Shadow

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She never really liked hospitals, but who did? However, she had learnt to respect their importance. He grandfather had passed away because of this ignorance. Though he was quite old, he could have still lived about five more years.

The door opened behind her and the lady doctor walked in. A end of her stethoscope was still in her hand. She had probably just finished with a patient. Her forehead was greased with sweat and her eyes with fatigue. The ring on her hand said the stress might not be totally from the hospital. She probably had toddlers she had to care for.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting. How can I help you?” She said forcing a pleasant smile.

“Doctor, I have been having headaches frequently. They come and go. Sometimes, things just seem to magnify before my eyes and there’s this pounding in my head”, Elizabeth explained. The doctor tapped her pen on the desk as she listened. The pounding started again with every contact the pen made with the wooden table.

“Do you feel these symptoms now?” She asked her. Elizabeth pressed her hands against the sides of her head. She squeezed her eyes shut to ease the pain. Suddenly, it was gone.

“Are you okay?” The doctor asked.

“I am now. I really need your help doctor. I have searched the internet and have not come across anything like this”, Elizabeth pleaded.

“How long has this been happening?” The doctor’s impassive look assured her a little.

“A few months back; it used to occur about six times a month. Now, it’s almost every day”, she replied.

“Why didn’t you visit the hospital immediately you discovered the repetitive pattern?” The doctor was playing strict mother. It was a natural look on her. She probably had boys, Elizabeth observed. She stared at the calendar on the wall for some time before turning back to the doctor.

“I thought it was stress”, she said.

“What kind of stress did you suspect, stress from work, relationship, family or other activities?”

“I was kidnapped some months back.” Chris’ face flashed in her mind.

“It might be post-traumatic stress, but I would like to run some tests first. Do you have the time?” Elizabeth shook her head. She had to get back to the office. She was to present a case at the Magistrate court in three days. The doctor didn’t push it.

“I will give up some drugs to help you sleep, but you have to come back.” Elizabeth nodded.

“You know I still can’t believe I am having lunch with Joyce Akpan”, he said as the waitress brought their plates of fried rice and chicken. He had called her the day before and made a date. She was her own boss, she claimed so she could leave anytime. He didn’t ask further.

“Awn, miracles happen Chris.” She pulled her hair behind her ears and leaned forward. “So tell me what has changed about you apart from your flirty attitude?”

“Well, my surname has changed. I now work for the government and I own part of a record label”, he said with a sigh.

“That is super. What about girlfriends?”

“None”, he answered. She slapped his hand calling him a liar.

“Okay”, he laughed. “I had this girlfriend, but she broke up with me when she found out I was the Shadow.” She winked at him and he laughed.

“She must have been unique. No ordinary girl would break up with the Shadow”, she teased as she dug her spoon into her food.

“Maybe”, I said.

“Well, I am single.”

“I am sorry, I didn’t hear you.” She slapped his hand again and they both laughed.

“I will try to keep that in mind.” He picked up his spoon and started eating.

Abubakar walked down the crowded street of Sabo. Almost every state had its own Sabo, a place full of the northerners. It was a black market of some sort. People came to buy almost anything at lower prices, but especially to change currency. It was more affordable than bank rates. Sabo was a dirty place because of the closed buildings and heavy people to space ratio. The streets so close to the road were always busy.

Everything around him was in black and white. His elder brother had always told him to keep the shades on every time. Everybody knew him with the shade. The old thought it as children playfulness. The young ones like himself thought it as pride. It was a part of his life. The only time he ever took them off was when he had his bath. His brother had warned him that if he ever saw the world in colors, people around him would die. He believed his brother Saheed.

He was headed for his brother’s barbing salon when a hand grabbed him from behind. He didn’t have to look back to know who was responsible. It was Musa and his friends. They were known bullies.

“How you dey?” Abubakar opened his hand for a handshake, but he was left hanging.

