CH43: COMMENCING OPERATION PYTONSLAYING

This is a passion work. So, I would really appreciate it if you leave behind a review when you're done reading.

***

"Wow. The NDI isn't messing around. There are enough weapons here to start a small war." Korede said.

He was very impressed with the inventory in front of him.

[I thought you were here to fight a small war]

Slightly taken aback, Korede replied, "That's true."

He shrugged his shoulders and continued inspecting the weapons cache.

The room was long but narrow. This wasn't just a weapons cache, it was more like an armoury.

The first things he saw entering the weapon cache were gun racks, each with ten assault rifles on it. Although each rack had a different model of assault rifle on it, there were only three models in total.

"MK14 Elite Battle Rifle, HK416. There's even Remington ACRs."

The MK14 and HK416 rifles were more abundant than the ACRs, after all, the two models were almost standard-issue rifles.

Hung on the wall, to the left of each rack, was a sniper rifle.

"M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle. Again, another standard-issue weapon."

Korede was a little disappointed. He expected the NDI to have more varieties of weapons than this, seeing the size of the weapons cache. It wasn't until the last five racks that he saw a change in the Sniper model.

"Barrett Rifles. Well, I guess I'll take that." His eyes moved to the last rifle. "Is that… L115A3?"

Korede couldn't but walk up to it and pick it off the wall. He examined the rifle for a bit before putting it back.

"Not bad."

[I never took you for a gun enthusiast.]

'That's because I'm not. I'm just happy with the tools given to me. As the saying goes 'A farmer cannot work the land without hoes and cutlasses.' The same also applies to me.'

Korede moved on to the next items.

Pass the rifles were steel tables with pistols on them. There were P226s, Colt M1911a1s, Glock 19s, and Beretta M9s. Then, there were one meter high cupboards filled with ammunition compatible with all the guns on display. Other drawers had night vision goggles, thermal vision goggles, trackers, bugs, grenades, explosives. Everything a self-respecting one-man army would need to wage a small war.

Finally, Korede came to a workbench. There was a laptop on top of it which was his goal. He took the laptop and left the weapons cache or, as Korede saw it, armoury.

Back in the living room, Korede opened the secured laptop with his fingerprints and retina.

His biometric data had already been programmed into the laptop.

He found a folder on the home screen. He opened the folder to see files on different individuals, almost twenty of them. There was also a video file named 'briefing'. So, Korede connected his Bluetooth headset and played the video. He watched the briefing video three more times to make sure he didn't miss anything.

"This guy is messed up."

This was Korede's evaluation of the Duke after watching the video.

The NDz was originally a small gang operating only in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria which was where they got their name. Back then, the gang's major business was in crude oil bunkering and illegal small-scale modular petroleum refining. Under the chaos of a major crackdown operation of involved security outfits, the then third-in-command Jonathan Duke ambushed and killed the two leaders of the gang, thereby becoming its leader.

Under his command, the gang retreated and went underground for a while. After the heat had died down, he came back out and made a big gamble. Gathering every single penny the gang had, he got in bed with drug and human traffickers. The high risk, high reward gamble paid off and he acquired enough money for his grand plans.

Fifteen years later, the NDz had become the second-largest criminal organisation in the country. They handled most of the drugs and other illegal exotic goods entering the country. They sold anything and everything they could get their hands on without impunity or care for the consequence. Their efforts paid off and the NDz were considered the Dark Merchants of the Nigerian Underworld.

As Korede read this, his impression of the Duke changed. Like most people, he had always thought the Duke was just a barbaric loudmouth. Now, he could see that there was a method in the madness. One of the ways to easily get what you want in the criminal underworld is…

Fear.

It was exactly this fear that the Duke was using.

"Rule of Engagement gave me full autonomy. I can do whatever I want as long as there're no civilian casualties and infrastructural losses are at a minimum.

Primary objective is to take out the five major figures of the NDz in Onitsha.

Secondary objective is to disable the gang so that it would be difficult for anyone else to take the reins after the Duke has been handled." Korede mumbled. "So how do I go about this?"

He folded his arms and tapped his right index finger on his left arm deep in thought.

After a while, he said. "That would have to do. Unfortunately, I have to finish this within ten days. If I had more time I could have come up with a better plan. Then again, finishing things quickly is also for the best."

Though the mission didn't have a timeline, Korede put one for himself because eleven days from now would be the first anniversary of the Alpha team's deaths. Korede wanted to end the NDz before then and return for the anniversary memorial.

[Did you come up with a plan? Is it interesting?] Aon asked.

'Can't you just read my thoughts?'

[Where's the fun in that? Watching everything unfold is more enjoyable.]

'Suit yourself' Korede thought with a shrug

Korede typed away on the computer trying to get as much information as possible on his targets and for the implementation of his plan.

The NDz had five important figures which were Korede's targets.

1. Jonathan Duke: Head of the NDz.

Designation: The Duke.

2. Peter Duke: Jonathan's brother and right-hand man, Head of the gang's security outfit.

Designation: The Knight.

3. Esther Duke: Jonathan's wife, NDz public campaign manager, Gang members' idol.

Designation: The Beauty-queen

4. Chidozie Agbu: Head of the gang's smuggling operations

Designation: The Smuggler.

5. Adeshina Owolabi: Jonathan's accountant. Head of NDz financial department.

Designation: The Accountant.

