It was 4:15 AM, and the Mainland was dead silent, swallowed by a thick, freezing mist.Beneath the heavy concrete flyover of the Oyingbo axis, a single unbranded utility van was idling silently. Inside the vehicle, Kazeem was tapping frantically on a military-grade signal locator laptop, his fingers flying across the keys while Sledge leaned over his shoulder, a heavy iron crowbar resting casually against his thigh."Chief pikin, the tracking don lock o!" Kazeem whispered into his earpiece, his eyes glowing under the blue light of the screen. "Look the fiber-optic map. The main underground digital trunk line—the one General Bello's shadow intelligence unit uses to intercept the presidency and leak my father's files—runs directly inside the concrete junction box right under this bridge."Adekunle sat in the front passenger seat of the van, wearing his dark utility jacket, his skinhead buzz cut looking sharp in the dim dashboard light. He didn't look like a corporate billionaire CEO tonight; he looked like a ruthless guerrilla commander."Sledge, activate the perimeter," Adekunle commanded, his voice a low, chilling whisper."Standard!" Sledge grinned, a wild, dark excitement filling his face. He slid the side door of the van open, stepping out into the cold fog.Within ninety seconds, forty of Sledge's top mainland street boys—dressed as municipal night-maintenance workers in orange reflective vests—completely blocked the Oyingbo junction road with local barriers. No cars, no police patrol, no witnesses.Sledge jammed his heavy iron crowbar into the seam of the heavy concrete manhole cover on the asphalt floor. Two other boys joined him, straining their muscles until the massive concrete slab groaned and flipped open with a loud, echoey THUD.Down inside the dark, muddy underground junction box lay a thick bundle of pristine, heavily armored blue fiber-optic communication cables. This was the main digital artery of General Bello's shadow empire—the exact pipe through which his data-demons were sending the premium pepper that was giving Chief Solomon sleepless nights [INDEX]."Oya, Kazeem, verify the frequency," Sledge muttered, pointing his torchlight down the pit.Kazeem climbed down into the mud, holding an industrial electronic frequency scanner. He clipped the clamp onto the thickest blue cable. The scanner instantly beeped a continuous, high-priority military encryption tone: BEEP-BEEP-BEEP."This na the one, Chief pikin!" Kazeem shouted up, his voice echoing in the concrete chamber. "This na General Bello's personal direct intelligence trunk line straight to Abuja!"Adekunle walked over to the edge of the pit, looking down at the glowing wire. A cold, ruthless smile spreading across his face—the exact predatory look his father used to have right before an ECOMOG airstrip bombardment."General Bello thinks he is a ghost inside the machine because he has an Abuja connection and a degree from connection," Adekunle whispered into the dark pit [INDEX]. "He forgot that on this mainland mud, the machine runs on physical cables. Cut am cleanly."Sledge didn't hesitate. He reached into the utility van and pulled out a massive, heavy-duty industrial hydraulic cable cutter—the ones used to slice through ship chains. He lowered the giant steel blades into the pit, positioning them right around the thick armor of General Bello's premium data line."Say goodbye to your network, novice," Sledge laughed brutally.CLACK—BOOM!With a sharp, mechanical pop of hydraulic pressure, the heavy blades sliced cleanly through the armored fiber-optic bundle. High-voltage static sparks violently hissed inside the muddy pit, smoking as the connection died instantly.At that exact same second, three miles away inside the ultra-modern, high-tech Shadow Intelligence Suite down the hall from Chief Solomon's military office, every single server monitor went completely black. The live surveillance drone feeds over the mansion glitched into static, the encryption decoders collapsed, and General Bello's data-demons were left staring at blank terminal screens in pure, unadulterated panic.The digital empire was officially blind. The trenches had just pulled the plug on the system.
