The second son

chapter ten

 On Monday, the 29th of June 2022, Jaachi woke up with an energy  and excitement he could not place then it's dawned on him, that it was the day of the coronation. He couldn't really place his feelings, he was partly terrified and partly elated he wondered what being the second King of East Hendosia now the Kingdom of Mmiri was going to be like. He had zero to no knowledge of how a modern state was governed and he knew being an absolute Monarch in a democratic world was even more difficult than in the days of old.

   He wondered how he would be expected to act, would the citizens think it irresponsible of him if he chose to drive himself, driving race cars at the speed they were ment to be driven, if he still went jogging. Would they think an un married man stable enough to be their King, would they even approve of the woman he chose to love or would they expect him to get married for political affiliations like during the olden days. Could he just be him or was it an anomaly to be young, wild, free and yet rule a nation. Was the word even supposed to be 'rule'? King's ruled - but those were ancient historical King's. For the first time, Jaachi wished he had paid more attention to his father's administration but it was not the first time he felt like Nikku would have been more suited for the situation he now saw himself. 

   He had not grown up as a Prince, he had went to secondary school like any other student, went to university in a country that did not know him by the time his father had become King and he had made a career for himself in the world of football, all without enjoying any privileges and not wanting to. Much attention had not been paid to him again since he turned down the Red foxes and he had liked it that way, he had his older brother to act the perfect Prince and maybe-heir to the throne but what he had not bargained for was for his brother to go along with their father to join the ancestors, leaving him to figure it out all alone - well there was always the General. Jaachi thought smiling but he knew that if he kept running back to the General for instruction at every little turn, he was never going to gain his respect.

   Jaachi showered and dressed in easy house clothes and went upstairs to see the one person who had been an eye witness of his father's administration, his mother the Odoba. She was dressed in a green flowery gown, standing in the balcony staring at the animals in the reserve with the wind in her hair, she was beautiful, strong and at the moment, she looked timeless. She could pass for a princess in the medieval era, a cosmopolitan socialite or simply a widow who did not allow her husband's death become the end of her world.

   "Jaachi don't just keep standing there, come let's watch these deers." She said without turning around. " Come." She invited again. "There is still time. The swearing in is by ten in the morning."

  He laughed, an easy carefree sound. " It's actually called a coronation not 'swearing on".

  It was Rota's turn to laugh. " Well it's actually going to be done in court with you holding the Bible and swearing to serve the people so pardon this your old Mother but it does sound like coronation to me."

  Jaachi was silent, thinking about how much he was going to need his mother in the coming days and how much he had neglected her in the past few days. As if reading his mind, she patted his back

 " Just take it one day at a time, and no matter what, don't ever forget that I'm here for you."

  " Well you better be Momma cause I'm going to hold you to this promise." Sobering, he added, "I just wish I knew how to act that would encourage the people to have faith in me."

   " You don't need to act, the people already have faith in you and you know it - the day of the referendum was so beautiful, I've never seen something like it before. The people arrayed in all the gloriousness of our culture and who we are stood for you, they voted to keep hope alive, the enemy gets bolder with each attack, we still have no support at all from the outside world and they actually offered a chance to get reconciled with them, even though we know the offer of true federalism was mere political talk, the citizens probably would not see it that way but they voted to stay and fight, for their rights, their culture, for their future and they did it all because they believed in you. You are the hope."

   Jaachi swallowed the lump in his throat. " I hope I don't fall short of what is expected of me."

   " You won't." His mother answered. " And if you ever fall out of line, you have your Uncle and I, we have you."

   " Thanks Mom, for everything and for telling me all this, I really needed to hear it."

                                                                                               ***

   Three hours later, Jaachi was standing in court, taking an oat, dressed in full traditional regalia and holding the hundred year old elephant tusk that was his father's staff of authority. The Justice hall of the of Mmiri, Kafara was totally full of people, his Mother and Uncle sitting together, Nmaka and her mother, the entire ELOE, the director of the warfare intelligence and that of the Cyber Military, legislators he did not know, mayor's of counties and so many notable people and outside the court room was flooded by the press, both foreign and local. They were all present to watch history take place.

   "I Jaachi Mashi do hereby swear an oat to serve the kingdom of Mmiri as a servant would and to lead the people to freedom, unity, peace, justice and progress. That from this moment henceforth, everything I do would be in accordance with the constitution and the laws of the land acting only with the best interest of the people of the Kingdom of Mmiri at heart. That I would love the land of Mmiri with all my heart and uphold the traditions and customs of the land, so help me God." Jaachi finished and the crown was placed on his head. He came down from the stand admist cheers of 'long live the king' and 'keep hope alive.'  his eyes scanned the crowd looking for a someone he wanted to witness this moment with him, he did not see her.

