AN EVENING WITH EVA Episode 14 Ambrose opened one eye. Then the other. He looked around. Sophia was already headed towards the bathroom. He got up from the chair and grimaced. He actually hurt himself when he jumped on the train. But it was not as bad as he made it seem to Austin and The General. He had contacted Sophia when he got off the train and thanked her for saving his life. She had asked him how bad the situation was and he had told her everything he knew. She advised him to fake being hurt, get some more blood on himself and contact Austin. Ambrose had had a tricky moment when Austin tried to take off his clothes to access the extent of injury to his stomach area. Ambrose knew that he could not afford to have his fake injury found. He had groaned and screamed terribly and Austin backed off. Austin felt sorry for him and promised to get him to the mansion so Sophia could look at him. He did not attempt to check Ambrose’s injury again. When Ambrose got to the bathroom, the tap attached to the hand wash sink was rushing at full capacity. The shower was also running. The sound of rushing water would interfere with the transmitter’s reception, blocking the bug from detecting their voices. Sophia sat on the closed toilet seat and beckoned him to come close to her. He got in front of her and sat on the ground, leaning his back on the bath tub. She got out her phone and typed a message: “Did you bring the chip?” She handed the phone to Austin and he read it. He cleared the message Sophia typed and replaced it with his. “Yes I did.” Ambrose typed. Ambrose handed the phone back to Sophia. He got up and walked to the hand washing sink and bent low before it. He put his ‘peace’ fingers in his mouth, gagged on it, and vomited in the sink. He put his hand in the disgusting goo and fished out a black rectangular micro sim. He opened the tap, flushing the goo down the sink and rinsed the micro sim. He walked back to Sophia and handed it to her. “How did you get it?” Sophia asked curiously in a barely audible whisper. “As we approached the police car that was supposed to take me to the Capitol, your message came in. I freed myself from the agent by hitting him just below the ribs. I used the opportunity to grab his smartphone from his side pocket. When I got on the train, I realised that I was being tracked with the phone that I had stolen. I took out the sim and left the phone on in the train. It would be a while before they realize that they have been barking up the wrong tree.” Ambrose replied. “Good job Ambrose. Are you sure you don’t want anyone to check you out?” Sophia asked, getting up from the toilet seat and heading for the door. “I think I am fine.” Ambrose replied. “Good. You need to keep up the act a little while longer. Maybe until after tomorrow.” Sophia said with a tone of finality. “Can I get some sugar in my room? It would really speed up my recovery.” Ambrose asked with a mischievous smile on his face. Sophia smiled, turned and walked up to him. She kissed him deeply and fully on his lips, sucking his lower lips, her tongues flicking in and out, teasing the palates of his mouth. Ambrose squeezed her br3asts as his essence stood at attention, raging like a wild bull. After what seemed like forever, Sophia detached herself from him, eyeing him seductively and stepping two steps back. Ambrose tried to come forwards, attempting to continue the action. “Hey tiger. That was just to say thank you. Will send a hottie into your room in ten minutes.” Sophia said, putting a hand on his chest to stop him from coming any closer. She licked her lips, bit her lower lip and looked at his gr0in area. His body went up in flames of desire. She turned her back on him and wiggled her hips as she shut the door behind her. Ambrose unbuckled his belt and looked into his pants. His desire needed to be satiated. He walked out of the bathroom and went to his room. **************************************** It was a very hot afternoon. The sun was scorching hot and people were sweating as they walked along the streets. Sean walked along the busy Obalende road, heading for the lonely street North of the small roundabout. He got to a very tiny busy street. He heard screams of “Yaba!!! Yaba going bus!!!” from the scores of commercial buses that lined the streets. As he took a left turn, someone bumped into him hitting him by the shoulders. Sean did not look back. He just smiled and continued moving. The person who hit him wore a hood which covered his entire head. He already knew who it was. He put his hand inside the side pocket of his blazers and felt the tiny piece of paper that was not there a few minutes ago. He kept moving forwards, not knowing exactly where he was going. When he saw an empty tricycle, he quickly sat in it. He took out the paper and read the content: MEET ME IN IKD TONIGHT. Tearing the paper to tiny shreds, Sean got out of the tricycle and tracked back the same way he came. He walked for a while, turning corners abruptly, stopping suddenly and sometimes just turning and heading back the same way he came. He continued to move around in circles, making sure that whoever it was that was tailing him got lost along the way. When he was certain that he had lost any trackers, he moved beside buses, crossed the road a few times back and forth, and zigzagged his way until he got to the Barracks and opened the back seat of a grey G-wagon. “How did it go?” Eva asked as Sean settled in beside her in the back seat. He just looked at her and smiled. He looked at the rear view mirror and met the gaze of his driver “DRIVE!” Sean commanded. ******************************************************************************** The Colonel laughed gently as he sat on the roof of the UBA building in Obalende. When he hit Sean a few minutes before, he had dropped a tiny note in his pocket. The note had a bug on