‘Yes, Omotara. The Danjumas only had boys, the girl they called their daughter wasn’t theirs.’ The man replied, staring happily at the stars in the sky as he continued his story without knowing he had caused something else.
It took some time for Tarasha to assimilate the information. The doctor didn’t sound like someone who was drunk or someone who wasn’t sure of what he was saying. The cool atmosphere changed drastically for her and she began to feel hot inside.
The doctor continued to speak on but she could no longer hear what he was saying. She had several questions running through her mind and occupying her thoughts. She was also trying to picture in her mind who her mother could be if it wasn’t Lydia Danjuma.
‘Then who was Omotara’s mother?’ Tarasha suddenly asked in a loud tone, interrupting the man’s story.
The doctor and Henry turned to her in surprise. The look on her face was different from what it was when the both of them joined her down the balcony and they realized that something serious must have changed her mood into the unpleasant one she now seemed to be in.
‘Omotara’s mother?’ the doctor raised her eyebrows at her.
‘Yes, where is she?’
‘I don’t know who she is or where she is but…’ the doctor stopped with a gasp, wondering why she was interested in knowing who the mother was.
It then occurred to Henry that Tarasha was the same Omotara the doctor mentioned. He could now understand why her countenance had changed and why she looked so worried.
‘But what?’ Tarasha asked the man impatiently.
‘But… why are you so interested in knowing the mother? Is there something our operations also have to do with the Danjumas?’ The doctor asked.
Tarasha stared at him in silence for a while. Her mind couldn’t grasp the news yet and she hoped in her mind that the doctor was wrong. Then she suddenly remembered her mother’s diary; the only book where her mother (Lydia Danjuma) wrote all her secrets and poured out her heart. If what the doctor said was true, then something about it had to be in the diary.
She turned swiftly and proceeded straight up the balcony leaving Henry and the doctor dazed.
‘What’s wrong? Did I say anything that I wasn’t supposed to say?’ Doctor Ekwueme turned to Henry after Tarasha was out of sight.
‘You didn’t do anything wrong sir,’ Henry said, touching the man on the shoulder lightly. ‘Lets go in, I have to talk with her.’ He proceeded in straightaway and the doctor followed him.
___________
AJANGBADI
‘Six officers were found dead in the place when the police arrived there. The reason for the gunclash is yet to be verified but it is believed that the SSS officers visited the location on getting information from an unverified source of Samantha Osman’s presence at the location. The Lagos State SSS Director is yet to say anything concerning the matter and no answer was given when a call was made to the SSS office for confirmation.’
Dave sat there in pain as he watched the breaking news. A video of the dead bodies of the SSS officers was being shown as the reporter spoke. Dave was overwhelmed with guilt especially when it got to the part showing the dead body Officer who had led the group of men into the building. The officer’s dead body was almost unrecognizable, it looked like a sharp object was dug into his forehead and made to come out from behind. The officers’ deaths were his fault, he had led them to their deaths just as he did in Anambra. The deaths of the men would haunt him for a very long time, he was very sure of that.
He got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom of the hotel room. He walked back out a minutes later with his face wet and a face towel hung around his neck. He proceeded out of his room and stopped at the door to Stephanie’s room.
He knocked at the door gently and waited for a response. He sighed when he got none after a minute. He knew she was likely not going to talk to him that night, he had been trying to get into her room for more than an hour after he returned to the hotel but she wouldn’t open the door to talk to him.
He lifted his hand to knock again but missed as the door opened at that moment.
Stephanie stood at the doorway. She was putting an underwear which covered her body partially.
She raised her brows at him without saying anything and he stared back at her for a moment without having words to start his conversation.
She tried to close the door and turn back inside but he stopped it with his hand.
‘Please, can I talk with you?’ He finally asked. She opened the door and let him in.
‘So, what do you want to talk to me about?’ she asked after closing the door. She stopped at the front of the door and folded her arms across her chest.
Dave looked around the room and noticed that the place was well tidied and clean. He noticed she had also packed her bags at a side.
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‘I’ve been trying to speak with you since I returned but you wouldn’t open the door.’
‘Yes, I was trying to put the loads together. I’ve arranged all the tools and ID cards you gave me into the wardrobe,’ she paused and walked to the wardrobe. She opened to show him how she did the arrangements. ‘As you can see, my bag is ready, I’ll be returning to Abuja tomorrow. I think I can continue this without you.’
Dave was shocked and speechless. He just stared at her face with his mouth agape like a confused fellow.
