Chapter 11 - The Escape to the Docks-11
We scrambled out onto the fire escape balcony just as the study door splintered open behind us.
The cold night air hit our faces as we slid down the steel emergency ladder, landing heavily in the wet grass near the perimeter wall. We sprinted across the dark parking lot, scrambled into my work van, and slammed the doors shut.
"DRIVE! DRIVE!" Femi screamed from the back floorboards, trembling like a leaf.
I slammed the van into reverse, stepped on the accelerator, and spun the steering wheel, screeching out of the driveway just as the black SUV roared to life behind us.
"They're following us!" Ada yelled, looking out the rear window. "Bolu, they're right on our bumper!"
"Hold on!" I shouted, slamming my foot to the floor. The heavy work van roared through the empty midnight streets of Yaba.
I knew every alleyway, every pothole, and every backroad in this sector of Lagos like the back of my hand. I swung the van sharply into a narrow commercial alleyway behind an auto-repair market, turning off our headlights completely and coasting to a silent stop behind a massive shipping container.
Two seconds later, the black SUV roared past the alley entrance, its tires screeching as it sped blindly toward the main highway.
Silence returned to the inside of the van, saved only by our heavy, ragged breathing.
In the back, Femi was sitting among my spare copper pipes and toolboxes, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Bolu... you saved my life," he wept, reaching up to touch my arm. "I was so wrong about you... I was so arrogant... please, Bolu, forgive me..."
I pulled my arm away from his touch, looking back at him through the rearview mirror with cold, uncompromising clarity.
"I didn't save your life because I love you, Femi," I said firmly. "I saved you because you need to be alive to testify against Funmi in front of the State Prosecutor tomorrow morning."
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Femi froze, his tears stopping instantly. "Testify?! Bolu, if I testify, I go to prison too!"
"You're going to prison either way, Femi," I said, holding up the heavy black leather ledger. "The only choice you have now is whether you go as a state witness or as Funmi’s fall guy. Pick one."
