UNTAMED

Part Two

[Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water]

The drive to Ologbo was supposed to take about two hours but he made it in about one hour thirty minutes. The time was 1:26PM. The palm plantation was almost at the outskirt of the town which was closer to Benin City than Sapele. He parked his pickup van close to a provision store and looked around before coming out of the Pickup. There was no time to waste. If the native pot company was popular fourteen years ago, then someone above thirty would know much about the owner, then Ologbo was not developed the way it was at that moment. The provision store owner was looking old enough. He pulled off his hood and sunshade glasses. He tried not to look menacing as he approached the store owner. He asked for a plastic coke bottle and sat down at the only empty plastic chairs. The other two were occupied by two men who were drinking a bottle of Chelsea alcoholic drink. One of them was about lightening a cigarette when he sat down with his bottle of coke. He looked at him but turned the other way after their eyes met. He was afraid of him which was good. The other also stared at him but did not immediately turn the other way. He was looking at him inquisitively. If he were to interpret the second man's expression, he was worried he was bringing trouble to a peaceful community. It was true the community was not that large and those that have been living there from birth would be able to identify a new comer but there was also the fact that there was an NNPC power plant which had attracted foreign workers. But he understood the second man's worry. Even an uneducated man would know the possibility of him being one of NNPC worker was zero. He was still on his black jacket although not wearing the hood. He was wearing a black jean trousers and a black T-shirt with a picture of a human skull covering almost all the front of the T-shirt. There was also his size. The store owner had entered the store after giving him the plastic coke. It was clear the woman was afraid of him, if his size was not scary, his voice was. He had already gotten used to people feeling intimidated by him. Abigail was never afraid of him. The thought of Abigail made his left hand to automatically rob his chest, not that he felt any pain, he just felt empty, like something in his chest needed to be filled up.
No one spoke as each concentrated on what they were drinking. The one with the cigarette must have forgotten he wanted to light it after looking at him.
"You are new here" the second man stated after emptying the small Chelsea bottle.
He nodded and at the same time, he changed his mind about disturbing the elderly lady. The two men opposite him were looking old enough.
"Do you have any idea if the native pot company from years ago have resumed production?" He asked trying his best to make his voice a bit friendly.
"Oh you mean honorable Esigie's former business?" The first man stammered.
"Honorable?"
"You don't know? He won last year's Oredo House of Representative election after serving as Edo State House of Assembly member for eight years. He is the pride of our town" the first man continued.
The second man used his right leg to push the left leg of the first man.
"But why are you asking? He stopped making native pots fourteen years ago. That is a long time." The second man said.
There were so many things he had learnt from Wild but the most important was telling the truth. People most times would believe a stranger was lying or keeping something, so even when the truth was being spoken, they sometimes took it as a lie. There was another reason he wanted to be straight forward but he hoped it would not be needed.
"My mum told me about a gifted boy who used to make some of the pots. I really want to find him, I need his help" he said studying their expressions.
"You want to start a native pot company?" It was the woman who asked.
"Not really, I need him to fix a pot my late mum gave to me, it is the only gift I have from her."
"No one ever saw him, we just heard about him. But Chief's house is not far from here. You can go and ask, he visits once in a while and there are people taking care of the house. Doh. Sorry for your mum" the woman said.
He listened to the woman, and only spared a few glances her way, he was more focused on the two men opposite him, especially the second man. He was shaking his head at the woman when she was speaking. But the woman had ignored him. The emotional blackmail worked on the woman and he had somewhere to go to. But that meant he would need to ask around. But there was another way.
"What do you say about showing me the house?" He asked the first man.
"Oh but it's not far..." He stammered but stopped midway when he waved a thousand naira at him.
"Okay" he answered ignoring the furious kicks from his partner.
He stood up and gave the woman a thousand naira note.
"I don't have eight hundred and fifty naira, don't you have two hundred naira so I can give you fifty naira?" She asked with expectancy visible on her face.
"Keep the change ma" he said already leaving.
"God bless you my son. Good son" the woman shouted after him.
As he entered the driver's seat, he checked to see if the first man was coming but saw an interesting scene being displayed by the second man. He could not hear what he was saying but part of The Circle training was the study of non-verbal communication. The course was added after Jason, an autistic soldier joined The Circle, in fact, so many things had been changed since Jason entered. That was because Jason's conviction on anything was never based on pride or personal opinion, it was based on what was right, logical, probable and what made sense, and arguing about right and wrong with someone with autism was a complete waste of time. Instead of losing someone like Jason, Major Ahmed their overall leader had allowed and disallowed some things. The second man was showing his displeasure at the first man. He was angry and he wanted the man to give him back his money and ignore him. It was obvious the man thought he was lying, that he had ulterior motives. He could be an assassin and the two of them had sold their conscious for a thousand naira. He waited to see if the first man would listen to him. He came to the passenger seat, opened it and sat down.
