CHAPTER 8

Harry had woken early the next day, he wanted to meet up with Joshua on time before anything else. After completing his morning ritual he left for the precinct; he had know the layouts of the district and had a map drawn out on his notepad, he had on the previous night ripped off the bandage on his head.

On getting to the precinct he noticed that the doors were closed for some reason, he pushed it in and it bulged. He saw some people sweeping the floors and cleaning the place.

"Good morning...." one of them greeted him, he seemed to have recognized the brown suit as the uniform from district 2's agency.

"...are you looking for the chief?" the man asked.

Harry nodded and he was pointed to the visitors lounge on a map of the building that was on the wall. Harry headed up to the room, as usual he met Joshua smoking; he wondered how Joshua could keep affording to buy cigarettes considering the fact that they are no longer being produced.

"Harry, you're early" Joshua said as he checked his wrist watch

"I heard about your accident, would have visited you in the hospital but as you can see we are quite busy."

"What's going on?" Harry said, he slowly walked into the room so as to have a few moments to observe the people cleaning the tables, fans and other stuffs.

"What, have you forgotten about our guest tomorrow?“ he stared at Harry like a bird trying to differentiate food from bait.

"Oh, yeah...I almost forgot" he had now worn a faint smile.

"Must be one hell of a guest" he continued.

"Well he pays for the wellbeing of my agents, so yeah you could say that"

Harry's mind flashed back

"Hold on our guest is Noah?"

Joshua dropped the left over cigarette on the ash tray on the table before him.

"Yeah, thought you would know that by now"

"Guess I never cared to ask" Harry replied as he flinched.

"What....what exactly brings you here this early...I mean its just 6am, not even Eddy gets here until 7" Joshua checked his watch again to make sure he gave the right time.

"I need to speak with her" he said in an attempt to discontinue any other conversation.

"Speak to who?" Joshua asked, taking another puff.

"You know exactly who" he replied angrily.

"Well, after the failed assassination I had to move her to somewhere safe and I plan keeping it that way"

"What about you, if she's safe what makes you think you are?" Harry asked.

"Are you threatening me?" Joshua exploded.

"Am just giving fact, with an Organizer walking into their arms they might want to clip out any mistakes and you happen to be the one keeping that mistake"

Joshua felt like he had been splashed with cold water, he ran for the phone on the wall and dialed a number. It rang for a while but there was no answer and Joshua stopped trying

"What do you suggest I do?"

"In order to catch a fish, use worms but if you plan to catch a shark its best you use a fish"

Joshua was lost, probably because he didn't know what a shark was and also haven't seen a fish in a long time.

"Go straight to the point" he said with a tone of annoyance.

"We need to let her go" Harry said.

"What, why?...how can you begin to think of.."

"Calm down" Harry interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"I have a plan" he said and drew another smile.

Joshua nodded

"Get your partner, she'll fill you in on everything you missed". He leaned back and went back to his cigarette.

"Troy....that's where she is being kept" Lucy said. It was now 9:16am and she had just stepped into the precinct and had bumped into Joshua and Harry who had been waiting for her, Harry had asked the question and she replied.

"What's troy?" Harry asked.

"It's a prison for special inmates, people considered too dangerous or too vital to be left under any other protection." She was staring at the cleaners who were now taking their leave as they passed the corridors.

"Well then, let's go" Harry said as he stood up.

30 minutes later they were in an abandoned warehouse, with a roof that seemed perfectly intact. Harry couldn't help but noticed how dust free the placed looked even though Lucy had earlier claimed it was abandoned. It stood 8 blocks from the precinct; it had a fence with jagged wires and a caution note saying "keep out".

Lucy walked to the center of the empty warehouse and stood still, Harry followed but cautiously as he kept a keen eye on the second entrance which now began opening.

3 men wearing ski masks came forward and walked towards Lucy, as they approached, she brought out her badge and showed it to them.

"Where's yours?" asked one of the masked men who was now staring at Harry.

"Didn't think I needed one" Harry replied.

One on the right of the first man moved forward and whispered something in the other's ear, he then looked up and brought out two blindfolds.

"You're joking, right?" Harry said

"It's our way or no other" replied the masked man.

They took the blindfold reluctantly and put them on, when they had they were pulled by the men who took them into a car and they drove off.

The journey seemed endless and was quiet as nobody spoke a word, after what felt like an hour the car slowed down and Harry hears the sound of gates opening. It didn't take long for the car to finally stopped and they were lead out.

They weren't allowed to take off the blindfold for about a minute and when they finally did, the car was gone and so were the three men. They were standing in a fenced land having nothing but a black truck with tires buried into the ground and a heap of grass that had dried up a few yards away.

"Welcome to Troy" said a man standing in front of them; he wore military camouflage and a bullet proof vest with black boots, he had an AK47 hanging from his right shoulder which made Harry guess he was left handed. But what stood out was his punk hairstyle, at his side was another man dressed like him but had only knives kept in different jackets on his vest and his face was covered with scars like someone who survived a brawl with a tiger.