“How much you get for pocket? I wan buy sweet”, Musa said to him. Musa and his friends were obviously bigger than he was and stronger. They were as slim as most Hausa boys but with strong dense bones.

“I swear I no get kobo”, Abubakar said. They burst into laughter, they didn’t believe him. He searched frantically for his brother or anyone he knew. There were a group of older men opposite the road inside the mosque compound looking their way, but the old never interested themselves in the dealings of the younger ones except they were related. He had no other option than to run, run for his brother’s shop. He ran.

He could make out his brother up ahead just stepping out of his salon to give a customer his change. He wanted to call out to his brother when he suddenly hit his foot against a stone. He hit the ground. Pain shot through him from his chin. He had hit his jaw hard during his fall. Musa turned Abubakar to face him, but Abubakar had his eyes firmly shut. His glasses had fallen off.

“Look my face”, Musa ordered him shaking him by the collars of his shirt. Abubakar drew at every strain in his body to keep his eyes closed. It didn’t take long before he had to open them. For the first time he opened his naked eyes. His saw only red fire about him. He could feel the heat of it burning his eyes. He screamed out loud, but his could not cover that of Musa. Abubakar closed his eyes quickly welcoming the cool relief of obedience. He felt the ground blindly for his shades and found them; before him laid a smoked human.

He heard his phone ring from the sitting room. He had forgotten it in the bedroom after he had woken up. He left the football match. It was some African league. He used it to pass the time. The top gun league matches weren’t until the weekend. He got to it before he could lose the call.

“Hello lieutenant, good evening.” Christopher Odum emphasized the time of the day to the police officer. He was closed for the day though he didn’t officially work by office time. He reasoned the lieutenant did.

“We have a situation. We need you pronto at Sabo”, the lieutenant informed him. He wondered what could be so terrible at such a place. The police hardly ventured into that part of the city.

“I am on my way”, he replied grudgingly.

“Wow!” Those were the only words that came out of his mouth, slightly betraying his conscience. The sight before him was inhuman. He reasoned now why he had been called.

“You know I don’t deal in investigations, so why this torture?” Chris asked wanting to compare his own explanation with that of the lieutenant.

“This is not normal. We thought someone like you could tell us something useful.” He meant a freak, but Chris didn’t take offence. A lot of people gathered around. None was ready to help, just wanted to see what the police would do. But since the police was there, it meant someone amongst them had definitely spoken. Chris crouched beside the body and tasked his senses. The body wasn’t messy. The murder was clean and perhaps professional. The methods of death had to be fire.

Though there was the usual Suya about in the evening, his sense of smell was trained on the two holes in the boy’s chest the apparent cause of death. He could smell the burnt flesh that surrounded the small holes. It would have seemed someone had driven a red hot metallic rod into the boy’s chest, taken it out and put it back, probably missing the same intended hole since the holes were too close. It could not have been two rods most certainly because then the holes would have had to be farther apart. It could have been done with the rods the Hausa men used for Suya but he doubted they ever let it get so hot. That was the logical explanation, but the lieutenant was leading him to believe it was done by someone with abilities.

He rose up to meet the lieutenant’s face. He then realized why he had been called there.

“I don’t know any kind of person that can do this if that is what you are asking”, Chris said. Lieutenant Taiwo sighed putting his hands on his waist to show visible frustration.

“The informant said he said a little boy look upon the victim and the victim just fell with smoke rising from his chest”, he said. The holes did share a similar distance with the distance between the human eyes.

“I don’t know any other person with abilities. I am sorry. It’s not like we have a community or something.” He could see the helpless look on the police officer’s face. “But it could definitely have been someone.”

“So we are after a boy that can radiate heat from his eyes. I have to make a call”, he said and walked away towards the police vehicles. He put the phone to his ears and then decided to send a text instead, a long text.

“While I am here, I could yet be useful. Does anyone know the boy’s house?” Chris directed it at the police officers. A guy came forward from a group of other guys all beaming with smiles. They recognized him.

