(Episode 06) Puff & Power Girls: Warnings From Ogbunabali

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WARNINGS FROM OGBUNABALI, MARCH 1998

How long could it take to change a woman's life? How many months of action? And how many months of inaction and patience are required for a plan to seem probable of success? No matter how many times they went through the pages of the blueprint life decided to unfold itself around them in the manner it chose to. After Ronke called, straight to the point with her message, the air seemed thinner, Aisha's breathes grew slower and more rampant. She held a palm to her temple and prayed to Allah for peace.

She tried to calm herself by drinking water from a cup. Time passed slowly, making her yearn gingerly to become a new person after all of it was over. With nothing to do she cleaned the meeting room of all dust and disarrangement. The desk at the work station was spotless except for a few things. A tray with a jug of water and two glass cups. And then the blueprint. She exited the room, leaving a dim light on, the room had an eerie atmosphere. She could do nothing but wait now. At the other side of the door was a twelve steps long corridor, brightly lit with flourescent light, with two adjacent doors in the centre. There was laughter erupting from the room to her right. The door creaked open and announced her entry to the young lady and two teenagers seated by a reading table.

They greeted her with a standing ovation and a smile. "Mummy goodafternoon," said the teenagers. The young lady had been tutoring them English twice a week for N50 per week, by now they were already speaking beyond amateur level. Aisha was satisfied with their progress. Eeven if they stopped now, packed their things and ran out of Nigeria, never to look back again, she will be satisfied to know that they will survive in an oyinbo country.

"Aishatu, Fa'idah, good afternoon. How are you?" They responded saying fine, she dismissed them and headed out. The walk out of the corridor and into the living room was difficult. Aisha's chest tightened, her breaths were shallow and her eyes watered. She took a seat on a sofa and cried in silence. The two girls bore the same face, split apart in personality, but had the same nose, forehead wrinkle, chin, cheekbone and smile. A mother of twins. Aisha Frida became a mother when she had no business being pregnant, married, and a wife amongst other wives. She reminded Allah of her prayer of peace as she settled on the sofa.

Honk! Honk! Honk! After what seemed like a long moment of wait, Aisha's prayers were interruptted. "The sound of Amaka's car horn? But I am expecting Ronke." She rose from the sofa and met with her gateman at the front door. "Open it, open it." She quickly instructed him.

"For the two-two of them?" "Two?" She asked as she followed him outside. Aisha stood at the foot of the stairs leading to the front door, watching the gateman opened the gate for Amaka and Ronke, they zoomed into the left side of her wide compound. They stepped out of their cars wearing long looks on their faces. Amaka's face was a paradox of it's own, it screamed urgency and calm at the same time, like the face of a good puppy who has found a long buried bone. But, Ronke's face was one she could easily identify out of its familiarity, it was the same one she wore when she first saw her, a look that made you want to ask her what the problem is.

"Do not let anyone in or out without my permission." Aisha said to the gateman.

"Yes ma."

He quickly closed and bolted the gate. The three ladies made their way into the house in silence. The English tutor left at the perfect time. Aisha retrieved her slippers from the living room, handed it to her, watched her wear them over her small bare feet, and watched her walk until she reached the gate, turned around and waved goodbye. The gateman shut the gate and bolted it as she headed into the house again and into the meeting room. Amaka was seated with her back to the door, her handbag was planted on the floor, brown envelopes slipping out of it. She drank water silently. Aisha remebered that the tray was set by her for two. She was not expecting Amaka to be in her house and neither did she expect Ronke to still be wearing the same long face, it was more compelling with every passing moment. Aisha walked to the desk and stopped to collect the tray.

"Are you thirsty?" She asked Ronke.

She responded with a yes, stood up and then followed her all the way to the kitchen. At the kitchen both of them were silent. Aisha refilled the jug with water and poured two cups for herself and Ronke. They drank quietly by the breakfast bar. Aisha finally had the chance to ask every question which lingered on her mind, but she was still in no rush. Her head felt light after a drink.

