The Complete Assassin Episode 18

The Complete Assassin Episode 18

James opened his eyes to find himself in unfamiliar surroundings. He was in a king-size bed, still with the clothes he wore the night before. The room was bigger than his bedroom and the walls were painted in pink. The sheets felt very comfortable and had a sweet, welcoming fragrance. As he got up slowly, he felt a terrible headache.

“This is why I hate taking too much alcohol.” He said to himself as he got out of bed, placing his feet on the ground.

There was a pair of slippers already waiting for him.  He wore them as he got off the bed completely, stretching his body. Stifling a yawn, he wondered where he was. He tried to recollect the events of the night before. The details were hazy as the headache intensified. He walked to the toilet and sat on the seat. He put both hands on his head, battling with the nagging headache as he tried to recollect how he got here. After a while, he began to remember bits and pieces but could not place the complete picture. Chunks of blanks were still yet to be figured out. He flushed the toilet in his usual fashion and washed his hands in the sink.  After drying his hands, he felt like taking a walk. He needed to know where he was.  As he closed the toilet door behind him and stepped into the room, he saw her sitting on the sofa, legs crossed. She looked less seductive and business like, wearing a yellow deep necked blouse on top of black leggings. She still looked hot though. He froze where he stood, suddenly remembering what had happened to him. She had driven him to the gate leading to Prisca’s street and they had fooled around. That was the last he remembered.

“My phone!” He screamed, touching his pocket absentmindedly.

“Your phone is fine. It is in the sitting room. Your fiancée has been calling like forever.” Stella answered, looking at him with a straight face.

“How did I get here? What happened? Did we, you know?” James asked, walking slowly to the bed and sitting down.

“No we did not. This is my place. I brought you here after you passed out in the car. I knocked you out.” Stella said flatly without any trace of emotion.

“You knocked me out? Why? How?” James asked, suddenly afraid. There was a worried look on his face.

“Yes I did. It is simple. There’s an artery close to the neck called the Carotid artery. It’s a pair actually. Placing your hand gently on the artery, you can feel the person’s pulse. Remember those movies when a hand will be placed on the neck to see if the person was still alive? It’s not the neck that is being checked. It is the Carotid artery that is being felt. The carotid artery allows you feel the pulse of a person. When a person is strangled, the carotid artery is compressed. Depending on the amount of force delivered on the carotid artery, the person could either go unconscious, or die. All I did was to tweak it just enough to make you unconscious. I can also tweak it to kill. That’s MTY 201, military school.  The fastest person in NMS history to master the Carotid Arts did it in 3 months. Guess who it is? Me.” Stella said getting up from her chair.

James suddenly understood why he could not remember anything between the night before and that morning. He became afraid. This woman was dangerous. He had to get out of there.

“What do you want from me? I do not know any politicians, neither am I related to anyone influential. I can’t give you money or information because I really do not have any. I am totally useless to you. Please let me go. I promise on my life, not to go to the police once you release me. Please!” James begged.

Stella let out a slow, wicked laugh as she walked towards James. She stopped when she was just in front of him, within touching distance.

“James darling. You have everything we need. Here is the deal. How about you help us, and in turn we will make you the most popular person in the country with financial benefits.” Stella said and continued,

“Plus, you’ll get to hit this, all of this all through the period, whenever you want.” She finished running her hands seductively from her br3asts to her butt0cks.

“I still don’t think I know what you are talking about Lola. Please, just let me go. Please.” James begged. He was shaking slightly, fear written all over his face.

Stella placed her hand on James’ shoulder.

“My name is Stella, not Lola.”

“What?” James asked in disbelief.

“And I work with the assassin you and Detective Samson are hell bent on catching. This is our proposal. You work with us, bring down the Organization that trained and funds us, and then bring us in. You would be the hero, and we would have our revenge. Or you could walk out of that door and never see me again. The combination is 2997.” Stella said with a tone of finality.

James got up from the bed hurriedly. He wore the slippers and walked briskly to the door. He typed the combination and the door opened. He did not move. He could not. He wanted to get as far away from there as possible yet, his legs would not budge. Grudgingly, he slammed the door shut and walked back to the bed, sitting beside Stella.

