MAN-NAPPED! - SANTIAGO (CHAPTER 05-I)

CHAPTER 5

Day 2(Sunday) – 46 hours after emergency alert.

It was 7.00p.m. and they were sitting around Adams’ laptop. He was explaining to them what he had found out while Rachel was gone.

“So, after I finished going through Dan’s files, I felt I couldn’t just sit down and do nothing. Then I figured, if I were… - no, definitely not me – if someone were to use a virus as a weapon, how would they use it? They would probably target large gatherings. Now, where would we get these large gatherings? Assuming that these guys are basing their operations in this city - and I have concrete reasons to make that assumption – so I went online and tried to find out large gatherings that will be holding around here, my search included surrounding states too.”

“And what did you find?” Rachel asked

“You’re never patient, are you?” Adams asked. “The estimated largest gathering for next couple of weeks is going to hold right here on campus.” He looked at the faces of the two ladies in the room, his face betraying some fear. “The most beautiful Nigerian student contest. The first of its kind, tagged ‘The face of Nigerian Higher institutions’ ”

“Oh my God” Janet mouthed. “My sister is competing”

Rachel looked at her and said “It probably means nothing. Not to worry, nothing is going to happen”

“Oh!” Adams said, looking from one lady otherwise. “I’m inclined to think otherwise.” Two pairs of eyes turned to him and he continued “I was worried that this was the first time a competition like that would hold. I mean, we always had the Mr. and Miss Nigeria competition, and each school always held competitions to determine the most beautiful guy and lady in the school, however, this…”

“Adams!” Rachel interrupted in her not-too-friendly tone. “what did you find?” she stressed out each word.

Adams opened his mouth for a while and then nodded and said “The sponsors! I checked for the sponsors, it’s a company named Matrix Global. It is an IT company, they…” He went on rambling about what countries the company had roots in and Rachel had to remind him again that he should go straight to the point. “Now, guess who established the company, a man named Julius Victor. Now, that might not ring a bell to you guys but being my suspicious self, I dug around and found that he happens to be our Mr. Lucas’s brother. Now, I want you to guess who their regional supervisor in Nigeria was up till two months ago.”

“Julius Lucas” Rachel replied.

“Bull’s eye!” Adams exclaimed.

“Why would he resign from such a prestigious position to work at Daniel labs? There’s no way they pay could compare”

“Maybe he was fired” Janet offered.

“By his brother?” Adams said “I doubt it. Especially not after the second thing I found.”

Rachel sighed, she was resigned to the fact that Adams would never go straight to the point, he liked showing off, only offering bits of information at a time. “What’s that?”

“Two weeks ago, a secretary retired from Daniel labs. He had been absent from work for two consecutive days before turning in his letter – just a month after he started working there. Of course that is not suspicious, not unless this former secretary from Daniel labs was on campus on both days he was missing from work, distributing flyers inviting people to the occasion. This former secretary will be the M.C at the occasion.”

“I still don’t see your point” Janet said, slumping her shoulders.

“I get it” Rachel said “Too many coincidences. One: Lucas and this Secretary started working at Daniel labs at roughly the same time and they’re both connected to a much Matrix global, a much larger and lucrative career sacrificed for what? Two: This secretary retires and less than two weeks later, his boss goes missing. That in itself would be unsuspicious but not now that we know Mr. Lucas is a spy. They are all connected; it’s too intricate to be a coincidence.”

“So, in conclusion, you’re saying they plan to release the virus at the competition?”

Adams and Rachel both nodded grimly. Janet brought out her phone.

“What are you doing?” Rachel asked, snatching the phone.

“Calling my sister of course.” Janet replied.

“Can you see now why this project was meant to be kept secret? Leaking such intel will cause a widespread panic which can turn out worse than the impending outbreak itself.” Janet’s face dropped.

“Don’t you worry, we’ll stop the attack once we find Daniel; if not, we’ll stop the event from happening. I have contacted whoever called Dr. Daniel into this”

“Speaking of which” Adams said “how was it?”

At that moment, the door bell rang.  Janet went to get the door

“Are you Detective Rachel?” The man at the door asked

“No, but she’s in” Janet replied holding the door wide open for the man to come in.

“Hey, I’m Jude” He said when he got in, extending his hand to Rachel. “You know me as Contact1. Now, I assume these are your partners-in-crime.”

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“Not crime, Mr. Contact1” Adams said “Rather, we’re fighting crime here.”

“Call me Jude” He said. “How do you expect me to believe that? How did you find out about me or nightterror, a project meant to be top secret if you didn’t use illegal means. I’m assuming one of you is a tech expert”

“Oh! That would be me” Adams said extending his hand. “Adams. Nice meeting you Jude. I’m assuming that’s one of you many identities”

Jude shook Adams’ extended hand and smiled.

“I’m assuming you have seen my point and that is why you’re here” Rachel said “or are you here merely to point fingers and shake hands?”

“Who’s the lady?” Jude asked, referring to Janet.

“She’s Daniel’s P.A.” Rachel said. “She’s been assisting us on the case.”

“Great! Who else knows about night terror aside from the three of you?”

“Oh, just a bunch of spies. Nothing to worry about” Adams said

Jude ignored his sense of humor “what do you mean spies?”

“Shall we sit down and talk?” Rachel asked, pointing to a chair.

They all sat and took turns explaining how they had discovered Daniel was missing and their progress so far on finding him.

“I’m surprised you haven’t taken this case to the police. You expect me to believe you made this much progress on your own in two days?”

“Like I said, I’m a private detective” Rachel said “Plus we figured you guys probably don’t want us taking this to the police. However if you want us taking this to the police, we would be glad to. It’s 48 hours and we have enough evidence to give them a lead”

“No, no. That’s fine. Let’s leave things as they are. You guys have done well; we’ll take it from here.”

“No way!” Janet and Adams screamed. “You either take us on board or we go the police, plus we are the best you can find around, right?” Adams said.

“Who are you?” Rachel asked.

“Let’s just say I’m someone concerned with high level security in this country.”

“NSS. I thought as much” Rachel said “Nigerian Intelligence.”

to be continued...