Chapter 17 – The Storm That Follows

Benin City — South Edge Border Checkpoint — 11:14 A.M.

The checkpoint was a crumbling skeleton of old infrastructure. Once part of the transcontinental bio-route between Lagos and Port Novo, it now buzzed with repurposed surveillance drones, armed customs AI, and NDLEC elite patrols — rattled, paranoid, and scanning for ghosts.

Tunde stood beside a rusted cargo container, drenched in the heat of the southern morning, watching the line of vehicles inch forward under armed watch.

He was in disguise again — skin tone darkened with nanospray, eyes covered with hazel contacts, and a forged ID under the alias Obiora Chukwuemeka, logistics supervisor for a fertilizer company.

In the duffel bag slung over his shoulder: three vials of intercepted Neurotrace, one encrypted drone drive stolen from the Lagos lab, and a modified pen laced with subdermal explosive gel.

He wasn't just passing through.

He was about to blow open the next layer of the conspiracy.

....

Earlier That Day – Alero's Safehouse, Benin City — 7:03 A.M.

Alero paced the length of the room, while Arewa finished calibrating a handheld disruptor.

"You're sure about this route?" Alero asked.

"It's the only open corridor not already compromised," Arewa replied. "Glyph rerouted satellite attention, but she won't be able to hold the false signature for long."

Tunde finished inserting fresh cartridges into his pulse pistol. "Checkpoint Echo isn't just a border post. It's also a transfer point for medical shipments."

Arewa nodded. "And the Neurotrace is still being exported under humanitarian tags. We intercept a sample, crack the foreign registry, then link the shipment to the multinational supply chain. That gives us the next piece — who's backing Bako globally."

Alero narrowed her eyes. "You're not just hunting cartel mules anymore. You're going after diplomatic immunity."

Tunde zipped up his duffel. "Then it's time immunity stopped meaning untouchable."

....

Checkpoint Echo – Inspection Bay 4 – 11:37 A.M.

Tunde's turn came. The customs AI scanned his credentials, blinked twice, and flagged him for secondary.

He was led into a side inspection pod — cold metal walls, one stool, one camera.

"Please place your bag on the table," the voice said.

He obeyed.

Then the room flickered — and the static buzz stopped.

From the opposite wall, a door hissed open.

A man entered. Not a customs officer. Not NDLEC. His accent was faintly Swiss. He wore a smart grey suit and an old Omega watch.

"I knew someone would come," the man said. "But I didn't expect NDLEC's new Ghost."

Tunde didn't flinch. "You have me at a disadvantage."

"I doubt it." The man sat. "My name is Lucien Voss. Diplomatic attaché. And unofficial broker for some very interested parties."

"Spectral?" Tunde asked.

Lucien smiled faintly. "Names don't matter. Only influence. And you've disrupted quite a lot of it."

He leaned forward.

"You should know this — the Neurotrace shipments were never meant for Nigerian soil. Nigeria was just the petri dish. The real market... is Africa."

Tunde's jaw tightened. "You're testing weapons-grade addiction vectors on millions of people."

Lucien shrugged. "What better focus group than the desperate and the poor?"

Tunde leaned forward slowly. "Then why stop me instead of killing me?"

Lucien chuckled. "Because I'm offering you something better."

He placed a silver data ring on the table.

"Everything. All of it. From Geneva to Lagos to Shanghai. You leak this — the world burns."

Tunde stared at the ring. It pulsed faintly with blue light.

"What's the catch?"

"You don't leak it," Lucien said. "You trade it. You climb higher. You become one of the few who shape the chaos instead of drowning in it."

Tunde stared for a long moment.

Then he smiled.

"Thanks for the offer."

He flicked his pen onto the table.

Lucien frowned.

Then the explosion went off.

....

Checkpoint Echo – South Fence – 11:59 A.M.

Smoke billowed into the air as Tunde sprinted through the chaos, clutching the duffel and the scorched data ring. Sirens wailed. Drones hovered, scanning wildly.

Behind him, Lucien's fate was unclear — but Tunde didn't look back.

He dove into a waiting water drone at the riverside — piloted by Ejiro, a river-hacker from Warri who owed Alero a favor and never asked questions.

"You blow up something again?" Ejiro asked as they sped off across the delta.

Tunde grinned. "Something like that."

....

Somewhere in the Cloud – Resistance Server Core – 1:08 P.M.

Glyph decrypted the data ring within a secure environment.

Her hands trembled.

"This isn't just blackmail data," she whispered. "This is... every major pharmaceutical contract tied to the UN Global Health Syndicate. And they're all using Neurotrace variations."

Alero stared at the screen.

"So we're not just fighting Bako. We're fighting an empire."

Tunde leaned against the wall, watching his team digest the scale of it.

Arewa's voice broke the silence.

"Then we better take the war to the world."