“Would you like some juice?” he asked.
“Sure, that would be great.”
Baako poured some juice in one of Kara’s empty glasses and then poured himself a glass. She drank while he watched her. After a few big gulps, she set her glass down and smiled politely at the man.
“Do you know what Baako means in my language?” her dining companion asked.
Kara smiled, shook her head. She said, “No.”
“It means the firstborn. My brother and I are identical twins, but I was born first. I was the first son in our family, and that is significant in my country.”
Kara took another sip of her orange juice and let Baako talk.
“Even though my brother, Afua, is well respected, I am older and have a great deal of influence in his life.”
Kara was confused about where this conversation was headed, but she was very interested in what the brother of a Top Ten Terrorist had to say.
“I have a question for you, but I don’t want to be too forward,” Baako said, in almost an apologetic tone.
“That’s OK,” Kara said, assuming it was going to be something about her and Kornev’s relationship status. She was accustomed to being asked if she was single, attached, or in love, but mostly men wanted to know if they just might be able to score with her.
But Baako surprised her by asking, “Do you know what your boyfriend does for a living?”
Kara didn’t know how to respond, but she felt that yes was a safe answer. Because as far as he knew, Kornev could have lied to her and told her that he was a carpet salesman.
“Yes,” Kara said, and then waited patiently for the follow-up question.
“What do you think he does?” Baako asked, probing for a response that he expected Kara already knew.
“Sales,” Kara said.
“What kind of sales?” he inquired, at this point, relentless for a direct response.
“Sales of things that are expensive and hard to get.”
Kara watched Baako to gauge his reaction. She was now very interested in where this was going.
Baako took a sip of his orange juice and was quiet for a moment.
After a spell, the Nigerian said, “I wanted you to know that I’m not a person who is interested in expensive and hard to get thing, unlike my brother.”
Kara said nothing. She gave Baako a puzzled look.
“As a matter of fact, I hate expensive and hard to get things. And I also hate that my brother likes them. It puts everyone—all my family in jeopardy.”
Kara pretended not to understand what Baako was talking about, but she dared to ask the common-sense question, “Then why don’t you all leave?”
Baako flashed her his amazingly wide smile before his face returned to normal. “We don’t really have anywhere to go. Our wonderful brother has given us everything we have.” Baako held his arms out to his sides, gesturing at the entire compound.
Kara remained silent, but smiled cajolingly, nonetheless.
Afua’s brother appeared to have run out of words. He looked at her as if he had made some sort of point and was simply waiting for Kara to understand what he was saying.
“Why are you telling me this?” Kara asked. Her smile was gone, and there was an intensity to her.
“Because I don’t buy Victor’s story about who you are. I don’t trust what he told us.”
Kara looked upset, and Baako continued.
“I am a good judge of character, and everything about you says you are someone else.”
Kara was almost afraid to talk for fear that she was undoing herself with every word she spoke. But she had gone this far, so she might as well listen to him.
“Why don’t you believe I am Victor’s girlfriend.”
“Lots of reasons,” Baako said. He steepled his fingers under his chin. “You are way too pretty to be with someone like Kornev. He doesn’t fly first class or hang out in exotic places. He’s all about work, and you don’t look like a person who would put up with that.”
Kara looked at the man blankly, and asked, “Anything else?”
“In the time I’ve known Victor Kornev, he has never had a girlfriend. He is a loner. Girlfriends represent a security risk, and they are a liability to him. I have never known Kornev to risk his life for a woman.”
Baako said the word woman, as if it was a word that shouldn’t be spoken in public.
“What else?” Kara said, hoping that was all.
Baako smiled again, placed his hands in his lap, leaned back in his chair and told Kara, “Yesterday, while you were in the living room walking around and looking at things, I noticed that you spent some time looking at the keys hanging on the pegboard. This might sound odd, but I have never known a woman so interested in keys. You were also trying to act nonchalant while you were checking
out the video cameras. I watched you from outside the glass doors, while you were looking closely at all those things.”
Kara smiled innocently, not knowing what to do or say.
Baako waited for Kara to respond.
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” she said. She left her rebuttal there, hanging in space, a phrase that could be interpreted in the manner he chose to take it.
Baako smiled back at her. But now, his joyful carefree grin was tainted by something more serious. It was something a little more threatening that lurked just under the surface.
“If you are not who you say you are then that means my family, rather my brother, could be in danger. And I want to tell you something about my brother. Something that you could tell your people.”
Kara said nothing. She looked past Baako with a blank expression, as if she were looking at a passing ship out on the distant water.
“The people who work for my brother are not nice people, but I think you know that. My brother is not like the previous boss of his company. Afua wants to make some positive changes. For example, there was a school full of girls who had an unfortunate experience. My brother wants to help right that wrong to make sure they find their way back to their homes.”
Baako stopped for a moment and stared at Kara, trying to discern if she understood or knew anything he was talking about.
“So, you think that Afua will make the company a softer and gentler organization?” she asked, not sure how far to go with this.
