The Velvet Trap

o Tower, the city sprawling beneath him like a low-burning se

he always seem

er, sipping her drink like she had all the time in the world. Her

ing it over?

g, Tolu had made contact with Ken, and Adanna's name was in every damn whisper

n the outsid

y exhaled

y knew. "Good. Then let's clean

. Inside: financial maps, surveillance logs, a list

gle in all this

erved the empire. And Adanna? She's sentimental.

truth this wasn't just about bu

w, so

That N

sland, Ken's

was lightin

OUP ACCUSED OF COVER-UP

throat as she read the leake

eak this," s

. "But someone just

and in that moment, the qu

wasn'

ly just b

sleep t

after I saw Ken's face

tight I thought he'd crack something. And I couldn't blame him. Som

do when the worl

ork

ts running deep background scrapes on every site connected to the Lekki deal

eant on

more players

py on the fifth. Whoever posted that memo to the whistleblower page u

li

k, hands

et. But he wouldn't make a move like this unless he

t smelled li

agged the missing ledger pages from the Lekki files tw

ways re

il

didn'

t

e were walking into. We'd planned to expose the truth on our terms. But so

ught that woul

idn't

top, stood, and

nock on a door I

urement team owed me a favo

I was damn sure going to know

e

e after the mee

Legal. PR. Even my father's old friends were suddenly interested in "checki

city outside glowing like it had somet

er from the Lekki site sat open on my desk like a damn

match. And now eve

the memo leaked shocked, but not surprised. Like she

ve calmed me

first time, I was too confused taking decision on what I truly wanted, weath

e the feeling that this

was d

son

get

two short taps, then

o

t easy calm like he wasn't walking i

rubbing my temples.

dgement. No lecture. Just the kind of silence

lian's the one we should be looking at. He's been cir

n't a

ieve him. The other part? It was

cts were

hut the

r

one especially the people I trusted

ldn't aff

t

an

ame here, I was s

too much curiosity and not enough armor. I wal

ved diff

r. Sh

system profile I built years ago one of the ghosts they never bothered to purg

bered glass, chrome, fake smiles. The kind of plac

n't here

re for o

ed thin. He hadn't changed much. Still buttoned up like

quiet. "You shouldn

hout warmth.

dn't

odded toward a side conference room. Soundproof. Shielded fr

ainst the table like the weight of this

k," he muttered. "One fa

"I need the backup archives from 2011 to 2013. Internal tra

"Jesus. You're d

low. "No, Tayo. I'm

of getting caught. Fear of truth. Because he knew. He was there.

ed it over in his hand

me," he said.

have

e, jaw tight.

is, there's no coming b

n't f

ed," I said. "Now I'm j