a dawn never awaited.

   

         

  Chapter 1.

"Son, find out the  number of innocent girls after Korir." My supervisor, a man of mean elegance had said in a calm but rather firm voice. He was troubled. It was during our tea break, after a long session of film making directed by Dr. Ndemo, one of the country's finest film makers. 

"You did well with the Kiprop case, definitely you can do way much better with this one."

Whatever assured his confidence in me remained best known only to him. My mind travelled back to his point of reference. I was more than consigned to oblivion. 

"We don't want more deaths, identify them so we can stop this on time. "

But who was Korir anyway? Why was my supervisor so sure that the girls after Korir were going to be killed?

"My son, these people are not only rich but powerful too. They will do anything to safeguard their reputation." He paused long enough. "This is your call. I want you to run an exposé on this."

The echo of his words reverberated in my ears. "An exposé!" I heard it afresh with an air of finality.

"Pick the necessary information you'll need immediately after the afternoon session. You will be airborne this evening."

"Living? Where to?" I thought hard to myself throughout the afternoon session. I involuntarily paid less attention to the presentation that was going on. My mind travelled into the abyss. There was nothing specific to think about. I wondered how it would look like when pretty faces would splash on the front pages of newspapers after the exposé, but that remained subject to whether I was going to break through or not. 

At 1400 hours, Mr. Tum, my supervisor, took me to his office. He looked unsettled. He definitely knew much about the looming danger. 

"Son, torn garments of ignorance cannot be patched but we will not just sit back and watch. These girls' lives are in grave danger."

He paused and sighed heavily. He paced up and down in his office. Finally, he reached for a drawer on his wall cabinet. 

"My child." He spoke as if not addressing anyone in specific.

"I've not trained you well for this. But the prowess you showed with the Kiprop case surpasses that of many seasoned journalists." He paused and sank deep in his chair. "I have a strong conviction you are the only one fit for this task. They need you on this case." He said.

"They! Who are they?" I asked, concerned.

He ignored my question. He turned with a yellow pocket file in his hand. He stared at me as he cracked his knuckles.

"Here is all you need to kick of your investigation." He handed me the file. It was classified. How he got hold of such information only God knew. 

"You have about an hour to familiarize yourself with the situation at hand." He went for the door and left me standing at the centre of his office. 

"I will be back after one hour." He said as he locked the door behind him. 

Korir was a former athlete, who unceremoniously dropped out of athletics events due to dipping allegations against him. This sunk his lucrative career at an age not so prime. Thereafter, he switched to what was described as "a series of secret businesses." These businesses had stirred up confrontation with authorities, moreso, with the national security council. He had severally been accused of supplying muscle stimulating drugs to unsuspecting young athletes, some of whom had ruined their careers at infancy. A worrying trend with these cases however; was that majority of the athletes who tested positive, had either disappeared mysteriously or passed on in frightening encounters. 

Korir did a clean job; that is, if it was true that he was responsible for these offences. Throughout the investigations, various agencies had failed to close down on him. Who was Korir? Apart from the skeleton of a former athlete? Why had my supervisor hinted at finding exactly the number of girls on Korir's back? Details of the report in the file left me dumbfounded. My supervisor's worry was justified. What lay before me was going to be a confrontation with a monster, probably a cannibal. Where my journey in this exposé was to start was a mystery. 

Maybe those who dotted his lavish parties never bothered to find out the kind of person Korir was, till their souls were at war with their spirits in death. Maybe there was a deliberate descripancy between what the state knew  and what the young women thought of him. His women comprised of young campus girls, those that struck with unrivaled facial beauty curvaceous bodies. He was a staunch believer in universal beauty, and not just beauty that appealed to the beholder. I could not make of what added to his wit that brainwashed them. Had not one of these beauties ever discovered that whoever enjoyed the V8 rides never returned? The V8 was always on the highway to the grave, but the manner in which they were exterminated refreshed my memory of the series of horror films I had watched. 

