Aboard Transporter 001

Destination: Nigeria

Half an hour later, Michael, Tyron, Pete, Alice, and Al, were sitting in the transporter on their way to the African continent. Everybody had grim expressions, even Al was refraining from his usual jokes. They all saw the satellite images and knew what was waiting for them at their destination.

It did not take them long to get there since Max was executing sub-orbital flight, reaching the thermosphere, much higher than the regular airplanes. Holographic walls on the inside of the transporter created the illusion of transparency, and they looked at the African continent, while the aircraft plummeted smoothly toward their far-flung destination.

Before long, the transporter stopped its descent and hovered above the village. Gruesome scenes of murder and destruction were much more vivid up close.

“Max, do you detect any life signs in the area?” Michael asked.

“My cameras show some dogs and domesticated animals, though nothing that would indicate a grown human being,” the AI replied.

He turned to the others. “All right, no need to be careless; activate your camouflage and let’s see what we are dealing with.”

Once outside, it took Michael and the others a few breaths of air before they all swiftly turned on the suits' internal rebreather system. The stench of decaying bodies, mixed with the smell of burned wood, was nauseating. Wherever they looked, the murdered victims of the attack were lying on the ground; various scavengers in the area certainly did not waste any time. This was not the place for those with a weak stomach; regretfully, similar scenes were nothing new to anyone in this group.

Michael looked at this desolation and felt a great sense of loss; a few days ago this was a thriving community. Filled with ordinary people who only wanted to live their lives in peace and make their children’s life even better by building a school. Now, it was all gone, erased by the action of monsters that did not share such views.

He didn’t care which ideology those who committed this subscribed to, the justifications they used to hide behind. By this atrocity, the perpetrators acquired a very distinct status in his mind—they didn’t deserve to exist anymore.

Bodies’ position told the story of people who died trying to protect someone, and by the lack of young women and children… he had a good idea of what happened here.

A few minutes later, they found Dr. Williams’ assistant, a young man lying dead in front of the house they shared.

“Michael, my sensors are detecting someone inside the house,” Max said through the comms, “and judging by these readings, it is probably a child.”

Michael slowly approached the door, and saw two beds inside; except one was overturned with heaps of haphazardly thrown furniture on it. The bed itself was partly leaning against the wall, creating a hollow space underneath it. Moving very slowly, without making any noise, he leaned down only to see a terrified face of a small boy with tear marks making a path on a mud-smeared face. Not wanting to panic a child, Michael carefully exited the room and went outside.

“We have a small child hiding inside, under the bed. Alice, take off your helmet and see if you can convince him to get out of it, he would react better to a woman right now.”

She nodded, took off her helmet, and went through the door.

Ten minutes later, Alice told them that they could now enter. Michael saw her sitting on the floor with a small child clinging desperately with his arms around her neck.

The moment he saw Michael, the boy panicked; his eyes grew big and he started shivering.

“It is okay Zizi, this is my friend Michael, and he will not harm you,” Alice reassuringly said.

The child looked at Alice seeking the truth in her eyes, and after a few moments nodded.

Michael kneeled before the boy, giving him a soothing smile.

“Hi Zizi, my name is Michael.”

“Hi… Mr. Michael, pleased to meet you.”

“How old are you Zizi?”

“I’m six.” He let go of Alice to show Michael the number with his hands.

“And I must say that you speak English very well Zizi, who taught you?”

The child’s eyes glistened with new tears. “Mama did, she said that we would go soon to the island with lots of water and that she will teach me how to swim in the ocean.” Two big wet tears slid down his face.

Michael looked at Alice, but she only shrugged her shoulders; he could see that the child was heartbroken, but he needed to know more.

“And what is your mother’s name?”

Zizi sniffled and wiped his face with the back of his hands. “I call her mama but everyone else calls her Dr. Emma, and she said that when we make it official, I’m going to be called like her, Zizi Williams,” the child said, proud at pronouncing his new name.

Michael nodded, finally understanding the situation.

“Zizi, I need to ask you some questions. I know it must have been scary for you, but can you tell me what happened here?”

The fear instantly returned into the boy’s eyes, his grip on Alice grew stronger, but he took a deep breath and started to speak in a quiet voice.

“Mama was making breakfast when we heard the noise outside; it was the same noise our neighbor Mr. Obe made with his rifle when he hunted for fresh meat. There was a sound of many rifles. She looked through the window and said to Uncle John that it was Boko Haram, the bad people. Then Uncle John went outside. Mama turned her bed on the side and told me to hide underneath it. She made me promise that no matter what, I would not come out. Then she went to see Uncle John and I stayed under the bed. I could hear people screaming and lots of noise, but I listened to mama and I did not move.”

Zizi was talking slowly, one tear chasing another down his face; Alice was holding him tightly with the look in her eyes that promised very bad things happening to bad people.

