Don’s shooting became more rapid as he got closer to the edge of the wall but his steps became slower. He changed his gun as he reached the edge, he turned swiftly, shooting in differing directions but there was no one there. He looked towards the space where the vehicles were parked but he still didn’t see anyone. He began to walk slowly but carefully towards the Jeep, pointing his gun forward in anticipation.
Tarasha could hear him coming towards her from behind the Jeep she was hiding; her legs were hidden behind the tyre while she bent. Don was looking around as he proceeded towards the parking space slowly, just about nine metres to the back of the car where she was. Tarasha readied her gun when she was able to approximate his distance to be four metres closer. Her plan was take him down temporarily and extract some information from him. But just as she was about to move out and shoot at Don, something on her wrist vibrated, the electronic bangle. The signal meant that Aisha was giving her a warning about something. She folded her jacket sleeve and checked the screen displayed on the bangle, it showed the message “Police officers are here”.
‘d@mn it!’ she cursed. The police arrival would not give her enough time to drag Don out and do all she wanted to do with him and she didn’t want to take the other option which was to attack the police. She had to leave the place as soon as she could.
She stepped back a bit, still conscious of Don’s movement, she searched the outer pocket of her bag hurriedly and took out something.
Then she focused on the faded shadow of Don approaching with his gun formed in front, she rolled out the small ball taken out from her bag towards Don and turned back swiftly.
She could hear Don heavy steps as he staggered backwards and shot at the ball which was rolling towards him and emitting blue smoke.
She jumped on the bonnet of the second car and caught the tip of the very high fence, she pulled herself up without much struggles and climbed over the fence, landing inside another compound.
She landed into a small rectangular grass field, there was a short tree at the middle of the field, the small section looked like a relaxation part of the facility. There were two long unmovable concrete seats at each side facing each other under the tree. A bright bulb hung directly at the middle of the tree.
She began to crawl out of the place towards a shadow formed by a building some metres behind. She stopped as she got under the shadow and took sometime to look around the compound but she wasn’t able to determine what kind of building it was or even if it was residential or commercial.
She relaxed for a few seconds and took out her device, she unlocked it and began to search Aisha’s location with her app.
Soon, sounds of police cars could be heard closely. She rose up from under the shadow and proceeded forward carefully, she stopped at the front of the building behind whose shadow she hid, it had a raised corridor about half a metre above the ground level. The building itself was about nine metres wide and six metres long, it had two doors each at both ends of the width. She took a peep in through the slightly opened first door, she could see a line of urinals for men. That was when she looked up to the inscription at the top of the door, it read “Men’s toilet”. She looked towards the other door and it had the inscription “Ladies” hanging above. From that observation, she could conclude that the place was a public one which received so many visitors on daily basis. From the sparkling cleanness of the floor tiles in the men’s toilet, she also concluded it wasn’t a factory or warehouse like the neighboring building.
She paused for a second to listen carefully as she heard the loud noises made by the police officers and their vehicles as they surrounded and entered into the warehouse she had just left. She took a look at the device in her left hand again, the app had picked the exact spot Aisha was and the compass pointing the direction back through the warehouse.
She proceeded forward slowly. The main building in the compound was just three metres spaced from the toilet building. Both ends started at the same point from the back but the main building was ten times longer and wider. The building was a bungalow with a high roof for a public place but not up to the heights of big cathedrals. There was a security building directly opposite the toilet but with the entrance adjacent to the gate, just at the same position the security building at the warehouse was.
Tarasha stopped as she got to the front edge of the main building wall. She took out her gun and rested on the wall. She stared intently towards the security building for some seconds, waiting to see if any security official would show up if any alarm goes off but there was none. She proceeded to the front of the main building, it had a slightly high and large balcony. At the middle top of the roof was a broad rectangular sign board which displayed the name “New Prestige Library” in bold, the address and some other descriptions in smaller fonts below. She continued towards the steps at the middle of the pharmacy and climbed up onto the balcony.
She could hear noise made by the police officers outside the gate of the warehouse but could not hear anything outside. It seemed the officers had come for serious business. She could only hope silently that Aisha was able to hide herself from the police, else that would be a more difficult job for her and she would have to attack the police which she didn’t want to.
________________
‘Boss, we’re moving out already,’ Stainless spoke into the phone as he dragged a bag along with him. At his front was Stone and the other men who were at the place with him. Stone had a gun placed to Cole’s back as he motioned him forward. Cole had an handcuff binding his hands but his legs were free. He was already deep asleep on the cold floor where he was allowed to lay when one of the boys had barged into room suddenly and commanded him to get up.
‘We’ll should get a safe location once we are able to get out of this place first,’ Stainless answered Rex again.
‘Do keep me updated everytime and anytime anything comes up,’ Rex voice sounded from the other end of the connection line.
‘Okay boss,’ Stainless replied and the line went off.
He dipped the key into the hole and turned twice it as quickly. He paused to look around the place again while the others were already halfway down the stairs. He stared at his phone’s screen one more time, then he exited the dialer and locked the screen before dipping it into his pocket. He took out his pistol from the other pocket and cleaned the tip, he tucked it into his back pocket after deeply sniffing in the cold air.
__________
Rex took in a deep breath as he dropped the phone on the table, he adjusted his seat and tapped the keyboard, the monitor’s light came on and he entered the password. It unlocked and it displayed the Henry’s full portrait picture on the left side, on the right it displayed the portrait image reproduced with only black dots.
He clicked on a crop tool on the side bar and began to use it to cut out the image on the left. His phone vibrated twice before he got halfway. He wanted to finish with his cropping before attending to the message but the sender’s ID caught his attention. He abandoned the mouse and picked the phone.
‘Tarasha has gotten away and I’m also trying to escape. Someone has contacted the authorities and members of the Rapid Response Squad are here.’ the message read.
Rex shifted his chair backwards to create space for him to type on his phone. He slid his finger round the popped up keyboard, inputting a short message in few seconds, ‘Where exactly are you now?’
He stared at the screen in silence for some seconds, expecting a prompt reply. He wasn’t disappointed as the reply came in less than thirty seconds.
‘I’m hiding in the roof of the building behind the warehouse,’ the reply read.
‘Stay safe and avoid being caught, leave only when the place is clear.’ Rex sent in reply. He placed the phone back on his table and adjusted his seat to the table properly.
___________
Tarasha rolled the flattened tiny metal into the keyhole and the door gave way easily. She held back the door with the handle and carefully drew out the metal, then she pushed the door in slowly and entered. She was welcomed into the library by the total darkness due to the absence of light and closed windows. She closed the door carefully and walked some steps away from the door, then she took off her backpack and dropped it on the floor, squatting before it. She turned on her device flashlight and then opened the bag, she took out a material which look like a face cap and closed the bag again. The material could be attached to the head just like a face cap but it had no top covering. She wore it on her head and pressed something by the left side of the material. A bright source from which light diverges like light from a torch appeared at the middle of the material on her forehead. She turned off her device’ flashlight and strapped the bag to her back as she rose up, she then walked towards the window which were covered with fancy library curtains and peeped through to see if there was anything or anybody in the compound, she covered the light from her forehead before bending to peep. After that, she returned back to the door and pulled the handle to make sure it was properly locked, it was.
She turned to look around the library, her little source of light limited her view of the facility but she didn’t want to take the risk of having the place more brightened. She wasn’t really interested in the content of the library but only wanted to hide herself in until she thought it was safe enough to go out and pick Aisha. The officers would still be flooding everywhere now that they just arrived, it would take them some time before they narrowed their search or scrutinization to the warehouse alone.
She located the short shelf just few metres away from her standing point and proceeded to the place. She could see an inscription at the top of the shelf which read, ‘Drop your bags here and other objects not allowed in the library’. Under that was another inscription, ‘Your properties are safe with our security’.
She raised her head up after reading the inscriptions and her light revealed a seat behind the shelf. She was about turning round the shelf to the seat when she raised her head and her light met with a very short round table and a chair behind it, there were neatly arranged newspapers on the left side of the table, two different colours of pen, a red and blue one laid on the arranged newspaper. She moved her head slightly and the light revealed a long desk which was behind the short round table, there were four chairs well spaced behind the desk. It looked like the reception point of the library and the desk for the librarians and maybe other staffs. Instead of turning round the shelf, she turned to the other side instead and settled into one one of the chairs behind the reception desk after putting her backpack on the desk.
She placed her device on the desk and exited the flashlight app. She navigated back to the tracker and refreshed the dashboard to see if Aisha was still in the same location as she was before. It refreshed and displayed the same location as it did previously. That enabled Tarasha to make a conclusion that she (Aisha) was hiding somewhere and was in a stationary position, unseen by the police.
She dropped the device on the table, her eyes met with a pile of record books as she attempted to relax her back. She sat back upright and picked the first record book, she adjusted the torch on her head as she flipped the cover. She closed partly to check the title of the book on the cover. The first page on the register was dated 1st of January, 2031. There was a table of twelve columns and several rows numbered from the top of the page to the end and continuing on the other pages. The first column was titled ‘S/N’ , the second ‘Name of User’ , third ‘library number’ , fourth ‘book borrowed’, fifth ‘name of author’, sixth ‘category’. The other columns contained other information like section, return date and signature of user.
Her eyes scrolled down the page, just to while away time, she particularly focused on the names of the books borrowed. She scanned through the first page casually, the second and the third, stopping briefly anytime she saw a book title that caught her attention. She skipped some of the pages after the third page and landed at a page dated 30th of January, 2031. She scanned through a page, making no stop as she found no title of interest. Then the next page and three more pages before she dropped the book and picked her device, she turned on the screen and refreshed the tracker again, Aisha was still at the same position. Her eyes drifted to the time, it was 2:47am, she had used up to forty five minutes already in the library facility; about twenty five minutes walking in the compound and twenty minutes in the library itself. In the next ten minutes, she would be moving out of the place to get Aisha even if it means confronting the officers. She knew their alertness must have reduced since they had come for forty five minutes without seeing anyone or probably seeing Don and the dead bodies alone. A thought struck her mind, what if the position Aisha was stationed was in a police van, maybe she had been caught by them. She tapped her screen on again and clicked on a icon at the top bar of the app. A loading circle showed and it began to roll slowly, it got faster with time and the circle got bigger. In a minute time, it loaded complete and a line image of a human appeared. The person appeared to be squatting in something like a hole with her hands holding the top for support. It gave Tarasha an idea of where Aisha was hiding and eliminated the thought of Aisha having been captured. Staring at the picture again, she wondered where Aisha could be hiding in such a position. The only option that carne to her mind was the drainage which ran through the front of the warehouse.
She dropped the device on the table to wait for five more minutes, she decided to go through the register once more. She flipped a page and scanned through as usual, something caught her attention as she was about to flip to the next page. It was on the twentieth and twenty first row. The books on both rows were borrowed by the same person and was written by the same author. The title of the books were ‘Doctors in Love’ and ‘That Village Girl’, both in literature category. But that was not what caught her attention, it was the name of the author. Dr Tom Danjuma.
‘Please thread carefully, be careful when you make public speeches…’ a voice kept echoing in Stephanie’s head as she restlessly stretched and turned in the bed.
‘Be careful miss,’ she could hear an unknown male’s voice as she felt two hands hold her down at each side.
Her eyes finally opened but her vision was blurred, she could feel the pains in her neck and a sharp pain in her hand as she tried to move it.
‘Be careful miss,’ she heard the man talk again. She could see his face far above hers but not clearly, he was putting on a white coth and had a rope hanging around his neck.
‘Thank God you’re awake now,’ a female’s voice at the opposite side sounded. Stephanie turned her head to look at the woman, her vision was now clearer. The nurse kept a kind smile as she brushed with her fingers Stephanie’s hair away from her eyes.
‘How did I get here?’ Stephanie asked in low tones, turning her face back to the Doctor.
The Doctor smiled and took a step back instead of answering her. ‘You’re Stephanie George right, leader of the SWAD group in Rael University?’ the Doctor asked with a smile.
‘Yes,’ Stephanie replied without much life in her voice.
‘Nice to meet you Stephie, I’ve heard a lot about you. I was also a member of SWAD when I was in school,’ the doctor said, flashing his whole set of teeth at her.
‘How did I get here?’ Stephanie asked again, ignoring his compliments and remarks.
‘You were brought here by your pa…’ the doctor paused to cough. ‘
‘My what?’ Stephanie asked impatiently. She tried to sit up but she was stopped by the pain she felt at her back and neck, the doctor and nurse also helped restrain her from attempting further. ‘How did I get here doctor?’ she asked again, even though she was feeling pains as the doctor helped her place her head on the pillow. For the first time since she woke, she noticed the bandage on her neck and the intravenous fluid line connected to the vein in her right hand.
‘You don’t remember anything?’ the doctor asked, looking surprised.
‘Of course I do,’ Stephanie said, inhaling air deeply with her mouth as she placed the face of her palm not connected to the IV line on her forehead.
‘How are you feeling? Is your head aching you?”
‘No doctor,’ Stephanie tried to pretend but the doctor could tell she was lying. ‘I remember falling down and hitting my neck against something, but I don’t know who brought me here, did she?’ Stephanie asked, staring blankly at the ceiling as she tried to recall Tarasha’s face from her memory. She looked at the doctor when no answer to her question seemed to be coming forth, the Doctor looked like he hadn’t heard her question, he was giving some instructions to the nurse in a low voice.
Soon, the nurse curtsied and left the ward, leaving Stephanie and the doctor.
‘Be calm, you’ll take some drugs now to relieve you of the pain.’ the doctor said, feeling her forehead with the front of his palm and then widening her eyes with his fingers to look in.
‘Doctor, did she bring me here?’ Stephanie asked.
‘Ermm… Who’s the she you’re talking about?’
Stephanie stared blankly at the ceiling for sometime before looking at the doctor’s face again, ‘Who brought me here?’ she asked again, this time in very soft and low tones.
‘Don’t give yourselves troubles Steph, ‘ the doctor placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘You need to rest well, we still have to do a lot of check ups on you,’ he added, turning back to look at the nurse who just entered.
‘But…’ Stephanie tried to speak.
‘Shhh…’ the doctor hushed her. ‘Save your strength now, you’ll ask the questions later.’
_________
‘Dr Tom Danjuma,’ Tarasha repeated severally under her breath. She looked up and stared straight into the darkness for some seconds, wondering if the author could be her father or the name was just a coincidence. She had seen her father writing on sheets several times but it was only medical reports she saw. Maybe there were some other things he wrote that she wasn’t aware of. The guilt of Jefa’s death engulfed her again, at this moment, Jefa would have been the best person to ask questions.
She looked back into the register and noted the category and genre the books were selected from, the first ‘Doctors in love’ was a romance fiction while the second book addressed political issues. She got up from the seat and adjusted the torch on her head, searching around the library to locate the sections and see how they were categorized. Just as she was about to step out from behind the table to check if she could get an extra copy of the book on locating the romance fiction section, her alarm went off indicating it was time to check Aisha. She heaved a sigh and sat back reluctantly. She quickly arranged the register to where it was positioned previously, she unlocked her device to check Aisha’s location again, the position still remained the same. She got up from the seat and began to walk back towards the door with the device in her hands.
___________
Aisha covered with her palm the light produced by the device in her hands, she released it from time to time to check the reading even though she wasn’t sure if she should expect Tarasha to come out for her while the police were still around. Only eight of them had come and with only two cars which were parked outside before the gate. Only three of the of the officers were outside the gate watching.
Things had changed in the country. About fifteen years ago, a reverse would have been the case when the police were summoned for something as urgent as this. They would have showed up twenty four hours later putting blames on logistics.
Aisha could see and hear the officers from time to time pass over the permeable covering placed over the drainage for the passage of vehicles. She remained still under, hoping that a chance for her to leave the place would come quick.
_______
**12 minutes later**
‘Shhh…’ Tarasha hushed the man with a finger on her lips, she had a pistol to his side with the other hand. He was the security man on duty whom she had met sleeping on a mat beside the security building close to the gate. He had a long gun close to him on the mat and the keys to the gate beside it.
The man sat up slowly and cautiously as directed by Tarasha, his eyes was on his gun and his mind searching for a way to pick the gun without Tarasha shooting him first.
‘Don’t bother to pick the gun,’ Tarasha said in low tones, putting an eye on the security building to ensure no one else comes out of the place without her seeing. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, I only need something from you,’ she continued, still motioning for him to stand with her fingers.
‘What do you want young lady?’ the man asked as he got to his feet, raising up his two hands.
Tarasha felt angered by his confidence and ÇOçked the gun to make him see her seriousness. He probably was taking her for a girl who couldn’t handle him like her stature depicts.
‘Calm down,’ the security man said, now staring at the gun intently and her finger which was close to the trigger. ‘Just tell me exactly what you want.’
‘Move this way,’ Tarasha said, directing him with her gun towards the main library building.
‘Okay,’ he said and began to move towards the direction slowly without taking off his eyes from her.
‘Stop,’ she commanded after they had taken some steps forward, now on the same line the back wall of the security building. The man halted, with his body towards the building but his face turned towards her at the back.
‘Look there, what do you see?’ she stopped beside him, pointing towards something at the veranda of the library.
The man squinted to see but saw nothing except a red blinking light. He turned his face back to her with a questioning look.
‘Here’s it,’ she took out a small control box from the outer pocket of her bag and pressed a button on it. Then she motioned him to look towards the building again, the light had turned green. He looked back to her for an explanation, his hands still up in the sky but lower.
She tapped another button on the box and the light turned blinking red again. ‘The whole of this building and it’s surrounding will go up in flames in the next fifteen minutes, whether it will or not lies in your hands.’ she said to him and watched the look on his face gradually change to a confused one. ‘Who else is with you here?’ she asked, taking a quick glance towards the security building.
‘My colleague,’ he answered briefly.
‘He’s sleeping inside?’
