A short story, written in times of inerta. unedited

continued from last week

after very brief introduction and thinking that her pursuers were on their way up she handed to him the addressed envelope and three thousand dollars. She instructed him to mait it if she failed to show up at his office by 8-am the next day, Christmas day.

The men had not seen her, but they were sure she was hiding some where around. They pretended to leave only to quickly hide in the gutter and lay in wait. When Elaine Scolt came out of the building she came alone, she had forbidden Ralph from going downstairs with her. As soon as she was on the street, she looked around and was relieved not to see any of her pursuers .

The men waited to see if anyone would join her, it would make their job a lot easier if every body that knew anything would be cut off in one swoop. No body came out and Elaine proceeded into the street. Ralph already sobered up was by now washing away his sorrows with the remaining contents of the bottle of brandy he had been drinking all day. Tomorrow he thought, he would wake up three thousand dollars rich just for posting a letter, that was a lot of money indeed.

Ali walked on in the dark, his six feet even frame moving quietly in the still night. It was Christmas Eve and most people in the town were either at the millennium park, the stadium or the cultural centre. Christmas in Calabar always was fun, there were lots of girls to fuck and in the morning they’ll just say “good morning” and leave. That was just for special days, on other days you paid for what you got. The girl never missed out on the holiday mood. On holydays sex was free. But that was not what was on Ali mind as he trotted on; he had to return to his hotel in less than fifteen minutes or risk being discovered.

Four year ago he came across an American in Beirut. The man seemed to know so much about the Arab mind that Ali found himself endeared to him in no time at all. Exactly thirty-five days after their first meeting they had met three more times. On the third meeting he handed the man an envelope containing a list of names and the American helped he opened a numbered account in Zurich with twelve thousand dollars. The M15, the CIA, MOSSAD and their likes have at one time or the other benefited from intelligence supplied by the TN. By virtue of his position as auditor in a Beirut based charity for homeless palestinians he knew a lot about how money was raised and distributed and to where exactly and where some of these money ended up. Ofcourse he had to belong to the military wing of the mother organization to earn such trust and position. The chiefs of the mother organization proved not to be very good judges of character. Ali was one that slept with his eyes and mind wide open. Ali understood that when the heads of the various armed groups say they would fight to death, that they of course did not mean their own deaths but the death of their men. Also he knew that the leaders and their close relatives always had other duties to perform while the ordinary people had to “volunteer” to martyrdom. He also knew that most of the senior members of the militant groups weren’t exactly poor and homeless Arabs, they had fat bank accounts in foreign lands, palaces on the Mediterranean and they led a natural life of the affluence. Ali only pretended to hesitate when the American made his proposal; he had been waiting for that for a long time. The unending exploitation of the militants and masses alike by the leaders meant that he would have to plan for his own future, he had long lost hope in the use of violence by his people as a political bargaining chip, and violence caused more pain to his adopted people than to the Israelis. The Israelis had a better equipped, organized and trained military that as a rule responded with mighty force and severity whenever violence was used on Israelis. Ali foresaw a repeat of the events in Afghanistan in Palestinian held territories if the Palestinian were to arrive at a favorable settlement via violence, which almost seen impossible. In Afghanistan, after the mujahadeen and the likes of them succeeded in frustrating the Red army out of the bare hilly country they turned on themselves when the time to fill the soviet vacancy came.

As a result of America’s apathy in that country, the militant religious movement known as the Taliban seized power and Afghanistan became the breeding ground of international terrorism. The American payed heavily for their negligence. After 9/11 it became apparent that the Americans will never allows the events of Afghanistan to repeat itself on Palestinian territory. The Americans would keep a closer watch on Palestinian groups and definitely they would not allow the Palestinians get what they wanted, the Americans were gravely concerned about the Palestinian territories becoming a haven for anti-American terror organizations.

After 911, with intense pressure mounted on the Taliban to gave up their guests, they started planning their get-always. That was how Ali got unto the picture, several charity organizations were used to negotiate with certain influential people in African and Asia to provide refuge for the fugitives at a price. The monies used to buy refuge were payed through the charities and also monies already stashed away by the fugitives were moved around for them by these charities. Ali made a mental note each negotiations and everybody involved at a point he had several countries covered from the facilitation of the movement into the countries, and the account number through which money was made available to the fugitives periodically, and the channels of communication that kept all the fugitives in contact. But such information was not given away just like that, Ali and everybody that knew anything’s about the mass hidings came under extra watch. This disgusted Ali even more as he was under watch and was spied upon at every turn by his new partner. The partner, a Taliban trained fighter was more or less forced on him by him superiors. They did not distrust him, they were just being careful. Each one of them rose through the ranks in the same manner they now treated Ali and all on his level.

