2009
Captain Kamal Bob alighted from a dark green military jeep, holding a leather folder, checked the address again, and then nodded at himself. He was at the right place. He moved his heavy body with alacrity towards the big bronze gate. A gatekeeper peeped through a spy hole, and then opened the gate.
“You must be Captain Bob.” Said the gatekeeper as he extended his hand to shake Kamal.
“Yes, I am.”
As they shook hands, the gatekeeper added unnecessary strength to his grip to impress the military officer .When he was told to expect a military officer, he had quickly wore is beret, almost covering his eyes, made sure his boots were glittering and his security uniform which was sawn like a military uniform was well worn.
“Identification, please,” he said trying to sound hard,
“you know how our work is. I mean we the security men. We all are security men, are we not? You, the police, the Airforce, Custom, Immigration, we…..”
“ Sure, we all are.” Kamal cut in and showed an ID card.
“Come in comrade. My boss is waiting.”
“Thank you…..comrade.” Kamal said and it was obvious that the security man was overwhelmed as the military man called him a comrade. He was led into the large compound with exotic cars parked at a spacious parking space, a two storied mansion was standing at the middle with a beautiful lawn and flowers. The house reeked of opulence, sophistication and style. But the expressions on the faces of the couple that welcomed him was an epitome of melancholy. The man was tall, chubby and light complexioned. Dressed in a simple caftan and flip flop. He was a little above fifty years old. His wife was of moderate height, slim and ravishingly beautiful. Her sulky eyes were behind a gold rimmed glasses. She wore no makeup but her green brocade must have cost a fortune.
“I am Jassy Van. This is my wife, Trisha. You must be Captain Kamal Bob.”
“Yes, I am. It’s a pleasure meeting you? Kamal said, shook his hands and then nodded at her.
“Please sit down.” Jassy said with a gesture. Kamal made himself comfortable on a sofa as the couple sat opposite him.
“What would you like to drink, officer?”
“Thank you but I will have nothing.”
“You said it was to do with our daughter. Any news about her?”
Immediately Van asked that question, Trisha broke into tears. The daughter was their only surviving daughter. They had three sons. How beautiful and vivacious she had looked on that fateful day. Now they were hoping to find her dead body which they fear might have been shattered.
“I am afraid, no,”Kamal replied, “ I am an Intelligence Officer with ATOF: Anti-terrorism Operation Force.
When there is a suspected terrorist attack, like the recent bomb blast at Fermy shopping complex perpetrated by miscreants, we move in. We made a discovery which made it imperative for me to trace and contact you. We don’t want to give you false hope but I feel your daughter may be alive…..”
“But it’s been three weeks since the bomb blast .” Van cut in. “ How come she has not tried to contact us?”
“We are not saying she is alive. She is probably alive. We found this,” he removed an i-pad from the folder, “an eye witness said she saw her throw this into a trash can and then ran away as if been chased. When we scrutinised the pad, we found something interesting. She was recording and incidentally caught a man suspected to have detonated the bomb on camera. We have been using the data to facilitate our investigation. Let me show you.” He put on the pad, searched then played a video. She was seen recording her, probably planning to post it on social media, then she started filming the vicinity until she caught the man in black coat. Immediately after the bomb blast, he had turned and seen her, grimaced so she had lowered the pad and began to walk away, filming the ground, then started running.
“Oh my God!” Trisha whispered.
“She was been chased,” Kamal said, “by the suspected killer.”
“Hope he did not kill her.” Van said lugubriously.
“We found his body,” said Kamal, “a few hundred meters from the trash can the pad was found. He was shot dead.”
Van’ face crinkled. He moved forward then placed his palms on his knees. “Who killed him?” He asked. “That is what we are trying to find out. There was a pandemonium so it was easy for the shooter. We believe the man in black coat caught up with her, discovers the pad is not with her, his accomplices feel he is a threat, and he is killed to cover their grubby track. We have identified the man in black coat but he is dead. Dead men don’t talk. We are faced with the task of digging into his clandestine activities.”
“What do you think happened to my daughter?” Trisha asked, her eyes had a glimpse of hope. “We thought she was caught up in the blast.”
