Chaos

Chapter 2

The patrol cars stopped and the team fanned out into the market, kabiru headed a team the left, firing simultaneously as they went, terrorists returned fire from the cover of stalls, tables and anything they could hide behind. Kabiru dived, rolling to the left behind a drum, he fired at a terrorist who quickly ducked back into cover.

He raised to fingers pointing left, two men peeled left while he and another covered them, firing in controlled bursts, machine g*n fire was shielding the now fleeing terrorists, blocking any possible advance of his team,

‘We’re pinned, we need to take out that damned machine g*n now’

‘On it now, Oscar cover me’ Kabiru sprang suddenly and ran to a short wall that was used as a stall divider, cover fire was being laid behind him but the shooter sensed what was happening and continued to track Kabiru, he ducked just on time as heavy fire burst a drum that was just behind him, and disappeared under a table.

‘Oscar, be advised, I’m going to have to wait for him to reload, try to keep his attention on you and the rest of the team over’

‘I’m hit!’ Oscar cried as he clutched his arm, the bullet had ripped a chunk of his shin and flesh as it tore right through, he brought out a strip of clothe and tied the area to minimize blood loss,

‘It’s clean through, I can manage it’

Kabiru waited and counted slowly, click, click, click, the hammer clicked as the g*n ran out,

He rose quickly steadied, squeezed the trigger and ducked,

‘He’s down, go!’ Kabiru shouted, the firing was almost seizing.

Ali sprang from his cover and ran, his Mag was almost out, this was indeed a stupid idea, nearly all of his men had been killed, the ones left were fleeing, blood flowed from his wounds as he ran, he had taken sots to his thigh, shoulder and belly, capture was not an option, He ran shouting orders to his fleeing men, orders no one was prepared to take, he was being chased, as he neared the bushes he turned to see if any of his men was following.

Isaac instinctively knelt and shouted for the fleeing terrorist to stop, he saw him turn, saw the g*n cycle around and he fired.

Ali fell, coughing blood, slowly he tried to crawl, his body was failing, he clutched the now fading earth,

‘Allahu Akbar’

* * *

‘Bravo to Alpha-one, do you read me’

‘loud and clear Alpha-one, what is your status?’

‘Alpha-one to bravo, we encountered serious resistance along the highway leading to the market, they have been overpowered and we are currently rounding them up. Over’

‘Good job Alpha-one, be advised there may be more ambushes along, stay sharp, sweep the entire area and proceed to rendezvous. We are currently at the secretariat, will be at the meeting point as scheduled if all goes well. Bravo out’

Lieutenant Mohammed stared at the secretariat as his men pushed through the gates, all seemed calm, there was nobody in the premise. Due to the continuing attacks on government facilities and public buildings, the government had closed down secretariats pending such a time it deemed safe to recall its staffs to their duties. But that time seemed like a long way off as terrorists were becoming more and more relentless in their attack, their methods were getting more bizarre; child bombers were being used to target markets, churches and even mosques. The ruthlessness of these attacks was becoming worrisome, whole villages were now being sacked, literarily burnt to the ground, pillaged, women r***d, men killed;, some for refusing to accept their ‘holy Jihad’, while others did not even have the luxury of choice, cut down and used as scape goats in televised executions which were sent to the government as warnings to carry out preposterous demands.

And yet this place was totally empty!

Not even the security guards were on sight as gunnery sergeant Frally scanned the gatehouse, it looked dusty and deserted surely no one had been there for at least three days, he signaled to move ahead, tire tracks seemed to mark the entrance to the building all the way to the back, he bent and examined the pattern on the tracks, they looked like those of a land rover and they were still at least less than two days fresh, they had to be from yesterday.

“Charlie-one to Bravo, Tire tracks indicate a truck has been here in less than a day, maybe yesterday. Over”

“copy that Charlie-one, be advised, proceed with caution.”

Frally signaled to fan out, the team approached the main building cautiously, he was on point, flanked on both sides by Charlie-two and three, he approached a car that looked like it had not seen service for years and signaled Charlie-two to proceed.

The building was a sort of U-shaped, the main entrance was bounded to both the left and right by two blocks which pushed it backwards, the inside walls were glassed allowed one to see through the adjacent pillars of the bricks which made the U-shape, as Frally knelt behind his cover watching the team advance he thought he saw a reflection on one of the glass walls, rounded and shaking as the fading sun incident on the glass frames.

'charlie-two, I'm getting a reflection from the insides of the building and it appears to shaking, I think someone's at home, proceed with caution,'

But the reply never came.

