For Blood And Country

March 8, 2014 - KHALID

I got back to Borno the night Friday night and stayed with Taofeek in his house. Early the next morning I left for Bama. It was easy getting to the camp since the area was under the control of the militant group since December of the year before. As I entered Major's quarters I ran into his right-hand man, Bello. He had a scowl on as he walked by with the phone pressed to his ear his ear. Bello had never been particularly friendly to me since I got to the camp. He said my background was too clean and no one's background is that clean except they are spies. I learnt that he studied Industrial Chemistry and was very good at it. He was the kind of jihadist that believed anyone who was not fully dedicated to the cause should be executed. He was feared by most there because he was ruthless and there were rumours that he was going to be Shekau's right-hand man soon. Shekau himself was not a person you see every day. Only his trusted advisers know where he was most times and never at any given time. Those trusted advisers, you could count on one hand. The jagaba is one of those few and had been devoted to their course since the days of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram. According to reports, he had many people close to him and that was what got him killed. Shekau was also very close to him then and he had learnt from the mistake of his leader Like back in '08, a camp such as the brothers of faith was planned and every Tom, d**k and Harry who heard about it showed up at the venue. The crowd became too much to handle and the purpose of the camp was not accomplished. In short, it was a huge failure, which was why Shekau made the screening process tight and put Major in charge of the training. Now that I was subtly getting into the inner circle, I posed a threat to Bello.

"Who's there?" The jagaba asked as I knocked on his door.

"It's me, Khalid."

"Come in." He replied. As I stepped into the office the jagaba was seated, facing the door with another man opposite him with his back to the door. "I wasn't expecting you back till next weekend, Khalid." Jagaba said.

I shrugged, "I couldn't find anything interesting to do. Besides you mentioned that you had something to show me and I was eager to find out what it was."

He looked up at me sharply, away from the papers he was whisking off his desk, "Why?"

"Because I can't wait to start my work –" I raised my hands, "–I know it sounds overly ambitious but that's why I'm here, right?"

He observed me for a moment before finally grunting, then he resumed clearing his desk. When he was done he looked up again. "This is Mr Udoh," he said pointing to the man sitting in front of him." He liaises for us and our sponsors."

The man got up and turned around to face me. "It's nice to meet you Khalid. I've heard so much about you." He said as he extended his hand.

"Really?" I raised a brow as we shook hands.

"Yes. See, it's my job to know everything about our investments, and people dedicated to the task ahead of us." Mr Udoh said. "Major Dauda already told me how you took the training serious despite the fact that you must have had similar training overseas with the uhm… let me say, like-minded group, before coming here."

"Well…" I said looking impressed.

"So you see; I've really heard so much about you." He said clearly pleased with himself.

I nodded and said, "It's nice to meet you too, Mr Udoh." Bello came in then and whispered something in jagaba's ear.

"Mr Udoh brought some news from our sponsors." Jagaba said to me when Bello was done. "Remember the meeting I told you about? It is holding this coming week. And since you're here, you should come with us – if Mr Udoh has no problem with that."

Mr Udoh appraised me briefly before replying. "Mr Khalid is for us from what I've heard, so there shouldn't be any problem." Bello looked as though he was going to object but instead he scowled and swallowed. I knew I was becoming more of a threat to him and he would play dirty if he had to. The last thing I wanted was him snooping around and finding something about me. I knew I had to do something about him quickly.

"Good. That should be all for now then." Jagaba said. "Thank you Mr Udoh, we'll see again in a few days." He got up and Mr Udoh followed suit. They shook hands and the three men walked out of the room. Once I heard them outside the building I rushed over to the drawer and brought out the papers the jagaba had shoved in. There was no time to study them so I took out my pen-camera. The standard CIA pen-camera has a memory of thirty-two gigabytes and could contain a reasonable amount of close-up high resolution pictures. In the case of the pen is a USB connector to easily transfer the data to a computer. I started clicking away at the papers.

By the time I was done, Bello and the jagaba were still outside so I placed the papers back in the drawer the way I met them and then headed outside as I heard a car drive off. I was almost out of the door when I heard Bello say my name. I paused and waited behind the half-closed door.

"…good idea for this Khalid to go with us. This is a very important meeting."

"Bello, I know you have doubts about Khalid but I'm convinced he is for our cause, just as he said. And you heard Mr Udoh, it is not a problem." The jagaba replied.

"Yes, but…"

"What about the men you sent to follow him? Haven't they given you feedback?"

"They have; he visited a girl in Jos with that man from Borno. That alone is suspicious, jagaba because he didn't say he knew anyone in Nigeria before coming here."

"Okay look at it this way. It is better to keep him close and find out all there is to find out. If you're right, then he's a dead man. But if not, you drop this once and for all. Because if we are to carry out this mission together, we can't be fighting one another, understood?"

"Yes jagaba."

Then they resumed walking towards the door and the jagaba continued, "He is your responsibility from now till –" He paused as I stepped out, then said to me with a smile, "–Khalid, are you ready to start your work?"