‘I don’t know, we do take turns to watch but he has a visitor with him inside.’ he replied.
‘Fourteen minutes, seventeen seconds left.’ she announced after taking out her smaller phone. ‘Your task is to distract the police officers in the next building…’ Tarasha stopped and gave him a thin look, she wanted to ask him how it was possible for him to continue sleeping with all the gun shots that was coming from the building next to the library but she didn’t because of lack of time. She also realized that the last sound she heard of the police was their cars outside the gate of the warehouse, she had not heard any sound since they entered, meaning that the fence walls must be coated with additional sound proof materials and the gunshots would even if it was heard, would have sounded like it came from a very far distance.
‘Distract the police officers from the next building, tell them you saw some people here and also discovered a bomb. Distract as many of them as possible from the entrance of that building and bring them into this place,’ she concluded with her instructions.
The man stared at her for some minutes, he seemed not to agree with her task. ‘I don’t know what the police are doing there, how do I distract them?’ he questioned.
‘You have thirteen minutes and forty five seconds left,’ Tarasha said in a threatening voice and ordered him with her hands to get to work. She put her gun into her pocket and placed her hands on her waist.
The man turned back slowly and proceeded towards the place he kept the keys to the gate.
Tarasha didn’t turn back to look at him but remained in her position, waiting to hear the sound of the gate opening. Her thoughts drifted to what she had seen in the library, her father’s name in the author’s column, that was a reason she couldn’t possibly bomb the place, she wasn’t sure if she would get the book from another library and she felt a strong need to confirm the authorship.
‘Don’t move,’ she heard the man talk from behind her instead of the gate opening sound she was expecting, the security man had decided to play a fast one on her. Since his gun was at the same place with the keys, he decided to pick the gun first.
‘Don’t be foolish,’ Tarasha said as she turned back to him. ‘That gun is empty,’ she added as she dipped her hand into the side pocket of her bag and took out a very small paper bag and dropped it on the floor, three bullets rolled out of it.
The security man confirmed her words as he tried to shoot at her and nothing came forth. The gun dropped from his hands in fear as he stared at her frozen to a spot. His superstitious mind had made him conclude that she was a witch and had made his three bullets disappear from the gun into the paper bag as there was no other way he thought possible that she could have removed the bullets from the gun without him knowing when she did.
‘You have thirteen minutes and ten seconds left,’ Tarasha announced to bring him back to consciousness.
He turned back shakily and hurried to the mat, he picked the keys and proceeded to open the gate immediately. In less than thirty seconds, he was on his way to the warehouse building to report her, not out of obedience to her instructions but fear for his own life.
‘Hey! Stop there,’ an officer dressed in all black shouted, pointing his gun at the security man at the gate from the police car parked at the gate of the warehouse.
‘I know where she… Where they are,’ he said as he raised up his hand and approached the police car.
‘Who are you?’the police officer asked, coming out from behind in the car with his gun still pointed at the man. Two other officers showed up from the other car parked outside. The two bright gate lights of the library facility went off with the wires sparking at the moment. The security man ran forward to the police man with his both hand raised in the sky.
‘She got into our building and they’ve installed a time bomb,’ he said as he got to the police man pointing a gun at him. The police man searched his body quickly to check if he was armed.
‘Who is she?’ the police man asked, his two colleagues were already coming closer to them, one of them trying to connect with his communication device.
‘I don’t know her but she’s still there, she said she came with some others.’ the Security man replied.
‘I think they permeated into the neighboring buildings,’ the policeman said to a colleague over the phone.
The three cars drove into the compound one after the other raising heaps of dust behind. The back door of the first car opened and Stainless stepped out with his phone to his ears.
‘We just got there boss,’ he said as he walked towards the main building with a cigarette in his mouth.
‘Are you sure it’s safer than where you were before?’
‘Yes, even Don does not know this place.’ Stainless replied.
‘Talking about Don, you have to send some boys to watch the place and tell him when it is safe to leave his hiding spot.’ Rex said.
‘Okay boss, I’ll tell Stone right away.’
‘Good, I’ll be leaving here as early as 5am today and would also require you to provide transport arrangement to your location for me. Get to work as quick as possible.’
‘That’s nothing much, it’s done already.’
‘That other guy who promised to work with you for money and to get back his parents, don’t start anything with him yet. Also make sure he doesn’t find out that his parents have been taken out by Tarasha already. I will tell you what to do with him when I get there,’ Rex said slowly in a concluding tone.
‘Alright boss.’
‘Now, send men immediately to watch for Don or…’ Rex stopped abruptly, he seemed to have gotten a new idea. ‘This is what you should do; order your men to take note of the number of police officers there, attack them if they’re a number you can attack and rescue Don. If they are more than you can beat, let them report and you get back to me as soon as possible.’
_________
‘We can’t all just leave this place now,’ Inspector Sandra who led the team said. ‘In fact, I don’t think any of us should go in, this man might have just called to pull us into a trap.’ she added, looking suspiciously towards the security man.
‘I swear, the bomb is at the front of the library and it was reading, there’ll be about five minutes left now.’ the security man defended himself with a shaky voice, his hand raised high as one of the officers had his gun tip to his back.
‘Lead us in,’ Inspector Sandra finally said, leaving the back of the car to come and stand behind the security man. She pointed her gun at him as she directed him towards their gate. She signalled for three of her men to follow her and for other three to stay in front of the library gate.
Three men stood at different directions of the library gate while four people including Inspector Sandra went in, the remaining one officer was left at the car in front of the warehouse gate where he stood at alert with his gun pointed towards the library gate. The three men standing outside the Library gate spaced themselves and pointed their guns towards the gate.
Just as Inspector Sandra and the rest three entered into the gate with the security man, the bulbs at the gate of the warehouse went off, adding more darkness to the place which was already made dark with the lights at the library gate off. The men turned their guns towards the gate and shot sporadically but they didn’t see anyone or anything else move. Inspector Sandra rushed back outside immediately with the three she entered with.
‘What’s that?’ Inspector Sandra asked charging carefully towards the gate with her long gun pointed.
‘The lights went off,’ one of the men standing outside replied her as both of them moved slowly towards the widely opened gate with their guns readied.
‘But how can that be? We met no one inside,’ Inspector Sandra sounded confused. ‘Do the gates have the same control for the lights?’ she asked, looking towards the Security man who was standing outside the Library gate.
‘We have less than five minutes to stop the Bomb,’ the security man answered, totally unconcerned about her own question.
‘We don’t have any of the anti-bomb squad members here, we’ve called for reinforcement from the office, we can only hope they answer fast.’ she replied him. Taking out a torch light from her pocket to point towards the now dark widely opened gate.
‘But we’re all going to die if that bomb goes off,’ the Security man implied in a fearful tone.
‘We’re not all going to die,’ Inspector Sandra replied in a confident tone. ‘The person who placed the bomb is still around and would not ignite it now.’
With the tiny torch between her lips, she marched slowly into the warehouse compound again, two of her men following while the rest stood at alert outside the facility.
She turned her head sideways as she walked past the opened arm of the gate. As she attempted to turn to check behind the opened arm, a strong hand gripped the fists in which she held the gun. She gasped and tried to shoot but her hands were twisted before she could make any move, the gun dropped from her hands and she fell to her knees weakly giving out a loud scream, the pain from her twisted arms speedily transferring through her whole body.
‘Get up,’ Tarasha pulled her up and turned her body, making her back lean on her chest. She placed an arm around her neck tightly and a gun to the side of her head.
‘Move back or I blow off her brains,’ she threatened as she marched out holding the female Inspector as an hostage. The officers all stood at alert, pointing their guns towards Tarasha but none could pull the trigger at the sight of their boss.
‘Drop your guns,’ Tarasha shouted at them. They remained firm with their guns, most of them having their torchlights in their mouths while Tarasha had the light on her forehead. She ÇOçked the gun placed at the side of the Inspector’s neck and stopped at the middle of the entrance.
‘Drop your guns,’ Inspector Sandra squealed out in pains. The officers obeyed slowly and one after the other. Tarasha waited until the last one obeyed the order before taking two steps forward.
‘Now everybody move back, ‘ Tarasha ordered again. The men were hesitant for a while until she tightened her arm around inspector Sandra’s neck again. They move back slowly until they all got to the spot she directed them with her head to, far away from their vehicles and where they dropped their guns to the middle of the road. She looked downwards and whispered something. The permeable iron cover placed over the drainage to allow for vehicles passage in through the gate was pushed up noisily and Aisha got out of the place, dusting off her body.
‘Get in and drive out that bus,’ Tarasha ordered Aisha, pointing back into the compound.
Aisha walked past Tarasha into the compound without saying anything. She turned to the place the bus was parked and entered into the driver’s side which was still opened as Tarasha had left it when she drove in with it. The engine had automatically gone off after some minutes. Aisha started the vehicle and began to drive out the bus in reverse motion. Tarasha moved to the side of the fence to allow the bus pass.
It took close to three minutes for Aisha to drive to a free space because of the police vehicles parked in front. Then Tarasha joined her in the bus still holding Inspector Sandra hostage.
__________
‘Are we closer now?’ Stone rubbed his eyes and yawned as he asked.
‘Yes, just about twenty five minutes drive to the place.’ the driver of the bus replied him.
‘Okay… Remember that we are not getting to the place, we will stop far away and walk there to check.’ Stone reminded him.
‘Yes, I remember that but I’m still doubting the possibility of we not coming across any police officer or security man around the area if we walk,’ the driver replied.
‘I doubt that too,’ one of the other guys from the passenger’s seat behind supported. The number of boys in the boys totaled up to to nine.
‘Are you students of Rael University also?’ Stone asked, glancing at the face of the guy who joined the conversation.
‘No, I’m not but some of us here are.’
‘Except for the police officers that are at the place, we won’t meet any other because Don with the help of Ojo has settled all the security officials around the Rael University area.’ Rex said and chuckled. ‘Your forces are better now but not totally free from corruption. I hear that’s how Ojo pays them everytime he wants to operate. He only tells the bosses that he has a silent job to do and the bosses call off every other officers on duty and ask them to avoid the whole area.’
‘Wow! I understand now why we haven’t been accosted by any Security Official with our driving around for the past one hour.’
‘Shh… Stop the vehicle,’ Rex said, placing a finger on his lips. He was looking through the front glass at something coming from afar.
The driver dimmed the front lights first before gradually bringing the vehicle to a halt. He turned off the engine totally.
‘Are you seeing that too?’ Stone asked as he glanced at the driver who was also staring towards the same direction.
They could see from afar the headlights of a bus coming towards their direction from the other carriageway, the headlights became brighter and brighter as the bus came closer.
‘Could we be wrong? Are police officers on patrol?’
_______
‘Boss. I can see a vehicle coming this way,’ Aisha called onto Tarasha.
Tarasha rose up slowly from the ground behind the driver’s seat where she sat near the hostage and looked out through the front glass. ‘Could that be officers on patrol?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Aisha answered, reducing the speed of the vehicle. ‘But I think they’re also slowing down.’
‘Take that turn,’ Tarasha said, pointing Aisha towards the turn into another straight road.
Tarasha looked back when she heard sounds of slight movement, she saw the police officer dragging herself on the floor towards her slowly and trying not to make any noise, she was trying to get up silently and possibly disarm Tarasha.
Their eyes met and the Inspector paused in shock and intense fear.
Tarasha smiled wryly. ‘Calm down bae, we’re going to drop you off soon,’ she said as she squatted before her. She touched the Inspector’s fingers which was placed on the floor but the Inspector withdrew quickly and shot a furious look at her. Tarasha smiled again. ‘If you do anything stupid, I’ll send you to hell,’ she threatened with a devilish chuckle.
Tarasha rose up and turned as the vehicle turned into another direction. ‘Are they still coming?’ she asked, peering through the glass.
‘They halted already,’ Aisha replied, increasing the speed of the car.
‘Drive faster, and let’s drop this officer somewhere soon.’ Tarasha said. She turned and squatted before the Inspector again, ‘I have an assignment for you,’ she said in low tones.
The Inspector stared deeply into her eyes.
‘That girl Stephanie,’ Tarasha continued. ‘Make sure you fish out all others who have a hand in her kidnap.’
____
‘Isn’t that one of our buses?’ the driver asked, his eyes following the bus as it turned.
‘I was about to say the same thing,’ the guy at the immediate back seat joined. ‘It’s the same as this one. ‘
‘A girl is the one driving it,’ Stone said.
‘Could that be her?’ the guy behind Stone asked, directing his question to no one in particular. They watch the bus turned at a far distance and took a straight road with led to a bridge.
‘Could it be who?’ Stone asked, glancing back at him. Every other person’s eyes also turned to him.
‘I mean Samantha Osman,’ he replied, stuttering.
‘Don said she took out all the boys already, I believe she’s the one escaping,’ Stone replied, still peering towards the direction taken by the bus.
‘Should we go after the bus?’ the driver asked.
‘Huh? Go after what?’ Stone replied in such a way that panic was revealed.
‘I mean the bus…’
‘That’s not the instruction we were given,’ Stone said in defense as he could feel the eyes of all the boys on him and their minds accusing him of being fearful. ‘We have to follow instructions. We were asked to help Don, not to pursue Samantha Osman.’ he added, taking out his phone from his pocket. ‘Start the car and continue driving,’ he ordered the driver as he opened the dial pad on his phone.
‘I should drive after her?’ the driver asked a stupid question as he turned the key.
‘Füçk you! Continue in the same direction we were going before,’ Stone barked at him in rage. He could hear suppressed giggles and whispers from the guys at the back, not that they also wished to go after Tarasha but watching a supposed leader scared was funny.
Stone shot a furious look at them as he placed the phone to his ear, they maintained silence immediately. The driver turned the vehicle into the road and continued in a straight direction.
‘Stainless, we just saw Samantha Osman drive by…’ Stone said into the phone.
____
‘You saw who?’ Stainless exclaimed, getting up from the bench he was sitting on outside the building.
‘Samantha, she drove past us in one of our buses.’ Stone’s voice sounded from the other end.
‘And what did you do?’ Stainless asked in an excited tone.
‘What should we have done? Attack her or go after saving Don according to what we were sent?’
‘Oh!’ Stainless sounded somewhat disappointed and added a sigh. ‘So what are you doing now?’
‘Doing what we were sent, I just thought I should inform you about it,’ Stone said in a concluding tone.
‘Okay…’ Stainless said, not knowing what else to say. He was about to end the call when a question popped up in his mind. ‘How did you…’ he tried to speak but the line went off already.
He quickly opened the call records and dialled back Stone, his call was answered almost immediately. ‘Hey, how did you know she was the one?’ he asked immediately the call was answered. ‘I don’t think you’ve seen her before, have you?’
‘We saw a girl at the driver’s side of the bus, didn’t Don say she attacked the warehouse?’
‘Yes, he said so. How close were you to her?’ Stainless asked again.
‘We were…’ Stone began but his voice faded away slowly.
‘You were what?’ Stainless asked but the immediate reply he got was silence.
‘Sh|t! We just ran into the police officers now,’ he heard Stone’s voice before the line went off.
____
Eight minutes earlier
‘Pick your guns and let’s go after them right now,’ one of the senior officers in the team barked at the rest.
‘We must be careful, we still need those men breathing inside.’ another officer of the same rank countered him, not ready to move.
The officer who gave the first order paused to think for a second. ‘But we have to save Inspector Sandra, we can’t let them go with her.’
‘She said she was not going to hurt her except we disobeyed,’ the second officer recounted Tarasha’s words.
‘Are you going to believe the words of a criminal?’ the first officer retorted.
‘We have no choice, she threatened to kill her if she finds out we’re following.’
‘So do we just sit and watch?’
‘No, we will get those guys who are alive, they could have some information for us, if we all leave here now, she might have gotten away already or kill Inspector Sandra like she threatened. We have a better chance of getting the criminal if we can extract information from the sedated guys we found inside but if we all leave now, the sedated guys would have escaped before we return or before another group comes here.’ His phone rang out loud, stopping his co-debater from giving a counter-argument. ‘Hey you… On your way? Where exactly are you?’ he said into the phone. ‘Drive faster…’ he concluded the call. ‘A six man backup team is on the way,’ he said to the waiting ears of the remaining officers.
‘What do we do now?’ the other debating Officer asked.
The other smiled, feeling victorious that his co-debater was now asking what to do from him.
‘Some of us could go after that bus while only one or two of us should stay here,’ he said. ‘The backup team is only two minutes far from here.’
‘Who’s going and who’s staying?’ the officer asked, already making his way into the car.
‘I will stay with him,’ he replied, looking towards the library security man. ‘You can go with the others.’
____
**Present**
‘Boss,’ Stainless said into the phone, after inhaling from his cigarette. ‘The boys just ran into the police.
‘Right now?’ Rex’s voice sounded.
‘Yes,’ Stainless replied. He took in another drag, ‘And they also claimed to have seen Tarasha from afar.’
There was a longer silence from Rex than expected. ‘Was she the only one they saw?’
‘Yes, she was driving away with one of our buses.’
‘Did she attack them?’ Rex asked.
‘No, I don’t think she saw them, they didn’t go after her.’
‘She would have killed them all if they did,’ Rex said. There was silence for few seconds. ‘Can your boys handle the police?’
‘It depends on the number of police officers, we paid the usual ones working around the area already, the ones they meet can only be from the emergency squad and they can’t be so many at this time of the day but they can increase as the day matures.’
‘I’ll call you back in two minutes,’ Rex said, his tone suggesting he needed to attend to something urgently.
____
‘I’ll call you back in two minutes,’ Rex said and quickly cut the call to receive the other incoming call. ‘Don, where are you now?’
‘I’m out of the place, I got out through the back fence immediately I noticed that the officers were far away.’
‘Cool, some guys are out to pick you already, call Stainless now.’