In that moment both Frally and Charlie-two understood what the circular reflection was. The sniper was not silenced, it tore through the main carotid artery and went out clean Charlie-two dropped instantly. g*n fire exploded from every direction, the defenders fired from slits they had hastily bored, the attackers had them cornered and they pressed home their point having tasted blood from the death of their comrade.

But sergeant Frally stared in disbelief, the lifeless body of the fallen member of the recon team lay still where it had fallen while blood stained the now dusty ground in a geyser, until a bullet tore through the side mirror of the wrecked vehicle he was using as cover and he snapped out of the fear and shock that threatened his sub-conscious, he placed a wall of disbelief around them; charlie-two was down but he wasn't and so also his other comrades who were busy fighting to stay alive.

He fired at the sniper position, but the tango had moved away immediately he took the fatal shot, now the whole team was on him and their automated rifles and machine guns spitted fire while their owners cursed in any conceivable dialect the bastard sniper who had taken that shot, promising swift and painful retribution should he be captured alive.

'Bravo to Charlie-one, do you read me?' his squad leader was saying over the radio,

'Charlie-one do you read me?'

'positive Bravo, loud and clear' he ducked to reload and fired,

'Charlie-one, you are to Echelon to the left, you will sweep the flanks and then gain access to the back, Fox-one will cover your advance, copy'

'Fox-one and fox-two will lay cover fire, I want anything through that building down and cold, no more surprises.

Frally peeled to the left, fired at a terrorist and ducked as his team mate performed a dive and and took down another who had begun to reload without taking cover.

'RPG!' Someone screamed over the command radio, the grenade arched a sinusoidal path that missed fox-one by a few yards leaving behind a geyser of smoke, Fox-one rolled over and took out the terrorist as he tried to reload another launcher, soldiers dived away from the arrow of death as it dived and impacted with Alpha-three's transport vehicle, the vehicle a light armored version of the IVM G-12 worked well for small rounds and long range fire but not against a rocket propelled grenade, the grenade went right through an open window before impacting with the insides of the vehicle and exploded, the vehicle jerked upwards with the force of the explosion scattering glass and shrapnel in every direction, as the vehicles own store of petrol ignited almost instantaneously, but the battle raged on.

Sergeant Frally ducked behind a door as terrorists kept a seemingly endless stream of g*n fire,

'flash grenade!' Charlie-three rolled the grenade and ducked, Frally rushed in seconds later and fired at the destabilized defenders, two to the right, another to the left and a third as he tried to make a getaway into the adjoining room, without waiting for backup he flew into the next room.

Lateef was hiding behind an overturned table, the grenade's effects were quick and it's damage radius was rather small which meant he was virtually unaffected by the explosion in the adjoining room, so when the soldier burst through the door, he squeezed and allowed a burst of fire to hit him square on the chest, he fell, Lateef ducked, then raised himself to double check but his quarry was no longer where he had fallen.

'Nice try, shithead!' Frally fired point blank as pain shot from his chest, he sighed, that was definitely too close and careless, he'd been dead if this terrorist had paid any attention during target practice, but he hadn't and he was glad for it.

The battle was over as quickly as it had began, this turned out to be small stakeout group detailed to serve as a distraction, 

What they were distracting from had to be where the main show was happening. lieutenant Mohammed glanced at the rubble, two of his men lay dead towards the south end,

he glared at a surrendered terrorist,  appalled by the fact that this men who considered the enemy infidel, vermin, unworthy and unfit would find it easy to take advantage of such an enemy and to quickly surrender when his own life was at stake when in a reversed position this enemy preferred to shoot enemy combatants in the head than take them prisoners, how people who did not care to play by the rules of the game cared and wanted for others to play by the book just to save their own skin. There he was, kneeling beside the cold body of Charlie-two, three good men had been cut down, damn good soldiers they were.

He kicked away the g*n from the hand of a dead terrorist, didn't want any more bodies, no soldier deserved to die after the battle had been won, this is why armies were always careful to confirm and make sure that every dead enemy

combatant stayed dead, military legends cite tales of numerous occasions were armies had employed various forms of deception to pull an unexpected victory from their opponents, from the early Greek Trojan horse legend when the Greeks deceived the Trojans into thinking that their armies had fled and abandoned the siege of those lands which had dragged on for months drawing out the Trojans and deceiving them into literally carrying the Greek warriors into their impregnable city.

