CHAPTER 13

Whatever Harry gave to Lucy seemed more important to Lucy at that point in time as she closely examined one of the pills, trying to figure out what it was.

"Never seen this drug before" she said; they were on a train heading back to district 4, Ghandi's men had escorted them back to the station and made sure they were on the train when it left.

"That's because they don't make it for mass consumption" Harry replied.

"What is it then?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know"

"Then how did you get your hands on it?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me" he replied.

"That sort of saying only makes me want to hear it"

Harry sighed, he was staring out the window and was seated the same way he was when they were coming.

"I'm working on two private cases and that pill is part of a complicated arrangement to keep me working"

"I didn't know you took private cases" she said laughing. Harry didn't reply, he kept staring out the window.

"What are you expecting to see out there?" Lucy asked when she had stopped laughing.

"A reason to die peacefully" he replied.

"When we passed that barren land you never wore those masks, how come?" she asked.

"Its been more than 200 years, the air is no longer polluted, the government just makes us believe that so their regime doesn't crumble" Lucy looked round to see who was listening, no one sat as close as 4 feet from where they were; it was probably because of the men who escorted them in.

"And you know that because?"

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" Harry asked back.

"I thought you had amnesia?"

"Sometimes...I do then I don't, then there are days I wished I never survived.....then it starts all over again" the red light began flashing and the announcement started, everyone reached for their masks and closed their curtains. Lucy didn't, she stared out the window.

"What was up with that strange conversation about bread and apostles?" She asked.

"The Ghandi family made themselves some sort of saviors to the masses and created a biased form of religion in which they were like gods.....bread was a means of identifying people they had brainwashed and had believing in them."

"You grew up in that district, didn't you?" she asked.

Harry didn't reply, he just kept staring out the window; the alarm had died off and everyone had taken off their masks.

"How come you don't have an accent like Eddy?" Lucy asked.

"I have never noticed Eddy's accent before."

"That's because he got rid of it but once in a while you could always hear him pronouncing words with 'L' as if they were written with 'R'"

"Well, I just don't" he replied and didn't speak through out the rest of the journey even though Lucy kept asking more questions.

They had arrived at the station and Harry knew that by now the pills won't be helping Lucy's condition, she would be in pain and would have started having internal bleeding.

"You need a doctor" Harry said as he watched her limp onto the platform, people began rushing in so as to get seats with at least a little padding; it was know as getting good seats.

"I'm fine, just sore from not getting to those good seats" she said trying, to grow a sense of humour.

"If you don't go back to the hospital you'll end up in the morgue. I can't have that" Harry said.

"I said I'm fine!.....am seeing this case to the end" she stomped her feet on the ground to ascertain her decision. Harry realized he couldn't convince her to go to a hospital so he had only one option, he quickly looked around and asked

"Wait a minute, who's that?“ Lucy turns back to look who Harry was pointing to at the other side of the track and she heard a thud on her head, she hit the floor and was unconscious.

She opened her eyes, she was back at the hospital but in a separate ward. And she could hear someone whistling Beethoven's Fur Elise, she knew from the slow notes who it was.

"Eddy? Is that you?"

"Oh, you're awake? I was starting to get worried" Eddy said, he was seating on a wooden seat and trimming the leaves from a flower he picked up from a vase.

"Where's Harry?" Lucy asked.

"As at now, he's with 7 other agents and would have already arrived at Noah's place" Eddy replied.

"He was the one who knocked me out"

"Yes, he told us you were being too reckless for your own well-being. That you forced yourself out the hospital to continue an investigation and.......by the way, where did you two go to?" Eddy asked.

"What exactly did he tell you he needed the extra men for?" she asked.

"Something about a reliable tip"

"A tip? Did he tell you Solomon Ghandi was his 'tip'?"

"What?" Eddy asked in shock as he slowly sat up.

"We went to district 5, we met Ghandi. He's the one staging the attack" Lucy said.

"What else did you find out?" Eddy asked.

