CHASE
CHAPTER 6
As soon as Stephanie realized that I had been captured and was going to be taken away, she started shouting hysterically.
“Thief! Thief!! Armed robber!!!” She cried.
Her quick thinking saved her. The two gunmen sent by Mr. Sayou were convinced that I had selected her house at random, and she had not been of any help to me. I doubted if Kameni was also convinced. However, he stayed quiet and didn’t say anything.
As I was being dragged away after my guns and ammunition had been taking away, I thought of Stephanie and felt sad. She had told me that Kameni was fond of beating her. I wondered what he was going to do to her after we had gone. Anyway, I had more urgent things to worry about. I had just been captured. I knew I was going to be tortured. But I wasn’t bothered. I was a military man, and somehow, I knew I was going to escape. But for the moment, I knew hell awaited me.
I was roughly dumped into the car that they had brought and driven to Mr. Sayou’s house. Haven been bound hands and feet. I was taken into the building like a common criminal. As I was taken into the compound, I strained my eyes desperately to see if I could catch a glimpse of Lindsay, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight.
I was taken into a dark room and locked up all to myself. While I was alone, I looked for every means to escape, but there was non available. I sat on one corner of the room and wondered what dangers would befall me in the coming hours. I wondered if my boss had realized that I had gone missing. I wondered what he was thinking at that particular time. I thought of my parents and the rest of my family and wondered if I would ever see them again.
An hour later, the door opened and in came Mr. Sayou and two of his henchmen. He looked at me with glee and gloated at my misfortune. I looked at him with hostility and wished I had my gun with me. He smiled wickedly, came close to me and squatted.
“To say the truth, Mr. Rayim, I am half surprised to meet you in this room. I was thinking you might have escaped, and honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had.” He spoke.
“Why?”
“Because of the commando act you put up yesterday. I was thinking you were going to replicate it today.”
“Why don’t you hand my guns to me and see what would happen?”
“Well, that is no motivation for me to give you back your guns. Anyway, just to let you know, you are completely in my power. I could kill you here and now and nothing will happen. You have caused me too much trouble already, and have also cost me a lot of men.”
“And I will not stop until you go down yourself.” I threatened.
“Hahahahaha! I like your courage and optimism. Actually, it is a strange fate that we are on the opposite side. Truly, the gods are not smiling on me. All my life, I had looked and searched far and wide for a man like you. When I did finally find you, it instead turned out that you were going to be an enemy. This world is not balanced.” He lamented.
“You actually think I was going to ever work for you?” I asked sneeringly.
“But of course. Anyway, do not worry, I will soon put you out of your misery. You have caused me too much trouble. You killed my men and banged my daughter right under my roof. Now, my daughter, my only daughter has said she wants nothing to do with me just because I sent men to kill you. Do you now see that I have every right to kill you?”
Now, I understood why I couldn’t find Lindsay. She might have left town already out of anger and might have already returned to the city. That gave me a small hope. If Lindsay had gone to the city, she could report to the police that my life was in danger. The police might already be on their way to this place. However, Lindsay had no idea that I had been captured. She might instead think that I might have already escaped to the city. In fact, she might have even gone there to look for me.
“Now, say your prayers before I kill you. I am going to have a very busy day and a busy night, too. So, I have to dispatch you so that I could concentrate on other more important things.” He laughed.
“You dare not kill a government law enforcement agent.” I warned.
“Here, you are nobody. So, say one prayer, just one prayer before I kill you. You see, I am not a bad man after all.” He looked at the two men that were with him and they all led out a raucous laughter.
He raised his gun and was about to shoot when a third man suddenly came into the room and interrupted him. Vexed, he turned around in anger and looked at the man with bloodshot eyes.
“What do you want?” He asked rudely.
“I am sorry for the interruption, Sir. I just came to let you know that the prostitute you ordered from the city has come.” He replied.
“Oh! Really?” He asked, his face beaming with joy. “In that case, I think I will put off this rat’s killing for a little while why I have my fun. I will be back boy, and when I do, it will be your end.”