‘My flight is by 8am, I won’t be needing anything, I’ve already ordered for a vehicle to come pick me by six thirty.’
‘Why are you doing this Steph? We started this together, why do you want to continue alone at this point?’ Dave asked in a pleading voice.
‘I’m sorry Dave but I can’t continue with you. I don’t trust you, you can sell me out.’
‘Sell you out? Come on, I would never do that.’
‘But I just saw you do it to someone else today,’ she sat on the bed and crossed her legs, turning her back to him.
Dave sighed. ‘Steph, you should understand me, I explained this to you already. Samantha Osman is a criminal that I can’t trust. I shouldn’t have tried to contact her at all.’
‘But you wanted to help her save the Chief, why did you turn around and bring in the SSS to take the glory?’
‘No,’ Dave frowned. ‘That’s not what I intended to do, I’m not interested in taking the glory for anything. I only realized that working with her would mean betraying my agency instead of being loyal to them.’
‘That’s the more reason I can’t work with you. Your loyalty is to your agency. Who knows if you would realize tomorrow that working with me would mean betraying your agency?’
She stared at him for close to a minute waiting for his answer but he kept mute. He couldn’t think of anything to say to her.
‘You should be rest assured that I won’t let anyone know of your secret agency. And If you want, I would not even act like I know you the next time we see.’ Stephanie added.
Dave was heartbroken with her last statement. He couldn’t bear the fact that she was already planning to cut off all ties with him.
‘Stephanie, I beg of you, please listen and try to reason with me. I had no option than to do the right thing.’
‘Yes, I know. That’s why I’m leaving all for you to continue with the right thing.’
‘Please don’t Steph, I believe that we can work this out together.’
‘No, thanks Dave.’ She said as she got up from the bed and proceeded to the door. ‘I think you should leave now,’ she said and opened the door for him to leave.
Dave was stunned. He could see it in her eyes that she was really mad at him. There was nothing else he could do. He let out a deep breath and proceeded out of the room hesitatingly.
_________________
‘Tara,’ Henry called out loud as he got to the door. He knocked twice thinking that she must have locked the door from behind but he noticed that it wasn’t locked and wasn’t jammed properly. He pushed the door in gently and walked in. She didn’t look up or act as if she noticed his entrance. She was seated at the right side of the bed and had a device in her hand. Henry could see as he got to the centre of the room that she had just turned on the device and it was still booting.
‘What do you have to say to me?’ Tara asked in an unwelcoming tone which made Henry stop on the spot. ‘I think I’m okay if all you want to do is comfort me.’
Henry heaved a sigh. He hadn’t totally made up his mind on what to say to her, and she wasn’t even looking any longer like one who was disturbed by the news. He made his way to the bed and sat at the same side as her, giving only a little space between them.
‘Well, can I seat with you for now?’ Henry asked with a shrug after seating.
She took her gaze away from him and focused on the device in her hand. She felt good on remembering that she had only scanned the diary and saved them on her device few hours before she needed it. The device had already finished booting. She clicked on the menu icon and changed her seating position as she scrolled down to find the PDF reader application.
_______
PRESIDENTIAL LOUNGE, LAGOS.
The feverish feeling did not leave Chief Elvis even after he finished his meal and took his drugs for the night. He knew something serious other than malaria was wrong with him but he expected that the doctor at the clinic in Aso Rock should have found out that he needed more than just malaria treatment.
He dragged himself to the room tiredly and sunk into the bed without taking off his clothes. He thought of calling Rex again at that moment but he felt too weak to get up to search for his phone, but he was soon forced to look for it when he began to hear the sound of the ringing tone.
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‘Oh!’ he let out a gasp as he saw the name of the incoming caller. It was the Inspector General who had called him earlier when he was at Madam Henrietta’s house. He had promised to return the call when he left the woman’s house but did not remember to do so.
‘Chief Rikau,’ he answered with a gasp. “I’m sorry I haven’t called you yet, I’ve not been feeling too well since I returned to the house.’
‘Sorry about that sir? But why is the fever still persisting, I thought they ran some tests on your blood already.’
‘Yes, I’ve been tested. The Doctor said it’s severe malaria but I think I have to visit another doctor. I’m however sure it’ll pass away soon.’
‘Please take care of yourself sir.’
‘I will.’
‘I wanted to confirm if you still met with Rex today.’
‘No, he asked me to wait. He was expecting Samantha Osman but SSS men showed up.’