As the Art-of-War makes room for extensive use of deceptive techniques, not that Mohammed thought the enemy had the patience to go through such an article anyway, commanders had to make sure that even a dead opponent stayed dead, because in the end the only good enemy in a battle is a dead enemy.

lieutenant Mohammed sighed again and picked up the dead terrorist's g*n, he grimaced as he examined the new looking Ak-47 Rifle, it was unmarked and obviously new, this meant that terrorist were getting new supplies from somewhere through the tight blanket then army was throwing to choke their supply lines, something big was definitely brewing, little wonder there was sudden decrease in their assaults, their tactics seemed to have changed over the past couple of weeks, he mused as he watched the captured terrorists, something was definitely wrong or about to

go terribly wrong.

                                       *                                   *                                       *

The bus stopped, Amina listened as the men exchanged words with who ever they were talking to, the terrorists in the bus were now up as if daring any student to raise the alarm, even the students who had seemed inconsolable found their composure as soon as the g*n nozzle came up, others shook in terrified tremors as their bodies and minds fought back the tears and sobs in the face of an even greater fear; Death!

'Excursion you say?' the vigilante asked absent mindedly, wondering why the driver was sweating in the evening,

'Yes, excursion. for examinations.'

'Examinations' he repeated, 'I thought they used too have those in schools?'

'well you know how it is, most times the say one thing and do the other in this country the driver continued to rattle on in Hausa, Usman glanced at the other occupant, he was signaling him. He looked once more at the sweating driver and and strode over to the other passenger.

' Look, we are on a very tight schedule,' he pointed behind with a sweeping gesture that lazily invited Usman to take a look, of course Usman could see the group of students, but what he did not see was the guns that were trained on them.

'... have exams you see, if they do not get to Askira within the next twenty minutes, who knows if they will pass/' he asked and signed in a gesture of false resignation, He simply slipped slipped Usman a torn page from a magazine, he opened it and saw the new minted wad of notes within, glanced back at the now smiling driver and nodded,

'Pass!'

 He called out, good money for literally no work, he watched as the convoy progressed and sighed, why did they need so many men to escort them and a sweaty driver, not his business though, he had done his job as was required of him and those escorts damned well do theirs if the terrorists decided to assault them.

                   Crowds began to gather as the seemingly lifeless rows of stalls slowly sprang to life, it was 6am and some shops were already cleaning up for the day while others engaged in one form of religious activity or the other in a bid to call down God's favor's as they began the day's activities.

Bright Golden flames cackled in the slowly brightening light of dawn as local food vendors fried their morning's batch of bean cakes locally called Akara balls which was the usual quick breakfast the traders preferred to start their day with, this was the computer village it was the life of daytime Ikeja, here one could buy anything that ran on circuits; Telephones, Laptop computers, desktop computers, mobile phones; new, fairly used( or London-used as they called them), second-Hand(which was the market name for already used phones) and in many cases stolen phones(of course no one would tell you that they were stolen anyway, not until if your are unfortunate and the police come knocking at your door).

The city of lagos was wide awake and coming to life for the day's business activities, street urchins yawned and stretched from their sleeping hideouts, this are homeless kids, Orphans, Runaways and castaways who found home and solace living on the streets, they were the life of the streets, they saw and heard everything yet they were deaf and went about blindly, their lifes flowed with the rising sun yet they wanted nothing much but bread for their often hungry bellies and a little cash now and then which they got either honestly or dishonestly.

The day broke in the already bustling chaos of the ever busy city of Ikeja, amidst all the bustle and problems which faced the people of this sleepless city, news of the kidnap of more two hundred school girls added an astonishing twist to that whole madness, from the moment Radio Nigeria and the BBC broke the news at 6am, the news had spread like wildfire fuelled by the constant report of terror attacks in the north east states of the country; traders, hawkers, cab drivers, vendors, food retailers and even the usually sour-faced bus boys seemed to be enlivened by the news as they called for hurrying commuters jokingly adding that,

'Boko Haram dey come o, if you like make you waste time, na you dem go come carry go' In Yoruba flavoured Pidgin.

The morning atmosphere was charged already, like a pregnant cloud it bulged in expectation, waiting for the right amount of poking to burst open and soak the puny earthmen with it's contents.