The boy looked at Michael. “Mr. Michael, will you please find my mama?” The hopeful look was breaking Michael’s heart.

“I will Zizi, I promise you that. I’ll find your mama and bring her to you.”

“Okay… and can you tell her that I didn’t move and that I miss her?”

“I will, you have my word.”

The child smiled weakly, then laid his head on Alice’s shoulder and fell asleep.

Max had some time ago included a tranquilizer ability into the suit, administered through microscopic pores on their gloves; it could put anyone to sleep. The dosage was carefully calculated for age, body mass, and physical condition. Michael was the one who told Alice to put Zizi to sleep through the implant, as soon as he finished his story. It was deemed safe by Max, who already got thorough readings of the boy’s body from a nano-patch Alice administered earlier. Michael didn’t want the young child to be additionally traumatized by seeing the horror beyond the doors. Zizi was still young and some things he could forget, but even one look at the dead bodies of the people he knew most of his life, had a good chance of causing permanent emotional scars.

“I gave him water to drink when he got out beneath the bed, he was quite dehydrated. He stayed there for the entire day, not moving an inch. As a matter of fact, the reason he came out was a chocolate flavored energy bar I offered him, the poor thing was starving,” Alice said, still holding the child in her arms and stroking his hair gently.

“Max, what did you find out about Boko Haram?” Michael asked aloud.

“Very bad news, they are extremist terrorist group that killed thousands of people so far. Allegedly, most of their camps had been destroyed by the government troops; But, like a common weed, it is hard to eradicate them completely. Slavery, drug trade, suicide bombings, mass murders, they have done it all, claiming it was in the name of Jihad.. Their leadership changes often, however, the group is currently led by one Abubakar Shekau, who is by all accounts one sick puppy. Name any atrocity in the books, and he has done it. Like he is trying to win the top spot of the biggest monsters of all time. Even our government put a seven-million-dollar bounty on his head, but he kills anyone he even suspects of betraying him. Michael, taking all the children and young women from villages as slaves is his MO; he has done it a few times before.”

The inflection in Max’s voice managed to convey the utter disgust he felt for the man.

“Do you have any indication where they would take people from here?”

“Not yet, but there are some clues I am following. Additional satellites are being repositioned around your location, I will find them, but it may take some time.”

“Do your best Max,” Michael said and turned towards Alice. “Take the child to the island, we will remain here and deal with the remains.”

Alice silently nodded and got up with Zizi in her arms. A few minutes later, they were both in a transporter on their way to a better place, far away from this venue of death and sadness which had once held so much happiness and hope.

Michael and the team documented everything so that this monstrosity would never be forgotten. Afterward, using picks and shovels they found in the village, the team started digging graves.

Even using their enhanced strength, burying so many people took a long time. Shovel after shovel, they dug out a long trench from the hard earth, fueled by their angry feelings. There were too many bodies to bury individually, so they needed to be put in a mass grave. At least those souls would stay together, in death as they were in life.

With each new body laid into the ground, a sliver of ice that was growing in Michael's chest, became bigger, surrounded by blazing flames of hate.

Alice returned a few hours later and joined them in their macabre task.

The early dawn made its appearance by the time the team was finished. They stood there, physically and emotionally exhausted, in silence. Michael kneeled to the ground, closed his eyes, and touched the freshly built mount, his hands sinking into the earth.

“I promise you we will do everything to find those that were taken from you, and give them a chance for a better life. I promise that your spirits will not be unavenged. I promise that I will stop this evil once and for all.”

When he opened his eyes, he saw that Tyron, Pete, Al, and Alice were kneeling beside him, each making their own vows.

***

Mandara Mountains, Nigeria

Boko Haram’s Camp

It took Max almost a day and a half to find Boko Haram’s camp; even with all that advanced technology at his digital fingertips, the task was like finding a needle in a haystack. For all that, he did find them deep in The Mandara Mountains, in a secluded valley camp that held at least one thousand members of the terrorist group and several hundred slaves. There were dozens of old trucks parked to one side, the vehicle used for transferring slaves. The captured people were segregated into wooden enclosures… like animals.

Alice knew that the team would not stop until the mission was finished, so she brought additional supplies. The delay was not easy on the group, but they stubbornly stayed in the village, and built a huge rock cairn over the mass grave, so the wild animals would not be able to reach the dead.

An hour after Max gave them the information, their transporter reached the vicinity of the camp. They watched as the terrorists went about with their daily lives, acting like normal human beings: knowing that inside their black souls, they were nothing of the kind.

The Sun has already set, making the camouflage concealment that suits provided, almost absolute. The transporter left them some distance from the camp and they proceeded on foot to their target.

“Okay guys, just as we discussed, let’s do this by the numbers,” Michael said over the comms, as they were entering the camp.