_____
**Meanwhile, Stone and the boys immediately after his call with stainless**
‘Stop right there,’ The boys in the bus could hear the officers shout from the other carriageway. Luckily, the median strip separated their vehicles and there was no close contact.
‘Keep driving,’ Stone instructed the driver who increased the speed drastically. The only options they had were to face the officers or keep running away in the forward direction. They had passed the only close turn which route Tarasha’s bus had taken, so there was no turning or going back as that would mean entering into the police hands.
The police vehicles at the other carriageway made a U-turn on the same road and sped crazily back. The resemblance of the bus they saw to the one Aisha and Tarasha drove away with had made them think it was the same bus. The way they turned the vehicles could have caused an accident on a normal day as their new direction was opposite of what the carriageway was meant for but because of the hour of the day, the roads were free of cars and pedestrians.
‘I think those are the officers we’re on our way to check,’ Stone said as he read the inscription of the police vehicles “Rapid Response Squad”. ‘They’re not much,’ he continued. ‘We may have to face them.’
‘I think we can drop her here now,’ Tarasha said to Aisha, looking backwards through the back glass. ‘We’ve got no one following us,’ she added.
Aisha stopped right at the middle of the road since there were no vehicles coming forth. ‘Are we going to drop her just like that?’ She asked, taking her hands off the wheel.
Tarasha paused for a minute to stare at Aisha, trying to figure out what she meant by the question. ‘There’s no need to harm her, she seems nice to me.’ Tarasha said and glanced at the officer with an evil smile.
Inspector Sandra fastened her eyes on Tarasha’s face, she knew Tarasha was making a face at her but couldn’t see the expression as a result of the shadow that covered it.
Tarasha walked past her to the end of the bus and knelt before her backpack. She opened and began to search for something, conscious of Inspector Sandra’s eyes which were on her.
‘Boss, she has seen our faces,’ Aisha paused and let out a short breath. ‘What about the other officers who saw your face there?’ Aisha asked.
Tarasha glanced back at her briefly and then turned to continue with her to search in the bag. She rose up after picking out a wallet and picked the gun which she had placed on the ground beside her foot.
She proceeded towards the Inspector slowly. ‘Nobody there saw my face clearly, the makeup is not completely cleaned yet and I turned off the lights at the gate. Even this officer would not recognize me the next time she sees me,’ she said in reply to Aisha’s last question, now squatting in front of Inspector Sandra She placed the tip of the gun against the Inspector’s nose. ‘I would have made her forget completely that she saw anyone like Samantha Osman but I sent her an errand…’ Tarasha stopped abruptly. She stared away blankly, appearing to be thinking about what to do.
‘Boss, I think we’re staying too long already,’ Aisha said to her with the aim of reminding her that they had paused driving.
Tarasha sighed and placed the wallet in the other hand on the ground, she opened it and took out one of the neatly arranged pins in it. ‘She just have to forget about this completely,’ she took out the cap from the pin and took it closer to the Inspector’s arm. Sandra tried to resist but Tarasha overpowered her with just a hand and inserted the pin just below her shoulder. The Inspector’s eyes closed slowly and she fell into an unwanted deep sleep. Tarasha closed back the wallet and tossed it behind to the bag. She rose up dragging the Inspector’s body to the door, she paused to push open the door and stepped out first. Then she carefully lifted the Inspector’s body to her shoulder. She walked round past the front of the vehicle and dropped the Inspector carefully on grasses in the road median strip.
She walked towards the driver’s side of the bus instead of going back to the passenger’s back side where she came out from. Aisha moved to the passenger’s front seat before Tarasha could open the door.
‘Get down, bring my bag and that wallet,’ she ordered hurriedly. Aisha responded swiftly and was out of the bus and to the back in no time, she returned to the front seat with the backpack and the wallet.
Tarasha zoomed off immediately and they both remained in silence for the following few minutes. Both had entirely different thoughts on their mind. For Tarasha, she was thinking about getting Cole and then Henry at the base. She was also seriously fighting the thoughts of Stephanie from drifting back into her mind. She had forgotten temporarily about the book and author she discovered in the library.
Aisha on the other hand was full of thanks for being finally out of the Don’s imprisonment but the most important thing on her mind that gave her worries were her parents but she decided not to ask about them from Tarasha at the moment but wait for the right time.
‘Do you know the where they took Cole to?’ Tarasha finally broke the silence.
______
‘There’s no bomb here,’ the officer kneeling before the box on the balcony said to the other three officers standing behind. ‘The explosive has been disconnected and only the timer is working, she placed it to deceive you.’ he said as he rose to his feet.
‘She deceived you,’ the officer who waited out of the first eight said, in mockery of the security guard.
‘You would have been deceived too if it were you, it looked so real,’ the security man shot back at him.
‘I would have taken her out if it was me,’ the officer argued.
‘That girl is a witch, the bullets in my gun disappeared into her bag.’ the security man said in a stressed tone.
The other officers with the security man and the previous officer exchanged looks and giggled in mockery of the security man’s words. They began to climb down the verandah.
‘That lady is an strange truly, the way she moved from here to the other compound so quietly still baffles me,’ the officer behind spoke, making the others look back.
‘Are you sure you were watching properly?’ one of the officers asked.
‘You cannot but watch properly when Inspector Sandra is there,’ he replied them and began to proceed down the verandah. They all began to walk back towards the gate. ‘I wonder who that lady is, she displayed expertise in everyway. She held Inspector Sandra so firmly and covered her body with the Inspector’s so well that one would have shot the Inspector if he tried to shoot her.’
‘Soon we will unravel the mystery behind it and see if our suspicions are true,’ one of his Co officers replied. Everyone breathed in at his response, they all had the fear in mind that Samantha Osman could have been the lady since Aisha Bello who was connected to her had her parents previously locked in that building.
‘Didn’t you say there was someone in this place?’ he asked, pointing to the security building as they approached the place.
‘Yes, my colleague, he brought in a visitor.’ the security man answered, looking worried as he climbed up the three steps stairs to the security building door. He knocked the door thrice softly and waited. There was no response. He knocked thrice again, this time harder. There was still no response. ‘Tobi!’ he allowed shouted as he began to push the door forcefully. The door finally gave way and he walked in, only to rush out back coughing.
‘What’s that?’ the officers asked him, pointing in their torchlights.
The room was lit in with a blue night bedroom light. They could see as they moved closer to the entrance, traces of light smoke in the room.
One of the officers pointed in his torch with one leg on the third step and the other on the second, covering his nose from the odor of the gas flowing outside from the room. His torchlight focus got to the bed in the room and he could see two half unclad people, a man and a woman sprawled in the bed. ‘I think the room was poisoned with a gas,’ he said aloud as he turned back, down the stairs and coughed out twice.
‘It must have been through this place,’ another officer said, showing to them a hole made on the net at the window of the building.
‘We have to get them out before they die, that’s if they’ve not been killed already.’ the security man said in a frightened voice.
‘The gas doesn’t kill someone, it only makes one weak, it’s a very light gas but we need to cover our nose with something sprinkled with kerosene before entering.’
‘I have kerosene but it’s also inside this building,’ the security man replied.
‘Except the kerosene is at the entrance, I don’t think anyone can last ten seconds if he enters this room.’
‘Officers, we need to go back into this other place now, there are some men who are unconscious but still alive there, we have to move them to the hospital as soon as possible.’ the senior officer said as he proceeded towards the gate.
The others followed him except for the security man, they met with three other officers waiting for them outside the gate.
‘Do we still need more officers to come here?’ One of the officers asked, directing the question to the one they had met at the place.’
‘The officers who went after Inspector Sandra’s captors may need…’ he paused suddenly as they all heard a familiar sound. Gunshots. They could calculate the distance of shots from where they were, the direction was the one their colleagues had taken.
______
**Happening at the same time**
‘Is everybody ready?’ Stone shouted at the boys who on his order were setting up their guns to attack the police. The police were still shouting for them to stop and giving them a hot chase but limited by the median strip that separated the dual carriageways.
‘Yes,’ about six of them answered Stone’s question in unison.
‘Since they’re still in their vehicles, only those at the window sides facing their cars should shoot…’ Stone stopped abruptly to take out the ringing phone from his pocket. ‘Aim at their tyres,’ he continued after seeing the caller’s ID. ‘Let them…’ two gunshots hit the bus at the side and all the boys ducked including the driver which almost caused an accident.
‘Stop the bus!’ Stone finally commanded. They were about turning to round a road curve which led onto a bridge and another normal road from their carriageway and was supposed to lead down from the bridge to the other carriageway the police vehicles were. It meant the vehicles would sooner or later meet on the bridge as there would be no more median strip separating them. The down part of the road was not an option for Stone’s team as it led to somewhere else entirely, only the bridge led to the warehouse where Don was from that place.
The bus screeched to an halt just before they got to the curve. ‘Open fire and aim at their tyres and the drivers,’ Stone ordered the boys.
Unluckily for the officers, they had stopped at only two shots because they thought it was the same vehicle that had Inspector Sandra in it and they had also reduced their speed as they made to turn into the other carriageway, thinking that they had succeeded in making the driver of the bus give up.
The three guys at the right side of the bus released fire towards the police vehicles through their windows. Stone stepped out from the bus and moved o guards forward to join in the shooting. The police vehicle in front was the first to tumble and burst out in flames while the other continued in motion until Stone aimed directly at the driver of the car, it lost control and ran into the huge rectangular pole separating the bridge from the road below.
‘Anybody hurt?’ Stone asked as he stepped back into the bus hurriedly. His phone which he left on the seat was ringing again. ‘Watch carefully,’ he said to the boys before he picked up the phone.
‘Stain,’ he answered the call as he sat and jammed the door.
‘Don escaped from the warehouse and he’s at the street behind the warehouse,’ Stainless conveyed sharply.
‘Oh! Where’s the street behind the warehouse?’ Stone sounded confused.
‘Give the phone to the driver,’ Stainless replied and Stone quickly obeyed. The driver spoke with Stainless for thirty seconds and handed back the phone to Stone with the call already ended. He started the engine and turned away from the entrance of the bridge into the road beside.
_____
‘Calm down, they’re coming to get you,’ Stainless said into the phone.
‘They should be fast, I heard several gunshots about two minutes ago. I think Tarasha is still around and trying to get away,’ Don replied in a deep voice.
‘I spoke to them now, they should get to you in less than ten minutes.’ he said and ended the call after listening to Don’s reply. He was not too happy about Don being saved but he had no option but to follow Rex’ orders. Even though he and Don were working together for the moment, they still remained rivals and he never took this fact of his mind. He wanted Don out of the picture as soon as possible, so he could continue to relate with Rex directly and not through Don like it had been before.
____
‘I never heard them say it boss,’ Aisha repeated for the third time without getting any visible reponse from Tarasha. Tarasha seemed not to be listening at all. Her gaze was fixed forward and hands firmly on the wheels.
’14/16, Ejiro Street, behind Rael University Campus.’ she spoke out unexpectedly like a student who had just remembered a line she crammed. ‘That’s where they took Cole to? Do you know there?’ she turned her face to Aisha with a firm stare.
‘Can you come again please?’ Aisha asked politely.
’14/16, Ejiro Street, behind Rael University Campus.’ Tarasha recited the words again, exactly the same way she had been told at the warehouse.
‘I know the street, I think we can find the building with that number if we drive there.’ Aisha answered
‘How far is it?’ Tarasha asked.
‘Not far,’ came the sharp and brief answer. ‘But we’ll have to take the next turn back or go through another route which is longer,’ she added, staring intently at Tarasha’s face as if to encourage her make a quick decision.
‘We’re not going there,’ Tarasha said. ‘Its a waste of time. They’ll be expecting us and would have left there or set traps for us.’
Aisha heaved a sigh, still staring at Tarasha’s face, wanting to ask her what they were going to do about Cole.
‘There’s nothing we can do about Cole now,’ Tarasha said in a low depressing tone.
Aisha closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as she rested her on her arm against the dashboard. She raised up her head as the question she had been wanting to ask drifted back into her mind.
‘What about his parents?’ she said, asking about hers indirectly.
Tarasha could sense the tactic in her tone but answered anyway. ‘Your parents are fine and his are fine also, they’re in a hospital and should be transferred to the police care from there.’
Aisha felt a heavy load lifted from her shoulders on hearing Tarasha’s words, there was a calmness in her mind and even her body reacted to the good news. She slowly placed her forehead back to her arm which she rested on the dashboard.
‘What’s the time now?’ Tarasha asked after some few seconds of silence, there was an urgency in her voice.
Aisha raised her head and began to search frantically for where to check the time.
‘There’s a phone in the front opening of that bag,’ Tarasha said, nodding towards the backpack on Aisha’s lap.
‘It’s 4.13am,’ Aisha said after checking on the phone but Tarasha had already seen it at the same time with her.
‘I can hear the sounds of vehicles, more security officers are on their way,’ she said and increased her driving speed.
Aisha squinted and slanted her head slightly, trying to also hear what Tarasha heard but after minutes of attentive listening, she gave up without hearing anything she expected.
_______
5.50am
The darkness of the night was not yet overthrown by light, the sun was not out to do it’s part of the job in brightening the earth but the street lights and halogen lamps they brought helped them to see.
The carriageways at each sides leading down and up the bridge were completely blocked, barricaded with different police vehicles and tapes to signal to coming motorists that they were approaching a crime scene and they needed to turn back.
Several police officers and members of other armed forces were at the crime scene, making their peculiar observations while the medical team were doing away with the bodies. All the members of the Rapid Response Squad in both vehicles had died except for one, the senior officer who had insisted and led them in going after the captors of Inspector Sandra. He had been badly injured and unconscious when he was taken out of the vehicle from the left back where he was seated. It was the second vehicle which did not explode but ran into the large pole after receiving bullets from different sides. Most of the officers in it had not died just because of the sprayed bullets from their attackers which met them, but the accident also contributed to the speed at which they passed away. The other vehicle which had tumbled and burst out in flames had left no survivor, most of the occupants were badly burnt and unrecognizable.
‘Officer, you said there were only two ladies in that bus.’ another officer asked the grief stricken officer, the one who had suggested that the rest of the RRS go while he waited for the backup team.
‘Yes, only two ladies.’ he replied in a shaky voice, watching as the medicals moved the badly burnt bodies of the officers he had been with only few hours ago.
‘But the girls didn’t kill Inspector Sandra, they didn’t even harm her at all,’ the questioning officer said, with his eyes brows gathering together.
‘They promised not to harm Inspector Sandra if we didn’t follow them, I think they got mad and had to attack when they saw our vehicles coming after them.’ the officer replied.
‘But you said they were only two girls, how can those two girls handle seven of our trained men?’ he asked in an unsure tone and began to take slow steps away from the scene. The Inspector he was discussing with began to move with him.
‘That I can’t explain too, except our suspicion about one of the ladies being Samantha Osman is true’ he said, a confused look appeared on his face. ‘And I’m wondering how they met here, I expected that the bus should have gone farther than this place considering the speed and the space of time they left before our men followed. I wasn’t even expecting our men to catch up with them.’
‘Hmm… That’s something to think about,’ he replied and paused briefly. Another officer stopped at his front and saluted. ‘Yes, officer?’ he urged the saluting officer to relay his message.
‘I got information that some of the unconscious men recovered from the building beside the library are awake now and one of them has also mentioned that Samantha Osman was there,’ he said in a sharp tone and stopped, staring at their faces as if waiting for the information to sink. The two senior officers exchange looks and the frown on their faces deepened. ‘The doctors attending to the rescued abducted people have also confirmed that the girl and the couples can talk to us now.’
7:36am
As expected, journalists from different media houses had flooded the whole Rael University environs. The police had a hard time doing away with them. Pictures of the scene of the gun exchange scene between the police and the Hoodlums had gone viral on the internet shared on blogs and on different social media platforms. It had been reported that the dreaded Samantha Osman had attacked an abandoned warehouse which was being used by another gang and slew several members of the gang and the policemen who tried to stop her escape. The press had been able to squeeze out the information from sources who preferred to remain anonymous, mostly workers of the government hospital where the sedated gang members were been attended to.
**1 hour, 30 minutes ago**
‘She was there, she…’ The officers barged into the ward disrupting the conversation between the doctor and the sedated men who had been revived.
The two men were seated on low metal chairs with adjustable backrests, their shirts were off and a syringe connected to a drip line was fastened to their hand passing intravenous fluid in through their veins to totally wipe off the effect of the tranquilizer from their system. Their other hands were also fastened to the armrest of their seat with a metal chain locked with a key.
The large hospital ward had about six officers in it already, the two hospital beds had been moved away to the walls to allow for more space.
‘Inspector Mac,’ the Inspector displayed his ID card to the culprits as the Doctor gave way for them. He signaled for the Doctor and junior officers guarding them to leave the place.
‘Tell us what happened there?’ he asked when the others were out of sight.
‘We were attacked by Samantha Osman,’ one of them replied – the one who Tarasha met in the quarters behind the main warehouse and forced out the address of the place Cole was taken to from.
‘So you know her very well,’ Inspector Mac said, glancing at the face of his colleague who stood beside him.
‘No, I don’t, she introduced herself,’ he replied.
‘So what did she come to do?’
‘She took away the people we kidnapped…’
‘So you were also part of those involved in the kidnap,’ Inspector Mac interrupted.
‘I knew about it and I was asked to watch over them with some others.’
‘So you were watching over them where we found you?’
‘Yes.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘Samantha Osman attacked us suddenly and took out all of them…’
‘How many of them?’
‘Four, two different married couples.’
‘Only four? Inspector Mac asked. The guy nodded in affirmation. ‘Was there any young person there?’
‘Oh!’ he sounded like he remembered something. ‘The couples were actually aged but there was a young girl there before, she was taken out before Samantha came.’
‘You don’t know who the young girl was?’
‘She wasn’t part of my own job, but I know she was brought from Rael University.’
‘After taking the couples, what else did Samantha Osman do?’
