She decided to clean things up more but in a different way as she could not bear the idea of sitting on the couch where the bulky dead man had sat. She took some Dettol wipes and went over the whole couch after stripping it from the covers she had put on it. She stripped the floor of all the carpets and set about cleaning the floor with the Dettol wipes which had a flowery smell to them. She scrubbed and scrubbed until her fingers ached. She realised she was letting her old OCD based behaviour come back because of this incident. She had never been able to stomach the smell of blood nor the sight of it oozing out of wounds. Her work at the unit was mainly intelligence based as well as catching criminals and she had fired her gun only a few times.
She washed her hands and decided that she would feel better after a good warm bath. She filled the tub with hot water, added some Epsom salts and a bit of cold water before she eased herself into it. The water and the salts started relaxing her aching muscles. All these hectic incidents were getting the better of her nerves. She wondered if she had done the right thing by leaving Dubai and getting to London where it was more difficult to hide from both her previous unit and from the ISWAP as well as Boko Haram. It seemed they were getting to her all too easily. She also wondered why Al Shabab would want to take down a head of a Boko Haram unit.
She was well aware that Boko Haram and Al Shabab were not exactly friends but she had never thought before that they would turn against one another rather than uniting against the Western world. Would it not make more sense for them to unite their strengths in order to have a stronger impact against the non-believers that they were looking to castigate? She heard a strange noise in her living room and froze. Who was this now? Boko Haram had already been there and her unit normally would not sneak into her apartment as they had their cameras everywhere and very likely already knew what had happened in the road outside as well as what had gone on in her flat. She had realised that they only wanted to monitor everything, especially Boko Haram movements and they did not seem keen on actually catching Manas.
She rose slowly from the bath, trying to make the least noise possible. She reached out to her gun which was on the chair next to the bath tub. Her gown was hanging on the wall opposite the bath tub and she doubted she would have the time to reach it. She wiped her feet on the rug to ensure she did not slip stupidly and make it easier for the intruder to overcome her. She held the gun at the level of her face, pointing it outward, determined to kill whoever it was in the living room. Her heart was racing as it had been a while since she had killed anyone directly. She burst into the living room gun cocked and ready to shoot and found herself face to face with a young black man who was pointing his gun at her...
She decided to get back to her flat and read a bit to take her mind off the events of the evening. She was glad that the bulky man’s body had been taken away as neither Manas nor she had the time to tend to that. She looked around her before opening the door to her building and stepping in. She recognized a faint smell of bleach and wondered what it might be. She quickened her step and reached her flat door. Something seemed off. She looked again at the door and realized that the stones in front had been moved about again. Somebody was in her flat and it surely wasn’t Manas as he had left towards the tube and could not have come back to the flat before her.
She pushed the door ever so slowly, hoping that the person inside would not know the door was opening but she realised this was futile as the corridor was lit while the room was half plunged in darkness.
- Come in, said a voice from what seemed to be the middle of the room. - Who is this, she said - A friend, or to be more precise, a friend of a friend
She entered the room very slowly, her eyes fixed upon the middle of the room where she could make out the form of two bodies sitting on her couch. Only one of them had spoken though and it seemed to be the one on the right. She was about to turn the switch on when the man spoke again asking her not to turn on the light.
- Close the door first, he said - Why, she said - Just close the door and then you can turn on the light.
She closed the door behind her feeling a tad more vulnerable as she did, realising that she would not be able to rush out as easily as she would have been able to, had she left the door open. She switched the light on and turned towards the men, letting a gasp out as she did so. On the couch sat side by side, the dead crumpled bulky man and another man she had never seen before. Before she could say anything, someone else came out of the kitchen and she found herself face to face with the man that she had identified as Younes.
I thought you were warned not to meet Manas again, said Younes - I heard the warning but nothing was said about when Manas would come himself to see me - You should have asked him to leave - You should know Manas is not a man to be trifled with or told what to do - Yes, I get what you mean but you still should have tried to make him leave for both your sakes - Well he is on his way to Cameroon now, isn’t he?
Younes smirked but said nothing. The man on the couch beckoned to Younes to hold the bulky man still. She realised that the bulky man’s clothes were smelling of bleach and it looked like the floor of the room had been cleaned up with bleach too. They had very likely removed the blood that must have flowed from the bulky man. She wondered whether they had cleaned up the road as well. The man came towards her very slowly and purposefully. He took her by the shoulders and made her sit on the armchair opposite the couch.
- Do you know this man, he said, pointing towards the bulky dead man - No, it looked like he was following Manas and me, and he seemed to have a gun, perhaps to kill us both - Very likely. He is a hired killer that Al Shabab have used in the past. He can easily kill western targets as he is a Brit who looks very inconspicuous, and the target does not even realise anything before it is too late.
She mulled over this thoughtfully, realising that they had been lucky that his gun had become noticeable, and Manas had shot him before he could kill them. This did not explain, however, what Boko Haram’s Nigerian members were doing with his body in her flat nor why they were waiting for her. The man who was towering over her looked at her keenly.
