ignorantly preferred to be called. He
could see the anger, fear and guilt that
stirred inside of him but what he wanted
to do was not the answer. He had
watched the kidnapping of Oya from
beside Edumare’s throne. He even asked
Edumare to let him intervene, all he had
to do was send a band of Aljanu and
they would have prevented what was sure
to be a disaster from happening.
Edumare had refused, saying that
intervening would alter the destinies of
the god-men. ‘What if she dies?’ he
remembered asking anxiously. ‘If she
dies, she dies.’ had been the reply and it
had sent cold chills down his spine.
The kidnap had been successful and his
greatest trouble was he did not know
what had happened to Oya. She could
have gone through a lot of torture, or
even be dead already. And he feared –
no, he knew that if Damola went after
her he would suffer the same fate.
Sometimes he wished Edumare would
allow him reach into the minds of these
unheeding gods.
“All I want from you is an address!”
Damola said.
“You could die.” Orunmila said, his eyes
pleading desperately. He could not bear
his death on his conscience.
“So could Anne.”
“Please Sango, for the sake of Edumare.
If you die now, this world will be lost!”
“How else can I tell you this? Except
Anne somehow suddenly shows up at
that door, no one can stop me from
going after her!”
Orunmila sighed. He knew the battle he
was fighting was hopeless, Damola’s
mind was set. The best he could do was
to prepare him as much as he could.
“If you are going to do this, you need to
know all you can about the person you
are about to face.” Orunmila said.
“How long will this lecture take? Every
second I spend knowing about my
opponent; Anne spends in the hands of
her captors.”
Orunmila looked at him and for the first
time felt anger at his insolence.
“Sit down! Now!” Orunmila said.
Damola looked at him and quietly sat,
intimidated for the first time since he
met the old man.
“His name is Sarkin Aljan. He is a god of
the Northern heavens; a good one too. At
least he used to be until Ibilis corrupted
him.”
“I thought you said we were here by
mistake, how did he get here?” Damola
asked. He looked curious now.
“Ibilis must have found a way to send
him here. But now he is here, there is no
doubt about why. He is here to destroy
earth, starting from Nigeria.”
“Why here?”
“I don’t know and Edumare refuses to tell
me. But starting from here is a blessing
to us, because he has to overcome you
first. And despite my fears, he is not
going to do that easily.”
“Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence
but why kidnap Anne?”
“I don’t know that yet.”
“Wow, there’s a lot of things you don’t
know.” Damola said, shaking his head.
“Do you at least know where Anne is
being held?”
“No, I do not.” Orunmila said.
Damola slammed the table between
them, carried it and threw it against the
wall! Orunmila sat still and watched him
pace around the room.
“You don’t know where she is being held?
You’re telling me I have been wasting my
time with you?” His eyes were hot with
anger, his right hand was beginning to
smoke.
“This is why you should not go to battle
yet. You lack patience and self-control.
No, I do not know where Anne is being
held but I know how to find her.”
It wouldn’t end well. Sarkin Aljan could
not stand Sango as a god but as a
mortal, Damola would not last a minute.
“So, this Sarkin guy, anything else I need
to know about him? Any super powers?”
“Sarkin Aljan is his name! Respect your
enemy enough to know his name. He is a
great warrior, not a match for you as a
god. But the way you are, he can beat
you with one hand, blindfolded!”
“So all he does is fight well? Remember
this guy who controls fire, lightning?
Yeah, that’s me.”
Orunmila shook his head. “Sarkin Aljan’s
greatest gift is his ability to make others
fight his battles. You will not be fighting
him alone.”
“Okay, good! I know all I need to know.
Now, how do I meet this fool?”
Orunmila knew that he was sending
Damola to his death but meddling with
his will would amount to seeking the
wrath of Edumare. He knew which the
lesser evil was.
***
He had chewed the gum in his mouth for
almost one hour as he paced on his
porch. He was trying hard to think but he
was drawing blanks, his mind could not
seem to process anything. Now he just
leaned against the walls and looked at
the city; the part he could see. The sun
was setting and the city almost looked
beautiful. He remembered the day he had
woken up next to a homeless man naked,
months had gone since then but he still
remembered vividly. Life had been
confusing for him for the first few weeks
but then he had found his feet and he
had found it fast. His rise had been fast,
very fast. The newspapers called him a
miracle. A miracle was exactly what he
needed now.
Just as Toni had predicted, Morayo
Adebisi refused to settle. He was
confused. If it was not money she
wanted, what was it? He had asked and
she said she wanted to go to court and
that was it! He did not want to but he
was beginning to believe Toni, Morayo
was not suing all by herself. Her lawyer
was one of the best in the city, there was
no way she could afford him.
