“That's the saddest story I've ever heard…”

  Spin Bomb cut through the silence that had fallen over the room. The coffee had lost all its warmth and flavor. It was as bitter as a drop of blood.

  Hakim was hit hard by the trajectory of Adisa and her son. He didn't know the details, although he didn't believe that the scientist was a complete innocent in this story. But Akachi's situation reminded him of Yerodin, of his optimistic attitude despite everything.

  “You sold yourself for so little, Adisa.”

  “It's true, Hakim. I was weak and let Ojwang exploit my vulnerabilities. I'm sorry, my ancestors are disappointed in me.”

  Ekundayo shook his head in disagreement. He had had enough of this fruitless exchange of accusations.

  “We all have a share in this guilt, and we will each carry our own burden. Adisa, you made a mistake, you can't change that. But you can ally with us now to give your son a better future.”

  With a lot of effort, Adisa managed to stop a tear from running down the corner of her eye. Akachi gave her a strong hug, which only made it harder for the man to maintain his posture.

  “I thank you.”

  How nice it is to hug my son, I wish I'd done it more often.

  Fadala, who was unaware of such emotional relationships in his life, lit another herbal cigarette. His biological family died in a Boko Haram terrorist attack.

  Her memories of them were fleeting. Disconnected webs that touched his soul from time to time, only to fall apart in incomprehensible shapes and sounds. They came like a gulp of air to a drowning man. They didn't quench Fadala's thirst for life. But they did provide some comfort.

  Now his adoptive family was an organization acting in the shadows of the world. His brothers were assassins for hire, killing in the name of God. The patriarch was merely the upholder of the creed. He was called son… There was no concept of family. The undertaker was just a pawn with his gun on the trigger.

  The flow of thought left Fadala so confused that Ekundayo had to touch his shoulder to bring him back down to earth.

  “Hey, you're distracted. I bet you didn't hear a word we said.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Sorry.”

  “Feruzi has a plan to finish off Ojwang. We'll need Ilê Apanyan's help.”

  “Yes, I'll help in any way I can.”

  Feruzi said that Mashal had, over the course of a few months, implanted remote detonation bombs in public buildings. They would be activated by a central zimba seal. The explosion would be synchronized. This would help destabilize the government in the event of an uprising. It would be a good distraction, confusing the police forces.

  Akachi didn't like the plan. It would not only affect the military, but there would also be civilian casualties.

  “You're going to kill innocent people.”

  Hakim looked at him, but then stopped himself. He was only a boy, he didn't understand what war was, although he had already fought his battles.

  “The innocent are gone, now there are only the guilty and the condemned.”

  Feruzi went ahead with the plan. It would take more than that to destabilize the republic of Ilu Nla. The connections between Ojwang, local elites and the country's criminal organizations could not be ignored. The partial defeat of the Circle of Sages, the absence of well-trained military forces on the ex-sage's side complicated matters.

  Fadala pondered how desperate they were for a way out. The Ilê Apanyan assassins could grant them some initial advantage, but it wouldn't be definitive, they needed numbers, lots of them.

  “You're seeing the glass as half empty.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “It's simple, Mr. Feruzi. The criminal organizations in and around Ilu Nla had their leaders killed in the explosion a few days ago in the Grand Arena. However, the organizations don't know who killed them. We can use that to our advantage.”

  Azekel gave a half-smile. With little effort, they would gain numerical support, and pit the Ojwang Armed Forces against the local criminal organizations. It was a bold move, but a necessary one.

  “The Ilu Nla Liberation Movement has infiltrators in various places. We can carry out a mass disinformation campaign on the streets and on cyber networks against the government. Let's say that the explosion of the Grand Arena was a trap by Ojwang to weaken the criminal organizations and keep them under his command.”

  “That might work. Repeat the lie until it becomes the truth.”

  Akachi was not at all happy with the way things were going. First bombings, then an alliance with the criminals of Ilu Nla.

  “Don't you think you're taking it too hard?”

  Everyone stared at him for a long moment in awkward silence, then burst into laughter. The naivety with which the young medium handled the situation was a comic relief in the tense situation.

  Spin Bomb jabbed him in the head and squawked with the veins in his neck popping out:

  “Are you an idiot? You want us to go and give them flowers? Fuck off, you loser!”

  Azekel and Adisa just watched Spin Bomb slaughter poor Akachi. The old man, with a drop of sweat dripping down his temple, said:

  “Wouldn't it be better to save him, he'll die from being hit so hard.”

  “I'm not going to get involved in this, the way she's angry, she's going to hit us both.”

  Spin Bomb strangled Akachi's neck, until she realized that the two men were talking about her. She turned around with her nostrils quivering with anger.

  “What are you two whispering about?”

  “NOTHING!”

  Azekel and Adisa saw a brief movie of their lives play out right before their eyes.

  Feruzi laughed. Of the masters of suspicion, only he remained. He would miss Nyatui and Mashal. Now they rested among the ancestors.

  Being the survivor was like carrying a burden strapped to your body. You couldn't get rid of it or hand it over to someone else. He sipped the smoke from his pipe and then let it all out into the air after a coughing fit.

  “We'll prepare for a month. Everyone who is ready to fight will have to take up arms. We can't wait any longer. Ojwang will pay for his crimes.”