As Tracy steps out of Zhongshan Airport, Taipei, she is hit by the warm morning air. She travels light, with only a medium-sized box containing a change of clothes and some other essentials. Years in the military have taught her to be frugal with dresses when on duty. She approaches the row of taxis and gives the address that had been supplied by Adams to the first driver. He smiles obsequiously and opens the door for her to enter while he puts her box in the boot of the car. He then gets in, eases the shiny taxi out of the row and takes the route to Taipei. As soon as he enters, he switches on the air conditioner.
“No air conditioner. Wind down the glass, please.” The driver looks at her in the mirror and notices the determined look on her face which brooks no dissent. He shrugs and obeys. Unknown to him, Tracy is already acclimatising, forcing her body to get used to the weather in the foreign land.
“How long to Taipei?”
“One hour, a little less if traffic is light.”
Tracy nods and settles down to enjoy the ride through the countryside. On the long flight to Hong Kong, she had slept for several hours and then pondered about her present job. She recalled her last mission in the military to rescue two Americans held hostage by Boko Haram. She remembered how it had turned into a fiasco that would have marred her brilliant career if she and her colleagues had not had unusual assistance from sources unknown. She had not had any close contact with the terrorist group until then. Boko Haram was formed in 2009 by Mohammed Yusuf an Islamic cleric turned fanatic. The official name of the group was originally Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’wah wal-Jihad, meaning in Arabic, “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teaching and Jihad”. They were against everything western, including education, dressing, system of government, etc. and seek to establish an Islamic state within the Nigerian federation. Hence, the people of Maiduguri where they had their headquarters then dubbed them “Boko Haram”, which in Hausa language means “Western education is forbidden.” The government of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, himself a Muslim, sent security agents to Maiduguri to close down the activities of the group. In the following shootout, many of the fanatics were killed, including the leader, Yusuf. But the fanatics later regrouped under Abubakar Shekau and became a formidable terrorist organisation that engaged in assassinations, bombings and kidnappings. At a time, they controlled many parts of north eastern Nigeria comprising of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, and established a caliphate with headquarters in Gwoza. Nigerian governments under Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari waged unrelenting war with the insurgents, forcing them out of their strongholds. With the formation of a regional force comprising the armies of Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad, and Niger, the terrorists were forced to retreat to Sambisa, a long stretch of forest cutting across the three north eastern states. Boko Haram was initially affiliated to al-Qaeda, but in 2014 pledged allegiance to Islamic State, an international terrorist group with the same objectives. Afterwards, the terrorist group became more daring in its attacks on military and civilian targets. On 14 April 2014, it abducted over two hundred school girls in Chibok, Bornu State and thereby entered the World Book of Notoriety. In 2016, a split occurred and Abu Musab al-Banawi broke away from the Shekau group and has since been recognised by Islamic State as the leader of Boko Haram. All this passed through the mind of Tracy as the plane headed for Hong Kong where she took a connecting flight to Taipei.
For the third time, Tracy takes out a small mirror from her handbag and looks at her face, or appears to do so. In reality, the mirror is an unusual one with enhanced properties that enable Tracy to see far and clear all the vehicles on the road behind her taxi. It is like a miniature binocular, pulling objects far behind her into proximity for her close scrutiny. She is about to put the mirror back into the bag when she notices something unusual about one of the taxis behind her own. For the last twenty minutes or so, that red car has maintained the same distance behind hers, allowing other vehicles to pass rather than speed up and overtake. She watches the taxi for a while then taps the driver on the shoulder.
“Yes?”
“Could you turn into the next lay-by? I need to take something from my box.”
“Okay.”
Fortunately, the next lay-by came up two minutes later. The driver turns right into it and stops.
“Do I bring your box, madam?”
“Yes, and you can leave it beside me.”
