By June 1993, the grit of Lagos had transformed from the colonial salt-air of Lugard's era into a thick, leaden smog of exhaust and anxiety. The city was a pressure cooker. For twenty years, the Originals the splinter group of Watchmen loyal to the 1914 mandate had existed as a subterranean myth. Silas, now graying at the temples but possessed of a predatory stillness, operated out of a derelict printing press in Somolu. Above ground, the nation was vibrating with the hope of the June 12 election; below ground, the Watchmen were preparing for a terminal systemic failure.
The New Guard, now officially operating as the Nigeria State Defense Intelligence (NSDI), had moved their primary operations to a glass-and-steel monolith in Abuja. They had become the Praetorian Guard of the military junta, led by men who viewed Lugard's Ledger not as a moral code, but as a map to buried treasure. The conflict was no longer about ideology; it was about the Lugard Files a set of encrypted documents that detailed every offshore account, every hidden asset, and every political assassination carried out since the amalgamation.
[SCENE START]
INTERIOR: SOMOLU PRINTING PRESS - NIGHT (JUNE 10, 1993)
The room is lit by a single swinging bulb. Ink-stained broadsheets hang from lines like drying meat. SILAS (50s) is examining a microfiche reader. AGENT YUSUF (40s) enters, looking over his shoulder.
YUSUF: The exit polls are coming in. Abiola is winning in places the military didn't think possible. Even in the northern barracks, the men are voting for him.
SILAS: (Without looking up)
It doesn't matter who wins the vote, Yusuf. It matters who controls the silence afterward. The NSDI has already prepared the annulment papers. They can't let him take office.
YUSUF: Why? He's a businessman. He can be bought.
SILAS: He isn't just a businessman. He's been funding the retrieval of the 1914 assets. He's looking for the Limestone Ledger. If he finds it, he can bankrupt the NSDI in twenty-four hours. He's not running for President; he's running for the Keys to the Kingdom.
YUSUF: Then we should help him. If he opens the files, the New Guard burns.
SILAS: (Finally looking up)
If he opens the files, the country burns. Lugard's secrets were meant to be a deterrent, not a public spectacle. If the people see what we've done what both sides have done there won't be a government left to save.
YUSUF: So we just sit here while the junta steals the election?
SILAS: No. We let the NSDI commit the crime. We let them show the world their true face. And then, when the chaos hits the peak, we strike the head of the snake. We aren't here to save democracy, Yusuf. We are here to ensure the survival of the State.
[SCENE END]
On June 23, 1993, the hammer fell. The military government officially annulled the election. The streets of Lagos erupted. It wasn't a protest; it was an insurgency. The Watchmen used the cover of the riots to begin Operation Tredex a multi-pronged infiltration of the NSDI's Lagos hubs. Silas knew that the New Guard would be distracted by the civil unrest, pouring their resources into the streets to suppress the masses.
The air in the city was filled with the smell of burning tires and tear gas. Silas led a team of four "Originals" through the labyrinthine sewers of Lagos Island, emerging in the basement of a government building that served as a front for the NSDI's regional server. This was the Tredex Enigma: a localized encryption node that held the digital bridge to the Abuja mainframe.
As they moved through the corridors, they weren't met by soldiers, but by a ghost of their own past. Colonel Tunde, a man Silas had trained twenty years ago, stood in the data room, holding a briefcase. He wasn't reaching for a gun; he was waiting.
[SCENE START]
INTERIOR: NSDI DATA HUB - NIGHT
The hum of servers provides a low-frequency drone. Red emergency lights pulse. TUNDE (40s, sharp suit) stands by the central console. SILAS and his team enter, weapons raised.
TUNDE: I wondered if you'd come for the Enigma or if you'd stay in your printing press and die of old age, Silas.
SILAS: (Signaling his team to hold)
You're a long way from the cadet I knew, Tunde. You've traded your soul for a tie and a pension.
TUNDE: I traded a limestone basement for a seat at the table. We're modernizing. The world doesn't want Watchmen anymore. They want intelligence officers who can play the market.
SILAS: The market is a lie. Nigeria is a blood-pact. You've forgotten the 1914 mandate. You've turned the deterrent into a business model.
TUNDE: (Tapping the briefcase)
This business model has secured three billion dollars in untraceable assets. Assets that were sitting idle because you were too 'principled' to use them. I'm not the traitor here. You're the dinosaur.
SILAS: Where is the Ledger, Tunde?
TUNDE: Already in the General's hands in Abuja. The annulment wasn't about the election. It was a distraction so we could move the physical archives without the Originals noticing. You're fighting for a city that's already been hollowed out.
SILAS: Then I'll take the Enigma. If I can't have the archive, I'll take the key.
TUNDE: (Smirking)
Try it. The moment you pull that drive, the Tredex City Enigma triggers a scorched-earth protocol. Every file we've ever had on you, your family, and your remaining 'ghosts' goes straight to the international press. We'll all go down together.
[SCENE END]
Silas paused. The Enigma was a double-edged sword. The Tredex City protocol was the ultimate blackmail. If triggered, it would reveal that the Watchmen the Originals had been responsible for every unexplained disappearance of the 1960s. It would reveal that Silas himself had been the one to authorize the surveillance of the very people he now claimed to protect.
The drama of the night intensified as the building shook from an explosion in the street below. The riots had reached the gates. For thirty minutes, the two men mentor and protégé stood in the dim red light, debating the morality of their shared history. Silas realized that Tunde was right about one thing: the organization was no longer a brotherhood. It was two different species of predator competing for the same territory.
Silas didn't pull the drive. Instead, he did something Tunde didn't expect. He accessed the terminal and uploaded a virus not to destroy the files, but to tag them. Every time an NSDI officer accessed a Lugard File, a signal would be sent to a low frequency transmitter in the Abuja hills. Silas wasn't looking to kill the New Guard; he was looking to track them.
"Enjoy your modernization, Tunde," Silas said, retreating into the shadows. "But remember: a bird can fly as high as it wants, but it still has to land on the earth. And the earth belongs to us."
The night ended with the Originals disappearing back into the chaos of Lagos. The June 12 election was dead, the mandate was fractured, and the New Guard believed they had won. But as the sun rose over a city in mourning, the Tredex Enigma was pulsing with a hidden heartbeat. Silas had the map. He just needed the weapon.