Twisted Times: Son of Man (Twisted Times Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

“Is that him?” I asked rather astounded. I did not mean any disrespect but it was the whole idea that the
employer
was none other than Urbanas the SANU leader. “I thought it was somebody else…”

“Somebody else better?”

“Come on, I just can’t believe.”

“Yeah, the nerd we look down upon owns a big software company somewhere.
Wacha madharau…”

“I did not mean that, Arnold, and you know that. Let’s get over with this, shall we?”

Urbanas was sitting alone under a lone tree in the park. As usual he was reading a novel. He liked the crime and suspense novels by Robert Ludlum, James Patterson and Michael Connelly. He did not look up until we were seated next to him.

“Arnold, would you please give us some time… no, no, no. Just sit here. We’re going to have a walk.”

Urbanas was the most loquacious guy I had ever met. He had won the Students’ Association of Nashville University (SANU) elections overwhelmingly with a cut of over two thousand votes more than his opponents. While his opponents sought assistance from political leaders he fought a completely different war. His campaign was characterized by rallies, hunger walks, youth workshops, heedlessly involved actively in the areas of concern to the society like participating in the international youth welfare programs, HIV/Aids enlightenment seminars and fighting against child labour and abuse. Activism movements were the force behind his being the man for the job.

He had the oratory skills and eloquence of Martin Luther King, Jr. He won the hearts of many. People always listened to him when he spoke. No one could afford to walk away from him.

An hour later we were back at the spot where we had found him. Arnold was dozing.

“We are through, Arnold.” Urbanas’s voice was brusque, with a tinge of anger.

“Well, well. I hope now I can have my wages.”

“He will tell you… I want to meet
you
exactly at 1830Hrs at the chapel.”

“Okay. Do I come with his résumé and the sort?”

“I’m not in mood to joke, Arnold… just get going before I …”

I knew he was angry. He could not conceal the fire in his eyes.

“You lied to me. You fucking lied to me,” I said to Arnold when we were alone.

“I did not lie to you… you needed a job…”

“You knew?”

“I could not watch you living like that.”

“I can’t believe you just lied to me. I trusted you…”

“Come on, Ken. You already know, you can’t just walk away.”

“Give me a break, Arnold. How could you… I am out of this now.”

“Think of what might happen, Ken. You do not understand…”

“The hell I don’t understand… the only thing that I understand is that you are a bunch of nincompoops and hypocrites. And don’t you threaten me.”

“Careful, Ken… just calm down, think it over and over. Furthermore I never threaten…”

“It’s against all odds and my principles.”

“Fuck odds and principles. You need to live, you need a life man.”

I could not say anything more to him. I could not believe what I had heard with my own ears from the SANU leader. I was seething with resentment, turmoil, an immix of something inexplicable.

“Get a life, Arnold,” I told my friend.

“Give him some time? Are you outta ya’ mind? You well know that we don’t have time.”

“Okay then, I’ve got no better replacement for him.”

“You know what, James? Sometimes you are a pain in the ass.”

“That’s why I live. I must tell you the truth. He’s our guy… I know those to stay when I see them.”

“See?”

“You know better than that. Don’t make me feel like a fool to myself.”

“You don’t understand, James.”

“The only thing that I understand is that you blabbed and now you want to kill him.”

“I can’t have him talking about me, about us, about anything.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Urbanas. You are an idol.”

“We’ve to find somebody else. Business is booming we can’t afford not to have this one.”

“And that’s why I called you and you must listen to me. The guy will come. I see him coming…”

Whoever made you clairvoyant?
Urbanas thought.

“You very well know what happens. It’s barely a week to the obsequies…”

“Do not be so pessimistic. Hoping and waiting may be difficult, but it’s the only thing we have. Willy was good, and we need somebody like him. Ken is our guy.”

“That idiot insulted me… I don’t see him…”

“Like Nicodemus he will come to you in the wee hours of the night.”

“Have you got everything else in place?” Urbanas changed the topic.

“Yes, but there might be some problem… John was fired. The other guy is a decency-filled-fool with a tag of morals and religion. Damn, he’s uncooperative.”

“We can’t afford to lose this.”

“I’ll look into it… just don’t fret yourself.”

Urbanas slowly hit the disconnect button on his phone. Kennedy Maina insulted him. The bastard will blab. He had to take care of him. It was necessary – damage control. A single word from Ken and the whole hell will break loose and fall on Urbanas like tons of a million bricks. He could not afford such fiasco.
SANU Leader a Coffin Robber,
or something like
Student Robbing the Dead.
The newspapers will carry the headlines on the front pages; all television networks will be broadcasting him as breaking news of the day. No, he could, and would not, allow that.

Urbanas checked his Omega wrist watch. It was about time he had an outing. Today he had a mission to accomplish. And he was going naked. A clean lightning job and he would be hundreds of thousands richer by morning.

Garbed in tar black clothes, Urbanas slid into
his
sedan and drove into the streets of Nairobi.

Edna applied more mascara on her eyelashes. They looked strangely darker than they were naturally. Though she was not used to wearing makeup and her skin appeared wonderfully clear, this time round she did.

Edna always put on makeup whenever she was flying. Her employer had sent her to deliver some cargo to a friend of his in Pakistan.

She was still putting on her makeup when the car that was to take her to the airport arrived.  The driver hooted to alert her. She did not have much luggage. For austerity, she travelled light.

