Chapter 3 The Undoing

From little seconds came minutes which grew and sprouted into hours and eventually, half the day had gone. Mr Gonzalez was still nowhere around.

The only things that held his presence upon the room were the mention of the certainty of his appearance. His inability to appear on time had since, casted a heavy blanket of doubt upon all those expectant of his arrival but never ever were either his family nor the gang that kidnapped the family of the great Gonzalez conceded to the obvious fact that he might in fact probably not show up because he was never the type to miss out on appointments of any least value to him. He was punctual since his begining.

Valentina and Joan were still in captivity. The former was not at all scared to die or face any danger at all because she had seen worst her days of youthful activity when she rode toe to toe with her husband and his comrades as well as hers on a grand quest of Pelubia's sociopolitical revolutionary transformation.

This, they did with all of their time and heart. They committed a great deal of their lives and peace to the cause that it even became a vocation that they were bent on seeing to fruition on their lives.

They had had enough and were in either case; successful or not, still without a life and so devoted their all to the cause.

It was from that experience that she, Valentina, could swear that death or danger no longer scared her because she had stared death in the face multiple times and won against it because of her fearlessness.

Her only concern was her daughter Joan. She was still young and had not seen a quarter of what her life was laid out to be or was she even , for a bit, ready to transit and leave this busy life behind.

To Valentina, she could die any moment for all's sake and still would have had a successful life with milestones attained and the glory brought home to celebration, but not her daughter. She kept quiet and only thought about how she would rescue the both of them from those heartless men who would not frit to kill even a harmless child in cold blood. She intended to achieving that brand fit of escape without incurring any pain or discomfort upon her little daughter Joan.

She was all that mattered at that moment. Her only problem at that peculiar moment was the monotonous recurrence of realization that in all she had conjured in her mind as a solution, in all cases, her daughter was still likely going to get hurt or worst.

There was a high probability of harm in all instances.

So, Valentina decided to let things just go according to their natural plot, perhaps they might decide to never lay a hand on them after accepting their long awaited ransom.

She began to remember Mr Gonzalez the legend, of the days when they were in the band together. If only her mind and reality were aligned, these men would have by hours past had a better understanding of the people they were messing with. But they were to definitely soon find out. At least, they were anticipating it from the looks on their faces.

The men held a certain degree of alertness all the while because they knew that Mr Gonzalez the great was never one to bargain with. He had never done that in his whole life but once they had reached out to him regarding his daughter and wife's abduction, he respectfully asked them what they wanted for ransom.

"500 million pounds", they said. "Done",he responded.

" Where?", he asked once again.

" Drive it to the center of the Heiti Forest where two roads intersect. From thereon, follow the various paint markings on tree trunk down the old abandoned road until you come across the colonial junkyard. Bring no more than one person or your daughter has it", and by that, they cut the cal and went there way.

Now, the he tension in the air was intense and impossible to ignore.

The armed and stern looking men had come around once or twice to mention to Valentina that they were losing their patience and that they were no longer going to waste any more time.

They reminded her that the agreement with her husband was that if he had not appeared to them with the complete ransom as they had requested, they would deny him his family and go away with them.

They also threatened to cut a finger each from Valentina and her daughter. They would wrap it in an envelope and send it to Mr Gonzalez her husband on a daily basis until both they and him had nothing else to lose and eventually go their separate ways.

Joan also noticed another recurring phenomenon which the men will occasionally come together to have a head to head conversation. They were whispering things about her Mr Gonzalez.

As she paid keen attention to the men's whispers, it became clearer that they knew who her father was. Even better,they seemed to e expecting some surprise from him and so we're at full alert in the case of any shocking event from 'the legend' as they continually referred to him.

There was also a whole deal of fear about them. Yes, they were furious and scary to her ,bit they were also afraid of what her father might do. They also mentioned, in an attempt to console their fears that the man has now become a woman who hides among the weak and buries his fire in shame.

One of them even mentioned that Mr Gonzalez was also rumored to now be a local fisherman. They laughed at how low he had stooped and only then did there flow some sense of relief among majority of the men.

Joan became more curious than ever. She began to think of ways to break the silence and extract information from them. "After all," she thought aloud, "they've been treating me nicely, what could go wrong?"

Maybe she could appeal to their sympathy. She beckoned her brain for ideas.

There was just so much going on and she knew deep within her that she was so much in the dark.

"Excuse me, sir," Joan pleaded. "I heard you mention my father's name. Please don't hurt him. I beg you, " she begged in a naive manner.

The man squat down and replied,

"Don't worry, young lady. We have no intention of harming your father. He's a changed man now – he won't try anything foolish or..... heroic, "he said while patting Joan on the left shoulder and smiling sheepishly.

"Do you know my father from before?"

But before he could answer her, Valentina interrupted,

"Joan, you must not ask any more questions. These men are dangerous, and we must do as they say. Please, don't provoke them." Said Valentina in a tone that was reminiscent of fear and disgust altogether.

" They have done more harm to this family already." she added.

