Game of Secrets episode 6
GAME OF SECRETS
(Dooms Brain)
Season 1
Episode 6
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Written by Author Nath
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ISRAEL’S POV
FLASH BACK
In my father’s mansion there were no trace of hullabaloo. A mansion as big as a community with the features of the components of an ecosystem. The white paint all over it gave it the look of a white house. The only things that weren’t white externally were the colour of the swimming pool and flowers. Unexceptionally, the attire of Linto’s body guards; black police uniform was an addendum to the colour mixture of the habitat.
Through the corridor of my room, I walked unnoticed, nodding to the h¡p-hop music blasting through my earpiece. On the walls of the corridor were portraits of ancient Spartan warriors. Linto, my father, loves the history of the Spartans that he had to portray them on the walls of his house. I glanced at some of them which reminded me how he tells the story of the early stage of a Spartan warrior, how he is groomed, nortured and sophisticated. He would always say, “…The agoge is mandated for all male Spartans from the age of 6 or 7 when the child grows up to be a boy. This means leaving his own house and parents behind and relocating to the barrack to live with other boys. Interestingly, one of the very first things that the boy learns in his new quarters is the pyrriche , a sort of dance that also involves the carrying of arms. This was practiced so as to make the Spartan boy nimble-foot even when maneuvering heavy weapons. Along with such physical moves, the boy is also taught exercises in music, the war songs of Tyrtaios, and the ability to read and write. By the time the boy grows up to be 12, he will be known as the meirakion or youth. Suffice it to say, the rigorous scope is notched up a level with the physical exercises increased in a day. The youth also has to cut his hair short and walk barefooted, while most of his clothes are taken away from him…”
That was the interesting part Linto loves so much. I always wondered why he repeats that part continuously, so one day when i asked him, his response was always, “A man becomes a man at the age of six and what comes to him afterwards are battles of life. He must always get ready to fight the battle as a warrior.”
Nevertheless, in my short knicker and singlet with the earpiece dangling on my cheek, another voice overshadowed the h¡p-hop that was blasting in my ears. I stopped, vehemently removed an ear to detect the disturbing voice. Surprisingly it was my father’s on a phone call. Luckily, the door of his room slightly made a hallow opening where the sound wave escaped through to my ears. His words sounded strange, therefore I made the door my ecological niche, listening to him saying, “Sir, what is to come will be disastrous and might expose us. I have foreseen it, dooms brain will originate from Uburu…”
“Then we will get rid of the source” another voice from the phone speaker whispered. I had to totally take off the remaining earpiece to have an equilibrium of the sound wave.
“Getting rid of the source of dooms brain could create more problem.”
“I rather have all the people in the village destroyed than have our secret revealed through dooms brain.”
The line went dead. Unabashedly, I pushed the door after returning the music to my ears. I bounced in like a bad nigger except that I wasn’t sagging, then i threw a few leg-over dancing steps before my father. Though I wasn’t looking at his face but I knew he must have been amused by my impromptu entertainment. Surprisingly, he sat down on his executive chair like a man enjoying the dance of a stripper. Suddenly, I stopped throwing my legs like a jumping peacock. We gazed at each other. He didn’t speak neither did he avert his eyes from me thereby changing the enticing atmosphere to tention resurrecting centre. He became optimistic to know my intentions. I frowned.
“Dad, I have a project that I need to go to my field of study to collect data from.” I broke the silence.
My man didn’t reply me, knowing very well I had more interior motives.
“It’s in Uburu, Saint Michael’s.” I added.
Linto stood up from his seat. “What did you hear over my phone call, Israel?” he asked.
I hesitated to reply because he knows the kind of person i was; a stubborn dramatic child with a good heart. I walked to the nearest bottle of champagne on his side stool, as I was pouring a quantity in a glass cup, i heard his angry voice, “Israel, if the wine crosses your l-ips, I’ll teach you how to respect an elder!”
I straightened up with the glass of wine in my hand. We glared. “You demand respect when you don’t respect and value life. I stand for justice and I cannot hear or see a wrong without me making it right. I might not know what a doom brain is but I know it gonna cost the lives of innocent people. I will not let that happen.”
“How dare you?!” My father roared like a lion. “If actually the dooms brain manifest, even the least person will be exposed and die. I bet you, you might not even be save.”
“Let the evil die for their evil deed and the innocent live for their good deeds.” I drank the wine at once, headed to the door briskly.