Suddenly he had a feeling that he was
being watched. He turned around and
there he was! The old man was the last
person he wanted to see. There was a
time he wanted to see him, but that was
before he heard that he might be losing
his career.
“What do you want now?” Eric asked. He
did not quite understand who or what
the man was yet but he was beginning to
believe he was not just in his mind.
“There is a lot you need to know! You are
not ready but we cannot wait anymore.
Could you please come in and sit?”
Looking at the man, his dream came
back to him, and suddenly he wanted to
talk to him. He walked into the room and
sat close to where the man was standing.
“Before you start telling me anything, I
need to ask some things.” Eric started
before the man could speak.
“Go ahead.”
“Orunmila, that’s your name right?” The
man nodded. “I had this dream….do you
know anybody called Sarkin Aljan?”
The man shot up from his seat. “How do
you know that name? I was here to tell
you about him.”
“Okay, so he is a real person. If my
dream is anything to go by, he is about
to do something terrible. And he had this
massive dog with him; Manzo.”
“You saw Manzo too?” The man’s eyes
were wide with surprise and maybe a
little fear. “What did Sarkin Aljan tell
you?”
“He said not to believe anything you tell
me and that the battle was not mine to
fight.”
The man sighed and said. “Ooh, good!”
“Good?” Eric was surprised.
“I thought he was trying to recruit you.”
Eric laughed. “No, he wasn’t. The
question is; who is this guy and what
does he want from me?”
“There is war coming on this world and
you are the one who can stop it.”
“So you are the one trying to recruit me
then. Why do you think I will do this?
Whatever ‘this’ is.”
“There is something I have not told you.”
The man said, moving his chair closer to
him. “You are not the only god here.
There are four of you! Oya, the only
goddess, has been abducted by Manzo!
Sango, her husband is going to rescue
her even though he is not ready and he
will probably lose his life. That leaves
only you!”
“There was a fourth person.” Eric said,
looking intently at the man.
“Let’s say he is not one of us for now.
What I’m saying is, if you don’t take
responsibility for this, if nobody does,
this earth is as good as lost!”
“Why can’t you do it, take responsibility?”
“I cannot operate in this realm and I am
not a warrior, I am nothing but a humble
priest.”
“Alright, what do you want me to do?”
“Remember your disappearing hand?
Well, it’s not just your hand that
disappears, you can totally vanish. You
cannot do that now, you have to learn. I
will teach you all you need to know and I
will like to start tomorrow.”
“I think that will be…” He was cut off by
his ringing phone. It was Pearl. “Hi
Pearl… no I’m not busy.”
He paused for a while and listened, he
nodded and listened again. Finally he
ended the call and sighed.
“Do we start tomorrow?” Orunmila asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t. I have to be in court
throughout this week. If I’m not there, I
could lose my career.”
“Your career?!” Orunmila exclaimed! “Do
you know who you are? Do you know
what is at stake? The whole world is
about to be destroyed!”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t
care about the whole world, I care about
my career!” Eric said, a little louder than
he planned. He paused for a second and
continued. “Look here old man, I really
don’t know you and the only reason I’m
talking to you is because of that silly
dream I had. I will be available next
week, I need to take care of this court
matter.”
“When this world goes down, you and
your career goes down with it. You have
a chance to fulfil your purpose as a god,
but you will rather pursue vanity. Maybe
you truly deserve to go down with this
world.” The man said and vanished!
***
The first person had died in the second
village and now the world was starting to
pay real attention to the Black Death
disease. Doctors and scientists had come
from all over the world, the disease had
to be stopped. The disease appeared to
have killed faster this time, although they
had to wait to be sure. There were several
labs trying to find what was killing the
people. They had found that the blood of
the victims had gradually become black
but there was no reasonable cause for it.
The only positive was that it was not
transmittable.
He was seated with his minister for
health and some of the leading doctors
and scientists from the around the world.
They had talked all day, each person
giving their hypothetic opinions and
having it ruled out in less than five
minutes. It was a nightmare, one he did
not believe his presidency could survive;
if the country survived.
“This is ridiculous! We have the best
scientific minds in the world in this room,
are you saying this problem can’t be
solved?” Lange asked, his squeezed face
showed his frustration clearly.
“And there is no way to tell that this
won’t get to America or Europe
eventually.” Adigwe added.
“We know that and we are trying our best
here.” Dr Vladimir, a Russian scientist
said. “But we…”
He stopped as the door opened. Aweda
rushed in. He had not been invited for
the meeting on Adigwe insistence and
had finally lost his patience after a long
stay behind the door.
“Mr. President, put on your TV now!” He
said immediately he entered.
“What is happening Doctor Aweda?”
Lange asked reaching for the TV remote.
He put on the TV.
The TV showed a man with a mask on.
The mask was not a regular one, it
looked that it grew out of his skin. The
man had such an evil presence, Lange
shuddered at whatever the man was
going to say.