“I can’t say precisely,” Kamal replied, “They may have shot her too but her body was not found. If they had no time to dispose the body of their man, then they could not have taken away her body.” Kamal slightly touched his chin absentmindedly. “They may have taken her away. That is my intuition.”
“Please help us find her, Officer. She is all we got.” Trisha said amid tears.
“I understand how you feel, Mrs Jassy. We will do all we can to get your daughter back. “Kamal said firmly.
2009
He was called Jahl. Standing an inch above seven feet tall with broad shoulders, stiff body rippling with muscles, broad chest and narrow waist. He stood as firm as a pole. His eyes were protuberant, vicious and red. His face was covered with grizzled beard and a long thick scar made a line across his forehead. He wore a red turban and covered his caftan with a military camouflage jacket. His black boots was dusty and a sophisticated AK47 hung over his shoulder. He had been away for three weeks and had just returned. He had inspected the sixteen girls captured and one of them had tickled his fantasy. Her beauty had hit his heart so hard it skipped some beats. Her eyes were captivating and her figure was mesmerizing. He had thought she was a mulatto due to her long, silky curly hair and complexion. He had decided to have her for himself only to be told that Mufty had taken her for himself and the knot had been consummated having been living with him for three weeks.
He had felt a heart bang that scared him. It was disheartening. He had captured and distributed over six hundred girls in the past but none of the girls ever made him felt this way. If it had been somebody else, he could have dissolved the knot and taken her but Mufty…No! Who gave him the right to choose a girl without his consent? He was the lion, king of the jungle and no other animal had the right to choose a prey before him. Mufty was a gallant soldier, a competent sniper and active believer of the callisthenics but that did not give him the right to cross boundaries. So Mufty was punished. He had punched him in the belly, kicked him and hit his mouth. Now as he stood like a pole over Mufty who was lying on the ground with a bleeding mouth, he looked at him and said, “you have never agreed to have a woman here due to your curse, why her? Why, you numbskull?”
Mufty said nothing but wiped blood off his mouth. “ You will go on a major operation without benefit. That will be the bride price..” Jahl said.
They were under a baobab tree in the camp known as Al-bait. It was built four years ago secretly by the men at the top and it was handed over to Jahl who ran the place. It was located in the heart of the vast Kabari Forest. It was one of the largest forest in the nation covering over six hundred square kilometers. It was thick with grasses, shrubs and trees. It was a haven for wild animals and most suitable location for Al-bait. It had over six hundred cabins , housing over two thousand people including women and children. It was fenced with barb wire, protecting it against wild animals. It was a little world on its own with a clinic, mini market where groceries were sold but the men at the top provided food for all of them.
Jahl lit a cigarette, inhaled smoke, grimaced and then puffed out a thick cloud of smoke. “ You are going to head tonight’s operation,” he said “ Professor Jabir is getting out of hand. His sermons are always against us. He is deceiving the public with his rhetoric. He has a great followership. There is an order to settle him. That is God’s wish and His wish is ours. Now get out of here and go prepare yourself.” He turned at a man holding a machine gun.
“What is the update on Jamil?” Jahl asked.
“ ATOF has the pad. They have discovered his identity. They are working on him.”
“ Balderdash, they are in for a wild goose chase. It’s a dead end .” Jahl said and moved his lips in what he felt was a smile. “ God is with us. We are the bastions of godliness. The world has become too grubby, too many wicked people around. Oppression is prevalent, corruption is everywhere, religion is deadening, girls are deprived of their rightful places. Parents allow girls, I mean girls that are supposed to be in their matrimonial homes go to school. Imagine a girl that is over fourteen still going to school. That is infidelity! That is one of the pernicious influences of western-education. We can’t let this madness go on. We must stop it and no one can stop us. God is with us.”
Mufty got up, nodded and said, “God is with us”
Jahl looked at him for a second then said, “you love her, don’t you?”
Mufty nodded. “I do love her.”
“Very good. You may go. “Jahl said, inhaled smoke then walked away with three gunmen following him. Mufty did not look back but hurried into his cabin which comprised of two rooms, a toilet and kitchenette. Not every member was given the privilege to own two rooms alone. Mufty had been with them for three years and proved to be an effective soldier.
He was smart, ruthless, ambidextrous and fearless. He pushed the wooden door violently and banged it and then used a hanky to wipe blood off his mouth.
