24 hours with the devil!!!

Chapter 4

Unluckily, the bloodlust Jei and Gaza set out on didn’t have it’s intended effect, because the higher ups simply shuffled the old with newer wine skins. It was all in the stomach sizes really, classic recycling protocol. And this made Jei uneasy, because now when he walked the streets, he felt like he was a cloud of red. He could be taken out at anytime. The last time he saw Gaza, it was a talk of the eyes. We can’t stop now, he seemed to say. I don’t intend to, Jei replied. So the next operation was eyeing for the biggest fish as in a fishing contest, say, the Argungu fishing festival. Gaza prepared himself in a way that men like him did, in strange and encrypted manners. Jei, on the other hand cut himself from the world, his world, because he felt like he had said his goodbyes through all the letters he sent ages ago. The ones to sad, broken, shattered, trying and every sort of person and mood there was. Even the ones he wrote with no intent, there was a farewell, sayonara.

Men sometimes do things without even knowing they’re ahead of time. And most times we end up stunned when we realize this. As stunned as time must be when he gets there and sees it’s arrived before him. But it’s most likely true, that time must be neighbours with surprise.

A fortnight before the fishing, they both spoke about the strangest things. Things they had always wanted to do, kids they wanted to, would’ve loved to have. Places they wanted to go to. Gaza said he’d always wanted to go to Lagos. Jei laughed hard because he couldn’t see how a man like him would survive in an anthill like Lagos. The place was an island in an ocean of people, literally. It was also on that day that Gaza also discovered that Jei had zoophobia, especially around birds. The next day Gaza came over with a chicken, and Jei nearly ran nuts. He and the bird panicked, but he did the running really. One couldn’t tell though, who was scared of the other. But after a few days, it seemed they signed a treaty, and each lad knew his boundaries. They nodded curtly at each other, kept their distances, had times they met, and times they didn’t. And so one of the last things Jei would learn is that you could live at peace, even with your worst nightmares, until they weren’t nightmares anymore. Gaza asked him one day, how he could be afraid of a bird, but wasn’t afraid of taking out men. Jei stared into space for a while, and he answered:

“Birds don’t have plans, or intentions. They exist and let exist. They’re animals, always themselves. If you don’t mind them, they won’t mind you. I can live in fear of that, but I have no room for fear for whose sole purpose is greed, and desperate wickedness. The only thing I can house is the yearn to put an end to you. Fear should be reserved for things indifferent about your existence. We stand in our differences. Fear is a valuable currency, and I can’t waste it on things that I can’t afford to leave as they are.”

Gaza didn’t understand, but he didn’t ask anymore either. Overtime he knew that he would come to understand. He wouldn’t forget because this was the longest Jei had spoken in the past 2 weeks. They took a walk a night to the fishing. They were both strange men, and they knew this. Other men might’ve taken to drinking or wild orgies and ecstasy or drowned themselves in clouds of smoke so thick it became a fog. But they decided to walk, a walk that almost made a wish that by this time tomorrow, they’d be alive and probably walk again. When it got dark, Jei yawned on the importance to sleep well and for a full 8 hours, else he wouldn’t be at his optimal performance. Gaza nodded in agreement. But before he left, Jei took out a wrapped up package and handed it to Gaza.

“Wetin be this?” he asked, eyeing the parcel.

“Just help me keep am. E get place I wan enter afta di runs tomorrow, ur crib no too far from there.”

“Oh, oyanna. No pee,” And with that, one went North, and the other South, home, away from the rendezvous target.