“I don’t know if you know this or not, but my family is Christian. Afua is a Christian.”
Kara didn’t know whether to laugh or call him a liar. Her face must have given something away because Baako said, “I can tell that this information surprises you.”
He took in Kara’s look and continued, “You may not know this, but more than half of all Nigerians are Christian, and as a Christian, Afua wants to make it a much better company.”
Kara said nothing.
“All I’m asking is when you return, please tell your people that Afua is not like his predecessors. He is all about family, and our family will turn him from what he is now into a much better person. We will turn the company around. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?”
The smile returned to Kara’s face and she said, “I’m sorry, I just don’t follow or know what this has to do with me?”
This time, Baako didn’t return her smile. This time, he looked every bit as serious as his twin brother.
“I think you know what I mean, and I don’t have anything else to say on this subject.”
The rest of the meal was forced and uncomfortable. After a few bites of toast, Kara excused herself to use the bathroom, and then she sat on the couch. She turned on the TV and pretended to watch a soccer game.
Twenty minutes later, Afua emerged from his room. He was dressed in loose-fitting gray gym pants and an orange tourist T-shirt that read JAMAICA on the front in bright bold letters.
Afua nodded at Kara (his form of a morning greeting), and then he walked over to the sliding glass doors.
He slid open the door, stuck his head out and yelled to his br
other, “I’m going to work out in the gym. I will see you after your morning swim. Maybe we can play some tennis.”
Kara heard him yell back to Afua, “Sounds good.”
Kara’s heart jumped, and she didn’t know what to do, but doing nothing was not an option.
Afua closed the sliding glass door and went into the kitchen. Kara pretended to watch the soccer game. She heard the refrigerator door open and heard glassware being set on the counter.
Her exchange with Afua’s brother had somewhat rattled her. If Baako thought that she was a spy, did Afua also? Had they compared notes? It was hard for her to understand how they could allow her to walk around their compound, free to go anywhere she wanted if they suspected she was an agent. But then there were security cameras in every room. She suspected that there were cameras in the bathrooms as well. After all, a lot of nefarious stuff can go on in a bathroom. They also knew that she was unarmed and didn’t have a communication device which further reduced her as a threat while she was on an island and inside a hardened compound. If they suspected she was a spy, at least for the time being she was no more of a threat to them than a snake without fangs. Kara guessed they had very little respect for women to begin with, so that might be a factor in this very weird scenario as well. There was not much she could do to cause them problems. It
wasn’t as if they left blueprints of their next terrorist mission laying out on the dining room table or had unsecured weapons laying around.
Afua walked by the couch behind Kara. From her peripheral vision, she saw him walk down one of the wide hallways and disappear.
Kara began to analyze the conversation she just had with Baako. It seemed nonsense Baako trying to convince her that his family were Christians. If he was serious, then she had entered the frickin’ twilight zone. Muslim terrorists did what they did because they were Muslim. She had never heard of a Christian terrorist leading a jihadi sect. And really, what difference did it make what religion Diambu practiced? He had killed innocent people. Why he did it was of little importance. Even if Baako could ensure Kara that his brother was going to change his ways, Afua was still a serial killer. Afua’s life was not dependent on what he was going to do in the future. His life, or termination of it, was dependent on what he had done in the past. Even if Afua became a monk and moved to a remote monastery, they would still track him down and take him out.
Kara heard the sliding glass door open and saw Baako walk into the living room. He walked up and stood behind Kara until she acknowledged his presence. Kara looked back over her shoulder. She noticed that Baako was wearing swim trunks and no shirt.
“Would you like to go for a swim?” he asked.
Kara smiled pleasantly and said, “No, but I would like to see the beach. I’ll walk down with you.”
Baako replied, “Very good. Let me get a towel, and I will be right back.”
ROND POINT PORT—ABOARD THE HAIL PROTON
T he sun was coming up when Hail entered Hail Proton’s command center. Captain Mitch Nichols was already sitting in the big chair on the top tier. As Hail made his way up to the captain, he looked around and noticed all sixteen command stations were being manned by young men and women. Most of the big screens above the stations were lit up with video being streamed from several drones that were on station near Snake Island. There was a steady hum of animated chatter as the pilots talked amongst themselves. Everyone in the room appeared to be stoked, and the feeling was contagious. It infused Hail with excitement, as if he had been plugged into a human battery charger.
Captain Nichols began to get up from the big chair, but Hail put up his hand and told him, “No. That’s OK, Mitch. I feel like standing.” Nichols eased back into the chair and then checked the monitors mounted to his chair’s armrests.
“Status?” Hail asked the captain.
Nichols took a moment to compose his response and then informed Hail: “Foreigner made a return run and dropped off Seagulls, which was refueled. One medium-class drone, code named Foo Fighters, also made the trip and is now stationary on the outskirts of the compound. It was set down in a clump of bushes and can’t been seen from the Diambu property or the beach. The drone was put to sleep to preserve batteries, and its solar array has been deployed to charge it. We have Foo Fighters on station just in case we need it. Foghat returned from Snake Island, refueled, and back on the rack in case it is required.”