Immediately he came in, Sherry looked away. She heard and saw what happened. She had been with him for three weeks and had become scared of him. He was taciturn, fastidious and rarely talked. The room which served as living room was furnished with a three sitter sofa, carpet, a book shelf with few books in it.
The bedroom had a mattress laid on a carpet, a table with toothbrush, toothpaste and body creams on it and a locally made clothe hanger with a few clothes hanging. She was jittery after seeing what had happened to him. She was peeking and saw all that happened. He was now infuriated and may pounce on her. He sat on the sofa while she was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. She smugly glanced at him. He had his head bowed. He sat still, not uttering a word or moving for about ten minutes. She felt uncomfortable then summed up the courage to say, “I am sorry.”
He said nothing and acted as if he did not hear her. She was silent for a few seconds.
“But why are you doing this?” She said slowly and hesitantly. He raised his head abruptly and a sudden fear drifted into her.
“Doing what?”
“ You are been punished for having me. You agreed that you have been sleeping with me but you have never lay on the same bed with me. You never molested me sexually. You barely talk to me. Yet you are getting punished for what you did not do.”
He stared at her for a few seconds as if hesitating before he looked away.
“I told them I was HIV positive.” He said. “ We have captured many girls and I always refused to have any so when I was pressed, I said I was sick. And the girls would be given to someone else.”
“But why did you say so?”
“I believe in the course but I was not comfortable with some things. We believe it is wrong for grown up girls to wander about without marriage in the name of western education. It is a menace to us. The Oneness ic ethics has been polluted by the system. We want everything to go back to normal. We want the so called girl education obliterated, even the boys should leave western education and we should concentrate on Oneness ic education. So when we abduct girls, we marry them off to our soldiers. Some are exported to good men. Now we want a change of Government. But when I am given a girl to marry, something in me makes me feel uncomfortable.” He wiped off blood from his mouth.
“You are the first I took in. It was to save you. That was the reason I roughened you up the day I brought you, it was to give the impression that I was forcing myself on you. I realised that claiming to be HIV positive never saved the girls. They were always given to somebody else. I gave the impression that it was consummated so they will be scared of you. It is against our law to use contraceptives so no one will ever get to you .You heard him call it a curse. I have a load of retroviral drugs I don’t use.”
This came to her as a surprise. She never guessed he had a scintilla of pity in him.
“But the bomb, how is it connected to this?” She said.
“ You have no right to interrogate me. I have never talked to anyone like this.” He said firmly. He was silent for a few seconds then said, “we are just sending messages to the government and caboodle that we are for real. We started peacefully by preaching but our Professor was arrested several times and later shot to death. They thought they could stop us, so we changed our modus operandi and waged war on them. We are Oneness freedom warist’. We are fighting for God. We want to obliterate infidelity and this country must be Oneness ised. Anything western must go.”
“ But you sound educated.”
“That was before I saw the light. I have a degree in Electrical-electronics Engineering.” He stood up, took a few steps to the end of the room, then sighed. He turned, looked at her then shook his head. “What is your name?”
“Sherry. Sherry Van.”
“I am Mufty Berry.” There was a sudden knock at the door. He went and opened the door. It was a short stocky man. “The Amir says you should get set. You have a bride price to pay.”
Mufty nodded and shut the door. His face changed into a granite hard facade. He moved into the room with agility and changed into a black outfit. He moved to the door, opened it then turned at her. What a protean character. “I am going out. In case I don’t come back, hold tight to the drugs until you meet someone you love and confess to him.” He said and without giving her the chance for a word, he shut the door and disappeared.
Sherry covered her face, thinking of her family and wondering if she would ever see them again. Dammy! Oh, her Dammy! She was missing him. What a tragedy. Just a few weeks to their wedding and this happens.
She saw a lot of young girls there. Some of them were abducted from schools. There was a girl called Rabi. She got married and went to write BAC Examination the next day only to be abducted. Now she is with a child for another man. What kind of people were these? What kind of Oneness were they practicing?
It was at that point she heard a loud knock at the door.
“Who is that?” She asked.
There was no reply. Someone pushed the door open and she saw a giant come in. It was Jahl. He looked so bogey.
******