"I'm sorry!" The voice pleaded again enthusiastically.
This was the fourth time Ibrahim was apologizing like this. Tisane was beginning to get a full blown migraine from seeing the tears and snot emerging from Ibrahim's face.
"Its okay Ibrahim" Tisane replied again for the fourth time.
"How can you say its okay?" Ibrahim cried. "I broke your door!"
"No y--*sigh*"
'No you didn't' Tisane repeated this in his mind again and again. He knew that Ibrahim's feeble knocking, no matter how annoying it was couldn't have even put a dent in the door much less fling it across the room like that. He looked at his hand again amidst Ibrahim's continuous pleading.
How did he just do that? At the moment of physical contact between his hand and the door knob, he felt an inexplicable rush of strength, the likes he had never felt before. What was that? Adrenaline? As he was still pondering on this, that rush of pain in his head attacked him again. But noticeably, the pain had reduced compared to before.
"Its okay Ibrahim!" Tisane roared in anger. "Seriously stop apologizing. It won't change anything"
Ibrahim froze in between his pleading gestures as he looked at Tisane with tear filled eyes "y-you mean it?....*sniff*....its okay?"
"Ugh" Tisane shook his head and turned away in irritation. He knew his childhood friend like the back of his palm. Ibrahim was too ridiculously annoying to be truly remorseful.
Tisane walked to where the door had crashed into. Apart from the door itself splitting in two and some of his ceramic plates and cloth basket sustaining damage, there was no real disaster.
"Damn" came the voice by his side. "So....what are you gonna do now?"
Glancing at Ibrahim who was inspecting the broken door, Tisane rolled his eyes.
"I'll call the carpenter to fix it later" Tisane said simply.
"Am really sorry Tisane" Ibrahim pleaded. " I was just worried about you, since we haven't seen you since your fight with Bayo"
"...."
"I mean...are you really okay?" This time, Ibrahim's voice was filled with genuine concern.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Tisane replied sharply as he turned away. "After all, that was just two days ago. Am over it"
"Two days?" Ibrahim asked with a strange voice. "What do you mean by two days?"
Tisane turned and stared at Ibrahim in confusion.
"We haven't seen you in two weeks!" Ibrahim proclaimed.
"What?!" Tisane couldn't believe his ears. How could that be possible? Two weeks?!
"You disappeared for two weeks" Ibrahim said. "We all wondered what happened to you"
"How can you say such nonsense?" Tisane sharply replied. "I just came back yesterday from my job interview with....."
At this moment, Tisane's eyes widened as he asked "What day is it?"
"What?" Ibrahim bent his head slightly in confusion. "Oh you mean the date? Well today is Tuesday the 25th of march. Why do you ask?"
Tisane's eyes widened the more with every word that came out of Ibrahim's mouth. Dashing to where his phone was in one final attempt to prove Ibrahim wrong, he froze.
~Beep beep~
~Low battery please charge~
The smart phone seemed to complain as soon as Tisane switched on the backlight. But Tisane ignored that as his eyes stared at the digital display on the screen. He was late for work. He was two weeks late!
-----------------------------
"Damn it!" Tisane cursed for the fifth time as he struggled into his clothes. Ibrahim tried to calm him down but to no avail.
"Take it easy Tisane" Ibrahim said as he watched Tisane struggle and stumble in between brushing his teeth and dressing up. "After all you can always tell your employer you fell sick and was admitted into the hospital"
"Yeah right" Tisane snorted.
"Really. I mean that's what I always do when I don't want to come to work and it works wonders every time" Ibrahim said
"How far do you think the Nigerian Products Limited Company (NPLC) is from here?" Tisane asked suddenly.
"Hmm?" Ibrahim raised his eyebrows before speaking thoughfully "I think two to three miles tops"
"Damn it" Tisane cursed again as he dashed past the door frame.
"Wait Tisane!" Ibrahim called out. "Why are you going to the NPLC?"
"To work of course!" Tisane replied without looking back as he raced across the street.
"To work....." Ibrahim mumbled those words thoughtfully as he watched Tisane disappear along the busy road, until his eyes widened in shock "what?!"
******************
Boss Ajasa's eyes grew red as his breathing became heavy. If you were looking at him, you'd suspect he was about to cry, but no one would blame him as even Tobi himself was shaking greatly due to what he was seeing on the screen. A wanted order was been displayed on the huge screen before everyone. This wanted order had the pictures of Ajasa and Tobi displayed by the side.