"I....I...I don't know Harry did all the talking all I know is they got into some kind of deal and he promised to call of all attacks as long as Harry could stop the one happening tonight" she said. Eddy reached for his communicator in his pocket and made a quick call, as he did Lucy stood up and and tried walking; the pain had subsided but she was feeling dizzy so she knew they had given her something.

"Hey, you shouldn't be standing up yet. Wait till the doc..."

"Am coming with you, either that or you can knock me out yourself" Lucy jumped in before Eddy could finish his sentence. He stared at her for a brief moment, he knew she meant every word of it so he had no choice.

"Fine, but you're are not going in uniform and when the violence start you'd better get out of there or I will, knock you out" Eddy said.

"What am I suppose to wear then?" she asked.

"Wait here, am sure they can find something that will fit you in the used clothes room"

"You don't expect me to wear something that was once worn by someone who died in this hospital? What if the person had the red plague?"

"Then the clothes would have been burnt with the body" he walked out of the room to get the clothes. On his way, he was tempted to leave right then abandoning Lucy but he knew that that wouldn't stop her from coming.

"Here put this on, let's go" he threw at her a pair of black baggy jeans and a brown shirt, he turned around so she could take off her clothes; even though Eddy had a perverted mind he never looked at Lucy lustfully and it wasn't because she wasn't appetizing to the eyes.

"I'm done" she said when she had worn the clothes. On getting to the road side Lucy saw one of Joshua's Car.

"We'll take the car" Eddy said.

"I didn't know you could drive?"

"Well now you do"

It was a green Peugeot car, and it had only two doors. Eddy drove as fast as he could at this hour; it was the dead of night and only few traffic lights were still functional throughout the district.

As they approached the green cottage Lucy thought she heard gun shots. As they took a right leading directly to Noah's front gate they saw a figure standing by the gate, Eddy slowed down so as to get a clear view of the person before getting any closer. The figure seemed to instantaneously knew they were agents and pulled out a revolver from his coat. The first bullet hit the headlight on the driver side, the second hit the glass and missed Eddy's head; by this time Eddy had flattened the accelerator. The third got Eddy on his left shoulder as the car took the shooter off the road and landed a few feet away from where he originally stood.

"Are you OK?" Lucy asked. Eddy was in pain as he turned off the engine and tried getting out the car.

"Go see if the asshole is dead" he said and began approaching the gate. Lucy ran over to the man on the ground, he was still alive but barely moving and was struggling to breath. She picked up the revolver and began looking for an alternative entrance or exit; she knew that if the assassins had found their way in, it wouldn't have been through the front gate. As she made her way round the concrete wall, she spotted a hole big enough for her to fit. She quickly got down on all fours and crawled her way through the hole, she was now in the compound but still had to get through the trees that were now in front of her. Her best bet was to keep heading forward and hopefully be able to spot the light coming from the house, she moved cautiously as she was expecting to meet another assassin on the lookout; the revolver was in her hand but she wasn't sure if it was loaded or not because she was never taught how to use one.

On seeing she wasn't getting any closer to the building soon and that there was nobody close by, she picked up the pace. She could soon see a bulb shining a few yards in front of her, it was a boost of courage as she kept running towards that direction. As she made it past the last tree separating her from the house she began hearing footsteps coming from behind her, the person was faster than her and was quickly gaining on her.

"Were they hiding on the trees?" she wondered as she tried gaining more distance between her and her attacker; she knew that whoever it was, they didn't have a gun or it would have been fired by now so they must be holding a knife or probably a striking tool. She was now just 10 steps from the front door and she knew the person behind her was closer she turned her head and she could see the edge of the blade the attacker weld, it wasn't a knife it was a sword.

