"Where mumny?" Jennifer asked after her cheeks turned pink, and blushed. She loved the way her mum always complimented her.
"The President Generals Abode!" Diana answered cheerfully. "Come let's go. I'm already late." She added.
"Mum!" Stoic called out to her mum with all righteousness. He closed his laptop and continued.
"Have you noticed we're actually the miniature of the president general? We look very much alike! Is he our father?"
The question was so abrupt. Diana on the receiving end didn't wanted her kids to feel hopeless about their father. Thus, she said stalled the question but Stoic was very persistent....
"Mum, Stop stalling and answer the damn question!" Stoic shouted "Please!!! Tell us!" He added to soften the venom his words probably must have caused.
"Okay fine. I'll tell you all you need to know when we come back from where we're heading to right away!" She grinned and promised her children.
The kids naturally were reluctant to agree. But they nodded their head in agreement and followed their mother.
In a jiffy, they were at the VIP ward, specifically where Mark resided. The family of four started towards the entrance and knocked, but no one responded. It seemed a little bit weird.
Usually, Marks resident is always flooded with people but presently, nobody was present. Richarlison and his boys had gone out. And the seemingly military officers were out for break. Only Mark was at home. But why wasn't he responding?
A couple of door alarm rang over but no response and it stirred up nervousness in Diana and her kids .
"Mummy, see the door is not even locked..." Legacy was quick to notice and he advanced forward and unlocked the door by twisting the door knob with force. The door knob was slightly a height above him, despite'.
The family of four went in and "lol and behold" the interior design of the president general residential home was goddamn very beautiful and looked super costly.
Diana glanced round and a figure on the floor. As an army medical she could notice something wasn't right with the man sprawled on the floor. With haste, she started towards the man and it was the president general. At this moment he started groaning in pain and touching his neck, he was at verge of passing out when he blurted out 'Save me!' afterward, he lost consciousness.
Diana quickly leaned forward and bent down placing her heartbeat on his chest. She could feel his heartbeat slowly dying down. That troubled her.
"Stoic! Switch the emergency bell on!"
"Legacy, there is a definitely a first aid kit around. Get me one, check the bedrooms."
When she turned to face her cute little baby. She melted and was afraid of her. She was shivering upon the sight of the dying man. She was not so strong and touch like her other two brothers.
"Baby, it'll be fine. Just stay with me okay!" Diana shifted closer to her and petted her out to join her brothers.
Stoic and Legacy had got into action at once and Diana started to unbutton the president generals suit so as to get in contact with his bare chest and exert a full compression pressure to see if he wakes up eventually. Then she remembered the president general was earlier touching his neck and was trying to say out some words that didn't come out. She quickly directed her gaze towards his neck region and saw black Veins stimulated and pulsating like a virus or a poison was flowing through them.
"Shit! He is be poisoned!" Diana exclaimed in shock. Before anything else. Legacy returned with a medical kit and Diana stepped into action. She injected the president general some antidote to stop the spread of the poison and was racking her brain endlessly looking for a way to wake the president general up.
A chaos had erupted in the military base, once Stoic switched on the alarm, her sister Jennifer was with him, she was still shivering. "Sister, it's gonna be okay!"
The chaos that erupted was not a signal that an impromptu war had just started. It was the signal that the president general was in problem. Richarlison and his boys were still out searching for the missing Danny.
"Enemies in the vicinity!" a top officer shouted at a microphone at the centre field of the Sterling City military base. At once every military officer in the base aborted whatever that they were doing and began to speed towards their dorm and get their weapons. The exit of the military base closed at once. Nobody can go in and nobody can go out.
In a jiffy, everyone was alarmed and inspecting each other to see who the intruder is and also the vicinity.
Top sergeant Army Medicals by this time were assisting Diana in waking the president general up.
The poison was spreading fash, even the antidotes couldn't hold it.
Back at Aliko Bay, the sharp pain he felt on his neck when he was about entering into his car was an invisible needle prickle. It was laced with a very dangerous poisonous virus. One of Hannah's guard did it. The poison however was not to kill the president general but rather keep him wake for the time being.