Ronke's cup was empty in no time, her brows were furrowed, and she kept on looking at the cup even as it was empty now. Aisha finished her water, poured Ronke another cup, half empty this time, she waited for Ronke to finish drinking, and then she was done she began to fume verbally.

"Aisha, I don't know what has come over me, I nearly got into an accident twice today. Twice." Ronke held up her index and middle fingers then set them down to continue. "See, I also don't know why Amaka likes to use her mago mago behaviour just to make a point, instead of her to use her mouth to tell me she thinks I'm still in love with General Yasser she tries to kill me. I hate that place, every part and bit of it," her words were fast and sharp. "I still cannot believe I was inside there for that Long, I thought I had everything under control until I saw Amaka there. At Villa. You know how she likes to appear like ghost. I was scared, all those many things, I was thinking and thiking and forgot myself."

She paused, noticing Aisha's dress for the very first time. The dress was beautiful. It was something anyone will naturally wear outdoors because of how much it shimmered - dark green embrodiery under the bright light of the kitchen. Ronke knew too well not to say her next words but she did. "Why are you wearing this fine dress inside your house, you like to look good all the time."

"I look good all the time." The kitchen vibrated with the sound of their laughters. Aisha slowly opened her arms wide, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. So what happened? what were you thinking about?" Arm in arm, Ronke continued speaking to Aisha. "I was thinking about you. I would have never met you if I did not want my life to change. I don't understand any of it," she cried and whimpered slowly, "I saw him face to face and I was worried about all of us, you, the reason why we stay strong together is because of you, you remind us that this old life needs to fade away and fading takes time, no rush, it is not like erasing. I love it when you say that. I was thinking of the very first time I got to meet with you, and that is because when I think about General Yasser I think about you too. I would have never met him if I never met you. I would have never met love. Never know what it means."

Aisha listened quietly, but her mind was on the blue print. The evening was going to be long and lengthy until it became midnight. That was how long they had until someone called it a night and the plan stayed flawed forever. Their hug grew tighter until the cup in Aisha's hands stopped them both from coming any closer. Ronke slowly reached for Aisha's hijab and pulled into her face. She embraced her breath, caressed her nose, steadied her lips and she let Aisha kiss her dearly. The kiss was warm and full of love and compassion. It lasted as long as a moment. Ronke withdrew her lips and placed her head on Aisha's shoulder. The kitchen was enveloped in silence, mostly because their deepest heart desires were too apparent to be disguised on such a night as this.

A new warmth settled upon their bodies, it calmed their once racing hearts, steadied their breaths and kept Ronke's eyes in one place. Ronke felt the warmth as it settled unto Aisha in the form of the sound of her heart beat, it was easy to hear everything now that all the noise in her head was gone. With unfinshed business to be addressed tonight, the two of them walked out of the kitchen, Ronke carried the tray in both hands - on it was the jug and the two glass cups, Aisha followed her behind. The duo walked into the living room, through the corridor and into the meeting room, then settled on the desk alongside Amaka.

Amaka was the first to speak. "Ronke, I am sorry, about the way I drove and how it scared you, e ma bi nu." She smiled facing Ronke. Ronke fought the urge to remind her that saying sorry and being apologetic was never good enough, so she said: "It's okay, it's okay now." Aisha was seated by the right hand of Amaka and to the left of Ronke. She reminded Ronke that her judgement was trusted. "So what do you think? should we change the blue print?" Ronke responded immediately, "I met with Amaka before heading here and she made me listen to a tape, maybe we should start from there?" It was more a question than a statement, but she was sure of it. Aisha will definetly want to listen to the tape. "Play it then. Let us hear it," Aisha said to Amaka. Amaka reached into her hanbag and pulled out a device, it was a black tape recorder, she turned it upwards, controlled the device like she had used it more than enough times to know how it works and operates by now, then she adjusted some buttons until she finally dropped it and a sound came out. The first few seconds passed with inaudible noise, until a conversation started to develop, it was evidently between three men, the conversation was rapid, fast:

"You? calling me? an idiot? Mustapha, tell your boy that I know all his family members, I will not hesitate to be the reason his brother dies."

