The warehouse gates were open.
Smoke rose behind the building.
Adeyemi’s car stood outside with the driver’s door open.
Mariam stopped the joint investigation team.
“No one moves without my order.”
A gunshot came from inside.
Emeka opened his door.
Zara caught his sleeve.
“She said stay.”
“Adeyemi is inside.”
“You do not know that.”
“I know his car.”
He ran.
Zara followed.
Mariam swore and signalled the officers forward.
Inside, smoke filled the warehouse.
A man stepped from behind stacked cement bags holding a gun.
“Down!” Mariam shouted.
Gunfire struck metal above Zara and Emeka.
They dropped behind a forklift.
“You followed me,” Emeka said.
“You are surprised?”
“Slightly pleased.”
“This is not the time!”
“You said that last night.”
Even now.
The gunman retreated deeper into the building.
Officers followed.
Fire spread toward the back office.
“They are destroying the records,” Zara said.
They ran.
Adeyemi lay beside the office door, blood covering his shirt.
Emeka dropped beside him.
“Adeyemi!”
His friend opened his eyes.
“The cabinet... behind the wall panel.”
“Who shot you?”
Adeyemi looked toward the rear exit.
“He came himself.”
Dele stepped through the smoke holding a gun.
Ash covered his suit.
Fear had finally reached his face.
“You should have taken the future I offered,” he told Emeka.
“And become you?”
“You think your father’s pride makes you clean?”
“My father taught me that growth means nothing if the foundation is rotten.”
Dele aimed the gun.
“You destroyed your company for a woman.”
Emeka glanced at Zara.
“No. I chose a woman who would never ask me to destroy myself.”
“She will leave when the money is gone.”
Zara answered.
“I stayed when the shirt was gone.”
Emeka turned toward her.
“Zara!”
“What? He brought up the relationship.”
Dele looked confused.
That second was enough.
Emeka moved.
The gun fired.
Pain crossed his face.
He knocked the weapon from Dele’s hand.
Zara kicked it beneath a cabinet.
Dele struck Emeka across his injured ribs.
Emeka collapsed.
Zara grabbed a fire extinguisher and swung it into Dele’s shoulder.
He fell against the desk.
Emeka looked up.
“You enjoy that thing.”
“Focus!”
Mariam entered with two officers.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Dele looked toward the exit.
Then at the officers.
His confidence disappeared.
While Mariam arrested him, Zara broke open the wall panel.
Inside were hard drives, reports and a heavy account book.
Four columns ran across each page.
Approved Item. Actual Item. Difference. Beneficiary.
The bridge.
The school.
The hospital.
Payments to Danjuma and Dr. Bamidele.
Messages concerning Daniel.
Instructions connected to the dead contractor.
Everything.
Mariam looked at the ledger.
“This brings down the network.”
Part of the ceiling collapsed.
“Move!”
Two officers lifted Adeyemi.
Another carried the hard drives.
Zara held the ledger against her chest.
The fire blocked the main exit.
“There is a loading door behind the office,” Emeka said.
They reached it.
A chain held it shut.
Emeka kicked it, then gasped from the gunshot wound in his arm.
Zara grabbed a metal bar.
Together, they broke the lock.
They fell outside as the roof collapsed behind them.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Emeka laughed.
“What is wrong with you?” Zara demanded.
“You still have the ledger.”
She looked down.
“You came back for me.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I am deciding whether to insult you or kiss you.”
“Take your time.”
She kissed him.
Hard.
Smoke, blood and Aventus surrounded them.
An officer cleared his throat.
“The ambulance is waiting.”
Zara pulled away.
“You were shot five minutes ago!”
“And you kissed me.”
“That was shock.”
“Of course.”
Behind them, Dele was placed inside a police vehicle.
Adeyemi was alive.
The evidence had survived.
They had won.
But victory felt like smoke in Zara’s lungs and blood on her hands.
It felt like almost losing the man she loved.