Helen, stunned by what had just happened, was shedding tears silently, realizing that day; his brother had escaped death whiskers. First was the attack on their East Legon home in which he was the target. Thankfully, he was not at home and what was more, the mission of the gang failed. Then there was the airport incident in which he was nearly killed by Kruger who shot him in the shoulder. But for the timely intervention of his colleagues who came to his assistance, giving him first aid as they rushed him to the hospital, he would have kicked the bucket. And now, another attempt by the Deputy National Security capo himself to inject him with poison…!
Lt. Badoo put his arm around her, assuring her the nightmare was over. The Vice-President stood staring at Lt. Clottey as two nurses who had come in to re- dress his wound which had bruised while tackling Rex Yamoah, began to do so. They came with three doctors standing by, watching. They had all been stunned by the audacious attempt by Rex Yamoah to kill Lt. Clottey right under their nose. They knew that with the intelligence and courage of the lieutenant, the Deputy National Coordinator would have succeeded and they would all have been suspected of murder with far reaching consequences on their carriers and their image.
Acting President Mensah went to Helen and took her hand. She understood why the soldier’s sister was crying. Had her brother not come close to being murdered?
“Your brother is one hell of a man. He is a true man of courage. I owe him my life. But for him I would have been long dead and he may have been dead also”, she said. In spite of her tears, Helen smiled. He had always been proud of her brother and hearing him being praised now by the Vice-President of the country made her feel prouder of him.
Outside the room, the two MI soldiers left behind patrolled the corridor. They stopped a nurse passing by and searched her before allowing her to continue down the corridor. The nurse was not really surprised by the action of the two soldiers because after the incident, she and her colleagues had been called into an emergency meeting, told what had happened and asked to cooperate with security personnel around. The soldiers had searched the two nurses who were now dressing up Lt. Clottey’s wound as well as the three doctors who were with them before allowing them entry into the Lieutenant’s ward.
Finally, the nurses attending to Lt. Clottey finished dressing up his wound. He smiled and thanked them for their service. The three doctors apologized profusely once more about what had happened and then left with the two nurses leaving Lt. Clottey, the Acting President, Lt. Badoo and Helen in the room.
“Helen and I are going to wait outside, Your Excellency,” Lt. Badoo told the Vice-President, sensing she wanted to be alone with Lt. Clottey once more. So taking Helen’s left hand, he walked out of the ward with her, closing the door behind them softly.
Gertrude Mensah turned to the Lieutenant, smiled, walked up to him and kissed him on the forehead.
“Thank you for everything, Lieutenant. I really owe you my life. Nick, my son, also owes you. But for you, he would have been an orphan at this material moment” she said.
“I just did my duty, madam. Any soldier who finds himself in that situation would do the same. What I still cannot understand is why they want to assassinate you. If you are assassinated, Rex Omar cannot become the President. So why does he want you dead? There is something more to it than meets the eye. There is something not right about this whole thing that I cannot place my finger on” the Lieutenant said.
“Maybe under interrogation, that friend called Kruger would confess everything so we shall know the whole story” Gertrude Mensah said.
“Don’t count on that, Madam. This Kruger man is such a character he would not crack easily. In fact, he may not crack at all. He is the type who would prefer to die than confess to anything or implicate anybody.
Just then, the Vice-President’s phone rang. It was the Speaker of Parliament calling her. She picked the call. What the Speaker told her caught her off guard.