Adam

CHAPTER TEN (10) PART TWO (2): - THE CLOSE

Adam stared at Banks as the heat wave gutted at his clothes and burnt the concrete and steel around.

 His gaze was calm and unwavering, to kill such a man; Big D’s words echoed in his mind again

 “If you ever take a life, remember it weighs heavily on your shoulders”

 “Every man lives once Adam!” Banks roared, his voice like a raging volcano “you and I, and all the calvaries, are just living on borrowed time. True freedom for me now, is going back to where I came from”.

 Adam sighed, he knew what Banks meant.

 He closed his eyes as he drew in a long breadth, then exhaled, letting himself feel the heat.

 Then, he flung them open, and they were no longer ordinary.

 Both eyes were glistening with crackling blue electricity.

 He pinned his gaze on Banks and raised his right hand towards him, stretching out his palm wide.

 Electricity clapped brilliantly around him, crackling violently and coming in front of outstretched palm to form a small sphere.

 The sphere of electricity compressed harder; more and more electric charges swimming into it from space.

 Banks roared and stretched out both arms towards Adam, opening his palms and creating a large yellow ring in the air like the one on his arms.

 Another ring appeared in front of the first, then a third, all of them giving a fair distance from each other 

 “I’m going all out Adam. I don’t care if it kills me!”

 The electricity was clapping louder now, crackling more violently around Adam’s body as the sphere of electricity packed more and more charge.

 A spinning ball of yellow light formed in front of Banks outstretched palms then increased in size and intensity.

 Adam knew what it was; that beam attack of before, and with those rings in the air, it was probably going to do more damage than before.

 He frowned.

 Banks was ready to release it, the brief clash with Adam flashed through his mind, he smiled “Fire art; stell…”

 “Thunderclapping bullet”

 Adam released his attack and before Banks could even finish talking, the thunderclapping bullet tore through space, clapping loudly and zipping straight through the 3 rings in between them, and struck the ball of yellow light in Banks’ palm.

 As the thunder clapping bullet through the middle of the rings in the air, it transformed them into rings of charged electricity, then it struck the ball of light in front of Banks’ palm and broke it apart, setting off an instant explosion.

 The blast rocked the entire floor, a powerful beam of concentrated fire tore out of the first floor, taking Banks with it into the open.

 He was smiling, almost happily accepting his fate.

 Then electricity consumed the blast and struck him with tectonic force, blowing open his chest with one strike and then travelling skywards.

 Banks gasped as life drained from him instantly, his gaze fell on Adam who was standing inside the building with electricity traversing all around him.

 A solitary figure standing like a thunder god.

 He descended, falling fast from the height.

 But even as he fell, his body broke apart fast and faded away.

 When the remaining half landed, there was a genuine smile on his face as he gazed at the incoming police vehicles.

 “Freedom…at last” 

 Then he faded away.

 Frankenstein gazed at Adam in the distance, observing his new aura.

 “he’s on a whole new level now” he thought to himself “at this level, he’ll probably be able to clear a whole squad by himself. Still good enough for me”

 He sighed and finally spoke “I’m impressed, Adam. Honestly, I never doubted you would win from the start. But when Banks began going all out, I began to think otherwise. It is a regrettable outcome; Banks had so much more potential. What a waste”

 “That man was not a waste” Adam cut in rudely, “He was a free man. Free from your bondage. He earned my respect. Banks is a hundred times the man you will ever be, and you’re not even a real man to begin with.”

  Frankenstein gritted his teeth in suppressed raged “Careful what you say, junior handman. Don’t begin to think like that fool. We have a mission to accomplish, no more distractions”

  Then he left.

 Up on the third floor, in his deluxe suite, Doctor Salih grabbed everything he could quickly and began stuffing them in his bag. 

  Money, gold and his valuables. 

  “Shit!”, he cursed under his breath as he hurried. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! I hope Banks can keep them at bay! This is becoming worse than I imagined! What did I do to deserve this?”

 He flashed back on earlier that day when an unknown number had called him.

 It was like every other normal day at his office, when an unknown number had called him and he picked.

 The number displayed no name on truecaller. 

 “Hello” he had said calmly, but the caller said exactly five words before ending the call abruptly.

 “The missionaries are coming tonight” then he hung up.

 It was a masculine voice, somewhere between cynical and calm.

 As if informing him that he’d die tonight without fail.

 From Banks, he had heard a bit about the missionaries, but he couldn’t get much out, since his number one security man always talked about freedom.

 Salih believed in Banks’ effectiveness, and Banks agreed that it was time to meet his former comrades and force them back.

 But it was probably lust and greed that clouded his judgement and made him agree to come to Eko hotel tonight.

 He already had five damsels booked tonight!

 As these thoughts raced through his head, he turned towards the bed and saw the half-naked smoking and getting terribly high.

 All the explosions going off below them and the rocking of the building didn’t seem to bother them.

 Just then, the door burst open, blowing away from its hinges and flying into the room.

 This seemed to do the trick and the ladies immediately jumped to their feet.

 A young man stepped in, he wore a mask concealing half of his face.

 He had dreadlocks falling freely over his face.

