Chapter 06|I'm the Native, the Native is me
.She was almost scared he had passed out, his poker face schooled expression was still on, his lips pressed in a tight line. None of her moves shook him and with each second that passed, while she watched his passive almost bored expression grow, She also grew desperate, angry, and then grunting she gave up exiting the stage.
He was immune to her body, dead to her charms.
So what next? She thought hurling her lampstand against the wall angrily later that night.
***
"Anything?" She impatiently asked Chucks, whose eyes were fixated on his computer.
He didn't reply to her, as the clack-clack of the computer showed he was busy.
She studied the rows and rows of computers in the team's tech room, in need of something to do rather than impatiently bugging Chucks.
"He is almost non-existent until he became Governor. No scandals, no ex-girlfriends, no street bawls. He attended a Christian, seminary school... Was an accountant before becoming Governor and also a philanthropist. Look at billions of naira he donates to charity every year!" He said, his eyes growing wide at the figures he was seeing. "This guy is a living perfection, not a speck of even his hair out of place."
"Check his girlfriends. He is just 28. He should have his fair share of women all around him and a vengeful ex will do us good." She suggested. "Because an enemy of our enemy, is a friend."
"There is nothing on the guy! He attends all the political mandatory events alone!" Chucks said, his nerdy framed glasses not hiding the shock in his eyes. "Wow"
"If a politician's record is freakishly clean. Then there is something he is hiding. The problem is what are we missing? Check his family background." She suggests again.
He clicks on his computer silently, his hands expertly hitting the keyboard as he quickly went to work, hacking into files that contained the life of the Governor.
"Some information here are inaccessible. I need to have the passwords to access them. But from what I can see, his parents died when he was 10. His parents were traders. He was raised by his older brother, thus the seminary boarding school. His brother was a cop who died when he tried to resolve a street fight. A bottle was thrust into his stomach according to the records."
She pursed her lips, in thought.
"Addictions?" She asked.
"This guy is spotless. Don't drink. I haven't seen him with any alcohol from all the pictures of him I saw, only champagne or a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. No pictures of a cigarette in-between his finger and no affairs." Chucks raised both his hands in both awe and exasperation, "At this point if he even gets some action, he is damn good at covering his tracks."
"A Nigerian, Lagos Governor who is young, doesn't love women, hates to drink, and doesn't smoke. Who is Taiwo?" She thought aloud, staring at the space in front of her confused.
"Guess what? His brother's best friend, a retired police officer is his security head. Not only is it hard to get to a Governor, who is usually heavily guarded. The fact that he has people damn loyal to him as a person, as just Taiwo. That just completely crippled our chances." Chucks said reaching for a stick of cigarette from its pack which was on the table, "This Bayo of a guy, can sacrifice his life for him."
She narrowed her eyes at him and then hits his hand making him drop it.
"What?" He asked confused.
"You are too young to be having CPR with that." She ignores his glare and instead studies the picture of the Governor which was on his computer screen.
He shrugs.
"This is the street, everyone has one in between their lips, and besides who cares about age in here? It is the survival of the toughest and smartest."
"No, this is not the street. This is not some ghetto where young boys are taught to be expert pickpocketers. Look around you, This is home. This is the Native, a dignified brotherhood that__"
"Sells drugs and ammunition." He completed a lazy grin on his face that just screams, hope you hear how ridiculous you sound?
So this is what I sounded like? she thought remembering similar arguments with her uncle.
She rolls her eyes and tosses the pack of cigarettes out of his sight through the window. Then scraping a chair next to him backward, disrupting the quiet of the room for a second she sat down.
"Guess the reason, I had said you could call me my name in private and not Sir like the others?"
He smirked.
"Maybe because I know your middle name is Eniola and you don't want me to leak it." His lips were curved into a smug grin.
She scowled, the sound of the name making her skin crawl, "You wouldn't even dare,"
What were her parents thinking? Oh, she knew, how to be alive.