“What is this?” One of the doctors at the
table asked.
“The man said thirty minutes ago that he
had an important announcement to make
about the recent deaths in some villages.
I’m assuming he is talking about the
Black Death disease. How come nobody
has told you this?”
“I don’t know.” Lange said. “Where is he
shooting this?”
“I don’t know but it looks like he hacked
into something somewhere because all
stations are showing it.”
The man on TV spoke.
“Hello viewers all over the world. I would
introduce myself but none of you would
know me so I will go straight to the
point. You may or may not have heard of
what your leaders are choosing to call
the Black Death disease. By the end of
tomorrow, the death toll of this disease
would have reached one thousand. I
know that is not much because terrorists
kill more in a day. But here is the
difference between the BDD and
terrorists, terrorists can be stopped. The
villages were just for testing, we are
moving on to bigger cities now. We have
perfected our methods and patients of
the BDD will now begin to die after forty
eight hours of serious pain.”
The men in room had their attention
glued to the television. Lange could
barely breathe as he waited for the man
to make demands, terrorists always had
demands.
“Why am I doing this? I know some of
you are asking.” The man on TV
continued. “I want the earth! Every single
nation on earth! So here’s the deal, if you
can hold one of your world leaders’
meetings and decide to hand your
nations over to me, I will stop this
mindless killing. If any President on his
own decides to surrender to me, his
country will be spared! I have to go now.
As you probably can tell, I have a lot of
planning to do. I will be back later
though. Until then, have a great day.”
The screen went blank momentarily then
it went back to the National TV station.
“So this is a terrorist attack?”
“Who is that man?”
“What terrorist group does he represent?”
“Is he threatening the whole world?”
The questions went on around the room
with no one able to answer. Lange hung
his head; he knew the citizens of his
nation would want an answer from him.
What was he to say?
For the first time he wished he was not
the president.
***
Damola stood at the edge of the forest
and for a moment he wondered if
Orunmila was right and he was walking
to his death. Orunmila had said the
moment he walked into this forest he
would find who he was looking for. He
had brought a knife with him in case his
fist would not do. And then there was
fire that came from his hand. He had
read about himself as Sango online and
he had found that he could attack people
with lightning. None of the sites he read
from had told him how to do it though.
Maybe he should have learned about his
gifts before coming to fight.
But learning would take time, time that
Anne did not have. They had kidnapped
her with him in the house! He felt the
anger begin to rise in him. He marched
into the forest and paused. He did not
know what to look for, Orunmila had said
he did not need to look for them, they
would find him. Whoever ‘them’ was, they
were taking their time to show up.
He took a step forward and heard a
movement to his right. He paused and
faced the direction. There was nobody.
“Are you lost?” He heard a voice call
from behind him and he spun around.
There were four men standing in front of
him. They were fierce men, one of them
very tall. They had very long knifes
hanging from their belts, suddenly he did
not feel good about his chances. He held
his knife tighter and watched out for any
sudden movements.
“We know why you are here and I’m not
surprised you came. I have seen her
naked and I can tell you anybody will
come after that.” The tall man said and
his colleagues laughed.
“And even when tied up, she is still the
best woman any man could ever have.”
Another one said.
They were trying to get him angry and it
was working. He flexed the knife in his
hand and immediately two of the men
ran at him. He ducked under the arm of
the first man, barging his shoulder into
the man’s chest, the man stumbled
backwards. The second man threw a
punch at his face, he dodged the blow
and the man lost his balance. He took
advantage and landed his two elbows on
the man’s back. The man landed on the
ground, writhing in pain.
“You are just as strong as I expected.”
The tall man said. “But I think the play is
over, it’s time to end this. And guess
what? I will be thinking of your wife’s
naked body as I kill you.”
Damola ran at the man but the man
sidestepped his lunge and he went
crashing into the ground.
“Is that the best you have? No wonder
your wife seemed to enjoy me, it was
obvious she had not had a real man in a
while.”
Damola stood and looked at the man,
hate burning in his eyes. He felt his grip
on the knife loosen and it dropped. He
looked at his hand, it was beginning to
smoke. The men saw the hand and
paused. Damola smiled, surely he had
them now.
He moved forward towards them and
suddenly the smoking stopped! He
tightened his fist, then released and
flexed it. Nothing happened. He looked
at the men, they were all on their feet
walking towards him. He quickly picked
up the knife and waited for them.
Suddenly he felt a blow to his head from
behind. He fell to the ground and the
knife dropped from his hand. His body
was too weak to move and he struggled
to keep his eyes open. He felt somebody
pick him up from the ground, he tried to
struggle but his muscles did not seem to
function.
Anne! What on earth was going to
happen to her? His eyes closed as he
slipped into darkness.
.
.
.
.
.
.
To be continued