"Hello, am agent Lucy and....."

"Yeah, yeah we know who you are" he cut in.

"OK, may we know your names?" Lucy asked.

"Am Pinhead and my partner is Scarface" the second guy waved when his name was called. Harry drew a smile; he was expecting that, he knew enforcers never used their real names at work.

"Then you already know why we are here" Harry said.

Pinhead looked at Scarface who sighed and said

"Please, follow me"

Scarface walked towards the truck and pulled up the slide door, that's when they saw that the truck was just a cover. The door Scarface opened was an elevator that took them deeper into the underground facility.

"I bet you must be wondering where you are right now" Pinhead said as the doors were closed and they slowly descended.

"Not really" Harry replied.

"We're a few blocks from the boundary of the district, am guessing just after the district bank"

"How the...." Pinhead muttered.

"Your men picked us at the Bean's warehouse and they drove off, I had to keep note of every bump and swerve, although I must admit they got me lost when they made that swerve at the plantation round about but they made the mistake of taking a shortcut which led them through the doorsteps of my noisy neighbors" Lucy threw on a smile and so did Scarface.

"Well, Mr. Johnson seems we underestimated you" said Scarface as he opened the door. The whole place was filled with enforcers some in camouflage, others in civilian clothing, they had a round table at the end of the hall, there a few of them stood playing cards, some just walked by in different directions, then there were a few standing with back facing the walls almost at each end; they seemed to be on guard duty as none of them spoke to any other person and they had their AKs' locked and ready to shoot.

"This way" Pinhead gestured after walking off the steel elevator.

As they walked pass the the open hall one of them whistled and yelled.

"Now that's some fine ass bitch....hey, baby what's the name?" it was followed by laughter from all angles even from the women among them.

"Keep moving, just ignore them" Harry whispered to Lucy.

They walked up to a door which sprang opened and there stood four different cells. The first was a man covered in dirt, he was chained down and appeared like he was drugged; he continuously nodded his head and when he saw Harry walking by he stopped and looked at him with his sunken eyes, there was a screeching laughter as the man began to pull the chain that held him to the floor. Harry walked pass and he began yelling.

Harry stopped to get a better look at the man but before he could turn he was pushed by Scarface who said

"Keep moving, nothing to see here"

The second and third cell was empty and Eve sat in the last, she was posed like someone meditating. Scarface pulled out a knife and banged the edge softly on the cell bars.

"Hey, you have guest"

Eve opened her eyes

"J, you're back" she smiled

"What, no cuffs...they must be giving you the royal treatment" Harry said, he had his hand in his waist bag and was searching for something.

"Tell me, how have you been?" Eve asked. Harry didn't reply but was busy scrolling through his jotter till he found a blank page to continue scribbling.

"How about you Lucy, how's work?" Lucy didn't reply either she just gave a slight nod.

"What's up with the cold expression guys? I thought we were all friends"

"Your friends tried to kill you and you tried to kill me so am guessing either we are not friends or the definition of friendship has changed" Harry said.

Eve began laughing

"Amanda always said you had an undying sense of humour"

"I need you to answer me this simple question, why is killing Noah Moammi important?" Lucy seemed stunned with the question, Scarface who had gone to the corner and was quietly observing drew closer, interested by the question.

Eve started clapping

"Bravo, bravo.....so you finally figured it out"

"Yes, just wasn't sure who it was, until now"

"Well, you thought us how to end a force and we're just trying it on a global scale"

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"Let me tell you a story, once there was an agent who stood above the rest but was injured while performing his duty,his government abandoned him to rot in the hospital and so ended the agency in district 2 and potentially every other district, until one man decided to single handedly cover any medical expenses made by an agent or any of their close family member....... Now we have a goal but we can't fight both the agency and the enforcers at the same time so we decided if we can take out one problem with one single death, why not go for it"

"Seems like a stupid plan" Scarface muttered.

"Not really..." Eve said

"....have you ever been to district 2?" she asked. Scarface kept quiet and turned to Harry and Lucy for an answer.

"When they realize that once they die in battle their family is forgotten and even if they survive they are left to fend for themselves, they won't engage in a battle they know nothing of" Eve said.

"Thomas died of tuberculosis years back, so who's leading this new found resistance?"

"He calls himself Nwa-Egbe"

The screeching laughter started again and grew more louder.

"My children call to me!" the man yelled.

"They call! They call! They call!...."

Scarface grabbed Harry and Lucy's arm

"Time to go" he said. Pinhead had ran into the room and had a pistol in his arm.

"Move!" he yelled to Scarface who pushed Harry and Lucy to keep moving. As they left they could still hear the screams of "they call" filling the air. They were never given any reason to the sudden interruption neither were they told who the man was, all they did was showed them the way out and the masked men delivered them back to the warehouse the same way they were taken.