Fresh morning air caress my contorted face as I woke up to the agony of my injured body the night before.
I sensed the ocean close by as its roars and smashing echoes of waves smacking rocks resonates throughout the lavish width and breadth of the glass interior with white walls, and white dancing curtains, dancing to the sea breeze as it blew its way into the room, exposing a parlor and a swimming pool far ahead.
the smell of antiseptic felt strong in the air. this must be a hospital.
"you are up. good to have you back" daina said approaching me from an angle I couldn't see her till she stood in front of me with a tray in hand.
she drew a table closer and placed the breakfast on it; fried eggs and sausage along with slices of bread and cheese, the smell of rich coffee filled me with nostalgia and the hope of a new life in a new day.
I felt so stiff and restrain when I tried to move, "I feel terrible," I said. "and you look it Kuga"
"where is Kogna?". I tried to stand up, the movement cause the bandages to tighten around the injuries painfully.
"Kogna is in the garden,". "this is not a hospital then".
"what? no what makes you say that?". "everything seem to brighten around here." "I will take that as a compliment."
"can you walk?". "let me try first Diana, show me the wash room".
In seven minutes I was back in the glass room feeling refresh after my time under the water, and saying salat.
"where are we Diana?" I asked after finishing with the breakfast.
"a safe house in Ada".
" Ada is way too small to keep any house safe lady. unless you are not on the run offcourse. I however, l'm on the run. where do we start?."
"In the garden, please come with me" she suggested and led me into the cool garden, I love the place instantly but I knew we can't spend another day here, for there is only one rout to this small town by the Atlantic ocean.
"this is no safe place, and you've to stop pretending to save me from a situation you've created.
what sort of mind games are you playing with me?, whatever it is its driving me insane, and you did better start talking for both our sakes before I lose my mind,".
I spat in uncontrolled fury, trying very hard not break things or some bones, I have never come this close to hurting a woman, and if the lady sitting across from me was a man, I wouldn't be surprise if I slit her throat with a table knife.
Sensing my agitation, Diana gulps down air, fidgeting on her seat, gathering courage to approach the problem before her without angering me further. Kogna too tensed on his seat, very alert.
"where do you want me to start Kuga?". "everything, start from everything, but wait…".
"okay, what were you doing at my place meeting with shanaz?".
"we needed the content in that safe deposit box after shanaz discovered it, but he was instructed not to open it before I arrived, no you tell me what you have in that safe that made you a target?"
"don't even try lady, I asked the questions then you answer them, I know I am wanted man now dead or alive, it depends on who catch up to me first. Who want me dead?".
"and have you ask yourself why anyone will want you dead?".
"is it about Wodmax? and the case I have against the board?". "no, perhaps it's something more than that, what do you really want in Wodmax Kuga, because your case was not a blackmail by an employee against the board, it sounded personal and vengeful and that really instigated the reemergence of series of a long buried past some people don't want to resurface."
"and who are these people Diana?". "you already know who they are. I see you're moving with kogna now."
"and you are working for these people. who are they what do they want from me?"
"well some admire your candor and want you alive, perhaps, considering to give you what you've always wanted, your company wodmax, but some, who happen to be majority think you will forever be a problem if you are alive with that kind of power in your hand, and they fear for their lives," she said levely, warming up to proceed.
"you mean my true identity is not a secret to these people anymore, and my motives are well understood?".
"yeah, guess they know you as a child and been looking for you since, but I think your granny covered your tracks very well."
"so you mean you are still working for them?".
"yes, the minority who wants you alive, that call came in less than an hour before we met last night, a twisted fate of sort."
"so lycan hieghts hah?". "we don't normally say the name, especially those of us on the field."
"are you some kind of spy? And wait, it's your real name Diana?". "yeah, we don't have to lie about such petty stuff?".
"why kill Tarik and probably kidnap Rakaia?".
"you still don't get it do you Kuga., your case exposed what Tarik was doing secretly, embezzling funds to clear his gambling debts, catering for his opulent life style, but his worst mistake that sanction the inevitable hit on him was the secret shares he was buying in other companies through pseudo names, a nice exit strategy against my side, so he must go." She said analytically and proceeded.