The driver jumps down and goes to the boot to retrieve her box. Just then, the red taxi passes by in medium speed. Tracy quickly pushes her glasses up her nose to be able to see better through the lower part of her bifocals, a momento from Delta Force 2 which functions exactly like a mini-binocular lens. She sees clearly that there are only two occupants in the taxi, the driver and an old Chinese woman fast asleep on the backseat with her mouth slightly open. She heaves a sigh of relief and relaxes her taunt nerves. The taxi driver puts the box beside her on the back seat, enters the cab and drives off at a greater speed than before so as to make it in time to Taipei. He still has hopes of making another trip to the airport and back. Soon they overtake the red car and Tracy gets another look at the occupants. No course for alarm, she concludes within her. Unknown to her, three men in a white taxi way back from her view patiently follow the taxi into Taipei.
Twenty minutes later, they arrive in Taipei and the cab driver takes Tracy straight to her reclusive but neat guest house near Muzha Market Intersection. On her way up to her room, she orders a sandwich and a soda, both of which are delivered in minutes after she enters her room. She showers, eats and then lays down on the bed for a nap. Her appointment with Mary is not until 9 pm and it is just 5 pm. As she is about to fall asleep, her cell phone vibrates violently and beeps once. She picks it up.
“Hello, Ted.”
“Be careful, Captain. You were followed.”
“Jesus! The people in the red car?”
“No. They were in a white Buick. Three men, Chinese from their looks. They tailed you right to your guest house.”
“Second Base, then, Ted.”
“Second Base, Captain.” The caller rings off.
The bad news drives sleep away from Tracy. She opens her box and brings out what looks like a makeup kit. Standing in front of the mirror, she sets about altering her appearance with materials from the box. Ten minutes later, her face has been sufficiently darkened to change her appearance significantly. Then she begins to work on her arms from the shoulder down to her finger tips, giving them an even dark tone. Next, she applies a black dye to her hairs, turning them to a mass of dark hairs with streaks of grey here and there. She examines herself in the full-length mirror and nods in satisfaction. She looks at least fifteen years older than her age. She cleans her hand and instruments in the wash hand basin. From her box, she takes out a drab-looking skirt-suit that has obviously seen better days. She removes her elegant trouser-suit and shoes and puts on the skirt-suit and a pair of old sandals that match the dress in drabness and age. She goes back to the mirror to check her appearance. She smiles. The dignified old school teacher that stares back at her is far from the elegant Tracy that came in about an hour ago as the North Pole is far from the South. From her trouser-suit, she removes her wallet and passport, transferring them into her purse. From her box, she extracts a weather-beaten skin bag into which she transfers the trouser-suit and her few other belongings. She puts the box on the wooden cupboard, zips up the skin bag and stands in front of the mirror to examine her appearance for the last time. Now she looks like an old school teacher coming back from a short trip out of town.
Leaving the key in the lock at the back, Tracy opens the door slightly and looks out. Nobody is in the corridor. When coming in, she had noticed another staircase going down to the side of the building. She walks quickly down the stairs, opens the door and finds herself in the street on the other side of Muzha Market. By now it is fairly dark outside. She walks away sedately and unchallenged until she is out of sight of the guest house. She then flags down a passing taxi and gives the driver the address of a smaller guest house in Meiguo, about three kilometres from NCCU. At the reception, she asks for the key to Room 11. The room had been booked in the name of Mrs. Betsy Smith, an American school teacher on vacation in Taiwan. Tracy hands over her second passport bearing that name and showing her present visage. The receptionist takes a cursory look at the passport and the gentle old lady before her and hands over the key to Room 11. Tracy walks upstairs with her skin bag and enters Room11 warily. She locks the door behind her and goes over the room carefully looking for electronic bugs. She finds none, which does not mean that there is none. Without undressing, she lies on the bed to rest awhile.
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It is six forty-five and it is pitch dark outside. Tracy lies on the bed with her eyes closed, but ears wide open. Thus, she hears the door to the adjacent room open stealthily and soft footsteps approach her door. Two slow raps followed by three rapid ones sound on her door and she jumps up to open the door for Ted. She locks the door behind her, and switches on the room light.