"That is not the reason because you wouldn't Dare admit you have been snooping through my data." Then her face softened, emotions creeping into them as she held his hands which were on top of the desk.
"I could see myself in you. At 10, I watched you get so crazy whenever you saw a hint of pity in the eyes of any of the members and when you had punched a man who was thrice taller than you and older too, for calling you a mafia orphan? The anger in your eyes, your bloody knuckle since you couldn't punch right." She chuckled remembering the defiance in his posture, "They reminded me of myself. I don't want you to endanger your health__"
"But you do it!" He accused.
"I don't want you to be me!"
"But you are so cool, in your spandex pant and pistol holster, looking like a modern-day superwoman whenever you teach us how to hold a gun without shooting our legs." She chuckled.
"I don't think you will say that if you get to do all the squats, drill, and whatnot I had to do, to get here." There was a comfortable silence between them as he typed in his computer while she gazed outside of the building through the blinds of the window she was sitting adjacent to.
"I haven't smoked since Young died. Any time I hold a stick, I just feel his hand hitting it off mine, like he does when he was alive and it just drops on the floor. I never pick it." The words left her mouth before she could stop them as it felt like a confession overdue.
He smiled at her.
"We are not just some sick people who do drugs and peddle pellets. We watch each other's back. Some member of this family had taken a bullet for another. This is not the street where everyone is their boss, with a slogan of all man for himself. Here, we are responsible for every man, we have jurisdictions here, we nurture, we love, we protect one another." She paused holding his hand, "Here, I am the Native, the Native is me."
"I am the Native, the Native is me." He repeated their slogan and they stayed in that position for minutes.
"Does it bother you?" He asked after some time.
"What?"
"The people you have killed?"
She glanced at his face, his eyes were closed and his breathing even, if not for she had heard him talk, he'd have convinced her, he was fast asleep.
"Not as much as it should." She whispered.
"I still want to be like you." He said, placing his head on her lap expecting her to push him as always, telling him she wasn't a mattress.
She let him.
Chapter 07|The ruled rather than the ruler Jasmine traced the picture of her uncle's picture with her dad laughing while sitting beside each other on the floor. It was her father's 8th year birthday and there has certainly not been a party because in their hands were guns, their body was sweaty from practice and she could almost imagine both boys rolling on the floor, playing like kids were meant to and poking fun at each other. Acting normal. She chuckled lightly even as she dropped the picture to the side and a tear dropped on the next picture she picked up. It was still that of her uncle and Dad on the same day but beside them was her grandfather, they looked nothing like the two children who had goofy smiles that were so wide and even comical. In place of their goofiness was just pure stoicism, their eyes didn't shine with pure delight and more importantly, they didn't look like they knew what childhood tasted like.  
Chapter 08|Power reinsertion Jasmine rolled her eyes, fed up with the nonchalant chatter at the back by two of the men while she tried to explain what their weekly routine was going to be like and who was in charge of what. "Obinigwe!" She shouted, calling out the name of the man who was the loudest between the two and the most audacious. He squared his chest as he left his seat, walking towards her and straightening his posture to his six feet something inches, he looked down at her. "Nwanya, when I was serving in the Navy, you were still an infant suckling on her mother's bosom," He started disrespectfully, scorn in his tone, "So don't shout my name that loud, ever." Jasmine knew he had been wanting to tell her this for a long time and that was why he had tried to attract her attention with his chatter. "Obinigwe, do you know who you are talking to like that?" Chidi asked, se
Chapter 09|Dumb is the New Normal She wanted to give Chucks normal even in a family of criminals like herself, in a place where guns were carelessly dropped like they were toys and were an ideal present for a child. She wanted the only assignment he had to do, to be in a book and not a possible way of saying goodbye to his adorable face. She didn't want him to be the weirdo who was always on his computer, the teenage guy who wasn't obsessed with video games or in her case, parties, and boys. University was like a rude awakening to reality. She tried to ghost everyone and even though she came back right after classes, she still heard the whispers, the Snickers. She was the abnormal girl who was able to beat two Feared cultists in her Year one, who wanted to rob her and didn't break a sweat. He was already so intelligent it freaked her atimes. She didn't want him to be bull
