Chapter Eleven: For The Sake Of Friendship.

The damp and cold sensation made Wale regain consciousness again. Opening his eyes to the disgusting deviltry gazing back at him. Scorch had the bludgeon above his head, grinning awfully.

"You're about to go back to sleep huh, Sleeping Beauty?"

How he managed to keep his head standing was still a mystery. It was a real pain breathing the shrill unforgiving air. Wale watched a man he had grown to take a liken to club him into the darkness for the third time. The only thing running through his mind was admiration. The man chose his job over a friendship. He chose to live than to die. He smiled as his head fell backward, he slumped.

He remembered how he was introduced to his new team. Geraldine, Chiamaka, Samson, and Scott. They were all computer scientists and destructively good programmers. When Olalekan had introduced them to him, they showed great interest in his creation. They wanted to see it at work.

"You don't see David, he decides to see you."

They were astonished at the power of this computer, the similarity between its thought-processes to that of humans. David spoke with a strong Igbo accent he had adapted after reading a lot of Igbo-themed videos on the internet.

However, the only drawback of David's free will and human-like processes is the inability of the computer to perform some given tasks efficiently. It slacked. Doing things at their own will. This was not settling well with Olalekan so Wale had to reprogram a command key into David's building block that it may be able to do the required tasks as fast as possible, give accurate results, with no lag whatsoever.

It worked. Everyone was satisfied with the information coming in, the clients were happy, goods were being sold, and the money was rolling in. Wale was growing. He purchased his dream house – a semi-detached house depicting moderation – and also bought a couple of cars, sent his parents into early retirement. With everything hitting it right, something was not settling well with him.

All the money and comfort had made him flat on his initial goal. When he relayed this with is friend turned business partner, it was met with skepticism and ridicule. "You're rich and getting even richer by the minute with your device. What more do you want?"

He wanted more. He wanted peace. And according to the agreement signed he was not able to have access to David alone. It was a property of Vertical Technologies, a vital tool for their advertising market and…

The other thing it was used for.

***

Pangs of pain crept into Wale's unconscious mind, making him jolt back to reality, finding his body all beaten-up. He could not feel one of his legs, his face felt like it was ran-over by a speeding Dangote trailer. Scott Omoregbe, codename Scorch, the one everyone calls The Questioner, his sole purpose outside aiding and managing David's central processor was to brutally torture the enemies of the boss, Olalekan.

The devil's glint shone through his goggles.

Wale wished he could see Trix's face and not the face of this punisher.

He wished for so many things right now.

But more than anything, he wished for the thorn-like air to stop piercing his lungs and artilleries, that blood stopped pinching his eyes.

Everything danced before his eyes.

Wale used the last of his strength and said, "Scorch."

"Yeah."  Scorch and his bludgeon were covered in blood.

Wale's blood.

"Please," A splitting pain traveled from his head to his chest. "Finish this."

The man nearly lost grip of the bludgeon. Such a request was never made to him. Requesting this meant much respect for the soul and the body.

Scorch nodded, gave a glance at the one-way window sitting on the far wall.

Then, he dropped the club and picked the butcher's knife.

Butcherknife in hand, he looked at Wale's bloodied form and said, "I did not mean for things to go this way."

"I understand, you are only doing your job."

"I hate this job."

"Why? You're pretty good at it." Wale chuckled with blood clogging his mouth.

Behind Scorch's goggles, tears formed.

"I'm sorry, Wallie."

The knife came in contact with Wale's chest, Scorch drove it deep into his heart with all his might.

Wale watched the knife enter him, the steel was cold, and dominating.

It sucked all the pain in Wale's body, including his life.