By Max’s satellite imagery, they deduced that most of the terrorists lived in tents that were set up in several locations. All except Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, who lived in a cave with an entrance on the side of a hill, and ten feet above the valley floor.

Slaves were kept in a fenced area with barbed wire strung on top of the wooden barricade, with no water or latrines. Most of them were lying on the ground, and Michael could hear a constant sound of quiet weeping coming from their direction. A few guards were standing outside of the enclosure, with guns in their hands and with indifferent expressions on their faces.

Part of him wanted to go and wring their necks, but that was not part of the plan; he glanced once more back at them, knowing that their judgment was quickly approaching.

They passed through the entire terrorists’ tent city, moving slowly and avoiding locations where the fires were burning. Like wraiths, walking unobserved a few feet away from the sleeping men.

It took them almost ten minutes to arrive at the cave’s entrance. Shekau did not even post any guards, which was somewhat understandable since he was surrounded by his people, secure and safe. The entrance was dark and gloomy, but the gasoline portable generator running in front of the cave had cables leading inside, which conveniently showed them exactly where to go. Not that it mattered; their helmets came with an enhanced night-vision, enabling them to see as if it were a day.

After entering, they advanced for some fifty feet until the long passage turned to the left and opened into a large chamber. But long before that, the agonizing cries of pain could be heard echoing inside of the passage. The first thing that Michael saw when he entered was Abubakar Shekau himself… lying on top of a young woman; her cries telling that she was being raped, with bruises on her face and blood running from her nose.

Michael started in the man’s direction, but Alice beat him to it. She jumped close to the bed and grabbed the man by his hair and a leg, then tossed him against the wall on the opposite side of the chamber. She was not particularly gentle, but controlled her strength; they did not want to kill him… yet. He survived the collision with the wall with a few broken ribs and the absence of consciousness.

The girls started screaming even louder, she could not see anyone inside; Alice used the tranquilizer in her glove to put her quickly to sleep.

“Michael, he is mine,” Alice said with a voice that would not permit any disagreement.

“I have no problem with that, as long as we get what we want from him. Let me have a little conversation with him first before you… have yours,” he answered. “First, let’s make sure we are not heard.”

There was one more piece of additional equipment Alice brought from the island; another gadget Max created by copying sound isolation equipment from the Excalibur. It was a portable sound suppressor, useful, but very bulky. Tyron was the only one capable of carrying it on his back without being restricted by its weight; it also required to be placed in a stationary position to work. Once activated, it created a field that stopped the sound from escaping; only ten feet around it, but that was enough.

The others couldn’t carry it anyway, they had some other specialized equipment strapped to their backs.

Michael turned it on, and with Tyron’s help, secured the naked Abubakar Shekau to a chair. He ordered Pete and Al to go outside the suppression field and guard the entrance against any uninvited guests.

He looked at the man and shook his head. It almost seemed absurd that this one human was responsible for so much death and misery.

A pitcher of ice-cold water was all it took to wake him; his contact with the wall did not do him any good. Then again, a few broken ribs and lacerations on his skin were not even within 1% of what he deserved.

Abubakar Shekau moaned a few times and opened his eyes.

Michael, Tyron, and Alice had turned their camouflage off and were standing there, all in black, like three avenging demons ready to take his black soul straight to hell.

Shekau shouted as loud as he could for his men to come, Michael believed it was in the Hausa language, but it was not really important as Max was putting the translation subtitles on his HUD. The plan was for Max to translate for them using suits external speakers if Shekau did not speak English.

“Abubakar Shekau, we have some questions for you,” Michael told the bound man when he had run out of breath.

“American? You are American?” the terrorist said in surprisingly good English.

“So you do understand English, excellent. A few days ago, your people attacked a village one hundred miles from here… why?”

“Who are you to ask me these questions, you have no authority here, infidel. Now let me go before my men arrive and I may let you live.”

Michael just shook his head, “I would advise you to be more forthcoming. I am being quite reasonable here, trying to spare you unnecessary pain. Answer my questions nicely and this will all soon be over.”

The bound man sneered. “I have one thousand men outside, there is no way for you to escape. Surrender now and I may show mercy.” The terrorists said. Even sitting down and tied up, doing his best to show his authority.

“Well… I tried… Alice, he is all yours.”

Alice removed her helmet, and gently put it on the table.

Abubakar Shekau’s face changed into a mask of boundless rage and anger. “A woman! Release me now bitch, or I will make each and every one of my men rape you until you die!” He shrieked at her.

Alice did not say a word or showed that she even heard his words. Approaching his chair, she kneeled before him, to the terrorist’s surprise. Her right hand reached gently between his legs, and his eyes grew even bigger. But the next expression on the terrorist leader's face showed Michael what Alice held in her hand.

That is when she started to squeeze and Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, started to scream.