“I sabi where the boy dey live”, the guy said. He spoke in the common Pidgin English known as Nigerian English in informal places. The man could not have been more than his early twenties in age. Chris smiled and grabbed the man’s hand in a firm handshake. He could hear the man’s heart skip in elation.

“Please show me.” He was led through the impassive crowd followed by two police men and closely behind them, the man’s friends. He was led through a narrow passage between small bungalows until he took a turn into a small dark flat. The small green bulb in the room did nothing much in illuminating the room. There was a mattress on the floor, a small stove, some pots and bowls, two worn out Ghana-must-go bags filled with clothes. He could smell stew going bad. He shifted his attention to the walls. There were posters on the wall of the Manchester United and Chelsea first elevens. The Chelsea team still had Nicolas Anelka and the Manchester United eleven still had Nani, there was a picture of the pink faced Alex Ferguson at the bottom. He took a shirt and sniffed. He wasn’t exactly sure of what to look at.

“The lieutenant would like to see you outside”, one of the officers said. Chris followed him out to see the lieutenant.

“I have the boy’s scent or that of his brother. I could be of help tracking him down”, Chris said to Lieutenant Taiwo.

“You are not part of this investigation. Leave the rest to us. You have helped enough.” The lieutenant tried to keep it polite, but the Shadow could see more into it. He didn’t push it against all his curiosity.

“We have a picture of him and some leads already”, he continued. Chris nodded in acceptance.

“It’s not my decision. It is an order from the commissioner.”

“I understand, seriously I do”, Chris said with a reassuring smile. He then turned to the guy that had helped him. “You get phone, make we take picture.”

One of his friends came forward and took out his phone, a Techno android. They all clustered around him. The one with the phone stayed in the middle and took the picture using the front camera. He waved to them and left.

Nkechi pressed the button on the remote and the flat screen came alive. Destiny could still feel the coded stare of everyone in the room on her. She tried to keep her face impassive. It didn’t matter that her dead mother was in front of her talking dressed in a suit, talking about some cause for humanity. She dared to look when she perceived a familiar scent. It was Ahmed her father’s close worker. What was he doing there? Had he known about her mother? Had her father known too? She shook the last thought.

“This happened yesterday.” An imaged appeared on the screen. It was the picture of a dead boy barely out of his teens. Another picture covered the wall, a much enhanced one. There were two black ringed holes in his chest.

“Bad right”, it was rhetorical and certainly meant only for Destiny. Another picture came up. It was that of a different boy wearing dark shades.

“This is Abubakar Shafiu, the culprit. He is fourteen years old. We all know the younger ones tend to be more dangerous and uncontrollable. Our sources say that he just gazed upon the victim and this happened.” Nkechi went back to the enhanced picture.

“I heard the Shadow was at the scene yesterday. He could be on his trail or could have even found the boy”, a lady said. She sat opposite Destiny in the semi-circular table. There was something familiar about her, but Destiny could not place her face in any memory she had.

“He won’t be bothering us with this one”, Nkechi assured them.

“How did you manage that?” Destiny asked abruptly. All eyes fell on her.

“She is new”, Nkechi apologized to them and gave Destiny a scolding look. “Destiny, you, Ahmed and Femi would track the boy down. We know what he is capable of, so I don’t have to tell you to be careful. If it comes to his life against yours, you have to put him down. He is a killer”, she said.

The conference was adjourned. All the other Equity agents left except for Destiny, Ahmed and the other guy, the one her mother had called Femi. She gave Ahmed a folder. He handed it over to Destiny immediately.

“You have three days”, Nkechi said.

His mind still pondered on what had happened. There had never been any clear sign of gifted people in the city of Ibadan until he had shown up, the man in the black mask, the Shadow. Now, there was a killing and some shady investigation. He wondered why the lieutenant had lied to him about the commissioner. Maybe it was his ego or pride, but Chris doubted both.