"Sani! ah ah, there is absolutely no need for it to come to this. There is no need for us to be talking about things like this, over money? You want to kill over money?" "General Mustapha please! Stop acting like everyone here will not kill for the money, we are well beyond that and Mr Sani Sir you can go ahead and kill my brother."

There was a few seconds of silence and then the tape burst out with sound again: "Please don't take it too harshly, all he meant is that you will not be disappointed partying with us."

"Yes but there is no way I will talk about money when having a party." "I don't see why that is a problem, after all we all like women and money the same so talking about it is not a problem, let us close this deal once and for all." The sound of a cough came from the recorder, it interrupted the men who were speaking.

Aisha suddenly spoke. "Hold it please." Amaka pushed the pause button.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"Yes. Sani, Mustapha and Yasser. I was at Villa to see if I could get more information about what the three of them have been cooking up for almost three years now. I have been gathering information about their plan for a long time now and everything is here inside my bag, she motioned to the hand bag next to her left foot. "There was a lot that they said even before I started recording."

"How come you were at Villa today Amaka?" "I told Ronke to go to Villa, anything could have happened nau," she spoke matter-of- factly with her arms moving over the desk, motioning back and forth as she explained herself. "She could have met with Yasser and found out herself that she still loves him, or she could have found out What he has been cooking up with Mustapha and Sani. See," her motions began to steady, "I did not want her to go to Villa not knowing why I sent her there in the first place. There is so much that we will not know or I myself will not know if I allowed Ronke continue to avoid Yasser. So I had to get info behind your backs. If I am being honest o, I was there to see for myself what she finds out."

The clock on the wall read 19:55, Aisha looked at it, she remembered that the twins were to go to sleep in about an hour. As Aisha was looking at the clock, Ronke thought of the same thing, she rose from the chair, told Aisha not to bother and then stepped out of the meeting room to check on the kids. It was only Aisha and Amaka in the meeting room now.

Amaka continued explaining herself, "So essentially, I was at villa to find out whether Ronke will catch Yasser talking to Sani. But she didn't, so that will explain to each of us that I was right to think that she still loves him. I was there before her, and she didn't notice me too. What I'm trying to say is that we need to change this plan right now. I have a bunch of documents I want us to look at, they are in my bag," she reached for the handbag, rummaging through the content. Aisha motioned towards Amaka and spoke, "don't bother right now, let Ronke return and then we can continue listening to the tape."

"Okay no problem," Amaka replied, "then after we will go through the documents, then we will change the plan and then we will go to the shrine tomorrow to meet with the Oku l've been speaking to, he's a very powerful man but he speaks English, and he's young too, don't worry about money I've already sorted his gift."

Just as Amaka's words poured into Aisha's ears, and just as Aisha began to realise that Amaka was not joking, not bluffing, not lying, not kidding, and just as she began to realise that Amaka was ahead of all of them in their plan to run out of Nigeria, Ronke walked back into the meeting room. She walked in satisfied enough to know that Aishatu and Fa'idah had called it a night, she helped prepare them for night prayers and exited their room to the sound of "aunty goodnight" from both of them. She said goodnight too, and then walked into the corridor, closing the door behind her. When she reached the meeting room she noticed that aAmaka was still speaking, she heard her say 'oku' and then heard her say 'don't worry about money I've already sorted his gift. When she approached the desk, she noticed that Aisha's gaze was still affixed to the clock, so she spoke to Amaka:

"Who is getting paid for what?" Ronke's eyes were on the tape recorder.

"Nobody is getting paid for anything. It's a show of appreciation, Aisha said that we should listen to the tape and then read the documents, and then come up with

another plan and then meet with an oku tomorrow."

Before Aisha could say anything Ronke responded, "I don't understand, I wasn't even gone that long, you must be joking. An akwa oku? Oku ke, Amaka please don't start again this night, just finish telling us everything you know and let us change this plan once and for all."

There was a brief moment of silence which Aisha quickly used to speak before any of them could say anything. "Amaka please continue the tape, until the end of it. Ronke please do not say anything for now."

