CHAPTER FIVE
The UFC orphanage was quieter this morning: The matrons had all gone to solicit for assistance outside the estate; they wouldn't be back till evening, leaving us in the hands of Anthony and miss Christiana. Miss Christiana; the kind Calabar matron who was responsible for home-schooling the kids here since all school was closed after the pandemic struck. She wasn't a problem to the operation we were to carry later today because she spent most of her time studying, reading novels and when she's not doing any of these things, she's sleeping comfortably. Mr Collins had driven out of his compound earlier in the morning as noticed by Anthony, that meant we had at least four hours to perfect our heist plan because that's when Mr Collins would be back from work. We had fried plantain and eggs as breakfast; the last of our dwindled food resources; that showed how much we needed this op to work. Anthony was up and active, dishing out instructions to me, Dorcas, Cole, Mary and others that were involved in the operation, leaving no stone unturned. Dan who was replaced by Cole was already getting better after his first dose of the drug and miss Christiana who was ignorant of what went down the day before believed the wet towel had worked its healing miracle on the invalid orphan.
The sun was up already, we had less than two hours to get the ball rolling. Dorcas was already practising her distracting speech, Anthony, his target skills while the rest brain-stormed on the extraction plan quite new to me since it was introduced to me earlier in the morning. I sat on the patio behind the house, thinking on how things go actually go wrong if I happen to make one single mistake. We could be reported to the matrons or worse still, the police for breaking and entering. Anthony noticed I wasn't with the rest of the gang and came right where I was. He knew I always sat there whenever I'm tensed or anxious.
"It can't go wrong..don't give in to fear, if you do, that's when you begin to make mistakes. Besides the op isn't as dangerous as the one we did yesterday, remember?. Besides, it's a quick get in and out, you should be out of there in thirty minutes max", Anthony started, giving one of his pre-planned accurate advice.
"The thing is that, I don't think I can pull this off personally. What if?", I said amidst my fears
"There isn't going to be any what ifs Nisi. Believe in yourself, you have the brain and skills to pull this off. I believe in you. UFC believes in you. Don't worry about letting us down. We are with you till the end....."
Before he could continue his touching speech, the loud honk coming from outside the compound alerted everyone. Mr Collins was back far too early..., but he shouldn't be back till two hours from now. He must have changed his outing schedule for today. Anyways, that didn't affect us, we were already ready!
"Everyone, take your positions...now!", Anthony yelled. Immediately, everyone swung into action. Dorcas approached the security men positioned slightly far away from the remote-controlled gate and had started to do what she did best, Anthony was already on the deck of the orphanage, catapult in hand while I took the skateboard and strolled past Mr Collins car parked right opposite his gate. As I passed, I could see him from his wound- up window, fiddling with different keys, he must be searching for the remote control of the gate. In a moment, the gate dragged open and as he drove in, I slid right under his car and stayed still as I could hear the gate close behind me. He couldn't have heard or seen me slide in. Phase one check...,It's show time!
From where I laid under the car, I could see downed Bingo snoring noisily right beside the car, spittle drooling out of his mouth. I could hear Dorcas's voice faintly now, she had almost concluded her own part of the plan, she still had to distract the security men farther from the gate where Anthony was to smash the four security cameras. The car door opened and I saw the finest pair of shoe have ever seen in my entire life touch the interlocked ground: it was made of brown leather and had fine gold accessories attached to it. This shoe alone could worth a whole month meal at UFC!, I thought. He took steady steps as he approached his house door and in seconds, he was cooped up in his mansion. Almost time to move, it still remained Anthony's touch. In a moment, I heard shattering sounds on four different occasions, phase two check. Now, time to move.
I poked my head from under the car surveying my environment. Nothing threatening was present in this spacious compound aside humbled Bingo. I dragged myself out, felt my pocket to make sure the sack was still there then I headed for the air vents near the garage.
"I'm in Tony, do you read me?", I said as I got into the ceiling base.
There was a short static followed by a brief silence before I got a response.
"Copy, now head for the kitchen outlet, keep your movement slow and steady until you arrive at your destination". Anthony responded. Then the walkie went cold again. I kept the walkie in my pocket and crawled towards the drop zone, avoiding the conduit wiring and the a.c. tubes. In two minutes, I could already see the kitchen but it wasn't as I was told: the tap was left running, the gas cooker was on, veggies laid cold on the chopping board and the kitchen was definitely lively. I thought Anthony said Mr Collins didn't appreciate the presence of this place. I waited for a while, expecting him to show up but nobody was forthcoming, or was he expecting us?.