“Which one do you think you are, Israel; the evil or the innocent?”
The question rang like a bell in my ear, so I stopped at the door like a hotel attendant. If the dooms brain will bring my death and the death of everyone, isn’t it right if I should stay away from anything that concerns it? Just as I wallowed in my very best of thought, my father’s voice came like a bell again saying, “Search your conscience, little boy, do you have a secret; a secret that involve taking someone’s life, directly or indirectly? Everybody has a secret, Israel.”
I gazed at my father. I couldn’t answer the question because it sounded scary. My hand on the doorknob suddenly began to quiver but I held it very tight to be unnoticed. “Every secret problem must have a solution.” I replied, watching my father gently approached me without a word. Only the coming sound of his shoes beat my eardrums. As if that wasn’t sufficient, a loud slap from him bursted the drum totally. My hand suddenly left the doorknob to my cheek while my legs became weak. Only then did his initial statement reoccurred in my brain: IF THE WINE CROSSES YOUR l-ips, I’LL TEACH YOU HOW TO RESPECT AN ELDER…….
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CONTINUITY
An helicopter vibrated over a military convoyed at the territory of Uburu. I stretched my neck from one of the Hilux to see thousands of soldiers circulating the small village. At that point, the words of my father’s caller rang through my head: “I rather have all the people in the village destroyed than have our secret revealed through dooms brain.”
“Were they actually trying to wipe out every persons in,side? Does it mean, Annabel and co will die?” I kept thinking haphazardly. Seating in-between the soldiers hindered every thought of me escaping, at least to go save Annabel. The reason why Annabel kept coming into my thought more than any other girl was something I couldn’t put a finger on. Just then, Lizzy’s message entered my phone which says, “Kande has the dooms brain and we can’t do it without you.”
A soldier collected the phone immediately I saw the message. Suddenly, we arrived to father’s mansion to see him well seated in the living room where a local news was broadcasting on a television. The soldiers pinned me in front of my father. He wore a caftan, a milky footwear and a traditional hat. Once again we gazed at each other after discharging the soldiers. I could see mymum standing at the staircase to witness my father’s reaction.
“Israel,” he cleared his throat and stood up. “A child who said his father will not sleep, he too will not feel the tender texture of his pillow. You can’t stop what is to befall on those found in that village. It’s bigger than you. Fighting it is like fighting the government. Anyone who is going against the government is signing a death warrant.”
“He who knows the government secret, can go against the government.” I replied.
“What do you think you know?”
“Nothing, but with time, you’ll know.”
“It’s too late coz everything in,side the land of Uburu will become dust in the next 30 minutes.”
“No, I’ll return to the land of Uburu in the next 30 minutes and not a single hair will be lifted from their heads.” I replied boldly.
My father seemed surprised. So he began to think what gave me such guts. He was yet to understand that I was prepared to play their game single handedly. Just as he contemplated, a breaking news displayed on the television screen. We both directed our eyes to see a young girl with a mask saying, “I am a secret, decode me and I will die. If Israel Linto isn’t grant access back to the land of Uburu in the next 30 minutes, the evil plans of the evil people on the evil land of Uburu will become naked.”
Linto looked at me amazingly. He w¡dened his mouth like a tilapia insearch of a floating prey on an aquatic habitat. Once again, I located another champagne in the living room where I heard his voice saying, “How did you do it?”
I hesitated to reply him until I sipped the wine. “Are you and your kind ready to play the game of secrets?” I asked my father. However, my mother had come down from the staircase. I knew she didn’t have a clue of what was going on.
“Israel, it won’t take them time to have you killed because you just threatened them.” My father warned.
“A threat to someone who has your secret is like a dragon breathing in oxygen, the enhancer of a roaring fire from its own mouth because the secret of death is secret. When you have the secret in your palms, you have death at your fingers tips.” I glanced at my wristwatch. “Ten minutes has gone from thirty minutes.” I said before sipping another wine, this time with a hand in my pocket.
“Honey, what’s going on?” My mother broke the tension I created not only in the house but in the whole country. A ringing telephone seemed to be a response to her question. My father picked the call, he spoke silently over it. Meanwhile, the front of my compound had started swimming with the press. My father hung up the call, turned to me and said, “Israel, you won’t win this thing you call a game. It’s more than a game.” I glanced at my wristwatch once again to remind him that time was ticking…….
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TO BE CONTINUED.