   "Congratulations! " His Uncle said shaking his hand, his mother hugged him, there were tears in her eyes. He went about the court room shaking hands and hugging occasionally. Outside the court room, he stood for five minutes to address the press. The address felt a little impersonal to him, he had been briefed by his special advicer on social affairs and for once he did not feel the connection he usually felt with his audience but the people loved his speech, or they simply loved him, either way, they kept cheering and shouting 'long live the king'. He answered a few questions before he made his way to his limo, the security parting a way through the crowd as he walked through. He was about to get in when he saw her, she was wearing a little white dress and had let down her hair so that with the gentle summer breeze, it was flying in different directions. She was carrying a white placard with keep hope alive written on it and was smiling in a way he had never seen her smile before. Jaachi was transfixed and he knew for sure, he may not be the perfect king but he had seen his perfect Queen.

   That moment was to go down in history as the day the King of Hendosia had fallen in love with a simple girl named Flora,  different reporters gave their own variations of the story and different editors added and removed from it so that some how, two hundred years later, the moment was painted in a picture by a famous artist and named 'love at first sight' which later spurred on bed time stories and fairy tales. But at the moment, Jaachi was not to know this, oblivious of how transparent he had been, he got into the car and was driven to the palace. 

   There was a great celebration at the palace, the entire palace grounds were filled with politicians, socialites, military men and other kinds of people in the society who could find their way in as gaurds moved about, suspicious of everything and everyone . Jaachi moved straight to his room as he arrived, apart from one or two appearances which he knew he had to make, he did not want to spend the day greeting and waiving with a smile pasted on his face, there was also the issue of the crown which was heavier than he thought.

   Lola was sitting on his bed when he entered, she was worried, scared and yet hopeful that he might choose to help her. She brightened up her face immediately she saw him. " Long live the king' !". She said laughing but it came out all fake and forced.

   Jaachi did not know why he just didn't feel like talking to Lola, maybe it had to do with the fact that seeing her in his room like she was waiting for him reminded him of someone he wished had actually been waiting for him in his room. " Lola what are you doing here?"

   "Is that what you'll tell me Jaachi, the most important moment of your life and in the history of the kingdom of Mmiri and you can't even receive my congratulations with a civil thank you?"  Lola asked crying, she wondered why she had even believed that Jaachi was going to help her, for all she knew he might even decide to hold her accountable for what she had done. She realized that even when she had accused him of changing, there had still been traces of the old Jaachi, now the man who stood in front of her was a total stranger, he was the king of Mmiri. She dried her tears and put up a brave face to hide the feeling of utter hopelessness within. " Congratulations your Majesty, "  she said without a trace of sarcasm in her voice. "I'll be taking my leave now." She hurried on to the guest quarters crying and wondering how long she would be allowed to remain a guest at the palace. The screen of her phone blinked two times as she got to her room, two short flashes that should not even be called missed calls, and Lola could feel the dread building up in her. The flashing was a signal she knew to well, it meant that it was time to meet face to face with her nightmare, the time the man had given her to provide information on the location of the new Cyber Military base had expired. Bracing herself for the worst, she decided not to go to the bar and grill to see the man, if he was going to expose her, she preferred him to do it when she was in the palace then  when she was outside invthe open. She ignored her phone.

   Thirty minutes drive away, at the jules grill and bar, whayki sat waiting in the booth that had become he and Lola's meeting spot. His name was not really whayki, no one knew his real name or where he was from, he had just been a new kid on the block who when he was asked his name had replied with 'my name is the next mission.'. The block meant the underground world of assassins, informants and shady private investigators. The kid had rose to fame after he handled a job, a d**g lord had grown a conscience and wanted to snitch to the police, the new kid had been called in  and the way he took out the d**g lord earned him the name, whayki which meant heartless.

   Whayki had been out of activity for so long, he craved it. A part of him has been excited when Lola hadn't shown up at the at the time she was meant to. He played and replayed what he was going to say to her in his head, he loved tormenting people. It did not occur to him that she would not make an appearance at all and so after he had waited for two hours without her showing uo, he was livid with anger. He fantasized about ways he was going to kill her when he was finally told to do so and it came as a great surprise to him that the people who employed him asked him nothing to Lola, he had been told that Lola was too valuable. The instruction was to keep threatening her for information, he had even been told to be patient with her.he was in a rage when he left the bar.

                                                                                              ***

The first thing Jaachi had done when he became king was grant Maopa a full pardon, she had moved out from Flora's house and back to her own immediately she was pardoned. She had also proved invaluable at Jaachi's court, unofficially as she had been wary to attract attention to herself.. now she sat with Jaachi in his sitting room, discussing matters too sensitive to be brought up in court.

