renchesThe midnight air over the military quarters was heavy with the scent of rain and diesel. Security was triple what it used to be. Armed guards with flashlights were pacing the perimeter, patrolling the very lawns Adekunle had spent days cutting under Corporal Titus's orders.They thought they were looking out for intruders. They had no idea the danger was already inside the wire."Quiet," Adekunle whispered, his body pressed flat against the concrete wall of the barracks generator house.Behind him, Sledge and his remaining four boys crouched in the shadows, their faces blackened with charcoal from the swamp. They were moving like ghosts, holding their breath every time the sweeping beam of a military searchlight passed over their heads."Chief pikin," Sledge muttered under his breath, his eyes fixed on the two soldiers guarding the rear entrance of the main courtyard. "Those boys dey hold automatic rifles. If they look left, we are finished.""They won't look left," Adekunle whispered back, a cold smirk touching his lips. He looked at his watch. "Three... two... one..."BZZZZZZ—CLUNK.Right on cue, the massive sound of the barracks central power grid shutting down echoed across the compound. The bright searchlights died instantly, plunging the entire estate into total, pitch-black darkness. It was the standard 2:00 AM maintenance window that Adekunle had memorized during his weeks in the boys' quarters."Now! Move!" Adekunle ordered.They dashed across the open lawn, their bare feet making no sound against the wet grass. Before the guards could even pull out their hand torches, Adekunle had already slipped through the side maintenance door, guiding Sledge and the boys down the unlit concrete steps that led deep into the earth.The smell of expensive cigars and heavy liquor still lingered in the air, but the underground bunker was completely dark.Adekunle walked up to the heavy steel security door of his father's private office. On the wall next to it, a small digital keypad was glowing faintly on a backup battery. This was the moment. If Chief Solomon had changed the codes after the election raid, they were dead trapped in a hole.Adekunle's fingers trembled slightly as he punched in the six-digit sequence: 030826. It was his father's official enlistment date into the army—a number the old man was too proud to ever change.BEEP.The heavy hydraulic locks groaned, and the steel door slowly swung open, revealing Chief Solomon's mahogany desk, his laptops, and the metallic safe bolted to the floor in the corner."Oshey! The door open!" Sledge grinned, his eyes lighting up as he rushed inside, pulling out a crowbar from his bag. "Make we break the safe sharply!""Don't touch it!" Adekunle barked, grabbing Sledge's arm. "That safe is rigged with a silent alarm that connects straight to the Captain's guardroom. You touch it, and a platoon of soldiers will block those stairs in two minutes."Adekunle walked past the safe, straight to the massive portrait of Chief Solomon hanging on the wall. He reached behind the gold frame, felt around the wooden backing, and pulled out a small, old-fashioned leather ledger."The old man doesn't trust digital security for his dirtiest secrets," Adekunle whispered, opening the ledger under the dim light of his burner phone.His eyes scanned the pages. It was all there. The exact dates of illegal oil bunkering shipments, the bank account numbers in Switzerland, and the signed receipts showing the 50 million Naira payment used to bribe Sergeant Sunday to act out the "Nollywood movie" script. This book was a political nuclear bomb."We get the book, make we comot!" Sledge said, his voice urgent as he heard the distant sound of the barracks emergency generators starting to roar back to life upstairs."Not yet," Adekunle said, his voice dropping into a deadly, calm tone that sounded exactly like his father's. He sat down in Chief Solomon's leather chair, pulled out his burner phone, and activated the camera. "We are not running away this time, Sledge. We are going to broadcast this live to the world from his own desk."Before Sledge could object, the heavy iron door behind them suddenly slammed shut with a loud, mechanical THUD.The lights in the bunker flashed back on, blinding their eyes. Standing at the entrance of the room, holding a golden-plated service pistol with a silencer, was Chief Solomon himself. He wasn't surprised. He looked at his son with a mixture of amusement and absolute disgust."You always did have a habit of playing in rooms where you don't belong, Boy," Chief Solomon growled, raising the pistol level with Adekunle's chest.
