The big day had finally arrived.
Moha was unable to change Ndeye's mind and had to train her himself. The day after the meeting they were joined by the Alphas of the thirty countries they had contacted and their men. This left them with an unprecedented number of men, just over two hundred thousand, including only one woman, Ndeye. But this did not discourage her, let alone belittle or dissuade her. It just gave her more willpower and pushed her to train even better, pushing her limits to their extremes. As a result, on the eve of their departure for Senegal, she was as ready as any of those present and even some of the Betas present.
During the night, to be able to attack the next day, they set off. Having landed in the neighboring countries, they relied on the plan of Ndeye who, together with Moha, led the first intervention detachment. While the sun was at its zenith, all busy, they came upon Pape Matar and his men so suddenly that before they could understand what was happening to them and react, they had gained access to the hideout where they found Aziz and his men, captured. They freed them and together, in greater numbers, they set out to attack Pape Matar and his men.
While the fight was raging in and around the hideout, Mahmoud, who together with Amadou Pathé was at the side of Ndeye, whom they were to protect, was attracted by a particular smell of jasmine. Not taking it seriously and above all, taking his mission to heart, he ignored it. Only, the further they went, the stronger and more bewitching it became. Eventually, he began to lose control, which caused him to partially transform himself, attracting the attention of Ndeye and Amadou Pathé, who stopped moving forward.
_ What's going on, Mahmoud? they asked him at the same time.
_ It's nothing. Let's just keep moving.
_ You're in so much pain that you're starting to change and you dare to say that everything is fine!
_ Do you take us for children?
_....
_ Tell us what's going on, Mahmoud, please.
_ Come on, brother.
_ It's just that ..... For a while now I've been getting a particular smell that's becoming more and more entrancing, hard to ignore. But don't worry, I'm still on board, I don't intend to be distracted.
_ Even if it's your soul mate?
_ What?
_ Are you an i***t or just pretending to be?
_ There's no time to lose. To find your soul mate!
_ But...
_ I'm your Luna and you owe me obedience, right?
_ Yes.
_ Then I command you to go find your soul mate right now.
_ (Sights)... As you wish.
Watch over her, brother (to Amadou Pathé).
_ Don't worry.
Mahmoud then left them and went in the direction of the smell that attracted him. Pape Matar, who had managed to escape Moha and spot Ndeye, took advantage of the situation and wounded her with a knife in the shoulder in a rather quick move before running away. This was without counting on Ndeye's very good eyesight and sense of direction, which led her to separate from Amadou Pathé.
Mahmoud followed the smell and ended up in Pape Matar's office. At a dead-end, he was surprised to realize that the smell was persisting, getting stronger and stronger, to the point of giving him a violent headache. Not knowing where to turn, he owed his salvation to the intervention of his wolf, Amr, who, seeing him at his wits' end, told him of the existence of a potential room behind the walls of the office and therefore of a secret passage. Not having the time to look for the secret passage, he took the ax that was next to the fire extinguisher and started to hit the wall, on the side where he could smell the most. He was soon joined by Amadou Pathé who, still looking for Ndeye, had decided to come and help him after he had seen him and warned Moha.
Meanwhile, Pape Matar, who was being chased by Ndeye, ended up not knowing where to go and took refuge in his room. Busy trying to open the access hatch to the outside, standing on a chair, he did not see Ndeye enter the room whose door he had forgotten to close. She waited for him to finish opening the trap door and to get out before quietly pulling the chair out from under him, making him fall violently. It took him a moment to realize what had happened and when he did, he got up quickly enough for Ndeye to see him coming. He was then able to give her a blow in the stomach which destabilized her but she recovered quickly enough to engage him. And she was close to beating him except she didn't anticipate that he would cheat by pulling out a Swiss Army knife from nowhere and stabbing her in the right thigh. She fell to the ground and he took the opportunity to run away. Unfortunately, he could not go far because Moha, who had been able to find them, blocked his path as soon as he left the room with a shot that hit him in the heart before going to look after Ndeye.
The two of them, Mahmoud and Amadou Pathé, were able to finish knocking down a good part of the wall quickly enough for them to get through, but Amadou Pathé did not want to go. Armed with a torch he found on the spot, Mahmoud was able to enter the famous hidden room and was amazed at what he saw. In the same position as the Vitruvian Man, with her arms and legs spread out, a girl was being held against the wall by straps that were stuck in the wall. He moved a little closer and could see that the girl, who appeared to be unconscious, was bleeding from her arms, having struggled for a long time to escape, and was exhausted. Repressing his anger and sadness, he moved closer until he was two steps away from her to free the few strands of hair that covered her eyes from her face. Her face then appeared to him, exuding so much innocence and pain that he could not help but touch it, waking the girl. She immediately disengaged herself from his touch before raising her head to look proudly into his eyes, and this contact was enough for Mahmoud to recognize her, his soul mate, Coumba.
_ Mine, he couldn't help but growl.