CHAPTER FOUR — The Angel and the Enemy
The city never sleeps, but Tunde learned to navigate its rhythms.
By day, he repaired generators, motors, and small machines. By night, he walked the streets alone, memorizing alleys, markets, and faces. Every corner could be a trap, every passerby a threat. Yet through it all, Aisha remained his one tether to something beyond survival — a reminder that life could still hold warmth.
🌤 A Flicker of Normal
It began simply.
He brought lunch to her at the small clinic she worked in — rice, beans, and a little fried yam — all carefully packed in newspaper.
"You're too serious, Tunde," she said with a grin, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "Why do you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders?"
He shrugged. "Because someone must. And maybe because I've learned the world doesn't care."
She shook her head, laughing softly. "Not everyone, you stubborn boy. Some people do care."
For a few stolen hours, he forgot the ashes, the fires, and the blood. He forgot Sunkanmi. He forgot revenge. He was just Tunde — a boy who could laugh again, even if only a little.
🌑 Shadows at the Door
But peace has a way of vanishing in Lagos.
One rainy evening, as Tunde left the clinic, he noticed a black SUV idling across the street. The plate bore no name, but the man inside was unmistakable. Sunkanmi Adeyemo.
Tunde froze. The memory of Ijebu and Mama Kike's death burned in his mind. Rage surged, sharp and raw, but he swallowed it. He couldn't act — not yet. Not in the open.
Sunkanmi's eyes scanned the street slowly, deliberately. Their gaze met, though the man did not recognize him.
Tunde's fists clenched. The fire that had lain dormant since Ijebu flared to life.
He whispered to himself, "Soon. Very soon, you'll know my name."
💔 Lessons in Survival
Tunde knew the city demanded patience.
He spent weeks learning everything about Sunkanmi's operations from the street up. Whispers at the market, overheard conversations in garages, the movements of men carrying envelopes and crates — all pieces of a puzzle he did not yet fully see.
During the day, he grew closer to Aisha, sharing small smiles, small laughs, and small touches of normal life. She did not know the fire that burned within him, the plans that roamed his mind like caged birds.
He thought often of Mama Kike. He remembered her smile, her words, her faith in him. He realized the only way to honor her — and all those lost — was not merely survival, but rising above the city's rot while carrying justice in his hands.
⚡ The First Move
One night, he followed two of Sunkanmi's men who were unloading crates at a quiet warehouse near the Lagos lagoon. He did not know exactly what they contained, only that their movements were secretive and hurried.
Hiding in the shadows, he took mental notes — names, schedules, routines. Every scrap of information was ammunition.
The boy who had once run from fire now walked into darkness willingly. He was no longer just surviving. He was learning to fight.
🌙 The Angel in the Storm
Aisha noticed the change.
"You've grown stronger," she said one evening, brushing rain from his hair as they walked home. "Stronger, yes… but angrier too. That fire in you — I see it. I hope it doesn't consume you."
Tunde looked at her, his chest tight. "It won't. Not yet. Not if I can help it."
He wanted to tell her everything — about Ijebu, about Mama Kike, about Sunkanmi — but he couldn't. The city was too sharp, too cruel. Secrets were the only shields.
Instead, he held her hand lightly and let the rain wash over them, a rare moment of softness in a world that demanded hardness.
🔥 A Dangerous Bond
Yet fate, as always, has a way of twisting hope with danger.
The next morning, one of the street boys he occasionally trusted whispered a warning:
"Boss says you're watching. He knows you've been asking questions. You'd better watch yourself, boy."
Tunde's jaw tightened. He understood fully. Sunkanmi's empire was sprawling, ruthless, and unforgiving. One false move and he would vanish — like Uncle Gori, like Mama Kike, like so many before him.
And yet… the fire inside him would not die.
It had grown into something deliberate, something patient, something precise.
He whispered into the morning wind, "I will save those I love. I will punish those who deserve it. And I will survive, no matter what."
🌑 The Turning Point
By the end of the chapter, Tunde had realized something crucial: to confront Sunkanmi, he could not rush. He had to become stronger, smarter, invisible and untouchable until the day of reckoning.
He had allies in Aisha, knowledge in the city streets, and fire in his chest.
The boy who refused to die was no longer just surviving. He was preparing for destiny.