The day had finally arrived and the time was 10:30 pm at Quart Park. Oscar parked the car just outside the entrance of the park like he was waiting for someone. Being familiar with how things worked around the park and with a registered taxi, he got no disturbance from the touts there. Chucky was seated in the front seat with a bag on his leg which suggested he had just arrived Aztec.
Elvis sat down by a food vendor just at the entrance of the park eating. From where he sat, he had a view of the taxi and other buses arriving at the park to drop off passengers arriving Aztec. They'd been here for the past thirty minutes and Elvis was already nervous. Oscar was dressed in plain attire with a cap to go and sat on the hood of the taxi like most drivers do. From this position, he screened travellers, looking out for the perfect prey.
Each time a bus dropped passengers, he'd approach looking for a potential victim while acting like he was looking for someone he was waiting for. He succeeded in speaking to a lady who looked like one in her mid to late 20s but turned out she wasn't travelling alone. Her male partner was yet to alight when he approached her. Then a Nissan Civilian bus pulled up and a woman and a young girl alighted. Initially, he felt they were together, so he sat back on the car hood. But when he saw the girl talking to the lady in a way that suggested she was seeking directions, he approached them. They were indeed lucky he thought.
MAX
"Excuse me ma, which way is it to the army barracks" she asked the lady who had alighted from the bus with her.
"Which army barracks?" she asked Max
"Quartz army barracks" she replied
"Wow.!!. You are so far off. Why then did you stop here? This is Quart and not Quartz. You should have followed the bus up to 2 Lane where you would have joined another bus which would drop you at the barracks. Your best bet is to join a bus going to Osho now, from there to 2 Lane and Quartz" the woman answered her like she expected her to know all those places she was mentioning.
But she kept staring blankly at the lady who was obviously in a hurry to get home herself. "I don't know my way around ma" she finally revealed.
"You're new in Aztec?" she asked with Max nodding in affirmation.
"You should have said that now. The best thing to do is to get a taxi driver to take you directly to the barracks. Only it's gonna cost you much more" With that she grabbed her things and was about to point to where taxis were parked when a driver approached them.
"Good evening ma.. Where are you headed to?" Oscar asked certain that the woman wasn't with the girl.
"How much would it cost to take her to Quartz barracks?" the lady asked him
"Only the girl or are you not following" he asked pretending not to have understood her initial statement
"I said the girl. Yes only her" the lady replied in a way that suggested she was already angered by the fact that helping the girl was wasting her time. Something that the forsaken driver of their bus had already done on their way.
"Ok sister, I'll charge 500 bucks. Time is not on our side Ma" he said addressing the 'Max' as "sister" and the woman as Ma
"Is that ok with you? It's already late and before long there'll be no one around here again" the woman asked and told Max.
"No problem. Thanks, Ma" she replied as the woman turned and left without acknowledging her thanking her. The taxi driver collected her bags and then led the way to his cab.
Opening the door for her to get in at the back, she saw another guy sitting in front with a shuttle bag on his lap. Then there was a second shuttle bag on the other part of the backseat of the cab. She wondered if cabs in Aztecs worked differently from those in Cantina. Why was he collecting that much if he was carrying other passengers? Because she had felt as its the norm, she'd be the only passenger. Well, the lady talked about the place being empty in a few minutes and looking at her wristwatch, the time was already some minutes to 11 pm.
Opening the driver's door, he entered and told the guy sitting in front "Please, go and call your brother let's go. It's late already".
She watched the guy alight and walked to a roadside food vendor to call someone. It didn't take a minute, and she saw him walking back with someone who opened the other side of the car and got in.
"Sorry driver. I didn't eat from home, and my stomach was growling." the guy apologized to the driver. Then turning to face her, the guy greeted her "Good evening my sister. Sorry you had to wait for me"
Faking a smile, she politely greeted the guy saying a simple "Good evening".
He smelt of local gin and she wondered why he was drinking while he said he was hungry.
As they left the park and moved on the highway, the road became a bit empty safe for big lorries and buses. They had barely been on the road for up to five minutes when suddenly the guy who sat behind with started coughing and sneezing like he had flu.
"Sorry," she said to the guy who kept on coughing while reaching and searching for something inside the bag. In her head, she concluded the young boy must be an addict to local gin which is eating him up from the inside.
"Thank you" he managed to say whilst still coughing. He then brought out a white handkerchief from the side purse of his shuttle bag and folded it like he was going to cough in it.
Then without warning, she saw him charged at her bringing his left hand which contained the handkerchief. By the time it landed on her face blocking her nose, through the corner of her eyes, she saw him change into a kneeling position on the seat as he applied force on his grip on her face. By the time she realized that the handkerchief was soaked in chloroform, she had lost consciousness.
As a science student back in FGGC Cantina, they had done several Biology practicals where they had to sedate lab rats or rabbits using chloroform. She still remembered the smell.