‘She asked me to deliver a message to my boss.’
‘Who is your boss?’
‘Don.’
‘Tell me about Don.’
‘Don is my boss.’
‘Are you alright? I said tell me about him.’
‘I don’t know anything else…’ a blow from Inspector Mac landed on his mouth.
Inspector Mac looked away from him to the other one seated. ‘Who is Don?’ he asked again, directing the question to the both of them.
‘He just told you the truth, we don’t know much about him. We work for him and he pays us,’ the other guy replied in fear, shaking as he anticipated his own blow from the Inspector.
‘Were you also there when Samantha Osman came in?’
‘I was but I don’t know all these he’s saying,’ he said, glancing at his colleague who was still pressing his lips softly to reduce the pain the blow caused.
‘He was taken out before me,’ the first said in confirmation of the other’s last word.
‘So where can we find your boss?’
‘He was in that place after Samantha came, I think she returned and fought with him. I don’t know if he’s still alive.’
‘So Samantha killed your boss?’
‘I’m not sure about that yet.’
Inspector Mac paused to think for a while. He glanced at the faces of the other officer in the room for him to come to his rescue as he already ran out of questions to ask.
He turned back slowly to them as a new question came to his mind. His phone began to ring. ‘Where do you think your boss or Samantha could be?’
‘I don’t know about Don but I know Samantha wanted to free somebody else from us at our other base. 14/16, Ejiro Street behind Rael University Main Campus.’
‘Come again,’ Inspector Mac said, signalling for the co-officer to take down the address. ‘Good,’ he said after the officer signaled that the address had been written. ‘We have to go there right away, call the office to order for more men.’ he said to the officer.
He turned back towards the exit and took out his phone which was ringing for the second time, he checked the screen for the caller’s ID. Inspector Dakolo.
_______
‘When are you coming boss?’ Don said into his phone, his voice sounded weak and shaky. His eyes were red as a result of lack of sleep, he couldn’t enjoy his sleep on the old sofa where he laid in the new hideout. The building was an old one, owned by one of Stainless’ friend who was an assassin and armed robber. He had inherited it from his late parents and used it as an hideout while he had other big houses in town.
Stainless was seated at the dining area of the living room, sleeping with his head rested on the dining table while Stone was on a two seater sofa where he folded his body to manage the space. Some of the other boys slept on the floor and several other places around while three boys stayed in the same room Cole was, with fetters on his hands and legs.
‘I’m on my way,’ Rex replied him. ‘In a public transport car to Lagos, we’ll discuss more when I get there. You and your guys should get enough sleep for now. I don’t think I’ll be needing anyone to pick me anymore, I’ve been able to study the routes. But brace up for the work ahead,’ Rex replied in a calm tone.
‘Okay boss, we’ll do as you say.’
Don said and the call ended. His eyes met with Stainless’ as he was about to lay his head on the armrest. Both looked away almost immediately and pretended not to have seen each other.
_____
**8:03am**
‘Where is this place?’ Tarasha asked Aisha as they walked through the road crowded with pedestrians, most of them trying to get transport to their places of work while the others hurrying on foot to their shops and stalls.
‘This is Oshodi,’ Aisha replied, carrying a travelling bag in her hand. Tarasha also had the backpack she carried all-night strapped to her back once more.
‘Do you know how we can get back to the previous lodge we have in Lagos?’ Tarasha asked her.
‘Yes, I know. We need to cross to the other side and get a bus.’
____________
10am
Stephanie sipped slowly the warm tea from the tea cup, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. She was lost in thoughts and had totally forgotten the nurse by her side waiting for her to finish eating so that she would administer the drugs. Thoughts of Tarasha or ‘Natashay’ as she knew her would not leave her mind. She kept wondering who ‘Natashay’ was and why she came to save them. From the brief session she had with the police earlier, they had given her the idea that ‘Natashay’ was a bad person. But to her, she didn’t appear bad of course except for the way she brutally killed Ojo and some of Ojo’s men whom she gunned down. But even if she was bad, she was bad for a good reason, Stephanie thought to herself. There seemed to be something unique about ‘Natashay’ and Stephanie found herself longing to meet her again. She hoped she’ll appear again and then be free from all police accusation.
‘Let me keep this for you,’ someone said, bringing her out of the realm of her thoughts. The nurse was trying to take the empty cup from her while she still held it firmly to her lips like the liquid mixture still remained. She finally released the cup and adjusted her seating position on the bed. The wound on her neck had been covered more firmly with bandage and the pain had reduced greatly.
‘Here,’ the nurse spoke, handing her selected pills and a cup of water to take the drugs.
Stephanie frowned. She h@tëd the sight and smell of drugs. She reluctantly stretched out her palm to receive the drugs and then the cup of water.
‘Steph, your friends are here to see you.’ she heard a male’s voice as she dropped the pills in her mouth and swallowed with the help of the water. She looked towards the direction of the voice after taking an extra sip of water. It was the Doctor who was walking towards the bed from the door.
‘Here, you have more.’ the nurse beside her said, calling her attention to more drugs she was to use.
‘Oh!’ Stephanie exclaimed distastefully as her eyes met with the medicine in the nurse’s hand. She took them reluctantly again and swallowed them with another cup of water.
‘Where are my friends and which of them are you talking about?’ she asked after handing over the cup back to the nurse. The nurse cleared the breakfast tray on the patient’s drawer and proceeded out of the ward.
‘Two members of the SWAD group, they came after the police contacted them. They also said the one who was involved in your kidnap has been arrested by the officers.’ the doctor replied her with a smile.
‘Oh!’ a smile appeared on her face but it quickly turned to a bitter frown as she tasted a bitter undissolved pill she hadn’t swallowed completely. It took sometime for her to speak out again. ‘Where are they? Why can’t they come in?’ she asked.
‘The police ordered that no one be allowed to see you until they’re here,’ the doctor answered with another kind smile. He seemed to take special interest in her as his eyes focused on her face without blinking or moving away.
‘But there are policemen around, I saw one or two standing outside the door when the nurse went out,’ Stephanie retorted.
‘Those ones were just put there to keep an eye on you,’ the doctor replied after glancing back at the door. ‘You can’t even see them now, you need to rest very well…’ the doctor began.
‘Excuse me Doc, you’ve been saying that since and I’ve been resting for sometime now. I feel quite better now and I think I can see them,’ Stephanie argued.
The Doctor smiled and folded in his lips. She was right but he had been ordered by the officers to help her conserve her strength for their interrogation and questioning alone.
‘Doctor, what of my mother? Did anyone mention that she has called?’ Stephanie asked with a serious look on her face.
‘Yes, I was told that there was a call from London…’
‘No, not that.’ she interrupted. ‘I mean my mother.’
A confused look appeared on the doctor’s face, ‘Are your parents not in London?’ he asked.
‘Yes, but…’ her voice faded in. She relaxed back and closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath.
‘But what?’ the doctor asked in a kind and calm manner with his voice revealing his deep concern.
Stephanie sat motionless with her eyes fixed on the doctor’s face but with her mouth refusing to open. She wasn’t about to start telling him about another mother which was not the one in London whom everybody knew about.
The door to the ward flung open at the right time and the doctor turned back to look. Another doctor was approaching him with two nurses behind him.
‘We need to change the young lady’s ward now, we have the press at our gate already and they want to confirm if she’s truly in here.’ the new doctor – a short middle aged man – said with a serious look on his face.
The young doctor’s face widened in surprise, ‘How on earth did they find out she was here?’
‘They have their way of finding out things, we just have to change her ward to somewhere secret. I’ve also asked that those couples be moved somewhere else. We must follow the police instructions and not give out any word on the matter until they do.’
_________
10.30am
After a thorough search of the building at Ejiro Street without discovering anything, the officers had to turn back. The sedated guys who had woken up were moved to the police station and Inspector Sandra had also opened her eyes from the forced sleep but unable to remember anything about her being used as an hostage. The last she remembered was herself in the warehouse searching the place with her co-officers.
The car Tarasha had left at the warehouse area had also been discovered and traced to the hotel where she came from but no valid information was gotten from the discovery.
Inspector Mac led a team to the library where the culprits were said to have permeated before escaping. The usual activities of the library had to be stopped even though the workers at the place were all present. The place was sealed by the Police for proper investigation. Apart from the entrance into the compound which was proved by the displacement of some flower vases and destruction of the gate light, the only other proof gotten was the mock-bomb placed at the entrance of the main facility.
________
Rex was seated gently at the backseat of the sienna with two other passengers, that was the only space he had gotten at the the time of his arrival to the motor garage in Abuja. Now they were several hours into the journey and he had not spoken any word to anyone aside from the call he made some hours ago. All that was going through his mind were strategies on how to lure Tarasha into a death trap.’
His phone began to vibrate and ring at the same time attracted attention to him once more in the bus. His ringtone was a repetition of an immoral and dirty word voiced by an American rapper as an intro to his album. People found it awkward that someone could use it as a ringtone and be comfortable with it in public.
Rex took out his phone and answered the call, not bothered about the attention he got from other passengers.
‘Rex, what in the world are you doing?’ Chief Rikau’s voice sounded angrily.
‘What do you mean Chief?’
‘Don, what he did overnight, didn’t you send him?’
‘It wasn’t his fault, Tarasha attacked him there at the time I called you.’
‘What time did you call me?’
‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten Chief, do you sleep as bad as that?’
‘Rex, you don’t expect me to remember all you said at midnight. I only remembered that you wanted to travel at that time.’
‘Yes, I wanted to…’ Rex stopped and looked around briefly. ‘I’m not in the right place to talk, I’ll call you later.’ he said and ended the call.
_______
Abuja
Chief Rikau dialed another number immediately his call with Rex ended. He was pacing the floor behind the three seater sofa in his living room, one of his personal officers stood firm beside the entrance.
His mind had been disturbed since he got news of the attack, his worry was that Don or any of the men who knew the Vice President’s and his association with them could confess if caught. He needed to find a way to avoid that or stop the information from spreading if it had been mentioned at all.
His call was answered and the receiver saluted in a loud voice, ‘Hello, Inspector General sir.’
‘C.P, what’s happening now?’
‘We’ve not gotten any lead yet,’ the Lagos state commissioner of Police replied. ‘The officer she used as her hostage was drugged and couldn’t provide us any information.’
‘And what else have you discovered?’
‘Everything looked like a clash between two gangs just as reported by the news media, Samantha Osman’s gang and Nanl gang. Samantha Osman rescued the parents of Aisha Bello, the kidnapped Stephanie George of SWAD and other captives from the place.’
There was a brief moment of silence from the Inspector General’s end. ‘So where are those she rescued from the place now?’
‘They’re at a private hospital in town and we have our men guarding the place,’ the CP replied.
‘Try keep that secret for now, I’ll get back to you very soon.’ the Inspector General wanted to conclude with that but the commissioner had more to say.
‘Sir… It’s no longer a secret, the Press found out and I’ll have to address them very soon. In fact, after this call.’
‘Oh shi*t! How did they find out?’ The IG asked, without expecting a reply. ‘You know what? We have to be wise. Do not release full details to them. That Samantha Osman rescued the captives should be hidden.’
‘But sir… Should I just avoid talking to them at all?’
‘No, talk to them.’ the Inspector General said. There was another brief pause. ‘How many officers have knowledge of this?’
‘Only the senior officers who interrogated the suspects.’
‘Ensure that they keep it secret and then credit the police for the rescue, Samantha Osman should not take the credit. Do you understand?’
‘Yes sir…’ the CP’s voice sounded weak.
‘And also make them know that we are on top of the situation and would deliver Samantha Osman to the hands of the law soon.’
_____
‘Any progress yet?’ Stone asked Don who sat on a bench on the verandah with a laptop on the seat. Stone stepped out from the entrance where he was and Stainless followed behind him.
‘I just found the device and I’m requesting for the location already,’ Don replied him. ‘Installing the server is what took so much time, locating them would not take much.’
‘How long will that take?’
‘Just few seconds and we’ll…’ Don stopped and stared intently at the screen. ‘I know where they are,’ he said looking up at Stone and Stainless’ face.
‘Like you all have been reporting since morning, our men encountered with the Samantha Osman’s gang overnight and there was a gun battle. Some of our brave men died during the gun battle with her but we still succeeded in rescuing the captives taken by her and her partner gang. According to our investigation so far, there seemed to be a deal that went wrong between the Samantha Osman’s gang and the Nanl Gang which led to the Nanl Gang kidnapping the parents of Aisha Bello. That was the reason for their clash last night but they were intercepted by the police and the captives who had almost turned victims of the two gangs stupidity were rescued. We also found and rescued the missing SWAD leader, Stephanie George. All of them are being attended to medically and are now in safe hands. We urge all lagosians and Nigerians to remain calm, the end of Samantha Osman is near, our men are closing in on her very fast…’ the scene faded off and a newscaster continued with the casting of the remaining part of the news.
‘We didn’t kill any police officer,’ Tarasha said aloud, to herself though Aisha could hear her talk. She was at the middle of the living room, coupling parts of an electronic gadget while Aisha just walked in with a tray of rice and a bottled water. Tarasha was already undressed and now in bum shorts and a singlet. Aisha had also changed to something more comfortable but both still looked unkempt, especially their hairs as neither of them had taken their bath or rested at all.
‘What game are the officers trying to play?’ Tarasha kept mumbling to herself as she worked, she kept her eyes focused on what she was doing and didn’t bother to look up even though she noticed Aisha’s presence.
‘Boss, I made some rice for us to eat.’ Aisha announced.
Tarasha froze for a second. She then turned and stared at Aisha with a surprise look on her face. ‘You cooked?’ she asked, with her eyebrows raised. ‘You’re supposed to get some sleep now, we’ve got more work to do, you know?’
‘Yes, I’ll rest a bit now. I just thought you’ll need to eat because you’ve not taken anything since yesterday,’ Aisha said.
‘You’re right, I’ll love to eat. Thanks,’ she said and flashed a brief smile at Aisha. Then her face turned serious again almost immediately, ‘But do remember you don’t work as a cook only anymore, you now work as an assassin. Killers don’t take their opportunity to rest for granted because you could be sought after the next moment, ‘It could take you an hour to cook but just ten minutes or less to get food from a cafeteria either by buying it or taking it forcefully.’ she added and then turned back to her work. ‘You can go rest now, thank you for the food.’
‘Thank you,’ Aisha mumbled and left. Tarasha looked up and stared at her behind as she walked away from the living room. She dropped the tools she held and stared at the food on the stool, it didn’t look inviting in anyway as Aisha’s normally prepared food used to be but it was understandable as the meal was rushed and wasn’t planned. But the food was still good enough to awaken her to the fact that she had not eaten since afternoon the previous day.
Just as she rose up, her phone which she placed on the centre table rang. She walked to the table which she had shifted under the TV and picked up the phone. The caller’s number was unsaved and it had a another country’s code beginning it. She stared at the screen for a while as she walked to the seat in front of which the food was placed. The phone stopped ringing before she got to the seat, then it began again immediately she sat. She swiped the middle box to the green icon and placed the phone to her ear.
‘Tarasha,’ the caller began in a gruff voice. She took the phone off her ear to check the number on the screen again. ‘It’s been a while,’ the caller continued. ‘I got this number after dialing over thirty mobile numbers.’
Tarasha already identified who was talking now, Chief Gab.
‘What’s happening, I’ve not heard any progress report from you recently.’
‘Just one person left,’ Tarasha reminded him, she didn’t sound ready for a conversation with him. ‘I’ll reach you by mail when I’m done.’
‘You seem to be taking more time than usual, is anything the matter?’ Chief Gab sounded unruffled by her response.
‘There’s no problem, the Vice President’s case is just a little bit different from the others.’
‘Sorry… I didn’t warn you about that. The guy is a crook but I didn’t think that’ll matter to you, that’s why I never mentioned it.’
‘It doesn’t matter. I just need a little more time for him.’
‘Okay… But Tarasha… It appears like you’re already digressing from the job I gave you.’
‘What do you mean?’ Tarasha asked, raising a brow. She picked the bottle water from the tray and began to turn off the cover. The atmosphere turned into a tensed one.
‘The news of what you did last night has circulated everywhere in Africa and the world, it was also reported on CNN few minutes ago.’ Chief Gab stated, his voice expressed his unhappiness.
‘I didn’t do anything last night, and they don’t know me, they can only make a report about Samantha Osman.’ Tarasha retorted.
‘Don’t be don’t silly! The world refers to you as that. I really need to understand what went on last night,’ Chief Gab returned.
‘It’s nothing that concerns you Chief,’ Tarasha snapped.
‘d@mn! It definitely concerns me, you’re here for me because I brought you here and everything you do concerns me.’ Chief Gab snapped back. Tarasha was silent. ‘You can’t be working for someone else or with another gang when my contract with you has not expired.’
There was silence for half a minute from both ends.
‘I’m not working for anyone else or with any gang, Chief. I’m doing your job alone but the contract doesn’t stop me from going about my personal business.’ Tarasha replied calmly.
‘What personal business do you have with Nanl Gang?’ Chief Gab asked.
‘None. Your contract brought me against Nanl Gang, didn’t it?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You took out three people from the Nanl Gang to work with me and you expect the gang to do nothing?’
‘What? Are they fighting you? I paid Don Dan heavily, what else does he want?’
‘Nothing else,’ Tarasha said and paused to take a sip of water. ‘His business with you ended and he wants nothing else from you. It’s only that his new bosses wants a lot from him.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ Chief Gab replied after fifteen seconds of possibly trying to grasp the statement.
‘Don works for the Inspector General Rikau and they are after me, after my group. Don has been using the advantage of his knowledge of the weaknesses of the men you gave me to slow down my work, ‘ Tarasha explained.
‘What does Don have to do with the Inspector General?’ Chief Gab questioned, he sounded perplexed.
‘The Inspector General and the Vice President are friends, Don works with them and must have told them about me,’ she replied.
