by Wole Soyinka
The screams appeared to come from a long long way below earth. Loud crackles as if of sudden downpour on overheated metal sheets accompanied, then drowned them. Fumes from the petrol set up an unearthly haze high above the roof. Two kites were conjured up from an empty sky and hovered above the human kiln. Ludicrously the folk-tale to explain this homing of kites on fires passed through Ofeyi’s mind.
An iron sheet burst its moorings, flapped grotesquely in the flames. As if this had been perceived by the trapped people and was accepted for a signal, some half-dozen windows flew open, smashed through as before by wielded pews. A general assault on other windows and doors began and the sound of battering-rams now mingled with the general roar of the flames.
It was a moment the attackers had awaited. As the first man leapt out an arrow flew towards the flames, transfixed him briefly. The figure staggered, recovered balance and fled towards imagined safety. More followed him, and so did the steady procession of arrows, thudding into their targets and wringing execrations from their lips. The last man turned, pulling at the shaft embedded in his throat and, crazed by the pain tried to clamber back into the inferno. Another arrow struck him in the spine and he shuddered, fell over the sill and hung there as flames licked his clothes and soon engulfed him completely.
After this all was still for a while within the church. The unbroken windows remained intact except for flames that had begun to gut them. Ofeyi wondered if the remaining worshippers had knelt down to await death or were praying for deliverance.
And then, simultaneously, both doors crashed open. An instant later the remaining windows were also forced and a mass breakout began. A giant led the way through the larger door wielding a large chair as shield and weapon. All the men followed through both doors and fanned out in a circle. None got far. Too great a distance separated them from the besiegers and they were cut down to a man by the seemingly inexhaustible swarm of iron barbs. The archers were unhurried. They picked their victim as he rushed forward, often falling at their feet as the last of the shafts found a vital part. The paved surround of the church ran with blood spurting one gory fountain after another.
Mutilations followed death, sometimes preceded actual death.
The women came out in a body, slowly, holding their children by the hand. They stood outside, a few yards from the burning temple. They waited. Conspicuous as a shield, a plea or an accusation for the rest was a frail creature nearly overbalanced by the heavy pregnancy that stuck out of her and seemed ready to weigh her to the ground. Ofeyi held his breath, unable to tear his eyes from the confrontation. Until that moment when her head jerked suddenly downwards to stare in surprise at the unnatural blossom that her womb had sprouted. Ofeyi sank to the ground, his back turned to the screams that rose from the paved altar of the Sunday sacrifice. He knitted his hands across the back of his neck, pressed it down between his knees and tried to blot out voices that damned his futility.
It seemed hours before he heard the sound of sirens. Moments later Zaccheus came for him and he let himself be driven past the scene. Uniformed men stood about the churchyard in a daze—the attackers had long vanished. The church smouldered peacefully amidst hushed voices and whispered orders. Innured to such wholesale slaughter, there was yet one spot on which they all resolutely turned their back, a spot covered by one frail body. Ofeyi too turned sharply away from the wet oval cavity where her womb had been….
* * *
—
The desk-sergeant’s face did not pretend to interest, much less concern. “You have reason to believe…you have reason to believe…my friend, we need more than that to take action.”
Ofeyi damped his rising temper. “Someone actually saw her carried in forcibly.”
His expression did not change nor did he stop the entries he had been making in a large register when they arrived. Ofeyi was not even sure that he had looked up once since they entered the station. “Someone actually saw her…you have reason to believe…we all have reason to believe…someone actually saw her. Where is that someone?”
He had cautioned Zaccheus against revealing himself as witness to the abduction. “He could not come with us. He fled to Ilosa and I can’t blame him for not wanting to return here.”
“I see sir. So there is no material witness here whose word we can rely on to take action.”
“I am here” Ofeyi pointed out.
“I know you are here.” The man conceded it drily and carried on with his scribbling. Ofeyi wondered what his next approach should be. The ceiling fan whirled noisily but the maddening scratch of the nib completely overwhelmed it.
Ofeyi renewed the assault. “I know the house.”
“I heard you before” the sergeant replied.
“He described it to me and even drew me a map. I can take you there.”
“I am not deaf sir.”
Zaccheus hemmed, took Ofeyi aside and rubbed the fingers of one hand together in a standard gesture. “Do you think that might help?”
Ofeyi understood, nodded and dug into his pocket. Taking out five pounds he queried Zaccheus. He suggested he double it. With the ten pounds folded in his hand he returned to the desk, raised a corner of the register and slipped the wad of notes under it.
The sergeant stopped writing, sighed as if in boredom and pushed aside the huge volume. He took out a smaller note-book from under his desk, then, with an impatient grunt as if searching for his pen, he contrived to lift the former register from his side and cast a swift glance at the thickness and colour of the notes which lay under its far edge. His expression suggested neither satisfaction nor the opposite. Without looking up he picked up the pen where it had lain all the time and poised it over the smaller book.
“What is your name?”
Ofeyi supplied it.
“And the details of your complaint?”