“Hope you weren’t followed here, Captain.”
“No, Ted. I made sure of that. Now we need to re-strategize in in the light of recent developments. It’s obvious this mission isn’t the piece of cake we thought it was. Other parties are obviously interested in the same documents besides our clients. This calls for more caution, don’t you think?”
“I do, Captain. I’m thinking we should adopt the lioness tactic.”
“Brilliant!” exclaims Tracy. For the next fifteen minutes, they discuss the details of their new strategy. Afterwards, Ted goes back to his room and Tracy lies on the bed, going over each step of the strategy in her mind, as she would prior to any mission in the Army. She does not under-estimate this process as it has saved many lives in the past.
***
It is now eight-thirty and Mary is seated in Macdonald’s waiting for an American lady from the Red Cross. The eatery is thronged with students from the nearby campus. She nibs at a burger as she waits; but it is obvious that her mind is on other things besides the food. Unknown to her, three men in a white Buick are watching her from a distance, while two other men mingle with the students, and have been keeping an eye on her since the kidnap incident. These are undercover agents assigned to protect her by the Council. The men in the white Buick are aware of the undercover agents, but the latter know nothing about the former. At a quarter to nine, Tracy, still dressed as an American school teacher, enters the eatery and goes to the counter to place an order. Neither the undercover agents nor the men in the white Buick look twice in her direction. Just then, a loud explosion goes off outside, followed by screams of terror. Every one immediately springs for cover. In the ensuing pandemonium, Tracy dashes to Maryam and shouts:
“Red Cross. Follow me!”
Impulsively, Maryam obeys. Both run out of the eatery into a side-street. A car is parked about forty metres into the street. Tracy hustles Maryam into it and Ted takes off heading for the Taipei Zoo area, away from the hurly-burly in front of NCCU. He parks the car in the car lot opposite the Zoo. The three of them get out and walk sedately to a group of taxis waiting for clients. Ted makes the negotiations and they troop into a taxi which heads for the National Central Library. Getting down, the ladies walk across to the Freedom Park while Ted settles the fare. The ladies go to sit on a bench in a secluded area of the park. Ted mingles with the night strollers, watching out for any interested party. He smiles at the thought of how he created the distraction at NCCU with two hundred bangers and a harmless flare going off at the same time. He wonders what is happening there. He needs not worry at all as pandemonium still reigns, with the police trying to restore order. Unfortunately for the two groups of watchers, Mary had disappeared from under their nose and they have no clue where she could be. The five men run helter-skelter like headless chickens.
“Sannu, Mary,” greets Tracy when they have settled down on the bench.
“Sannu, Ma. You speak Hausa?”
“No. In fact, that’s the beginning and the end of my Hausa vocabulary,” Tracy confesses and both of them laugh. “I’m sorry about the distractions at Macdonald’s. It was necessary to avoid undue interference. “
“You mean you created that confusion to distract whoever may be watching me?” asks Maryam in a baffled but admiring tone.
“More or less.”
“Brilliant!”
“Thanks,” says Tracy giving Maryam her Red Cross identity card. Maryam looks at it perfunctorily and then hands it back to her. She has received so much from the Red Cross that she is not about to start doubting their good intentions. She and her lucky friends are not aware of the role being played by the Council of Galdopho in their lives.
“As you must have been told, I’m here to ask you some questions about you time in Sambisa. Forgive me if it brings back painful memories.”
“That’s all right, Ma. The pain is gone, only gratitude remains. Gratitude to the Almighty God and to the Red Cross. As the Bible says, a living dog is better than a dead lion.”
“You speak like one of these born-again Christians,” observes Tracy as she opens her bag, brings out her cell phone and dials. The phone is an old model with an external antenna that has to be pulled out before making a call.
“By the grace of God, I’m born again,” replies Maryam with some pride.
