SITA:
The house was empty when the call from Baba came in. The only sound that could be heard were the humming of the refrigerators and those of the wall and ceiling fans.
"Hello?" I said as I waited for Baba to reply."
"Looks like we have finally found her!" a voice said maliciously."
"Who are you?"
"I doubt that is the right question for you to ask me at least now. How about we make a little bargain? I understand the two of you are somehow related by what? Business? It will be so unfortunate if things get bad for him, don't you agree?"
"Let him go! He has nothing to do with this."
"No, on the contrary, he is the root behind everything. The lead player. While you are nothing more but the pawn."
"What do you want?" I ask
"It's simple, I want you to give us a sum of 30 billion franc," the voice on the other end replies abruptly.
"That's trice my current bounty!"
"You are sharper than I originally thought."
"How do I know; he is still alive? I want to hear his voice?"
"You and I are not playing that fucking game of hide and seek now, okay? If you want any guarantee that he is still alive so bad, why don't I simply send you a finger to confirm that!" the man on the other line seemed to be very irritated.
"Okay, no need to be rash. Tell me your conditions."
"Good, I'll forward you an address, there you go and drop the 30 billion in a blue truck and leave without turning back. And remember no funny moves because we will be watching."
"And how do I get him back?"
"That isn't something you need to worry about. Bring the money and you can worry about getting him back." The line immediately went dead. I threw the phone on the wall as I screamed.
"Fuck!!!" the maid came rushing to the kitchen.
"Madam are you are, okay?"
"Yes, I am. I want you to finish cooking, I'll be on my way, okay? When my husband comes tell him I had an important business to attend to. I might not be back for dinner." The maid nodded at me in confusion.
I quickly grabbed my keys and headed for Ismaëls place. The drive to his house was stressful for me. Different questions were blurring my eyes from seeing the road. It was a mystery to me how I managed to get to his house without causing an accident or traffic.
I parked before the well-adorned estate and pressed the doorbell impatiently. I didn't receive and sign of someone coming, so I pressed again. I saw ismäel making his way to the gate from the parking lot.
"Sita? What the hell are you doing here?"
"Open up, please. I need your help." I knew from the urgency in my voice and how I kept turning back continuously, that he suspected someone was following me. He quickly opened the gate and let me in.
"What's wrong?"
"It's Baba, they've found him!"
"That can't be possible. That young man may not look like it, but trust me he is strong."
"I received a call just a few minutes ago. According to the people that have him, they want a ransom of 30 billion cedi." I could feel the tears falling slowly on my cheeks.
"It's alright." Ismäel took my head dropped it on his shoulder and began stroking it reassuring manner. "Where do we start from?"
"That's why I came. Are you in for one last raid?"
"I would have said no under normal circumstances, but this isn't any normal circumstances this is Baba. So, let's go track down those mother fuckers." Ismaël took me to a room located beyond the garage. It wasn't a secret door, just that it was more secure than the others.
The room was bathed in the cool, blue light of his computer screens, their glow reflecting off the cluttered desks and the neatly entangled cables that sprawled across the room. The hum of electronics filled the air as Ismäel sat at his central console, ready to begin.
"I can see you kept all your toys even after retirement."
"Can't just do away with the old habits, can I? And look at how handy it shows up to be."
"Do you think you can do it?"
"Seriously? I hacked into the government networking and a ship AIS and you are doubting my skills over tracking a call from armatures? I'm disappointed."
"I'm sorry okay, I'm just stressed out," I said as I paced the room impatiently.
"Let's hope that they call soon." Just then my ringing tone cut through the silence.
I held my phone to my ear, my face etched with concern as I demanded silently if he was ready. He nodded silently and I picked up the call.
"Hello?"
"I have sent you the address, meet me there in one hour, and remember, no late coming with tolerated, if you are as much a second late, I'll make sure you receive a nice gift."
"Please don't hurt him. He has nothing to do with it."
Ismaël knew that he had to pinpoint the caller's location before they vanished again into the digital ether.
His fingers flew over the keyboard, eyes darting between screens filled with rapidly updating data.
"Just keep up the conversation a bit longer," he mumbled loud enough for Sita to hear. He opened a detailed map of the city on one of the monitors, overlaid with the fluctuating signals from nearby cell towers. Each red dot on the map represented a possible location, but they kept shifting, evading a precise lock.
"Please let me just hear his voice and make sure he is ok." I pleaded while staring at Ismaël's fingers doing the magic.
"How about you hear his screams instead?"
The call's signal bounced from tower to tower, the caller attempting to obscure their position. Ismael's expertise and quick thinking were the only things standing between them and losing the trace. He activated a real-time triangulation protocol, designed to zero in on the strongest signal and cut through the noise of the decoys.
We both knew that time wasn't on our side any longer.
"Come on, where are you?" he muttered under his breath, barely aware of the tension tightening his shoulders. The software began processing, narrowing down the possible locations with every second. We watched intently as the red dots on the screen started to converge, forming a tighter cluster around a specific area of the city.
There was a sense of urgency as I attempted to slow down the kidnappers from ending the call while enduring the screams from Baba in the background.
Ismaëls eyes flicked to another monitor showing the strength and pattern of the signal. He adjusted the parameters, sending new commands to the system. The map zoomed in, revealing a clearer picture. The red dots were now clustering around the old warehouse district.
"Got you," he whispered a flicker of triumph in his voice. Immediately the call ended. He glanced at me, and I nodded. "Whoever they are, trust me they are no armatures. This took me more time than I had originally expected. But hey, we've got them."
"So, what's our next move?"