Must Read: Before She Dies

7 years ago

Must Read: Before She Dies

The plane landed in Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at exactly 9:15AM.

In the next five minutes, Musalam was already talking to a driver.

“Take me to St. Thomas Catholic church Gwagwalada.” He spoke as quickly as possible, his face uncannily alert and his eyes wide.

The driver, a middle-aged man with lips turned all black from years of wafting cigarette smoke, regarded him suspiciously, looked him in the eye and saw something that told him that Musalam was a man whose words must always be obeyed willy-nilly. He nodded, “Two thousand naira.”

Musalam grinned, “I’m giving you one thousand.”

The driver thought a minute and said, “A thousand five and that’s the least I can take.”

Musalam didn’t respond. He opened the back door, got in and said, “I’m already late for the mass. Do me a favour,” he glanced at his watch, “rev up the engine. I’ve to be there in thirty minutes time. I don’t want to disappoint the priest.”

The driver who was contemplating whether he was a new convert nodded and engaged the gear, his foot gradually moving down on the accelerator. He inserted a cassette in the radio and said, “Is this your first time in Abuja?”
Musalam caught his eyes in the rear-view mirror and grinned.

The driver read he wasn’t ready for a discussion, fixed his eyes on the windscreen and then started humming Tiwa’s Eminado playing on a moderate volume over the radio.

Musalam, though looked older, was born twenty-four years ago in Damascus and was a citizen of four countries: Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Genna. His father was a billionaire who had an oil well in Saudi Arabia and owned two refineries in Libya with an oil conglomerate in Egypt. When Musalam was thirteen, the Syrian Government accused his father of engineering internecine killings in Syria, confiscated his assets within and outside the country and had him executed. Two days later, Musalam’s mother had a heart attack and the following week, she died. After the death of his parents, Musalam afraid of the government, fled to Egypt and after some months, he ran into Ali, one of his father’s business associates in Egypt. Within few weeks, Ali introduced him to Rasinki Mohammed Tanzanki and the course of his life was automatically changed. He became a terrorist and the first country he struck when he was barely sixteen was the Syrian Embassy.

He detonated a bomb there and killed 100 people as was reported by CNN, though the BBC and Al-jazeera gave their official death toll as 145 and 150 respectively. Since after that strike, Musalam continued to rise in prominence in terrorism and like the other terrorists under Tanzanki, he was ready to lose his life for the sake of the group whenever called upon. When Tanzanki called and told him what he wanted him to do in Abuja, he gladly obeyed.

As he sat in the back of the taxi with the windows rolled down and the wind whizzing through, he dwelt his mind on Tanzanki’s instruction.

“Allow the security to arrest you.” Tanzanki had said slowly and distinctly, sitting in his apartment in Genna’s capital. “This will be your first strike in West Africa and I want you to deliver as you’ve always delivered.

Remember, the president is responsible. Hope you understand?” He smiled.

Musalam smiled back and said, “Very well Pater.”