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Chapter 96
In the morning, Derek went to the old quarter to see Samuel.The old quarter sat behind the market, down a narrow lane where the houses leaned close together and the air smelled of smoke and cooking oil. Derek had been there once before, in the dark, three nights ago. Now he came in daylight, and the lane was full of people carrying baskets and buckets, and children running between the stalls.Samuel's room was at the end of the lane, a small room with a wooden door and a window covered by a piece of cloth. Derek knocked. The door opened, and Samuel stood there, blinking in the daylight, his grey hair uncombed, his worn jacket hanging loose on his shoulders."You came back," Samuel said."Yes," Derek said.Samuel stepped aside and let him in. The room was small and bare — a bed, a wooden chair, a lantern by the door, a clay cup on the floor. Samuel sat down on the edge of the bed, and Derek sat on the chair across from him."I have been thinking since you came," Samuel said. "About th
Chapter 95
At nine o'clock, Derek stood outside the tall iron gate.He had walked the last three streets alone. Harold had driven him as far as the corner and waited there, the way Derek had told him to, and Derek had walked the rest on foot. He had stopped twice, once at a shop window and once at a street corner, and listened for footsteps behind him. There were none. The street was quiet.He passed the warehouse district on the way. Warehouse 7 stood dark and quiet by the river, and the smell of diesel and fish hung in the air. The ledger was still in the office drawer. The wage note was still folded in his pocket. Derek kept walking.The gate did not open. Derek stood outside it and waited. A full minute passed. Then another. The house was dark and quiet behind the iron bars, and no one came. Derek did not knock. He did not call out. He stood still, and he waited, and he thought about the book sitting on Kane's desk, and about the trap he had walked into — or the deal.Then the gate opened, a
Chapter 94
"We are here," Vic said. Derek folded his hands in his lap and waited for the gate to open. The gate swung open slowly. The car rolled through and stopped in front of the tall house. Vic got out first. Derek followed him. The other three men stayed by the car. The house was quiet. No music. No voices. The front door stood open, and a man in a dark suit waited just inside it. He looked Derek over from head to foot, then patted his pockets quickly, checking for a weapon. Derek stood still and let him. He carried nothing but his phone and the wage note folded in his pocket. The man's hand paused over the pocket for a moment. Derek did not move. He kept his breathing slow and even. Then the man moved on. Vic led Derek down a hallway and into a study. The walls of the hallway were lined with old photographs in plain frames. Men standing in front of warehouses. Men standing beside trucks. Derek did not stop to look at them, but one of them stayed in his mind as he walked: a group of men
chapter 93
"You are in the wrong warehouse, friend," the leader said. "No." Derek stood in the middle of the empty floor and watched them come. Four men in dark jackets. The leader walked in front, and the other three spread out behind him, the way men do when they are used to surrounding someone. The leader stopped a few paces from Derek. He was a broad man, with a scar across one eyebrow and a gold ring on his left hand. His right hand rested near his belt. "This warehouse is private property," the leader said. "You are trespassing. Walk out now, and nothing happens to you." Derek did not walk out. He did not answer at once. He let the silence sit between them, and he watched the leader the way he watched a patient: slowly, from the head down, taking in everything. The leader's left hand trembled. Not much, but enough to see if you knew what to look for. His breathing was shallow, and there was a tightness around his eyes, the kind that comes from pain that never quite goes away. "Who o
Chapter 92
The first light of morning was grey over the river when Harold stopped the car at the edge of the warehouse district.Derek got out and stood for a moment, looking down the long row of warehouses. The river moved slow and dark behind them. The air smelled of river water and diesel, and the ground under his feet was wet from the night."Which one?" Derek asked.Harold pointed to the far end of the row, where a warehouse stood apart from the others. Its paint was faded. Its windows were dark."Warehouse 7," Harold said. "It has stood empty for years. The company that owns it has changed hands many times. No one works there now.""Stay with the car," Derek said."Young Master, Samuel said the men came back once," Harold said. "If they still watch this place, you should not go in alone."Derek looked at the warehouse for a long moment. Then he looked back at Harold."Then come with me to the door," he said. "But I go in alone. If anything happens, you drive away and you tell no one where
Chapter 91
The taxi pulled up to the gates of the Morrison estate just after midnight.Derek paid the driver and stepped out into the dark. The gates stood open, and Harold was waiting just inside them, alone, a single lamp burning over the gatehouse behind him. He had come out to meet Derek himself. No other staff were in sight."Young Master," Harold said. "No one knows you are here.""Good," Derek said. "Keep it that way."Harold took the case from Derek's hand without being asked. "I will put the plant in the estate safe. No one will touch it."Derek nodded once and followed him up the drive. The house was dark except for a few windows on the ground floor. The night air carried the scent of wet grass and the faint smell of rain that had fallen earlier and not yet dried.Inside, Harold led him to the study and closed the door. He set the case down carefully on the desk, then opened a folder and laid a single printed page on the desk in front of Derek."The name," Harold said. "Samuel Okafor."
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