He looked down at her sympathetically, when he spoke his agitation was obvious, "it might be the pain in your cheek, the wound was deep and I am really sorry". He lingered on a little and told her a bit about how the place was run amongst other things. 
                  "Excuse me" He stood up and stretched his six foot one inch and walked away,  Pamela felt that she would almost measure up with to his shoulder just as she was to David who was six footer, later on he came back with a full cup of tea, four slices of bread and a boiled egg.
                    Pamela was surprised at the quantity of the food, ordinarily according to their earlier discussion a person was supposed to have just a half cup of tea and two slices of bread or a half cup of tea and an boiled egg , presently, she was having two people food to herself alone,  Nick noticed her questioning stare and hesitantly he explained that part of the food was for Pamela and the other was for himself.
                   "But why?" she asked a bit perplexed
                    "I am trying to make up to em..., I mistakenly injured you and I know that enjoying your meal would help you feel better" he said smiling.
                  Pamela insisted on their sharing the food together, Nick would not bulge within a short period they become good friends she found herself telling him a lot about herself, he was very gentle, understanding and above all a good listener, Pamela was impressed.
                    Nick was a polytechnic students who came to work for chief Lord Ozomena, some months ago, for his one year industrial training as an Engineer, being a determined , self composed and a competent youth, when he get wind of how Chief Lord Ozomena make his money, he decided to let out the fish from the net, he felt that a youth should have nothing to fear disclosing the truth, that a youth should be bold, fearless and honest , unfortunately he ended up a captive under chief Lord Ozomena, ever since, he had been unable to escape and face his feature career.
                 His family had given up on thoughts of his being alive, Pamela darkened at the thought of her friends, she could not imagine what was happening to them , she felt the urgent need to save their situation.
                  Rubbing minds together, they were able to draft an urgent massage to Chief Osagie with the aid of a cement paper and an extracted colour from a plant, this was used with the application of a bird feather, they wrote....
                Help quickly, Niece and friends under Chief Lord Ozomena Captive ".
                 There was a shrewd old and a nearly blind man at the small back gate nearby, Nick was able to convince the man to help pass the paper to Chief Osagie for a reward of ten thousand naira Notes , Nick also promised to give to the scared gate man five thousand naira Notes if everything worked out well .
                 Hands askim,  Nick and Pamela returned to their thoughts waiting for the dawn of a new and hopeful day.
               
                  Chief Osagie had been unable to decide on what to do about the sick little girl, he decided that today the D day of the party he would reveal all that was to be revealed, he was particularly sad that he could not check on the students in the school where they had gone to read all because of an urgent business trip which took him away until last night, he had a sleepless night before morning by four in the morning, he was already awake, pacing round very slowly than usual, he could not, he could not comprehend his feeling they were inexplicable, Like a caged Tiger he roamed round to and fro unsure of what the day would contain.   
                There is an adage in Bini that says that blood is thicker than water so when blood five thousand miles away is tempered with a blood at the other end will also feel the pain, Chief Osagie know that something was wrong somewhere.
                  The big wall clock chimed five in the morning he felt that he had enough of walking aimlessly now it was day break enough.  Trying to while away time, he tried to wake his wife, she stirred in her sleep, said some funny things and slept back, he laughed and felt better than walked down the stairs to his glamorous bar to have a glass of wine, while drinking he felt unforseen forces pushing him forward to approach the gate, dropping his glass he walked towards the gate and met his night watchman Adamu asleep.
                    Board, he saw this as an ample opportunity to while away time and have some fun, , Chief Osagie went to the gate house and pulled out a horse whip smiling, he lashed his watch man several times, Adamu jumped up blindly and quickly pressed the alarm bell, alerting all the nearby security guards.
                  The alarm bell was connected to each house hold within some distance to inform other security guards in time of danger and agency, Chief Osagie roared with laughter mocking his watchman stupidity, he imagined how the other security men were going to mock him for the next one month.
                As fast as the passing of a second, the gate was being pushed forcefully by neighbours, voices and the barking of dogs could be heard.
                "Adamu open the gate! Open the gate"
              Quickly, Adamu opened the gate not yet noticing his master excitement, Adamu rushed out like a demented man screaming hoarsely, Chief Osagie walked out still laughing.
                  Strangely, he saw a mob gathered besides his gate, he stopped laughing and walked to where a large crowd gathered feeding their eyes, some women were already hitting their hands against their breast crying, something made his blood run cold in his vein, he pushed past the crowd, which cleared quickly at his approach, he thought his head spun as he looked down at the cause of the crowd gathering.
                   His heartbeat but uncertainly, his eyes opened even wider but they saw less, in fact his ears flared wide but he heard nothing, tears stuck to his eyes, he looked vacantly into the sky and smiled emptily to himself, he became aware of the countless pathetic eyes watching him, their stares were making things look real and that was driving him crazy, he smiled again, "it can not be " he thought "That cold almost lifeless, blood mangled body could not belong to his only niece never! he ran his hand through his hair several times,
                     "No! never!" He kept on repeating aloud.
                     "Do something please" he heard his wife voice.
                 crazily, he ran into the compound and got his car key, not minding the blood spray over her body, he carried the unconscious girl into the car.
               Before he could get behind the wheel a young neighbor named Omo got behind the wheel and drove them off.  Life could be really funny what is the difference between the poor and the rich, if emotions could bring them down to the same level?.
                  Chief Osagie wept as he had never done before in his lifetime, he looked his niece most affectionately and would not tolerate a soul to hurt her for one minute, but that was what he just allowed, Guilt filled him and he felt remorse hating his misplaced priority, he felt that this was not a mere accident, the motorcycle could not have hit her once and injured her so seriously, he must have also used some other weapon on her, one thing kept on bothering him, he wondered why she came alone and so early, he did not know what to think, if only Efe could open her mouth and eyes and save him from this baffling situation.
                   The doctor on duty on assuring him that she had only external injuries nothing internal, and the radiographer, who read her x ray  report, also confirmed that she had no internal damage , But Chief Osagie was skeptical.
                 Quite some minutes later, Mike the gate man rushed in and dropped a dirty paper with Chief Osagie.
   Considering the rough note coupled with his bad moon he crumpled up the paper and tossed it aside hissing.
          