‘d@mn it! How could Don do such?’
‘Why should he not? He works for his money and do the work of whoever pays him,’ she answered with a chuckle.
Chief Gab was quiet but she could hear his breathing from the other side and knew he was angry.
‘You still have to stay hidden for now,’ she continued. ‘Don is working so hard and using every means possible, if you show up he could attack you in a bid to lure me.’
‘He cannot dare that,’ he said in a tough vibrating tone.
‘Just stay away for now,’ she said, stressing the words for emphasis.
‘For how long do I have to stay here?’
‘For as long as it takes me to kill Inspector General Rikau and the Vice President.’
‘Inspector General Rikau? He’s not part of…’ there was a brief pause. ‘Well, you can do away with him if he’s getting in the way.’
‘Do you have anything else to say Chief?’ she asked in a calm tone, drawing in a deep breath as she remembered some of the questions she has been nursing in her mind.
‘Not for now, I just want you to be fast about it.’
‘I have a question for you,’ she said and paused to allow him prepare his mind.
‘And what question could that be?’
‘What do you know about the Danjuma’s family?’
‘Dan..ju..ma?’ he repeated slowly. ‘I don’t know any family called that.’
‘I mean late Dr Danjuma and his wife Dr Lydia,’ she clarified.
There was a brief pause and total silence.
‘Do you know them?’ Tarasha asked again.
‘Yes, I used to, during their lifetime.’ Chief Gab replied, there seemed to be tension in his voice. ‘But what about them?’
‘Nothing really, I just need some little information against Chief Elvis Richards.’ Tarasha answered. ‘Did you ever have anything to do with them? I mean the doctors.’ she added.
‘Yes, we did. We had a lot to do with them during our illegal drugs trading but I don’t think the doctors ever agreed to work with us.’
‘And then, what happened to them?’
‘I don’t really remember but I think they moved out of town and that was the last we heard about them,’ Chief Gab said.
‘Is that all you know about them?’
‘Yes, that’s all.’
Tarasha smiled to herself. ‘Chief, is that all you know about them?’ she asked again with emphasis, adding a chuckle that carried a strong threat.
‘Yes, that’s all.’ Chief Gab replied, his loud tone seemed to have reduced. ‘But what’s up with that?’
‘Nothing Chief,’ she answered.
‘Are you sure? The way you’re asking makes it sound serious,’ Chief Gab pressured.
‘It’s nothing more serious than I can handle, it’s just that I won’t like finding out you lied to me.’ She returned.
‘I did not lie, I’ve told you everything I know about them.’
‘It’s okay Chief, bye for now.’
‘Bye Tarasha, and please hurry up with what you need to do.’ Chief Gab replied and the line went off.
Just as she was about to put the phone aside and begin with the food, another call entered. This time it was from a saved number, Henry’s.
A smile formed on Tarasha’s face unconsciously, somehow she had been longing to talk to him.
‘Good afternoon Henry,’ she said into the phone after answering.
‘Tara,’ the voice sounded stressed out and unhappy.
‘Yes, what’s wrong?’
‘Everything is wrong Tara, everything.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘So many innocent ones lost their lives again yesterday, just because of you.’ Henry complained.
‘It happens like that, some have to lose their lives when there is a clash.’ She replied unshaken.
‘Tara, are you always this way? Do you take joy in killing innocent people?’
‘No, I don’t take joy in killing. Killing is just my lifestyle, I was born and trained all my life to kill. So it’s just something normal to me, it doesn’t bring joy or any emotion,’ she answered.
‘d@mn it! You’re a devil Tara, how could I ever think you would change,’ Henry cried out, accompanied with hisses and sighs of regret.
‘Be careful when you talk to me dear, I could be dangerous. I’ve not done anything wrong yet,’ Tarasha said but still in a calm tone, unhappy that the conversation which she had longed for was turning into an argument.
‘Killing innocent police men means nothing wrong to you?’
‘I don’t understand the language of right or wrong, I don’t understand the language of morality, I only understand the language of killing. Besides, I didn’t kill any policeman or innocent person yesterday, I didn’t have any reason to kill them. So I don’t understand why you’re purnishing yourself.’
‘Tara, stop lying. It’s all over the news how you attacked another gang yesterday and killed policemen in the process.’
‘Who do you want to believe, me or the news?’
‘Tara, why should they lie? Tell me,’ Henry replied, it sounded more like a challenge.
‘Did you listen to the news fully? Didn’t you notice any inconsistency?’
‘What inconsistency was there? Tell me,’ he challenged again.
‘Did they talk about the captives and the gang?’
‘Yes, the police rescued the captives from you. You were…’ Henry stopped abruptly, he seemed to have realized something. ‘They said you were about to take the captives to hurt them…’
‘So, is that correct?’
‘Ermm… I wouldn’t know that.’
‘Come on stop being unreasonable, did you even pay attention to the news at all?’ She chided. ‘You know I came here to help rescue the captives who are Aisha and Cole’s parents. How could you have believed I came to hurt them? And are you so gullible to believe the Police’s claim that I struck a deal with the Nanl gang, the same gang that was involved in my brother’s death?’
There was an awkward moment of silence.
‘I’m sorry Tara, but I didn’t reason it at all that way. The news was the first thing I read after my morning devotion, I’m sorry…’
‘Do you have anything else to say?’ she cut in.
‘Ermm… No, I just… I think I should ask how you’re doing,’ Henry replied, stammering.
‘I’m doing fine, but can do better if…’ she paused.
‘You can do better if?’
‘If I’ll stop getting disturbances like this, like you bothering me.’ she slammed.
‘Oh! I’m sorry,’ he apologized again, his tone sounded very sincere. ‘I’ll just drop the call now.’
‘Better, do it quickly,’ she tried to say but the phone went off before she finished. She took the phone down slowly, now feeling guilty for talking harshly. She stared at his number for a while on the phone’s screen and then closed her eyes to take a deep breath.
_________
‘Are you sure that’s what she told you?’ Inspector Mac questioned.
‘Yes, I asked her twice to confirm that I didn’t hear wrongly.’ Stephanie replied the officer with a frown, unhappy that she was being questioned like a kid who does not know her left from right.
‘But what kind of name is Natashay?’
‘I asked her too,’ Stephanie replied briefly, staring blankly at the wall behind the Inspector’s seat.
‘Okay, that doesn’t really matter for now. She’s a criminal and wouldn’t tell you her real name before,’ Inspector Mac remarked. The frown on Stephanie’s face deepened. ‘Now, did she drop anything with you or tell you anything about herself?’
‘No, she didn’t say anything about herself but she dropped something with me,’ Stephanie said, pausing to search the cloth she was putting on. ‘It’s on the cloth I was putting on before, she gave me an electronic device to send a message to her.’
Inspector Mac glanced at the officer standing beside for a confirmation.
‘Sir!’ the officer responded like an automated machine. ‘There was nothing there, we’ve searched everywhere.’
‘She must have taken it,’ Inspector Mac said as he turned back to Stephanie. ‘Ermm…’ he scratched his forehead softly as he thought of the best way to ask the next question so as not to get her too embarrassed. ‘Did she tear off your clothes and underwear?’ he asked, his eyebrows gathering together as he squinted into her eyes directly.
‘No, Ojo was the one who tried to molest me. He tore off his clothes and rained blows on my face,’ she said in a sad tone, touching her bruised face.
‘Is it the same cult leader Ojo?’
‘Yes.’
‘And she saved you from him?’
‘Yes, Natashay appeared before he could go further and she…’ she paused and stared at the Inspector’s face, rubbing her forehead with a finger.
‘And she killed him right and killed the others too?’ Inspector Mac tried to put the words in her mouth. Stephanie was quiet. ‘Speak up Steph, she killed him and began to kill the other’s too?’
‘Why are you asking me these questions again? Another officer already interrogated me this morning,’ she said defensively.
Inspector Mac chuckled and rose up from his seat, he pushed the plastic chair behind and squatted before Stephanie. ‘You see Steph, when we want a thorough investigation, we have to repeat some processes like we’re doing now.’ He said, looking into her face. He rose up and took two steps behind her seat. ‘You better thank your stars the hospital informed the RRS and they arrived on time to this place. She definitely has ulterior motives for helping you, don’t you think she is an Angel.’
‘But what kind of ulterior motive could she have?’ Stephanie turned back on her seat and questioned. ‘We’ve been kept in that place the days now, she took us all out and brought us to an hospital.’
‘Oh!’ he faced her with a mocking smile. ‘That’s how she plays pranks on all her victims, she comes like an angel of light and ends up murdering them in the most gruesome manner.’ He said and handed her a paper which he collected from the junior officer beside them. ‘That’s how she killed the late Senate President, she acted like she was from a charity organization and even distributed some bags of rice to help distressed children, then ended up to be his murderer after gaining his trust.’
With a bitter look on her face, Stephanie stared at the pictures on the paper the Inspector gave to her. It contained graphic images of the police officers killed that morning and the bloody scene. ‘But isn’t it Samantha Osman that killed the late Senate President and did this one?’ she asked, handing him back the paper. ‘What does it have to do with Natashay?’
‘Oh! You don’t understand yet.’ Inspector Mac smiled and walked back to his seat after handing the papers to the junior officer. He sat at the tip and bent forward, ‘That lady you’re considering to be a savior is the same devil, Samantha Osman.’
_______
2.56pm
‘Boss, we found their new location through the tracker.’ a voice sounded through the speaker of the telephone.
‘Wait till I come before you take any action,’ another voice replied the first.
Stephanie was left in her quiet and pensive mode for close to two hours before the police returned. They had left her to brood upon the details of their last interrogation before returning to the ward to fill her with more words. The last two hours had been used to interrogate both Aisha and Cole’s parents and also make them accept not to reveal to anyone the fact that Samantha Osman saved them from the kidnappers.
‘Hey Steph,’ Inspector Mac greeted, trying to fake a smile.
Stephanie stared at him silently without replying, she sat up in the bed and then slowly climbed down to the chair she sat on when they questioned her the other time.
‘Good afternoon Inspector,’ she greeted as she adjusted the slippers on her feet.
‘I was told you had your lunch already,’ Inspector Mac returned, with another smile.
‘Yes,’ she replied briefly without looking at him. He dragged a chair to her front sat on it. ‘You have more questions for me, right?’ she asked.
‘No Miss Stephanie, I’m not here to ask you more questions. I’m here to discuss something important with you and seek for your cooperation and help.’
‘What kind of help can I offer you?’ she questioned, raising her eyebrows.
‘Good, I think you’re willing to help.’ Inspector Mac remarked with another smile. He noticed a frown appeared on her face in response to his smile and he quickly faded off the smile. He knew she was beginning to suspect his cunningness because he wasn’t smiling earlier during the questioning segment. He cleared his throat and adjusted his seating position to a serious posture, ‘Steph, do you know the reason for your kidnap by that cult group?’
‘No, I do not really know but it cannot be far from the crusade against cultism that I lead.’
‘Is that the only thing you can point to?’ he asked, squinting straight into her eyes.
‘I don’t really know what else could be the cause, I think the best people to get the answer from are the culprits.’ she said.
‘You’re right, we already questioned the surviving culprits and the betrayal but none of them seems to know what the real reason is. The only person who they claimed should have known is Ojo who has already been killed by Samantha Osman.’ Inspector Mac paused to take in a breath. ‘But we discovered that everything everything is connected with Samantha Osman, Samantha Osman works with cultists, helps to breed them in various schools and use them for her evil works. Samantha Osman used to work with Ojo…’ he paused again to see if he was making any effect. He noticed she was listening keenly and staring intently at him with her eyes partly closed.
‘But why did she kill him if they were working together?’ she cut in as he was about to continue.
‘I was about to explain that,’ he licked his lips briefly. ‘She doesn’t work with him directly but with the notorious Nanl Gang who directly works with cult groups in different schools. The Nanl Gang was the Gang that kidnapped Aisha Bello’s parents and the parent of a man who is also a member of Samantha Osman’s gang. Those are the old people that came here with you. The reason for this kidnap has been discovered to be a disagreement between the Nanl Gang and Samantha Osman. So Samantha Osman only came there to fight the Nanl Gang who Ojo and his cult works for. There she met Ojo and killed him, not because she had pity for you but because she was angry with the Nanl Gang. The truth is if not for her disagreement with the Nanl Gang, she wouldn’t have done anything when she saw Ojo trying to molest you, she would have watched while he carried out the act and probably laugh with him until he finishes and kills you…’
‘You lie,’ Stephanie interrupted with a loud voice. ‘You’re making up a big lie and I can’t be deceived by what you’re saying,’ she voiced angrily.
Inspector Mac stared thinly at her and shook his head briefly, ‘Do you want to tell me you know her more than I do? You only met her last night and you think you know her more than the police does? The Police have been after her for months and I know what I’m taking about. That lady is a criminal and she never has any good intention for anything or anyone.’
‘No,’ she responded defensively. ‘She could have killed me after killing Ojo but she did not, she didn’t leave me to die bleeding too, she brought me here to get treated and you say she did with a bad intention?’
‘Yes, look at me.’ he said, gesturing for her to look straight to his face. ‘Samantha had other plans for bringing you here, just like she does for the rest of her victim. She acts like a nice person and end up using them to do something very bad.’
‘No, no,’ Stephanie mumbled repeatedly under her breath and then louder, shaking her head from left to right as she did. She stopped and stared straight at Inspector Mac’s face, ‘I saw it in her eyes, she was visibly angry at Ojo because of what he tried to do to me.’
‘You can’t be so sure of that,’ Mac opposed.
‘I am hundred percent sure,’ she said, nodding her head slowly.
‘It’s okay, but what we want from you right away is to keep it hidden for now. Don’t let the press or anyone know Samantha Osman brought you out of the place…’
‘But she did…’
‘Shhh… Listen to me. If you make her look like a saviour, she would gain sympathy from the public and they may end up allowing her to take advantage of them to perpetuate evil.’
Stephanie was quiet.
‘Have you heard me?’
‘Yes. Sorry but if and when I have to tell the story,I will say the whole truth about it.’
‘Oh!’ inspector Mac glanced at the officer beside him and both of them exchanged signs with their eyes. ‘I have to go now to see what else I can find,’ he said as he rose from his seat. ‘I advise you not to put your trust in a criminal.’
With that Inspector Mac walked out with the other officer and they began to talk about the case.
‘Since we’ve tried our best in letting her keep shut, we should just allow the doctor give her that drug.’ the officer said to Inspector Mac.
‘Yes, we have no option than to make her forget everything.’
A doctor greeted as he walked past their side but they were too busy with their conversation to reply him and notice he was headed for Stephanie’s ward.
___
Stephanie’s look shifted towards the door as it opened and a Doctor walked in. Her eyes met with the doctor’s and he greeted her with a smile. She had not seen him before so she didn’t reply.
‘How are you doing Steph?’ he said as he proceeded towards her.
‘Fine,’ she replied briefly, staring intently at his face, trying to recall if she had seen him before.
He smiled as he noticed her intent stare at his face. ‘I can see you’re doing fine, you’re looking much better than you were brought in.’ he remarked as he walked past her and stopped by the bed. He bent down and stretched his hand under the bed, he took out something and dropped it into the pocket of his coat not allowing her see what it was. ‘I had one of my patients here before they had to move her in and move you here,’ he stopped at her front, knowing she would require an explanation for what he did under the bed. ‘I kept something to listen to my patient’s body movement under the bed and that’s what I took out,’ he said, bringing out a magnetic material from the same pocket and displaying it in his palms to her. He smiled as he returned the material and began to walk out of the room.
Stephanie sat and watched him leave, not convinced with his explanation, she stood up to check under the bed after he was gone. She didn’t find anything there and decided to remain on the chair until a doctor she recognizes comes to ascertain that the bed was safe.
___
He took out the two materials from his pocket as he climbed down the stairs and transferred one of them into the left pocket of his trousers. He stopped at the first landing to take off the doctor’s coat, he folded it and dropped it on floor neatly. From his right pocket, he took out a earpiece and connected it to the device left in his hands and the ear tips in his ears. A green light appeared on the head of the device, showing that it was connected. He turned it to the surface and clicked on the play button.
+++++++
‘How many boys do you have?’ a voice from a face covered with mask asked. Don was standing closest to him while Stone and stainless were behind the dining table with the other boys working with them standing too. They were listening and awaiting the next instruction from the masked man who seemed to be Don’s boss and automatically their boss.
Stainless watched and listen, hiding his anger under his straight face. He was embittered by the Rex’s continued close working with Don even though Don had failed and had to be rescued from the police. He didn’t like the situation but he dared not allow it show on his face.
‘We are nine in total,’ Don answered Rex’ question, after taking a quick head count of the men standing including himself.
Rex’ use of mask was to hide his identity from the rest of the boys, he even had to use an unusual voice in talking to make sure all chances of the boys’ recognition of him anywhere else were eliminated.
‘Do you have an idea of how many people Samantha is working with?’ Rex looked up to Don’s face.
‘Aisha Bello should be the only one with her, her second employee is still in our custody, bound in chains in one of the rooms,’ Don replied, making a head gesture towards the room Cole was. ‘The other person likely to be with them is Henry EG,’ he quickly added before Rex could speak.
‘So that means we have more men than them?’
‘Yes, we do.’
Rex took a brief look at all of the men’s faces, one after the other. Then he looked away and dragged the laptop on the table to his front. He typed in the lock code and it opened. After about two minutes of little typing and more clicking, he spoke again. ‘How come they are still in the same location?’ he asked, turning to Don. ‘Or they only dropped the tracker there?’
‘It’s possible they are still there. That location used to be their operation base before they left Lagos.’ Don replied.
Rex looked back to the laptop screen and stayed for few seconds. He turned and looked towards Stainless, ‘Do you know the location?’ he asked.
‘Ermm… Never been there but I can find it,’ Stainless answered.
