In the shadows :the path of lucas

Calm comes before the storm

The night was unusually long and quiet except for the occasional wind in that part of the desert, Lucas checked his bracelet severally, he checked the dark web, nothing had blown up, no one had died, lorenzos words kept repeating in his mind, two hours before we knew someone was coming, four hours before you arrived, they hadn't any info as to who was coming and when, but someone else had already placed his name on the terrorist most wanted list, and clearly was smart enough to take it out the very instant it was put on, that happened most of the time, high profile targets, but why, and how, and when, the gentle hands of sleep slowly lured him into its bossom at a time he didn't even realize with the encrypted ledger in his left pocket and a gun under his pillow with a kitchen knife a few centimeters below his bed, strangely enough, that's how everyone slept, except for vicenzzo who had a dagger in his belt, and a sub machine gun under his bed,

a few miles off the road, somewhere in the central city of Cairo, a bald headed old man of about seventy was having a telephone conversation with an international number,

Don't worry, said the man, we've got things under control, we move out at first light,

You know how important the procurement and safety of the asset is to all of us

one wrong step is all it takes,came the voice, a voice which was used to giving orders rather than taking them,

Don't worry sir, you worry over nothing, at first light the boys move, I shall call you once the asset is secure and on transit.

The call disconnected and the man erased the call logs after pulling out the ghost chip, the phone was dropped into the crump rubber shredder after which the pieces were collected and added to the incinerator, no loose ends, he kept on repeating to himself, just then, the clock struck three-thirty am, the man stretched his back while holding on tight to the staff in his left hand, slowly, he walked towards his room, and dozed off, his body needed the energy 🔋 to function, the day promised to be a busy one, high risk at that, he would need all the energy he can get.

The droning sound of a land cruiser made Lucas jump from his bed just as Catherine walked into the room, what happened next would have been a catastrophe if not for Lorenzo who caught the blade midair from Catherine eye, a fist fight broke out between the both snipers which lasted nearly an hour and vicenzzo was forced to intervene,

Problem was Catherine had just returned to the cabin from her daily test practice out in the desert sands, coming back she had dropped into Lucas's room with a Barette MRAD(Multi role adaptive design) 338 lapua magazine with ten round detachable magazine having a 1500meter kill range fully locked and loaded, she turned off the safety catch just as she entered the room, Lucas primary instinct was to react before looking, he had rolled off the bed sending the blade flying, he dropped on his knees producing the makarov, safety catch off , he had expected gunfire but rather a Lorenzo shouting stand down,

He was quick to look up and saw Catherine, face as pale as death looking like she just saw the very devil,

Fuck Catherine, Lucas had muttered, I almost thought, huh, he sighed, please dont try that s**t ever again, you almost got a blade in your trachea, and that's where all hell broke lose,

Catherine insisted Lucas apologized

Lucas said he couldn't apologize for trying to defend himself,

Catherine closer to lucas turn around as though to back out , then in one swift motion spun around, with aid from her slender body and flexible framework, she was able to deliver a straight on the rockss superkick to Lucas right temple with her left heel,

Lucas felt the world pause for a brief minute, a droning ring ringing in his ear, he crashed to the ground, he could see Lorenzo hovering over him, clearly saying something he couldn't process at the moment, he lay motionless and perfectly still as he was picked up and laid back on his bed while Catherine prepared some morphine and something else he couldn't make out

When he awoke, Catherine was seated beside him, holding his hand, she looked at him as he opened his eyes, slowly, the light bit into his eyes and he winced, quickly shutting them back, Catherine quickly put out the flood lights and drew the window folds,

Hey, she said with a smile, how is your head?

I think I'll need a day off, he replied weakly, how long have I been out

About an hour, said Catherine, look, she continued, I know I shouldn't have budged your edge like that, am an elite sniper and I react in real terrifying ways whenever someone c**k's a gun behind my back especially when am asleep

Yeah, its fine I guess, I think I deserve it, I over reacted, how bad is it,

She placed a hand by the side of his neck where her heel had met his submentum, there was a swollen patch around his submental space

Quite bad she said, taking off her hand,

I think you should keep it back, it's a better remedy

Then how about, we take it all out, she said

Am lost, Lucas replied,

Catherine laughed as she kissed him the first time, he didn't budge, a second time, he sort of got the hint, and plunged right in the third time, an hour later, they both walked out holding hands at the call of Yusuf to assemble at the garage

So you two an item now?? Asked Lorenzo who was standing apart, enough to miss a diving kick to the abdomen or something in between, everyone checked gears and they boarded the desert cruisers, another one had mysteriously arrived this morning, no driver, no controls, and the trip began,

What was supposed to be a regular escorts turned into a night mare as the convoy passed Giza, headed for Cairo.

