RESTLESS
Restless-Episode 8
Story By
Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
Sheila had found the number and was about to dial when she looked up, she opened her mouth in utmost surprise at the scene playing right in front of her.
The blow which landed on the second man’s mouth was more fatal than the first. He had not just saliva splattering out of his mouth but blood. He fell back and collided into the body of the first man.
The third man came in a fury with his fist raised to attack Henry. He launched the blow but his fist was grabbed easily by Henry.The man stared at Henry in utmost shock, his lips mouth shaking and his lips vibrating as he tried to pull back his fist. Henry’s grip was so strong and stiff that he could barely move the arm. Before he knew it, a punch was driven into his belly and he felt a shift in his ribs as the pains got driven throughout his whole body. He still could not get away as his hand was still held by Henry.
Henry released his hand finally and then grabbed him at the back of his neck, he dragged him closer to the stationary and slammed his head into the axle.
The fourth man was already there when he turned, he was the one who was taller than Henry. He launched a blow which passed over Henry’s head as Henry bent. He tried to follow up from the other side with the other hand but Henry grabbed him by the wrist and headbutted him in the chest, he followed up with his knee to the center of the taller man’s groin. The man gave a loud shout in deep pains as his body vibrated all over and his eyes blinked continuously. He grabbed his private with both hands as he continued screaming but Henry followed up with another blow to his head and sent him falling to the ground.
He quickly turned to find the fifth man rushing to him with a dumbbell, he quickly dragged up the man whose head he slammed to the axle of the bike, he held him by the shoulder and the belt on his waist and pushed him with force towards the man rushing towards him, the pushed man ran his head into the rushing man’s belly and both fell to the ground.
The first man was up again and aiming to grab Henry on the shoulder with both hands from behind but Henry was swifter, he grabbed the man’s wrist on both sides and spread both. He kicked the man in the groin with his feet and the man let out a squeal, his body bending unconsciously to accomodate the pain. He put the man’s hands together in his right and turned around with him The man with the dumbbell had risen up quickly and already picked the dumbbell again. Henry pushed the first man to the one with the dumbbell like he did before.
The man with the dumbbell was readier this time and he was able to avoid the collision but before he could make any other move, a kick was stamped at the center of his chest and he fell heavily on his bum to the ground with the dumbbell. He was yet to look up when two kicks hit him in the face and an uppercut finally got his head striking the floor hard.
Henry turned back to see the tallest man charging towards him with a very frustrated and angry look. The tall man was still feeling the pains of the kick in the groin as he came. Henry swerved quickly to dodge his attack and followed with a blow to the man’s neck, sending more excruciating pains through his body. He grabbed the man by at the back of his neck and rammed his neck into the saddle of another stationary bike.
Henry turned. The first and the second man were up. The first already charging towards him with the second following closely behind. Henry accelerated towards them with quick steps, he saw the leg of the first man rising for a kick and he grabbed him firmly by the knee before he could raise it higher. He twisted the man’s knee in a sharp movement and flung the whole body to the left in the direction where Sheila was. She moved quickly some steps backwards to avoid contact with the man. The man ended up helplessly with a loud groan at the same spot Sheila previously stood.
The second attacker was still up, he launched a blow targeted to Henry’s shoulder but Henry with an unusual speed grabbed his wrist and twisted it sharply. He punched the man with the other hand twice in the belly and followed with another in the face before the man fell to the ground.
He took in a deep breath as he looked around him. All five of them were on the floor, groaning and grunting in severe pains. He noticed that some other people were not in the workout center and he could spot some security men with them. His eyes fell on Sheila and he saw her still standing looking awestruck. She had just seen in real life something which she thought was only possible in movies.
Even Henry could not explain what had happened. He just knew he raised his fists and legs unconsciously and hit the men at the right places.
“Let’s go Sheila,” he said as he stepped out from the middle of the groaning men.
He opened his palm wide for Sheila to hold and she put her palms in his as he led her out of the workout center.
Sheila couldn’t keep to herself all through the five minutes journey in the cab back home, she kept talking excitedly about how she watched up kick their butts and dealt them jabs, blows, uppercuts and kicks, making Henry laugh hard at her demonstrations and facial expressions. The cab stopped at the front of the gate and Henry had to pull her out gently as she kept in demonstrating without stepping out.
“Whoops! Uppercut, rolling kick, jaw breaks,” Sheila kept on with her demonstration after they stepped into the compound, now squatting like a Kung Fu fighter.
“Hahaha,” Henry laughed out loud as he looked back and saw her performing at the gate.
She ran to meet up with him and clung to his arm as they both walked into the house.
They left the security men and other workers in the compound with something to gossip about, the workers had not seen their boss so excited in a long time.
“Henry, I need to learn how to fight like you.” Sheila continued with her demonstration as they stepped into the living room.
Henry smiled, he moved close to her and lifted her in his arms, she shouted in surprise at the ease with which he lifted her. He dropped her on the one-seater sofa and stood in front of her.
“Why did you do that?” She asked, raising her brows and feigning anger even though she enjoyed the comfort of his arms.
