777 Rebourne - The 300!!!

The Final Recap: The 777 Saga comes full circle in this final chapter! Samuel is in his hospital bed in San José, Costa Rica, recuperating after waking up from 2 years in a coma. He and his friends were holidaying in the country on the 7th of July 2007 when they suffered a horrific car accident.It appears life has moved on for everyone else and before long Samuel realises that his friends are desperately trying to keep the truth of hislost years from him. While Deji and Dami must hide from him the fact that they are now married, Afua inadvertently lets slip to Samuel that perhaps the 777 scripture and the 300 that it speaks of may be the key to unlocking the dark, hidden secrets that he struggles to uncover. And finally, there is the mysterious figure of Miguel Barbosa, the Director of Special Ops for the SJPD, who saved them from a drug cartel in a small town called Jacó. However with Barbosa, there appears to be more than meets the eye…


There was a knock on Samuel’s door and before he could respond a man in police uniform he recognised almost immediately walked into the room.

“Hi Samuel, It’s good to have you back. Do you remember who I am?”

“Yes Señor Barbosa, I remember. I never got the chance to thank you for rescuing us in Jacó.”

“Don’t mention it. I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, go ahead."

“What happened after you left Jacó?” He took out his notepad and pen in preparation for Samuel’s response.

“We continued on our way back to San José. We were almost there when we reached a crossroad and a car jumped the light and collided with us. I remember our car somersaulting several times and then I lost consciousness.”

“Do you remember anything else after that?”

Samuel thought hard for a moment and then responded, “No, the next thing I remember was waking up in this hospital bed two days ago and realising that I’d lost two years.”

There was a short pause as Barbosa scribbled diligently into his notebook everything that Samuel said. “Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?” he asked looking at Samuel intently.

“I don’t. Is there something else I ought to remember?” Samuel said returning his stare.

“No, of course not. Thank you for your time. Here’s my card. If you remember anything else about that day, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

“Sure.”

As Barbosa turned to leaving the room, Samuel kept his eyes suspiciously locked on the man. He had the distinct impression that Barbosa wasn’t being entirely truthful. And he felt troubled by strange images. Though he knew that these images couldn’t be anything but vivid dreams, Barbosa’s visit had only served to question whether these dreams were more real than he had thought they were.


Two Years Ago

Dami, Deji and Afua stood over Samuel’s hospital bed as he lay there motionless and unconscious. He was strapped up with all sorts of pins and wires attached to him and he was connected to a life support machine to the left of his bed. Green intermittent zig zag lines across the machine emphasised the fragility of the life that it supported. And the doctor’s prognosis wasn’t positive.

“Samuel has suffered heavy internal bleeding and has a blood clot in the brain. I’m afraid to say that it’s impossible to say for how long he will be in a coma, and he may well never wake up again.”

They were stunned into silence by the doctor’s revelation. He stood with them quietly without saying another word, allowing the friends to come to terms with the gravity of Samuel’s condition. The brief silence was broken by a knock on the open door, and a man in a police uniform walked in. It was Officer Barbosa, the Director of Special Operations for the San José police. Only two days earlier, before their fateful accident, he had saved them after being kidnapped by a tyrannical drug lord in Jacó.

“Good afternoon, Señores y Señoras. I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

“No, that’s fine,” Deji said responding for the group, “What can we do for you Officer?”

“Well, I appreciate that you haven’t been able to come to the station since the accident. I was hoping that I could take your statements about the drug ring we busted in Jacó.”

“Sure that shouldn’t be a problem...” Deji started, but then he was interrupted by the sharp ring of his mobile. He pulled the phone from his side pocket and checked to see who the caller was before continuing. “Sorry, I need to take this call. It’s work.”

Officer Barbosa, the doctor and his friends all nodded at him as he stepped out into the corridor. He found a secluded area down the hall from Samuel’s room, looked round to make sure no one could overhear him, and then he answered the call.

“Hello, Deji speaking.” After a short pause, he continued speaking. “Yes, Samuel’s condition doesn’t look very good. Perhaps we were wrong about him. He’s not one of them.”

After listening to the voice on the other end of the phone he responded, “Something is not quite right about this scenario. I don’t trust this
Barbosa character – there is something rather suspicious about him. Have you been able to pull the files on him yet?”

He listened intently for another minute, as if he was mentally taking downvery detailed specific orders.

“Understood. I’ll make it so and report back to you at 07:00 hours. Over and out.”

Deji flipped his phone shut. He stood contemplating his next course of action for a few seconds before returning to Samuel’s room where Officer Barbosa had already started questioning his friends.