- You are wondering why we are here and why this body is here - Yes, I am not sure what you want to achieve, really - This is a second warning to you and let it be the last. We have taken pictures of the dead body in your flat and if you won’t stop meeting with Manas, we will send the pictures to the police and there will be witnesses to claim that you had shot him. We have a lot of people who would love to be witnesses to incriminate you. - Well don’t you think that Manas would get embroiled in this if you were to really try to frame me? - Manas might never find out or he might never be able to do anything about it. Do not make this harder than it should be. - Okay, she said, swallowing her pride and anger, realising she could not fight them
Younes and the other man got a large plastic container which they folded the bulky man in before taking him out of her flat. She did not know what they were going to do with him but was just relieved that they were all out of the flat now and she could collect her thoughts. She looked at the couch expecting there to be some stains, but it had apparently been perfectly cleaned up and even if there had been any drops of blood, it looked like nothing had happened there. She went to the couch, putting her nose where he had been sitting but there was no smell of bleach. Perhaps there had been no blood left to drip there then. She went to the door and locked it before trying to put the latch on as her hands trembled. How was she going to get out of this one, she thought…
Goya Gumbani - Chase the Sunrise (feat. Yaya Bey & lojii & Fatima)
She woke up feeling cold and wondered why. She then realized that Manas had extricated himself from under her and left her to sleep on her own. The blanket had slid down and she was no longer covered. It was still rather cool outside and the biting cold of the night had penetrated the apartment that was not heated. The apartment felt as if it was deserted so she rapidly took her clothes where they had been tossed and put them on. She went towards the living room expecting it to be empty but Manas was still there. She was surprised that he had stayed back.
- How are you? she said - I am okay my Angel, he said. Did you sleep well? - Yes, I did. Thank you - I am glad you did because we must now focus properly on how to go on
She looked away from him. Normally they would have made love and he would have stayed with her the whole night through but he had chosen to let her sleep and he had remained in the living room mulling things over. She wondered if perhaps he had regretted informing her about the next stage of operations and had decided he must now silence her as he could not count on her discretion. She sat on his lap and gave him a searching look but all that met her eyes was his unwavering gaze with twinkles in his eyes from time to time. He looked so endearing despite the words exchanged earlier. Could she really be fully safe with him now? What about the other men? Surely, they must be watching her and maybe they had even installed bugs or cameras in her apartment! She realized that her situation was quite precarious as even Manas would not be able to protect her all the time.
She stretched herself and then got up reluctantly. She decided to look around the apartment to check if there were bugs, but a quick look around did not yield any results. She started searching for cameras on the cupboards, the TV, the doors and her heart sank as she discovered the first one. It was a tiny camera on the inside of the bedroom door. She found a second similar one on the door of the living room. They must have realized that she did not fully close these doors. She went to the bay window and looked out. It must have been from one of the apartments in the building opposite her flat that they had watched her before deciding to install the cameras when she was away from home. She cursed inward, angry at herself for never having searched properly her apartment.
She went back to Manas realizing that there may be some more cameras on the top of the curtain railings or on the fridge or even next to the LED lights. It would take hours to check all of the apartment. She took a notebook out of the cupboard next to the sofa where he was lying down and started writing …cameras all over the place …. don’t talk… let’s go outside and talk. Manas took the notebook from her and wrote …let’s go to the café outside…we can talk there.
Manas got up and said he was hungry and they should go out and eat. She nodded and said that they should go to Paul’s at Canary wharf. Manas agreed and they quickly put on their coats and left the apartment. Her heart was beating too rapidly and she had to slow her breathing to calm it down. She was hoping that they would not run into any of the men from Boko Haram or from Al Shabab. Even the prospect of running into the ATU personnel was something she had no desire for at this point. She was too afraid of spilling the beans and making life so much more complicated for Manas and herself. She gritted her teeth and opened the door to the road very slowly, trying to capture as much as she could of the streets before going out. Under one of the broken streetlights, she could see the shadow of a bulky man who seemed concentrated on the door to her building…
A terrorist to love – part 10
12 February 2023
The driver grabbed her by the arm and took her to the cab. He lowered her head before pushing her into the cab. It was so symptomatic of how policemen put their prisoners into their police car that she wondered if he was a policeman on an errand for Boko Haram. She looked up at him after he had sat behind the wheel again. She could see in his eyes a flutter of recognition of what she was thinking. At the same time there passed in his eyes like a shadow of guilt and that persuaded her that he was indeed a policeman but perhaps also a hired gun for Boko Haram. He lowered his eyes so that she could not decipher anything in them.
- You are an English cop, right, she said
- I am in no mood for your mind games, he answered
- No mind games at all. I would just like to understand
- There is nothing to understand. I am a devout Muslim and am doing my part to cleanse the world of the kafireen (non believers). We will soon prevail. Our numbers are growing and we have struck into the heart of the financial system in the UK. The same will happen also in the US and other western countries who do not respect our religious beliefs.
- How can you kill people who are also God’s creatures. Is Allah not merciful and desirous of preserving the creatures he created?