it. There was no way Sean would handle the tiny paper that he would not get the transmitter onto himself. It was a tracking device which would allow The Colonel monitor Sean’s movement. He knew he had won Sean over to his side, but he was not completely certain that it would remain that way. He just had this gut feeling that just as Sean agreed to work with him, he could easily decide to switch sides again. However, he knew Sean was very smart. Even though he did not know the exact degree of Sean’s intelligence, putting the bug on the tiny note was the perfect test. And to his chagrin, Sean passed perfectly. That was the reason for The Colonel’s laugh. The Colonel had been looking at his hybrid wristwatch which was configured to act as a monitor for the tracking device. For five minutes, the red dot on his wrist watch was static, unmoving. It was just blinking a few meters from the location he had hit Sean. Sean definitely did not have the bug on him. The Colonel had half expected this. He had concluded that if Sean failed to detect the bug, he would not be involved in the bust to take down GhostCorp. But now not only did Sean detect the bug, he had suddenly disappeared from view. He was nowhere to be found. The Colonel searched the whole of the Obalende axis with his powerful custom made binoculars, looking for Sean at every angle. This was his backup plan. He had thought he would be able to catch a glimpse of Sean if the tracking stunt failed. As he looked behind him, peering down through his binoculars 45 degrees South East, he saw Sean slowly snaking his way behind the red BRT buses that were parked and waiting for passengers. “Gotchya!” The Colonel said to himself. He pressed a button on the right panel of his binoculars to activate X-ray Detection Mode. The view changed, wiping every other element off and displaying just the image of Sean. He was coming back the same way he just went and was now crossing over to the other side of the road. “You can run friend, but you can’t hide.” The Colonel said softly again. Sean crossed the road and waited. The Colonel wondered what was keeping Sean. Could he be waiting for someone? He activated Face Detection and zoomed in on Sean’s face. Sean looked completely indifferent. Totally unreadable. He did not look anxious, scared or worried. He just looked sideways a few times as if he was waiting to cross the road. The Colonel had tracked down a lot of very good spies. He was very good at it. But at one point or the other, they always gave themselves away especially when he used his binoculars and gauged their facial expression. No one had ever escaped him. But now, he could not read Sean’s countenance. “What is on your mind boy? What are you trying to do?” The Colonel asked himself. A commercial bus was calling for passengers and stopped just where Sean stood. Sean waited a while and then entered just as the bus began to move. The Colonel saw this. He took the registration plates of the bus and typed it into his palm sized satellite computer. As the bus moved just about 100 meters, a truck carrying fuel crossed the road causing traffic to build up. Sean got down from the bus with other passengers and mixed himself with the crowd. He went to the side of the truck and entered through the passenger door. People were looking at Sean. The Colonel was watching everything with keen interest. His view of Sean was blocked by the rising number of people that were now trying to move the truck away from the road. He could only see a little part of Sean’s body in the truck. Another man entered the driver’s seat of the truck and attempted to start the truck. It refused to move. The man got down from the truck and opened the front compartment of the truck’s engine chamber. Sean was no longer in the truck. It was just a few seconds. How did Sean get out of his sight? He quickly scanned the whole area, imprinting faces and looking for Sean. The results were negative. Sean was not in the vicinity. Two minutes later while the binoculars was still scanning, the driver of the truck got back into the truck and started the engine. It revved to life, emitting thick black smoke from the exhaust pipe. The truck reversed and gradually got off the road, parking on a safe part of the busy commercial axis. Still, Sean was no longer in view. When the truck driver got out and got out his phone, The Colonel had a sudden brainwave. Zooming his powerful binoculars on the driver’s phone, he took several pictures of the phone’s screen until the driver put it back into his pocket and began to walk away from the truck. The Colonel transferred the pictures onto his Ipad 7 Unlimited and zoomed in on the pictures. The first picture showed the menu of the truck driver’s phone. He continued his scrutiny of the pictures till he got to the seventh one. It was a message from an unknown number. “Thank you.” The Colonel continued to scroll. The remaining pictures showed the truck driver deleting the message and exiting the screen to the main menu. A truck came out of nowhere, blocked the road, granted Sean entrance and allowed him disappear. The truck which had seemed totally bad suddenly got working and was able to leave the road. And barely a minute after Sean’s disappearance off the radar, the truck driver got a text showing appreciation. The coincidence was too true to be ignored. The truck driver had been Sean’s diversion and means of escape. The Colonel nodded his head and smiled. He was impressed. Sean had outwitted him and totally knocked him off his trail. Nobody had ever done that. He shut down his devices and packed them in a small briefcase. He headed for the fire escape and proceeded to exit the UBA building. He had made up his mind. Sean was definitely going to be his right hand man. *********************************************** The General got into the Visitors lounge, shutting the