About an hour after the incident, police officers came to the estate after all the robbers had cleanly escaped. The news carried the story [Blue Flamingo estate was attacked by robbers, 9 killed and 28 injured].

The news held no special place in the heart of those who weren’t affected; this was just ‘another tragic news’ to them, just one of the many tragedies that were going on in the world, but to those involved, to Jade, it was everything.

Jade was contacted by his employer, a general in the American military, who gave him some months off from work to recover and advised him to get therapy. Jade asked his employer if she could find the perpetrators but she said that it was an incident that happened on foreign soil to foreigners they could at most, ask for compensation for the assault he suffered.

After the incident, Jade’s life went on a downward spiral. The therapy didn’t work; every time the issue of his family’s murder was brought up by the therapist he felt a boiling rage accompanied by an immense feeling of helplessness.

He started drinking heavily, didn’t go back to work even after the leave he was given was over, and stopped talking to anyone. When his boss called him he responded with an “I quit” and hung up. Soon alcohol wasn’t enough for him anymore, he searched for a stronger high, which lead him to drugs.

He found a drug dealer and when he approached the man, before he could even make his purchase the drug dealer smiled and said, “I’m not selling to you”. This behavior confused and annoyed Jade who was in an extremely unstable emotional state.

Jade responded “Nigga! I didn’t come all the way out here for your stupid games, you better sell or I’ll kill you” in a fit of rage, over the past months Jade’s behavior had changed from a carefree person to a raging drunk.

The drug dealer chuckled and said “Kill me? You couldn’t even avenge your own family or protect them. If you could kill anything you wouldn’t be in this shitty situation right now”.

His response made Jade snap; he didn’t even wonder how this person found out about his family. He just wanted to kill the drug dealer for reminding him of the pain he so desperately wanted to forget.

He ran toward the drug dealer and unleashed a flurry of punches which the drug dealer dodged with ease as he smiled at him. The fight continued between them with the smaller drug dealer having the advantage throughout.

When the fight ended, Jade was on the floor with the drug dealer squatting beside him, as tears flowed from his eyes, he realized was still as helpless as when the robbers attacked, but what was the point of anything now. He just wanted to die at least he wouldn’t have to deal with this shitty world and this shitty drug dealer.

The drug dealer said to him “Instead of buying drugs, why don’t you buy happiness” Jade looked at the drug dealer wondering ‘The fuck is he saying’. The drug dealer explained “I know the people who killed your family; I have all the info on them; who they are, their friends and family, their loved ones, why they did it, who asked them to do it. All the things you wish knew but don’t… sadly you’re too weak, there’s nothing you can do about it, as you may have guessed from your failed attempts to catch them, they have a very strong backing so buying a gun to kill them yourself or telling the police won’t do crap”

Jade looked at the drug dealer in shock, when he started explaining, but when he heard him say ‘There’s nothing you can do about it’ it reminded him of when his father said “There is nothing we can do” when his brother tried to fight the robber, which filled him with rage.

‘Why! Why can’t I do anything? I’m so weak and useless, but regardless I refuse to believe that there is no solution to this problem, if I’m weak all I need to do is get stronger, right? There is always a solution. I just need to learn how to break people that should be quite easy since we are all so fragile’ Jade thought as his frown turned to a look of understanding and determination.

When the drug dealer saw Jade’s expression, he smiled; he had hit the mark. He said “Although you are weak, you aren’t useless, if you help me and my associates out with your knowledge, we will give you guidance on becoming stronger as well as the information you need. You don’t have anything to lose, so, what do you say?” He didn’t even have to ask Jade said “Yes”

Jade followed the drug dealer and found out his name was James and that he worked for a small time terrorist organization, Myriad Scars, who were active in Nigeria at the time. They called themselves activists but since they mostly destroyed lives and properties to make their point they were terrorists.

What the organization required of him was that he hack various government data bases and security systems, in this day and age cyber security was extremely essential. James had come up with the idea that if they got a good hacker on their side they could easily become an influential organization and get their message heard more clearly.

His proposal led him to search for the best cyber security experts, but he found out that most of them had already been recruited by various government agencies and companies, home and abroad. It was during his search that he stumbled upon Jade.

Jade was a communication engineer so programming was second nature to him, when James found out about Jade, he investigated the crime that happened to his family so that he could use the information to bargain with him.

As Jade hacked away for the terrorist organization, they gave him bits and pieces of the information he needed as well as combat training and experience as he joined James to do some of their missions. The addition of Jade to their forces made them become a prominent and stubborn threat to the Nigerian government.

Jade’s employer tried to get him to come back to work but he refused, telling the general that he quit and paying the necessary amount needed for the breach of contract; all his parent and siblings’ money was his and it wasn’t little.

During his time working for them, he found out that his parents had been the main financial support of a rising political party that had gained traction among the youth. The two major parties of the country were not pleased with this development so they sent threats to his parents and when they didn’t yield they sent thugs to kill his family.

Jade found out that what happened to him wasn’t special, it happened to a lot of people. Some were masked as accidents while some were just explained as unfortunate events like Jade’s situation but they were assassinations in disguise. Jade’s father, Demilade, was rich but it was nothing compared to the wealth of the country’s rulers.

The politicians didn’t do these killings often as it would become a problem for them but they attacked people like them once in a while to ensure people don’t step out of line and keep fearing them.

The thugs had done a bit of investigation on their own and found out that he was American and avoided killing him in order to ensure they weren’t investigated by a power beyond the control of the politicians who sent them.

Jade was given the names, location and other necessary information about the thugs as well as the politicians involved in the decision. After 4 years of working them, Myriad Scars had given him all the information they had on the case, during his time working for them, they had him train someone to replace him.

Myriad Scars split up as the government had hired foreign detectives to find them which Jade assured them he could not evade with his hacking skills.

During those 4 years Jade had made 13 bases for himself all over the country. 12 of the bases acted as a weapons store, while the last one was a laboratory.