For Blood And Country

March 6, 2014 - KHALID

"You mentioned earlier you just got back to the country. From where, if I may ask?" Folakemi asked as she drove to the estate. I couldn’t believe my half-baked plan from the day before was going so well.

"What can you tell me about Limelight media?" I asked the driver of the cab that drove me earlier that morning.

The man turned to look at me properly and asked, "Are you a Nigerian?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because every Nigerian knows Limelight." He said, still looking at me doubtfully.

"Well, I've been out of the country for a while." I said.

"Hmm, Limelight is one of the well-known media houses in Nigeria and are the publishers of Limelight Newspaper and Limelight Entertainment Weekly magazine."

"Sure. I've been in the States for a while. I thought it would be nice to come home for a while and perhaps settle down and get a job if things are favourable."

"What kind of job?"

"Well, I studied law, but I don’t think it would be that useful here." I said.

"Why would you want to come back here to settle then?" She asked, confused.

"I don’t know," I said, "Maybe because at the end of the day, this is still my country and it keeps me closer to my family." Before she could ask another question, I said, "And you, I guess you're a reporter…but wait. You have a company car, so probably one of the bosses?"

"I'm a journalist. And no, I'm not one of the bosses. I just moved to Jos from Lagos and the company wanted me to have the car until I was fully settled and got my own car, if I would be here for that long."

"You must be a pretty big deal then."

She smiled, "Not really, nothing big about me. It's just…fate."

"You believe in fate?"

"Of course, how else would you explain meeting me? I mean, unless you were following me, it was obviously fate that made you spill my drink." She looked over at me and I stiffened.

Uh-uh, I thought. "Well, if you put it like that." I said.

We drove in silence for a while and I let my mind wonder. It's been over a week since I left Bama and I really had to get back the next day if I'm to find out anything, although I doubted if the man, the financer was still in the country. People like that did not stay out of the shadows for long because they always felt they were being watched. Most of the time, they were right and other times they were just paranoid but at least, it was what kept them alive and how they had managed to avoid apprehension. But for the sake of Evans, the agency and everyone that would be affected if whatever he came for was successful, I hoped that he was still in the country and I hoped we would catch him.