‘I’m sure you have been there before,’ Rex turned to Don.
‘Yes, I have.’ Don nodded in affirmation.
‘Okay, Stainless stays here with five boys while we go to the place with the rest of the boys.’ Rex said. He paused briefly to type in something on the computer. ‘Who is Stone?’ he looked up, directing his question to Don.
‘He is,’ Don pointed to Stone who was standing beside Stainless.
‘Prepare two vehicles for our movement,’ he ordered Stone and dismissed him immediately with a wave of the hand. ‘Don, you select the boys to go with us.’ he said and rose up from the seat.
_____
Asokoro, Abuja.
NSCC Headquarters
‘Sir, I’ve not been able to reach him at all, his mobile, work and home lines are switched off,’ Dayo said to Mr Sylvester as he walked into the computer room.
‘But it’s unlike him to just disappear without notice,’ Mr Sylvester replied. He had an extremely worried look on his face as he took a glance at his wristwatch.
‘Sir, I believe he’s fine. He would show up tomorrow if he doesn’t before the end of today.’ Dayo aid said as he took his seat in front of the computer beside Mr Sylvester’s.
‘Well, I hope so too.’ Mr Sylvester said and turned back to the computer. ‘That means you’ll have to help him with his duties for now,’ he added, taking a brief glance at Dayo.
‘Okay, what am I supposed to help him with?’ Dayo stopped typing on the keyboard and turned to Mr Sylvester.
‘The Abuja police headquarters want a copy of the footage of last night’s events at the Rael University area in Lagos.’
‘I thought it has been sent to them from the police headquarters in Lagos or who did our office in Lagos send their edit to?’
‘They want the full copy,’ Mr Sylvester replied. ‘Both scenes of activity and non activity.’
______
Lagos
Tarasha looked peaceful and calm in her sleeping position on the three seater sofa. She slept thirty minutes after taking the meal and completing the gadge she was coupling.The empty plate and tray had been moved to the kitchen but the bottle of water still remained. She had slept for over one hour thirty minutes.
It seemed her sleep was going to continue peacefully until she heard a little sound at the gate from her sleep. Her eyes popped open immediately and she sat up at once, she stopped moving and waited to hear the sound again. She did and knew at once that someone was trying to open the gate carefully.
It seemed her sleep was going to continue peacefully until she heard a little sound at the gate from her sleep. Her eyes popped open immediately and she sat up at once, she stopped moving and waited to hear the sound again. She did and knew at once that someone was trying to open the gate carefully.
________
8 minutes ago
‘This is the place boss,’ Don said to Rex, showing the gate to him with his eyes movement.
Rex stared at the device in his hands for a second and then stared back towards the gate. He bit his lips slightly and brushed his eyelids with a finger. ‘We can’t be sure if she’s in or not,’ he said as he pulled out a face mask from his bag. ‘Do you know if there are cameras around the place?’ he asked Don.
‘There used to be cameras there before they left, I don’t know if the cameras are still present.’
‘Okay, you have to do something to check.’ Rex said, pulling out a tiny device from his bag. ‘Find a way to attach this to the back of the gate, so that we can monitor what’s happening inside,’ he said as he handed the device to Don.
______
‘Get up girl,’ Tarasha ordered as she entered into room with the schoolbag strapped tightly to her bag. She had a device which looked like a gamepad in her hands, it had a screen in the middle and the buttons by both sides.
‘Get up ,’ she said again with a stronger command tone as she bent beside the bed where Aisha was sleeping in. She drew out the black bag which had the weapons in it and unzipped it quickly. ‘We’ve got intruders outside,’ without looking up, she said to Aisha who was still stretching and rubbing her eyes with the back of her palms.
‘Intruders?’ Aisha asked as she sprang up to her feet.
‘Get up and band your hair, ‘ Tarasha said to her, done with her selection of guns and now selecting grenades.
‘What’s the plan now?’ Aisha asked as she bundled her hair and held them together with a rubber band.
‘Select two revolvers for yourself,’ Tarasha said, rising up to her feet. She turned to the wardrobe and pulled out a black jacket. She turned back, took the two revolvers and inserted them into the pockets of her bum shorts.
Aisha rose up after taking the guns but she had a difficulty in keeping them as she only had on a mini skirt and a top with pockets.
‘Change into a trouser that has big enough pockets for those guns’ Tarasha said on seeing Aisha’s dilemma after putting on her own white jacket. She adjusted her bag and picked the gamepad-like device she had dropped on the bed. The dashboard of the opened app displayed an option of several live videos. She selected one and it zoomed in. ‘It looks like these guys have planted something around,’ she said to Aisha. ‘They’re still in their vehicles instead of coming to attack,’ she looked away from the screen and stared blankly at the ceiling for a few seconds. ‘We need to move out of here as soon as possible, I’m guessing they are from a secret government agency that located us somehow.’ she looked again to the screen. ‘But how do we find a way?’
______
**City Gate Hospital**
The nurse quietly arranged the spatula, the ampoule, a nylon of cotton wool and a syringe on the tray. She left it on the table and walked to the other side of the lab to pick a napkin to dry her hand. Another nurse walked into the lab as she returned to the tray. She picked up the tray and proceeded towards the door while the nurse who had just entered proceeded towards her.
‘Nurse, let me help you with this. The senior doctor has been looking everywhere for you,’ the new nurse stopped in front of the nurse with the tray obstructing her passage.
The nurse frowned and stepped back refusing her colleague’s offer to help with the tray. ‘Why would he be looking for me?’ she questioned.
‘Ermm… I think it’s connected to the monthly reports,’ the nurse replied.
The frown on her face further deepened. ‘But it’s not the end of the month yet,’ she retorted.
‘He wants to see you, or do you want me to tell him that you’re not willing to come?’ the nurse said in a rather threatening manner.
‘No, of course I’ll go.’ the nurse gave in to the threat and quickly handed over the tray. ‘Please take it to Stephanie William’s ward, the doctor will come and meet you there.’
‘Okay,’ she replied as she took the tray.
Both nurses stood still, staring at each other for about thirty seconds waiting for the first person to leave.
‘The senior doctor is waiting for you,’ the one now with the tray quickly reminded the other.
‘Okay,’ she mumbled as she hurried away.
The one with the tray turned and watched her colleague hurry out, then she dropped the tray on a table beside her. Somebody else walked in – a man – and hurried towards her. He took out another ampoule from his pocket as he approached her.
‘Are you sure this is not going to backfire?’ the nurse asked him in an unsure tone.
‘Trust me babe,’ he said and flashed a smile at her before exchanging his ampoule with the one in the tray. ‘You’ll be glad you did this,’ he added, dropping the original ampoule into his pocket.
‘I hope so,’ she heaved a sigh and picked up the tray from the table. ‘Where’s the white coat I gave you?’
‘I dropped it where you asked me to,’ he replied.
‘Okay,’ she said as they both got to the door. The man opened it and allowed her out first before stepping out. ‘Please, make sure you don’t do more than anything you discussed with me,’ the nurse said to him in a pleading voice.
‘Don’t worry dear, I have everything in control.’ he said and planted a kiss on her left cheek. She smiled and they both turned to the opposite directions and walked away.
______
‘I didn’t see anything in the compound,’ Don spoke aloud to Rex’s listening ears. ‘There is no car or vehicle inside or even any other sign that there are people inside the building.’
Rex looked up briefly at the sound of his words but returned his focus to the device in his hands almost immediately. ‘Are you saying she’s not in?’
‘The tracker still reads this location, it could only mean that they had been here and the clothes Aisha wore were taken off here. Maybe we would have met them if we came earlier’ Don replied in a sad and disappointed tone.
There was about two minutes silence.
‘There are three working cameras in front of the building, and one attached to the dish elevated above the roof, I’m not sure if they are turned on anyway,’ Rex said, showing a zoom view of his screenshot to Don. ‘Maybe they left already like you suggested but the best way to find out is to go in there and confirm,’ Rex said. He dropped the device on his lap and adjusted his face mask. He then picked two revolvers by the seat sides and filled in the first with a cartridge, the second was filled too and a suppressor was taken out from the same place behind the seat.
‘How do we it boss?’ Don asked, following Rex’s example by filling his gun too.
‘If she’s inside, she would have heard you when she climbed the gate. If she was watching at that time, she would have seen you fix the bug. But even if she didn’t see the bug, if she heard the noise you made with the gate, she would have seen us with the camera attached to the dish. Now, it’s time to go in before she gets fully prepared for us. You go in first with Stone and the other guy, launch an attack into the house immediately. I’ll be right behind you guys but will be slow because I’ll hide from the cameras’ view so as to catch her by unawares.’
_______
‘Boss, Don is on his way here with some boys.’ Aisha said to Tarasha who was trying to force open a door. Aisha was now holding the device while Tarasha was trying to make a way for them to escape without going through the front gate.
‘Don?’ Tarasha stopped and turned. ‘Don again? What does he want?’ she asked rhetorically as she looked into the device in Aisha’s hand but it only showed the two vehicles Tarasha had seen monitoring before.
‘They left the car already,’ Aisha tried to explain.
Tarasha squinted briefly as she took time to observe the two cars again. She had noticed two people in both cars before but now there was no one in the two cars.
‘Move the analog to make the camera follow their movement,’ she said to Aisha. Aisha responded but couldn’t control it properly. Tarasha dropped the metal in her hand and took the device from Aisha’s hand.
In less than ten seconds, the view had located Don and the two men following behind him, very close to the gate. They got to the gate and Don looked around carefully, then he took out a metal and opened the locked gate carefully, making minimal noise (the same that had been loud enough to wake Tarasha).
‘Don has to die today after leading us to where he kept Cole,’ she said as she handed back the device to Aisha and took out the revolvers from her pocket. She was glad now that she knew Don was the one coming, it would make her job of finding Cole easier. She began to walk out of the corridor.
She stopped suddenly on the way as a thought struck her mind. She then bent and placed a knee to the ground. She unstrapped the bag and placed it on the ground before her. Then she took out a small box of makeup kits. She opened it and closed it back again almost immediately. She had thought of disguising her face before, for the street cameras not to capture her real identity in case her fight with Don took them out of the compound but then making up will take more time than she had to spare. She returned the box into the bag and took out a black mask.
‘Boss,’ Tarasha paused as she heard Aisha called her. ‘It looks like I noticed a shadow,’ Aisha spoke on.
Tarasha turned her neck and flashed a furious look at her, sure that Aisha’s inability to use the control was making her view the wrong thing.
‘The shadow is far behind, disappearing and reappearing.’ Aisha added as Tarasha rose up to her feet. Her eyes had not met with the furious gaze Tarasha gave her when she spoke last else she would have stopped at that.
Tarasha got to her feet and walked away without replying Aisha because to her, no sense was being made.
______
**Asokoro, Abuj@
In the Vice President’s living room, four men were seated and involved in a serious talk. The Vice President himself was present, with the Inspector General of police, The National Intelligence Service Chief Officer and Agent Tim.
‘Sir… I do not really understand the reason behind the commissioner’s distortion of the news.’ The NIS officer complained.
‘But you do understand that there has to be distortion of facts for us to work sometimes, don’t you?’ Chief Rikau replied him.
‘Yes, I do.’
‘That’s the most important thing, I think we should just conclude this once and for all,’ Chief Rikau exclaimed and looked towards the Vice President.
‘Chief, so what do you say?’ The Vice President spoke, his question was directed to the NIS officer.
‘Sir, like you know, this is against the ethics of the job and it would even sound strange when I call the guys to extract any information from them.’ the NIS officer replied.
‘But you’re their boss, they should listen to you.’ Chief Elvis returned.
‘Yes, I am but ordering them just like that won’t work.’
‘It seems you don’t understand me,’ Chief Elvis adjusted his seating position with his support stick. ‘What we want to do is help each other, if we can exchange information between the agencies. It will enhance the work.’
‘Sir, you know it is wrong to exchange information. We are an arm of the DSS that operates secretly and our operations and information about our activities should not get out. Even I, the chief Agent do not have right to information except I’m a direct member of the team handling it. Sir, it’ll be difficult to convince the agents.’
‘Hmm… Okay,’ Chief Elvis took out something from the file on the armrest of his chair. He handed it over to the bodyguard standing behind him and the bodyguard took it to the NIS man.
The NIS officer’s eyes widened as he saw the amount written on the cheque. Chief Elvis and Rikau smiled on seeing the effect it had on him.
‘I’m ready to treat your guys nicely if they also cooperate with us.’
‘Why are you not resting like you should be?’ the young doctor in charge of Stephanie smiled as he walked in.
‘I can’t rest Doctor, I just can’t rest.’ Stephanie replied. She looked alarmed.
‘Why can’t you rest?’ he asked with a frown formed on his face as he stopped before her.
‘One of your doctors came into this room not too long after the police left,’ she began to explain, now looking towards the bed. ‘He said he was the Doctor in charge of the patient that was previously in this ward and that he forgot something under the bed, he removed it.’
The frown on the doctor’s face deepened, ‘What did he take?’
‘He showed me something I don’t really know, he said something like he used it to monitor the patient.’ She replied.
The doctor walked silently to the bed and squatted to check underneath. He raised up his head after checking for over thirty seconds. ‘I can’t find anything there,’ he said as he turned back to Stephanie. Then he stared straight to the wall and narrowed his look. ‘I’m not aware there was any patient here before,’ he said as he turned his face to her again. ‘But I’ll confirm, I think I may be wrong.’ He got up to his feet and dusted his palms. Then he applied pressure on the top of the mattress to check if it was rigid enough. A nurse- the nurse who do collected the tray from her colleague in the lab- walked in at that moment with a stainless steel tray and injection tools in it.
‘The bed is okay, you can come lay on it.’ the doctor said as he sighted the nurse walking in.
Stephanie stared at him with a raised eyebrow, wondering if he was sure of what he was saying. He met her gaze with a reassuring look and gestured with his hands, encouraging her to stand up.
‘What took you so long?’ the doctor said, turning to the nurse and giving way for Stephanie to move to the bed. ‘I was already thinking of coming to get it myself.’
The nurse curtsied apologetically but did not mention any word. She dropped the tray on the patients drawer beside the bed and stepped aside.
The Doctor moved closer to the tray, he took out the ampoule and raised it high to observe it under the light. He stopped for a second and turned to look at the nurse, she looked away immediately, shakily, hoping the doctor had not discovered that the ampoule had been changed or had a different mixture from the one expected.
The doctor turned back to Stephanie who was already staring anxiously as the recipient of the medication. The doctor picked the syringe and tore off the nylon. He took off the cap of the ampoule and inserted the needle, drawing out the liquid into the syringe.
_____
_Abuja_
All day Henry had remained at the work table, looking for a safe way to crack the security and get into the underground. He had several sheets of paper flying around the table which he had jotted so many codes on and tried to draw up a solution from. After several hours of trying, he still had found no way or made any progress. He was only more sure that there was a way he could crack the security and enter into all the hidden places but he didn’t know if there was a way for Tara not to get an alarm on his breaking in and if there was any way by which he would not be trapped underground when he successfully breaks in.
He decided to stop temporarily on his attempt to get in and try something else like finding the stream for the monitor cameras that could be there, he was sure there had to be.
He relaxed back into his chair for a second and then began to arrange the papers flying about neatly.
______
**Lagos**
Don pushed the gate open slowly and carefully, he entered into the compound trying his best to make no noise. He held the gate for the others to walk in after him and then closed it back gently.
They all took out their guns as they faced the house from the gate, Don signaled for Stone and the other to walk beside the fence wall by the right side while he followed the left. They continued to march forward slowly, looking around carefully till they got beside the main building. Stone and his partner paused and stared at Don for instructions on the next step. Don stared back at then without any clue of what to say. He remembered that Rex had asked them to attack first but he didn’t ask how they should. He decided to take the bull by the horn and began to march towards the balcony of the building, he gestured for Stone and the other man to come closer to the balcony but wait behind the wall.
He walked the large balcony noiselessly and to the direction of the door, he stopped and stared at the handle for a while before he turning it. Surprisingly, the door gave way with a very little sound. He pushed open a bit and peeped in. There appeared to be no one in the large living room, the lights were off and it looked unarranged and deserted.
Don held the door ajar and turned back to call on Stone. ‘Stone, come up.’ he said in whispers.
Stone’s head popped out from behind the wall almost immediately and Don made a hand gesture for him to climb up the balcony. Stone turned back briefly to call the other guys and both of them climbed up the balcony without wasting any time.
From the back left side of the building came out Tarasha after they had climbed up, she walked to the front and stopped behind the wall where Stone and the other guy previously hid themselves. She peeped and saw three of them standing in front of the door, Don whispering something to the two others. Then the men walked into the house slowly and closed the door behind. Tarasha stepped up the balcony and walked straight to the door.
Rex stood under the shadow just behind the fence outside the gate watching the activities in the compound from his device. He saw how Don led the boys to the building and frowned at Don’s tactic which was amateurish to him. He also watched Don peep into the house, he expected that something would have happened at that instant but nothing happened. He already began to conclude in his mind that Tarasha and her partner could have left the place after he saw Stone climb up with the other man but then he saw a masked lady putting on a black jacket on a bum short, approaching from the backyard left side. She peeped from behind the wall and then climbed up the balcony after Don and the two others had entered. She walked towards the door and stopped in front to listen for about ten seconds. Then she opened the door and entered into the house.
Rex smiled to himself devilishly, he was a hundred percent sure the lady was Tarasha. He pocketed his device and proceeded to the gate with quick steps. He stopped at the entrance of the gate and took out a tiny piece of rubber from his pocket, he attached the rubber to the space between the main gate and the part of the gate fixed into the fence blocks. Then he opened and entered without any fear of making noise with the gate. He closed it back and removed the rubber from it’s place of attachment. He charged towards the door, hundred percent sure that it was finally Tarasha’s time to die.
