "Quiet, they might hear you."
Dian ignored her as she kept screaming while rattling the bars loudly.
"What is going on there!" Came a voice from the right corner as footsteps approach.
"Get me out of here!" Dian screamed loudly.
"Stop that racket!" a man said sternly as he approached, his eyes red in contrast with his dark bared covered face which opposes his neatly shaved head.
"Get me out of here." Dian repeated, now more quietly.
"Like hell I will." The man laughed hysterically before maintaining composure. "Now you better shut your mouth or I will be forced to feed you to our hungry wolves." He seethed coming dangerously close, face to face with Dian who flinched back in horror.
He smirked triumphantly as he walked away to the right corner where he emerged.
Dian slowly turned to observe the blonde girl inched back with like horror. She slowly returned and sat next to the blonde girl. "We need a plan."
"What plan?" the girl asked horrified.
"We need to break out of this place."
"What?!" the blonde girl countered. "How? For as much as I can tell, we are in the middle of the ocean by now. I don't know about you, but I do not entertain the idea of being a banquet for hungry wolves."
"So are we just going to sit here and wait for our demise? You may not have much to worry about, but I have a young asthmatic brother who I cannot leave on his own because it was my fault he got into this mess." Dian stood up to inspect the cell. The bars are rather too old and rusty. She pushed on it, surprised how much the bars refused to bulge. The door meticulously secured with an abnormally large lock the size of her two fists together. A two small crocked window being the only source of natural light and fresh air into the secluded cabin. The ceiling was too low for comfort and the two old ancient lantern not helping with the hot air as it rattled on its post where it hung as the cabin rocked back and forth.
"I have a family too, you know." Said the blonde girl quietly as she stare at the wooden floor. Dian stopped on her track to watch with a fold of her arms. "After my parents divorced my father decided to re-marry. Though the lady he married is nice and all but I never liked her one bit. I knew she meant well, but I could not help but feel that she wants to bribe me to support her relationship with my father. If I had listened to them, to my step-mother, I wouldn't be in this situation too. I was soo stubborn. Well, good riddance for her. Now they can enjoy their marriage without a troubled child like me around like a thorn in their shoes." She let a stray tear fall, then another and more.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Dian sat back down to console her with a hug as the blonde girl sobbed. "I promise we will get out of this place. You will see your parents again."
"How? we are all going to die anyway." She sniveled.
Dian slowly released her to an arm length. "There is this one thing my mom always says to me whenever I feel trapped. She says 'every problem has a solution.' And I believe her. I believe that this problem is not exceptional. I believe right now that we are going to make it alive. You only need to believe and trust me."
The blonde girl snorted with a slight smile and an eye roll as more tears fell from her chin. "How cheesy."
Dian replied with a sympathetic smile before pulling her close once more for a comforting hug.
"Yeah, you are right." She finally said, detaching herself from Dian's long heartwarming hug with a cocky smile. "We need a plan."