‘Agent Tim reported to me also, he said Samantha Osman was somewhere around Okoko in Lagos. He and Agent James visited the place.’
‘Tim and James are in Lagos?’ The Vice President asked.
‘Yes, they got there this afternoon.’
‘What are they doing here? I do not really understand, tonight’s case only concerns the SSS.’
‘I know sir, even the Samantha Osman’s case is supposed to have been fully handed over to the SSS for them to work on alone with full force but you remember we are working it in both forces with your influence and so that we can easily track her since she is directly against our individual selves.’
‘I know, but I don’t still understand what James is doing in Lagos. I still understand that Tim has to be here.’
‘Sir, he works together with Tim in the same team, it would be against protocols not to involve him in what Tim does.’
‘Come on, but you and I know that he cannot be involved.’
‘Yes sir, he doesn’t know anything that has to do with us. He only knows what Tim allows the team to know.’
‘Well, we just have to be careful with that boy. I do not even trust him even though he is my son. I’m thinking we should find a way to suspend him from the force until Samantha Osman’s case is over.’
‘Hmm, I will do something about that sir.
‘Thank you.’
They spoke for few more seconds before they ended the call. Chief Elvis dialed Rex’s number immediately.
‘Hello Rex, I’ve been trying to reach you since we spoke last.’
There was no response for almost ten seconds. The Chief called his name twice again before there was a reply.
‘I’m sleeping already Chief, I believe you should have seen what I did to the SSS men on the news’
‘No, I didn’t listen to the news tonight. I wanted to find out if there is no problem.’
‘There’s none, I only regret not being able to kill the SSS men who withdrew.’
‘I asked for them to do so.’
‘They took a wise choice by obeying you,’ Rex said with a chuckle. ‘Well, I’ve moved the man to another location. I’ll come get you when I think it’s time to see him.’
‘No, can’t I come there after my event tomorrow?’
‘No, you can’t. The SSS men spoilt my plans already; we would have some trouble if you decide to come from your event.’
‘I don’t understand you Rex, I have limited time to use in Lagos. I have to return to Abuja next tomorrow so that I can give a report to the committee.’
‘You can’t come from straight for the event,’ Rex insisted in a calm voice. ‘Except I come there to get you myself.’
‘You don’t need to, I would return to the house briefly after the event to change my clothes and disguise a little, then I’ll come there with few of my escorts.’
‘Chief, do you know that Samantha Osman would be watching every of your moves tomorrow?’
The Vice President was quiet for a while. He realized that Rex was saying the truth.
‘That’s true, it means I have to increase my security.’
‘She might not attack you there but would monitor your movements and may follow you everywhere you go. That would mean you would be only be prone to attack when you journey to this location with your few escorts.’
Chief Elvis heaved a sigh of frustration. ‘So you are suggesting that I may not get to see that bas***d before leaving Lagos?’
‘You can decide to wait a little longer, you’d only make sure that you don’t tell anyone of your plans to remain in lagos.’
‘I can’t stay longer Rex, I need to return to Abuja next tomorrow.’
There was silence for almost one minute.
‘I think you should just kill the man, don’t risk the chance of him getting away.’
‘Well, are you aware that his death would not make Samantha Osman drop her charges against you?’
‘Wow!’ he let out a gasp. ‘That’s true. Let’s be patient for a little longer, maybe I do not have to talk with the Chief. Just continue with your threat to kill him and try as much as possible to extract hidden information from him.’
‘Can we torture him now?’
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‘Let her drop the allegations first, I’m thinking she would demand to see him first before doing so. Seeing him tortured may cause something else. What about the substance you do inject people to get them to talk?’
‘The effectiveness of that substance depends on how weak and fearful the victim is. Most times, the victim has to be tortured before it works.’
‘Okay, just find any way to make him talk without giving him physical injuries first or you should probably wait until she withdraws her allegations.’
‘I’ll talk to you later Chief.’
__________
00:30AM
The availability of the diary in electronic copy made it easy for Tarasha to locate the specific parts she needed to read without wasting time on flipping through many pages. For the first time, she realized that the diary contained almost thirty years of Lydia Danjuma’s life. She knew it wasn’t the original version, but that the different diaries she kept over the years were summarized, merged and rewritten into the available one.
She was able to locate what she needed quickly by typing a search word into the find box of the PDF reader. The keyword was ‘Tara’ and it was located several times in the docvment. Tarasha navigated back to the first result. She scrolled up to the beginning of the paragraph containing the word and began to read.