“Can we discuss something more serious now?” He said with a partially serious tone, the smile on his face gradually disappearing.
“What?” She yelled. “What serious discussion are you talking about?”
“Before we keep on rejoicing about beating those guys at the center. Do you know who they are or why they attacked us?”
She inhaled and exhaled deeply, still keeping her eyes on his face. “I’ve only seen one of them before, he’s Tom’s friend.”
“Tom’s friend?”
Sheila nodded.
Henry heaved a sigh of relief. He walked to the seat beside her and sank into it.
Sheila turned to him. “I believe he must have discussed with Tom and Tom described you to him. They actually wanted to get at you for Tom.”
“That’s crazy,” Henry said, leaning forward. “Tom is crazier than we think, we should have reported the incident to the police straight away.”
Sheila frowned. “The security guards at the center would take care of the situation, we saw them already going in when we left there.”
“But we didn’t make a report about it to them,” Henry retorted.
“They got in while the fight was still on, and they didn’t ask any question. I think they have an idea of what was happening,” Sheila replied. She hated involving the police in her matters as that would mean getting her father automatically involved.
“Well, I also think it’s time we follow your Dad’s suggestion.”
“What suggestion?” Sheila squinted.
“That you should have a bodyguard assigned to you,” Henry replied.
“No! I don’t want that,” Sheila refused outrightly. “I don’t want to live my life in a box.”
“No, it doesn’t mean boxing you up. It’s for your safety. Your father discussed this with his friends two weeks ago at the bar and they came to the conclusion that you can get a guard watching you from afar without necessarily making you feel being watched.”
“Since I know about it, it would make me feel more insecure,” Sheila yelled.
Henry was silent for a moment. He released a breath and raised his gaze again.
“It’s about your safety Sheila, what happens if those kind of guys attack you on the road or somewhere else?” He asked.
“This is El Deols Henry, no one dares attack any other publicly. They’d be put behind bars in no time.”
She was still talking when her phone began to ring, she took out the phone and answered.
“Hey Dad.”
“Sheila, are you okay?”
“Of course, I’m okay Dad.” She replied.
“I just got a call and I was told what happened at the gym, I hope no one laid a finger on you.”
“I’m fine Dad, I wasn’t touched.” She replied.
“Good, we do need to talk. You come to my place this evening,” the man offered.
“No Dad, that won’t be possible.”
“Okay, I’ll come over to your apartment this evening.”
“No Dad! I have plans for evening already,” she lied.
“No? Sheila, No? You know you can’t…”
“Don’t worry about me Dad, I’ll come over to your place tomorrow when I’m free.”
“No, I won’t wait for that. I’ll take actions right now to make sure you’re safe at all times.”
“Oh Dad, you worry too much.”
“Not as much as your safety is important to me.”
The call ended few seconds later and Sheila heaved a sigh as she dropped the phone.
“He already found out and he’s worried,” Sheila said to Henry.
“I think you should listen to him,” Henry advised.
Sheila shook her head and looked away. She didn’t think a bodyguard was necessary. She had never gotten into trouble without a guard except for the recent times issues with Tom.
She remained silent and decided to end the discussion.
“Sheila,” Henry called softly after some seconds of watching her reflect.
“Henry,” she called back, raising her brows.
“You know I saw those men watching me earlier, I was afraid that they knew me from somewhere else.”
Sheila chuckled.
“Well, I got more scared when the five of them threatened to teach me a lesson. I don’t know how it happened but somehow…”
“Not somehow,” Sheila interrupted in an excited tone. “You didn’t just deal with them anyhow, you beat them hands down.”
Henry smiled briefly but the smile soon vanished from his face and turned to a worried look.
“I’m scared Sheila,” he voiced out.
“Scared?” Sheila raised a brow.
“Yes,” he replied. “How could I have been those guys? It shows that I was a fighter of some kind.”
“Yes, but that’s a good thing.” Sheila said with a shrug, wondering why Henry was bothered about beating up some troublemakers.
“You know, maybe I got into trouble because of that. Maybe I did something really bad or beat up someone, maybe I even killed and that’s why those people tried to kill me.” Henry said in a worried tone. “I’m scared that I lived my previous life as a bad person.”
Sheila thought for a while. She got up and moved closer to him, she sat on the arm of his sofa.
“I don’t think so Henry, I think you were a good man. But then it doesn’t matter anymore, who you are now is what matters. Remember you are a few steps away from starting a new life.”
Henry heaved a sigh. His mind flashed back to the fight and get recalled how he handle each of the men. He sighed again.
“Don’t worry Henry, no one can touch you in El Deols as far as you are here with us.” Sheila reassured as she clung to his arm and rested the side of her head against his shoulder.
_______________________
City: Newland Estate, Ruthernard.
Country: Bethanna.
Africa
The Newland estate was one of the most beautiful and expensive places in Bexford as well as the most safe place. The land mass of the area was not very large but it was still a place which drew attention as most of the houses and buildings in the estate were owned by some of the richest men in the country and in the continent. This gave reasons for the top grade security system in place at the estate.