Half-way through a repeat of his narrative, he paused, thought hard for some moments. “Are you making a Missing Persons Inquiry or are you laying charges of kidnapping or what exactly?”
Ofeyi replied, “It’s up to you to put it under what heading you like. All I want is help to look for this woman. If you came with me we could go there now….”
He interrupted and said, “I will list it as Missing Persons Inquiry.”
He ended his report with a flourish, looked up at them for the first time, but not even directly in the face, simply over Ofeyi’s shoulder and vaguely above Zaccheus’ head.
“It is a pity that the material witness is not here.”
Ofeyi began to protest….
“It is a pity” the man said stolidly. “You are sure he cannot be contacted.”
Ofeyi offered to contact him by telephone if more information was required. “Isn’t all that is important the fact that we know the house and that I could…?”
“It is a pity” the sergeant resumed, “that we do not know who the witness is. There are many people missing in this town.”
Ofeyi grappled vainly with the sequence of the man’s pronouncements and began to wonder if this meant he was called upon to increase the bribe. Already the act, his first ever had bred nausea in him. He took the sudden irrelevant decision to snatch back the bribe which was still partially hidden by the register, if the sergeant’s cupidity was still unsatisfied. The next question took him by surprise.
Flourishing his pen again the man said, “Name and address of witness please.”
Ofeyi stared stupidly. “Name and address? He is over five hundred miles away. What use is that information to you?”
“We can contact him. I can use our police transmitter to ask our men there to contact him and acquire the relevant information…”
“I have all the relevant information here.” Ofeyi’s voice had risen to a scream. “All the information. I know the house, I know the date, the hour of abduction. I have the number of the army t
ruck that took her to the house.”
“Ah. So it was an army truck.”
“Yes” Zaccheus confirmed. “A Land Rover.”
The sergeant shifted his gaze to a spot one foot over Zaccheus’ forehead. “A Land Rover belonging to the Army?”
“You know that already” Ofeyi snapped.
“And the people who carried out this abduction, they were, according to these notes I have taken, army personnel?”
Zaccheus intervened. “Officer, you have all this information already. We are only asking for assistance. If you can’t help just direct us to whoever can.”
“The people who carried out this abduction,” he repeated, “they were, according to you, army personnel?”
“Let’s go Zaccheus.”
Zaccheus restrained him, took his place at the desk and said, “Yes sergeant, they were army personnel.”
The sergeant put down his pen and spoke with disdain. “Can you inform me why you have not gone to report to the army instead of coming to the police?”
“Sergeant, you know the situation in this town better than we. Tell us to which army officer we should report the matter. Which barracks do we go to find such a man?”
“You should have reported the matter to the army” the man insisted.
Zaccheus turned away but the man continued. “You come here, make an accusation of kidnapping and abduction concerning the house which is now owned by a local respected citizen and you expect me to go and barge in there and start to search on the word of a witness who has not made material appearance to testify….”
Ofeyi already at the door suddenly remembered. He moved towards the register at the same moment as the sergeant raised its edge. The spot was empty. Zaccheus held out his hand with the notes in it and announced, “I’ve got it boss.”
They went out of the station ignoring the sergeant’s bark to Halt there!
In the car Zaccheus said, “I knew it was a wild goat chase. They all have some of the blood on their hands.”
Soberly Ofeyi cautioned, “We had better watch our step from now on.”
“Yeah? You’re just telling me that are you? The only sensible thing is watch our step out of this town, the faster the better.”
“He wanted to know who the eye-witness was. He had no intention of helping, but he wanted the name and where he could be reached.”
Zaccheus shook his head in despair. “As the man said, the house of a highly respected person. In Cross-river highly respected persons are very high and very mighty…Ofe!”
“What is it?”
Zaccheus was quivering with suppressed excitement, a mixture of fear and discovery. “Ofe, listen. You missed what the man said. You missed something very important. That desk-sergeant said—which is now owned by…Do you get it? A house which is now owned by…! But I told you who formerly owned it. A big businessman, one of our own people. And I told you what happened to him.”
“What are you getting at?”
“But it was the soldiers who killed him and his family. And that sergeant wasn’t referring to an officer, no matter how high he is, as a highly respected citizen. They do the dirty work, nothing more. They don’t call them respected citizens. So when they went bumping off that family, they did it because the respected citizen wanted the mansion for himself. And if they took Iriyise there so soon after….Ofeyi, do you get what I am saying?”
Ofeyi stared stonily ahead.
“Only one man is big enough to use the army that way. There is only one stomach large enough to gobble up everything belonging to the aliens in Cross-river. Zaki Amuri!”
“I know. There will be something for all the faithful. But only after he has had his pickings.”
Zaccheus wrung his hands in distress. “Ofeyi, give it up.”
Ofeyi shook his head to clear it. “We may. Perhaps we are not ready for him. But first we must make sure.”