‘Adunni regained consciousness three hours after she started receiving treatment in the hospital. I could see her eyes moving to and fro and I knew immediately that she was looking for her baby.’
FLASHBACK
MAY 2006.
HOSPITAL WARD.
Lydia’s fingers worked on the keypads of her Nokia 3310 phone as she whiled away time with the game. She had another phone in her bag but preferred to use the Nokia more because of its strength and capacity of the battery. She was seated beside a hospital bed which had a young lady lying in it. An intravenous fluid bag from was hung on a stand beside the bed and the liquid from the bag was being passed into the young lady’s vein and she laid there still but breathing.
Lydia’s eyeballs rolled up as she noticed a movement in the bed. She met the young lady staring curiously at her.
‘Hey! You’re awake,’ she said with a kind smile.
The young lady squinted at Lydia for a moment and then let out a deep breath after remembering who she was. She could recall vividly the face of the woman and a man standing above her when she as lying in the bush with the baby.
‘Where’s my baby?’ the young lady asked.
‘She’s fine, I kept her with the nurses.’ Lydia replied, still keeping her smile.
‘Thank you,’ the young lady said with a faint smile. She heaved a sigh, wondering if the baby was a blessing or curse to her.
‘You’re welcome,’ Lydia replied. She dropped her phone into her handbag which was placed on the floor and then leaned towards the bed. She put on a serious look. ‘What’s your name? And how did you get into that bush?’
The young lady let out a sigh, she closed her eyes and then turned her head the other way.
‘Oh!’ Lydia gasped. ‘Sorry, maybe I should allow you rest properly before asking my questions.’
The young lady turned her face back slowly with her eyes closed. She took in a deep breath before opening her eyes. ‘My name is Adunni, my story is a long one.’ She began in a sad tone.
‘Oh! Adunni,’ Lydia said in a comforting tone. ‘I…’
Their conversation was interrupted when the door of the ward flung open and Danjuma entered with a Doctor. Both were surprised to see Adunni awake.
‘Hey! Young woman, how are you doing?’ the doctor asked as she proceeded towards Adunni.
‘I’m fine ma,’ Adunni replied.
‘Good to know,’ the doctor put on a smile. She placed two fingers on Adunni’s neck to check her temperature. ‘You’re sweating already, that’s good.’
Danjuma stopped beside his wife and placed a kiss on her cheek.
‘How far?’ Lydia asked almost breathlessly.
Danjuma shook his head and let out a sigh as he stood beside his wife, a sign that there was something wrong.
‘I’ll send the nurses to her now,’ the doctor said to them before Danjuma could answer his wife’s question.
‘Okay ma,’ Danjuma answered and they watched as the doctor walked away.
Danjuma turned to the other side beside his wife and sat at the edge of the hospital bed. ‘Have you spoken with her yet?’
‘I only found out her name is Adunni,’ Lydia answered. ‘Did you get to find anyone who knows her from the village?’
‘Yes,’Danjuma answered with a sigh. ‘Almost everybody knew her,’he said and paused to look at Adunni’s face. ‘They said she’s pregnant with someone else’s baby and tried to lie against someone else.’
Adunni turned her face to the other side and burst into tears, she muffled her voice with the pillow. Danjuma’s word brought pain to her heart again and she could still feel the shame that the pregnancy had brought her.
‘They said she lied against an important Chief…’Danjuma tried to continue.
‘Shhh…’ Lydia hushed him as she got up from her seat, she had noticed that Adunni was crying already.
PRESENT
Tarasha closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of frustration after reading to the end of the page. She closed the book temporarily, placing her finger on the page she was supposed to read next. She flashed a look at Henry who was now fast asleep and just changed his position in the bed. She continued to read from the next page and she read how her mother, Adunni was chosen by her village to be the first female child to go to the university because of her brilliance. She had been sent to a lecturer of the desired school who was also an indigene of the village and she got R@PED. It was stated there that the lecturer was also a chief, but the title which he held wasn’t stated.
Now that she knew that her real mother’s name was Adunni, she scrolled to the next date in the diary, hoping to find her father’s name there.
In the next page which covered the summary of the day after, Lydia Danjuma had put down Adunni’s side of the story.(See Tarasha Season 1 chapter 14 part 5 to read more on Adunni’s story) Tarasha learnt that her mother was R@PED at the lecturer’s office but the lecturer’s name was still not written there.