To her astonishment her employer was in the back seat. She had not expected this development. She already had other plans. She was to tell the driver to pass by her boyfriend’s home and pick (surprise) him to see her off at the airport. Her employer’s presence was an unexpected development, and an inescapable impedimenta.

“I didn’t know we were going together,” Edna said as she slid in beside her boss.

“Change of plans. We are a couple.”

“Oh… really?”

“Not in the sense you think,” he said. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“I am all ears.”

“I’m having this strange feeling that something will go wrong. Not that I don’t trust you, but I feel that something is wrong somewhere with this trip. I have to be with you, feign husband and wife.”

Samson’s voice echoed inside Edna’s boss’s mind. 
Break your principles, trust somebody.
He could not trust anybody with his business. Not after Grace. Trust was a problem for him albeit Edna had proved worth trusting. Furthermore, Samson had insisted that he take care of everything himself. Samson did not tell him what it was, but he had said it was worth millions of money. Last minute change of plans.

“This is ridiculous. I am engaged,” Edna said.

“I did not ask you to sleep with me… feign is the word…”

“Even if…”

“Not what you think, Edna. If I do anything sappy sue me.”

“You bet…”

At the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport all was well until when they were pulled from the checking-in queue.

“Is there anything wrong?”

“No, it’s just procedure. Your luggage has been delayed a bit. Just be patient with us… everything is going to be alright.”

Up ahead Edna and her boss saw one of the airport security agents unhook the stanchion belt, motioning for someone to step out of the line just as they had been removed. It was a young woman.

The young woman was escorted away just as three airport police officers appeared from the entrance of the hallway they were being led to. That’s when something registered in his mind. “But no, it can’t be,” he said a loud.

Before Edna asked her boss what couldn’t be realization hit on her like a volcano. She reached for and grasped her boss’s hand tighter. His own hand was wet with sweat.

The police officers made a bee-line for Edna and her boss.

It was in the news – television, radio, and newspapers. The President sent condolences immediately he got the news of the untimely demise of his finance minister. The Prime Minister was yet to, but the media was speculating that he was overwhelmed by the grief – the deceased was one of the premier’s own.

Family, friends and relatives mourned with great sorrow the death of their beloved. It was said that the slain minister was a good husband; father, brother, and friend.

The minister’s death sent shivers in the veins of many in the Parliament. Why were the members of Parliament dying suspiciously of late? That made it a total of five in a period of six months.

Journalists with a mass of cameras and notebooks stomped up and down everywhere, asking their never ending questions to every
big
man and woman who came their way. They said he was a victim of robbery. There was no sign of break in. The slain minister had met his death just outside his gate. He was found slumped against the driver’s seat, crimson of blood splattered on the floor. No spent cartridges. Just his dead body with a single bullet hole in his forehead.

The guards were already in police custody and assisting the police with investigations. The minister’s chauffeur said that he was at home when the incidence occurred – the minister had told him that he will drive himself home. The minister did that sometimes. The chauffeur’s alibi was checked and it held.

The President declared a one-week mourning period with all flags flying half-mast. Plans for the obsequies were underway.

It was the death of a hero, so they said.

The air was acrid at this part of Nairobi. Catherine, aka Kate, aka Cathy, could feel eyes on her. She always felt so. Catherine hated her butt being stared at.

Catherine was not sure whether she was going to do what her legs were taking her to do. Morals dictated otherwise or so she knew. She even knew that she was committing a mortal sin, a premeditated and well-orchestrated crime. But what could she do? She could not stand to lose everything in life.

The weather was relatively warm, that and her body made her feel as though she was going to explode. She knew that the consequences could be overwhelming, intense. She hated everything she had done. But she could not afford to be a mother at this time. Her parents would practically kill her. She had nowhere to run to. And marriage was out of question…

What the hell was I thinking?

Catherine touched her gradually growing tummy. She pitied the child she was carrying, but there was no other way out.

Something inside Kate told her that something might go wrong. But… it was a risk worth taking instead of having a brat she never wanted squirming at her now and then, howling at the slightest scratch and screaming at her whenever it was dissatisfied with anything. Furthermore,
teen hominess is not a crime, God can forgive that.

Her boyfriend knew nothing of it. It was better that way. Some secrets are better taken to grave if need be. She was sure he will fight her if he knew. But it was her life. Her had nothing to do with her personal life. It had to remain secret forever.

The nondescript building had nothing to mark it for what it was. The entrance was at the back. No one even knew it existed apart from the slum dwellers, prostitutes and the ‘patients’ who went there and the quacks who treated them.

The
nurse
who welcomed Catherine was probably in her late teens or early twenties. She was garbed in a fade blue dress and a cap on her plaited head.

“Welcome, so you’ve finally decided to come?” she said in
Sheng.

Catherine did not say anything. She just followed the nurse down a raw-cement encrusted and potholed corridor.

“The doctor will see you soon. The queue isn’t that long.” The nurse showed Kate where to sit as she waited. “I am going to get you a card,” she told Catherine in Swahili and shimmered away.

God, I don’t know why I am here.
 

Five minutes later the
nurse
returned with a yellowish card and gave it to Catherine to fill.

Catherine did as she was told and when she was done the nurse told her to follow her.

The room they entered scared the hell out of Catherine. It was redolent, the kind of stingy smell found in public hospitals back at the villages, full of paraphernalia she was well sure would be used on her.

But she did not feel anything, except segueing into fuzziness and a thousand hands groping for her and the distant suck and tug of instruments.

When she came to the same nurse was standing next to her on the steel gurney.