But even that would have been okay if not for the kill order that was displayed afterwards. On the huge screen, the pictures of several men, women and children were displayed and above these pictures, was a digital text ordering for the death of these people if boss Ajasa and Tobi are not found. The deadline for this order was 48 hours.
"How can they decide to hurt even children?" Agent Tolu was speechless upon seeing this.
Captain James shook his head and sighed. He knew of the cruelty that plagued the underworld society. This kill order was not a fabrication but the real deal. In other words, after two days, boss Ajasa and Tobi would have lost most if not all members of their family.
What was a man without family? No matter how far or how high you go in life, you had to one day fall back on the resting embrace of family or else what was the point of living?
"How can they do this to me?" Boss Ajasa mumbled in rage. "After all my dedication and commitment to the faction!"
"The offer still stands" captain James said. "I can help, only if you are willing to cooperate with me"
"How can you help us?" Tobi asked with anticipation.
"I can keep your family members safe" captain James replied with confidence in his voice.
Boss Ajasa gave a bitter smile "and how do you plan to do that?" Gesturing at the huge computer screen with his head he said "that is not a bill board advert but an instantaneous order received by every faction in the underworld. Are you telling us that you can take on all the underworld factions?"
"Do we have a deal or not?" Captain James asked with a calm face.
"If you can keep my family safe, I'll tell you everything" Tobi declared.
James nodded and dropped his stare on boss Ajasa. Gritting his teeth for a while, Ajasa drooped his shoulders with a helpless sigh.
"Fine" he said. "I'll cooperate. Just make sure my family is safe"
"I promise" captain James declared. "Now I'll start with you first" he pointed at Tobi.
"Ask me anything" Tobi said resolutely.
"Who supplied you all the merchandize that you sold to the underworld gangs?" Captain James began.
At first, Tobi hesitated to answer. The number one rule of a courier in the underworld was never to reveal his source. It could mean being hunted for life, but hold up, is that not the position he was in right now?
After a while, he sighed "I actually received my goods in random covert places with little interaction with my suppliers"
"What do you mean by 'little interaction" James asked.
"I received my instructions through special earpiece devices given to me by unknown individuals and then I am given random locations to collect the merchandize" Tobi said.
"So you don't really see your suppliers?" James asked.
"No" Tobi shook his head.
Holding his chin in thought, James pondered for a while "what are the peculiarities of the 'goods' you receive? Drugs, weapons, documents"
"All weapons" Tobi replied.
"Hmm" James nodded. He thought as much. All through his investigations, couriers in the underworld had distinctive delivery categories. It seemed Tobi fell under the weapon category.
"Have you ever met other couriers?" Agent Tolu asked.
"No" Tobi shook his head. "Even if I did, I wouldn't know because our identity is hidden from each other"
"Now its your turn" James said as he turned to stare at Ajasa.
"Mhm" Ajasa grunted. "What do you want to know?"
"The underworld gangs are established through a hierarchy right?" James asked.
"Yes"
"What is their ranking system?"
Ajasa sighed as he began "the underworld comprises of five hierarchical levels"
"Which are?" James asked.
"The empire level, the kingdom level, the estate level, the domain level and the faction level" Ajasa said.
"Am guessing that a lot of gangsters" Tolu said sarcastically.
"Yeah enough to wipe out you and your entire group of badge huggers" Ajasa said with a sneer.
"Says someone who is stuck to a chair" agent Tolu retorted.
"Hmph..capturing me was only a coincidental victory for you" Ajasa said with disdain. "Don't think that the underworld gangs are your average pickpockets and robbers, believe me when I tell you that you haven't seen the true terror of the underworld"
"Really?" Agent Tolu scoffed.
"Yes really!" Boss Ajasa shouted, after he dropped his head and sighed. "You are both fools if you think that you can challenge the underworld. I just regret that my family is going to pay for my mistakes"
"You have my word th--" captain James began.
"Your words mean shit!" Ajasa cursed.
"Watch your tone Ajasa!" Agent Tolu threatened.
"And why should I?" Ajasa retorted. "You promised me that you will keep my family safe but you can't even protect yourselves!"
"What do mean by that?" Agent Tolu frowned.
Boss Ajasa didn't reply but laughed bitterly and shook his head helplessly.
Tobi's eyes widened in alarm; "he has a tracker implant!"
"In a few minutes, this place would be crawling with gang members" Ajasa said as the everyone fell silent.