The Lagos Directive

Kaduna – Ruined Checkpoint

Ogun studied the footage of Efe again, details imprinted into his memory like scars. Makx lay motionless, tongue flicking, sensing the tension thickening like fog.

The man approached carefully, sitting only after Ogun gave a single, brief nod.

“How did Hadji find her?” Ogun asked, voice a low growl.

The man rubbed scarred hands nervously. “Years of digging. Dead drops, blood favours. He traced Efe to one of Falaye’s projects, hidden deep inside SD9 black budgets.”

Ogun’s face was stone. “Why her?”

“Falaye weaponized her algorithms. Turned her logistical brilliance into tools of chaos, controlling relief routes, destabilizing borders, orchestrating conflict with surgical precision.”

Ogun’s jaw tightened, rage like ice beneath his steel control. Efe, weaponized by Falaye. The thought tasted bitter, a violation deeper than blood.

He tapped the broken bench once, calculating. “And Hadji extracted her?”

“Barely,” the man whispered. “Hadji got intel from someone deep inside Falaye’s network. A trusted source close enough to pinpoint the exact route, security detail, and convoy timings.

He executed the interception with pristine precision, silently neutralizing the guards one-by-one, before extracting Efe cleanly. Falaye eventually uncovered the leak, tracing it back to Hadji’s informant, tortured him until he revealed everything.

Ever since, Falaye’s men hunted Hadji relentlessly, determined to reclaim Efe and punish the betrayal. Hadji managed to carefully hide her somewhere isolated that only he knows.”

Ogun nodded slowly, eyes cold with contemplation.

The man leaned closer, voice dropping urgently. “There’s more. Since you arrived, I’ve felt eyes on us, someone nearby feeding back real-time intel.”

Ogun paused, feeling the subtle prickling along his spine, the unmistakable instinct of a trained operative being watched. It wasn’t mere surveillance; it was active targeting. Someone out there was marking him.

Ogun smiled, a predator’s expression. “They think they’re hunting me.”

He rose, pulling his jacket tight, grabbing gear from the bench with clinical precision.

“They’re the ones being baited.”

The man’s voice shook. “What are you planning?”

“Falaye built a fortress of fear. I’ll dismantle it brick by bloody brick.” He stared straight into the man’s frightened eyes. “He over-compensates. I don’t.”

Makx stood instantly, sensing the shift.

“I know where Hadji hid Efe,” Ogun whispered. Turning to the fading daylight, his silhouette becoming one with the encroaching darkness. “I’ll bring her home.”

From the distant tower, high above the ruins, a shadow agent urgently keyed in the message:

“Target is on the move.”