“Well, they made it there,” Hail said. He tried to sound upbeat, but there was trepidation in his voice.
Renner, Gage and Nichols said nothing. All they could do now was hope that their plans played out as designed.
Hail added, “I didn’t see the missiles being unloaded from the plane. Can you fly back and see if they are being unloaded?”
“No problem,” Captain Nichols said. “Jason, fly Seagulls back to the plane, and let’s see if it is being unloaded.”
“Roger that,” the kid said.
On the video monitor, the drone made another sharp turn and began flying back toward the landing strip.
“What type of assets do you have near the compound?” Renner asked.
“Not many,” Nichols responded, taking his eyes off the video screen to look at Renner. “After Foghat dropped off Seagulls, we splashed Foreigner down in a section of Badagry Creek next to Tin Can Island.”
“Does Foreigner have any armaments attached?”
“Yes. It’s outfitted with missiles and guns. It’s also there to pick up Seagulls when that drone has exhausted its rocket pellets.”
Jason Wilson, who was flying Seagulls announced, “We are back over the airfield, and it looks like there is some activity down there.”
Everyone in the room turned to look up at the big monitor. The video showed two men carrying the black cases over to some type of commercial van. The back doors of the van were open, and the cases were quickly deposited into the vehicle. Then both men got into the van and began to drive away.
“Looks like they are taking the road that leads to the compound,” the pilot said.”
“Good,” Hail commented.
Renner said, “Best to keep those missiles where we know they are, because those are some dangerous devices.”
“You got that right,” Hail agreed.
As the drone flew over the jungle, keeping tabs on the van below, Hail’s mind began to wander.
He thought of Kara and wondered what she was doing. What was it like inside the home of a notorious terrorist? What was she seeing at that exact moment? Hail couldn’t even venture to guess.
Snake Island, Nigeria
Afua picked them up at the airfield. After they had taken the elevator up, from the garage to the third floor of the compound, and they had walked into a luxurious living room, Kara saw Afua Diambu sitting on the couch watching TV. Kara was seeing double — everywhere she looked it appeared there were two of Afua. Kara looked closely at the second one seated on the couch, and then back to the Afua who was standing next to her. They were identical. Not just a close match, but identical. Afua walked across the room and introduced Kara to his “double.”
“This is my brother, Baako,” Afua #1 said. The man sitting on the couch stood up, walked over and met Kornev and Kara in the middle of the room with a handshake and a wide smile. Kara was surprised when the second Afua shook her hand. In the Muslim community, it was frowned upon for a man to shake the hand of a woman. She had spent time learning Arabic, and she remembered a startling passage Hadith from Ma'qil ibn Yasar stated, “The Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him); It is better for you to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle than to touch the hand of a woman who is not permissible to you." So far, the very first moments of her visit to the Diambu compound had been full of surprises.
Afua said to his brother, “This is Victor and Tonya. They will be visiting us for a few days.”
Two kids, with skin the darkest shade of black Kara had ever seen, ran through the room and down the hallway. A girl around the age of ten was chasing a younger boy who looked about eight years of age.
Afua told his guests in a serious tone, “My family lives here with me. My brothers and sisters and their children.”
“How nice,” said Kara said with an approving smile.
Afua’s brother, Baako, said, “I hope you had a pleasant trip to Nigeria.”
Kara felt like telling him that she had flown in on a loud and uncomfortable cargo plane, but instead, she just nodded her head and flashed a closed-mouth smile.
The kids flew by again, but this time the girl was yelling something at the little boy she was chasing. The language sounded like Nigerian Hausa or Fulani. Kara did not speak either, but she didn’t feel bad about it. After all, there were more
than twelve popular languages in Nigeria alone. Even though she possessed the ability to learn languages very quickly, there were simply too many in the world to learn them all.
Kornev and the Diambu twins began to talk about Afua’s home, the beach locale and the multilevel design. Their conversation was in English. Kara took the opportunity to walk around the living room to look around and find out more about the occupant and his family. On one huge wall in the living room were dozens of photographs hung on the wall in expensive frames. Many were of young Nigerian children doing some sort of activity with adults. Kara assumed these were the brothers and sisters Afua had mentioned with their kids.
Except for the plush white leather furniture, the home was decorated in a style Kara would describe as industrial, or even military. Securely attached to thick beams above her, a massive wooden propeller hung from the towering ceiling by thick cables. Hanging beneath the center of the propeller was a colossal light fixture. Jutting out from the light fixture were dozens of outstretched thin aluminum arms. Each arm terminated in a pineapple-shaped hand grenade, and each of the dozens of the grenades were cut in half. Within each was a thin and pointy vanity light bulb which screwed into the light socket. With the light flooding in from the multiple sliding glass doors facing the intracoastal waterway, there was no need to have the light turned on in the middle of the day. Kara suspected the room was killer bright at night.
The CIA operative had hoped to see more photographs of Afua, possibly posing with members of the Boko Haram. She looked at another wall that had even more photos, but saw none of the organization. Afua, or his twin brother, appeared in several of the photographs, but there were no other subjects in the pictures other than kids and innocent-looking people with indulgent smiles.
Kara watched Afua from the corner of her eye. The only way she could distinguish Afua from his twin brother was by their choice of clothing. Afua was wearing a white button-up, short-sleeved shirt with chinos. In direct contrast, Baako was wearing a red muscle shirt with colorful swim trunks.
Afua walked across the room and opened one of the five sets of sliding glass doors that led onto the wraparound balcony. All three men walked out onto the terrace, and Kara took the opportunity to look for security cameras. She pretended to stretch her neck, and she spotted small white cameras mounted on tiny swivels in three of the four corners of the living room. She was glad she had checked for cameras prior to rummaging through the drawers of the dark wooden foyer table sitting directly under the wall-mounted photographs. This was going to be a little more difficult than she had anticipated. It crossed her mind to check the bathroom for cameras. After all, Afua Diambu had every reason to believe that any stranger in his home was there with intent to do him harm.
Due to the open floor plan, Kara could see the attached kitchen from the living room. A bar separated the two rooms with high-back rattan chairs. Kara assumed that there was not a great deal of intelligence that could be collected in the kitchen. Certainly, no money had been spared in the design of the expansive kitchen. There were green granite countertops with contrasting sand-colored slate flooring. The oversized appliances were brushed aluminum. She did notice something in the kitchen that might come in handy — especially if everything went south — adjacent to the double wide refrigerator, mounted on the wall was a pegboard with hooks. Hanging from the hooks were a collection of different types of keys. Many of the keys and dangling fobs had familiar logos stamped on them, such as Mercedes, BMW and Lincoln. She also noticed numbered keys for SUVs. There were drab keys that were not as ostentatious and looked more utilitarian — probably for different doors around the compound. The smaller keys, most likely, opened small desk drawers and filing cabinets.