The heavy oak doors of the State Boardroom slammed shut, leaving the President staring blankly at the corporate document Adekunle had left on the glass table. The 50-billion-Naira injection proposal looked like a life-raft, but the price was total surrender to Chief Solomon's lineage."Mr. President..." the Minister of Defence whispered, his voice trembling as he looked at the economic charts. "We have to sign it. If the Apapa port remains locked for another forty-eight hours, the central bank will run out of foreign reserves. The republic will collapse.""I know!" the President roared, slamming his fist against the mahogany wood, his face twisted in absolute frustration. He turned his eyes toward General Bello, who was standing by the window, staring out into the dark capital skyline with an expression that was terrifyingly calm. "Bello, I am sorry. I cannot protect your appointment anymore. Tomorrow morning, I am signing Solomon's official promotion papers as Chief of Army Staff. I have to save the economy."General Bello did not argue. He slowly turned around, adjusted his starched ceremonial uniform jacket, and gave the President a flawless military salute. "I understand perfectly, Mr. President. The stability of the nation comes first."But the moment General Bello walked out of the presidential villa into the humid night air, his calm corporate-soldier mask completely shattered into a mask of pure, murderous vengeance. An uneducated, ceremonial novice? A decoration in a uniform? Chief Solomon's heavy words inside the boardroom were burning through his brain like acid.Bello climbed into the back of his tinted, unmarked armored SUV and pulled out an encrypted satellite phone—one that bypassed the state intelligence grid entirely. He dialed a foreign number that connected straight to Valerie's offshore syndicate headquarters in London."Valerie," General Bello hissed into the receiver, his voice dropping into a chillingly quiet pitch as the vehicle sped down the empty highway. "The President has folded. He is signing Solomon's promotion tomorrow morning. The corporate boy, Adekunle, has locked down the entire Apapa maritime corridor with his two hundred million dollars routing keys."On the other end of the line, Valerie sat inside a luxury high-rise, her face cold and malicious. "Then the system is useless, General. My board members do not invest in losers. If Solomon takes that top military seat, our offshore shipping lines in West Africa are permanently dead.""The system is only useless if we follow the law," General Bello whispered, a wicked, intelligent smile finally touching his lips. "Solomon thinks he has won because his daughter is back at the sawmill and his son has the port keys. He forgot that a real assassin does not strike on a public bridge. Valerie, activate the international maritime mercenaries you kept on standby at the international borders. If the President signs that paper tomorrow, we bypass Aso Rock entirely. We launch an all-out black-ops raid on the Apapa shipping yard by sea. We execute the boy, we destroy the harbor cranes, and we bury Chief Solomon inside his own new fortress before he can take the oath of office.""And the daughter?" Valerie asked coldly."Leave the girl to me," Bello murmured, his eyes gleaming like a cobra's in the dark interior of the car. "When the port is burning and the son is dead, she will realize that on this ground, connection always outlasts raw blood. Tell your boys to prepare their heavy machinery. Tonight, we turn the Lagos lagoon into a graveyard."