•

They were uniform men once, Jei and Gaza. Gaza was the man you sent to escort the president, the kind that had nations in awe and splendor of your nation’s chiseled soldier, gasping Mad o! As Nigerians would often say. Jei was the man you sent to schools, to give light to eyes of those little men and women who wanted something to love with all the might in those tiny bodies and colossal purity. Jei was dismissed for disobeying a direct order, for him it was either the job or his soul, and he really didn’t see the need for an argument there. It could’ve been worse, but when you’re a man that wins the heart of even the most vile men, there’s not much bad luck can do, is there? Gaza on the other hand, the tall slender dark man from Imo state woke up one day and decided that being in the military wasn’t worth it anymore. His logic seized to find reason one morning. It was like the lost coin parable, only he never found the coin. Whatever spirit had prompted the 1966 coup didn’t live in the military anymore. He had suspected that same spirit was a bit of a patriot like him, but he didn’t find it here, not in anybody too. Besides AIs were flying planes now, soon there wouldn’t be need for manpower. No b****y damn doubt that they collected billions in the name of upgrading the Air force. Scam. They were both dismissed on the same day, the very day their bond was forged. And it was also for this very reason that they had been clean in their operations so far. The coordination, precision and discretion of properly trained soldiers. And today, they were going to add more red to their blood pool. History would probably never remember their names, but they didn’t care much for history, he is after all, a two-faced conman. They just wanted to do what stronger men do, help the strong, and weak.

It wasn’t so hard to infiltrate the government house. A few minutes with the Governor’s security personnel of whom he knew more than half, was enough. Besides, Jei had saved the man’s life before. The 2000 Kaduna Sharia crisis. Nothing to fear, really. Although what Mallam Rufai didn’t know was that he was like a lamb, the fattest one, saved for the very best banquet. They convinced his PA to set up an impromptu appointment. They had received an anonymous tip, they said. It was a matter of life and death. But what people would later discover, was that death had come that day, they just didn’t know what Trojan horses looked like. After a short wait, they were summoned in. The sky was grey, nature was on their side. As they exchanged pleasantries, the Governor seemed rather calm and unsuspecting, beautiful. They told him about the tip they’d received about an assassination. His deputy was rather fidgety, but Jei managed his signature smile, one that calmed everything and everybody down. And when they suggested to the Governor that the possible occurrences of insecurities in the State were a probable cause for this threat, the governor waived it off.

“Mstchew, don’t mind these people abeg! Is it not just money…”

•

“I’m sorry, my friend, but only one of us gets to die today.” Jei said. Gaza groaned, but the sadness in Jei’s eyes were darker than a moonless night. Jei let out a scoff. It had been done, and anytime now, security would come barging in. The barricade wasn’t going hold too long. That wasn’t the purpose of chairs anyway.

“That package wey I give you, help me run am abeg. The address and name dey di paper. Use the money to invest in something for her. I trust you. Give her my shirt too. she’s a sucker for brown.” He grinned ear to ear and stood up to leave. Sighed.

“ Don’t worry,” he added, “I missed all your joints on purpose, you’ll be okay, and a free man, maybe even a hero. Our friend there, the Deputy saw you trying to shoot me before he passed out. I’m sure that’s enough. Don’t get caught. I’m sorry, but I needed one of us to live and go to Lagos for us. When you go, you’ll hear the Yorubas say, one must be unfortunate, for the other to be fortunate...”

Gaza was a man of logic, but at this point in time where logic fell, emotion surpassed. And one should always prefer logic, because with logic you always knew what to expect. One plus one was always two. But with emotions, one plus one could equal eleven or a hundred. By the time he realized his vision was blurring rain, Jei was already out the window and the men in black suits had broken through and were shooting rapidly after him. Gaza knew the bullets didn’t hit because they kept yelling to go after him in Hausa. He remembered what Jei said one time, na only mumu dey tink say makse sense and correct na dey same tin.

A few minutes later, Jei was on the grass in the open space of the government house, blood stained, face up, trying to balance pain with the rain beating fast against his skin. Good thing it all went accordingly, if it didn’t, he would’ve died pissed, and oh, how family would’ve nagged in the life after. He deserved to die in peace, or a bit of it, even if he wasn’t going to heaven. And as the black suits closed in, he knew he had to be finished, he couldn’t go in alive. And that was why as he sprang up to shoot again, he was gunned down. Not like he planned to take any good person with him anyways. And so he lay there splayed, in an ocean of green, peering up at dull grey clouds. The beating rain was the last song he’d ever listen to. He listened, the way only dying men could, silently.

He missed it, when M told him that, we’re fine. He played it over and over, because when she said that, nothing in the world bothered him anymore. It was his peace. He grit his teeth, death neared, and he was as ready as the Agberos of Warri to give his answer. You been come late abeg! That was what he would shoot back when death would walk in. And he did.