The Diplomat

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Justin Hall examined the ever-changing faces of the crowd around the square, searching for the man expected to approach him and collect the ransom for the hostage. The metallic briefcase stuffed with untraceable bills totaling the sum of one million dollars lay next to his feet, underneath the plastic coffee table. His SIG P228 pistol rested inside his concealed waistband holster.

The man kidnapped four months ago was a senior Canadian diplomat working for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, in the Trade Promotion Programs branch. He had arrived in Nigeria for a high-level conference of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and his vehicles had been attacked by masked gunmen on the outskirts of Lagos. The diplomat’s four bodyguards and his assistant had been killed in the firefight. The convoy’s two Land Rovers, hijacked by the gunmen, were found burned two days later about ten miles north of Lagos. But there had been no news about Martin Duncan until a week ago. A local rebel group — Free Niger Delta, who had been waging war against the Nigerian government over the last ten years for control of the Niger Delta’s vast oil riches — had placed a call claiming they had Duncan, and had provided unquestionable proof of life.

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