“So, now that you are sure of yourself, what do you want to do?”
“Wait and see.”
Luka did not wait to see. Oliver had become too sceptical and this after they had spent so much money. Maybe he has enough and to spare. I do not have much. And my need is greater than his. How can I abandon the mission half way? No. If I go back and explain to the professor that my need is great and my faith in him unshaken, I believe we could work together and forget about Oliver and his skepticism. You have to have faith, he reasoned, otherwise there is no point in engaging in risky business. He decided to work on his own.
So he went back to Professor Zima Moto and repented for what he called his earlier exhibition of skepticism. He paid a large sum by way of consultation fee.
“I believe, but as you know, one can be misled by others,” he said as Professor Zima Moto pretended to be impatiently waiting to hear why he had come back.
“You mean your friend, eh, Oliver?” he asked through his interpreter.
“Yes. He counselled otherwise.”
“And you were wise enough to see through what he was saying?”
“Yes.”
“Perhaps he has enough and to spare!”
“That’s what I thought. Otherwise I could not understand why he wanted to abandon our mission.”
“Would you like to have his share added to yours?”
“That would be great. Can it be done?”
“At a cost, but...”
“How much?”
“That is really not the question. The issue here now is how to appease the gods and let them think not about what has happened. They don’t like being tempted.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Will you or will you not carry out the commands of your benefactors?”
“I will.”
“You swear?”
“I do.”
He was told to wait while Professor Zima Moto retired to another hut to consult. Twenty minutes later, he emerged and sat at his usual place.
“This is what you have to do.”
He was told to secure a child, an albino child.
“An albino child?”
“Don’t shout; but, yes, an albino child.”
“Explain, sir. This is a bit out of the ordinary.”
“It is not. But to you, maybe that is unusual. Let me ask you Mtoto wa Kambo – isn’t being a multimillionaire out of the ordinary?”
Luka thought about it for a while. Actually he wanted to get out of the ordinary realm of poor people to join the super rich. That cannot be business as usual. It is extraordinary. That is what he had set eyes on becoming.
“Yes,” he replied.
“There you are,” said Professor Zima Moto. “You have answered your question and I hope you have erased the doubt in your mind. Can we move on?”
“Oh, yes. Let us get on with it.”
“Remember this one you have to do by yourself or with help arranged by you. I have no role in this. But once I have the ingredients that I require, we are home and dry. That is what made Mali Mingi what he is today.”
Professor Zima Moto and his partner conferred for a while. Luka was wracking his brain. How am I to secure an albino child, he wondered. He knew one or two families that had albino children but they were his friends. Could he do it to them? Could he do it to any parent, friend or foe?
His brain went into overdrive. Professor wants me to kidnap someone’s child, kill her, extract her kidney and take it to him so he can mix it with his other macabre ingredients to make a concoction that I will then have to drink or smear on myself in order that I may get the powers to make megabucks to turn myself into a multimillionaire? That to my mind is murder! And I’m not going to do it. Whether or not a child is an albino is beside the point. A child is a child. And a child is a human being whose life is protected by law as well as by humanity itself. I need the money, yes, and a lot of it, but human life for me is worth so much more. It is sacred. I have to do something. It is my duty.
He went back to his friend. Maybe he was right after all! But his friend had just left for a location unknown. Of late he had been very secretive.
“He took a jerry can and said he would be back later,” his wife explained. “He appeared to be very excited; I thought he was coming to see you. He has not left the house for two days.”
Luka thought he knew where his friend had gone. He left. He headed for Professor Zima Moto’s home. On the way he met a policeman he knew. He was off-duty and was wondering how to spend the day.
“Come with me, Luteni,” said Luka. “There might be something we can do.” He agreed. Luka was known to have some money and he was not entirely mean. He might very well treat him to some beer and roast meat. They might even discuss business, deals, something to keep money trickling in.
“I will definitely do something, but after finishing off a small matter.” He explained what had transpired. Luteni listened carefully, nodding occasionally. Then they talked some more and agreed to do something. It was worth the try. They passed by the local butchery and Luka bought half a kilo of goat kidney and carefully wrapped it in a transparent plastic bag, which he put in an opaque plastic bag. They headed in the direction of Professor Zima Moto’s home.
Actually, Oliver had made up his mind. He returned to Professor Zima Moto’s home. He was carrying a jerry can. He asked to see Professor Zima Moto. The latter came out of his hut and sat as usual facing the tree at the back of his homestead. His wife sat to one side in anticipation of her usual role of interpreter. But Oliver did not need an interpreter this time. He addressed the professor directly and refused to let the woman say anything.
“I do not need an interpreter for what I’m about to say,” he shouted. “I have come to sort out this villain once and for all. He has conned me and my friend out of a lot of money. Now I want his blood!”
With that he quickly opened the jerry can and doused the professor with paraffin. By the time the woman tried to wrestle the jerry can from Oliver, the seer was all wet with the liquid. The woman also got splashed with it.
“You see this?” Oliver asked the woman, as he flashed out a matchbox and prepared to light it. “This is a matchbox and I’m going to use it! Say your prayers, before I throw this match and set you alight. You have been working together. You will die together! And don’t think you can fool me again. You see this Masai knife? You see how sharp it is?”
Suddenly the man and the woman started pleading for mercy.
“Please don’t burn me!” cried Professor Zima Moto. “I will tell you the truth! Please, please spare me!”
“I don’t care whether you tell me the truth or not,” shouted Oliver. “You must die!”
“No, please, my son,” said the woman.
“I’m not your son!” retorted Oliver, as he made to strike the match.
“Please, please, don’t burn us!” pleaded the man. “I am not a medicine man. I cannot do those things!”
“So why did you take my money, you scoundrel?”
“It is Rashid who told me that you had a lot of money! I will refund it all, if you give me time!”
“And who is Rashid?” asked Oliver. “Is he the one who came to the cemetery that night?”
“Yes.”
Luka and the policeman arrived while all this was going on and hearing the altercation and the pleas, discreetly approached the three who were as usual meeting at the back of the house.
“Rashid said you would do anything to make money,” Professor Zima Moto was saying.
“And you said you could do anything so long as you were paid and your conditions met!”
“I know I said that and in some cases it is true. Even your friend was here yesterday because things are working for him. People believe these things.”
“What did you ask him to do this time?”
“That is between him and me.”
“Remember this is not a joke. I will set you alight and then you
will realize that it is not between you and him. And it will be too late.”
“Please, please. I asked him to get an albino child’s kidney and two fingers.”
“Murderer,” said Oliver. “You are murdering albino children in the name of fortune making!”
Luteni and Luka had heard enough.
“Do you still have your gun?” Luka asked.
“Oh, yes.”
They pounced.
The end.
About the Author
This Kenyan author writes Novels, Poems, Short Stories and School Readers and has published with EA Literature Bureau, Hodder Education and Cambridge University Press.
Other eBooks by this Author
Set Her Free
Murder In The Rain
Masai Mara Adventures With Olê Ntutu
Hear Me Angry God
Watch Your Mouth
Whispers At Dawn (Poetry)
Returning the Knife
Harvest Festival
Cattle- (Non-fiction)
Tata Mukuru’s Home
From the Roaring to the Crouching Lion
The Day Crocodile Wept
My Lovely Elizabeth
The Suitors of Chiuta
Thank You Grandma
Thief of Angonia
This Calf of Mine
Jaws of Justice
Pastor X
Co-authored
Of Friends, Money & Gossip
Great African Women
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