                   Omo who understood chief Osagie mood , picked up the paper, and read the washing away message on it , not understanding it but feeling that it was a life call message for ugent attention, Omo delivered the message to chief Osagie.
              
           Chief Osagie understood the message immediately, all the dead cells in his body woke up to life, he saw this as somewhere to start working from until the truth unfolded, he ran out of the hospital ward in company of his companion , they drove the car away, from the car park and zoomed off.  The was the time for Chief Osagie to do what he should have done long ago.
                 Chief Lord Ozomena was in a very happy mood this morning thanking his stars for the high knowledge he had, he sent for the man who he sold his past captives to, this was another time to eat the fruit of another man labour, he laughed hard, four health girls to sell presently, was enough money to buy two cars and expand his business, he put on his Best clothes as he sat on his superfluous set of settee to bargain with his customer,  Mr Anthony.
                  They both discussed flippantly, each enjoying the taste of brandy, he smiled cynically, imagining how chief Osagie with his strange voice would be swearing at the unknown cyclist, he ought to make an arrangement for the removal of the motor cycle when night falls , but if that' was going to be dangerous, he would forget about it after all it was not worth the risk.
                     He smiled to himself during his business transaction and thought " it pays to be cruel sometimes, considering how the society would uphold you at any gathering you attend. He was waiting for his guest to go since he was expecting Chief Osagie who was always in his house whenever in difficulty, unable to control himself any longer he burst into a lengthy coarse laughter, he imagined how stupid Chief Osagie was going to look like later in the day, pitying the poor chap, he kept on laughing, leaving his guests mouth agape, when he noticed the opened mouth he laughed louder, rocking his chair and finally falling backwards.
                  
                 His laughter ceased when he heard a gun shot, he was shocked, not really sure, he sprang up holding out his side knife, like thunder bolt, another shot came almost hitting him, he looked towards the door and was surprised to see policeman nodding at him.
                   "Why did you imprison these girls?" questioned Chief Osagie.
                    "Chief Lord Ozomena, rushed at him menacingly.
                   "Move! run! move!"  came orders from different directions but it was too late, a knife jabbed at Nwanju face the effect was a very deep cut, Quickly he dragged Deborah against himself using her as a cover.  A police man and Chief Osagie stayed out of his way thinking of the best way to tackle the problem, Chief Lord Ozomena moved backwards until something hard hit him against the back of his head,  it was an ornamental decorations held by Nick.
                   Chief Lord Ozomena moved towards Pamela still armed, Nick was quick enough to shove her aside, he however could not avoid Chief Lord Ozomena, he grip on his neck, but Nwanju quickly carried a picture frame and hit it on the injured part of Chief Lord Ozomena head.
    He turned but before he could react a bullet hit his hand and that sent him sprawling across the rugged floor, Mr Anthony panic stricken, hurriedly pressed an alarm bell and many workers in the establishment came running into save their master.
                     The men outnumbered five more police who just entered, the police could not really outwit the several men that responded to the alarm call, Chief Osagie tried to phone the hospital saving life was a necessity, as things surprisingly turned out they become divided as some men started fighting each other.
                   Chief Osagie moved about trying to keep the injured people in one place unknown to him, Chief Lord Ozomena threw a knife against his feet as he walked past but the knife fell to the ground with a heavy thud , the police on the other hand were confused, they do not know those who were fighting for them the situation became confusing.
                      Some parts of the house was on fire,  when Chief Lord Ozomena noticed that his house was burning he gets up but fell back, Chief Osagie and the police allowed him to crawl down the staircase, they know that there was no way for him to escape,  trying to climb the staircase, he stumbled and started tumbling and screaming his screams rent the mansion as he kept on tumbling, until he fell at the foot of the staircase lifeless. 
                       There was blood all over the staircase and a greater part of the building was aflame, they were cooking before.   The police tried to get the children out of the castle first while the other survivals struggled to leave.
                       Bad news spreads like a wild fire, before they reached the hospital pressmen were everywhere anticipating some juicy story.   Casualties were carried from the ambulance onto a stretcher into the hospital ward, there were flashes of cameras lights everywhere.
                   By the next morning, Nwanju was on a drip, she had stitches on her face, which were yet to be removed, Efe had regained consciousness, she was talking fluently but was yet to start walking on her legs, Pamela, Deborah and Grace were already fine and were gaining their lost weight, thought they could go home, yet they do not want to leave their friends behind.
              It was now a few days to the junior secondary school certificate examination.