Time was slipping by with every moment, and Aisha was not willing to allow any drama unfold, any argument between any of the three of them may lead to a delay, she was eager to get it over with tonight. Ronke took a seat and poured herself another cup of water. Amaka clicked a button on the tape recorder, audio erupted as it continued from where it stopped. The sound of a person coughing continued although it was now followed by a thud and a zip and then the next sound was a male voice.

"Who goes there?"

"Who could that possibly be?"

"Ah ah, Amaka? I told you to wait for me outside. Gentlemen please excuse me." "I'm sorry General sir, sorry sirs, I thought you said inside, please don't be

offended."

"Mustapha who is this beautiful young lady?"

"Sir this is ehm, Yasser's lady friend, so to say." The man speaking laughed and then continued, "she usually accompanies us, sorry, him, at our parties."

"Accompany? For what? Young lady what do you do?"

"She keeps me company, and she will be leaving Villa now."

"Leaving now? General but we haven't discussed yet."

"Yes, go and meet Rosy and get it sorted."

"But what if she doesn't listen to me." "Why will she not? Amaka please I am discussing important matters, give me

my respect." "I'm sorry, I just know she still loves you. There was a long pause until Amaka's

voice came out again."

"Here, give this note to Rosy."

"I will still wait here, you know I'm stubborn."

"I will deal with you tonight."

"Yes sir." The only sounds from the tape was a distant foot step, a zip, a shuffled sound and

then a click.

Amaka spoke without delay:

"Any more questions?

"Ronke?" Aisha no longer looked at the clock, her eyes were affixed on Ronke.

She responded: "yes?"

"What do you think?" "Honest to God and man, Amaka I don't know how much trouble all of us will be in if Sani should find out about this tape, how did you even pass security?" She was eye to eye with Amaka.

"Security? Serious? Security is our friend nau! Ah ah, is that not why Aisha talks to Yasser's body guard even when he smells like no one should ever come three feet near him, chai that man can smell! He let me enter Villa without any search, I didn't even do anything all I did was pass by the staff section with him as he was asking

about where he can buy brocade for his mother."

"Ronke, is that all?" Aisha asked.

"No that is not," Ronke continued, "so what were they talking about? I know they were talking and I am very surprised that Yasser can dare Sani like that, that man is not normal I swear. But nonetheless, I cannot tell what they are discussing except that it has to do with money. So, can you tell us? What money are they talking about?" "Now, this is the part where I show you all the documents I have with me, some of them I took from Yasser's house, some of them I took from his car and some from his office. Those are the places he likes to," she cupped her index fingers up in the air, " 'meet' me."

She lifted her handbag from the floor, dipped her hand in and out of it until the desk was covered with envelopes containing papers. As she set her bag on the ground, Ronke carried the tray off the desk to make space for the envelopes before her. They now formed a little heap. Ronke dug her hand into the tiny heap of envelopes, she retreated with a sheet of paper, a4 style, at the top of the paper was Nigeria's coat of arms. She dug into the heap again, retrieving another document bearing the same letter head. The second document was 12 sheets heavy, most of the writings were unreadable due to the plethora of encryptions on it. Ronke watched Amaka empty all the envelopes, a majority of the papers bore encryptions.

"Amaka?" Ronke shot a glance towards her, "why are most of these papers heavily encrypted? where did you find these?" She started to read the document in her hand, trying to make sense of the words and sentences that were visible.

"I told you already nau, General Yasser."

"Yes, yes, sorry what I mean is these documents look like top secret files. Did he just leave them hanging around?" She read the title of the document, "contract between dash and dash, this is just the title, there are at least five areas of encryption for every paragraph." She set the document down. "I had been trying to get my hands on these documents ever since I started to suspect them. Yasser had been meeting with Sani and Mustapha a lot last year December," Amaka's fingers pointed to the twelve page document, "that one you dropped is the main koko." Amaka picked up the document, motioning toward Aisha, "Do you want to look at it?"