Two weeks prior to the publication of the report I was reading, two girls had been brutally slained, and their bodies abandoned  along the Kapsabet- Eldoret highway. What linked the two deaths to one serial killer was the signature of extermination. 

The young ladies throats had been sharply slit, and, in a cult like manner,the wound carefully cleaned as no blood could be traced. Their clothes were not stained. Images of the two girls remained embedded in my mind thereafter. No deep thoughts of matters so pressing could substitute them. They must have passed on under immense pain. They were an embodiment of true definition of beauty. They all died with their eyes open. Was their a missing link in what the police were looking for?

Inasmuch as I waited for the next set of instructions, this case was already a puzzle. What they were expecting from me was typical of a dream where one acquired extra-human abilities which like flying in cases of danger, only to wake up in the disappointment of oversleeping.  

Contrary to the one hour that I had been allocated, I discovered it had lapsed to three hours. My supervisor had deliberately locked me up. He knew I needed more time. Yes, I had torn through the report and understood how difficult the future of what they wanted me do looked, or, bleak altogether. 

"I hope you have enough knowledge to get you started." He spoke gently, enunciating his words in a slow pace.

"Yes sir. I've read it conclusively." I said.

"What do you make of the report then?" He asked.

"It is a hard task. I must confess." I responded.

He moved to his seat and swaved in. He breathed heavily, as though galping enough air never to breathe again. He tapped his desk continuously with the tips of his finger nails. 

"Son. What you're going to undertake is a bit complex. The modes of your operation are going to be difficult, nonetheless, I know you are naturally endowed with skills that will survive you through." He said.

"I don't understand sir." I said in unsteady voice.

"It isn't easy to understand what we are asking you to do." He said.

"We?" I asked surprised. "Is there someone else apart from you?"

"Yes son. Many more people, not limited to security agencies that have been in pursuit of of this criminal for long." He stared at me for long.

He reminded me how Korir had been able to unearth many undercover officers that were put on his trail. Possibly, the leakage that cost many offcers' lives came from the inside. There were many unknown enemies within. Otherwise, how could an ordinary citizen, perhaps peddling drugs get high profile Intel on the undercover corps?

"Korir is a ghost. They sought my help because they knew I could talk you into this." He said, his voice almost horse. 

"But sir..."

"...listen son." He cut me short. "This is your call. No one hardly knows who you are, but you have the much needed expertise" he said.

I understood the level of trust he had in me. I believed in what I could do, inasmuch as it was not my area of specialisation. What kept my worries alive was how he had managed to ID all the officers tasked to follow him. He was a priority target for both the criminal and intelligence departments. Was I being set up? I was unknown, a mere student. Was there a chance that someone had leaked my anonymous identity in the Kiprop exposé? These are questions I could not ignore by any chance. Was there need to hire a student in such a high profile case? Did someone want me off his way? I thought of the projects I had discussed with my roommates. Maybe they had sold me out. I didn't want to throw caution to the wind. I feared for the little person I was.

At about 1840 hours, Mr. Tum finished his debriefing. I was s being taken to the Raymond training camp, a haven of the toxins that had rendered the society sleepless. My cover had been prepared even before I gave my consent. Helping the police was not a voluntary service, lest you labelled for sabotaging their investigation. I was being taken in as a supervisor of a cleaning company that gave Raymond training camp the ambience and serenity that Korir and his men hatched plans to maim and kill at whims. 

To their understanding, working as a cleaning supervisor gave me the liberty to access the entire facility unrestrained. Spare keys of the entire facility had been put at my disposal. A new ID had been prepared, Abdalla Mwadime being my name henceforth. I was handed the blueprints of the entire facility to ease my navigation in the camp. 

"Son, I wish you all the best. Break into his inner circle and bring him to the public." He said.

"Yes sir!" I responded.

                 ***Chapter 2/22 loading.***