______
__Ikeja, in a restaurant beside City Gate Hospital__
He was seated at the table alone, had barely touched his plate of fried rice and chicken but had taken the cold soft drink past half of the bottle. His gaze lingered around the restaurant for a while before settling on the TV screen, the volume was low so he had to make do with the visuals alone. A Nigerian Music video was being played and as usual there were unclad girls dancing around the well dressed men. He hissed and looked away wishing he could change the TV station to another where he could watch more inspiring music.
‘Dave,’ a female’s voice called his attention as the owner of the voice settled into one of the two empty seats at the same table. She was putting on a simple white top and a blue jean skirt. Her hair was neatly packed to the back but she was without makeup and accessories except for just a small ear ring. Her name was Jumoke, the nurse who deceived her colleague and helped a man to change the ampoule from which Stephanie who injected. Sitting before her was David – the name she knew him with – the man she helped to change the ampoule and the same who dressed like a doctor and claimed to have a patient previously in the ward Stephanie was presently.
David was quite younger than Jumoke. He was strikingly handsome too and that was what had attracted Jumoke to him. They had met seventeen months ago at the City Gate Hospital where she worked. David had rushed in with a bullet in his arm and requested for treatment. As the normal order was, the hospital refused to treat him until there was a police report. Jumoke had secretly helped him to cover the wound that day to reduce the bleeding and minimize his blood loss before he got the police report. Two days after being treated, the police had taken him away as a culprit involved in a gang robbery. Only for him to show up two weeks later outside the hospital while Jumoke was already leaving for work. He asked her out but she was refused at first. She refused for two reasons. The first was that she didn’t want to be associated or seen with a criminal and then because she saw him too young to take her out. But then he was able to convince her that he wasn’t a criminal and had been proven innocent already, showing her evidences that he only happened to be a victim of circvmstance. She had replied to him, saying that she only helped him because she saw him like a younger brother and that it should be left that way, he didn’t need to take her out to appreciate what she did. But he refused to listen and after much insistence, she finally budged. After the first, they went out a couple of times and got into an unholy romance but she didn’t care anymore as she enjoyed what was going on between them and hoped it could continue. Just three months after them being together, he came to her with another bullet wound and she was forced to help him secretly treat it. He came up with another story to cover up and she didn’t argue even though she didn’t believe him totally. After six months of their undefined relationship, he disappeared mysteriously with all contacts cut off, leaving her with a broken heart. He only reached her three months later via email and promised to come back soon for her. Since then she didn’t see or hear from him until he showed up at the hospital that morning after seventeen months and began to ask questions about Stephanie George and Samantha Osman from her.
‘Oh! You’re finally here,’ he said, turning to her with a smile.
‘Yes,’ she replied as she dropped her bags on the floor just beside her. She didn’t return his smile but looked tired and worried.
‘You’re looking so stressed out,’ he commented on her looks, his eyes running down from her face downwards. ‘What would you like to take?’ he asked, his voice showed deep concern.
‘I don’t really want anything, I’ll eat when I get home.’ she replied with a sigh.
He stared at her face deeply for a while. ‘You’re not looking bad but at the same time not as radiant as you used to anymore, what happened?’
‘I think we should go straight to why we are here, there’s no time for pleasantries,’ she snapped impatiently.
‘I still think you should take something first before we start to talk, you look very tired.’ he insisted.
‘No I’m not taking anything. I look tired, not hungry, so better start talking.’ she bounced back.
‘Okay then, you’ll have to force me to talk.’ He folded his arms and rested back.
She sighed and hissed, knowing he was not going to proceed if she didn’t yield to his demand. ‘Okay, I’ll order for a bottle of water.’ she said and looked towards the reception to summon a waiter.
‘No, you need food, not water. I was waiting for you to come so we can eat at the same time,’ he said bringing her attention to the plate of food on the table.
She hissed again. The waiter was already close to he table. ‘What would you like me to get for you Ma’am?’
‘A bottle of water should do…’
‘You need food too…’ he cut in to remind her. The tone of his words carried the warning that he wasn’t going to proceed if she didn’t eat.
‘Okay, get me the same thing he’s eating.’ she finally said to the waiter who was still there waiting for the complete instruction. The waiter glanced briefly at the table before he bowed slightly and turned away.
The two at the table remained in silence until the food was brought, even after it was, they ate without saying anything to themselves.
Jumoke kept on stealing glances at him from time to time. She couldn’t deny that he had become more handsome and even increased in size. He appeared to be doing well and healthy.
‘So why didn’t you use makeups?’ Dave asked, wiping his lips with the tissue. His stare was fixed on her face.
‘I only use light makeup or none when I’m at work,’ she replied him, not looking up to avoid her eyes meeting his. There was always this uncontrollable effect that he had on her anytime their eyes met.
‘But you always use makeups when you close and you’re heading home,’ he returned.
‘I just didn’t use today. Besides, I was rushing to meet you here.’
‘That shouldn’t…’
‘Enough Dave!’ she summoned courage to look at his face. ‘Let’s get to why we’re here. Tell me why you’re back after leaving for so long.’
It was David’s turn to look away, he did for few seconds and then stared at her again briefly but fixed his gaze on the table.
‘I had something important to do,’ Dave said. ‘I’m sorry I had to leave that way.’
‘Come off it Dave!’ she slammed angrily, hitting her fists on the table. ‘You said that in your email months ago and you said the same thing this morning. Can you tell me something else?’
Dave looked around briefly to see if she hadn’t pulled too much attention to them by her response but she was less concerned.
‘Okay, it was work. I had to work,’ he said in low tones, looking into her eyes.
‘d@mn it! Dave, d@mn it! Till today, you’ve not told me the kind of job you do.’ she cursed angrily again.
‘Hey babe! Take it easy, you’re going to get us thrown out of here.’
‘I don’t give a d@mn about that, ‘ she returned.
‘Ermm…’ he sighed and looked around again. They had pulled more attention already. He rose up and took out his wallet. He quietly approached the counter and paid using his debit card. He returned to the table and picked up one of Jumoke’s bag and held her hand with his other hand. ‘Let’s leave this place, I’ll tell you everything when we get to somewhere appropriate.’
_______
Only after several minutes of turning and turning the analog was Aisha able to locate the shadow she had been tracing. She was still outside the house at the back, where she was asked to wait by Tarasha until she was called for. She saw the owner of the shadow, it was a masked man of a size and stature she didn’t think she had ever seen before. She was still watching intently when she suddenly realized that the man was already at the front balcony of the building.
She proceeded back to the back door of the house to warn Tarasha about him even though she hadn’t been called for yet.
_
Don and the two others froze at the instant they heard the door open behind them, they turned back immediately and saw a lady step inside. Before they could raise their guns up, she had already taken down one person with a bullet into his groin and another with a bullet to his hand, making his gun drop. She followed it up with another bullet into the left side of his chest.
Don was the only one untouched. He shot at her as quick as he could but she dodged and was already hidden behind the one seater sofa in front of him.
‘Let’s talk Don, you don’t need to get killed.’ she offered from her hiding place.
‘We don’t have anything to talk about,’ Don replied, already hiding behind the three seater sofa also.
‘We do have a to talk about,’ she said and at the same time peeped briefly.
‘We don’t!’ he replied.
She paused and tried to ascertain the direction his voice came from again, she peeped briefly and discovered he was behind the sofa. She placed her knee to the ground and took out a different gun loaded with pins to induce temporal paralysis. Then she stretched her leg forward and dragged with her feet to herself the doormat. She folded the doormat neatly and held it in one hand, the gun in the other hand and rose up in quick sudden motion, flinging the doormat to the direction she observed the voice came from.
Don in a bid to dodge what was coming moved from his hiding position rushingly and his back was exposed in the process. In less than two seconds, Tarasha sent the paralysis bullet into his back.
Tarasha rose up and immediately charged towards him, but not without briefly looking at the two men she already shot to ensure they were dead. She got behind the three seater and squatted beside Don. He was laying flat on his belly with his face turned towards the chair. An entrance leading to a corridor which led to the rooms in the house was just beside at the edge of the three seater sofa. She pushed the sofa away to give more space for him to see her face properly.
She stared at him for some seconds and gave a brief smile of victory. ‘You have fifteen minutes to talk to me,’ she said to him. ‘If I don’t remove the pin at your back in fifteen minutes, you’ll remain paralysed for twenty four hours and then begin to dry up.’ she said and smiled at the ray of fright she could see in his eyes.
‘Now you’re going to be answering some questions ,’ she said and then placed her knee on the ground. She pressed a button on her wristwatch to summon Aisha. ‘I’ll like for your ex girlfriend to take the notes. She’ll join us in forty seconds.’ she added and rose up to her feet.
At the same time, the door of the living room creaked open behind. ‘Aisha, come forward.’ Tarasha said without looking behind, though surprised because she didn’t expect Aisha to show up in less than forty seconds which she had told Don. ‘Come here quickly,’ she said again as she didn’t hear any the footsteps of Aisha coming towards her.
She got greatly shocked when the curtains of the inner door two metres close to her position opened and Aisha rushed in from there instead of from behind. She looked back to check who could be at the front door but Rex had his gun focused to body already and had released two immediate shots when she turned.
She got greatly shocked when the curtains of the inner door one metre close to her position opened and Aisha rushed in from there instead of from behind. She looked back to check who could be at the front door but Rex had his gun focused to her body already and had released two immediate shots when she turned.
It was too sudden for Tarasha to act or make any move faster than the speed of the bullets but Aisha who was rushed in from the door beside had covered her body with hers before the bullets got there. The first entered into Aisha’s chest while the other hit her jaw. Her lifeless body dropped on Tarasha who quickly bent for cover behind the three seater and exchanged the gun on the floor for the one with real bullets.
Keeping an eye towards the direction of the door, she placed on the ground Aisha’s lifeless body which was leaning against her shoulder and the backrest of the sofa. She rose up swiftly and released two quick shots, adjusting her position in the process. The shooter was out of sight when she rose to shoot, she concluded he must have hidden behind the one seater sofa she also hid when she first came in. She took the brief opportunity of no exchange to reload her gun and glanced at Aisha’s lifeless body in the process.
Aisha’s eyes were still open but life had drained out of her already. Tarasha unconsciously drew in a breath and used her palm to close the eyes of the dead body.
Just as she was about to adjust her position, a bullet flew past above her head and she froze after lowering her head and turning. More bullets followed but Tarasha knew better than to quiver or try to return the shots. She was sure the shooter was trying to make her come out of hiding just like she did to Don. Three more bullets followed and then it seized temporarily. Not more than ten seconds after bullets began to pierce into the thick leather sofa she was hiding behind. She then concluded in her heart that her opponent was in a more advantage position than she. She decided to leave through the opening Aisha entered through.
As she made a move with her legs without rising up, something hit her from behind. She looked back and saw blood. It was then she realized that she was facing a well seasoned person as her eyes met with two holes formed behind the seater. The shooter had only been targeting two points in the three seater and wasn’t shooting randomly . The first three bullets each that entered into each points of the sofa had been stopped by obstructions -the wood, foam and makeup behind the surface leather of the sofa- but had cleared space enough for the bullets to pierce through the entire sofa and get behind which explains how she got hit.
_____
‘Oh!’ Henry exclaimed as he stared in amazement at the neat arrangement of weapons he could see on the screen. He covered his lips with his palm unconsciously, wondering how Omotara smuggled in such weapons into the country and with what money she did. He pressed the right arrow button on the keyboard and the view on the screen moved until it got to a door in the middle of the room leading to another. He navigated past the door to the other side of the room and just like the left side, the right was also filled with arms of different kinds arranged neatly according to their type and heights on the metal shelf.
His hand left the keyboard for a second and he remained motionless, staring blankly over the monitor. He returned back to the computer and used the mouse to switch to the cameras in the next room. There he saw something that was more flabbergasting to him. Neatly arranged on a long drawer were the necks to head of dolls, the necks being the ones in contact with the flat top of the drawer. There were about seven dolls on the table and each doll’s face was covered with a human skin mask which made them look like real human faces. There were three female faces there and four male faces. The male faces were arranged side by side and the female faces also, they were of different skin colours but all dark. All of the male dolls hair except for one had negroid hairs while the females were plaited with different styles of hair attachments. The female mask faces also had different styles of makeup. There was a mirror behind the drawer and the other parts of the room were arranged in form of a makeup studio.
Henry zoomed the video and observe the masks one after the other, he realized that they were kept there to dry which meant they were newly made.
He knew at once what they were made for. Omotara must be planning to use them for disguise. That didn’t really baffle him than the number of the masks he’d seen, seven. To him it meant Tarasha was still planning to do a lot of killing and that automatically means she wasn’t going to ever feel repentant and wasn’t planning to stop the job of killing people. She was instead devising more means to make her assassination and escape after it easier.
He heaved a deep sigh and shut his eyes firmly wondering if there was ever going to be any future with Tara.
________
After ten minutes drive in total silence, Dave and Jumoke finally arrived at her residence. Dave drove his car into the compound and parked behind another car. They both dropped from the car at the same time but Jumoke picked up her bags and rushed towards her apartment without saying a word to Dave. He walked hastily after her but she had entered and locked the door from behind before he got there.
‘Jummy please open the door,’ he pleaded placing his palms on either side of the door frame.
‘Just go Dave, I don’t want to see you anymore. Leave the explanations to yourself and never return to my life anymore,’ she blurted out.
Dave sighed. ‘Come on babe, I can explain. Things are not the way you think they are…’ he paused to lower his voice as he was already attracting attention from the neighbours in the other apartments. ‘Things are not the way you see them, if you’ll only let me explain myself, you’ll get to understand what I went to do and why I left that way.’ he said and paused to listen for a response. He didn’t hear anything from her, so he placed his ear to the door to listen if she was still in the living room. He could hear sounds of her movement inside the house but couldn’t ascertain what exactly she was doing. He decided to go to the back of the house and peep through the window of her bedroom but the window blinds covered his view of the room. As he was about turn away from the window, the blind was pulled and his eyes met with Jumoke’s eyes. She quickly closed back the blinds and hurried away.
‘Jummy, come on, why don’t you give me a chance to talk to you?’ he pleaded again in front of the window but got no response from her. He walked back to the front door and kept on knocking but she didn’t answer. After five minutes, he decided to try something else. He stepped back a bit and carefully observed the lock, it was the same as the one being used eighteen months ago. He turned and looked down the balcony to see if he could find any metal which he could use to unlock the door.
_______
‘She’s deep asleep now, when she wakes she won’t remember what brought her here.’ The young doctor explained to Inspector Mac. ‘But there are side effects too,’ he added in a sad tone.
‘What side effects?’ the Inspector asked facing the doctor with a raised eyebrow and his two hands on the waist.
‘She might forget more than the last three weeks, it might extend to three months,’ the doctor answered.
‘But why should it work that way? I thought the drug was only meant to induce memory loss of three weeks events.’ the Inspector questioned.
‘Yes, but sometimes because of the difference in composition of human bodies, it tends to have different effects on different people.’
‘Well, three months is even okay,’ the inspector said, returning his gaze to the girl in the bed. ‘Even if she lost her memory completely, it’s for her good and safety.’ he added.
The doctor sighed and kept his gaze also on Stephanie. He could feel the insincerity in the Inspector’s words but he had no choice. The Inspector’s words and actions were being backed by the police commissioner’s authority and the Inspector General’s.
‘How long will she sleep for?’ Inspector Mac turned to her again.
‘Well, it depends. She could sleep for three to four hours.’
‘That means we’ll be back tomorrow morning to see the progress,’ he stated, folding his arms across his chest.
‘Yes, tomorrow morning is a good time.’
___________
Jumoke sat at the edge of the bed solemnly with her face buried in her palms. She made up her mind during the drive home to shut Dave totally out of her life forever, there was no need for him to let him in to complicate things again.
For some minutes she had not heard his knock or his voice and she thought for a second that he must have left but then she remembered the kind of person he was and knew he must still be lurking somewhere around.
She was still in her gloomy mood when she felt someone’s presence by her side and a hand wrapped her body as she tried to look off.
‘Get away,’ she screamed and he refrained immediately. ‘How did you get in?’ she asked looking towards the door. It was closed and her keys were still in the hole.
‘Please allow me talk,’ he pleaded and knelt in front of her.
‘We don’t have anything to talk about, just get out.’ she ordered, pointing towards the door.
‘Just listen to me and I promise that you’ll understand,’ he continued with his plea.
‘No get out, or I’ll scream and alert the neighbours that you’re a thief and rapist.’ she insisted.
‘No, you can’t do that.’ he said in a calm tone and placed his hands gently on her knees.
‘Somebody…’ she opened her mouth to scream but overpowered her with his so strong arms and covered her mouth with his.
She was shocked for a brief moment as his mouth met hers but she was too weakened by it too push him away. He gradually pushed her to lay on the bed and in a matter of seconds, she was responding to him.
Thirty minutes later, the two adults lay unclad side by side in the bed, their clothes scattered carelessly on the floor. Both were totally lost in thoughts and in astonishment of the moment they had just shared. Jumoke never really believed it could happen again, she had decided against it and made up her mind not to allow him touch her body anymore but here she was again after minutes of screaming and groaning under his pleasant torture which she appeared to enjoy. She felt foolish as she realized she only made a fool out of herself by thinking locking the door would have stopped him. It wasn’t the first or second time he had entered into her room without having the key. She had surprisingly met him inside on several occasions during the few months of their relationship. Now that he was back and she hadn’t been able to resist him, she wondered what would become of them. Their relationship had been undefined from the start; none had professed love to another before the first night they made out. Since then their relationship had been characterized of constant intense sëxual intercourse.