"Shit!" she dived forward and turned in mid air, her only hope of surviving now was if there was still a bullet left in the revolver and at that split second doubt suddenly crept in

"If its still loaded why didn't that man take the fourth shot?.....its got to be empty" she thought to herself, the dive was more or less advantageous for the assassin because he was now poised with his sword being supported by both arms and ready to give a thrust. Lucy's back hit the floor as she quickly squeezed the trigger, the sound felt deafening, the gun jumped out her hand. She watched the assailant fall on his back

"Is he dead?" She wondered, she saw him moved as he groaned in pain; the bullet had hit him right in the stomach but he wasn't dead yet. She reached for the gun and as she was about to take another shot, she began hearing footsteps coming from behind her. She turned and saw Eddy approaching, at first she wondered how he made it over the fence or passed the gate but now wasn't the time to ask any questions.

"How did you get in?" Eddy asked.

"There was a hole in the fence..." she pointed towards the direction she had just been coming from.

Eddy rushed to the man on the floor and after kicking his sword from arms reach he tried to stop the bleeding.

"How many shot is still on that thing?" Eddy asked.

"I don't know" Lucy said

"Bre....bread....I need bread" the man on the floor said. He was breathing heavily as a result of the running but was trying to slow down as a result of the anguish he felt.

"Joshua said they are 2 minutes out" Eddy said.

"We can't wait that long who knows what on earth is going on in there right now" Lucy replied.

"There's nothing we can do we are to wait for...." he never finished the sentence before he realised that Lucy had took off; he didn't bother chasing her, he was too busy nursing two bullet wounds at the same time, his and the assailant.

Lucy pushed and the front door gave way; 3 dead agents laid dead at the hall, they were no knife wounds so Lucy assumed they were gunned down.

She walked passed the corpses and headed for the kitchen, on getting there she noticed that the kitchen door had been sprayed with bullet and was just hanging by a hinge. She slowly pushed it and there she saw two more bodies but one of them wasn't an agent. She continued heading towards the dining room, as she approached the door she could hear the clashing of cutleries against ceramic plate.

"Was someone eating?" She wondered.

"I know you're there, please come join me." a voice said. Lucy didn't budge she remained still.

"Its an insult to refuse a warm welcome....isn't that right agent Kayode?" the voice asked. A chill ran down Lucy's spine when she heard her name; no one called her by Kayode since she came to district 4.

"Come join us or I shoot the girl" the voice said again.

"Say something!" the voice yelled to someone in a quiet tone.

"Agent Lucy, is that you?" Lucy recognized the voice it was Amina's.

She sighed, there was nothing, she could think of doing at the moment. She dipped her hand into her pocket and brought out her glasses; one of the lens had been broken during the fall outside but she didn't mind as she put it on. Her best bet was to stall until Eddy and the rest gets here. She stepped slowly into the room with her hands up and the gun hiding under her shirt.

"Nice fashion choice" the man said as he began laughing.

"Please take a seat" he said pointing to the seat at the edge; he sat at the opposite edge and Amina sat at his right with his gun on her head, yet she was eating like he wasn't there. As Lucy sat she was confused at the scene, not just that of Amina eating at this particular time but of the armed man, he was an agent.

"John?...what are you doing? Did you get tired of guarding detainees at the precinct?" Lucy chuckled.

"Very funny....put both hands on the table please." he said.

"If you're here then James has to be too, where is he?" she asked.

"For a girl who's about to die you seem to ask a lot of questions" he said.

"Its my job to know" she replied.

His communicator started screeching, he picked it up and waited for an audio but nothing came through.

"Who else is out there?" he asked.

"Who else if not Eddy...wasn't he like your second boss?...well so I thought till seeing you here made me realized he may have been the third"

"There are things bigger than both of us in this world, and I think its time you understand that. Now take this shit and tell Eddy to come join us" he threw the communicator at Lucy. Lucy sat there with the communicator in her hand and began considering her options, she could not pull out her gun without having to risk Amina's life and even if she could get close enough, John was a huge figure and she wouldn't stand a chance, so her best bet was on the gun but now that she had it tucked in her jeans she didn't know how she was going to get it out.