“What do I have to do?” he asked.

“Wise choice.” Stella replied.

******

Two days passed. Steven lay on the bed in his penthouse bedroom, sleeping soundly. He had a heavy bandage wrapped around his chest and a drip hung just above the bed by the wall. He opened his eyes slowly, coming out of a 48hour induced coma. He recognized his surroundings. He tried to get up but felt a slight pain on his chest near his ribs. Then he remembered what had happened. He looked up at the drip and saw that the liquid had finished. Yanking the needle off his wrist, he got up from the bed slowly, holding his bandaged chest. He grimaced, ignoring the excruciating pain that tore through his body as he stepped out of bed. Walking gently, he descended the staircase to his sitting room.

Sitting on the dining table were Aunt Vic, Stella and James. They seemed to be in some sort of animated conversation before Steven announced his presence. They all looked in his direction as Steven descended the last staircase.

“No one told me we were having a party.” Steven said, as he paused and wincing in pain as the he spoke.

“Oh Steven, you need rest. You are strong enough yet” Aunt Vic said.

She got away from the dinning and walked to where Steven was, supporting his weight on hers as they walked together to the dining table. Steven took the last empty seat beside Aunt Vic as they sat down.  To his left was his sister, Stella and in front of him sat James.

“How are you feeling?” Stella asked rubbing Steven’s arm.

“I’m alive. Thanks to mum here.” Steven said and smiled at Aunt Vic.

She smiled back and squeezed his hand. It felt good to be like a family once again. Steven had missed living like a family.

“How long was I out?” Steven asked

“2 days. You lost a lot of blood. Would you like the French fries, the yamarita, or the diced plantain with egg sauce?” Aunt Vic asked.

“I don’t think I can eat anything just yet. Maybe later. “ Turning to James, Steven continued “I can see that we have a new addition to the family. Hello James.” Steven said. He tried to stretch his hand for a shake but a sharp pain seared through his body. He pulled his hand back

“Emmm..Emmmm…. I …. Emmm…” James began, stuttering as he tried to put words together. He had requested that Stella give him all the information about Shadow Corp and provide him with every tiny little bit of exclusive detail about Steven and his operations as Shadow Prime. What he heard and saw sent chills down his spine. He found it hard to comprehend how one man could do all those things. He was amazed by the subtlety and professionalism that the organization employed and made up his mind to be a part of the team, just to get his name in the history books.

Meeting Steven face to face was too much for him to handle.

“He’s still coming to terms with grasping the whole scope of what we do. He’ll come around Steven, give him time.” Stella intercepted.

“He’d better. We are running out of time and we cannot afford to be jittery. Welcome to the team James. How long have you been around sister?” Steven asked, facing his sister.

“I had been trying to reach you all morning but you were neither picking your calls nor replying my coded messages. I was worried and was thinking of going to the Fortress to check after you when I got a coded message. Immediately I knew you were in danger so I hurried down here. I could not leave James in the volatile stage he was having heard all that information so I brought him along. We got here yesterday afternoon.” Stella explained.

“I see. Aunt Vic, I really need to know. Who are you really, and how did you know I was in danger?” Steven asked.

“Not now Steve. Not here.” Aunt Vic whispered gently.

“Please Doc. I insist. If we are to work together as a team we have to be transparent. Very transparent. That is the only way we can trust each other.  Please, could you answer?” Steven begged.

James was lost. Stella was eager. The atmosphere was tense. Aunt Vic shifted uneasily in her chair. She cleared her throat.

“I am Sensei’s wife.”

******

Detective Samson was restless. He paced in his office walking to and fro. There was a look of gloom on his face as he picked his phone for the umpteenth time and redialed the last number.

“If you like this ring back tune, press star to copy it… Before before, na so so network wahala…” was the melody that rang in his ears. He waited and hoped like he had done for over two hours now that he would hear a click at the end of the line before the call timed out. The result was the same. There was no response.

“Damn it!” the detective cursed.

He sat reluctantly in his chair and picked the receiver of the intercom. He dialed reception.

