Helen knew that as a Military Intelligence Officer, his brother often required time alone to work on very sensitive issues. Therefore, anytime he enters his study, she lets him be. Moreover, never has she ever attempted to find out what he was working on.
Alone in the study, Lt. Clottey read the DAILY TRUST story about the massacre. The paper had published six pictures from the various scenes; four from the police station, one from the beach and the other from the home of Nii Kotey; it showed the fisherman’s wife and his friend both lying dead in a pool of blood. The story accompanying the picture provided no new information. In fact, Lt. Clottey knew more about the murders than what the paper had published.
He put the paper down and began to reflect on another important issue. A fortnight earlier, the Director of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Noah Addy, had summoned him to a meeting at their head office. The meeting had been between only him and the Brigadier. He was told Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was paying a two-day official visit to Ghana and his duty will be to act as one of his two close contact bodyguards. He and another Russian will be the only bodyguards who will be very close to Putin throughout his stay in Ghana.
Having received part of his training as an intelligence officer in Russia, he was at home with the assignment and looked forward to it. He could speak Russian. Moreover, he knew how the Russian security system operated.
He held several meetings with the Russian Ambassador to Ghana, Olga Vasilyev. He knew, before the meeting, that he was the right person for the job only after Russia’s Committee for State Security, otherwise known as the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB), had done checks on him and approved him. There was no way they would allow anybody to be in such close proximity to their President if they were not sure of him.
He had already held three meetings with the Ambassador who explained to him what more they would expect of him.
Now, the D-day for the arrival of the Russian President was only 24 hours away. What Lt. Clottey did not bargain for was that they would saddle just at this time with preventing the assassination of the Vice-President of his country. However, that was now his lot.
Now, sitting in his study, Lt. Clottey knew he had two very important tasks to perform the next few days. The first task was not a bother to him, which is guarding President Putin. It was the second task, that of preventing the assassination of Vice-President Gertrude Mensah that was going to be a headache.
He knew his first act to prevent the assassination of the Vice-President is to get to her. However, so far, he has failed to figure out how to do so without raising eyebrows especially since some of the plotters were people close to her and members of the National Security outfit. Lt. Clottey was still trying to figure out how to reach the Vice-President when an idea struck him.
“Her son!” he said not so very loudly to himself. He knew the Vice President’s only son, Nick Mensah, attended Venus International School. He knew he was just six years old and in class one. Lt. Clottey decided he would be the best person through whom he could send a message to the Vice-President.
Immediately, the MI officer got up and walked out of his study to his bedroom. He quickly changed into a blue T-shirt with blue jeans to match. Then telling his sister he was going to see somebody, he dashed to the garage, got into his white Range Rover and drove out of the house. He headed straight for Venus International School, which was almost ten eight miles away. When he was almost at the school, he drove off the road and found a convenient place to park his car. Then taking out a pen and a paper, he scribbled down a message to the Vice-President. He neatly folded the paper and put it in his pocket. Then he continued the rest of the journey to the school on foot.
Classes were ongoing when he arrived. He waited for almost fifteen minutes before he heard a bell ring. It was time for a break. He was waiting for this time. The pupils began to stream out of the various classrooms. Some went to the canteen while others went to either the washrooms or the playground. Lt Clottey got up and walked towards where the lower primary was. When he got there, he quickly located Class 1. There was a teacher seated at his desk in the classroom. Lt. Clottey knocked and entered.