He got up and gave me a hard kick in the stomach before leaving. I was locked up again and left all alone to myself to suffer in my misery. It was beginning to get dark now and my body ached terribly. The ropes that had been used to tie my hands and feet seemed to be cutting into my flesh. My stomach also ached from the kick. I struggled desperately to free myself. However, it seemed the person who had hogtied me did a fantastic job.
From my little cell, I was able to hear Mr. Sayou and his men laughing hysterically from his living room. I could detect that one of the people who were laughing was a female. She was laughing happily and it seemed there was small party going on. But then, the voice of the lady seemed familiar to my ears. I listened attentively again, and I was sure that I had heard that voice from somewhere. Since I wasn’t able to figure out where I had heard the voice, I let it go and drifted off to sleep.
I couldn’t tell for how long I had slept. However, the sound of the door opening brought me out of my sleep. I opened my eyes but couldn’t see anyone. Then the light was turned on. The sudden introduction of the light emitting from the single bulb overhead hurt my eyes and made me squint them. When my eyes were finally fully adjusted to the light, I was able to see that there were three people bearing down on me. Two of them were men, and the other was a woman. No, not a woman but a girl, a young girl, one that I had met before. It was LaBelle.
I was very surprised to see LaBelle in Mr. Sayou’s house, and was going to call her name when she expertly warned me with her eyes to stay quiet.
“Is this the guy?” She asked.
“Yes, that is him. The boss has asked us to take care of him. However, he wants us to use him for fun first before killing him.” One of the henchmen spoke.
“But why kill him just like that? That would be a waste.” LaBelle objected.
“What do you mean, Grand Soeur?”
“What I mean is that we could make better use of him. Look at him, he looks as fit as a fiddle. We could sell his organs to organ traffickers.” She proposed.
“That is a great idea. How come the boss never thought of that?”
“Just let him be. Do not kill him. Let me talk to Mr. Sayou and if he accepts, I will get a doctor who will perform, the operation.” She instructed.
“Okay, Grand Soeur.”
They locked the door again and left. When they had gone, I started thinking to myself. What had LaBelle come to do at Mr. Sayou’s house. So, Labelle did hookups? She was a prostitute? How did I get involved with such a girl. I thought she was just a waitress at the Chateaux Restaurant. I didn’t even know she was much more.
I had heard her talked about organ trafficking, too. Was she really into that kind of business? If she was, then she was the kind of human being I should be afraid of. She was also the kind of human being I should kill first chance I got. But she had looked at me in a certain way. She had looked at me in a way that gave me hope. What if she planned to save my life? What if the whole talk about organ trafficking had merely been a delaying tactic to postpone my killing so as to rescue me later? I prayed for the latter to be true.
That night, there was serious partying at the Sayou Mansion. The party lasted for hours, and I could hear wild laughter and music coming from the living room. Then, after a while that seemed like forever, the noise died down. I wondered what had caused the noise to die down. Then, I heard footsteps approaching my little cell. I held my breath and waited. I thought my end was near, and they had finally come to kill me and harvest my organs.
The door opened and in came Labelle. She was alone. I couldn’t believe my luck.
“LaBelle, what is going on? Why are you alone? Where are the others?” I asked, trying to straighten up.
“Shhhh! Calm down, Rayim. What are you doing here? How did you get yourself involved in this??”
“I should be asking you that, LaBelle. What is going on? What are you doing here?”
“I came to rescue you.”
“That cannot be true. How did you know I was here?” I asked in disbelief.
“It’s a long story. Let me untie you first. I will tell you everything.”
“Okay, please, make it fast. They could come back at any time.” I warned.
“Who are you talking about?” She asked.
“Mr. Sayou and his men, of course. Who else? Where did they go to?”
“They didn’t go anywhere. I have drugged them. They are all fast asleep and having nice little dreams. However, they might not be asleep for long. The drug could wear off at any time. So, let’s go.”
Have been untied, LaBelle gave me a gun she said she had taken from Mr. Sayou. She also gave me some extra ammunition. I told her that I had my own gun with me, and it was taken from me. I wanted it. She told me she had not been able to see any other gun, and that there was no time to look for it. We had to get going. But I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted more than that.