She wondered what Adunni, her real mother looked like and wondered where she was at that moment. She hoped her mother would be a kind and lovely woman like Lydia Danjuma was. She scrolled to the next page, anxious to read the rest of the story but what she saw on the first paragraph broke her heart.
‘I got to the clinic this morning to discover that Adunni was nowhere to be found, she had escaped the hospital leaving her baby and a note behind in the ward. She told us in the note how the baby had been a curse to her and how seeing the baby every time would forever make her unhappy for loosing the opportunity to further her education. She said she has decided to leave the baby for us or whoever needs it and go in search for a brighter future for herself.
We tried to no avail to search around for Adunni but there were no traces of her. The hospital does not have any security guard except for a young lanky man who stays at the gate, and he never saw her leave the vicinity. I guess he slept in his small office all through the night.’
Tarasha let out a deep breath after reading it. She tapped her power button to turn the phone screen off. She closed her eyes and fell into the bed. She realized that there was no point seeking for who Adunni was and if she were still alive. The woman considered her as a curse and that is what she had really been to the nation. She felt it sweet however, to be a curse and pain to people.
Adunni could go to hell if she wanted. She decided that the person she would always recognize as her mum would be late Lydia Danjuma.
4:30AM
Tarasha eyes popped open just as she felt a hand across her brea$t in the bed where she laid, she knew it was Henry and didn’t bother to protest. Memories of the night before ran through her mind again and she suddenly remembered that they had work to do that morning.
She realized that she had been distracted by the news of her real maternity that she forgot to make the necessary plans for their operation that morning. The first thing that was supposed to happen was her meeting with Dave which she wasn’t sure what going to hold anymore.
‘Henry!’she called with a loud voice as she sprung up to her feet. She hurried to the table and pulled the chair to seat on it. She opened up her laptop and clicked on the boot button.
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‘Tara,’ Henry replied with a sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.
‘Let’s get to work, get Cole to make arrangements for the cars while you set up the NSCC cameras and servers to the point to the venue of the event.’
Henry yawned loudly and stretched, dragging his feet as he proceeded to the door.
‘Be fast about it,’ Tarasha said to him in a loud and strong tone.
7:30AM
Dave folded his arms and watched as the vehicle drove out through the hotel gate. He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes, the car was out of sight when he opened his eyes. He turned back and proceeded into the hotel. Stephanie was gone and probably gone from his life forever.
He got back into his room after two minutes and settled on the seat behind the table hurriedly. He turned on his laptop which was already positioned on the table. He had so much work to do which he had delayed because he was trying to stop Stephanie from leaving, but since she had eventually left, life had to go on.
A notification box popped up the screen immediately the system finished booting. He zoomed it and found out that he had received two new emails into two different email addresses. The first was sent from Samantha Osman to the email address associated with his news blog and the second was sent to his work email address.
He opened the first one and quickly read through, Samantha Osman had sent a message asking him to confirm if he would be coming for their agreed meeting. The second was from the NIS office and he was being queried for leading a team of men to the wrong place without getting enough information first.
He hissed as he got up to his feet and headed for the bathroom.
____
9:35AM
ABUJA, MADAM HENRIETTA’S HOME
Stephanie alighted after the cab pulled up right in the compound. She paid the man and walked towards the boot of the car to get her bags. The driver followed to help her get the bags out. She took a quick glance at her wristwatch and sighed. She should have gotten home earlier but the driver had arrived at the airport twenty five minutes late.
She carried her bag and proceeded into the house while the cab man reversed the car and drove out of the compound.
She inserted her key into the door hole and turned it, but it didn’t open, a sign that it was locked from behind. She was surprised. The only person that could be in the house was supposed to be in Lagos with Elvis Richards. She then realized that it was possible Madam Henrietta had left one of her maids in the place. She stepped back and pressed the door bell. To her surprise, she heard madam Henrietta’s voice demanding for who was at the door.
She was in shock. Her mind replayed the scene at the airport again and she affirmed in her heart that it was really Madam Henrietta whom she had seen the day before, her eyes couldn’t have deceived her.
‘Who is it?’ Madam Henrietta asked again, this time her voice was closer to the door.
Stephanie was still too shocked to reply but the woman checked her face from the peephole of the door and identified her.
‘Stephanie!’ Madam Henrietta exclaimed in surprise as she opened the door. ‘You didn’t tell me you were coming today.’
Stephanie was still shocked to see her and she didn’t realize that the woman’s hands was spread out for an embrace.
‘Hey! What’s wrong?’ the woman asked with raised eyebrows.