“Good,” says Tracy. Then she speaks into the phone, “All clear, so far?”
“All clear, Captain. But please hurry up.”
“Okay.” She cuts the call and casually puts the phone in between them with the antenna touching Maryam’s leg slightly. “Have you ever heard of the Chibok papers?”
“Never. What’s it about?”
“It’s supposed to contain a list of names written by the Boko Haram leader, late Abubakar Shekau. It disappeared around the time you girls escaped, miraculously as I’m told.”
“The kidnappers asked me the same question, but I’ve never seen or heard of a list. There were many of us in Shekau’s harem. Any of his women could have taken the list.”
“Right. But only seven of you escaped. The other women remained in Sambisa and must have been thoroughly quizzed and searched.”
“That’s true. As for me, I never saw or heard or any papers. I don’t know about the other girls.”
“Okay. Tell me about your time in Sambisa and how you managed to escape.”
Mary remains pensive for a while as if gathering her thoughts together. Finally, she begins:
“Every child deserves to dream big and it is the responsibility of her country to create the right environment for those dreams to become reality or for the child to redream her world. But my beloved Nigeria is a country that not only aborts her children’s dreams, but swallows whole her children before they grow up. My whole ambition in life was to go to university and become a banker. I wanted to have enough money to help my parents educate my three younger brothers. Boko Haram cut short that ambition, but the Lord Jesus has since resurrected and renewed my dream. In Sambisa, we followed a strict routine…”
In a kind of monotone, Maryam narrates her life in the terrorists’ enclave, how they were treated like slaves, forced to satisfy the sexual appetite of Shekau when it was their turn on the roster. She also narrated how they all got pregnant for Shekau and had stillbirths, making the terrorist leader mad with all of them as the terrorists always wanted to have more children to bring up in their erroneous ways. That is one of the reasons they kidnap young girls and ladies, especially Christian girls on whom they practise “penis conversion”. They also like to kidnap young virgin girls to give to their rijales, great fighters, as their earthly rewards in preparation for their eternal reward in Al-Janat where they would be given seven virgins. When she gets to the point where the shining man leads them out of the mine-infested forest Tracy stops her.
“I find that difficult to believe.”
“You think I’m lying?”
“No. But I simply can’t wrap my head around it!”
“I see you don’t believe,” says Maryam rising up. “Come with me. Let me show you something that will blow your mind even further.”
She heads towards the nearby restroom with Tracy in tow. There she makes Tracy to wash her hands thoroughly with soap. The she pulls her into a cubicle and locks the door. Both come out some minutes later, with Tracy’s jaw hanging open in amazement.
“I…I can’t … can’t believe my eyes!” she says as she washes her hands again. “How can you be a virgin after giving birth to a child?”
“With God, nothing shall be impossible!” says Mary with a smile as they exit the restroom. A beep sounds on the phone. Tracy brings it out of her bag and picks the call.
“Yes?”
“Time up, Captain, we got to go if we don’t want to miss our flight.”
“Okay. Give me a minute.” She turns to Mary. “I got to go now, Mary. Thanks for giving me your time.” She puts the phone in her bag and prepares to leave. Suddenly, Mary blurts out:
“Please give me a hug before you go!”
It is such a simple but sincere request that Tracy impulsively flings her arms around Maryam and hugs her tightly to her chest. The younger woman trembles and begins to cry.
“I miss my mother so much,” she mumbles. Tracy is touched with compassion and holds her steady until the weeping subsides.
“Don’t you communicate with your family?”
“Only once in a while. For our safety and theirs, we agree not to get in touch directly with them until four years have passed. But I sometimes get a letter from my father. I wrote only once, without any address.”
“Don’t worry, your ordeal will soon be over. Bye.”
“Bye, Ma.”
They part on that note and will never see each other again. Two hours later, Tracy and Ted are on the flight to Hong Kong where they will board another plane to New York.