UNTAMED

Part Sixteen

{I’m at the edge of losing it-the pain in my gut keeps burning}

        He had fixed another punching bag after gathering his weapons into his pickup. Time was not cooperating and Jason had not yet sent the details. He knew why. Wild might have instructed him to send it when it was time, because Wild knew he was not going to wait. After hitting the bag for a while, he checked the time using the wrist watch Jason had given him the other night. He had worn it after ending the call with Wild. He had also searched the bag with his gadgets to find out if there were any hardcopy manual on how to operate some of the gadgets. There was none. He just picked out the spectacle and their communication gadgets, at least he knew few things about them.  He was ready, the beast in him could not wait but he needed the details before he could move.
At exactly 7:00PM, the message he had been waiting for came. It was a map with a red dot at the location of the robbery. He knew that area. It was called Owa Nta, there was a filling station before it. As he studied the map, an email came from Jason.
‘The exact place is unknown but the robbers currently have a flight bird on their trail, right now they are getting themselves high on drugs. I will soon connect the bird to your wrist watch. All you need to do is operate the watch the way you operate a normal android phone. You will soon see a picture of a bird on your watch, tap on it and permit it to connect together. Then scroll through it and you will see your spectacle. I hope you had switched it off, if not, you have to charge it on your way. It charges itself with solar power but the sun has gone down and I know you placed it where the sun cannot get to it. I have already connected your spectacle to your wrist watch, so once you tap on the spectacle device, they will be connected. Create a triangular link by connecting the three devices together. Just scroll to an app with a triangle shape, click on it and the two devices connected to your wrist watch will appear. Give the permit to connect and that’s it. Your wrist watch’s battery is very powerful, you don’t need to charge it now, make sure you are wearing it all the time because it will automatically charge itself when you come outside under the sun. It has solar panel installed on both sides. You will have to learn how to do the rest yourself. Cindy and I are thirty minutes away, and we would not be waiting for you to come back.’
Agbor was about 50 minutes’ drive from Asaba but he was going to beat the time to thirty. Jason was on his way and his personal Flight bird was already placed to watch the compound. It would be able to pick targets as far as three hundred yards which was enough space to fire a targeted missile without causing any destruction to his compound.
The time was 7:07PM when he drove out of his compound. His eyes caught the mango tree his first bullet had gotten stuck in. He had never removed the bullet.
It was not difficult to plug the spectacle. It had a Nokia torch charging point and his pickup van had up to twelve different charging mouths. His wrist watch vibrated as he drove out of his street. He quickly glanced at it.
‘Connect the transmitter.’
He had no idea who had sent the message, it could be Mark or Jason. He brought out his transmitting tools from the box he had placed on the front seat.
“Show time” he heard Mark’s voice as soon as he switched and connected them to his ears and top of his T-shirt.
“I’m charging my spectacle right now, Jason or Mark what’s the status?”
“Tamed please calm down, your voice is still showing danger signal” he heard Doc’s voice.
“I asked a question.”
“The back of your phone has a magnet, if you paste it to the door of your pickup, you can watch what the bird is sending through the chat room” Mark answered.
“Tamed please don’t. Only Fast can multi task like that. Mark just be his eyes till he switches his spectacle on” Major Ahmed said.
“Welcome back Colonel” Ghost said.
But his voice had sounded like he said kolone.
“Ghost I take back my word, please call me Major.”
“So Mark where are my targets?”
“Thirty minutes away from their destination” Mark answered.
“I read what happened, Tamed are you okay?” Major asked.
There was a fatherly concern in his voice.
“Jason you wrote that there were four but they bought two AK47 rifles, do the other two have weapons?” he asked.
He did not answer Major because there was no answer to give.
“Wild are you sure this is the right thing?” Fast asked.
“This is the only option available” Wild answered.
“Just when I thought Jason was becoming normal” Mark said.
“You mean just when you thought Jason was beginning to learn how to be sociable and how to bend the truth” Jason spoke for the first time.
“Jason we got your point but you need to tell Cindy to teach you what to say and how to say it. It was not the right time” Fast said.