Somewhere across the Island, unperturbed by the smell of fried Akara balls, stinking waters from blocked and overflowing drainages or from the cares of daily living that plagued he Streets of Lagos,

In the VIP suite of Lagos Continental, the esteemed guest was still sleeping he had wined late after a seminar that crawled late into the evening, but he was not about to miss the sights and sounds of the famous night clubs of the Victoria Island because of a little stress he had driven straight to one of them determined to make the most of his short stay in the centre of excellence and boy! did he have an excellent night, he smiled as the thoughts came to him, he rolled over and reached out for something, but the bed was empty, he sighed. One of the sights of Lagos had given him a personal tour of It's inner secrets, his first night in Lagos after so many months was all he had hoped for, he revelled in the sights of the beautiful city of Victoria Island, a wide grin began to play around the corners of his mouth as recordings of the sounds of this Sight played in his head, he lazily reached for the Tv remote and turned on the channel.

What a night, he slowly stretched and faked a yawn to go with the stretch, it was the news at seven, the presenter was saying something about school girls and kidnapping...

'... Reports just reaching us say that more than 200 final year students may have been kidn*pped late wednesday evening in the remote town of Chibok in Bornu State....'                                                 

He froze, the news sank slowly as rain soaks into the folds of starched Agbada, but this Agbada was a living being, goose bumps began to form at the back of his neck, he flipped the next switch,

' Though at this time no group has come out to claim responsibility for the kidnapping...'

flip!

' Efforts to reach either the chief of army staff and the honourable Minister for Education have proved abortive...'

Ofcourse they couldn't reach the Minister for education because here he was revelling in the orgies of the night before, he picked up his mobile phone and removed it from Silent, there were up to fifty missed calls and messages.

's**t!' Samuel muttered rather loudly, flipped open his laptop just as the call from his assistant came in,

'Hello.... morning Jane!'

'Yes, i know,..I had a good night'

'ok, I've seen the news unfortunately, tell those press people we will get back to them when wwe have enough and confirmed information'

'Yes, cancel all other engagements and get me on a flight to Abuja within the hour.

He dropped the call and sighed, so much for enjoying the sights and sounds of Lagos.

By 10am he had gone through four articles on different dailies, the kidnap was the cover story, the shear brazenness of the attack shook the very foundations of the nation, who was safe then, people were asking. Apparently the chief of Army staff had given a statement, He himself had confirmed the news from the commissioner for education in Bornu state, the president had personally called him,. the chief of staff,the information minister and both the speakers and the presidents of the house of representatives and the senate respectively, the entire country was in confusion, every newspaper in the country had the story as cover story, every Tv/Radio station apparently had some reporter already stationed in Boenu state, clamoring for an exclusive with both the commissioners of Information or his counterpart in the education sector or with any identified parents of the mising girls, the public was demanding for an official statement from either the ministry of Education or the Office of the President.

Samuel scanned through each article, the public's view was bad already this was going to be the icing on the cake or more correctly put the last straw that wil finally break any chance of reelection for the incumbent president who also happened tobe his boss, meaning that in less than a year, he would also be in the labour market, he grinned. the irony was strIking though but the insurgency was threatening to wallow the whole administration thus quenching any chance, Samuel sighed again and dropped the last paper. his day was turning out to be a rather long one, yet he had no idea that th definition of a long day was going to be totally redefined for the reminder of the month.

                                                                                                     * * *

Hadjia Salamatu always had an acute sense for premonitions, she noted thebmere sighting of a butterfly in the house it meant something, nothing occurred by chance, everything pointed to something, everything unusual was God's way of warning or alerting to an upcoming event; a butterfly in the house meant an unexpected guest was coming, a spider descending on a single web from the ceiling meant death( it had to be killed swiftly if that Grimm fate was to be abolished), hitting ones foot against a stone before going out meant misfortune, one had to go back inside and then come out again to annul that fate, She took this little things very seriously, this things could be the difference between life and death, life was hard in the North, the times were perilous and more so if the man was a Christian. Christians had become the targets of terror attacks, discriminations, they were being constantly spied upon by every one who was not a Christian,, they had become a lifeline to these others; when the terrorist's came, all you needed to do to save yourself was to point out an, 'infidel' that was how you showed loyalty to the Jihad.

Daily the media continued to be awash with the news of the sacking of villages, towns and very recently whole local government areas, the only good news this days was life so Hadjia started when a bee hit her square in the face,

'Holy Ghost fire' she muttered in shock, this was late in the afternoon, the market in Gwoza was sizzling with activity, busily buying and selling, arguing out prices, traders desperate for sales were busily calling on all that could listen to come and try out their wares, everyone seemed to be in a hurry and this was nothing new this days, occasionally terrorist's would resort to soft targets; markets, schools, churches and any public gatherings. The only safe place was home in the comfort of your family and loved ones and if death came, what better way was there to go than surrounded by family? She winced still, her first daughter Amina had gone to write her final exams, just one more day and she'd be back home safe and away from danger and those rampaging terrorists.

