3. THE ONES AT THE TOP

    Juornalists were eagerly awaiting at the gates of statehouse for access to the pressroom. News headlines all over were ranting of TMU's  director assassination. It was the hot story now and everyone wanted a piece of it or rather be the first to get first hand information. Every weekday at ten o'clock they would be granted an audience with government spokespersons and few high ranking officials. They were lucky sometimes they would have an audience with the president himself and this was that day. Not that they knew the president will be there responding to there questions since the appearance was always random.

    Statehouse is one of the most lethal and extremely protected building in the country. GSU officers were all over the compound with different kinds of riffles like AK-47, qq9, etc. There was also snipers who had very accurate rifles like Arctic .50 to take care of ground units from a far in case of any impending danger. Only the elite of the GSU regiment were assigned to guard statehouse. Inside statehouse, we also had millitary personel dressed in civilian attires. They were called Flying Squad, the reason for that name no one knows, maybe its because they react to danger quickly no matter the distance. With all this detailed security, we still had normal police officers who atleast made visitors to statehouse more relaxed. With all those millitary men around, you would feel like you are in an uncharted territory, so it was better to also have some normal police there that the public were used to.

    The highest ranking officials were situated at statehouse. Some of this men and women had different designations eg. The president as we already know, chief of staff, advisor to the president, cabinet secretary, minister of defense and some support staff like speech editors, government spokesperson, etc. There were also non-governmental staff like cleaners, cooks and even the president's  family. The whole structure was massive enough to host all this people and offer even more. 

    Since it was the central place from which a country is governed from, statehouse had to have the best architectural design to accomplish its functionalities apart from hosting these distinguished folks. There was the presidents office as the most primary room. It is where the president ran his buissiness from and carried out his presidential duties. It had his massive desk with a latest model computer and the country's flag. To be general, the rest of the office was more of landscape layout with some exquisite interior design. Next to his office, to the left when he is seated on his chair, was his vice's office.

   Of course the office was also nice as its senior's. Opposite both of their offices was the conference room. Here was where all online meetings were held. Such meeting could be with people from different countries or locations. There was a white screen on one end and an almost oval meeting table big enough to moderate thirty people. In the middle were electric ports for power cables and internet connections. On this floor were also offices for the minister of defense, cabinet secretary, etc. On the far end towards the vice presidents office was the confidential files room that had a series of security checks for access.

    On groud floor, just when you enter from the entrance was a junction of corridors with a man stature holding a book containing all names of heroes who fought for the country's  freedom from colonialism. The book was curved out of stone hence the names had to be curved in the book like engravings. There were three hallways from the junction after the entrance. A premium reception desk was between the two hallways from left. The middle hallway had a door locked to it a few metres inside and had a hanging label from the roof inscribed private.

    These is where the presidental family resided inside the big mansion. After these door, you basically enter the living room of that section. Lanya, the presidents son, was lying on a the three seater leather sofa that was part of a seven seater set up. Only aged twenty five, he didnt have a lot to do than just learn and browse on his phone. A social media celebrity he was with an average of three million followers on each of his account.s Ladies didnt just drool all over him for nothing, he had that sportman body physique. Whenever he was spotted on the bitch, every female would want a man with such abs and six packs for themselves. Playing rugby at Adams Arcade International School also made him more of a celebrity. If you playing rugby, then you sure as hell have to hit the gym. The muscle from these exercises escalated his black melanil well.

   His sister Merimela was still in her bedroom busy chatting with her boyfriend. Girls will never lack someone to keep them busy no matter how they looked. Merimela was pretty and gorgeous and had won awards in different modeling contest.  A chocolate skin with baby eyes that had a bronze reflection on the sun stunned a lot. She did know how to maintain her body well since she did workouts at their gym and infused it with yoga. For the hair she didn't care much and had done some normal large braids. 

   Her step sister, Amina, was the one who was not gifted with that much you would call  beauty and had been through some trauma in her highschool life because of the same. Her schoolmates would mock her sometimes, by then her parents were not the main leaders of the country yet. However, with that in play, you couldnt just do her wrong and go scot free like that, fighting was her other hobby. Bieng bullyed she attended boxing lessons and not even her brother could match her in a fight. Despite not being that pretty to match her sister, she still inherited their mothers eyes. Again, the beautifull bronze reflection.