“Leave Cindy out of this. I’m warning you” Jason answered.
“So you can do what exactly. You put Tamed in this situation because you wanted to prove a damn point” Mark responded.
“Maybe I will have to refresh your memory on what I can do. Fast and Mark stay out of my business with Cindy” Jason.
“Jason shut the fuck up” Doc and Ghost said at the same time.
“As long as you are part of the Circle, Cindy is our business” Wild answered.
“Last warning” Jason answered.
He did not say any word, he just drove and listened but Jason’s last statement was not something to ignore. He meant it when he said last warning. Although he could not figure out what Jason could do to them as a result of the distance, he knew Jason was not joking.
“Jason, stop it right now. Don’t ever threaten your family again. We all know you have partial autism, we have accepted you the way you are but that does not mean we cannot give our dissatisfaction on what you did” Major said.
“I don’t care if you are satisfied or not, just leave Cindy out of….” He did not complete his statement.
“What the heck Cindy” Jason shouted.
“I apologize on behalf of Jason. Ghost, Fast, Sabrina, Mark, Wild, Tamed, Major, I’m sorry. I’m trying my best, one day he will learn how to communicate. Tamed it wasn’t your fault. No matter what Jason said, it wasn’t your fault. Some things can be analyzed logically but it can still be wrong. I’m forever grateful for your help that day. Don’t mind this idiot. He had trusted on his stupid gadgets which had failed him and if you were not there, Jason would have been late. Please everyone ignore Jason. I’m your business, he can choose for himself but not for me. Take back your transmitter. And don’t you dare attack my family because they mentioned me. Idiot” Cindy said.
“Case settled. She has officially declared herself part of the family and who am I to refuse” Ghost responded.
“Tamed, I’m sorry about the way I wrote that text, it was the wrong time and wrong way of writing it. Is my apology enough?” Jason asked.
The first sentence was shockingly for him but he knew the last part was for Cindy.
“Wow the power of a woman. I never knew this day will come. Jason apologizing. Unbelievable” Mark said.
“Tamed say something” Major said.
“Where are my targets?” He asked.
“This is bad, very bad” Fast said.
“You must be flying Tamed. You are fifteen minutes apart” Mark answered.
“Don’t worry Fast, we are here to help him” Doc panted.
“Doc why are you panting?” Ghost asked.
“I’m practicing, I start work this night.”
“I thought we decided you should use another way, I don’t like the idea of my girl working in a strip club” Mark said.
“Mark stop pissing me off. Today has not been a good day” Doc replied.
It was difficult to understand if Mark was serious or not. He had been like this even before he left the Circle and from what he had observed, Mark had not made any progress even after a year. When it came to physical and facial appearance, George and Ghost had been the ones to analyze the Special Force. According to their analysis, Nick and Mark were the Face of The Special Force. Nick was extremely handsome but evil beyond redemption. He had been the enemy behind the civil war mission. Jason had killed him after a failed attempt to ignite a bomb that would have killed millions of people in Lagos. Mark was second in George’s rating and he was known as the Pentagon. He had dated five girls differently and none of them knew about the other one until Sabrina told him off. She had said it was a crime against the female gender. The disappointing part for Sabrina were the girls. They had ended up fighting themselves for Mark’s love. His nickname as pentagon had ended and he had diverted his attention to Sabrina knowing fully well she hated flirts. Most of the nicknames were given by George, even Abigail was not exempted. A memory suddenly flashed through his mind. He was transported to that day. It was a week before their wedding. Abigail had visited the Circle house. Although she was aware he was a special Force soldier and his team was called Circle, she did not know details of exactly what they did. She had taken a liking to George because he looked young. He was actually the youngest in age. George had declared her his big sister after she had served him Ogbono soup with pounded yam. George had decided to teach her the old English couple dance.
He sat down and watched the both of them dance and laugh. Abigail called him to join but he shook his head.
“I don’t dance” he said.
