Night Runs – chapter 17 – friendship

Chapter 17

Friendship

Adio waited and listened to the voices on the concrete deck above.

“Daniel please.”

“Don’t call my name, bitch.”

“Please, I beg of you, I don’t have five hundred thousand naira. This is all the savings I have and its planned for my rent.”

“I honestly don’t care if you live in a cave, I want my money or your nudes would go viral. Don’t even think I can’t pull it off.”

“I can raise some more money to round it up to a hundred thousand by this evening. I will ask my co-tenant to lend me some money. Please give me more time.”

If there was a world leader board of smirkers, Daniel could easily be champion. His face soon collapsed from a smirk to a guffaw in seconds. His laughter echoed through the surrounding hollow and emptiness.

“Her co-tenant! Her co-tenant!! Bro, you are about to spare fifteen thousand from your savings for a new tire.” It was Don’s comical voice that echoed through Adio’s ear canals.

“No way!” Adio muttered, taking a further step up the unfinished and dusty staircase, just as the gang’s mocking laughter continued.

Adio had a gun in his right hand. He hadn’t thought twice about using it, even if it meant in self-defense. The cold metal made the skin of his hand numb, as if his blood ran from the gun. He was determined to only use the weapon if he felt threatened, but who knows!

“Who be that?” came a husky voice from the deck above just as Adio was within three steps of the first gang member manning the staircase.

In a quick move, Adio shoved his gun on the scallywag’s temple.

“Move.” He ordered.

The ensuing commotion saw two of the gang members take a quick dash across the room towards the opening on the wall. Pronto, they had taken a quick leap out of the building, landed awkwardly and continued their escape clutching on their ankles as they ran for their dear lives.

Adio held the gun on the temple of the nearest member of the gang, while Daniel stood his ground, unflinching, staring at Ibinabo in utter disgust.

“Get down on your knees.” Adio commanded. “I say, kneel down bastard.” His voice appeared weak, but surely the authority conferred on him by the weapon gave him some confidence.

The two men complied, raising their hands above their head as they bent their knees, not daring to utter a word in protest. Who would dare speak to a man wielding a gun.

“Ibinabo, so you carry police come meet me for here.”

Ibinabo joined the others on her knees too, in shock. She was unsure what to do. She couldn’t fathom how a gun came into her peaceful negotiation.

“Gun, from where? How?” Her heart was starting to race fast and firing questions that she had no answers to.

“Now that they are on their knees, bruh. What do you do now?”

“Where is the money, idiot?”

Daniel removed a brown envelope from his side pocket and thrusted it towards Adio.

Adio knew better not to approach the criminal. He had watched a couple of movies where that innocuous gesture handed the advantage to the villain.

“Toss it on the floor, bastard.”

To sound more menacing, Adio’s use of the curse word after each sentence was all he could think of.

“You.” He motioned to Ibinabo. “Pick up the envelope.”

At this point, Adio felt like he was the ultimate detective, the one sent to uncover the hidden world of vice, sent to restore true virtue. The Robinhood of the neighborhood.

“If you move, I will shoot you, bastard.”

Daniel was starting to wonder, how a police man could be alone by himself in the abandoned estate and was starting to fancy his chances. If it wasn’t for the gun he was wielding, he was just about the size of the regular guys he beat up every now and then in the neighborhood.

“Oya, go and wait for me in the car.” He ordered Ibinabo, keeping his gaze locked on Daniel.

As Ibinabo picked up the envelop and walked down the staircase, Daneil lunged at the gun wielding Adio. It happened very quickly, and Adio’s reaction was anything but fast. The metal fell to the ground as he staggered into the wall.

Ibinabo raced down the staircase and was out of the building in no time, but was soon pursued by the other gang member.

The first punch landed on Adio’s nose, cracking the tender bone leaving blood in its wake. His nose hadn’t properly healed since the last incident with one of his passengers. Her high heels left an indelible impression that would remain with him for a long time.

“Fuck you.” Daniel screamed as he landed a second fist on Adio’s jaw. It was a heavy thump that left him dazed and disoriented. He opened his eyes to see a room full of Daniels and then only one Daniel, all in seconds.

Power is so transient, just as fast as Adio wielded authority, he had lost it too.

Daniel was aiming a third, but Adio blocked it with his two arms locked across his face. This wasn’t going according to plan.

When he tried to look for his weapon on the floor, he found it nestled gingerly in Daniels hands as he picked it up.

“This na real gun o.” Daniel declared thrusting the gun towards his assailant. “You are a dead man.”

“Please! Please! I beg you.” Adio was quickly on his knees. He regretted not asking them to lay flat on the floor when he had the chance.

Daniel had better ideas.

“Who you be?”

“I no be police!”

“Identify yourself, bitch!”

“I am a cab driver! Taxi driver!! Common driver sir!!!”

“Where you get this gun from?”

“No be my own.” Blood trickled down both of Adio’s nostrils.

“No be my own.” Daniel mocked his response, rocking his head on his neck, like an Indian comedian would.

“This would teach you to mind your own damn business.” Daniel squeezed the trigger hard while biting his lower lips.

If gunshot were to be silent, the click from the weapon was as silent as this one went.

Daniel squeezed the trigger again and again in disbelief. His face collapsed into a frown as he wondered how a real gun could misfire.

“Na toy gun be this?”

This time, Adio took advantage of the momentary confusion, leaping up from the ground before ramming his head into the Daniels midsection. It was timed to perfection and caught him unaware. They both crashed into the weakened partitioned wall collapsing into sand blocks and dust.

Adio managed to throw two fists full of bones into Daniels jaw before he pushed him into the rubbles. Whilst Daniel tried to prop himself on his knee, Adio recovered quickly to throw his knee hard into his face. It was timed to hurt.

“Knee upper cut” A triumphant Don announced with glee. The imagined image of Don clapping excitedly, flashed through Adio’s mind.

Adio was determined to pay Daniel back for the punches he had received earlier.

“Bastard.”

Daniel was taking a much longer to get up this time, enough time for Adio to fetch the gun from the ground.

He cleaned the metal with his wet palm, smudging most of the dust before carefully examining the weapon. Its safety lash was on, now he knew why it hadn’t gone off.

Daniel started to cough as he braced himself on his elbow, resigned and beaten. That last kick did a number on him.

Adio contemplated his options. He could simply end this here. One shot could end it here. No witnesses, or he could leave him here to rue his actions.

Then he heard the whimper on the staircase and the shuffling of many feet on the coarse floor.

When he turned around towards the staircase, he found Ibinabo at the receiving end of a choke hold from the other gang member that chased after her. He dragged her all the way up the staircase wielding a knife.

“I go kill am. Drop you gun.”

Adio turned quickly to look at Daniel who was still in lalaland, lost in space and time, dazed and completely disoriented. He posed no immediate threat, but he wondered how long it would be before he got back on his feet.

Ibinabo’s face showed only discomfort. Nothing in her countenance urged Adio on or pleaded for help. She showed stoic courage.

“Let her go!”

“I go kill am o!” he warned.

“I said let her go.” Adio deepened his voice, after all, he was the one with the gun, the faster weapon.

It was the test of who blinked first, until the sound of gunfire rang out; a loud deafening sound that reverberated from wall to wall. The resulting dust and gunpowder left Adio coughing as the voices around him were dulled by the ringing sound that dominated his ears.

He had never heard a gunshot in his entire life, let alone one that close.

Now imagine the shock in admitting that he was the one who fired it.

******

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