  "Lets go, we have ten minutes left to be in the meeting room", said Lavendar as she appeared from the master bedroom with Tony following her behind. She is the one both her daugthers had inherited her eyes, the first lady of the country. Her cervature was alluring enough to make other politicians yearn for her. She had principals though and wouldn't want to tarnish her husbands image. With such positions of power, image is a very most-valuable aspect of relationships that you maintain

  "You sure as hell did a good job on me, I dont even understand how I got such a responsible lady", Tony replied while going for her waist. This was the one man responsible for making the final decisions about the country. He was a crowd favorite and the general population loved him since he had delivered atleast eighty percent of what he had promised.

   "Come on Tony, we are in the living room", Lavendar replied while getting away from her.

   "Yeah, or you get back to bedroom", Merimela added, she was just from her bedroom and was standing there in the middle of the door just staring at them, "dont you guys have something to do, like running the country!"

    "Okay darling, are you salty, did you have a nightmare!", Tony reverted as he came to hug her, "where is your sister? Is she asleep?"

   "I dont know, I have not checked her bedroom", was Merimela's reply.

   "Amina, Ami...", Tony tried calling her while hugging Merimela, "see, I knew you wanted it."

   "She already left, she has something to take care of", Lanya intercepted him.

  "Again?" Their mother asked him.

   "I just told you", he affirmed. There was a knock on the door. 

   "Mr President", the knocker called out.

   "Come on in Jerry", Tony invited him in. He would never fail to notice the voice of his advisor. The one person he trusted the most. Jerry opened the door and came in.

   "Everyone is waiting for you at the meeting room."

   "Okay, I am just going to take my tea quickly", Tony replied.

   "I am sorry sir but we have to go now, there is a lot to discuss and the media is putting a lot of pressure. Currently we have fourty juornalist waiting for you", Jerry tried to make him understand. 

  "Fourty!" Lavendar was surprised, "thats double."

  "Where did they all come from?" Tony asked sarcastically.

   "Come on dad", his son pushed him, "the country is waiting fo you."

     "Lets go then",  he submitted and followed his advisor. His wife followed behind. Statehouse was always a busy place as schools kept bringing their students to visit the place. They went up the lift and headed straight for the meeting room on reaching second floor.

   Everyone stood up as soon as the president entered. "Please", he gestured them to sit down as he went directly for his seat. It was situated on the far side of the end with others sitting on his sides. Every member had a tag infront of them displaying their designations. His wife and advisor were the ones immediately next to him. 

   "Okay gentlemen, lets proceed", he informed them.

   "Fredrick, you were saying?" Nderitu, the chief of staff, implored Fredrick to continue.

   "There is a lot of public unrest and we can see on social media that people want justice for TMU's director..." he was cut short there by the president. Fredrick was the cabinet secrerary of state and always wanted quick responses to situations.

  "Luyenji Palmer was his name", Tony corrected him. Fredrick stared at the president for a while. "Its alright, please go on."

  "We still dont know where Myra is. I suggest we add more resources and make this a red level priority", Fredrick finnished.

  "Making this a red level priotity, tick, adding more resources to this, NO, we have already disbursed funds", minister of finance responded.

  "As  a government we need to have emergency funds", Fredrick defended himself.

  "I still dont think we need all that, she is just one lady and there is already an asset in play", minister of defense also supported the Treasurer. Thats what they used to call the minister of finance. "Patrick is also right, there is no need to incurr extra budget on just one person and worse its just a lady."

   "Let me remind you all that if this lady is not caught then we are going to have a mad angry mob at our doorstep. The streets are talking guys", Fredrick wasn't quitting at all cost.

  "I say dont under estimate a lady and I also think we are taking this too fast. What if this lady is innocent", Lavendar spoke for the first time since sitting down. She was the only lady in the room at the moment.

  "All evidence points to her", mr. Kisinya responded. He was the minister of ICT. He had access to all intelligent firms in the country. "Some of the best data collection and analysis firms in the country have studied the evidence."

  "Maybe the ones who set her up were really good at their job", she answered.

 "What do you suggest?" Tony asked her.

  "We dont rush this, lets recheck everything."

   "Done", the president replied while standing up, "gentlemen I got a press meeting to attend in ten minutes. In the meantime work out how we can capture her alive." He proceeded out after finnishing this statement. He met his spokesperson in the hallway who led him to the pressroom. His advisor and wife were right behind him. He had only made himself cormfortable when one of the journalist asked, "how long will it take to apprehend Myra?" This wasn't allowed, the president had to choose you first to ask a question. Before even replying, Fredrick burst into the room taking everyone by surprise and rushed towards the president, when his mouth was near Tony's ear, he whispered, "You are needed at the conference room right now, Edgar is on the line. Its a number one national threat."

   The president just rose up quickly, "Am sorry, we will continue this later", was all he said to his surprised guests and followed Fredrick quickly out of the room.