CHAPTER FIVE
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has just arrived to meet with his deputy before the scheduled meeting with Dr Chika. The deputy director is in the operation’s room taking briefings from heads of various departments under the agency.
As the driver pulls up, one of the officers quickly reaches for the back door so the Director could get down.
‘Good morning Sir,’ the officer says standing at attention.
‘Good morning Onyema, how’re you doing today?’ he replies.
‘Everything is good Sir. You’re welcome to the office today,’ the officer says as they climb the stairs that lead into the building.
The National Intelligence Agency coordinates the various agencies involved in the antiterrorism operations on behalf of the federal government. The headquarters is a five-story edifice of the 18th-century, designed after the style of the famous Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Located in the heart of the city, the building has grown to become a landmark for the entire city, as tourists often come around to admire its splendour.
Around the house is an ornamental garden designed by the popular Igbo interior designer Cabiojinia. It has two fountains on both the east and west wings of the building. And because of its location, residents would often come around to sit and chat, or just to take a walk in the cool of the day, after stressful hours of work.
This is besides the journalists that always flock around the area, especially after the recent antiterrorism operation, where a major leader of a terror group was captured. This meant there was a potential risk of attack on the agency, and so several security guards were always around the building to ward off any over-curious eyes.
The Director walks down to the central operations room while he asks officer Onyema to leave his briefcase and other items in his office on the 4th floor.
As he enters the room, everyone stands to salute. ‘Good morning Sir,’ his deputy says.
‘Good morning Ikem, what do we have this morning?’ the Director smilingly replies.
Ikem goes on to illustrate the various missions on course in various parts of the country and the world.
‘At the moment we have twenty-seven operations on course. We’ll likely be adding six more today because Mr Fisher is back in the country, so we want to follow him closely after the latest reports we received from the Mi6. We’re also about to close two operations this morning.’
‘Which operations were you about to close?’
‘One is the operation regarding Chief Zikog.’
‘And why should we close it?’ The Director quizzed.
‘We saw that it was a false alarm. Contrary to what we were told by the local agents, Chief Zikog never left his country that evening. It seems that some corrupt officials were paid by his men to send us wrong info so he can escape to Nzupita, a country to the south. We got the info that he is at the border now, so…’
‘I told you never to trust those men. Let’s quickly inform our own agents. We need to reactivate Operation Spider immediately. We shouldn’t let him enter Nzupita because that would mean disappearance for another 6 months to one year. And I can’t afford to end my tenure without getting that bastard murderer. I’ve chased him for almost 4 years and we can’t afford any mistakes.’
‘Sure Sir. We’ll get him this time.’ Ikem responds, nodding his head.
‘So, how about the six operations you’re considering adding to the list?’ The Director continues.
While Ikem was presenting the new operations, the Director sees Chika sitting in her office across the hallway. Chika is going through some documents regarding the last antiterrorism operation she conducted a couple of weeks ago. She coordinated one of the most successful operations of her career ever. It was the capture of Selence, the terror lord of the East. It was an operation that earned her a lot of praise and admiration from colleagues and recommendations from superiors, and she thinks it’s time to ride on the wave of that to the position she deserves.
After Ikem was done with the briefing, the Director desired to know how the recently concluded operations coordinated by Chika went. As they were about to begin playing the footage of the operation, he asks that Chika be called into the room. The interview process was about to begin, and Chika was fully aware.
Dressed in her classic elegant clothing (a little below knee-length skirt and a well-tailored fit button-down shirt made of silk), Chika smiled at the junior officer that was sent to call her. She’s always been the cheerful type since her days of internship at the Defence Institute; a quality that endeared her to most of her colleagues, besides her unmatched work ethic. Whenever there was a special operation that had Chika as the team leader, many officers would love to be part of it. She was charismatic, disciplined and results-oriented. If you wanted to learn something, you just had to be in her team.
It was not always like this, especially at the beginning, as some colleagues often tried to demean her role because she was a woman. She soon put them in their place, and since then, it’s hard not to admire her, especially her ability to foresee the intricacies of an operation and her depth of time-stamped planning.
Chika had never lost any colleague during an operation since she became a team leader and now as a squad leader. But this last operation was different; a complicated feat that she knew the risks very well but still accepted. ‘We always know the risks, but the risks don’t know us,’ she always repeats to her squad before each operation.
Chika had been charged to lead a group of five highly experienced A-level officers to Zumkin, a country in the East, known not only for her flourishing agricultural terrains and technological advancement but also her reputation as the hideout of terrorists.
Zumkin has been a peaceful country since its formation in the 1700s. Located close to the river Tigris, its mountain range is one of the best ski locations on the planet. Known for its export of all sorts of agricultural produce, everyone in the country seems to be rich or at least have enough to stay comfortable. They held no elections but were simply governed by a group of seven chieftains (Nsalas as they’re called) from the seven tribes that composed this secluded country; a tradition they had maintained since inception but which some distant powerful countries have always frowned at.
They were secluded from the international community and had laws that they considered fair and just but have been an object of debate internationally. One of such laws, which was the major reason for the operation that Chika was to lead, is their refusal to extradite anyone to anywhere. As long as you don’t commit any crime in their land, you’re protected.
Anyone that comes into Zumkin is shielded and enjoys the same benefits as the citizens of this beautiful country. You could marry and raise your family in peace. But once you contravene their laws, the penalty is often draconian. It was such a rule that made it a kind of hideout for ex-warlords and leaders of terrorist organisations, who after their reign of terror always sought a way to reach Zumkin, fully assured that their lives and families would be safe, although money laundering is strictly prohibited.