"And if I don't?" she asked. A smile drew on John's face

"Then I'll make this qui...." he wasn't able to finish the sentence when a large scream came from behind him and then there was total silence. He turned back to peer into the darkness that was the room behind him and Lucy quickly pulled out her gun, she pulled the trigger and nothing happened, she tried again and it was the same flickering silence. John turned and seeing the gun in her hand tried to shoot her but before he could move the gun from pointing at Amina to pointing at Lucy he felt a dagger go right into the back of his hand pushing his target away from Lucy before he pulled the trigger. He was unable to hold on to the gun as a result of the stab wound so he quickly rushed at Amina who had attacked him; Amina blocked his left punch and picked up a fork which she left in his right eye. He fell off the chair and before he knew what was happening Amina was on him and had successfully stabbed him thrice in his neck, Lucy sat and watched in horror as Amina turned into a vicious beast in 10 seconds flat.

"Where did she get a dagger from?" she wondered as she got up and drew closer to the body.

"You killed him" Lucy said still in disbelief. Amina got up, cleaned off the dagger with John's suit and sheathed it back in a book that was on the table; that was when Lucy realized that it wasn't the head of a pen that was coming out the book but a dagger.

"We have to leave now before he comes out" Amina said.

"Its alright, you are safe there are more agents outside, you...."

"No you don't understand!" Amina yelled.

"He won't stop this time, he won't..he can't..." Amina didn't finish the statement before Eddy arrived, he was with 20 more agents and most of them had crossbows.

"Eddy, James and John are with them" Lucy said.

"What, where are they?" Eddy asked.

"I don't know but there's someone in there" she said pointing to the dark hallway.

"No, no, no...please listen to me..."

"Someone get her out of here" Eddy said before Amina could say anything reasonable.

They headed down the hallway and into Noah's antique room there they found the rest dead agents and the rest slain assailants.

"Hey, get me out of here!" a voice was yelling from an iron coffin box kept at one of the corners of the room, Lucy saw Harry lying down close to the coffin; he had little to no blood on him so Lucy assumed he was just unconscious. Some agents had gotten to the iron coffin and opened it only to find Noah in it.

"Sir, what happened?" Eddy asked.

"Your agent toss me into that abominable contraption and went on a killing spree" Noah said pointing to Harry.

"You mean Harry killed all 5 assailants?" Lucy asked.

"Yes.....where's Amina?" Noah asked.

"She's safe, she's outside." Eddy said.

"Oh, thank goodness" Noah exclaimed.

Eddy ordered for Noah to be escorted to a safer place and for the bodies to be cleared out, while Lucy found someone to help take Harry to the hospital. As she left her eyes went to the sword on the wall, she noticed it had blood stain on it even though there was a perfectly clean glass shielding it.

"Hey, this one's still alive!" said one of the agents picking up the bodies.

"Then get him to the Doctor!" Eddy yelled back, he was sitting on top the iron coffin Noah was in a few minutes ago, Joshua stood beside him watching as the bodies were being moved.

"So Ghandi, huh?" Joshua asked.

"That's what Lucy said" Eddy replied.

"Her words won't be enough to convict him, you know that right?"

"I do, but what concerns me is how long they think it will take before he starts going after them" Eddy said.

"After who?"

"Lucy and that bastard you teamed her up with" Eddy said.

"It was either her or you...you yourself saw how he got transferred here, no official document, no nothing, just a bloody call. My guess is Harry has more ties with people at the top than we think" Joshua said. Eddy stood up as the last of the body was carried away

"Guess we are done" he said.

"No, not really...I just remembered, our friends are not too happy on how the trap went. They said they also lost a few people too"

"Are you talking about those enforcers?" Eddy asked.

"Yes....and they told me to provide someone that will be held responsible"

"What the fuck does that mean?!" Eddy asked getting furious.

"They want everyone connected with this case" Joshua said. Eddy stared at Joshua in disbelief and as he was about to say something a thought came in his head.

"Wouldn't make a difference anyway, the case was already closed" he started heading for the exit. Joshua stood there, watching him leave and then started searching himself for his cigarette box.