Aisha was yet to touch any of the papers on the desk, she showed a disinterest in the paperwork, neither looking at the documents nor the paper motioned towards her, her eyes were still planted on the clock. "Not yet, I am much more interested in hearing you finish your statement, what money are they talking about?"

"Okay, I will say the document is self explanatory but let me explain," she searched through the heap of papers and retrieved another document similar to the one she referred to as 'the main koko', it was black and white and bore no encryption. "this is the readable version, I had someone remove all the encryption so that it makes more sense." She began to explain the document.

"This is a deal that Sani wants to make with the World Bank and they want to finalise it before he goes out of power."

"But he just got into power." Ronke said, cutting her words short.

"And he will soon go out of power, that is why he wants to sign the deal," she turned to face Ronke, the deal states that oil ships and tanks will be used to transport oil and gold bullions from Nigeria to Belgium and Switzerland to facilitate the transfer of a portion of national monies to the World Bank, and by portion I mean more than ten billion Dollars." Amaka paused for dramatic effect, she knew too well that no matter how composed, well trained, well behaved or educated anyone was $ 10 billion was enough to let it all out of the window. She noticed how Ronke's pupils dilated, making her satisfied, she was right to think that it was a crazy amount of money. She turned her neck to face Aisha, she was still unshaken, unfazed and unmoved. "I said ten, not ten million oh! ten billion Dollars!" Aisha said nothing still.

Amaka dropped the documents in her hands, reached into the heap again, and retrieved what resembled a brochure. The brochure was black mostly, with the only sign of colours coming from the cover page: a picture of a heap of trailers. The title was in a foreign language, Amaka bent to pick up a dictionary out of her bag. It read:

DUTCH TO ENGLISH. The dictionary was small, but coloured blue and bore a lot of dog ear marks, as well as neon pink, neon green and neon orange sticky notes poking out of them. Aisha could no longer bear looking at the old clock, it was as old as time itself, but working enough to remind her that time itself was ticking, tocking, and nothing had changed, nothing about the blueprint had changed at all, even with all the talking and explaianing. But Amaka finally brought out something that belonged to her. Not external data, but something that was close to a final process of data - information. She brought out a dictionary with sticky notes in it. Her eyes could no longer look at the clock anymore, she set her eyes to face Amaka.

"Amaka?"

Amaka had already started flipping the dictionary.

"Yes?" She continued to flip until she reached letter ' O!

"Please, may I have the dictionary? I will like to see it."

"Okay, no problem." Amaka handed the dictionary to Aisha.

"What word were you looking for?"

"'Olie'. Spelled: O. L. I. E."

"Olie stands for oil."

"Yes," replied Amaka "now go to s and look for schweepvaart."

"Please spell."

"S. C. H. W. E. E. P. V. A. A. R. T.

"That means shipping, what next?"

"Letter S again, look for 'Schepen'. Spelled: S. C. H. E. P. E. N.

"Schepen means ship or vessel." "Yes, ' Oil Shipping Vessels', that is the title of this book." Amaka held up the brochure and flipped through it, the brochure bore dog ears too. "Now, this is were things start to make sense. This brochure is in fact not just only a brochure for ships and vessels but it is also a code book. The ships mentioned in this agreement," she pointed to the main koko, "all have serial numbers, the first part of the number indicates how much oil is going to be in a particular ship or how much gold will be in a particular vessel, on one hand. And on the other hand the second part of the number is a code which is also the special drawing rights for the bearer of the code." Amaka slided the black and white version of ' the main koko ' to Ronke. "Please go to page five." Ronke flipped to page 5.

While Ronke read out the content of page five, Aisha parroused through all the sticky notes that were shooting out of the Dutch to English dictionary. She came across notes such as:

code one: page 25, code two: page 55

bearer of code either party a or party b

party b holds the catalogue party b bears the code

only the bearer of the code will be acknowleged

alleen de drager wordt herkend

brochure betekent in deze overeenkomst ook code

8 juni 1998

datum van inwerkingtreding

date of entry into force

olie means oil

schweepvaart means shipping

schepen means vessel or ship

She paused. Looked up, noticed that Amaka was putting the documents into envelopes, and she noticed that Ronke had already finished reading page 5, so she set the dictionary down and spoke,

"Please can you read it again?"

