THE PLAN: Alpha House Part 1

Zuri held her glass of champagne without taking a sip, her fingers resting lightly against the rim. The way Anita moved—controlling the security from inside, issuing silent commands, watching them through every hidden camera—reminded her too much of a past she had spent years trying to erase.

A flicker of a memory surfaced immediately as everyone disappeared from view —a long rainy night, an abandoned house and the betrayal that forced her to disappear.

She exhaled slowly, locking those thoughts away. This wasn’t the time. Her plan was working, even though Otis had complicated things by being here. She didn’t know much about Otis other than what Musa told her. She knew that the two of them shared a past but this was the first time she actually got to see him.

Otis is a high-risk player from Westlands part of 254. He is well known and dangerously feared so if he was here, it was definitely for the Kulindwa necklace.

JC’s voice cut through her thoughts, “Uhm…Zuri?”

“We stick to the plan,” Zuri finally answered.

The auctioneer’s deep voice rang out through the auction hall, silencing the murmured conversations.

“Next, an exclusive artifact—one of a kind. A relic with an untold story.”

A velvet cloth was pulled back, revealing a ceremonial dagger. The curved blade shimmered under the chandeliers, its hilt inlaid with lapis lazuli crystals and ancient markings carved deep in the metal. The hall shifted into incoherent whispers, the hunger in the eyes of the collectors was evident.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Kiboko Blade,” the auctioneer announced. “Recovered from the depths of a forgotten ruin. A weapon believed to be a symbol of both war and kingship in pre-colonial East Africa. Let’s start the bidding at one million.”

Other than the Kulindwa necklace, this was the next best thing. Most of the guests here would like to get their hands on both. The bidding started, and the numbers shot up rapidly.

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Sifa’s hands were shaking as she struggled to pry the hinge loose.

“I hate this,” she muttered under her breath, her voice tight.

Brayo adjusted his stance to keep her balanced. “You hate everything. Just hurry up.”

The hinge finally popped free, revealing a narrow crawlspace just wide enough for a person to squeeze through. It led into the inner maintenance tunnels—a tight, suffocating space lined with pipes and cables.

Sifa’s breath hitched. She stared into the darkness, her pulse racing.

Brayo noticed her hesitation. “Sifa...”

“I’m fine,” she snapped.

But she wasn’t. This was the one thing she actually hated, tight spaces. They reminded her of the times she had been locked in a trunk for hours when she was young.

Brayo knew this was a trigger and came to encourage her to move. “You can do this. One swish and we’re out the other way, okay.”

“It’s swoosh,” she said breathing deeply.

She swallowed, nodded and squeezed into the tunnel, her shoulders brushing against the metal walls. Brayo followed, his breathing slow and controlled, the way it always was in tight spots.

Then they heard the sound of the vault door unlocking. They couldn’t close the space behind them, so they had seconds before they were noticed and followed.

“Faster,” Brayo urged.

The crawlspace twisted sharply, forcing Sifa to contort her body as security voices echoed behind them. She fought the panic clawing at her throat. Behind her, Brayo was steady and focused. He was used to this kind of movement. Before he came to Kawangware, one his best skills was crawling down to people’s houses using chimney’s and whatever else was tight enough to steal.

Finally, they reached the end—a rusted grate leading into a secondary storage room. Sifa laid down flat on her stomach as Brayo passed on top of her, pressed his feet against the grate and kicked it out, dropping down first. He reached up, grabbing Sifa’s arms and pulling her out just as they heard voices echoing through the vault.

The work was still not done but they were in the clear. For now.

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Ali was working hard, his eyes glued to the screen.

First, he had to connect to the independent failsafe system of the estate and overload it with false alarms. This would crash the system momentarily allowing him to breach the firewall.

Next, was the generator. Electricity controlled everything inside, so losing power would enable him to unlock the doors. He had to disrupt it without setting off a full blackout. After successfully getting into the exterior systems of the estate he loaded a script to flood the system with a loop of conflicting data making it think the power was fluctuating instead of failing. This meant that the generator wouldn’t activate immediately after the power was switched off, leaving a temporary blind spot. five minutes. That was all the window Zuri and the others would get before everything reset.

Ali’s screen flashed green.

“We’re in,” he murmured.

“About damn time.” Shiko sat up and dialled her phone. “Eazy, Alpha House is a go. We’ve got a five-minute window. Move.”

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Otis stood before them, looking as comfortable as if he owned the estate.

Zuri’s heartbeat remained steady but she could feel Musa’s anger radiating beside her.

Otis grinned. “So, what’s the play, Moses?”

Musa’s eyes stayed cold. “That’s none of your business.”

JC, ever the smooth talker, leaned in. “Boys, boys. No need for hostility. Let’s just enjoy the evening, shall we?”

Otis chuckled. “Oh, I’m not hostile. I’m just…curious. You’re not here for the art, that much is obvious.” His eyes flickered toward the auctioneer’s podium. “So, what is it? The Kiboko Blade? Or…” He paused lowering his voice. “…the Kulindwa Necklace?”

Musa stepped forward slightly, his tone colder than usual. “Walk away, Otis.”

Otis smiled wider. “Moses, Moses, Moses. You used to be better at this game.”

The overhead lights flickered. The security guards shifted slightly glancing around.

Zuri’s phone buzzed.

A single message from Eazy. “Alpha house is a go.  Five minutes window.”

JC coughed into his hand, covering the sound. “Time to make our exit, then?”

Otis smiled after noticing this.

“I’ll be seeing you real soon,” he said, stepping back.

Musa clenched his fists but Zuri placed a hand on his arm. “Not now.”

As they turned to move, Otis called out one last thing.

“You should’ve stayed gone, Moses.”