So, according to intelligence, Selence, the spearhead of a deadly terrorist organisation in his home country, had escaped to Zumkin a couple of months ago. Despite numerous attempts to get him extradited, the Nsalas vehemently refused, citing their laws in defence.
Chika was called in to lead Operation Harbinger. She had visited Zumkin a couple of years ago on holidays with her husband, Ike. During what should have been a romantic holiday, they spent some hours of the day literally spying on their host and trying to create a map of the place in case they were sent on an operation here in the future. Well, the day has finally arrived, and Chika is returning to this beautiful country to do something that wasn’t so beautiful – capture or kill Selence.
From Pirro’s international airport to Zumkin would normally take about twenty hours on a commercial flight, with two transits. But with a military jet, the squad will be in Zumkin in about three hours, with no transits nor control towers; straight to the target and out of the country in thirty minutes. The location of Selence has been identified, and hopefully, he’ll maintain his routine of sleeping in the bunker just underneath his kitchen tonight. That’d really aid the operation in no small way and reduce casualties on both sides.
The day arrived and Operation Harbinger was underway.
‘Hello everyone. You already know me and how I work. And I know that you are with me.’ Chika began.
‘We have spent a couple of weeks preparing for this, and we all have the info we need. You all need no motivation; that’s for those lazy people warming their cold derrière on the armchairs on Pirro’s lane.’ Chika gesticulated as she spoke with her characteristic smile. The squad chuckled.
‘We are not them and don’t wish to be. We just need to get into this beautiful country and uproot the bad seed. We hope not to roast the seed, but if so be it, so help us, God.’ Chika concluded.
‘Hey, Braze, say a word of prayers for us and for the bad seed.’
Braze is the prayer conductor of the team. Everyone just loved his characteristic prayer line as it was often the calm before the storm.
‘Heavenly Father, thank you for how busy You are, doing good things in heaven. But most importantly, thank you for choosing us to take care of the bad things for You on earth. Keep us alive and please, take the bad seeds with You.’ And they all chorused ‘Amen.’
Operation Harbinger was underway as the military jet took off. After a few hours, the team landed on one of the maize fields outside the city and moved by foot to the residence of the dreaded lord of the East. Stopping hundreds of metres away from his residence was done intentionally to avoid being noticed by the security outfit of the Zumkins.
After about seven minutes and 33 seconds, they were at the residence of Selence. Everything from the arrival to his capture went as Chika and her team had planned. It was 3 am, so everyone was in bed, and the squad had to use only a few bullets to neutralise the three guards around the house. Other than that, every other thing went well; Selence was sleeping in his bunker as thought. Once captured, he was handcuffed and his mouth taped.
‘Listen, everyone, the Package is secured and ready to fly. Be on the alert. The difficult side begins now. Let’s go!’ Chika orders her men as they begin the most difficult part of Operation Harbinger.
They quickly leave the house and head towards the border, where a vehicle was waiting to extract them. Navigating across the highly secured border is both complicated and intimidating, especially at night. Chika knew the terrain, having been here some years back, but much has changed since then. Some houses have been constructed, and the road networks are a lot different from the map they had.
Nonetheless, they pushed on until a few metres away from the border when they heard the foot sound of someone approaching from behind. They quickly took formation but couldn’t see anyone. They waited until the sound faded.
As they arose to walk briskly across the border, there was a shot, and Braze was injured. The security forces of Zumkin had been alerted by an injured guard, and they decided to search for the intruders.
Chika and her squad quickly assisted Braze while firing some shots in the direction of the bullet that hit him. They kept moving towards the border while the home security forces advanced shooting. During the exchange, Braze was shot again on his thigh and he couldn’t walk. One of the members helped him as two others dragged Selence across the border. They soon reached the vehicle that was waiting for them just beyond the border and zoomed off with shots being fired by the Zumkin security forces. Unfortunately, Braze died of bleeding en route to the military base.
While they watched the footage, the director would intermittently look at Chika while stroking the side of his hair with the back of his fingers. At the end of the footage, he asked Chika to meet him in his office while he finishes up with his vice. ‘Please, do wait for me in my office. I’ll be there in a moment,’ he signals with his hands.
He discharges his vice after a couple of minutes, asking about the time of the meeting with the Senate Committee on Intelligence. They agree to meet some minutes before the meeting to finetune their answers.
Chika rises to leave, more worried than when she entered the room. That operation had indeed earned her the respect of her colleagues, including the top officers at the agency and in politics, but watching the footage again made her think if she hadn’t made a lot of mistakes during the operation. The fact that the Director didn’t say anything and his body language didn’t help matters.
She slowly walks to her office in sober reflection. She needed some reassurance, she wanted someone to talk to, but not anyone. Someone who understands how operations work but also understands her very well. Someone who she trusts, someone who has the right words, someone like Ike.
But Ike isn’t around. Ike is not physically close to her. Ike is just on a frame on her table smiling while her ear aches for his voice, while her heart yearns for his words.
AND HERE IS CHAPTER SIX.
Thanks for reading. Please, remember to share this story and any article you found helpful with your friends, family and colleagues. Let’s grow this family together biko 🙂
In case you missed them, here are Chapters One & Two & Three & Four.
See you soon with the next episode. You know I love you, right?