"what about Felix?, he is behind all of this somehow?".
"actually your case had put Felix in a tuff spot, his own life hangs on the line, but he has the majority vote among the league, on the side of those who wanted you dead.
And when he discovered you as an undisclosed underground rapper called spooky in one of his clubs, through your stolen laptop, he was able to match your voice with the office recording, and the line you completed for him that day when he said you better be ready when the storm roars, and you ended; and the dark hole devour the last flower…." She paused.
Demm I realized the mistake now, but I never thought the man has the capability to make the connection, not until he had my laptop off course.
"what about the first hit, I mean the gas poisoning through the air condition?".
"sorry I took credit for that hit to throw them off, from the fact I tried to save you".
"how is that?". "I am, I… umm..". the woman needed some privacy to tell me things I think she wanted only I to hear, she didn't need kogna around, but I delebrately needed the man around to validate and reconcile the scattered bits of information I had to form a solid opinion about what was going on.
It will be very difficult for her to lie about certain thing with kogna around, but I could sense the plea in her eyes and almost gave in.
"kogna is my brother and I need him here Diana, I don't trust you…".
"and I wouldn't blame you Kuga," she replied seriously. "no spooky, I will excuse myself, I want to go freshen up in the tempting pool anyway." kogna said and left garden.
"there were two different attempts on your house that night in one break in, seems like different people wanted different outcomes from the same event.
Doc contracted the safari guy, to get his guys to get your laptop, he wanted information first before he will take any solid action against you.
But you boy at safari wanted to make good use of the opportunity, he control those boys anyway, so after the theft, they had neatly placed the poisonous devices there to emit gases that will convert the oxygen in you space to carbon monoxide through an untreaceable gradual process in your bed room and the entire space, Shanaz was among this team.
When I discovered this, please don't ask me how, I have my methods okay, not all pleasant. I stormed your place but found you were not around. I couldn't text or call, I had to meet with you one on one in disguise.
I turned your room upside down into shreds to force you to spent your night somewhere else."
"You didn't want you side to know about this." "no, if they know I wouldn't have been here having this conversation."
"you mean this gas thing has Ziggy written all over it?", I asked unbelievably and added "but he wanted to use the doc as a cover".
"he is a very ambitious mercurial guy Kuga, But I'm sure it was validated by all three of them; Felix, Tarik and your man."
"Safari is own by your shady bosses, perhaps all the big clubs in the city."
"you are catching on well Kuga, and how uncanny of you to want me on DedRox when I am already a silent partner, forty percent against your forty actually, no doubt the safari guy wanted you gone. With you gone he will have your forty to his twenty making up sixty against my forty,".
"and most of the incoming projects I was telling you about are now run by DedRox, and our forty-forty are making envious dividends, another motive for safari guy to want you dead."
"you are talking as though you personally own the forty percent shares in DedRox just like mine Diana."
"yes Kuga, I own every penny of that one, but I will be in trouble if my people ever know, we all have our little personal secrets right, and I have disclosed a lot to you than I ever did to anyone…".
"and I was beginning to wonder about all that diana, why did you do it?".
"do what Yakim?"
"fake a scorpion stink, a gullible hoax in my house on your first visit right after faking a cry about being afraid of the quagmire at Wodmax."
"well none of that was a ruse Kuga; just so you know, around you, none of it had been an act, those were true emotions, except my forty percent share ownership at wodmax off course…..".
"you kind of own such ghost shares in different companies, I bet?". she nodded without uttering a word.
"are you trying to make me feel indebted to you or something, you are making everything look like you've been doing me a big favor and still are. Why did you shoot shanaz?"
"because he was going to kill you if I didn't". "and what made you so sure Diana?".
"the look in his eyes kuga. I was a second quicker, if it was the vice versa, the bullet in your thigh would have gone right through your head."
"back to my earlier questions Diana, why go through all this trouble?".
"because I fell in love with you first time I met you seven years' ago, idiot," She responded flippantly, before walking into the house.
'She didn't say that spooky'. "yes she did, kuga".