Two Days Earlier

Samuel awoke to the noise of blaring sirens. The room was dark, he could barely see anything. He tried to move but his hands were strapped to the narrow bed on which he lay. He felt the ground moving underneath him, and it was bumpy. As far as he could tell he was in an ambulance. A man, who he could hardly recognise in the dim lighting, towered over him and he could hear him say, “He’s waking up; we’re going to have to do this now or never”. His voice was unmistakeable. It was Officer Miguel Barbosa.

“Officer Barbosa,” he managed to get the words out, “Where am I?”

“Actually, the name is Agent Shenouda. My team was only working undercover as San José Police. You’ve just been in an accident on the road from Quepos. Do you remember?”

“Of course I remember – my head still hurts.” Samuel responded. “So, who are you, really?”

“Egyptian Secret Service. I’m the head of Unit 777, the counter-terrorism unit of the Egyptian armed forces. We have three hundred operatives across the globe dedicated to preserving the safety and security of not just our country but the world we live in today.”

Almost immediately, Samuel recalled Judges 7:7, the scripture they had discovered just before their accident. The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." Was this the answer to the 777 riddle they had frantically been searching for?

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Have you heard of Phase-one memory wipes?” On seeing the blank look on Samuel’s face, Agent Shenouda continued, “It is the most basic form of memory manipulation – specific memories, dates and occurrences can be extracted from a person’s mind by use of invasive techniques. The reason you’ve never heard of this is because you have been subjected to the procedure yourself.”

“What do you mean? When did this happen?”

“A long time ago, in your childhood. In 1977, the year that The Unit was set up, a group of ten thousand children born on the 7th of July were purported to have physical and mental abilities beyond that of the average human being. We felt compelled to act on this information and over a number of years, we recruited these children for extensive testing and monitoring.

Most of them did not manifest these abilities, but the few that did were tagged and returned to their normal lives until they were ready for

re-integration into The Unit. You were one of the children that we tagged!”

“This all sounds very fantastic, but even though I was born in ’77, the 7th of July is not my birthday!”

“This is exactly what you’ve been led to believe, thanks to the Phase-one memory wipe. This was necessary for your own protection from other agencies and terrorist cells that may have been privy to the same Intel that we possessed.”

All this was incredulous. Samuel paused to digest the information overload for a moment before he spoke again. “What if I am not interested in being reintegrated as you put it?”

“Well, you have two options. If you choose not to accept our proposal, you will wake up in San José general hospital tomorrow morning with a bump on the head and no recollection that this conversation ever took place. On the other hand, your mission, if you choose to accept it, will take you through rigorous high physical fitness and combat training, deep cover reconnaissance and ultimately a part in bringing down the biggest terrorist threat that mankind has ever faced!”

Samuel stared at him directly and thought for a long, hard moment. He was being given the choice to lose his present life and gain a whole new one. And as dangerously exciting as the new one sounded, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to let go of the one he had already.

“What about my friends – what will happen to them?”

“Well, do you think that the ability of Afua’s dreams to predict the future is purely coincidental? She was also tagged and we have been tracking her too. Look, don’t worry about your friends. Besides, they aren’t all exactly who you think they are. Deji is MI6, for example. If he knew of our links to the British SAS, he probably wouldn’t be trying to interfere so much.”

“How can that be possible? He doesn’t even have a British passport!”

“That’s all part of the act. I’m sure whenever he’s travelling he tells you he needs to go to some embassy or the other to get a visa. An easy way of covering up what he’s really doing.”

“That’s difficult to believe. This all sounds very improbable!”

“How improbable is it really? He’s told you he works for an Investment Bank
but has he ever really told you what he does?”

“Yes, many times.”

“But have you ever understood what he told you when he explained?”

“Never.”

“And haven’t you noticed the frequency with which he excuses himself to take calls from work, even on holiday?”

“That’s not unusual for investment bankers...”

Shenouda started to grow impatient. “Look, we don’t have very much time. We’re less than 5 minutes from the hospital and we need to be in place by then to cover our tracks. So what will it be?”

“Will I ever get my old life back?”

“Depending on the success of your mission, you may be returned to your old life after a two year period.”

Samuel considered his options and in that moment, his desire to know the truth about his upbringing and everything happening around him far outweighed his fear of venturing into the unknown. “Okay, I’ll do it. What do you need me to do?”

“We’re going to inject you with a controlled dose of a cocktail of pentobarbital and thiopental – drugs that will induce a coma-like state. Once we’re satisfied that your friends and the relevant authorities are convinced that your coma is permanent and that your condition is too precarious for you to be moved from Costa Rica, we’ll revive you.”

Before Samuel could even give his consent to the plan, he felt a sharp pain shoot into his right arm. As he lost consciousness he contemplated the loss of his old life and the beginning of a new life he was about to discover. His rebirth.

THE END

Judges 7:7 (New International Version)