Dirty Diamonds Of Boko Haram Part 1 by Eze Eke Read Free Book Online Page B

rate of at least half a dozen each week and
traders from all over the country, even from outside it, were
always ready to buy up everything so there was always lots of work
to be done and a work force to be kept sharp.
    Five giant containers had arrived at the
warehouse overnight and the offloading work had started at eight
o’clock that morning. It was past one o’clock now, two of the
containers were already done with and the trailers had departed
again for the ports. The third and the fourth containers were being
worked on now and the last container trailer was parked just out on
the street, awaiting its turn to back into the compound and get
offloaded.
    Alex had lots of control but never did much
yelling which was one reason he was okay with the job for the time
being. He had two assistants that did the yelling and the work
teams were all made up of professional laborers who knew the drill.
They all knew too how tough and hard he was.
    Sweeting and toiling in the heat, the men
worked steadily for another two hours until the containers were
empty then took the customary thirty-minute lunch break as the two
empty container trailers started up and moved out of the compound,
allowing the last container trailer back in to take their position
so that the work was set to continue again.
    Once the new container was in perfect place
before giant doors of the warehouse, Alex took the lunch break like
everyone else. He had some roasted sweet yams and vegetable sauce
delivered to his office from the canteen across the street from the
warehouse. His office was a modest sized one on the ground floor of
the narrow one story block of offices built to one side of the
compound. The manager and his assistant had their nice
air-conditioned offices on the top floor but Alex’s office was a
dump right next to that of security. It only had an old wooden
table, an old swivel chair and a ceiling fan. The windows and doors
of the office were always open so he always had a good view of the
compound and any ongoing work.
    Just when Alex was almost through with the
food, his cell phone rang.
    He picked it up from the table and check
caller I.D.
    It was his younger brother. The little guy
wasn’t bothersome. If he was calling now, then there was sure to be
a very good reason. Alex took the call.
    “Hello” said Alex putting the phone to his
ear.
    “Good afternoon, big brother”
    “Afternoon, man. What’s wrong?” Alex could
already hear the worry in his brother’s voice.
    “It’s my laptop, big bros. I think it’s
gone”
    Alex sighed. “That’s not possible, Kent. That
laptop is new and you haven’t used it for up to a year”
    “The laptop was good it was a power surge
that caused the problem. Most of the components on the motherboard
are burnt”
    “Sounds like you plugged it in to one of
these small chines generators”
    “There’s never light in my hostel now, bros.
I have to go out to a barbing saloon to charge my phone and the
laptop. They use the small generator there”
    “You should have used some sort of voltage
protection, those Chinese generators are destroyers and that laptop
was expensive”
    “I used a voltage protection, bros, hut it
was apparently fake too, China too”
    Alex sighed again. “How much will it cost to
fix the motherboard?”
    “There are too many damaged components on it”
said Kent quickly. “The engineer says it will be better and cheaper
to buy a new one”
    “How much?”
    “Forty thousand naira. We’re ordering a new
one form overseas and if we move now it will be here and all fixed
up in time for my exams”
    Alex knew that the price had been properly
padded up and inflated like all yearly national budgets in the
country but students did these things to solve other monetary
problems. “Alright, I’ll send you the money along with your
allowance for next month and some extra pocket money too. Make sure
you buy a good voltage protector this time and it is nothing made
anywhere near