“I can sense something fishy”, he said absentmindedly chopping tomatoes and staring out the window. He didn’t have to look at his hands.

“I have taken out the bin. It might be the smell still lingers in the air”, Deborah said as she started beating the egg yolks.

“I mean the whole thing at Sabo.”

“Maybe the police just want to prove themselves and not have to depend on you every time.” She sprinkled a pinch of salt into the bowl of yolk and continued beating. The oil was already getting hot earlier than expected.

“We all saw what the boy did. He is dangerous. It is not time for ego”, Chris said picking the pepper to chop next.

“Maybe it is also your male ego talking”, she said waiting for him to look at her and affirm her suspicion. He sighed and looked away.

“If he is dangerous, they would need my big brother sooner or later.” She took the chopped tomatoes, onions and pepper and poured them into the sizzling oil.

“I just have this feeling that there is more to it. The lieutenant was definitely hiding something.” That still worried him.

“Maybe you should ask him. I’d just have your food. It isn’t much of a sacrifice”, she said playfully.

“You dare not”, he said much in a lighter mood.

Elizabeth sat in her bed late in the night covering her ears with her pillow. The generator of her neighbor was unusually loud that night. It was often a disturbance to her, but she could not shut it out that night. She sat up with the pillow. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with her; sleepless nights, headaches, trouble concentrating at work and the awareness. She didn’t know who to turn to for help.

Mother won’t understand, she thought. My boss won’t understand either, Chris; out of the question. But she knew he could have an idea of what she was going through. Most importantly, she knew he wasn’t going to laugh at her. She grabbed her bible and turned it open.

“How long have you been working for this organization?” She dared to ask him as they drove, headed for Sabo.

“Fourteen years, since I was twenty”, he answered keeping his eyes on the road. One could tell he hadn’t learnt to drive that early too. Only the late ones were focused. She had known him to be a man of few words and one who could carry out orders to the letter. That was one of the reasons her father held him in high regard. His most used phrase was yes sir.

“How many missions have you gone for?” She pushed on.

“I have lost count.” She doubted a man like him could be so careless with detail. “It was until last year that I found out that I had encountered your brother some years back when we attacked a group of street performers (a circus maybe). He escaped.”

“So why didn’t you kill him when he joined our family?”

“I wasn’t given the order.” Destiny sank in her seat staring out of the window. Femi was at the back with earplugs in his ears listening to music. From all his songs, she figured him a soft person, listening to Dare Art Alade, Asa, Simi, Praiz, Adele among others. The sun was up blazing down on the equatorial region. People walked up and down the roadsides. Only the very tall buildings could be appreciated in their isolation.

They were allowed into the flat on the pretence that they were police. They searched all the belongings. Destiny sniffed the clothes.

“I have his scent, but this is too late. I can’t follow his track anymore”, Destiny told her companions.

“You need to learn how not to depend on your powers.” Femi was telling her to get used to being normal before her powers were to be taken, she understood.

“I hear something from the other room”, she said moving to the wall. Femi slapped his hands as though he had been invisible to her.

“They are talking about the boy. The man knows where he is.”

Femi held the man upright against the wall as Ahmed hit the man in his stomach. The man was slim with a slightly protruding belly, but he didn’t have the endurance to withstand pain. Destiny winced in sympathy.

“Where is Abubakar?” Ahmed asked for the sixth time. The man could barely stand on his own feet. His legs were limp.

“Walahi, I don’t know anything”, he swore. Against an appealing side of her, Destiny nodded to Ahmed that the man was lying yet again.

“If you don’t talk, we go kill your mata”, Destiny quickly cut in. The man sniffed back tears. He was ready to break.

“They don go stay with them auntie’s husband for Ring Road”, he said. He described the place to them.

“Someone is coming”, Destiny alerted them.

“Who”, Ahmed asked.

“My brother”, she replied.