‘Oh! I’m sorry mum,’ Stephanie finally came back to herself, realizing that her mother was in front of her. She hugged the woman briefly and proceeded into the living room leaving her mother at the entrance.
‘Steph, is there any problem?’ Madam Henrietta asked after locking the door back.
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‘No mum, I’m just feeling a bit tired.’ Stephanie replied and sunk into the sofa and kept her bag on the floor beside her leg.
‘Are you sure it’s just tiredness,’ the woman asked and sat on a seat beside her.
‘Yes,’ Stephanie replied. She let out a deep breath and finally took time to look at the woman’s face well. She was putting on a white singlet and black shorts and was sweating profusely like one who had just finished a strenuous exercise. Stephanie didn’t notice the smell of burning paper(smoke) on her body.
‘Are you coming from Lagos?’ Madam Henrietta asked.
‘Yes, I took the 8AM flight,’ Stephanie replied.
‘Okay, I hope there’s no problem.’ Madam Henrietta let out a sigh of relief. She had also flown to Abuja that morning and the flight had left about the same time. She was sure that what saved her from the embarrassment of them running into each other was because she followed the some of Vice President’s crew who returned to Abuja that morning on a separate plane.
‘Ermm… No problem,’ Stephanie replied, still looking confused. She suddenly remembered the previous conversation she had with the woman and remembered that she said she would be traveling out of Abuja very early that morning. ‘But Mom, you said you were going to be leaving Abuja this morning.’
The woman mouth opened in shock as she remembered that she truly said she was going to travel that morning. ‘I… I…,’ she stammered for some seconds before she was about to come up with a good lie. ‘I actually wanted to travel but I have to wait because of my friend.’
‘Your friend, mum? You never told me about this friend you have in Abuja.’
‘Yea, Steph. We’ve never really had time to come to this state together except for now.’
‘Well,’ Stephanie let out a deep breath. She continued to stare Madam Henrietta’s face, still baffled as to how the woman was in Abuja. ‘Were you by chance in Lagos yesterday?’ she finally asked when she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
‘Lagos?’ Madam Henrietta opened her eyes wide in pretense. ‘I’ve not been to Lagos yet. Why are you asking? Didn’t we talk yesterday?’
Stephanie faked a smile. ‘Nothing Mum, don’t mind me.’ she said and picked her bag from the floor.
‘Nothing?’
‘Yes mum.’ She got up to her feet and proceeded hurriedly with her bag to the room.
‘Stephanie, are you sure everything is alright?’ Madam Henrietta asked as she watched the girl go.
‘Everything is alright mum!’Stephanie shouted back.
She heaved a sigh of relief after Stephanie had gone out of sight. She wondered what made Stephanie ask if she was in Lagos. She realized that it could be the same reason she called the day before to ask where she was. Maybe someone who knew her had seen her and reported to Stephanie. She had to thread more carefully, she had gone a long way with Stephanie and couldn’t afford to lose the girl’s trust now.
Five minutes later, Stephanie returned to the living room with a more confused look. She was still putting on the same clothes even though they now looked ruffled.
‘Steph, you must be very hungry,’ Madam Henrietta said as she heard the girl’s footsteps approaching.’I prepared noodles this morning…’ she was saying as she turned back but stopped when she saw how the girl looked.
‘Mum, did you move those files in the cabinet?’Stephanie asked with a frown.
‘Which files are you talking about?’ Madam Henrietta raised a brow.
‘The ones I came to Abuja for, you told me they were here.’ she got to the woman’s front and stopped.
Madam Henrietta let out a tired sigh and shook her head. ‘Steph, what do you need those things for?’
‘Those things mum?’ Stephanie exclaimed and widened her eyes in amazement, wondering why her mum was referring to the docvments like unimportant ones.
‘Yea, what do you need them for?’
‘Mum, those docvments contain proof to my father’s innocence.’
‘And what do you need them for?’
Her mouth opened widely in shock, she couldn’t believe her ears. ‘Mum, I don’t believe that you’re asking me that.’
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‘What’s there not to believe? I want to know what you need them for.
Stephanie gasped. She tried to speak but couldn’t find words to express herself.
‘Look here Steph, those docvments are best thrown into the garbage bin, they can’t do you any good.’
‘Mum! Don’t tell me you threw them away.’
‘They’re on the field at the backyard.’ Madam Henrietta replied with a nonchalant attitude and turned her face from her.