"Okay." Replied Ronke, and she began to read again. "Terms of agreement, the terms referred to hereunder are the terms of agreement to this contract. The Parties to this contract agree to the transfer of oil and gold to the tune of 714, 286 barrels and 24, 000, 000 ounces respectively from Party B to Party A in consideration of $ 10, 000, 000, 000, 00 in special drawing rights to be given to the bearer of the catalogue of codes to the reserve accounts contained in schedule A of this contract. There shall only be two bearers of a particular code at a certain time. Party A is automatically deemed a code bearer and by reason of which, the second bearer of a code is automatically deemed Party B. The Parties to this contract agree that this contract shall become effective on the date contained in the catalogue of codes. The parties to this contract agree to the following rights of a third party agent..."

Amaka interrupted Ronke's reading, "Please, wait, wait."

Ronke stopped reading, she looked up to see Aisha looking excited, as if she was in the bank, close to the vaults and perceiving the scent of mint notes carressed by freshly melted gold coins.

"Amaka?" Aisha said.

"Yes?" Amaka had finshed putting the documents back into the envelopes.

"Is that brochure the catalogue of codes?"

"Yes." She removed a cassette from the tape recorder, set it between her both hands and bent the thing until it snapped, broke in half and landed on the desk.

"Is that the original copy?"

"You mean the tape or the brochure?"

"I meant the brochure, but now that you mention it, I mean both."

Amaka pulled out a hair brush and a jar of hair gel from her bag,

"There's only one copy of the tape, this is it," she motioned to it with her index finger. "I tried to get my hands on the original copy of the brochure, but it's Sani that has the second copy, the other copy is not even in Nigeria at all." She stood up from the chair, looked at the blueprint as it lay unopened and untouched. "We have to get that money, we need it, so now we can change the part of the blue print where ego was a problem."

The night started to grow solemn and quiet. Amaka walked into the bathroom in the meeting room. The room welcomed her with darkness, it was past sun down and the light bulb refused to shine or glow. She tried the switch three times, nothing.

"Ah ah I need light oh." She spoke quietly. As she turned to leave the room the bulb began to form a mild illumination, so she

tried the switch again. It started to glow brighter, she turned the swith off and tried it again, the glow grew brighter yet again. So she set herself behind the mirror above the wash sink and started to brush her hair. Her eyes looked straight into the mirror, brain still thinking about everything that she said to Ronke and Aisha. Her thoughts quickly came out of her mouth: "I hope Ronke and Frida can come up with a better plan than what I have."

The glow from the light bulb began to flicker speedily, the brightness was diminishing and the bathroom started to become dark again. Amaka went back to the switch, she flipped it off and flipped it on, it steadied. It was nearly dark in the bathroom. She rushed back to the mirror to finish with her brushing, fearing that the light bulb will begin to flicker again. The light shone dimmly above her. Her vision in the darkness was good but Amaka swore she saw something by the bath tub. She kept her eyes on it sternly. It looked like a shadow taking the shape of a human. Amaka turned around and saw nothing. Her heart began to beat faster, she was getting scared. She looked up at the bulb again, an insect was flying and hovering around it, it buzzed and buzzed and buzzed until the bulb lost all its glow and the buzzing stopped. A sound started to come from the corner of the bathroom where she had seen the shadow. It was a faint whisper, it began to grow louder and louder and louder until it grew into a long screech. She rushed to the side of the door, stretching her hands in the darkness, trying to reach for the switch. The bulb still refused to work, the screech from the corner of the room grew longer and louder. She flipped the switch countless times, flipped it off and flipped it on, but nothing, no light, just pitch blackness. The whisper began to sound like a human voice trying to say something.

The shadow seemed to be surrounding her from every angle, she flipped it off and on again. The bulb started to glow again. Thank god, thank god, thank god. "Amaka! Amaka!" The shadow's voice was coming from all directions, Amaka leaned her back to the door, screamed and whimpered desperately. A white light shone from the light bulb, it was bright and blinding, making Amaka scream even louder until she could hear the whisper no more. The shadow was no wear near sight, everything that was once in the bathroom blended into the white light. A figure started to form again. "Akwa oku?" She asked with a voice full of doubt and fright. Amaka tipped her Head forward, she began to walk towards the figure, she spoke to it again.