   Even though she had been pardoned, she and Jaachi still wanted to get to the bottom of the whole bombing affair. Jaachi explained everything that had happened in his visit with the man who had been on duty during the bombing and as serious as the matter was, Maopa found herself trying not to laugh.

   " Wait, you're actually telling me that the man made you pay his two years rent before he agreed to speak with you?" Sha asked finally giving in to laughter.

   " I don't see what's so funny."

   " And let me guess .... " She held up a finger to silence Jaachi while she laughed. " You didn't even try to bargain."

   ", How can I bargain for something like that?" Jaachi asked confused,.

   " Well you're lucky he didn't increase his price to five years when he saw how quickly you could pay."

   " He couldn't have done that." Jaachi said then he considered the possibility, " could he? Anyway, that's not the point, the point is he actually admitted to receiving a phone call from an unknown person telling him about the bombing that was about to happen."

  " No" Maopa said, the point is that he didn't turn off the sensors - that is if he was not lying to you."

   " Yeah." Jaachi said. " That was why you were a prime suspect in the first place, according to my uncle, you gave us a false sense of security on purpose, made us relax the soldiers at the border and then the bomber came in."

   Maopa made a face. " The only explanation I can come up with now is that the West, by some very incredible means found out I had removed the virus, and hit the system with another one at the same time they sent the bomber."

   " And how would they find out about that?" 

   " Well." Maopa said, " that's something you're going to need to find out for yourself."

   Jaachi was silent for sometime then it clicked. He didn't know what it was, call it intuition or gut feeling but he suddenly knew the one person who could answer that question. He got up slowly and went to the guest quarters, he needed to see Lola. When he got to her room and saw she was not in, he simply entered inside and sat down, he had all the time to wait.

                                                                                         ***

   Lola was sitting in the booth that was always used for her clandestine meetings with 'the man' - he had refused to tell her his name back when knowing his name had mattered to her and she had no better name for him, the other names she called him in her head were beast and nightmare. She was fighting not to cry and loosing the battle. "You can't do this to me, my father has money, he won't let you do this."

   The man laughed, a vicious look in his eyes. "And where is you're father now princess ..... but then I shouldn't call you that since even the prince is not on your side anymore." He was serious again. "Look the King has been careless, all those parties and celebration of his coronation, he even has some guest staying at the palace, all you need to do is slip a little something in his food or drink or what ever and we'll get you out the way we brought you in, you'll be able to see your family again or you can choose not to and meet with a little kind of accident. It's entirely your choice to make."

   Lola was crying uncontrollably. "I can't .... his food is tested before he eats -"

   " Don't tell me he doesn't trust you enough to eat something you offer?" The man interrupted her. "You once dated him, surely you cannot tell me that you live like enemies in that house, that he mistrusts you that much he would actually have food you give to him tested. Look here's the vial and your freedom. I will contact you when I hear news of the Ochia's death." He said walking out of the booth and leaving the vial behind.

   Lola broke down. What had she gotten herself into, what had she done, how had what she had seen as bravery in the beginning turned into this horrible mess and now that monster of a man, that pig, that beast expected her to commit murder, to kill a man she had once loved! She was beginning to get curious looks from other people at the bar and grill and not wanting to attract more attention to herself than she had already, she drew in a shaky breath, dropped her bill together with a generous tip on the table and picked up the vial and the syringe beside it, taking care to hide it away from the public eye, she left for home.

   " Hi Lola." Jaachi said as she walked into her room and she was so startled she dropped her purse, her things spilling over to the ground.  "Aren't our nerves a bit shaky today." He mused as she bent down awkwardly and started picking up her things.

   " What are you doing here Jaachi?" She asked trying to compose herself as she put the last item  back into her purse.

   "No Lola the question is what are you doing here, what are you doing here in Mmiri?"

   " I beg your pardon!"

   " It's not going to be that easy to grant you pardon Lola." He made a face. "But maybe you can persuade me and you can start by explaining what you are doing here or rather what you were sent to do here in my country."

   " Jaachi what are you saying ?" Lola tried again.  " What has come over you, of cause I came to East - to Mmiri to see you and be there for you -"

  " Lola! Do you want me to hand you over to the Special Warfare Intelligence" Jaachi's voice was not loud but she could hear the quiet authority in it and she knew it was over, how he had found out she did not know but  one thing she did know was that he knew and at the moment, her life was in his hands.