"Tony, Tony....", the line kept breaking, all I heard was static and all. It wasn't supposed to be like this, we were just some metres apart and under any circumstance, the line wasn't supposed to break. After a while, I decided to go for it, all things being equal, if I run away from this op, I can't of course run away from the impending hunger that was haunting the UFC. I had to make a choice; face everything and rise or forget everything and run. Anthony's speech came playing in my mind, I wasn't going to disappoint anyone and if I was to get caught, I will get caught trying to help my only family!.
Slowly, I lifted the air ventilator from its position and placed it right beside where I was on the ceiling. Of cousre, the ceiling proved strong enough to hold my weight without giving any sound whatsoever, that enough was impressive. Sack in hand, I lowered myself silently into the warm kitchen, landing on the big centre table to support myself. Instantly, I hid myself inside a small room, probably the store 'cos it was full of raw foodstuffs in plentiful quantities. I've never seen foodstuffs as much as this in my entire life. Well, since I've entered this house, I've never been so impressed by the sight of so much luxury in my life before. This house definitely cost a fortune to put together and the interior was much more breathtaking than the exterior. I packed the raw foodstuff quickly into the sack using the measure I found in them making sure I packed enough though I remembered Anthony's warning to try as much as possible to take what I can lift back into the roof. I surveyed the surroundings of the kitchen and I saw nothing or nobody frightening, just soft music playing far from where i was, probably from the living room.
As I planned my re-entry into the kitchen, I heard footsteps approach, Mr Collins did use his kitchen after all. I hid myself further in the store using the large sacks of grains as cover. As I froze, expecting the worse, I saw him saunter into the kitchen, phone in hand, conversing with someone over the mobile.
"Yeah, I stashed it already.., where else?,.. the safe room of course, there is no finding it there. No tech, no detector or detective can ever uncover its whereabouts. It's business as usual. Yeah, bye.". He was dressed casually, I've never seen him in shorts and T-shirt before and he looked more relaxed than when I earlier saw him in the car. He dropped his phone into his pocket, stopped the running water and turned off the cooking gas before heading back out of the kitchen. Stopping at the door, he looked back at the store, I quickly averted my eyes as though he had seen me and prayed silently. Suddenly, he advanced towards the store, each step seeming to increase the pace of my heart beat, then the footsteps ceased. I thought he had gone but then the light went off: the bulb of the store alone. Oh, that's what he had noticed, I had earlier switched it on when I hid there; what a close call, I thought. In a moment, he was gone. There was more to this house than what meets the eye. Mr Frowny was definitely hiding something; something illegal, something the men-in-red would want to get their hands on so badly and something that had started to interest me. The safe room wouldn't be in any room in this duplex, maybe it was an underground basement that housed the vault that contained what he had stashed.
After catching my breath for a couple of minutes, no sign of Mr Collins and no response from Tony, I sneaked back into the kitchen and opened the freezer. It was like I opened the storehouse of heaven!. All processed food of all sort laid cold in the white box. Milk, yoghurt, fried meat, snacks, butter, bread, drinks, cheese, cakes, packaged food of different sort et cat era. I stood fixed to the tiled floor, totally amazed of the sight I was privileged to see before I moved to action; I made sure I packed as much stuffs as I could, making minimal noise as my sack was growing both in height and weight. When I was sure I've made substantial progress, I zipped up the sack and made for the roof.
Lifting the sack back into the roof was physically tasking and my height wasn't helping matters. I looked around for a stool or anything that could heighten my chances of getting out of here alive. Luckily for me, there was a wooden stool that was designed so luxurious that I initially thought I had handled gold!. I placed it on the six- inch marble table and in a minute the sack was back into the ceiling. Then I came back down to ensure I left things the way I had met them but how was I going to get back up if I returned the 'golden' stool back where i found it. I couldn't just leave it on the kitchen table like that, it would surely attract suspicion. The light bulb I couldn't resist putting on when I entered the storeroom had almost put me in trouble and I was saved by the skin of my teeth. Should I just leave it there and make him assume it was there after all?.
"Nisi!", Antohny voice came in too hot over the walki, "what's your status?, you have got company, men -in -Prado just parked in the compound. I guess our plan didn't involve 'taking out' visitors, you know what I mean, come in, where's your position?"
"Tony, a lot of things are going wrong here, it turns out the man uses his kitchen. It appears he was cooking when I came in. Tony...what is the plan now?, everything is just too much for me to handle. Could backup be a possibility?, I need you here ASAP". My hands were getting sweaty already, I panicked too fast, I guess.
"His 12-foot electric fence is impenetrable, no way I could climb in without attracting his men or injuring myself. Stay cool, hide in the ceiling, turns out the he is having a feast with men of his standard".