* * *
—
They were made to wait outside the gates of the Air Force Base for over half an hour, then marched into an office with two sub-machine guns at their back. In the hair-raising drive of the last one hundred yards, uniformed figures with levelled sten-guns had stepped out from behind trees into the road, forcing them to screech to a halt, then ordered them to proceed at a crawl along the last one hundred yards. Finally made to get out of the car, submit to a methodical search, walk the last few yards to the gate where two other armed figures escorted them, their backs itchy to the presence of the unwavering guns pointed at the base of their spines. The wait just outside the gate had lasted only twenty minutes but it seemed to have taken the entire day.
“They are actually gentlemen here” Ofeyi consoled Zaccheus. “We couldn’t even have got this far in any of the army barracks. But the Air Force try to be gentlemen.”
“I don’t like gentlemen who carry guns.”
“We should be all right here.”
A call came through to the gates at last and they were escorted in.
In the office into which they were led a strange face confronted them, waved them politely to a chair.
“My name is Lieutenant Sayi.”
Ofeyi began to explain what he thought was a misunderstanding but the man smiled sadly. “Yes, I know you asked for Captain Magari. I’m afraid he is dead. He was shot at the Airport three days ago, trying to stop some of the army boys from shooting down civilians. I understand from the guard that you are friends of his….”
“Yes….”
“I am sorry. I wondered if there was anything I could do. He was both a colleague and friend. If I could be of service to you in any way.”
Ofeyi was only slowly taking in the message. “So Magari is dead?”
The officer remained silent. He took a swagger-stick that lay on the table in both hands and turned it over lightly between his fingers. “His own people shot him down” he said. “As a Cross-river man himself he was not expecting too much difficulty pacifying the swine. They told him to step aside. He didn’t, so they gunned him down.”
“And the civilians he tried to save?” Ofeyi asked.
“Oh you can guess. Wiped out to the last child.”
Ofeyi stood up. “Thank you very much. We shan’t take up any more of your time.”
“Did you want anything. The guard said you had just driven all the way from Ilosa.”
“Oh it was…we were looking for a girl. She was abducted by some soldiers who shot up a club where she was giving a performance. I’m sure you’ve heard of her—the Cocoa girl….”
“Ah yes, a beautiful woman.”
“Yes?”
Zaccheus eagerly continued, sensing the possibility of authoritative help at last. “I was in the club, it was my orchestra playing that night. In the middle of the performance they burst in, fired shots at everything in sight and took her away. I followed in a car to the house where she was taken—on Market Street. It’s a big mansion, no one can mistake it. It’s the only house of its kind.”
The officer looked startled. “The big house on Market Street?”
“Yes. I watched the whole day but there was nothing I could do. The streets were not safe to walk in…”
“I know.”
“Could you help?” Ofeyi pressed him. “Is there anything you can do? I want to find her. I’ll give anything just to know what happened to her.”
The young man shook his head sadly. “So it was the girl on the posters. She is the pin-up of the whole base.”
Ofeyi checked. “You heard about the abduction then?”
“Yes, we hear all about our disgraces.”
“Do you know where she is?”
The officer rose. “I did not know that that house was involved.”
“Look Captain…”
“Lieutenant” the man smilingly corrected.
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“Lieutenant then” Zaccheus rushed on, “You don’t know what it means. If you could only put some of your men on it, just to help us find out….”
The young officer looked from one to the other. Ofeyi’s heart sank as he read the pity in his eyes.
“It will take months, if not years to sort out Cross-river, I mean really to sort it out. That includes…” He stopped short. “May I ask you this, is this your first stop since your arrival? I mean, have you made enquiries elsewhere?”
“We called at the central police station.”
The officer sighed. “And I take it you gave them all the information you’ve just given me?”
“No, not everything. Zaccheus here did not suggest he was the eyewitness.”
The officer looked visibly relieved. Then troubled again. “Even so…”
Ofeyi said quietly, “I have come here to find Iriyise, Lieutenant.”
“I know. And the only service I can perform for you, believe me very sincerely, is to give you an escort to ensure your safety out of Cross-river.”
“That is not the kind of help I am looking for.”
“It isn’t, but take my offer, quickly.”
Ofeyi walked up to him and asked directly, “Who owns that house now Lieutenant Sayi? Who had the owners butchered?”
“Oh it won’t tell you anything. And that is not really your province is it? Just take my advice, please.”
“I can’t do that.”
“In that case…” He held out his hand.
“Thanks anyway” Ofeyi said, taking his hand. Zaccheus shook hands miserably. The look in his eyes could be taken to mean that he wished the lieutenant would place them forcibly under guard and escort them out of town. But the officer was busy guiding them out, transferring them to their escort and bowing back into his office. He gave them one last brief salute.
Once outside Zaccheus wailed. “She’s dead Ofe. I feel it in my bones now. She’s dead.”
Ofeyi shook his head. “She’s alive. I am sure of that.”
“You don’t seem to know Celestial. She would give those Jekú ruffians of the Cartel so much hell they would simply have to kill her to keep her quiet. And that baby was sick enough before it all happened. Ran high temperatures all that day before we went on stage. When I think I nearly forced her to stay back in the hotel!”