Behind The Story
They lay side by side, her head on his chest, tired but satisfied and accomplished. She wished it was darker, but he tried to make her feel at ease. He cracked jokes and talked for a while.
“Remember when I said we were not going to work today?” Work? Oh, work! Damn! She had forgotten about that completely. Nothing would make any of them go out today. He was only allowed to go to masjid (Mosque).
“I guess Maraah is going to fry your ass. She would tell her dad.” She said and Justin giggled.
“Her father is my stooge. I own the place. We own the place” She now remembered that she had about one million questions for him. How did he get so rich within a short period of time? And his physical changes.
“You own that place? “ she asked and He smiled. “Now, you have a lot to tell me. First, is Aliyah your real sister, is Alhaji Salat your real father? Where have you been? How did you survive? Who were the people who tried to kill you and why? I am your wife now, I want to know. I don't care about the risk of involving me. I want to be part of whatever trouble it is.....but I trust you” she said.
“You asked about my relationship with Aliyah, Alhaji Salat and the rest.....it is complicated but I will tell you from the scratch. It was complicated and it is still. I met Aaliyah........”
THE STORY….
Mathew had gone for fishing that day when he saw something floating and holding onto a dried log of wood. At first, he thought it was a dead hippopotamus..
He paddled his canoe towards it and then saw a body that looked lifeless. He jumped into the river, made a quick swim and touched the body. He was alive but still bleeding. He did not know what happened but he knew this person who happened to be a young man like him needed help.
He moved him to his canoe, put him inside and paddled backwards with a speed that would make some Olympic participants hide in shame. This was a raw hidden talent.
Mathew paddled to the bank of the river, tied his canoe, and carried Justin on his shoulder. He was half running as he rushed to their village. It was late in the night. They used to go to the river at night to fish and come back in the morning.
He carried Justin to his hut and went to his father’s room. The father, Justus, was a hunter and had gone for hunting. Mathew knew a lot about herbal medicine and local remedies which was part of their family trade.
Hunters were also known to have deep knowledge of herbs. He rushed back to his hut after collecting some herbs. He lit his lantern, and then realized that Justin was bleeding from the arm. He looked carefully and knew it was a bullet.
Bullet? Who was he? He went to a corner of his room and brought two metals. He knew how to do this because he also learnt hunting and knew about guns. He sent the metal into Justin’s arm. Justin reacted as a stream of pain swept through him.
Mathew removed the bullet. What? This was a foreign bullet and not the local one he knew. Hope he was not helping an armed robber? He went and put the metal in a flame of fire in his mother’s kitchen. He allowed it get red before he removed it. He went back in a rush, poured some powdered leaves on the wound and then used the hot metal to touch the wound.
Even though Justin was unconscious, he yelled and wiggled but the strong Igala boy held him tightly and then let him go when he felt it was done. He then mixed some herbs, added honey, opened his mouth and ingested.
He then let him go, watched him for a few minutes, satisfied, he went out after closing the door behind him. He was going back to fishing. In the early hours of the next morning, he saw about two flying boats with strange men in it.
They stopped by his canoe, and asked, “Please did you see the body of our brother, he fell into the river last night.” They showed him Justin’s picture. He almost said yes then something inside him told him not to.
They said he fell inside the river but the guy he saw was shot at. The men looked dangerous. “No, I didn’t see anybody.” That single move had saved Justin because those were the men sent by Dr. Abbas to get his body.
When Mathew went back home, he explained everything to his parents and cautioned them to keep it a secret until they knew what was going on. Miraculously, Justin became conscious two days later and was able to walk and talk but the wound needed time to heal.
That was how he met Justus Ocholi family. Justin told them he was attacked by assassins who wanted to kill him because he discovered that they were criminals. He did not tell them the truth. He lived with them and healed within two months.
Meanwhile, the search team organized by Hajiya Fatima (Petra’s mum) kept searching for him but Mathew thought they were part of the assassins so he never told them anything. By the time Justin healed, the search had stopped.
Justin began to follow Mathew to fish. He became a fisher man but Mathew told him something that he did not understand. “I am a native. We have Ebira, Bassa-Nge (a Nupe tribe), Igala, Ogori and a lot more around here. This river is dangerous. It may not be too friendly with strangers. You have to be Careful. The water knows natives and strangers.”
“I know how to swim.” Justin had told him. “It is not just about knowing how to swim.” It did not make much sense to Justin but he quit that day. He needed a source of income to raise money for logistics.
It was now clear that he was a target and there must be a reason for it. He recognized one of the men to be Gajere’s men. Who was Gajere working for? He was told that the name of the village was Agedem not too far from Shintaku which overlooked Lokoja with the river dividing them.
He saw Ferries transporting people and cars across the river to the other side. Justin decided to get a job so he crossed to Lokoja and began searching for a job. He finally got a job at a café . This was not only to earn but have access to a computer and network.
He used to cross the river via flying boats every day to get to work. He did not show his employers that he had exceptional skills when it came to computers but he exhibited proficiency in the conventional aspect of the job to endear him to them.
He then offered to program for them. They were astonished to find out that he could write computer programs. While he was doing this which made them allow him spend the night at the café, he used the opportunity to carry on with his mission.
Justin had the thought of Petra on his mind at every point of his life. He knew she would be perturbed, and devastated but he could not go to her. They would be watching her and once she knew he was alive, they would know. That was when he got the chance to start hacking into an account he had worked on as contracted by Kacha.
He found something fishy about that account. He accessed his secret file which he hid on a mail called Q- mail. It was inaccessible to hackers. Only he could access it using radio waves. In that file were some of his most efficient conventional hacking tools which he used before he discovered OFA waves.
He remembered the site, even though Kacha tried to mix it up. They did not trust him. He logged in, from his file, he brought in DFX password cracker and retrieved the password like child’s play. The site was displayed. Using a packet sniffer, he captured the data packs in order to view data and passwords in the transit networks.
He saw a pack with a file name: AB. He applied an algorithm which scanned the internal suggestions encrypted in the system and he saw America-Bolivia. It took no time to find out that the site was handled by Dr Abbas. Bingo! His suspicions were correct.
Dr Abbas was the one he cracked the site for through Kacha and his group. Justin opened the data and saw things that sparked his interest.
He saw a name: Aminu Saminu. He recalled that Petra’s father was called Usman Saminu. But Dr Abbas was Abbas Babangida and they had the same father and mother. Why were they bearing complete different names? It was not unusual that a child might bear his father’s name while his sibling used their grandfather’s name.