10.The Mansion
Adrian stared expressionless at the mansion in front of him. He heard the driver's door bang and turned to look at Sang' round the black Mercedes and approach him. "Few people know of the existence of this house and even fewer people know who resides in this house," Sang' explained. He motioned for Adrian to follow him to the guest house down the stone drive way. Adrian quickly assessed his surrounding noting the well taken care of compound. "You will take over the night shift from now on." Sang' opened the glass doors leading into the guest house and led Adrian into the living room. Hang on one wall above the fire place were at least five screens showing different videos of the on goings in the main house. One was of the kitchen area, the other of the living room and dining area, the other of the main hallway to the bedrooms, the other of a room that was clearly furnished as a gym and the other of a study room filled with books. "Miss Shirleen Mokeira lives in the big house with a female bodyguard and the house keeper. She is not allowed to leave the compound without a guard and permission from Madam Angela. Unless you have orders otherwise, she is to stay within the compound. On a daily basis only two people are allowed into the compound her tutor who oversees her studies and her martial arts instructor who oversees her physical training." A tall black man appeared through a hallway leading further into the house and spotted Sang' and Adrian. He quickly approached them and shook Sang's hand respectfully. "Adrian Maliekhe meet Stanley Githu he is responsible for the day shift. He will tell you more," Sang' said and turned to walk to the door. He hesitated for a few seconds at the front door and turned to look at Adrian. "To say that I was impressed by your skills is an understatement. The A team will not exactly welcome you with open arms considering you wiped the floor with them when you first met. You have already earned my respect but not my trust. Being a body guard in Madam Angela's firm means you have agreed to do extremely dangerous jobs so relying on each other is paramount. Just like the army we bond because you know you require someone to watch your back. You have been given the most important job there is as a test. Don't mess up." Sang' didn't wait for a response.
"That is the most words I have heard him speak. He must really like you," Stanley said with an easy smile proving he was friendly and Adrian smiled in response. "It is nice to meet you. You can call me Stan."
"You can call me Adrian," he replied.
"As we will be spending a lot of time together please ask me any questions and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge."
"Who is the lady we are guarding?" Adrian asked taking of his jacket and throwing it over a chair. He sat down on the sofa and using the remote control started checking how flexible the surveillance in the house was.
"We don't know. We were all assigned our jobs here four months ago. Miss Shirleen does not interact with any of us. She rarely even leaves her room. The only time she leaves the room is during her training, studies or dinner. For breakfast Mrs. Nzula, the housekeeper takes up to her bedroom a tray of whatever she has prepared."
"So in short our job is to keep her inside and hidden," Adrian said softly.
"Exactly," Stan replied sitting next to Adrian. Adrian's curiosity was already peeked. Questions without answers swirled in his mind. But the one question that burned was why exactly did Angela go to such lengths to hide one girl from the rest of the world? Had he already found her Achilles heel, something that he would be able to use against her if the day ever came that he required such assistance?
Days passed into weeks and all Adrian did was sit before the screens and watch silently as the girl on the screen became more and more fascinating and less of a stranger. She was at least five foot three, chocolate brown in complexion with wide brown expressive eyes. She was curved in all the right places making her look tiny and at the same time more woman in his eyes. It was a fascinating combination. He had already mastered her routine as she seemed to repeat it at exactly the same time. Her martial arts training ended at exactly six o'clock in the evening when his shift begun. She would then make her way to the dining room where a bottle of water always awaited her. She would take the bottle of water upstairs with her and remain in her room until seven o'clock when she would make her way downstairs to the dining room where her dinner was already spread out for her. She would sit and eat. Thirty minutes later she would seat back, eat a piece of fruit and stare at nothing in particular for fifteen minutes. She would finally leave the table and make her way back upstairs where she would remain until midnight. She would then make her way downstairs to the kitchen and try to prepare herself a cup of hot chocolate something that she always failed miserable at as it was clear she did not know how to operate the gas cooker something that he had found hilarious. Night after night she would come downstairs and try again and again and each night, she had to pour out the cup she made as it was cold and didn't look tasty at all. Her determination became appealing to him and soon he found himself talking to the screen trying to explain what she should do as he watched her but as she clearly couldn't see him she failed as usual. As a month turned to two he came to the realisation he was slowly looking forward to seeing her on those screens. Sometimes she looked sad, other times she looked defeated and other times she smiled. In those rare times he saw her smile he came to the slow realisation he wanted to make her smile. What puzzled him was the fact that he had originally thought her Angela's prisoner but when she did not try to escape even once he became confused and the question remained and persisted who was she?