It took Ali five weeks to arrange the meeting, Such a time was critical for all so everybody was being a bit too careful. Ali’s problem was not the Americans, for all he had done for the TN; he knew he was safe as long as the Americans were concerned; the TN only had to show how useful he has been and the American would offer him Sanctuary. His fear was from his own people, everybody was acting edge these days and quiet a number had disappeared on mere suspicion. Ali had become disoriented to the point that though he collected money from the TN, that was no longer the motive behinds the information he surrendered from time to time to the TN. At thirty – three, Ali had seen so much blood and bitterness to disillusion his mind; he no longer believed that the Palestinians would achieve anything through violence and unrealistic hard-stances; he believed the Americans could and would bring peace to the Middle East. There were not many people in the Middle east that thought the same thing. He arrived Aminu Kano international Airport a day before Elaine Scott reached Lagos. He came to meet a certain business Mogul from the city of Kano as regards providing sanctuary for two fugitives from American Justice. The meeting was to be held 1318 Kilometers away in the city of Calabar. Ali and his partner met the Mogul and after a million American doctors was flashed at his bright eyes, the man asked for three weeks to find a good spot. Ali and his partner waited the three weeks in Calabar and yet in that same period Elaine was in town but Ali could not reach her, he was never alone.

After three weeks, the Kano Mogul had what the men wanted. Surprisingly, Ali’s partner suggested that Ali remained in Calabar while he returned to Beirut to see about arranging transport for the men. The logic behind Ali’s staying back in Calabar was so that if there were to be any last minute changes or eventualities he would handle it. It was more than he could hope for, now he had a free hand to reach the TN agent who he knew had been in the city for almost as long as he too had. As soon as the plane his partner was in took off he made a long distant call to Miami, he was ready to give what he had.

As he walked on after he handled over the small envelop to Elaine he started feeling itching all over. The itching sensation started when he was at the terrorist camp in Afghanistan. His drill sergeant at the camp was one huge, mean dude who would send you two meters unto the air with a kick on your butt if you failed to hit your target at the small arms range, usually he stood behind every recruit and just wanted for him to miss. Each time it was his turn and the monstrous sergeant stood behind him, he had that itching sensation all over his body. As he walked on that night the sensation came all over him. He felt he was being followed. He ducked into a near by late night wine shop and spent five minutes looking for what to buy, his hotel was not too far away, he estimated he could make it back in 10 minutes. After five minutes he came out of store and continued his stroll. He took just twenty-three steps before he came by a Peugeot 505 saloon car parked by the road. As soon as he got to the car the doors swing open and two men were on him like lighting. He was trained for such eventualities. Though rustled and surprised, he did not let the men press home their advantage. Both his assailants were black and had black suits on. The one that came out of the driver’s door charged at him hoping to fall him with a blow from a bottle on the head. Ali caught the hand mid-air and with his second hand delivered a blow on the rib cage beneath the raised arm. The man screamed and passed out. The second man saw what just happened to the first and his mind was to step back but his body was already in motion. He ran into Ali’s waiting blow, he how ever managed to move his head away a bit so he did not get the full impact of the blow but he got stunned him though as he fell on the car and managed to remain or his feet by holding the open back door he had earlier on come out from. He could not hold on much longer as he fell when the well oiled door swung. Ali made to take a step further away from the car when suddenly from inside the car a shot was fired. Ali felt a sharp enormous sting as the bullet bored into his lean thigh he fell backwards noiselessly, he did not scream. During his day at the camp he had heard practical classes where people were tortured to death. He had discovered the killer prefered the noisy ones because their screams gave him delight and pleasure. Those that refused to give the killer pleasure he finished them off quickly. Then he decided that if he ever got shot he would not scream or look scared, his killer would never have the pleasure of seeing fear in his eyes or a desperate plea on his lips. Both men he had floored got up painfully and picked him up, they put him in the car and drove off. As the car drove through Calabar at night it occurred to him that his partner might never had left town at all, surely he must be behind this. The car drove to new airport road, but he did not know it, he was a stranger in Calabar.