Chapter 010|Her father's daughterShe strolled out of her room to have a second opinion of her clothing choice since it was 5:30 am and she still had a lot of time to spare. Especially as she starts work at 8. "Wow." Chucks whispered, his eyes wide in surprise as he gave her a quick appraisal from head to toe, his eyes trying to take in the transformation. He was on the porch, his hand around a mug full of coffee and his eyes which were on his computer, now on her. "You look like one of those working-class, disciplined women on magazines. You normally don't laugh, so it isn't hard to shimmy into this new job description." She scowled at him.He abandoned his cup of coffee, but yet kept it beside him. "That is it.. the air of a confident ruthless assistant to the Governor. Least I forget as your manager, I am entitled to 10% of that income among other miscellaneous benefi
Chapter 011|You have usTaiwo stared at the curvaceous beautiful woman in front of him, who had a daring and very arrogant attitude that both intrigued and amused him. She had in not more than 5 minutes made him actually see her. She was a nice surprise to him because you don't get to see a woman with such a cocky and smug grin every day. He hates to know that she won't last too because well, no one has but being a Governor most times could get boring, especially when you have the same boring schedules, the same pre-planned meetings with people you can't stand the sight of, but have to act cordially with for the camera. "Your conference call with the commonwealth chairman is in Ten minutes. Your mails have been separated from and compiled into three categories, treat as urgent, love messages, and Friends, relatives, and acquaintances mails." She informed him, about to leave. "Miss Bolanle," he called out.
Chapter 012|I crave to spill his blood"I'm sorry, Sir. It is just that__" "Taiwo the Governor is a Mark I'm set on killing not just because I was sent to, not because it was an instruction I was supposed to carry out even without asking questions but because it is a need. I crave to spill his blood. And if I never retreated from killing other faceless marks that I never bothered to find out their crimes, yet his I have stuck in my damn head why do you think I'll ever fucking retreat just because he is a glorified walking dead in Power?" "I'm sorry." His voice was firm and curt. He wasn't scared of her anymore. There was respect but the scare was over which she found puzzling. What has he been scared of? Her or the thought that her intentions have changed. "So," he swallowed, "What is the status of your operation?" She swiveled in her chair remembering the hardly eventful time
Chapter 013|Some lives are more precious than othersJasmine rushed towards Taiwo's desk the minute he was out thankful that he was finally leaving the office with her in it. Her gaze met the webcam directly facing his mahogany desk precautionarily because although she had already been planning this for a long time with Chucks who was already with a pre-recorded video of Taiwo's empty office which by infiltrating the capitol's security wall, he would make to be seen rather than her snooping around. She grinned widely noting the red beeping light was off, and although she was aware of Chucks' genius, she had been a bit scared that he just might not be possible to gain access to them but once again Chucks was proving to her how insanely good he was with his gadget and though pride squeezed her heart she couldn't help the anxiousness and worry that followed knowing that he was way farther from normal. It was a conflicting fee
Chapter 14|Kill me and hide my body?She shook her head, surprised to see a pistol, hanging out from Taiwo's jacket as he hurriedly came in. It was unlike him to be so forgetful and careless about such little details. The man was a symbol of composed and cold himself. Aside from the fact that he was 10 minutes late, which was unlike him, he looked really worried. "Good morning," she greeted, as chirpy as a bird. "Good morning Miss. Bolanle." He whispered, giving her a thankful nod as she offered him a cup of coffee. No sugar, no milk. She read about his likes and dislikes more than once. So much that her employee manual now has ears at its edges. He seemed disturbed and she could see through his cold demeanor, that he was on the brink of losing it. "You will want to tuck in your gun if I were you. Not the least ideal for an employee to se