By Larry SUN (larrysundynasty@gmail.com)
One thing about spies is that you never really know who they work for. And indeed, sometimes, even spies themselves don’t know who they really work for.
It had been over twenty-four hours since our cover was blown. A lot of pains had been inflicted on us, but somehow, it seemed as if they were not going to kill us. There must be a reason they were still keeping us alive; for I knew that being caught as spies meant instant deaths, but here we were, still alive for an unknown reason.
The door of the dark room we were kept in suddenly opened and three armed soldiers stepped in; their faces were shielded in black stocking masks – this was done to hide their identities. The light from the corridor gave me the chance to see my partner who was held there with me; he had been beaten so badly and his face was all covered with bloody that he was almost unrecognizable. TJ was a strong soldier who could take more beating than any other soldier I had ever known; but he seemed to have taken too much of that now.
As the three soldiers stepped into the room, I thought they had come to finish what they had started; they must have been sent by their superiors to shoot us dead. There was no point keeping us alive anymore. But we were not shot. Instead, I was grabbed by the men and taken out of the room. At the entrance, just before being dragged away, I looked towards my partner and raised my little finger at him. I was relieved when he managed to return the gesture. None of the soldiers noticed this brief communication between us. Between TJ and I, the middle finger was our code for everything is fine. Two soldiers dragged me down the corridor while the third soldier stayed with my partner in the room. I prayed the soldier wasn’t going to shoot my friend.
I was taken into a brightly-lit room where the mean Colonel Danjuma sat. This man had been behind a lot of bomb attacks in the country. Our mission had been to infiltrate this cabal and kill the Colonel, but we were caught before TJ and I could carry out the mission.
The Colonel sat comfortably behind a large desk and two armed but unmasked soldiers stood guard on either side of him. He was smoking a large cigar and blowing an equally large smoke.
“You are Santana, right?” he asked, his expression deadly, “The spy who was sent to kill me?”
Rather than reply, I glared at him. I wasn’t going to appear weak before this killer. There was nothing I could say anyway; my cover had been blown. All I could do now was to await my ultimate judgement.
“Anyway,” said Danjuma, “I have my own assignment for you. This is midday, in six hours’ time, I expect you to bring me the head of the Falcon.”
I looked up in shock. Falcon was the code-name for our superior. He was the person who recruited me and assigned this mission to TJ and me. Because Colonel Danjuma had always remained elusive to the authorities, the Federal Government had required the stealth service of the Falcon to help in killing Danjuma and end all the attacks.
“I’m not going to do that,” I said, “Nothing will make me do it.”
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Danjuma smiled unkindly, “I knew you were going to say that, but you have limited choices. The only way to avoid being brutally killed by my soldiers is by doing what I demand of you. If you refuse or disappear, your partner will be killed; and I know you won’t try to disappear because your partner means a lot to you. He’s like a brother to you. You have to decide: the Falcon or the partner. You have six hours to carry out the mission. Good luck.” The soldiers took me away.
I took an hour to think about the mission. If I refused to kill the Falcon, the Colonel would kill me and TJ. I wasn’t afraid to lose my life but I couldn’t bear losing TJ; his life now hanged in the balance. TJ was more than a friend; he had become a brother. He was the only person in the world I cared about. To keep my brother alive, I had to kill the Falcon. I had no choice. The Falcon was a title though; if he was killed, another would replace him. Besides, if I didn’t kill the Falcon, Danjuma would just send another mercenary in my stead; especially now that our cover had been blown and he knew who his enemy was. The Falcon was already dead, anyway, whether I carried out the mission or not.
And so, I returned to the Falcon, killed him and brought his head back to the Colonel just before my six-hour ultimatum elapsed. The Colonel was pleased.
“You are a true soldier,” he said excitedly, “you belong under my wings.”
“Where’s my partner?” I asked. All I wanted was to take TJ and get the hell out of there.
“Oh! Your partner,” he signaled to the three masked soldiers, “Take him to his partner.”
TJ was still in the same position he was when I was taken away; his face was still bloody but there was a bullet hole on his forehead. TJ was dead!
I screamed like a burning witch. I roared like an enraged lion. I nearly ran mad with anger. Then something totally unexpected happened; one of the soldiers was raising his little finger at me. The little finger! I took a closer look at the corpse in the chair – he wasn’t TJ! I immediately knew what had happened. Without waiting a second later, I attacked the soldier closest to me, and my ally shot the other soldier in the face. It was a joy to see my partner remove his mask and reveal himself.
“Hello buddy,” he smiled at me.
I looked at him sadly, “I’m sorry. The mission is off. I was made to kill the Falcon.”
TJ shook his head and said, “No, the mission is still on.”
“The Falcon is dead!”
“Is he?” he asked as he removed his left boot and revealed his bare foot to me. On his foot was the tattoo of a bird…a falcon!
“You’re the real Falcon?” My astonishment knew no bounds.
“I am,” he replied as he handed me one of the soldiers’ guns, “Now let’s go and kill all the bastards, starting with Colonel Danjuma.”
*Larry Sun (+2349061754872) writes from Ikorodu, Lagos
