DESTINY
Episode 5
Maya knew that she was in a dicey situation and she knew that she had to do something fast to send her father
signals about her location. She had tried to move the chair she was tied on to no avail. Her hands were so securely tied
behind the chair that she could not even lift it an inch. She began to think of strategies to use to get the attention of
the guard who was sitting outside and smoking. She had heard the driver who
abducted her talking in low tones with the man after which he had disappeared. She wondered where he had gone to, probably to get the ransom she heard him talk about from her father. She knew that her father would
provide them the needed ransom if need be but she would be damned if she allowed these illiterates cheat her father
of his hard earned money without
putting to use the tracking device that she had brought all the way from London. An idea struck her head and she
decided to try it out, doing anything was way better than sitting and not doing
anything at all. She began to cough and gasp for air, she thought it would attract
the man’s attention but she was wrong. He was obviously carried away with his drinking and he didn’t even look her way. She increased the tempo of the
cough and intensified her game. She began to jerk and move the chair as if she was going to fall off with it.
“Hey, wetin dey do you for there? You be imbecile?” he barked causing her to startle.
Maya: “I…I…”, she started coughing harder as one having a seizure.
Man: “Talk, jare. Abi you be witch? No die yet o, wait until your papa pay us before
you die. All these ajebo children wey no strong so”.
Maya: “I am having an attack”.
Man: “Which attack? Which animal dey there dey attack you? Abi you don dey mad?”
Maya: “Asthma attack, if I don’t use my inhaler now, I will just die in few minutes”.
Man: “Where the inhaler dey?” he was obviously getting fooled by the act that she was putting up.
Maya: “In my bag, no my box. In fact, I don’t know where it is”.
Man: “You go die be that for here if you don’t know where it is”.
Maya: “Please have mercy on me, see, I am sure that my father will not hesitate to pay you the money once he hears my voice. If I die, he will never give you the money and he will inform his military people who would fish you out and bring you to face the law after all he has nothing to lose again. So, allow me look
for the inhaler and you will soon be a millionaire courtesy of my father”.
Man: “Tell me where the inhaler dey make I bring am for you”.
Maya: “You will not see it. Just allow me and I will find it in few seconds”.
The man got up from where he was
seated. He knew that he had to release her, after all he had nothing to gain if he
allowed her die before they got hold of the money. His staying out to smoke was his way of dealing with the fear that was
creeping in on him after he had gotten himself involved in the shaddy deal. This was the first time he was participating in
a kidnap deal and he promised himself that he would set up a legitimate business with the money he would make from it and that the first was certainly
going to be his last. He untied her hands and went back to the door backing the entrance. She seized the opportunity and
reached for the tracking device in her car, it was a new innovation from the best graduating student of Engineering in her university some years ago when she had just secured admission into the
university newly. The university had waged into the innovation and with the right capital and environment, the project had seen the light of the day. She
turned it on, dialed her father’s number and watched as the command initialized,
she was hoping that the command
would be sent to her father before the battery went off. At its request, she turned on her GPRS setting and this
enabled the tracking device to access her location and send to her father alongside her phone number and the details with which she had registered
the number before she left Nigeria. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the
green pass mark, signaling that the alert had been sent to her father. “You never inhale finish?” the man barked causing her to jump with fright
and causing the tracker to fall off from her hand.
“Wetin be this?” the man asked as he sprang into the hut and snatched the tracking device from her hand.
Maya: “Its my tra…erm, my inhaler”.
Man: “You think say I be mumu ba? No be bomb be this? Even though I no go school, I no as bomb dey be. So you wan
set time bomb for this place abi? Okay na, your plans no go work”. He threw the device on the ground and crushed it
under his feet, shattering it. Hot tears began to flow from Maya’s eyes. In her inner most hearts, she prayed that the
device had been able to send the signal to her father before it was crushed.
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Mr Lanre was trying to contact a private investigator he knew for professional advice on how to go about the kidnap of his daughter when his phone beeped.
He picked it eagerly and it was the kidnapper.
Man: “Do you have the money ready now?”
Mr Lanre: “I cannot think of getting any money when I have not heard my daughter’s voice. How am I even sure that you have her and that you are not
playing pranks with me?”
Man: “Mr man, are you trying to play smart with me? Do you know that I have the powers to kill your daughter right away?”
Mr Lanre: “I am not trying to play smart. All I ask for is, allow me speak to my daughter, that way I will be sure that she
is there with you and then I will run around to get money and make it available wherever you want to pick it”.
Man: “Okay, I will give your daughter the phone, remember, if you get the police or any security agency involved in this, your daughter is dead”.
Mr Lanre: “I know that too well”
The man ran back to the hut where Maya
was kept and brought the phone to her ear. “Say something to your father”, he shouted at her.
Maya: “I will be fine, daddy. Innovation by an engineering student that I told you
about, watch out signal”.
Mr Lanre: “Baby, hold on and stay strong,you will be fine okay?” The man collected the phone from her hand. She didn’t know if her father
would be able to decode the coded things she told him about the tracker but she hoped that being the intelligent former military personnel that he was,
he would be able to add one and one together and understand what she was trying to tell him.
After the call went off, Mr Lanre began to think of what his daughter had meant by
what she had said to him on phone. He knew that she had said those few words because she didn’t want to give what
she was saying away to her abductors.
“Whatever it was that she said must be something that can help her. But, I cannot even think of a thing right now”.
His phone beeped and he cursed under his breathe. “The damn kidnappers won’t allow me rest”. He picked it up and
saw that it was a link from an unknown application. He thought of clicking on the
link but he was afraid of clicking the wrong link. Suddenly, the coded words
that his daughter has said to him struck, he remembered her talking about a student engineer who had invented a tracking device and she had promised to
bring it home anything she was coming into the country. “Could it be the signal from the tracker that she was talking
about?” he quickly clicked on the link on his phone and because the network was
very poor, it took a long while before it opened. It read:
“Location: Kambal Forest, 45 kilometers away from Zuba, East of Doka, North of the Kakau train track. Time sent: 4:10pm”
Mr Lanre: “Amazing! This is superb! I know where my daughter is. He quickly
picked up his car keys and drove himself to the Police Force Headquarters at Edet
Lois house. he didn’t trust his driver to drive him there, apart from his wife and daughter, experience had taught him
never to trust anyone in cases like this. He was going to inform the police so they could storm the forest and rescue
his daughter, he meant business and there was no going back.
Question: Can he trust the Police to help him rescue his daughter? How reliable is
the information provided by the tracking device, considering the fact that it has been crushed?
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