The strange part of the estate was that only a few of those who owned the owned the structures lived in them, they preferred to live in other areas of the country but still keep their houses and some factories there.
In that same estate was situated the Strategy House of the Red Wolves. As a matter of fact, the estate was owned and ran by the Wolves. Nothing unusual however happened around the strategy House or in the estate itself. The Wolves ensured that none of it’s activities were carried out in the estate or could be linked to it.
For several weeks they had been quiet and it was widely believed that the FOX corporation had wiped them out five months ago. They however still existed strong and were building more strength, gaining momentum and preparing for a return.
That afternoon, the Red Wolves executives were seated, having a strategic meeting in the hall. All numbering up to sixteen were sitting comfortably on armless sofas arranged in a rectangular form, made up of six chairs each at a pair of opposite sides and two each at another pair of opposite sides.
“We are wasting a lot of time and money with the way we’re going about it, we need to continue with our operations.” a man sitting at the center at a longer arm of the rectangle spoke. His intonation and the darkness of his skin made it obvious that he was a Ghanian. He was a middle aged man of petite size but had a long mean-looking face.
“We can’t continue our operations until we find that agent’s body,” one of the men sitting at the shorter side said.
“Why do I have a feeling that the FOX have found this agent and are hiding it from the whole world?” the Ghanian spoke again.
All eyes turned to the man sitting beside the one who said they could not continue yet. He was sitting in a relaxed manner, looking untroubled even though he knew the first speaker was making an allegation against him with his question.
He was one of their moles in the FOX corporation, having worked with the FOX corporation for several years, he was lured with money ten years ago and became one of the founding fathers of the wolves.
After taking his time to think of a good response, he sat up and gave his reply. “I may have to remind everyone of us that the FOX was in search of the bodies of two agents not just one. The Red Wolves has one of those with us and we know that they can never find the second man’s body. For the FOX, finding one of the two missing bodies couldn’t have brought a complete stop to the search, it would have encouraged the search to continue with hopes to find the second body.” He took a pause and looked at the faces of his listeners to see if he was making any effect. “We should also recall that these men have been paid their final honours by the FOX. It only means one thing, the FOX has no hopes of finding their bodies anymore.”
“Well, would it be safe for us to stop our search because the FOX has ended theirs? We should ” one of the men put in. His name was Daniel, a Nigerian native.
There was silence for a while.
It looked like no one had something to say until after three minutes.
“That would be the most stupid mistakes of our lives,” a man finally spoke.
Everyone turned their eyes to him. They all were thinking in a different direction until he spoke. They always took his words seriously in the organization. He was one of the men amongst them who rarely spoke in their meetings but was known for accuracy of strategies whenever he spoke.
“We can’t stop our search because they stopped theirs, we can only stop our search after we are confident that we cannot find the body anymore.” he added.
“So, what do we do?” Daniel asked.
“We’ve searched for the dead body, it’s time to search for the living body of Agent Carl. It’s possible he did not die in the water.”
“No, that can’t be,” another man interjected. “He wasn’t thrown into the sea alive, he was killed before being thrown into the sea.”
The strategist chuckled. “Agent Carl has survived the toughest of situations, he’s come back from the dead even in cases where it was thought impossible. This case is not different, he might just be alive somewhere. That is why we cannot start any of our operations yet until we confirm he is dead. If he comes back knowing that the Red Wolves still exists, he would come back on a mission to ensure he wipes out the wolves especially for killing his family.”
His listeners looked all unmoved and unperturbed by his words even though they were scared deeply inside, they were scared of considering the possibility of Agent Carl still being alive.
“All we need to now is find him before he finds us,” the accurate strategist added. “That’s if he is still alive.”
______________________
19:56PM
El Deols, Anthanna
“Dad, I told you I had plans for this evening already.” Sheila murmured as she walked into the living room.
Emery Jack was comfortably sitting in one of the sofas, holding a glass of water in his hands. He seemed unperturbed by his daughter’s unwelcoming words.
“I’m here Sheila, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” The man replied and dropped his glass cup on a stool. “Get seated and let’s start the discussion.”
Sheila took a seat directly her father reluctantly. They stared at each other for a while before her father spoke.
“Sheila, I’m your father. I’m older than you are and I know better than you,” the man began. “Don’t be deceived by the seeming safe condition of El Deols, there are many wicked men out there who could have sinister plans for you. I have a personal body guard and even more security officials for myself, why have you refused one for yourself?”
“Dad, I’ve told you several times. There’s no need for a body guard, you are the famous one. I’m Sheila and no one knows me as an Emery until I’m introduced, introducing a bodyguard to myself would only attract more attention to me.” she replied.
“I have a solution to that Sheila,” the man said.
“What solution Dad?” she asked.
The man raised his face, staring at something behind her. She turned to look back, Jenry was approaching them. She looked at her father’s face again, wondering what he was suggesting.
The man got up to his feet. “Henry, would you work as a temporary bodyguard for my daughter?”
To be continued
EPISODE 9
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