A Matter Of National Security Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

Sophie Hesse put down the phone. The president was outside the country and until he returned, she would be in charge. This was the worst time to take charge, when the country’s security was under threat. Nobody knew who these terrorists were, where they had come from and who was backing them. One thing was clear though, they had backing from some local forces.

There was a knock on the door. She had been having some quiet time, getting herself psyched for the role she was supposed to play. The President unfortunately was unreachable. Probably locked up in a meeting. So she was waiting for…

“The speech is ready, Madame President”, the man who had knocked said.

“When do we go live?” she asked.

“An hour”, he said.

She nodded. “Make it thirty minutes, I don’t need a speech to convey my message to the Ghanaian people.”

 

“You won’t believe this”, Jonathan told Kofi and Angela as they approached him at the university bomb site.

“Believe what?”

“The explosives used for the terrorist attack”, Jonathan told them. The stench of smoke was in the air.

“What was it?” Angela asked.

“Gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate fused into napalm”, Jonathan said.

Angie stared at him blankly but Kofi caught the reference immediately. “No way, fight club?”

“Fight Club”, Jonathan nodded.

“Fight club?” Angie asked, looking confused.

“It’s a movie… never mind”, Jonathan said. He turned his attention back to the scene. “The ingredients mean it could have been anyone.”

“Do we have any suspects?” Angie asked.

Jonathan nodded. “Yes, every single student in Legon. We don’t have cameras and no one would consider carrying orange juice and gasoline suspicious. The school’s so big-”

Angie held up her hand. “Okay. So you’ve got nothing.” She looked at Kofi.

Kofi cleared his throat. “We could…we could look at the deceased. Maybe they were targeted for a reason. They could guide us to our killer”, he said.

Some of the tension that was in the air was immediately dispelled. They had a plan and a direction, and a possible, even though small chance of a lead. Kofi and Angie  quickly rushed back into their cars and rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

 

“How could this happen?!”

The other end of the line was silent. “Well”, he began speaking, “we…we”

“You don’t know, do you? What’s your next plan of action, what’s your strategy?” the Vice-President asked.

“We’re calling for an immediate State of Emergency. And we’ll be collaborating with-”

“-This is an internal problem. We need to deal with this before ‘they’ come in.” she said.

The general was silent. “But Madame, we don’t have any means of tracking these people down”, he finally said.

“That’s why we have a BNI. They’re already on the case. Can’t you-”

The door opened. “-Madame, we’ll be ready in ten minutes”, her secretary said.

“General, I will have to call you back. And when I do, you better have a plan for me. Or you’re fired.”

 

The hospital was full of sick and wounded people. It smelled heavily of bleach and other smells that made one want to puke. Angie hated hospitals. She hadn’t been to one in over three years. The terrorist attacks had overloaded the hospital with the wounded. She could hear people screaming in pain. And the beds…There weren’t enough of them. There were people lying on mattresses all over the floor. There was barely enough floor left to walk on.

The doctors were constantly being rushed from one room to another.

“More people may die in this hospital than when the bombs went off”, Angie whispered. Angie’s optimistic spirit disappeared whenever she entered a hospital.

Kofi slapped her arm. “Don’t say that! What if they hear you?”

A man came out to meet them, in a large white lab coat. “Are you the mortician?” Kofi asked.

“Yes, and you are?”

They flashed their BNI identification. The man nodded. “Right this way.”

They entered the morgue. Bodies had been piled atop bodies. Angie took one look and rushed out, towards the nearest bathroom.

The mortician, Mr. Adjei, looked at Kofi. “She has hospital sickness”, he explained.

Mr. Adjei moved to the nearest bodies. “So far, there doesn’t seem to be any particular target-”

“-Please allow us, to do the investigation?” Kofi said.

“Of course”, Mr. Adjei said in a tone that communicated his disdain for the BNI.

“How many exactly are dead?”

“Total count is over 200”, Mr. Adjei said.

Kofi’s phone rang. It was Nana Ama.

“Bad news. We won’t be getting any support from the CIA. They’re ‘occupied’”, she said.

“What about the AU?”

“Do you really think the AU will help us immediately? Look what happened in Nigeria”, she said.

“What about our other international partners?” Kofi asked.

“France and Britain aren’t keen on getting involved. And China hasn’t responded yet”, Nana Ama said.

“How did-”

“-News travels fast. Anyway, for the foreseeable future we’re on our own”, Nana Ama said. “And we have a problem”, she added.

“What is it?”

“Someone has been talking to the Media.”

Then the line cut. Kofi tried calling back but the network was down. “Of all the times, in the world”, he muttered under his breath.

Angie walked back into the morgue. “What did I miss?”

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