   " Jaachi you need to understand I never wanted all these, at first they just told me to convince you to refuse the kingship if it was offered to you, I didn't want you to be king, I just wanted us to be together, for you to go back to playing football all I wanted was for us to go about our normal lives as usual but when I got here, I didn't need to convince you, you already shared my views on the whole situation. Then you changed, started acting different, getting involved with your countries politics and just ... You know.... became the new Jaachi  and their demands changed too, they started asking me to steal files and send information to them -" 

   " And so you collaborated with them to bomb the former base." It wasn't a question.

   " Jaachi I'm sorry, honestly I didn't know it would get this far -"

   " We were talking about the Jordan bombing." Jaachi said simply.

   " Yes." She nodded soberly. " All they wanted was for me to notify them immediately the virus was out of the system,"  she lowered her head and was barely audible. "And so I did."

   "You weren't the one who made that call?" 

   Lola was confused. " What call?"

   Jaachi studied her for a long time, when he was satisfied that she indeed knew nothing about the call, he said "go on."

   ," I wouldn't have let them do it if they hadn't promised me that no one was going to die in the attack, Jaachi please believe me- "

   Jaachi was loosing his patience. " When I said go on Lola, I meant with the details not your feelings, I'm sure it should be quite obvious to you right now that I don't care about your feelings. Please go straight to the point in your explanation, I don't have all day." 

   " Yes." Lola said subdued. " They told me that all they wanted was to destroy the information you had and that no one was going to die, they said I could believe them because it was in their best interests if the international organizations they belonged to saw that no one had died in all their attacks."

   " So who is this  'they" Jaachi asked, how did you get in touch with them in the first place or did you just sign up to be an enemy agent in our midst?"

   " It was after I heard of the plane crash, I was so shocked, so distraught and overwhelmed -"

    Jaachi pulled at his hair in frustration. " Straight to the point Lola."

    " I'm sorry. ..... I was so - I wanted to come and see you but by then the East - West border was shut and I did not know how to get past it so I called a friend of a friend who knew someone, he said he would gladly help me across the border but that the people he worked for would need a little favour in return, he told me I was going to get a call later that day from the person who would tell me what to do. Later I got a call from someone who asked me to meet up with him at jules bar and grill it's about thirty - "

   " I know where Jules bar is." Jaachi said. " Lola continue."

   " Well we met up at that bar and that was how all this started."

   " How do you get in contact with him?"

   " He flashes me twice, that's the signal and then I know he wants to meet up at the bar and grill."

   " And you, you don't get to call him yourself, suppose something came up?"

   " Only except that time I was asked to give updates on the redirect virus, I was told to flash the number twice just like he used to do for me and then we met up at the bar and I gave him the information in person."

   Jaachi remembered how she had gotten that information in the first place, he had come home the day after he met the director at his Uncle's house. He had explained how the virus was affecting the Cyber Military and how vulnerable it made the Country. She had listened attentively, had been very sympathetic that when the virus had finally been taken care of, he had been very rather to tell her. He had been surprised and touched at the level of interest she was showing in the affairs of Mmiri. Now he knew it had all been pretence, she had only been trying to get information from him to give to his enemy. "Did you see him today?"

  His voice was so low that Lola was not sure she heard correctly. ". I'm sorry ..... I ... What did you say?"

  " Did you."  Jaachi repearted , see him today? "

  "Yes." Lola said twisting her hands, her face was already streaming with tears. " Jaachi I promise you I do not intend ... That is I did not intend to do what he asked, of cause I just can't I know we've broken up but I loved you once and -"

   Jaachi was irritated. " Can you just tell me what it is he told you to do and leave sentiment out of it."

  " He asked me to poison you."

  Jaachi was silent for a long time and when he spoke next, his voice sounded strange it sounded detached and cold even to his ears. " What were you supposed to use to poison me."

   " There was a vial, some liquid was inside it and - a syringe in case I needed it."

   " Let me see it." He stretched out his hand but she shook her head.

   " I have already trown it away at the bin in the bar."

   " And if I search you, I wouldn't find it on you?"

   " Of cause not Jaachi I - no, no you wouldn't find it on me. "

   Jaachi decided she was telling the truth. " You're going to work with the special warfare intelligence, you will feed the West with information  we want them to have. Good luck Lola, you're a double agent now."  He got up from where he had been sitting on the bed. " Oh and Lola you would ask the warfare intelligence to provide suitable accommodation for you, you are no longer a guest in this palace." He walked out leaving Lola crying softly on the floor, he felt no empathy at all for her, he was disgusted with himself for ever imagining himself in love with her.

   He hurried to his quarters to freshen up, he had a conference scheduled to hold very soon with the special task force set up to ensure that the on going war did not bring the country into a recession and he did not want to be late.