The lead car engulfed into a ball of fire as a second impact shook the desert cruiser, it seemed to survive by some sheer luck before been taken out by an RPG, Lucas swore he could hear Lorenzo calling out into his bracelet

Contact, contact, receiving fire from unknown assailants, rpgs are active

Grid location :

Latitude : 29.9792° N

Longitude 31.1342° E

We are moving southwest, enemy troops approaching, we are been engaged, we are returning fire, requesting kanine intervention (QRF), another shot tore the armor at the fender and back bumper of the cruiser, torrents of bullets rained down over the top as another hell fire took out the cruiser from between, it sumersaulted and crashed some couple of yards down the sloppy terrain, some one was already out and calling his name,

Lucas, Lucas, lucas, shaking him vigorously, his eyes opened accompanied by a crushing pain in the portion of his neck where Catherine had struck him some hours ago, he looked ahead, they were surrounded,

she tossed some aspirin into his mouth,

That should help with the pain for a little while, she said handing him his mk20 rifle, Lorenzo had already picked a spot in what seemed like a trench and the once peaceful morning now reeked with the scent of gunpowder, guns of different calibres, ammunition of varying sizes filled the fiiring chambers as the surviving four struggled to keep their heads on their necks as the bullets kept coming

The cruiser had a flat tire so escape wasn't an option, as Catherine and lucas took positions using the bullet riddled land cruiser for cover, catherine somewhere behind , and Lorenzo ahead, vicenzzo taking the rear, the duel went on, four of the best keeping all differences aside and merging their minds together to form one perfect war machinery,

Until Lucas heard it, a silent thud, a bullet had hit too close, he felt his heart race in ways it had never done before, Catherine turned to him and forced a smile , time seemed to slow down before she slumped dead to the ground like a log of wood as lucas raced to her side to stop her from falling, she had a huge dent in the middle of her chest , the bullet had gone through the heart and left an opening wide enough to fit in a fist, he turned around, Lorenzo was already dead in the ditch he mounted, and vicenzzo was severely wounded, he was still contemplating when it struck again, from no where in particular, the cruiser exploded into a flaming ball of tiny fragments, the impact knocked him off as vicenzzo mustered all his strength to shove him to the ground due to his structure, using himself as a human shield 🛡, you must live lucas, he slowly whispered as his heart stopped to beat.

Lucas scooped the MK20, optics was shattered but the barrel was good. He wouldnt be taking 800 meter shots today, he bit down on a groan and staggered unto the side street, Cairo swallowed him in heat and honking and the smell of bread and diesel.

He barely made it three blocks before the leg gave out, he collapsed behind a large dumpster, filled to the very brim and his cheeks lay against litters beginning to decompose

A bolt of pain shot through his body like a plain white sheet, he fumbled in his jacket, not for the wound, for the drive.

Still there', still warm from his body

He pulled out the mission sheet he had taken off the kanuri boys corpse before he ran, it was soiled with body fluid and reeked with blood, even dampened by it, at the top in NIA cypher code, was his name

A.Lucas. O

Terminate:kill on sight

Below we're coordinates, times stamps,routes, the exact alley where the cruiser had surfaced from the safehouse. And at the bottom, the authorizing signature and stamp.

Lucas knew the signature too well, everyone in NIA did.

The deputy director of f*****g operations, “ghost bello”,he froze

His own boss, the very man who'd handed him the drive in abuja twelve hours ago and whispered into his ear”Get this to station chief Cairo, no digital traces, no track, no record, you are the only one I can trust, lucas”.

Bello sold him out, signed his death warrant and mailed it to Boko haram an hour twenty minutes before he took off from abuja, four hours before he ever set foot in Egypt, lorenzos word came flooding back, “someone didn't want that name seen on the list, it was taken the very moment it was uploaded, I couldn't even extract the originating signature nor trace it, it was wiped clean ,something else didn't click, as he closed his eyes,willed his mind, the RPG that hit the both cruisers, there was no signature launch, no smoke trail, he didn't hear the whitstle of object breaking the sound barrier, it had come down on them, more like it fell from the sky,

Like a drone strike, but no one was licensed to fly armed drones into Egyptian air space, and the NIA had no drone bases anywhere near Egypt or the Mediterranean, Lorenzo personally made sure of it,the Egyptians had made their point when they blew up an NIA drone base somewhere in the Nile, armed drones in Egypt and anywhere near the Mediterranean nor the red sea all through the Nile outside Egyptian Control was restricted , none had balls enough to fly a loaded drone into Egyptian airspace and not suffer repercussions, except........

His mind seemed to spin around, shocked by the very horror of his thought.