Korede jotted some things in a notepad before he closed the laptop. He stretched his body as his body was feeling sore.

He had gotten back from Okinawa around noon, arrived Onitsha around 3 pm. Now he had sat in front of a laptop screen for hours. Even as a Master, he couldn't help his body feeling fatigued. Unfortunately, there was no time to rest.

'No rest for the weary.'

Korede returned the laptop to the 'armoury'.

Back in the master bedroom, he opened the wardrobe/closet to look for cloth hangers to use to arrange his clothes only to find them full. Whoever prepared the safehouse also prepared a change of clothes for him. The only problem was that they were all suits. Casual suit, Business suit, Tuxedo. At least one each of every type of suit he would probably need. He checked them and found that they fitted him perfectly. Left with no choice, Korede left his clothes in the luggage bag. He entered the bathroom and took a bath.

Done with his bath, he selected a casual suit from the closet. It was a black blazer on grey trousers with a light blue shirt and no tie. He walked into the armoury and came back out with a backpack. He removed the blazer and wore a shoulder holster for his Beretta M9 pistol.

The main reason he wore the suit was to conceal the gun. Nigeria has strict laws against gun possession. Also, if a person is seen carrying a gun and isn't a security officer, the person is automatically deemed a suspicious individual. Since he didn't want undue attention, Korede decided to use this method to conceal his gun, though he had a permit to carry. The permit was amongst the things in the armoury. The NDI's preparation was really thorough.

After rummaging the left bedside drawer, he found a car key. Wearing back the blazer and carrying the backpack on his shoulder, he walked out of the apartment.

In the ground floor garage, he found the car prepared for him. It was a previous year Toyota Corolla. He got in and threw the backpack on the passenger's seat. He brought out the notepad and inputted several addresses into the navigation system which showed him the shortest route to all locations.

[So, are you going to attack all the locations tonight? Going straight to finishing them once and for all?]

'Remind me to stop watching action movies. I only brought the M9, how am I going to attack all the locations? Besides, I'd be dead if I do that.' Korede berated. 'I'm just going to do the most important but also possibly the most boring aspect of any investigation.'

[What's that?]

'You should just read my thoughts for the plan'

[No! You think too much. It's easy to get lost in your thoughts. I'd rather just watch things unfold. Besides, it's more fun that way.]

Korede chuckled as he shook his head.

'Well, to answer your question, It's Surveillance.'

With that said, Korede drove off.

Though he called it Surveillance, he was mostly familiarizing himself with the routes to the locations he jotted down.

At the locations themselves, he just took pictures of the buildings and the people there that looked affiliated to the NDz. It wasn't too difficult to identify who was and wasn't affiliated to the gang because gang members had gang identifiers on them; tattoos, clothing, accessories, etc.

Most importantly, they all had that cliché 'I am a gang member' vibe to them causing Korede to shake his head.

In most of these places, security was very lax so he was able to waltz in and place surveillance bugs in them. Others, he had to be very careful as the security was tight.

Unlike the former locations which were just entertainment and gathering areas owned or frequented by the gang, these places were their places of operations. Though well hidden, Korede was able to find them and sneak in with his skills. He noticed a lot of criminal activities but ignored them for the bigger picture.

On his way to other locations, a bug in one of the entertainment centres picked up something that pissed Korede off.

He heard the Duke force himself on one of the female workers. After threatening her, the woman gave up and he had his way with her. Aon could feel that if the Duke was currently within Korede's sights, he would kill the crime boss without any consideration for the 'bigger picture'.

It took a few minutes for Korede to calm down. He felt pity for the woman. The Duke was a man who built his empire on a foundation of fear and violence. If she hadn't agreed, only God knows what he would have done to keep his reputation. Korede decided to quickly put his plans into motion as it should take up the man's attention and prevent him from harming anyone else.

He changed his plans and made his way to a particular location. It was the home of the brother and right-hand man of the Duke, Peter Duke.

Like every other house in the community, the house was surrounded by a tall three to four-meter fence. Luckily, Korede had learnt extreme parkour from Miyako Hanzo. He was able to scale the fence with some effort and get on the property. According to intel, Peter Duke had something to discuss with his brother tonight. Since the bug didn't pick up anything, he should be safe.

Korede entered the four-bedroom bungalow quietly by picking the locks. The house was surprisingly low-key. Not what he expected of the home of a criminal Underboss. He searched the house and planted bugs in obscure locations at the same time.

Though he didn't find anything, he did find something interesting.

Well hidden under a floor tile was a lockbox. Korede wouldn't have found it if he hadn't enhanced his eyesight with {Sense Boost} to scan the house.

In the box, he found a picture of Peter Duke and Esther Duke together with arms around each other. The picture was old as the two looked very young. No matter how you looked at it, the picture was one of a young couple in love.

'Although not enough, this will work well for my plan."

Aside from the picture, Korede found letters going back and forth between the couple that confirmed that they were lovers. He brought out the NDI-issued phone and took pictures of everything in the lockbox. While he was doing so, he discovered that the oldest letter dated back eight years. Intrigued, he made a rookie mistake. He started reading the letters there and then while losing track of time. It wasn't until his ears picked up the sound of the automated gate opening that he came to his senses.

'Shit! I lost track of time. Peter Duke is home.' Korede cursed.

[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion matters to me.]

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