In a dream, Mark was a child again, walking down the narrow strip of beach near the boardwalk at Lae Island. The island he grew up in. The air was thick with the smell of hot dogs and roasting peanuts, and with the shouts of children. The sea surged in the distance, its blue-gray surface alive with sunlight.
Damp sand grated between his toes, and his long hair hung heavily against the nape of her neck. There were no clouds and the sky was blue and clear, but he shivered as he walked along the perimeter of the water toward a figure he could see only dimly in the distance.
As he approached, the figure became suddenly clear, as if Mark had focused the lens of a camera. It was the family maid Jake raped to death, kneeling in the ruins of a half-built sand castle. She wore the same white dress she wore when she died. In her hand was a twisted bit of driftwood, silvery from long exposure to salt and wind.
"Have you come to help me?" she said, raising her head. Her hair was undone and it blew free in the wind, making her look younger than she was. "There's so much to do and so little time."
Mark swallowed against the hard lump in his throat. "You - you're dead?"
Joyce, the family maid smiled. "Karma is drawing near!"
"i was not part of the conspiracy!" Mark cried, but Joyce was looking out to sea, her face turning red now. The sky had turned a twilight iron gray and the black clouds looked like heavy stones.
"But you never testified as a witness to save Jake from imprisonment!" Joyce shouted. Her voice so terrifying that it sent a wave through Marks body. Fear now all over him.
"I was threatened not to and I still feel guilty!" Mark blurted out in fear.
Joyce didn't answer, just looked out toward the sea. Mark turned and saw that the ocean had drawn far out, leaving brackish piles of garbage, heaps of seaweed and flopping, desperate fish in its wake. The water had gathered itself into a huge wave, rising like the side of a mountain, like an avalanche ready to fall.
The shouts of children from the boardwalk had turned into screams. As Mark stared in horror, he saw that the side of the wave was as transparent as a membrane, and through it she could see some thing that seemed to move under the surface of the sea, a huge dark creature, pushing against the skin of the water. He threw up her hands-
And woke up, gasping, his heart slamming painfully against his ribs. He was in his bed in the spare room in the house, and afternoon light was filtering in through the curtains. Diana this time was compressing his chest. Other Army medicals had given up and pronounced him dead, but Diana didn't gave up. Now, he was awake.
His mind raced back to what happened twelve years ago ...
He lived happily and peacefully with Jake and Jake's parent in Lae island. They were wealthy and living a luxurious life. Though, he was not Bernard's biological child, they took him as one.
Jake, was his friend but when they turned nineteen he changed. He started drinking and smoking. He joined bad gangs and he started creating troubles up and down for his parents and a mental issue caused him to start thinking his parents didn't love him, but they loved Mark who was abducted.
One day. He came back home drunk and pounded on Joyce the family maid and raped her till she died. He was caught and sent to prison for rehab. But Mark didn't see it this way - He saw it as a set up -but of a truth someone set up the whole event. The maid was to given a pill that would definitely have killed her and the person in the bid to save his skin someone was able to spike Jake's drink and his "rod of destruction" got insanely hard.
Natural instincts were to find a girl to use it on. Joyce was the only available lady.
Mark knew the person who orchestrated the whole event but he never divulged due to threats. He felt guilty all the while and now it was too late.
He visited the prison and looked for Jake but he didn't found him. Jake had disappeared mysteriously. His rea name was Benjamin Bernard. Now, his name was Jake Bernard! A new identity and a new face. He had done a plastic surgery on his face to change his facial looks. His face got burnt while in prison due to a fire outbreak.
Mark had even told his missing friend Danny. An IT expert that could find a needle inside a river to search for Benjamin Bernard but he recorded no success not even a hint.
Presently Mark was wondering why this dream came to him again. It had always taunted him.
A shock ran through Diana, a jolt of electric realization.
"He is awake!" She shouted and once other army medicals rushed into the room.