"Sorry, my friend is just worried about Chief. He doesn't trust you" he said closing the door.
He nodded and ignited the pickup. It was not far just as the woman had pointed out. It took just four minutes to get to the compound. It was fenced and very large. The only thing one could see inside the compound were tall masquerade trees. The gate was black and also tall.
"This is the Chief's house. Thanks for the money" the man said coming down from the car.
He started running immediately his foot touched the ground. That was sending the wrong signal because it was either he was afraid of him or afraid of the house.
He parked at the front of the gate and blew his horn twice before coming down. He did not have to knock because his horn had brought someone to the gate. He was wearing a security uniform but not the army nor police. It was the normal security blue shirt and black trousers. He had a rifle which he hanged on his shoulders and he was smoking a cigarette which was half gone.
"Yes?" the man asked blowing the smoke towards him before raising his head to see who was standing at the gate.
He jolted when their eyes collided but he quickly regained his composure. He must have opened the gate after just seeing the old pickup van from the peephole.
"Yes?" he asked again adding more depth to his voice to make him sound scary.
"I came to inquire about the famous boy who used to make native pot for Chief" He went straight to the point.
He should be in his early twenties and wouldn't have knowledge of events of fourteen years ago. He only wanted to see the man's reaction. And he got exactly what he was looking for.
"What? Are you drunk? Who told you the boy would still be around after all this years? Young man I think you must have missed your way"
"No. I don't think so and the person who told me he is still around is not necessary. I just want to ask him a few question" he responded and watched the shock on the man's face.
"How dare.... I better don't find the informant out because he is....." He stopped to look at him.
"Anyway you can't see him without Chief's permission and Chief will never permit it. No one is permitted to see him. We are done here. You can go" the man said.
It was absolutely absurd that the boy was still around. Although the man just confirmed it, it did not make sense. Fourteen years was a long time. He could not fathom why the boy would still be around except there was something he had not yet understood.
"Wait" he called to the man who was almost closing the gate.
"Can I ask one more question?"
"What?" the man asked blowing another smoke towards him, testing his patient and testing the beast in him.
"Why can't I see him without Chief's permission?"
"Because that is the instruction, no one can see him"
"Wrong answer"
"What?"
"Ask him, he is a man, he should be able to decide who sees him or not even if he is Chief's son"
"Are you now telling me how to carry out my duties? This is my last warning. Leave" the man said almost closing the gate.
He held the man's hand and before the man could protest, he pushed the man into the compound. It was not that he was not expecting more security guards like two more but he was surprised to see more than ten armed men, some sitting down, some standing at different positions.
"Osas wetin dey happen?" one of then asked cocking his gun and pointing it at him. The others did the same.
"This man say he won meet Chief boy" Osas said pulling out his rifle from his shoulder and struggling to cock it.
"Mr man, you have ten seconds to vamoose before I blow your head. Nor come back again. Chief nor dey allow anybody see him boy. Nor come again" the man said with a Hausa accent.
He looked at the man and the man's hand. He was serious about blowing his head off and that was piquing his interest. The guns being pointed at him was waking up the killing beast in him and he was getting excited. But his confusion was the only thing keeping his excitement at bay. Why would a group of armed men want to shoot him for inquiring about a boy from fourteen years ago? He looked at the men pointing guns at him, many were amateurs only about two knew how to handle guns. There were two buildings in the compound, one was a duplex, the other was the boy's quarter. The houses were opposite each other. The duplex was by his right while the boy's quarter was by his left. There was a car park directly opposite him, many cars were covered except a black Hilux. The security men all had their back on the boy's quarter, some were glancing towards it as they pointed their guns at him. He now knew where the boy was.
"You have four seconds more to leave here alive" the Hausa man said.
He was actually not interested before, he just wanted to find out what prompted someone to carve 'HELP' with a steel wire, but now he had just confirmed the boy was not playing, the message meant the way it was written. Someone carved that word because he actually needed help and what disturbed him most was that even after fourteen years, this person still needed help. But the most confusing thing was what kind of help? If he was held captive why would he still be kept alive? He was no longer needed but somehow he was still kept alive. Something was definitely wrong.
"I'm going, but I will be back" he said leaving.
As he entered his pickup and started his journey back to Asaba, he just knew one thing, if this boy was really being held captive, enough to kill someone making an inquiry, they would definitely take the bait he had just thrown. They will definitely come after him and it wouldn't be him who gave the first punch.