“Good thinking,” Hail commented.
The captain continued, “Foreigner was set down on an abandoned strip of road in Isunba, just north of Snake Island. We didn’t park it underwater on the off-chance we need to get it airborne in a hurry. Foreigner is heavily armed, again, just in case we need the firepower.”
“Another great idea,” Hail said.
“Seagulls has been airborne for the last hour. Now that the sun is coming up, we are getting a clear video feed from its onboard cameras.”
Nichols pointed up at one of the monitors showing a video stream sent from the birdlike drone. Seagulls appeared to be flying over the water about 100 yards off the beach. An HD image of the beach and the path leading up to the compound was visible.
Hail noticed that several of the other large monitors above the control stations mirrored the same feed.
Captain Nichols continued with the status update. “And then, of course, we have Turtles in the same spot where we parked it yesterday. We are getting ready to wake up that drone. It has about 50% battery power reserves left, and communications with the drone is five by five.”
“Very good,” Hail said. “Has there been any activity up at the compound?”
“No activity, per se, but we did a close flyby with Seagulls a few minutes ago, and we spotted Kara sleeping in a hammock on the third level of the wooden deck.”
“Hmm,” Hail grunted. He hoped the reason she was sleeping outside was because she had chosen not to sleep in the same bed with Kornev. He understood that the pang of jealousy he experienced was childish, but he couldn’t shake it.
The captain did a quick review in his mind of all the moving parts of the mission. Satisfied that he had covered everything, he said, “I think that’s about it unless you can think of anything I missed, Marshall.”
Hail shook his head and said, “I think you have covered all the bases. I sent Nolan back to the airport in Lagos with the Gulfstream just in case Kara decides she wants to call it quits or needs to get out fast.”
“That makes sense,” Nichols responded.
Several of the young pilots, who were sitting behind their control stations, were looking over at Marshall Hail. All of them had met the man, but it had been a long time since they had seen him. This was the first time Hail had been on the Hail Proton while the command center was fully manned.
Nichols noticed his pilots gazing at Hail.
“Why don’t we go over and greet your crew. They haven’t seen you in quite some time.”
Hail smiled. “I would like that.”
Nichols got out of his chair, and the two men walked down two tiers and stopped at the closest command station.
“You remember Jason Wilson?” Nichols said, by way of an introduction.
“I sure do,” Hail said reaching out and offering his hand to the young man. “How are you adjusting to your new surroundings, Jason?”
The young kid looked up at Marshall with a big smile, shook his hand and replied, “Hi, Marshall. They’re not all that new anymore. I’ve been aboard the Hail Proton for over a year. But, I love it. I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity.”
“How’s your school work going? Are you getting good grades?”
“Mostly, but I have to admit that I’m not doing all that well in English. For some reason identifying all the different parts of a sentence doesn’t compute. But I’ll get it down. It’s just a matter of time, oh, and grueling study.”
Hail smiled and asked, “From your last sentence, can you identify what part of speech the word ‘oh’ is?”
W
ilson looked perplexed for a moment and said, “I think ‘oh’ is an interjection.”
Wilson looked to Hail for confirmation, and Hail just shrugged and laughed, “Don’t look at me. I have no idea. Now, if it was a physics question, I’m your man.”
Wilson laughed.
Hail said, “Well, it’s good to see you thriving, young man. Keep up the good work.”
Hail patted Wilson on the shoulder.
“Thanks again for everything, Marshall,” the pilot said.
“I am very happy that you are part of our family, Jason. If you need anything or need someone to talk to, that is if Mitch is busy, you give me a call, OK?”
“Sounds good,” Wilson said.
Marshall left Wilson’s station and walked up to the next pilot, another familiar face that was already smiling at him, Sarah Starling.
One-by-one, and pilot-by-pilot, Hail and Nichols made their way around the perimeter of the room. It had been years since Hail had seen these young people. In some cases, he was shocked by how much some of the boys had grown, and in the same manner, he was stunned by how many of the young girls had turned into young women.
As Nichols and Hail were walking back up towards the captain’s chair, Hail said, “I really need to visit more. These kids are turning into young adults, and I’m missing it all.”
“That would be nice,” Nichols agreed.
“We’ve got some movement at the Diambu compound,” Wilson reported. “Someone is coming down the stairs to the sand below.”
Hail looked up to see the video Seagulls was streaming. It was a long and wide angle showing two figures descending the stairs that led from the third level of the deck.
“Activate Turtles and get the drone’s camera on them,” Nichols ordered.
Sarah Starling said, “Roger that,” and she pressed an icon on her screen.
Three large monitors in different parts of the room flickered and then lit up with the video being shot from the eyes of Turtles. The initial image showed nothing but sand and brush. As Starling swung Turtles’ head in the direction of the compound, the camera autofocused on the structure, and it locked in the video frame.
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