章 108: The Genius Search
“Whoa! You are a talent. I love it! A song for me from you! A song from your heart to mine. Thank you darling.” They kissed.
“Just doing my duty, Miss Sunshine.”
“My Love...” Petra called.
“Miss Sunshine.” Justin responded
“Please hold me, I want to feel your heartbeat.” Petra said and immediately he grabbed her, drew her closer until her wet face was on his chest. She held him tight, saying no word, glad to hear the rhythm of his heart beats.
“Why am I scared?” She whispered. “Why do I feel this is too good to last. I am not being pessimistic but reality scares me. They tried to kill you and I know you are still in hiding. There is a great complication around you, like you against the world.
You are being chased, have been chased right from childhood when you knew not your crime. Now you stopped at the part where you met another computer genius on line. And the fact that my father was the one holding you in front of the dump site scares me.
Tell me, is he a criminal? Is Uncle Abbas a criminal?” she asked.
“I told you not to get emotional or judge any one yet. I hid many things from you for reasons and what I need you to do now is remain strong. We are in the clear.
Your father’s involvement would be explained to you. He is not a criminal but a tool. We don't have to let this spoil our mood. We are stronger than this.”
“It is not spoiling the mood. I just want you to assure me that it is all honky dory.” She said.
“Yes, Miss Sunshine. It is and be rest assured that we will pull through. The world is just deeper than we think. Insha Allah, I will always be here for you.” “I will always be by you, behind you, in front of you, in you.....” He kissed her again, and then put a grape into her mouth. They shared it.
“What time are we leaving?” She asked.
“Leaving?”
“You are getting old...”
“I am a family man, got to think of school fees....”
“Shut up, when did you get married that you won't give us space and which children's school fees?”
“Future children.” He responded.
“You have grown side burns so grow up.” Petra said.
“You don't like it.” He asked
“I love it.”
“Naughty girl” he chuckled. “I did not have it then, it had not come.”
“Yes, you were a baby then.” “We are not of the same generation, mark that.”
“With your gazillion seconds older than me stuff.” He laughed.
“So what did I forget?” “Father invited us for a family dinner. We have never attended.”
“How would we have attended when you were angry you got married to Jubril?” She laughed.
“I am going to deal with you for taking me on such a long ride .” she said. Dinner with the Muhktars! He remembered the last time he was invited. Hmmmm...
“We are leaving in the evening.”
“We have a long time ahead.”
“Let me continue my story.”
“I thought you were not going to offer.” “I am not going to say it then.” She pouted, made a crying sound jokingly.
“Hnnnnn, please.” “I want to but my mouth is stuck.” “Stuck?” “Yes, I don't know what to do. Do you have an idea? “He said and winked. She eyed him, rolled her eyes. “You are addled.” She said with a smile and then gave him a long, deep kiss.
“Yeahhhh...I am healed. Okay, I was sitting in the café that night when I heard ................”
It was a few minutes after midnight, Justin sat behind the computer trying to figure out more about his parents. On the table, by his right hand side was pop-corn mixed with peanuts, a sachet of water close by.
He would scoop some pop-corn and peanut and ingest, while he worked, and then take a sip of water after a while. It was at this moment he heard a sound.
He was alone in the café and Abdul, the security man was outside. He heard the sound again, like the creaking sound of a door. “Abdul.” Justin said, thinking it was the security man coming to ask him for money to buy cigarette but it was very late. He heard no reply.
He got on his feet, then went to the door, he peeped through the keyhole and then saw two men. One of the men had a completely shaven head, big and looked mean. From his tribal marks, it was obvious that he was an Igala man. Then the second man was a white man, dressed in black jacket. What was going on? They must have used a master key.
White man? These were probably not armed robbers. Then what? Justin frowned. Wait! This was not his OFA and it could be traced. Damn! He rushed back to the computer. He had to log out, his applications were on and it would be very bad to let them see it and the damn thing was not like TV that you switched on and off at once.
This would tell you’ please wait, logging off, booting’ and if there was anything he lacked, it was time. He heard them trying to open the door, he managed to close his applications before they walked in. The white man held a small electronic box which he must have been using to trace him.
“I am Whiteman.” The white man said. “Oh, I thought you were from Koton-Karfe, you look like an Ebira.” “That is my name, Jim Whiteman.”
“Don’t mind me. I love ‘oyibo’ names. Wood, Bush, Brown, Green, Water, Fish, Frog…..” “I guess you are the man behind ……”
“We have closed and you just broke into this place. That is trespassing, burglary, and it is a punishable offence in this country.”
“You must be the man behind the Red zone clash.” “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Justin said. “We do photocopies, type projects, browsing which is mostly used by students checking their results, applicants, but we don’t let all these small boys…like me who come to watch porn…….”
“You know what I am talking about. I came all the way from USA and we traced you all the way from there. It took us two weeks to locate you so there is no point of hocus-pocus.”
“I still don’t know what you are talking about but listen to me…” He scooped more popcorn and peanut, and then blundered his shoulder into the Igala man who seemed to be a bigger problem before he dashed outside.
“Get him!” Whiteman ordered. Justin ran out. He saw A man standing over Abdul who was made to sit on the floor. This was not good. Justin jumped over a bench, and ran down the street. He escaped that night.
He took the very big risk. He did not leave the vicinity. He was scared of leaving because if the management found out what happened and he was not there, they might report to the police and the last thing he wanted was a clash with the police because that was prone to making them know he was alive.
He hid somewhere then went back to the café at dawn. The management reported the case to the police and the involvement of Whiteman, and the fact that nothing was stolen made it clear that it was not a robbery. It was opened for investigation. Justin gave his statement, registering his name as Gambo Sabo.
He resigned the next day, claiming he was traumatized. The management asked him to take a break but should come back after a while. But he knew he was gone for life.
He went back to the village to settle in Mathew’s hut. He resumed fishing with him which was mostly done at night and he would spent the day in the hut. But he could not remain like this. A second without Petra was tormenting. He had to do something to get his freedom and the chance of doing that in the café was crushed.
Was Whiteman the computer genius that he tugged out? Who was he? He did not introduce himself as a fed. They must also be hackers because that was unauthorised access they were using.
Justin hid for another one month when he was discovered. The people did not relent. They were told by locals that the boy who worked in the café used to cross the river to his home. So they spent one month, and a lot of money asking, searching until they discovered where he lived. They were helped by their Nigerian counterparts.
They watched Justin for three days and realized that getting him was going to be easy. They went fishing at night. They caught him at night as they were going to fish. They showed him a gun and took him away.
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