- You know not what you say. Shut up you poor excuse for a Muslim. You have no right to speak of Allah and what Allah wishes for humanity. I know all about you and your involvement with the ATU. I also know how you bewitched Manas and weakened him first in Cameroon and then now in the UK. My superiors may not think much of your prowess, but I can see how you are bringing down a great man and an excellent strategist for our Jihad. If I were to have my way, you would not last long and Manas would then be fully occupied by our Sabil (way) to the higher realms.
She chose to keep quiet as she realized that the driver was a zealot and he might kill her if she went too far. He visibly had no respect for the Boko Haram hierarchy and was only drawn to the cause in order to be able to kill the most kafireen as he could. She had seen countless times men like him, so devout to the cause that they would take matters into their own hand regardless of whom they were supposed to answer to. Their leaders were of course unable to punish them overtly as they would then be questioned on their motives and might also lose a large part of their following if it were known that they had castigated a devout follower because he had killed a kafir. There were fine lines within Boko Haram just as there were in the ATU. In reality, the two organisations had quite a lot in common although they were working on opposing sides.
Her mind drifted back to her time at the ATU when she was charged with finding Manas and either bringing him to justice or making sure he died. It had been at a wedding of one of Manas’s cousins and she had yet gotten the order to take him down regardless of who else died with him. She had realised at that time that she would not be capable of doing that and hurting several people who were very likely innocent. There had not been any intel, indeed, on the cousin who was getting married and in all likelihood he had nothing to do with Boko Haram and most of the marriage party were but innocent bystanders. She remembered her boss’s anger at the fact that she had not planted a trigger and left but there was no way she could have done such a thing. She had killed many people but it had been during face-to-face confrontations with terrorists and other armed followers.
She lifted her eyes again and caught the driver looking at her. She looked away, not wishing to ignite again his fury against her and his anger at the thought that he was not allowed to kill her. She could see from the corner of her eye that he was still looking at her seemingly ruminating murderous thoughts about her but she chose to steadfastly look away waiting for them to pull up to her building. Soon enough she found herself next to the building and the driver came out, opened her door and tugged her out of the car unceremoniously. She let herself be hauled out and quickly started walking towards the building hoping that he was not following her. She heard the car start before pulling away and sighed a sigh of relief. When she reached her flat, she could see that someone had got in. The rocks that she put in front of the door to check whether someone had got in were moved about. She opened gingerly the door and looked into the room. She did not have any weapon with her. She decided that if anybody would have wanted to kill her it would have already been done by Abdelkader, Younes or one of their followers. She went right into the flat yelling come out now you cheap bastards. Her heart skipped a beat as Manas emerged slowly from between the plants on the balcony…
Sweet Blasphemy – Dhafer Youssef
Before she could finish thinking about a solution to her predicament, she felt the ground shake. She thought it was an earthquake and peeked out of her flat to see whether she should stay indoors or go out. She could see the tube station which seemed to have caved in with large pieces of metal and rock protruding from the hole that had once been the ceiling of the tube station. She looked all around and there seemed to be no sign of an earthquake. She retreated from the window, slowing realizing that this was a terrorist attack. She could not figure out why there was one in her neighbourhood of Canada Water while Manas had only spoken about Green Park and Bond Street.
She put on the TV and saw gory pictures of what remained from the stations of Green Park and West Minster. It seemed that they had changed their mind about Bond Street. The police were asking witnesses to give their recount of anything suspicious they had seen. Apparently the most deadly hit had been at Green Park. They had not only bombed both sides of the station but they had also bombed some of the neighbouring buildings at Green Park. They had come very close to Buckingham Palace as one of the ISWAP members was working on a building site nearby and had been able to plant a bomb there. The police found two guards who had been taken down at the site and it was obvious that the terrorists had put a trigger there. It was not clear whether the terrorist who activated the trigger had survived.
She felt sick and almost threw up. This was all her fault as she had not alerted the ATU in time. She watched other images of the Westminster massacre and realized that the small dark blots were bodies covered up and it seemed like BBC did not want to show the full extent of the horror that had hit both Green Park and Westminster stations. She knew it was Manas’s men who had triggered this horror in London. His men were probably elated at how much terror they had struck into the hearts of Londoners. That day was going to remain for years in the hearts and minds of not only Londoners but all the English people as well. Boko Haram claimed the terrorist attacks as their own and broadcasted the set-up of the operations, boasting about their ability to trump British intelligence. They had used two terrorists who had been working under cover as Electricians with a black card access to the Tube so they had been able to practically go anywhere.
She looked out of the window again. There was absolutely no reason for them to bomb Canada Water station. Could it have been a warning to her so that she stopped seeing Manas? Was Boko Haram sending a message to Manas so that he would stop seeing her? She could not bear just sitting at her flat so decided to dress up and leave in search of Manas. There was always a code blue that she could use if she needed to see him at all costs. She needed to get to Edgware road so that she could use one of the burner phones that was linked to Manas and type in the code. She decided it was better to get a cab than use the tube as it would be in shambles and with stations on high alert as it wasn’t clear if the terrorist attacks were over. She buckled her belt and looked at the driver. There was something odd about him…
Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence [Official Music Video]
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