“Hello Bukky. Did James send in any correspondence as regards his absence today?” He asked.

“No sir. He did not. Would you like me to call him to find out why he is not at work yet sir?” came the reply.

“No. Don’t call. I’ll handle this myself.” The detective finished, placing the receiver back in its cradle.

He had come up with a fantastic theory that would give them a huge leap forward in their investigation of the recent killings. However, to confirm his suspicions he needed James to help him with some information and codes which involved some deep digging.

He took out an A3 plain paper from his drawer, pinning it to the huge board which hung by the west wall of his office. He began to draw a pictogram of what they knew already about the assassins linking it with lines to what they were yet to find out. He drew a big circle around the bottom left corner of the paper and wrote a question mark in it. After pondering and musing over what he had drawn, he decided to try his hands.

He went to his computer and launched the browser. He opened the search engine and sought for records of similar killings in the past 10 years. All the information he got were those that were made public record. He had gotten from a very reliable source that there had been such killings eight years ago but the government was able to cover it up. They hid the details, kept the evidence locked tight and closed the case. The detective overseeing the investigation was surprising promoted and shipped off to Kenya as an Ambassador for Foreign affairs. They were a lot of questions and loop holes and he needed to get to those confidential files. He tried all he could, all the tricks he knew how but he was unsuccessful.

Thirty-five minutes later he was mentally exhausted.

“Where the hell is James when you need him?” He half yelled as he hit is fist on the wooden table.

He picked the intercom again and dialed HR Dept.

“Get me everything you have on James Enajite. You have 10 minutes.” Detective Samson said and hung up.

No soldier of his ever left him hanging on the battlefield and James was not going to be an exception.

*******

Everyone was quiet. Even Stella who had been tearing away at her pepper fried turkey dropped the meat she was holding. Steven was unruffled. He had expected to hear worse. James could not really understand how deep the matter went so he relaxed. After all, he was just a bystander. As the silence got unusually tense, James could not bear it. He felt that this had become some sort of family issue so he needed to give them privacy.

“Excuse me please, I have to use the bathroom.” James said getting up to leave the table.

“Sit, James. No one is going anywhere. You are as much in this as the rest of us at this table. So you will sit your freaking butt down and listen to everything that is being said. The more you know, the better it is for you. You’ll realize that information is power.” Steven commanded.

James sat back in his seat meekly, folding his fingers on his laps. He braced himself for an exchange of words between the assassins that sat with him.

“Aunt Vic? You? Sensei’s wife? How in the world is that possible?” Steven asked.

Aunt Vic requested that they all move to the sitting area of the house so that she could talk freely. They all left the dining table and move to the sitting area. After everyone had settled in, Aunt Vic began her story.

“I have known Marcus for 12 years. We have been married for the later half of the time. Twelve years ago I was a rookie at ShadowCorp and he was a Marshal at the time. In my second year, Marcus was dispatched to be the head Trainer of my team. That was the first time I laid eyes on him. Oh how elegant he was. I will never forget that day. Dressed in a t-shirt and jean with sneakers to match, he looked so adorable. I fell in love with him right away. I was not the best in class at the time and I really sucked at martial arts. He took me under his wings and coached me. Before long, we fell in love. But my God, he was a professional. He was strict with me, so strict in class that I sometimes wondered if he was capable of loving anyone. I wondered if his feelings for me were not a façade and he just wanted a piece of me. Till date, he is the most principled man I have ever met. No matter how carried away we got we never had s3x until we got married. Three years later in my fifth year in the organization, Marcus proposed. It came with mixed feelings because it meant I had to leave the organization and there are only two ways to leave ShadowCorp. Freedom granted by your Sensei and Death.  I accepted his proposal and he begged the Guardians to allow me go free. They gave a condition: All our children would belong to the organization. We agreed to that and privately decided we would not have any children. Then you came along, with your lovely sister Stella.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door and before Steven could react the person walked in.

Stella was shocked to the bone. Steven was unmoved. James was confused. Aunt Vic had a smile on her face.

It was Sensei Marcus.

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