The rhythm of his new life was a slender, fine one. The dawn no longer heralded yet another day of despair, but a series of small, surmountable obstacles. The four hundred and fifty naira that Mr. Gowon offered him was not just cash; it was a promise. It was proof that his brain, the very instrument his betrayers had deemed old-fashioned, was being remolded into a keener, stronger one. The Negotiation ability hummed at the edges of his consciousness, a new lens through which he interpreted all transactions.
His horizons had now broadened from the marketplace to the store of provisions, a small but essential territorial gain. That night, he walked back to his bridge, not with the stumbling gait of the defeated, but with the deliberate stride of the man who surveyed his kingdom. He took ano
