The news of General Abacha's death ripple through Abuja like a seismic shock, but the silence that followed was even more terrifying. By 4:15 am, the city was under a total communications blackout. Major Hamza did not weep for his commander; he hunted. Standing in the dimly lit bedroom of the General at Aso Rock, Hamza stared at the deceased man's right hand. There was no mark, no puncture, no bruise only the lingering scent of clinical sterility.
Hamza knew the history of the WATCHMEN better than any man in the new regime. He knew of the Inheritance toxin. He knew that while the Nigeria State Defense Intelligence (NSDI) had the numbers, the Originals had the ghosts. He turned to his tactical team, his face a mask of cold fury. The order was given: Operation Clean Sweep. Every officer reassigned in the last forty-eight hours, every man with a connection to the old 1914 files, and every soldier suspected of Lugardian sympathies was to be detained or neutralized.
[SCENE START]
INTERIOR: ASO ROCK COMMAND CENTER - NIGHT
The room is filled with the hum of high-end surveillance equipment. Monitors show various sectors of Abuja. MAJOR HAMZA (50s) stands over a console. COLONEL YUSUF (40s) stands behind him, his pulse visible in his neck.
HAMZA: (Without turning)
Tell me, Yusuf. How does a ghost walk through a thousand guards, touch the sun, and walk away without being burned?
YUSUF: Major, the autopsy report is being prepared. The doctors say it was a heart attack. The stress of the Palestinian visit....
HAMZA: (Turning violently, grabbing Yusuf by the collar)
Do not lie to me! A heart attack is a failure of the body. This was a failure of the shield. I saw him, Yusuf. The protocol officer at the airport. Section Eight, Delta division. I checked the logs. Section Eight doesn't exist. It was deleted from the mainframe ten minutes after the motorcade left the tarmac.
YUSUF: (Gasping for air)
Major, I... I only followed the reassignment orders from the Lagos archive.
HAMZA: The Lagos archive is a graveyard of Original secrets. If you brought a ghost into my perimeter, you are the medium through which he spoke. (Releasing him) Guards! Take the Colonel to the basement. Do not record his entry. Do not record his exit.
[SCENE END]
As Yusuf was dragged away, the purge began in earnest. Across the city, the NSDI's broad forces now split into specialized hunt-and-kill sections descended on safe houses and private residences. They weren't looking for evidence; they were looking for the Original Watchmen files that had been leaked during the June 12 crisis. The NSDI leadership knew that with Abacha dead, the power vacuum would be filled by whoever held the secrets of the 1914 mandate.
Silas and Amaka were moving through the shadows of the Garki district. They had heard the sirens and the low rumble of armored personnel carriers. The Originals were being hunted by their own brethren. The NSDI's forces were broad, but their knowledge was fragmented. They held the territory, but the WATCHMEN held the truth.
[SCENE START]
INTERIOR: ABANDONED TEXTILE MILL - GARKI - 2:00 AM
The air is thick with dust and the smell of old oil. SILAS and AMAKA are packing gear into a nondescript civilian car.
AMAKA: They've taken Yusuf. The NSDI sections are locking down the Gwagwalada road. We're trapped in the capital, Silas. Hamza isn't playing by the rules anymore. He's burning the forest to find two foxes.
SILAS: (Loading a magazine into a sidearm)
Hamza is desperate. He knows that without Abacha, his authority is a sandcastle. He's trying to find the Tredex City keys before the transition council meets at dawn. If he has the keys, he can blackmail the new leadership into keeping him in power.
AMAKA: We have to leak the rest of the files. If the public sees the full extent of the 1914 mandate the political assassinations, the Lagos elite's involvement the NSDI won't have a country left to rule.
SILAS: No. We don't destroy the house to kill the termites. We use the files to negotiate the reconstruction. We need to reach the hidden archives at the Abuja headquarters. The NSDI thinks they own it, but they only own the surface. Lugard built a secondary vault below the foundations.
AMAKA: (Scoffing)
You want to break into the lions' den while the lions are hungry?
SILAS: It's the only place they won't look for us. They think we're running for the border. They don't realize we're coming for the throne.
[SCENE END]
The drama shifted to the streets. A high-stakes chase ensued as Silas drove through the back alleys of Abuja, dodging NSDI checkpoints. The NSDI was using broad surveillance monitoring every cell tower and traffic camera but Silas used Old Watchmen tactics. He knew the dead zones where the signals didn't reach, the narrow paths designed by colonial engineers that had never been mapped by modern GPS.
Suddenly, a black SUV slammed into their passenger side, spinning their car into a concrete barrier. Out stepped a group of NSDI Special Defense operatives. These weren't the bureaucrats; these were the brutal division men trained to preserve knowledge through blood.
[SCENE START]
EXTERIOR: DESERTED INTERSECTION - NIGHT
Smoke rises from the wrecked car. SILAS crawls out, blood trickling down his forehead. He faces four NSDI OPERATIVES. Leading them is AGENT BELLO, a man known for his ruthlessness in the 1993 purge.
BELLO: The ghost of 1914 finally bleeds. Silas Okoro, you're a difficult man to find.
SILAS: (Standing slowly, hands visible)
You're a difficult man to respect, Bello. You're hunting the men who taught you how to walk.
BELLO: You taught us how to hide. We learned how to rule on our own. Where is the Ledger? Hamza wants the physical copies.
SILAS: The Ledger isn't a book you can burn, Bello. It's a series of protocols. It's in the way the city is built. It's in the handshakes you haven't given yet.
BELLO: (Raising his weapon)
Enough riddles. You killed the General. You destabilized the state.
SILAS: The state was already rotting. We just accelerated the decay so something new could grow. (Silas looks at his watch) You should check your radio, Bello. The transition council just announced the dissolution of the NSDI's special powers. You're not an agent anymore. You're just a man with a gun in a city that's about to wake up.
[SCENE END]
A burst of static erupted from Bello's radio. The "Originals" had played their final card from the 1993 leak. They hadn't sent the files to the press; they had sent them to the moderate generals in the transition council.
The NSDI's broad power was being clipped in real-time. In the confusion, Amaka fired from the wreckage of the car, neutralizing two operatives. Silas moved with the speed of a younger man, disarming Bello in a flurry of brutal, efficient strikes.
"The WATCHMEN don't belong to the General," Silas whispered into Bello's ear as he pinned him to the ground. "We belong to the mandate. And the mandate says the secrets stay with us."
Silas and Amaka disappeared into the night, leaving the NSDI in a state of civil war. The Night of the Long Knives had failed to catch the ghosts. Instead, it had exposed the fractures in the new regime. The headquarters in Abuja was now a target, not a fortress. The two factions of the WATCHMEN were headed for a final collision at the heart of the capital, where the secrets of 1914 were buried deep beneath the earth.