A Dirty Game

Chapter Three

17 Three bi and his friends were determined to make it that Monday morning. They were in a yellow taxi, the colour of all Cameroon taxis. They were massively in disguise- only their eyes could be seen. At 4.30 am, they hid in the bushy flowers that surrounded the hotel, all with pistols, poised to shoot at the veteran. William’s car was parked at the front parking place, while Tanga had come late and parked his car far off from the main entrance. Both men were of considerable heights. Tanga loved sober suits, so too Williams. All description about Tanga was clear. They thought they knew whom they wanted to kill and they were sure to do it. It was exactly five, but still as dark as a dungeon. They had been waiting for half an hour, balanced to take action. Williams walked gently towards his car. He perceived the tang of a strange perfume. ‘Is it a devil wearing this kind of body spray or a human being with this hazardous smell?’ he wondered. But that was not his business. Ngo bent behind William’s Mercedes car, ready to fire. His friends were about three meters away seriously watching. Williams stretched his hand to open his car. Obi cued with a sharp whistle like a chirp by a cricket. Ngo fired twice on Williams. He fell beside his car, suffocating and blood oozing his chest. He mumbled and blood foamed from his mouth. ‘I knew this would hap... hap…’ Those were his last words. At this time, they began to pull him into the car. Tanga was behind time. He didn’t take the path through the main entrance, but another path between flowers, formed by children doing hide and seek. From that end, he edged his car into traffic. He couldn’t accelerate fully when he saw a man tugged into a car. He speeded towards it O 18 to see clearly. They all escaped but then firing from the flowers, perhaps to scare him off the scene. He idled for a few seconds. They immediately spread his car with bullets, but he galloped on stones towards the hotel through the main entrance hitting on trees and his car rattling the flowers. The shock and a bullet on his right arm weakened his nerves. He surrendered the steering seriously damaging the car. Security men heard the heavy noise. Without any waste of time, they swooped to the scene. For the length of ten minutes, they tried to revivify him while rushing him to the hospital. Until they reached the Tiko District Hospital, Tanga was wordless, only his heart was beating. On their way back, they saw and identified the body of Williams. It was hair raising and unbearable. It was incredible breaking news. When they rushed it to the hospital, the doctor on duty confirmed that he was dead. * * * * Mayor Foti was high-tempered. He would react and only reason several minutes after the act. The body of Williams had been registered and left at the mortuary. When Security Chief informed the police, Kingsley didn’t waste a second to give Foti a call. At first, he didn’t tell him that his son was dead. ‘Williams is seriously injured and has just been rushed to the hospital.’ ‘Are you serious about that?’ ‘I mean it. It is fifty percent death and fifty percent life.’ Kingsley didn’t want the heart attacking news put Foti to a comma. He knew that in such circumstances, Foti would always react cowardly. He also feared that Foti’s heart problems, which he had been having over the years, would develop into something bad. 19 When Foti saw the corpse, things turned sour. It was bad news indeed. ‘My son gunned to death! Oh, God, my son?’ he cried venomously. ‘These are intrigues to dismantle all I have constructed in my life. However, this is a war without end. This is just the beginning. Let people be ready to fight now.’ On his part, Kingsley tried to calm him. Foti was in tears. He cried hitting his chest, moving forward and backward. ‘Except I’m not Foti, I’ll do the undone.’ He roared as a strongest lion challenged in its den by a goat. ‘I am going to edify this society.’ He punched the air and then slapped the wall. This time, he was like going out...