I climbed back into the ceiling, leaving the stool noticeable on the table, I wished he would just assume it had been left there by himself and had absolutely forgotten about it but the thing is that it was placed directly below the ventilator and by just looking at it, anyone with a smart thinking capacity would easily put the pieces together that someone had used the stool to perfect his escape plan, but what choice was I left with?.
I crawled back to where I entered from, dragging the full sack behind, caring little about the noise I made from my efforts since I was certain about the tenacity of the base that held both my weight and that of my over-flowing sack. As I got nearer, I heard loud voices and uncontrollable guffaw, this time it was coming from below. I peeked down and I saw big men having a hearty conversation with their host, my target: when I say 'big', I mean both physically and financially. They wore suits that looked too small for them, you could see their bulging stomachs struggling to fit in the three-piece suit.
"That was a smart move you made there Collins, you've become the master of the trade already. Nice job", one of the men-in-suits started. They were standing around a long table holding champagne flutes half-filled with wine, celebrating some sort of victory.
"Things happen, mistake do too and smart men prey on people's mistakes. That's how life was designed to be", the other man spoke also before they all raised their glass, "cheers!"
"Well done boys", Mr Collins started, "another mission executed without raising too much dust. No uniforms on our tail this time. Nice cover up from you Dee"
They continued the rest of the celebration in silence, sitting round the table now phone in hand each minding their own business. In a flash, I saw one of them stand up, briefcase in hand and made to move. I looked ahead and saw another ventilator right in front of me and I dragged myself forward. I looked down and behold, the most glorious sight I've seen in my entire life. The peak of materialism, the zenith of it all; bales of cash stacked up in piles arranged on the floor of a square room painted snow-white. Loads and loads of cash I've never set my eyes upon. That was it: Mr Collins and his merrymen were involved in money-laundering and this was the hidden safe room he had mentioned earlier. Big time criminals in suits and I was right on top their heads. As I watched on, salivating, the man I had earlier seen up walked in and unzipped the briefcase and arranged out bales of strange notes, (they weren't naira notes), right over stacked notes, organising each bale carefully before he rose up, looked around, sighed satisfiedly and left. Oh, this was the victory they were ecstatic about; nice new notes that had joined the older ones. Well, it was worth celebrating.
I made to proceed with my adventure before I miscalculated my steps. The ventilator wasn't as strong as the other ones and as I placed my hands on it, the ventilator dropped alongside myself and crashed into the 'money vault', scattering the arranged notes all over the white tiles. Though I sustained no injuries, the fear I was battling with was more than external injuries. Meanwhile, the sack remained up in the ceiling...well, it was better up there than down here. I would definitely get back to it.
"Anthony...", my voice was already shaking. I was beginning to imagine what these guys would do to me if they found me here, "I'm trapped in some sort of bank vault right inside this duplex, money's everywhere, I need help pronto, do you read me Tony,..anyone?..."
"Nisi, I read you, where do you say you are again?", Anthony asked.
"Inside a white room containing loads and loads of cash. The ceiling is far from my reach and there's nothing I can use to support myself back into the roof, all I see is...."
"Calm down Nisi, did I hear you say cash...", he must have gone wild when he heard it, "jackpot!, that's the missing piece I've been trying to figure out about Mr Collins all this while, I knew something wasn't right with this man, I couldn't just put my hands on it; this is going straight into my chronicle. Alright Nisi, pack as much cash as you can into the sack, ermm... we would begin to work on the extraction plan, I don't know how yet but we would work it out for sure. Hang on, the room is probably soundproof, so don't bother about making sounds. Don't forget to grab as much cash as you can, the whole UFC are depending on you right now! "
I was reluctant at first but I thought, we desperately needed just a little of what they had, why not take some?, a few bales wouldn't hurt. I placed some bales of mint naira notes pockets of my jacket and that of my cargo pants and a few bales of hard currencies, that should do, I reasoned. Now I wait for calvary, I hope so and I really hope they come up with something reasonable to get me out of here, these guys won't appreciate me messing with their currencies. I tried arranging some of the stacks I scattered and piled them just the way I met them lying cold in the air-conditioned cash room. Meanwhile, I thought of how they could rally round and put up an effective extraction plan: the two security men were now fully active and alerted since their boss hosted visitors, the 12-foot electrified fence was another hurdle they had to jump and the automated gate wasn't just any gate Anthony could use his lock-picking skills on. If they were to come up with anything whatsoever, it is must be a plan that defied the odds and beat all these poised hurdles. Well, I trust Tony, if anyone could put up a mind-blowing unexpected stealth plan to rescue me from this 'money prison', that person would definitely be him!, and I was counting on that.