Stephanie made her way to the backyard hurriedly. She hoped that the woman had not done anything to make the docvments useless or damaged. She got to the field at the back and began to look for the docvments around but found nothing, except for some fresh ashes at a corner of the field.
She was about to turn back and go into the house when she saw Madam Henrietta coming towards her from behind. The woman had her arms folded across her chest and her lower lip folded in as she walked.
‘Mum, I can’t find the docvments you’re talking about.’
The older woman walked past her silently and stopped at the corner where the ashes were.
Stephanie suddenly realized that the docvments were what had been burnt to ashes. She screamed out loud in agony.
____
10:25AM
PRESIDENTIAL LODGE, LAGOS.
‘Good morning your Excellency,’ the Vice President could hear the voice accompanying the knock at the door.
He stepped out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around his waist and moved closer to the door to answer his assistant.
‘Please, give me some more minutes to dress up,’ he said and turned back towards the wardrobe.
He could feel his head pound with every step he took and he could feel hotness under his skin. He however forced his body to keep moving and to prepare for his outing.
Twenty minutes later, he was dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, putting on a navy blue tie. He sat at the dining table, eating his breakfast slowly. His security officers were standing close to the wall at the other end of the dining table. They were already dressed in their military outfits and were fully ready for the outing.
The nylon containing his medicines and a glass cup of water were brought closer to him after he finished the meal.
‘Do I need to use this thing again?’ he asked in a disgusted tone. ‘It’s not working; I’m feeling worse now than when it started.’
‘I think it’s the more reason you have to take it sir,’ his assistant said in a humble tone.
He stared at the medicines for a while before he picked them hesitatingly to use.
_____
10:42
EVENT – Launch of the New General Hospital
The whole place was filled with activities. There were several foreigners and more citizens of the country present at the launch of the hospital. The new hospital facility was one of the best new facilities in the world. It was built with so many equipments and tools which were not readily available in most hospitals of the world.
For the event, the gate of the hospital was opened and party tents were arranged on the field.
Tarasha sat quietly with Henry in the car, watching those who came for the event from afar with the aid of a viewing device , both citizens of the nation and the foreigners. At exactly twelve am, the entry of the Vice President was announced.
Tarasha felt disgusted as she saw people come from right, left and center because they wanted to greet the Vice President. Two security officials stood beside the man but several others stood at different strategic places of the event ground.
Soon, Tarasha found what she was looking for. She saw the security official who just arrived and was taking a previously occupied spot by another official. It was Cole in the security official’s dress. That was a major step in their plan, finding a way to get close to the Vice President to ease his kidnap.
10:55am
‘NTV reporters are on their way,’ Tarasha heard Henry’s voice from the earpiece plugged in.
‘What position on the road are they now?’ She replied through the mouthpiece.
‘Coming from the left hand side,’ Henry replied. ‘In a car decorated with the NTV logo.’
‘Are you following them?’
‘Yes, I’m right behind them.’
‘Would you stop them or do I have to come?’ Tarasha asked.
‘Tara, I’m scared. You asked me to shoot two of their vehicle tyres and there’s no way I’m going to do it without causing an accident.’
‘F*** you Henry, I thought we talked this over,’ Tarasha replied angrily. ‘Fire at the d@mn tyres and stop them from getting here.’
Henry’s deep sigh could be heard from the other end. ‘Okay, I’ll do it, I hope I do it well.’
‘Do it well, else, we’d all be in trouble,’ Tarasha warned. ‘Make sure you leave the scene immediately and change the car where the extra one is parked.’
___
10:28AM
‘Steph! What’s the matter with you?’ Madam Henrietta asked, afraid and alarmed at sound of the scream.
‘Mum!’ Stephanie screamed again, panting heavily and her eyes widening in anger. ‘Why did you burn the docvments?’
‘I did it for your good, we don’t need them anymore, keeping them with us will only give room for bad memories to remain.’
‘Mum, I needed those docvments and I still need them.’ Stephanie shouted.
‘You don’t need them Steph, what are you trying to do with them?’
‘Mum,’ Stephanie called almost breathlessly, now trying to control her anger.
Madam Henrietta stared at her, confused. She had never seen her angry at someone like that before let alone herself.
Stephanie kept a narrow gaze at the woman’s face as she tried to control her breath. Now, she was so sure that Madam Henrietta was working with Chief Elvis Richards and must have been the one seen at the airport the day before. The only mystery she was yet to understand was how the woman got to Abuja back before her the next morning.
‘Mum, you knew that those docvments contain the proof of my father’s innocence and exposes the secrets of the Vice President but you chose to destroy them because they asked you to.’
