I came here to build a bridge.

Those were my words to Lieutenant Mafauchi. How he laughed.

‘You chose a bad day for bridge building, Katsin.’

‘Indeed, Lieutenant. The goat thought to greet the hyena and look where it got him.’

Beyond the station’s perimeter, thousands of native warriors screamed for our blood. We were well armed and adequately provisioned but utterly trapped. There was no guarantee that any help was on its way.

What was happening back in Kaduna? Were they too surrounded?

In short, I was back where I did not want to be. One would think that a man who had already nearly paid with his life for a bridge would not be asked to risk everything a second time, and for another damn bridge no less. If Baal really did exist then he was certainly a witty fellow…