“You need to be a bit loose big man. Look at George, he is a soldier like you but he is fun to be with. Maybe George you should just quit. You and Ghost can start a comedy show” Abigail said sitting down on the ground, exhausted from the dance.
“I was born to be a soldier big sis” George said joining her on the ground.
“But you look normal and too cute. I will now be worried about my little brother every time Wild sends him out” she said.
“Looks can be deceitful my dear, but don’t worry big sis. There are only two ways I would prefer dying.”
“Which are?” Abigail asked.
“It should be when I’ve retired and as a result of old age, but if I must die young, I don’t want to be killed by accident or a sickness. If I must die young, I will prefer to die in active duty, with that, I will make sure I take enough escorts with me.”
“Okay let’s stop. This is disturbing. I don’t even want to imagine it.  You are supposed to calm me down and tell me you will always come back. My kids need an uncle like you” Abigail said hitting George shoulder.
“Okay big sis. So are you ready to learn another dance step?” George asked raising her up. 
“Hey Tamed Beast, are you sure you don’t want to dance this with her, I’m not the groom here or will you permit me to do the favor for you next week?” George had asked as the old school music started playing.
'It must be love, oh it must be love, I fall like a sparrow, fly like a dove. You must be the dream I've dreaming of, oh what a feeling, it must be love...' the singer sang.
George raised Abigail up and started spinning her, her laughter was intoxicating and the sight was disturbing. He did not know when he stood up and pulled Abigail to him.
“Jerk” George said turning off the music with a remote.
“Tamed, Tamed…” he heard Wild’s voice pulling him back from that sweet but painful memory.
The pain was still there but remembering George had worsened it. He brought the pickup to an abrupt stop and held his chest. He had not felt it when George died, he could not even feel anything during his burial which was a week after Jason had ended the supposed war. He had gone to pay his last respect and he had stood from a distance as he watched George being laid to rest. George had always said if he was killed in active duty, he must be buried at the exact place he died. His parents and the land owners had obliged. The place was crowded with soldiers. Many had come out to watch, the whole of Onitsha knew that someone was being buried. He had even seen some of the Biafran soldiers they had combined forces with to fight Nick’s men. Although none wore their uniform, he could still remember their faces. They had come to pay their last respect to George.  He had even sighted Nnamdi the current leader. What had actually attracted so much crowd was the presence of the president. Although the real details were not given to the masses, it was on the news that the president was going to honor a soldier who had died trying to prevent a bomb from killing millions of people. The news was deceitful because so many people had believed the bomb was in Onitsha. He was honored and ranked a Major General. But he had not felt any pains of loss, he had only felt numb as the Special Force said their departing quote to George. Now he was feeling the pain. He could hear their voices as they said the quote in unison, but the difference from then and now was he could now feel the pain of losing George.
“He had answered the call to protect his motherland against those who want to destroy her, against those who do not want peace. But today, his work has ended, today a hero goes home, a hero will rest from his labor, worry no more about your motherland, for we will continue from where you stopped. Rest in peace.”
They had said the final word and the gun salute had started. Each of the Circle member had pasted something on his tomb. When everyone had left the grave, he had gone there hoping he would feel the pains. On his tomb was written.
“MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE IS RESTING HERE, WHERE HE FOUGHT HIS LAST BATTLE”
But why was he feeling it now? Was the pain always with him but just surfacing? The idiot had his wish granted. And he had also taken escorts with him. Jason had also added Tiger, his killer to his escorts. Tiger had been a member of the Circle but had been in hiding after he was declared wanted for war crimes. Tiger had also been the only person Jason dreaded because he had never defeated him in any physical combat. But Jason had killed him. He might ask Jason how he did it. Now that he could mourn George, it occurred to him that he never gave George the chance to mourn Abigail’s death with him. If he had known he was going to lose those two siblings within a year?
“Tamed, you are groaning, what is it? What do you mean by the idiot had his wish granted?” Major asked bringing him back to reality.
He did not know he had spoken out loud. There was no way to explain his feeling. How was he going to tell them that he was just feeling the pains of losing George?
He ignited the pickup and was back on the road. He needed to get there fast, he was losing it.