The sounds of muttering voices from far away woke me up.
"Oww!" I exclaimed.
A sharp pain to my head hit me. I touched my forehead in order to try to suppress the pain but I felt a cotton like material instead. It's most likely a bandage. It was wrapped round my head.
For a brief moment, I forgot who I was and where I was.
A woman had been following me.
I attacked her.
She hit me and I fell.
Mr. Ade rushed to my side and I guess I blacked out?
It took me a while to realize that I was in my bedroom. He probably brought me home after the incident.
The rays of sunlight that came through my window confused me. School closes by 4pm. It takes me almost an hour to get home which is around the evening time.
I looked around for my phone. I found it on my bedside table and used it to check the time.
3:01pm.
12 missed calls from Justin.
2 missed video calls from Justin.
2005 WhatsApp messages from ten chats.
3 text messages: Justin.
You haven't been online. Are you okay? Also, you weren't in school today.
Where are you? Are you okay?
Ada, I swear I'll kill you if this is a joke or something. I'm worried. Call me! Please
The situation all made sense now. I was unconscious since yesterday. That explains it. The former muffled voices gradually got louder. My mother's voice was loud. I have to see what's going on down there.
I slowly got up from the bed and made my way out of the room. My head kept pounding and my eyes felt a bit woozy.
I traced the sound to the weapon room. I stood outside in order to know what was going on.
"She's just a child" I heard my mother say.
"She's been given this assignment for a reason" a voice said.
I was unable to decipher whose voice it was.
"The sooner she starts training, the better" another voice added.
I heard a loud bang. I flinched at the sound.
"Are you nuts?" my mother screamed "She's unconscious and you're thinking about training!! She could have been killed!"
"Watch your tone"
"I do not care. My daughter needs time to recover"
"Time is something we don't have right now. Charles will launch this project in less than two months. We don't have enough time"
"Can you hear yourself? Do you know how selfish you sound? You'd rather risk her health for training??"
"We have no choice"
"I do. I withdraw my daughter from this mission. I don't care what happens. Get out of my house"
My mom gets violent when she's very upset. I'm talking about physical violence here. I have to interfere before something goes wrong.
I opened the door. My mom had her fist mid-air but she stopped when she saw me. Mr. George and Mr. Thompson were present – two members of The Council. They looked surprised to see me. Well, this is awkward.
"Hello?" I spoke.
"My baby" my mom squealed before coming to hug me "You're awake. Thank God"
"Ouch!" I exclaimed "My head hurts"
"Sorry"
She loosened her grip on me.
Mr. George cleared his throat.
"Good afternoon, sirs" I greeted them.
"Good afternoon, Ada. I'm glad you're awake. How are you feeling?'
"My body hurts"
"Sorry about what happened" Mr. Thompson said "Mr. Ade told us everything that happened. The agency will trace the woman and have her dealt with"
"I'm sorry too" George spoke "I'm afraid you have to continue training"
My mother's face hardened as soon as he said those words. My mom is dark skinned but I could swear her cheeks reddened.
"I'll deal with you" my mom started "I'll b- "
"Mom. It's okay" I told her "Relax"
"No. it's not okay" she cupped my face in her hands "What if she hurt you worse than this? Huh? You could have been killed. This is the reason I didn't want you to get activated so soon. You're a threat to other agencies now. You're still a child!"
Yes. Being activated has its risks. Rival undercover agencies would either want to recruit you for their own benefit or kill you so you won't be a threat to them.
I sighed.
"Mom, I'm fine" I assured her "A little weak but I'm fine"
I turned to face the two men.
"What's next?" I asked them.
The two men walked over to the corner of the room while I followed suit. My mom paced up and down the room. They stopped at our life-sized touch table. We all gathered round it.
Mr George pressed the power button and a blueprint appeared. The blue print later turned into a clear 3D video of a huge quadrangle.
"This is Mr Charles' mansion and factory" he explained.
I nodded.
He pointed to various places and locations on the screen.
"This is where the materials are produced. Here is the car park and here is an empty building"
"Such a large space for someone who produces pencils and the sort" I said.
"My point exactly" said George.
He pointed to a building.
"This building is empty or so they claim. It is always heavily guarded unlike the other ones. This makes us think he's hiding something"
That makes sense. I mean, why guard it if its empty?
"The building is called 'Block C' for future references"
"Got it"
A different video appeared of a woman walking on the factory grounds appeared. She held a clipboard in her hands. She delivered orders to men and they immediately followed.
"This is Nicole. She looks human, doesn't she?"
Duh? What else could she be?
Of course, I couldn't be rude to him.
"Yes sir"
"She's most likely not. She's rumoured to be an advanced human android"
My eyes widened in surprise. I couldn't believe it.
I zoomed the video to get a closer look at her. I searched for any artificial features that might give her away but I found nothing. She looked realistic. She looked as human as any human could be.
"She seems real" I muttered.
"She feels real too. Her skin feels just like ours"
"She's a robot?"
"Not really? From an inside source, she's an experiment. We're not sure what she is"
Mr George moved the screen to show another woman in the same video and same premises.
I gasped when I recognized her.
"That's the woman who attacked me!" I shrieked.
"That's Zoandra. Well, we got a lead on her but we cannot act now. We have to take it slow. Do you understand?"
"Zoandra?" my mom repeated.
"Yes" Mr. Thompson confirmed "Is there a problem?"
"No, never mind" she shook her head "It just sounds familiar, that's all"
"If we attack her now, they'll know we're on to them" Mr. Thompson said to me.
"Yes sir"
I sat on a nearby stool in order to keep my head straight. My eyes were starting to spin.
Human androids? Most likely robots? Human experiments? I see these stuff in movies. I didn't know it was actually real! Moreover, in Nigeria!! There are human androids in Nigeria? I didn't know we could afford to run such experiments here. Did we even have the equipment for that? How rich could this man be?
I fought her today. She could have killed me. Literally. Those things have no feelings. They're ruthless. They just follow orders. My head began to spin. This is a whole lot to take in. I'm shocked, to say the least.
"You good?" my mom asked me.
I nodded.
"We have an important notification" Mr. George said "There are more of these things than we think. An inside source overheard a conversation between some workers saying there's a secret invention going on in W7"
"W7?" I asked "What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure"
The Conversion must really love me. Not only am I facing the man who killed my father, I'm also going to be facing killer machines? Great. Just great.
"You and your team mates have a mission tomorrow"
"No" my mom said "She needs to recover"
"Mom" I calmly said "It's fine"
My mom looked at me with a confused and shocked expression
"You're injured. How are you okay with this?"
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing"
I faced George.
"Send me the details later. I want to rest now"
"Very well then. Thank you for your time"
"Get well soon" Mr. Thompson spoke
"Thank you, sir"
They both left.
My mom looked at me for a long time, shook her head and left as well.
I stood up and walked to the window.
The sun was bright. The birds chirped and soared through the sky. Cars drove freely on the road. It was a beautiful day.
With the way I'm acting, one would think I'm brave. The truth is that I'm terrified. If I wasn't terrified before, I'm terrified now. What happened today won't stop. More people are going to come after me. I'm scared out of my mind but I have to act strong so my mom won't freak out. There's nothing I can do. No one has ever gone against The Conversion and survived it.
I have to go on this mission for one thing; Revenge.
I'm going to train hard.
I smiled to myself as I continued thinking. I'm a little thrilled to be going on this mission after all.
I have to face Ace.
I have to face the bastard who killed my father.
I'm going to confront Ace and do something I've been wanting to do all my life.
I'm going to kill him.