the last convoy

khalid ayodeji

*THE LAST CONVOY - CHAPTER 6 (400 WORDS)*

Three weeks after the story broke, Kola got promoted. Grade Level 12, new office with AC. His wife Aisha gave birth to a boy. They named him Musa Tajudeen Adeyemi.

Monday morning, his secretary dropped a brown envelope on his table. No stamp. Just red writing: KOLA - OPEN ALONE.

Inside was a small black USB and a paper with one line: "GHOST ROAD WAS PROJECT 1 OF 17. CHECK PROJECT 9. - J"

Kola froze. He knew Project 9. In the original orange hard drive, there were 17 folders. They only published one - the road. EFCC seized the rest and said investigation ongoing, but for three weeks nothing happened.

He used his offline laptop. One video inside. 47 seconds.

Senator Bello was sitting with two white men. On the table was a map of schools. 120 schools. N12.7 billion.

Bello was saying: "We renovate 12 for camera, write off the rest as completed. Same formula as road. Nobody checks schools in Zamfara."

The white man asked about World Bank loan.

Bello laughed: "World Bank thinks it's for schools. We use it for 2027 election."

Kola called Musa. Musa came in 20 minutes, still limping.

"This is ghost schools. Bigger than road. If we publish, they will kill us," Musa said.

"So we leave it?" Kola asked.

"No. We publish same time in three places - Premium Times, BBC, and that t****k lawyer. If three publish at once, they cannot kill everybody."

That night, two men followed Kola from office on okada. He ran inside Wuse Market crowd and lost them.

At home, Aisha was feeding baby. Kola locked all doors. He wrapped the USB inside the white handkerchief from the church women.

He texted Musa: "They followed me."

Musa replied: "Come to my place tonight."

Kola replied: "No. I stay. We publish tomorrow 6am."

At 2:13am, light blinked. Generator outside went off. Baby started crying.

Gate man downstairs shouted: "Who is there?"

Voice answered: "NEPA! We check meter!"

Gate man said: "For 2am?"

Kola knew who it was. He quickly sent message to three journalists: "PUBLISH PROJECT 9 NOW NOW NOW."

He switched off phone, carried baby, and told Aisha: "We go back door now."

*END OF CHAPTER 6*ther is a to be a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a