Joan felt a flash of anger in her mind because he mother had just severed her chances of getting through to the men and extracting valuable information. She felt like telling her mother to just keep quiet and allow her to do her thing because it seemed like the mother did not quite fathom the game she was playing at but there was no way if communicating that to her mother without blowing the deal up on their faces and so she only bit her tongue and buried the dig.

It was clear that her mother was trying to protect her.

"So now you know what can or cannot provoke us eh Joan? ..... Hahaha Joan forget your mother. Feel free to ask us anything. I will be happy to tell you who your father really is. I know they must have hid the truth from you, they did not quite clearly tell you about their past or yours huhn?."

Valentina knew her daughter should not know the truth because she was not yet ready for it, so she tried all she could to keep her away from hearing it.

"Leave my daughter alone, she does not want to hear whatever cooked up story you have. What do you want from us? Who even are you and where are you from?", she asked in a threatening tone tay challenged the men.

The men laughed.

"This woman," One said from the background.

"you're funny. Asking me who I am and where I am from. What's next, my parents name?"

They all bursted into another loud round of laughter. But the way they were laughing, they were making jest of her and clearly, it showed that they knew everything that Valentina feared they did.

She began to wonder who might have sold them out. Was it one of her friends from back then? But she had cut them all off and would trust all of her sister comrades with her life.

The men continued to make jest of her.

"Yeah, think woman, You and your husband thought you were smart.", said the guy who seemed from the outset of the operation to be having the leadership role over all the others although appearing to be the youngest, obviously.

Suddenly, amidst the men's ridiculing laughter, Valentina began to speak in a language that was unknown only to them. The words flowed effortlessly from her lips, carrying with them a sense of ancient wisdom. Though they initially dismissed her words as senseless rambling, they soon recognized the ancient tongue for what it was – a language steeped in history and tradition.

It began to make sense to them and they responded in a pidginized form of tongue.

Initially, Joan was in the dark, she was even surprised that her mom could speak this kind of language and she never knew, but when the men started responding in pidgin, she was able to pick up a few things.

The gist began to make sense. They mentioned something about a big hijack from some 14 to 15 years ago.

Their tone shifted abruptly as they spoke of her husband, acknowledging his prowess in the realm of clandestine activities. Yet, their admiration soon turned to bitterness as they lamented his perceived downfall, attributing it to his abandonment of their shared cause which was ab absolute betrayal to their father.

It then became clear to Valentina that these were not mere strangers but former allies, disillusioned by her husband's apparent abandonment or the so-called surrender.

"If only we had known that you and your husband would fall so far, giving up the fight and sinking back into the gutters, we would never have revered him. We all should have been swimming in the big ocean."

Their words were scathing, and Valentina felt a hot flush of shame.

She had once been proud of her husband, but nevertheless, she understood why they had to give it all up.

They continued.

"We once revered him, but we were never fools. We're here for business, not trouble. Your husband is aware of our demands, and we expect him to deliver. If he tries to relive the glory days of his past, we'll show him that our generation is better at everything."

His smug confidence made Valentina's stomach turn. She had never hated anyone so much in her life. How could they think so little of her husband? Well, they think her husband's retirement from his old ways meant he does not have it in him anymore.

That mistake will cost them, thought Valentina.

The conversation sounded serious but Joan was still in the dark.

"Mom what are they talking about? I can't seem to make sense of anything. Please explain to me what's going on."

"Oh young lady, indeed she should help explain. Your mother here knows too much. Perhaps you have been kept in the dark for so long but we do not live in the dark anymore. Good things are happening and today very wonderful things shall happen. I am sure that your father," he paused and thought then apologized, " sorry, your so-called father, will not waste any time. He will come here and he will claim you. But if he chooses to do things his way, blood will surely spill....", he paused and apologized for mentioning the word blood.

"But if youre lucky and eventually, you get home alive, ask them to explain every relevant bit of your entire family history." He concluded.

Joan was still confused. She thought her little mind would be able to decipher and bring out meaning out of what all these men had mentioned, but actually the more she thought about it, even though she had wanted to jump into interpretation, the more it made her find herself in an ocean of confusion.

Joan looked her mother's face and fearlessness was written all over it. She was hoping to hear something from her but her mom couldn't take it anymore, she stood up, looked the men in their eyes and asked them.

"Perhaps you've forgotten who I am and my story, perhaps you've forgotten my name. But I do advise you to not ever bring up that story in front of my daughter again or else, you will make me relive it once I get the chance."

The men laughed, "Oh you old woman of 30 or 40 is it ?! Your days of glory are over. It's our time now, the new generation. This militia is not even our father's or our mother's anymore, it's ours!. That was why your display of ancient tongue didn't move us. Didn't you notice in the way we operate, how peculiar our strategy of kidnap was? It's better than our parent's. And of course, the weapons we hold, the markings on our skin and the language we speak. We will terrorize the whole world if we wish to and we will do it better and more efficiently. You have nothing on us."

Valentina giggled, kept quiet and sat down. At least her diversion had worked, now her daughter would not get to hear the bitter information they had protected for so long.

The only issue then, was when eventually her husband would show up.

Joan also missed her father so much.

What they did not know was that the situation was actually in Mr Gonzalez's court. He was just outside the building and he had brought with him reckoning.