By this time, the news had gone through almost all the news agencies in the state, there had been an attack, students had been kidn*pped, people sighed, others shook their heads. k********g was indeed turning out to be the order of the day, but Hadja Salamatu was none the wiser. 

quickly she gathered her bags from the keke marwa that had driven her home, paid the fair and trudged back into the large compound, the sun was undoubtedly hot, too in hot infact,

'Ibrahim!' She called out,  all she needed was a glass of chilled water,

'Ibrahim!!' but the entire compound was dry and lifeless, her voice travelled to the far wals and came back as echoes, she reached the old sofa at the front and sank into it, Ibrahim was fond of going off to play football in the nearby school,

'Silas!' She yelled at her third child,

'Silasuu! He was probably asleep,

'Hadija1' He half-called back sleepily, how the boy could sleep in the heat of the afternoon never ceased to amaze her,

'Where is Ibrahim?'

Silas ran his hands over his face, yawned and stretched, shifting uneasily evidently trying to recall where Ibrahim was,

   ' I can't remember Ma, but I think he said something about going to get hi shoe from the Mallam down the street.'

Hadija studied him for a abit and concluded that he was lying,

'Get me a glass of water from the Fridge, make sure to get from only the half-filed bottle,' they were always in the habit of opening new bottles and never finishing the water in them,

Silas was back, his eyes brightened as he handed over the glass of water,

'Hadija, Father was home'

Hadija raised an eyebrow, her husband coming home in the afternoon was a rare occurrence.

"Did he forget something?"

Silas shook his head slowly as if trying to remember if his father gad forgotten something at home,

" ... Ehmm, he said something about going to the police station, something about Amina's school."

The glass cup crashed on the cemented veranda with a shattering sound,

"My daughter? Amina?" Hadija Salamatu was already going before Silas could venture a reply, she reached the edge of the street, turned about and came back,

"Carry this bags inside, lock the doors and don't open them for anybody except your Father and myself." She grabbed the piece of clothe she had used to tie her hair, walked briskly off leaving Silas scratching his head in dilemma,

"What about Ibrahim, Should I not open for him?"

"Will you carry those things inside and lock the door?.. Useless boy!" Silas scurried away still not understanding what to do when his brother came back.

* * * *

The news of the kidnap spread like wild fire in the harmattan, every news agency pounced on the story like hungry crows on dead meat, articles, interviews, opinions, publications, international and national dailies basked in the aura of the tragedy, after all it was just months before the general elections, the tension in the political scene was almost electrifying, weather forecast's for the incumbent were quickly becoming ominous. The North was already lost to the opposition. Now, the west which had been swaying steadily towards the opposition was now effectively lost, thick dark clouds were beginning to gather, Insecurity was now the main chant of the opposition; Terrorists were having free rein.

In Bornu state, just along the outskirts of Chibok, Damboa was nearly completely razed to the ground, Kusar was under serious attack, Biu was being shelled daily, Bama was effectively lost to the rampaging terrorist.

The Nigerian Army was locked in an internal weapons Scandal, gallant soldiers were refusing to go up against terrorists for what reasons they sighted as, 'unsafe' combat conditions; they complained of substandard ammo, out of service rifles and ammunitions, lack of adequate firepower compared to the well and mysteriously funded terrorists, if you added hunger due to unpaid allowances to the mix then you get the general idea of what the soldiers were feeling and going through.

The opposition were old hands in the game, they danced around, pranced about in seemingly endless cycles but never straying too far of their bulls Eye; Insecurity. They systematically heated the polity, inciting the terrorists subtly, united by a single mission; Restore power to the North.

While they strategized and held secret meetings, their Southern counterparts continued to bask in drums and drums of underpriced crude oil from oil wells which were owned by either foreigners or Northern moguls, discussed the latest trends in the entertainment industry, news of terror attacks were to them like the distant drums of the Ikonka masquerade; rising and fading but never coming close, while the masquerade itself was in their backyards, only very few could discern the symbols on the cowries, this few were like fine grain in a pan of rice, surrounded by crowds that were saying things that did not matter, their wisdom was noise their kinsmen, until Chibok by which time nothing could be done to slavage the situation, the Cabal had won or were effectively wining, Insecurity had cast a thick shadow on all other areas were the incumbent was making tremendous progress, helped by the mass media; news houses were having the time of their lives, their staffs worked overtime endlessly to keep up with the trends of election year and Victor David of the daily times was not an exception.