"Oku? Is that you?" She took a few steps forward until she was at arms length with the figure.

It spoke loudly with its voice coming from all directions. "Amaka, do not be afraid, I bring warnings from Ogbunabali! Amaka! do not be afraid!" The figure started to look and sound more like a human and less of a shadow. Amaka recognised it to be the one she referred to as 'akwa oku'. Upon realing this, she quickly tipped her head, "Oku please do not be offended, you are welcome." She bent her legs and kneeled on the ground before him.

"Amaka do not forget the white powder! do not forget that no one must see it before midnight. When the wrath of Amadioha strikes let it not find your head Amaka! Do

not use Ogbunabali!'s charm before midnight." The white light vanished before her eyes, she looked up from her kneeling position to find the Oku had gone, vanished into thin air as if he was never there in the first place.

She picked herself up from the ground and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"Oku actually came to warn me! Which one is remind me? He never told me anything about not using the powder before midnight." she said to herself. She stood in front of the mirror once again. This time considering whether or not to stay behind and finish making the plan or to meet with General Yasser as earlier arranged. Her thoughts raced back to what akwa oku said to her the day before yesterday. He said the charm was strong enough to get anyone to tell you the truth, as long as you lay in bed with them. Although she thought of it as dirty job, she also considered it was a job that she needed to get done in order for the brochure to be within their reach.

Her reflection stared back at her persistently. I have to make a choice, she thought to herself. While brushing off the hem of her sokoto, an idea came to her, clear as her own relection: / will just tell them the truth and hear what they say. She concluded her grooming and walked out of the bathroom, as the door opened Ronke quickly rushed before her with the receiver of a telephone in her hand, pressed over her chest.

"It's a call from General Yasser's bodyguard," Ronke said. "He wants to speak to you, I told him you were in the bathroom." Amaka froze at the bannister, she was yet to make a decsison. She watched her hands stretch before her then she replied, "give the phone to me." She walked out of the bathroom as Ronke shut the door, Aisha was still where she was before she excused herself to the bathroom. She realised that she was unaware of how long she was gone for, or if any of them heard her when she screamed, or if what she had witnessed was a creation of her imagination. She placed the receiver by her ear, took a deep breathe, and spoke.

"Hello, good evening." She stood by her chair noticing that the blue print was now spread open on the desk.

"Amaka?'

"Yes Sir."

"This is General Yasser's guard speaking."

She took a seat, "Okay, Ibrahim, good evening."

"The general ordered me to pick you up to accompany him tonight. Please get ready." The call disconnected, she set the receiver down.

"Chimooooo! hey! what have I gotten myself into?"

"What is it? What did he say?" Aisha asked.

"Amaka what is the problem?" Ronke showed concern likewise.

"Problem full finish!"

"Amaka please can you stop beating around the bush and talk to us." said Ronke.

"I am supposed to go and meet General Yasser."

"Ehen?" said Ronke and Aisha simultaneuosly. "And I have been warned by Oku not to use his charm until after midnight today. That was supposed to be our means of getting our hands on the brochure." Ronke and Aisha stared at Amaka, waiting for her to say something else, "What? That is not enough reason to be afraid?"

Ronke let out a long hiss, "Can you imagine? Then just go and see him tomorrow nau,

I should have told his guard you were not around sef." Aisha said nothing yet, she remained quiet. She reached for the blueprint and motioned towards Amaka with it before speaking, "I feel like using this to knock your head Amaka. Please pick up the receiver and dial that number back, let me speak to

Ibrahim myself." And so did Amaka do as told. Aisha spoke to Ibrahim and sent a message of apology on behalf of Amaka, she gave a half baked excuse, rescheduled for the next day and said goodbye. "Nobody is going anywhere until we finish making a new plan."

To be continued…