 Dr. Salih shrieked the moment he saw the daggers.

 The assailant stood before him wrapped in a restless corona of electricity. 

 Blue arcs crawled over his arms, snapping from shoulder to shoulder, while the air itself seemed to hum with the promise of something about to discharge.

Adam glared at the whores; his gaze was scornful.

“Get out,” he said, his voice laced with venom.

 They bolted.

 Adam’s gaze shifted to Dr. Salih.

 The mogul shrieked and stumbled backward. His heel caught against the floor, and he went down hard.

 Survival instinct kicked and he resorted to his last card.

 “Who…who sent you?” he asked with a shaky voice 

 “Look. I have money. How much are they going to pay you? Tell me and I’ll double it. Triple even!”

 “We don’t do that,” a calm voice said.

 Frankenstein walked in.

 He passed Adam without so much as a glance and went straight to Salih.

 He crouched before him, close enough that Salih could see the faint smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

 For a moment, Frankenstein said nothing.

 He simply stared.

 Then he broke the silence.

 “Hello, Dr. Salih. You must know who we are by now. We’re the Missionaries. Banks must have given you at least some information about us.”

 Salih nodded, doing his best to hold Frankenstein’s gaze.

 “I should warn you; our methods are rather severe. We don’t tolerate breaches of protocol—bribery, corruption, betrayal.” Frankenstein paused. “People like you make those breaches possible.”

 His eyes remained fixed on Salih.

 “The reason your head is wanted, however, is much simpler. You chose to side with Senator Akin Makinde and his cohorts. You helped expose our identity.”

 He smiled faintly.

 “We’ve been watching you, Dr. Salih. Now, certain people want you dead.”

 Frankenstein straightened.

 “So, please, forgive our little act of injustice.”

 He turned toward the windows, casually surveying the suite.

 “My name is Solomon Frankenstein, by the way. But I prefer Glassman.”

 He glanced back at Salih.

 “Do you know why?”

 Salih shook his head.

 Fear had already begun to settle into his bones.

 Frankenstein smiled.

 “Here’s why.”

 The first sound came from above.

 A faint creak.

 Then another.

 The chandeliers trembled.

 Glass cups began to shiver across the tables. Wine bottles rattled against one another. The windows groaned in their frames.

 Then—

 CRACK.

 Everything made of glass in the suite shattered at once.

 The chandeliers burst apart.

 The cups exploded.

 The wine bottles ruptured.

 And the windows gave way with a deafening roar.

 Thousands of shards hung suspended in the air.

 Then they moved.

 Every fragment shot toward Salih.

 He didn't even have time to scream.

 The shards stopped inches from his body.

 One by one, they drifted closer until their razor-sharp edges touched his skin.

 A dozen pricks.

 Then hundreds.

 Not enough to pierce him.

 Just enough to let him know that they could.

 Salih froze.

Every shard of glass touched his skin. Their edges pressed against him, sharp enough to draw blood but not quite deep enough to pierce.

He barely dared to breathe.

A shallow breath was enough.

The shards trembled, carving tiny slashes across his face. Thin trails of blood ran down his cheeks.

 Frankenstein's gaze never wavered.

 “Tell me, Dr. Salih. Who sang like a bird? Who told you we were coming tonight?”

 Salih's bladder gave way.

 “I don't know!” he begged.

 Even the movement of his lips made the glass tremble. Several shards bit into his skin, carving fresh lines across his face.

 “I swear I don't know who he was! Please, don't kill me!”

 “He?”

 Frankenstein's expression barely changed.

 “We're getting closer to an answer.”

 He rose and turned to Adam “We’ll be taking Dr Salih with us alive. He’ll be very resourceful, and we need his connection to the CBN governor”

 Adam frowned “Taking him alive will attract attention” he said “The police might start trying to track us”

 “Huh!”

 Frankenstein gazed hardened

 “Are you that eager to kill him tonight, Adam. I hope you’re not in the pockets of whoever informed them. Betrayal to the missionaries isn’t something we take lightly”

 The daggers in Adam’s grip vanished to their pocket space.

 He walked past Frankenstein towards Salih

 “Seems like I really pissed you off tonight, glassman. You’ve lost your cool already. It’s unlike you, to point fingers so early”

 Frankenstein grinned

 “The police answer our associates. This will simply be recorded as another case involving unknown gunmen. False witnesses will even be brought forward”

 He turned toward the door

 “I said I was impressed by you taking out Banks, didn’t I?”

 He paused

 “I’ll make you a personal offer, three times the worth of your job tonight. That should be roughly three hundred million, participation percentage inclusive. I’ll also assume you killed Salih and throw in another hundred million.

 He glanced back at Adam

 “Now do as told and knock him out”.

 Adam nodded and Frankenstein walked out.

 Behind him, all the glass shards crashed to the floor.

 Adam turned his gaze towards Salih

 “Pls don’t kill me” Salih begged 

 “I won’t” Adam’s eyes surged briefly with electricity

 “You heard the boss. I’ll just knock you out”

 He smashed his fist into the man’s face.

 The first thing Salih heard was the crunching of his nose.

 His vision turned fuzzy.

 Then…

 Blackout