Dave on his own fought with guilt in his heart. Not the guilt of having left her before but knowing he was going to leave her again soon and that she was only being used as his instrument. He felt nothing for her and had no plans for a future with her. All he needed her for was his work and nothing else. That day he rushed into the hospital with the bullet wound, he had seen the reaction on her face and knew she’ll be vulnerable and easy to use. Thus, he used her in several ways to help his operations and also medically when he was wounded and paid her with good sëxual intercourse in return.
She unconsciously made a slight movement and her elbow touched his chest bringing both of them back to the consciousness of each other’s presence. She quickly retrieved her arm and maintained the space between them but he moved closer and climbed over her, his bare body fully in contact with hers. She groaned and vibrated all over but he only placed a light kiss on her lips and rolled over to his previous position.
‘I’m sorry for all I did to you, I’m sorry for abandoning you,’ he said in low tones, staring blankly at the ceiling. He knew he had been able to appease her with the sëx and he expected to be forgiven without stress. She turned and faced the window side, her back towards him and remained in silence. He moved closer and placed his hand over her body, using the second hand to play with her hair.
‘So now that you’re back, what happens? Is it business as usual?’ she asked in soft tones but still depicting seriousness in her voice.
Dave had no response to the question but began to try to cook up a lie, he couldn’t use the several lines he had used before and had to come up with something more reasonable this time to convince her.
The loud ringing tone of a phone came to Dave’s rescue. He jumped out of the bed immediately and began to put on his trousers hurriedly. Jumoke rose up from the bed and stared at him for an explanation.
‘Baby, I can’t believe we’ve totally forgotten the unfinished job at the hospital. I have to go there right now to see Stephanie,’ he explained as he dragged up his trousers.
Jumoke sighed and laid back into the bed. This was one of the reasons she didn’t want him back. There were always no explanations for his actions and they were always unreasonable.
‘I’ll be back as soon as I finish what I’m supposed to do,’ he said as he put on his shirt. He straightened his clothes and took out of his pocket the phone which had began to ring again. He stared at the screen and paused in surprise at the caller’s ID. He then shrugged and silenced it. He rushed to Jumoke and placed a kiss on her cheek before rushing out through the door.
_________
Tarasha rushed into the corridor through the near entrance and stopped behind the wall and peeped briefly. The bullet had entered into her back at the right close to her shoulder. The shooting at the sofa only stopped a bit and continued not long after, the shooter was now targeting another point on the sofa. From that Tarasha could deduce that he did not know that she was hit neither did he know she had left the place, but he was going to discover both soon.
She looked back and came up with the conclusion that it was better for her to escape as she had been hit already instead of facing the enemy. She turned and took two steps forward and then turned back again to the entrance. She peeped and saw the shooter already standing up. He had discovered her absence behind the sofa quicker than she thought he would but luckily for her, he didn’t see her when she peeped. She had only returned for one thing; she ÇOçked her gun and in a swift motion sent a bullet into Don’s body. Then she followed it up with a bullet towards Rex but he was quick to hide behind the sofa, also sending an untargeted shot towards her. She turned back and began to run towards the escape, covering her bleeding back with her left palm. She was bleeding badly and could become very weak soon if she didn’t get immediate care.
Rex rose up immediately he sensed from the sound of her footsteps that she was moving away already, he proceeded towards the entrance immediately, determined to meet up with her and do all it take her life.
Rex rose up immediately he sensed from the sound of her footsteps that she was moving away already, he proceeded towards the entrance immediately, determined to meet up with her and do all it take her life.
Tarasha picked up her backpack in her right hand as she hurried through the passageway, she got to the door and removed the keys from the keyhole before opening. Rex was already stepping into the corridor as she stepped out.
He sent three bullets towards her in quick succession but she was also fast and the door had been closed already. He rushed to the door and tried to open through the handle but it had been locked from outside. He took two steps to the back and placed the focus of gun to the door lock. He fired a shot but it wasn’t enough until he fired the second, the door began to open backward slowly. He stopped it with his leg and pushed it forward a bit. He opened the zip of a small bag hung across his body and took out a cartridge to refill his gun. Then he opened the door slowly again and peeped before stepping out. By the time he got out, Tarasha was not in sight and he saw no traces of the direction she went. He looked around for some seconds before finding something by the wall at the left side of the side yard, the direction which led to the backyard of the house. He stepped down from the stairs but stopped to think instead of following immediately. He wasn’t aware that any bullet had touched her, so he wasn’t sure the blood stain he saw on the wall was from her. And if it was from her, he knew she wouldn’t have been that careless to stain the wall with it. If she had stained the wall then, she must have a plan for him behind. He began to walk slowly towards the place, he took out his extra gun as he went, also making sure his mind and his ears were at full attention for him to hear any sound made and detect the direction.
While he was still moving slowly towards the backyard, glancing forward and backward tactically, a sound went off and was followed by a sudden vibration of the floor. The backyard and the wall of the house facing it went up in flames. Rex was also on the floor and one of his guns had fallen off. He rose up almost immediately and searched for his gun around, he located it and picked it up. Then he turned and began to proceed to the front of the house, he concluded that she must have taken that direction since she placed a bomb at the back. He quickened his steps as he caught sight of the gate.
The gate had been locked from the front when he got there, proving positive that Tarasha had gotten out.
Tarasha could see very few vehicles on the road as she stepped out of the gate. Motorists must have been avoiding the place as the sounds from their gun exchange had changed the peaceful atmosphere totally. She began to walk forward. Luckily for her, a cab appeared and was driving in the direction she was going.
‘Taxi,’ Tarasha waved down the cab man and he brought the car to a halt immediately. She could hear a gunshot at the gate as she walked to the cab, it meant the bomb did not kill the target. She opened the front door of the cab and settled in, placing her backpack on her lap.
‘Madam, where are you going to?’ the cab man asked her but she was looking back through the rear glass. Rex had come out through the gate but did not see her enter the cab. The cab man’s eyes narrowed in fear as he noticed her cloth stained with blood. There were also stains on her face and lines from the mask she had taken off already. He had heard sounds of gunshots where he was driving from and he knew they gun exchange should be around the area but had decided to still take that route when he saw nothing on the road and some vehicles still passing the same place. He quivered in fear, afraid that he might be in trouble. He attempted to take off his seat and leave the car for her but she turned back towards him at that moment.
‘Just drive on,’ Tarasha ordered as she turned to him. Their gaze met and she noticed the fear written all over his face. She also saw the seatbelt he was trying to take off. Letting him out of the car would have been the best but then it would make the person pursuing her suspect she was in the cab. ‘Drive!’ she repeated, this time enforcing her order by showing him her gun.
Rex stepped out of the gate with his guns in his pocket after destroying the gate lock.
‘d@mn it!’ He cursed as he looked around but there was nothing outside to suggest the direction in which Tarasha went. He heaved a heavy sigh of frustration, he had missed her again.
He took off his mask and tucked it into his trouser’s back pocket. Then he saw a parked taxi afar driving away from its stationary position. He peered from where he stood, trying to see the passengers in the taxi and determine their number. He saw the driver and only one passenger by the side but couldn’t tell if the passenger was a male or female because of the distance he was looking from. He looked away to the other direction and there was nothing he saw that was of help to him. There were only few cars on the road now and very few pedestrians at the other side of the road, most of them were hurrying and stealing glances at his direction since that was the direction the sounds of the gunshots were emanating from.
His gaze moved to the point where they had parked the cars they brought. He took out a remote control from his pocket and tapped a button to open the doors of his vehicle and make it ready before he got there. He could hear as he crossed the road sounds of police vehicles coming closer.
__________
7.23pm
Still deep in sleep, Stephanie felt a cold hand squeeze her palm and the soft call of her name following after. She tried to continue sleeping but the person called her twice again and stopped. She still attempted to continue from there but then she felt the person shake her hand vigorously. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes, yawning at the same time.
‘Steph,’ the man called again. She could now see him, he was seated on a plastic chair at her right hand side.
At first, she thought she was still sleeping and was dreaming. She felt more peaceful and healthier than the way she was before the sleep. She stared at the face intently for some seconds, she knew him, she had seen him before but couldn’t remember who he was and where she saw him. She tried to close her eyes again but he shook her hand again and she opened.
‘Steph, you need to listen now, we have to talk. We don’t have all the time,’ the unfamiliar voice said.
She peered at him for some seconds, then she suddenly remembered who he was and where she had seen him. He was the doctor who had come earlier to take out something from under the bed.
‘What do you want?’ she asked, wanting to sound harsh but the strength in her voice failed her. She also tried to sit up but the she couldn’t even move her body except for her head which could turn in different directions.
‘Calm down Steph, I want you to listen carefully to me first…’
‘Doctor!!!’ Steph tried to shout but her voice was so low that even a person standing two metres away from her would not hear her.
‘Don’t stress yourself for now, you can’t do anything until the next two hours.’ Dave said holding her wrist with his right hand and her palm still in his left.
She could feel his palms on her and was disgusted by it but there was nothing she could do to make him take it off, she couldn’t lift up her hand or even shake it. ‘You’ll be caught and punished if you do anything wicked,’ she said in a determined tone.
‘I don’t do wicked things,’ Dave said with a smile. ‘I’m your friend’ he added and then quickly adjusted his seating position to a serious one. He began in low tones, ‘I’ve come to help you but you have to cooperate with me.’ he waited to see her response. She kept a straight face and stared at him with an unconvinced look. ‘The truth is I never had a patient here before like I claimed the other time, I’m not a doctor.’ Dave decided to start with the truth in order to gain her trust but the look she gave him at his confession was more of increasing distrust. ‘I had to lie then because I had to get out immediately,’ he continued. ‘The doctors here are being forced to do something they don’t want to do and I’ve come to make sure they don’t succeed’. The look on Stephanie’s face turned to one of suspicion, she didn’t believe anything he was saying. ‘The last medication they gave you was to make you lose your memory so that you’ll forget everything about Samantha Osman and what about to you during the last three weeks.’
Anger was now showing on Stephanie’s face, she felt like punching his face as his words which she saw as lies were annoying her.
‘Hey! Stop staring at me like I’m cooking up this. I think we need a test that’ll solve your incredulity.’ Dave said as he relaxed back and dipped his hands into the front pockets of his trousers. He took out a tiny device from his left and an earpiece from the right. He inserted the earpiece plug into the port on the device. ‘Listen, what I recorded was your conversation with the police officers.’ he said as he put the earpiece into her ears.
He didn’t allow her to listen for up to a minute before he removed it. ‘Now, tell me. Why do you think the police wants you to lie to the public about the experience you had with Samantha Osman?’ he waited to hear a response from her.
Stephanie’s eyebrows gathered together as she pondered on his question. She didn’t have an answer for him as she couldn’t understand why the police would want her to hide the truth.
‘You see, I know why and I also know there very desperate to ensure that you don’t speak out the truth to anyone, that’s why they instructed the doctors to make you forget everything that ever happened to you within the last three weeks. That was what they intended for your last medication to do in you,’ Dave explained.
‘Why should I trust you?’ Steph asked narrowing her gaze at him.
‘Okay…’ Dave paused to think for about five seconds. ‘I’m gonna tell you exactly how you feel right now,’ he continued. ‘You felt calm and very sound when you woke up but you were surprised that you couldn’t move your body when you tried to,’ he stated and stared at her for a response but she didn’t look convinced at all. ‘Okay, let me tell you something else.’ he paused shortly again. ‘When you close your eyes and hold your breath for a while, you’ll be able to move your hands and legs while your breath is being held.’
She stared at him distrustingly for some seconds and then decided to test what he said. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. After taking in a deep breath, she held her breath and tried to lift her hand. It seemed heavy at first but then she was able to lift it. She opened back her eyes and stared at him in shock. ‘You said you’re not a doctor, how do you know that?’
‘I know it because I changed the bottle containing the injection liquid, I put something else there.’ he answered.
She frowned and looked confused, she tried to talk but there was nothing to say.
‘Here is what they intended to give to you,’ he brought out the ampoule and raised it up for her to see. ‘But I changed it to something else which is the cause of what you’re feeling right now, but the effects would soon fade away and you’ll be very well without losing your memory at all.’ he explained.
Stephanie was speechless as she continued to stare at him. She didn’t even know what to do, whether to accept what he was saying or totally discard them as lies. But with her inability to move without closing her eyes and holding her breath, there was nothing she could do even if she did not accept his words. Besides, he had been correct when he told her how she was feeling and what to do to move other parts of her body.
‘Here’s what I want to to do,’ Dave continued without allowing her make a conclusion in her mind. ‘The doctors and officers believe that you should have lost part of your memory by tomorrow, so they’re going to put you to test when they come back. You’ll have to act like someone who has forgotten, okay?’
‘Why do I have to act as if I’ve forgotten?’ she asked with a stubborn mind but even she felt foolish after the words came out of her mouth.
‘So that they won’t do something to harm you or even administer the correct drug to you again,’ he answered her. ‘Remember I told you how desperate the officers are to make you not give the accurate account of your experience with Samantha Osman.’
‘But I thought they said she was a criminal, why are they hiding things about her from the public again, why won’t they allow for the truth to be told so that the public can know how she really operates?’
‘I can’t answer that question now,’ he replied. ‘All you have to do is to just act as if you’ve forgotten all that happened during the last three weeks which includes how you were kidnapped, your experience with Samantha and how you were brought here, even all the things that happened today before you were given that injection…’
‘Well, that should be easy to do,’ she cut in with a smile, feeling excited that she was going to be playing a game with the police and doctors.
‘Easy?’ Dave questioned with his eyes wide open. ‘Let’s do a quick test now,’ he looked around briefly. ‘Ermm… I don’t really have anything to ask now,’ he scratched his head. ‘But you just have to make sure you act properly for them not to suspect,’ he said and held her palm in his again. This time she didn’t feel irritated. ‘Did they give you any drug this morning?’
‘Yes,’ she answered.
‘How many tablets and syrups?’
‘About five tablets and just two spoons of the same syrup.’
Dave released her palm from his grip and shook his head unhappily at her, ‘There you go, you’re already missing it. How can you remember that you took drugs this morning with the types and the number when you’re supposed to have forgotten everything?’
‘Oh!’ she closed her eyes, feeling disappointed in herself.
‘These are the kind of questions that’ll be asked and you’ll just blow everything if you give them the right answers.’ Dave said and leaned towards her bed, placing his both hands on each other beside her. ‘When you’re asked any question, take some time to stare blankly towards the ceiling and give a slight frown, you don’t even have to talk, they’ll assume from your look that you can’t remember,’ he offered.
‘Okay, I’ll try that.’
‘Good,’ Dave smiled and held her palm in his once again. ‘You’ll be okay when you wake up tomorrow and I’ll be back to tell you what next to do,’ he said and rose up. ‘Bye,’ he said and tried to move but he felt her grip his hand. He was surprised at first that she was able to do but then he looked at her face and saw that she closed her eyes and held her breath to do so. He smiled.
‘Who are you?’ she asked after opening her eyes and releasing her breath. She met his smiling face.
‘Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Dave, a friend of yours.’
‘My friend, how come I don’t know someone who is my friend?’ she questioned.
Dave smiled again. ‘Every good person is a friend to someone like you. Let’s just say I’m a secret admirer,’ he said.
She observed his handsome face for some seconds, his neatly shaved beards and well carved moustache. His lowly cut hair was black and shining under the white bulb, his oval face had a medium sized nose to complement it. He looked as young as she was and also very slender.
‘But how do you know all these things?’ she asked.
‘You’ll get to know that very soon, just make sure you act well with the police.’
_________
Stainless continued to steal glances at Rex who sat in silence since he got back. He couldn’t tell whether their operation was successful or not as Rex’s face was expressionless. His eagerness to hear what happened was almost getting him crazy. That Don, Stainless and the third person had not returned with Rex also added to his uneasiness. He couldn’t see them dead in his mind, all he thought was that Rex had sent them somewhere else.
‘Stainless,’ Rex finally called after an hour of deafening silence. Stainless sprung up to his feet at once and got to Rex’s front. ‘How many guys do we have left now?’
‘Still nine in total. Five guys here with me and you sent three on an errand,’ Stainless answered.
‘Who are those I sent?’ Rex gave a evil chuckle and then ended it with a growl.
‘Don, Stone and the young guy.’ Stainless replied innocently.
‘They’ve been sacrificed,’ he said what he considered the plain truth. He knew when he sent them ahead of him that they had little chances of returning alive but then he considered the exchange worth it. The lives of the three guys in exchange for Tarasha’s death would have been a huge success for him but someone else had showed up at the wrong time and took the bullets meant for Tarasha.
He roared angrily at the thought of all that happened and everybody around was visibly shaken, even Stainless was deeply terrified. ‘They’re all dead, so count them out,’ he finally said in clear terms to Stainless. ‘How many guys do we have left now?’
Stainless was slow in answering. ‘We have six left now, that includes me.’ he replied in a shaky voice.
‘And we still have the Tarasha’s man right?’
‘Yes.’
Hope returned to Rex’s heart as he got an idea of what to do next. He had Cole with him and had details enough to make Henry unable to help her. That was all he needed now- nobody to take the bullet for Tarasha or interfere again when it’s time for her death. He never knew he succeeded in getting a bullet into Tarasha’s body and that she was near death at that moment.
_________
An hour after pushing out the driver from the taxi, Tarasha continued to drive without stopping, she couldn’t find any safe place to stop to treat herself and there were even no tools for her to use for first aid. Going to the hospital wasn’t an option, she didn’t have enough strength to force them to treat her and she would even be handed over to the police. She continued to go round in circles until she got very weak. Her hands couldn’t continue to control the steering wheel. She stopped the car and dragged herself out of the car with her bag. She dragged herself on the floor and hid behind the shadow formed by a fence which was next to an uncultivated land.
She laid face flat on the rough floor under the shadow and began to try tearing off her cloth especially the part where the bullet entered. She was still struggling with this when a light appeared over her. She struggled to look up and saw a torchlight being pointed at her face. She heaved a sigh of frustration. She preferred to die rather than being arrested by the police but here was one already.