door behind him. He scanned the walls and corners, looking for any form of surveillance or hidden bugs. After less than a minute of scrutiny, he brought out two wireless ear plugs and inserted them in his ears. Once they were in his ears, they started blinking purple – a sign that they were activated. He listened intently, hoping to hear whispers or any form of activity in the room. He only heard the sound of rushing water. He waited for seven minutes. He was beginning to get worried. The shower or whatever it was had begun to take too long. Besides, seven minutes was too long a period to wash off Ambrose’s wounds and bring him back to the sitting room. Even at that, there still had to be some form of communication or small talk. So far he had not gotten anything and that worried him. He pressed the earpiece deeper into his ears. Still nothing. Just as he was about to leave the lounge, he heard voices. “How do you feel now?” The General heard Sophia say. “Much better. Thanks a lot for the injection.” Ambrose replied. “So what really happened back there?” Sophia asked “It all happened so fast. I do not even recall all right now. Still looks hazy at the moment. But I think I need to rest.” Ambrose said. “Okay then. A room has been prepared upstairs for you. I will ask someone to lead you there. What do I tell the General? He would need information.” Sophia asked “The General scares me. I fear he may shoot me himself if he doesn’t get anything out of me.” Ambrose replied. When the General heard that, he smiled. He was glad he had not lost the fear factor he had on his lieutenants. Sophia inclusive. He had heard enough. He walked out of the lounge, taking out the buds in his ears as he approached the sitting room. He opened the door as a steward was leading Ambrose upstairs to the room that had been prepared for him. “Where is he going?” The General asked Sophia who didn’t seem the least startled at his intrusion. He was beginning to lose his power on Sophia and they both knew it. But he had no choice. He had lost his most intelligent Lieutenants. He had only Sophia now. She was the calmest and the most calculating. She worked best under pressure. She always delivered. She was his only hope if he was to come out of his brewing war with The Colonel. He had no doubts whatsoever that Sophia knew that she was his only powerhouse in this ensuing battle. He also knew she was cunning and could snake him. Tawo and Shina were dead. Ambrose was temporarily out and he had only Sophia. So he would stick with her till this was over and take her out. He had thought about rendering her inactive, deploying her to a remote island or taking her away to a different section of GhostCorp. But with every thought he always came to the same conclusion: She had become too comfortable and it was not healthy for him. She had to die. He preferred his enigma status and if Sophia did not feel threatened by him, she could influence others to feel the same. And then, he would no longer be The General that everyone really feared and got trembled at. “He is going to his room. He needs to rest.” Sophia replied. “Has he said anything?” The General asked. “Nothing yet. His thoughts seem unclear at the moment, nothing a good rest will not solve.” Sophia replied. “Where are we with Sean and Eva?” The General asked. Sophia was shocked. She hadn’t expected that the General would have known so soon. It had been barely 48 hours and she was hoping she would get concrete information by the end of day. She had no idea where they were. “I have everything under control. They are ready for their part. We just need to get a way to blend them into the new scheme now that Ambrose has been compromised.” Sophia replied. “Where are they?” The General asked, walking to the water dispenser and helping himself with a cup of cold water. He drank the water, keeping his gaze on Sophia as he waited for her reply. Sophia was quiet. “Ahhhhhhhhh. Refreshing!” The General exclaimed as he set the cup down and licked his lips. “I asked a question S. Where is the location of Sean and Eva?” “My best guess is that they are now working with the Colonel. They were visited by the Colonel in their hotel suite and have gone rogue since then. We got know this from the surveillance footage in the hotel. He intentionally let himself get captured by the cameras. They have been spotted around the city but successfully shaken off all our best trackers. I have taken over supervision of finding them and I will get something soon. I think they will let themselves be found when they are ready. We trained them too well.” Sophia explained. “Are you giving me excuses lieutenant?” The General said raising his voice angrily. Sophia was unmoved. “I would never give excuses sir. I am just saying that we have studied the Colonel. He wants revenge. He is blinded by his current bloodlust. We can use it to our advantage. If we wait him out, pretend to be unaware of him and his vices, he would be forced to act. Then we would nail him. We have the upper hand sir. We need to gather our resources, stock pile our strategies and expect an attack. Then we’ll counter in such a way he never saw coming.” Sophia explained sitting down and crossing her legs, staring straight into her Guardian’s eyes. “Let me know when Ambrose comes to. If he has nothing concrete to present, you will have to kill him. Use him as bait, smoke him, anything. He is now a liability. You have twenty hours to find the missing love birds.” The General said and walked out of the room. He did not wait for a reply. Sophia had none to give. She had plans of her own. As the General shut the door behind him, she got up and headed for Ambrose’s room. ******************************************************************************** Two weeks had passed. Sophia had been keeping tabs on the activities of GhostCorp. The General had