The night air smelled of burnt petrol and stale sweat.
Amira stood at the edge of the Mile 12 underpass, heart pounding in her chest. She wore a plain hoodie, the flash drive tucked into the inside pocket. Everything in her screamed this was a trap but Kaira's face kept flashing in her mind. That was louder than fear.
David had followed her, of course. He stood a few meters behind, hidden in the shadows of a danfo bus stop, watching, fists clenched. Amira had told him to stay back. He didn't argue but he didn't leave either.
The burner phone vibrated in her hand.
Lekan: Come to the pedestrian bridge. Alone.
Amira moved.
As she climbed the steps of the narrow overhead bridge, her mind raced. The hum of distant traffic below, the glare of broken streetlamps, the way people stared and passed it all felt like a dream. Or a nightmare.
At the top, she saw him.
Lekan stood by the railing, arms folded, eyes scanning everything.
"You're early," he said without turning.
"I didn't come to play," Amira replied.
He finally looked at her and for once, his usual sarcasm was gone.
"They're holding her in a mobile safehouse. It's not a building. It's a container. Reinforced. Parked in a warehouse at the edge of Ikorodu."
"A container?" Amira repeated, stunned.
"They move it every twelve hours. I had to bribe two ex-colleagues and threaten one arms dealer to find that much."
"Is she still there?"
Lekan sighed. "For now. But if they shift her again, she could disappear into the Atlantic. Literally."
Amira clutched the flash drive. "Then we go now."
He shook his head. "You don't go anywhere. I've already called someone."
"What?"
Before she could ask more, a low rumble echoed from the street below.
A dark SUV rolled up under the bridge. The kind that didn't have plates and didn't wait at checkpoints.
Lekan gave her a look. "You want to save your sister? This is the only way."
Back at the Safehouse
Adaobi watched Amira's location on a second phone. The blinking dot on the map made her restless.
"She shouldn't have gone alone," she muttered.
"She didn't," David said from the window.
He had a second phone to his ear, the line open to a former classmate who now worked in private security.
"Are you sure you can intercept the signal?"
"I'll try," the voice replied. "But if they jam the feed again, you'll be blind."
"I don't care," David said. "Just keep me in the loop."
Adaobi paced. "I hate this. We're all amateurs pretending to be agents."
David looked at her, his eyes heavy but resolute. "Then let's stop pretending. Let's act like people who love someone and aren't ready to lose them."
The phone buzzed.
A new file appeared on Adaobi's laptop. Encrypted. Traced from the same server that streamed Kaira's earlier video.
She froze.
"David… come here."
"What?"
She clicked the file.
A video began to play.
It was a live feed.
But it wasn't Kaira.
It was Rihanna.
Bruised, Bleeding, Whispering.
"If you're seeing this… they found me. Don't trust..."
Static.
Then a second screen popped up.
This one was Sterling.
Live.
And smirking.
"Well done, children. You've taken the bait beautifully."
David's blood turned cold.
Sterling spoke directly to the camera.
"You thought it was about one girl. You thought it was about a drive. It was never about those things."
He leaned in.
"It's about her. Amira. She is the variable we couldn't predict. And now she's walking straight into the lion's den."
David shouted, "NO!"
But the screen went dark.
And so did the hope in the room.
Back on the bridge, Amira opened the SUV door.
Inside sat a woman she had never seen before cold eyes, scar on her jaw.
She looked Amira up and down.
"You ready to make a deal with devils?" the woman asked.
Amira hesitated.
Then nodded.
"For my sister?"
"I'd walk through hell."
The door shut.
The SUV drove off.
David, watching from above, started running.
He didn't know where they were going.
But he knew one thing.
He was not letting her go alone.