“How can we just go like that, LaBelle. Now that they are asleep and defenseless. Why don’t we go to the living room and put a bullet each in their heads, beginning with Mr. Sayou?” I asked.
“Is that necessary?” She asked, frustrated with my delaying.
“Yes, it is. It is very necessary. I am sure you know the first thing that will happen as soon as they come back to consciousness. They are going to launch a massive manhunt for us. So, let’s kill them while we can.” I explained.
“Anyway, that is true. So, you go do it, and be fast about it. Soon, it will be dawn. We have to travel fast since we will be on foot. We have to cover enough ground before they realize that we are gone.” She finally conceded.
I checked the gun that she had given me, and satisfied that it was fully loaded, I began walking to the living room to finish off Sayou and his gang. However, I was stopped in my tracks when I heard an angry voice from Mr. Sayou. He had woken up.
“What is going on here?” He asked angrily. “Why are you all asleep? Get up all of you. What happened here? Where is the girl?”
Mr. Sayou had miraculously woken up and was also waking up his men. We had no choice. We had to go. It would now be risky and foolish to try to kill Mr. Sayou and his men who were now more than the three that had been with him when he had come to taunt me. We went through the back door, circled the compound and came back to the front of the building. LaBelle was the one leading the way.
“What is going on LaBelle? What are you doing? We should be out of the compound now and be running.” I told her.
“We won’t get far on foot. We have to take his car.” She spoke.
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes, can you drive?”
“What a question! Of course, I can.”
“Good, let’s hope the car is open because I do not have the keys.”
Luckily for us, the car wasn’t locked. I got into the driver seat and LaBelle got beside me on the passenger side. Luckily for us, Mr. Sayou was a rich man. Hence, his car was modern. It didn’t need a key for it to start. All we need to do was press was a button. If I hadn’t lived abroad, I would have had a hard time operating the car. I brought the engine to life and the sound of the engine woke up the night watchman who had been sleeping.
I hit the car horns so loudly that the night watch, who had just been startled out of his sleep, and without even thinking straightly, scrambled to open the gate thinking it was Mr. Sayou himself. As soon as the gate opened, I stepped on the gas and sped out of the compound, almost running over the slow-witted night watch. Once in the open, I increased speed.
As soon as we left the compound, Mr. Sayou arrived at the verandah and shouted at the confused night watch. He was surprised that Mr. Sayou was not the one in the car that had just left.
“You let them go, you idiot!!” He shouted. “Stop them! STOP THEM!!”
His men opened fire in the darkness, but it was too late. We were already beyond range and were moving at top speed.
“Do you know the way out of this village?” I asked LaBelle.
“Yes, I do and the answer to your next question is no.” She replied.
“You are saying you cannot drive?”
“NO, I cannot, but don’t worry, I will show you the way.”
After a few more minutes, I suddenly brought the car to an abrupt halt, and turned off the engine.
“What are you doing?” LaBelle shouted furiously.
“We need to talk.”
“About what? We have to be going. Let’s talk while going. This is not the only car Mr. Sayou has. He will soon be on our tail.”
“I need to go rescue someone who once saved my life.”
“I guess it’s a woman.”
“Yes. She saved my life just like you have done now, and I promised that I would come back for her. I made a promise, LaBelle. Please, help me keep it.”
“You know what? There is no time to argue over this, Rayim. It seems your mind is made up already. I will need to know more about this person, but for now, let’s go get her.”
“Thank you, LaBelle. I owe you a special one for this.” I spoke and brought the car back to life.
A few minutes later, I parked the car in some bushes about fifty meters from Stephainie’s house and made LaBelle to keep watch. She couldn’t believe what I was doing. But this was something I had to do. I had to go take Stephanie with me to the city. I knew leaving her in that village would only mean death for. I had promised to rescue her and I had to keep the promise. Thank God, LaBelle didn’t oppose.
I walked silently to her house, looking all around me just in case someone was watching or was tracking me. I finally got to her house without any incident and was about to knock on the door when I heard angry voices inside. I paused and listened. Yes, there was a man inside. The voice of the man indicated clearly that it was her boyfriend, Kameni, and because I heard Stephanie crying, I assumed that he was beating her.
I pulled out my gun.
TO BE CONTINUED…