ordered her to oversee affairs till he got back from sabbatical. She worked tirelessly, looking for clues and tracking every bit of intel she got from BeeHive. The Colonel seemed to be in no hurry. It had been sixteen days and he had not made a move yet. He had not left his supposed hideout. She could wait him out. She had all the time in the world. It was Sean and Eva that concerned her. They had been highly trained. They had risen through the ranks faster than anyone in the history of the Corporation. They most disturbing issue was the fact that they already knew too much. Sophia stepped into her room after spending the whole day in the fortress, tightening the security, updating the firewalls and creating new anonymous drifters. Exhausted after a tedious day, she didn’t bother with the usual routine bath and Jacuzzi. She just kicked off her loafers and lay on the bed face down. Just then her phone rang. She grudgingly went to her bag that was on the bedside table and took out the phone. She opened the message that came in. It was from Bee Hive. “Targets found.” The location of Sean and Eva had been identified. That was the best news she had heard in a while. She got up at the speed of light and went back to the fortress. She entered the mission room and waited for the door to shut behind her. The room was very dark. She brought her palm to her face. She could not see a thing. She waited a few seconds, straining her sharp ears and listening for any foreign sounds. At this time her eyes had acclimatised to the darkness and she could now see the outline of her fingers. When she was satisfied that she was alone, she snapped her fingers and said audibly: “It’s a lovely day.” “Password accepted. Welcome Agent S.” An electronic voice replied. The huge room came to life. The previously dimmed lights gradually came on. There were three huge 60-inch touch screen computers on each wall. Sophia folded her arms across her chest and moved to the screen to her left. “What do we have Ope?” Sophia asked. A small box appeared at the top corner of the screen showing a video of Ope in his tiny office. There were cans of soda scattered across his table. The remaining part of the screen changed, now showing a map. “Good evening ma’am. Sorry to drag you out at this time.” Ope replied smiling. “Save the pleasantries Ope and cut to the chase. What do you have for me?” Sophia said curtly. “Eva got careless. We intercepted an online payment she made for a ticket to the premier of a movie at the Galleria. She used her mother’s maiden name during the transaction and a Master Card that she had not used in four years. Our Saturn-Extreme 145 satellite got the hit and intercepted the server, declining her request. She tried several times giving us the needed time to scrutinise details and complete tracking. On the fifth try, we were able to get her location.” Ope replied. “Where is she?” Sophia asked. “Our coordinates indicate that she is on the outskirts of the state. Abule Egba to be precise. However, I have a strong feeling that she is not alone.” Ope replied. “Leave the feeling to me agent. Anything else I need to know?” Sophia asked. “Asides the information on the movie premiere, I have nothing new to tell ma’am” Ope answered. “Tell me about the Premiere.” Sophia said. “Please look to the screen behind you.” Ope answered. Sophia obeyed and turned. On the screen there were images of the Galleria and the Cinema section of the building. Ope showed her the exits, the viewing rooms, the reception and the red carpet area. He suggested possible vantage posts and also explained the possible movement of people in the cinema. They went through it a few times together. When Sophia had memorised it all, she asked Ope about the possibility of an assault while she’s mobile. “I had thought about that option too but it is too complicated. We do not know how much help she has and how many people she would be with. I strongly suggest we move cautiously and approach with tact.” Ope advised. Sophia thought about what Ope had said for a few minutes and agreed with him. It would be foolish to act hastily without knowing what the odds were. She nodded. “Thank you Ope. Good Job. I will contact you with the details as soon as I am done.” She said. Ope’s image disappeared and the screen went white. Sophia tapped the screen twice and a touchpad appeared. She had to reconfigure and change the codes, passwords and settings as she had just used them. She made sure that there was always a different code for each day and always tweaked the settings. When she was done, she shut down the computers manually and left the mission room. ***************************************** The Colonel was seriously studying a tracking device he held on his left hand while Eva sat beside him, trying to get tickets for the movie premiere. Sean sat across the room, checking the .45 automatic pistol he loved to carry around. He cleaned the cartridges with a white rag, watching the Colonel closely. “The card is not working. The portal is rejecting it.” Eva said to the Colonel complaining. “The portal is not rejecting it. Someone from GhostCorp has intercepted the signal and is now tracking your card.” The Colonel said. “Damn! I need to stop now!” Eva panicked. “No girl. Don’t stop. That is the plan. We need to let them think we have been careless. Let them track you. I am monitoring the intercepting signals from here too. If they get to you, we get to them. Keep going Eva.” The Colonel said with authority. Eva looked back at Sean seeking for reassurance. Sean laughed and nodded at her. She tried again and again until she was allowed to get it. Just then the device in the Colonel’s hand beeped. “They’ve got us. But we got them first.” The Colonel said.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 07:21:23 +0000
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