TER

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shed Azuaka Jnr. would understand he allowed it on sufferance and not his reason – the harmattan cold. Before Agu left for airport that evening, exactly at the estimated time of arrival, Azuaka Jnr. had his face s

deliver him and breathe life into his world. I will make it, Azuaka Jnr. snapped out of his thought as he sniffed and sneezed like a goat. He rubbed his nostrils and smeared the catarrh streaming through. His phlegm was much now and he sneezed into his handkerchief to collect it. Fear or what, he thought. The jug on the shelf came in sight and he reached to it; shook it, poured himself a cupful of hot coffee, since he had been warned by Agu not to touch the champagne. He lit a fresh cigar and sat to it. His thought turned on; I need money, whatever Monkeys' software would bring on. I need to be made before age 26. Agu might have seen it since he was born with the egg of a dragon, Nku might have counted cool money in New York but what has the son of a police officer got to offer? And he earnestly needed to see and count his first one million naira and beaucoup more. He stole his father's grat

A car buzzed into the compound, doors opened and slammed furiously before the thwacking of shoes on the veranda. The door creak

ring at the white man; something in him was already spiking Azuaka Jnr. He remained in the door, his enviable s

g room, round a tray of cigarettes

the white man who had been bringing out his

hile until Azuaka Jnr. said, "Who is he?" he asked, pointing at the white man. "I mean we haven't known one another up till

w smoke. "Guys, meet Ferguson, my friend and big gun in this project, Ferguson," he said, thr

ka Jnr. he was thinking, so if he is the big gun

er! Your stroke-eaten

one of the men in black. I think the

zuaka Jnr. thought it scornful because Ferguson laughed at a joke directe

othing than a desperate Ojubwa possessed with his American dream. He wanted to tell him to his face that he didn't like his presence; ask him who made him a Monkey; and where he was the day they strategized to render the world broke. He had never hated anyone at first sight. Maybe it was because of something more than Monkeys' software, something