‘What are you talking about Steph?’ Madam Henrietta asked, squinting at Stephanie’s face.
‘You know what I’m talking about Mum, don’t pretend.’
Madam Henrietta could see tears in Stephanie’s eyes as the girl spoke, she knew the girl was sure of what she was talking about. She was now also sure that she was seen with the Vice President in Lagos.
‘Steph, look at me. What are you doing with the docvments? What you told me you needed were the pictures. It just happened that the pictures were in the files where the docvments were…’
‘But you burnt up everything, both the pictures and the docvments. Why didn’t you leave the pictures out of the fire?’
‘I told you before Steph, you do not need them. They will only cause troubles for you,’ Madam Henrietta shouted at her. She was already getting angry but was trying her best to put herself together. She closed her eyes and let out a breath, and then she continued to talk in a calm voice. ‘You don’t realize what trouble I’ve gotten you out of by burning those things.’
Stephanie could no longer speak again. Her eyes were full of tears and heart full of pain. She turned and proceeded back into the house, sobbing.
Madam Henrietta watched her go. She wondered why the girl was crying about the docvments, she had never considered them as important because the lawyer that handed them over to her had told her that she could do away with them. She had checked the docvments several times but had never been able to see how it incriminated the Vice President, so she wondered why Stephanie was claiming that the docvments exposed the Vice President. It was unknown to her that Stephanie had gotten extra docvments with the help of Dave.
Stephanie fell down flat into the bed with all her hopes of making the Vice President face justice finally gone. Madam Henrietta had burnt them with the papers. The only person who could now make the Vice President pay for his sins was Samantha Osman. But she also had troubles, Chief Nonso’s kidnap was being used to hold her back.
Stephanie’s phone which was placed on the footstool in the room began to ring. She didn’t bother to get it, she knew it was her lawyer whom she had promised to visit with the docvments that morning.
The phone stopped ringing after thirty seconds and started again almost immediately. She managed to get to her feet and reach for the phone.
‘Good morning sir,’ she greeted.
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‘Good morning Miss Stephanie,’ the lawyer replied in a cool voice. ‘It’s past ten already, I’m still waiting for you in my office.’
‘I’m sorry Barrister, I won’t be able to make it today anymore. Something happened here at home,’ Stephanie apologized.
‘Oh! I hope it’s not something bad. Your voice sounds shaky, hope you’re fine.’
‘Yes, I am. It’s just something little that’ll pass away soon.’ she answered, wishing she was saying the truth.
‘Okay, Please take care of yourself ma’am.’
‘Thank you.’
______
11:25AM
The event had begun. Cole stood at his rightful position under the tent adjacent to the one under which the Vice President was seating. The officer who had previously occupied his position had been tied up and put in the boot of a car.
He stood alert like he saw the other security officers do and listened to everything being said by speakers of the event.
Thirty minutes later, his eyes located two people with media houses tags among the other journalists and photographers. The first person he identified there was Tarasha. A wig was covering her low cut hair and her face was faintly made up. The plans she had recited to him that morning began to play back in his mind. Her own job in the events centre was to get close to the Chief Security officer of the Vice President and attach something to his cloth while Cole’s job was to stand among the security officers and go back in one of the escorts cars which followed the Vice President to the place.
The second person he saw was Agent Dave James who was expected, also standing among the cameramen. Cole wondered for a bit why they all had to choose disguising as news media cameramen.
His fingers reached for the switch of the communication device and he connected to Tarasha.
‘Hello Boss, I just saw something.’ He said into the mouthpiece attached to the collar of his shirt.
It took sometime before Tarasha replied. She had to step back a little from the other journalists not to attract suspicions while talking.
‘What did you see?’
‘Agent Dave James is right there with you guys,’ Cole replied.
‘Huh?’ Tarasha replied. She had not noticed Dave James yet, she had been focused on covering every part of the event to make her appear hardworking like the other cameramen there.
‘Yes, I saw him now. He’s on a little disguise, an attached beard to his jaw and a moustache.’
‘Representing Desert Reporters right?’
‘Yes, Desert Reporters.’
‘Okay, I want you to put an eye on him and report every of his movement to me.’
Tarasha joined the other cameramen after the conversation. There were not too many of them, only seven media houses were invited and represented. Tarasha had made sure Henry give a report of his job before going into the events ground. Henry had shot at the tyres of the car and it resulted to a fatal accident which he didn’t wait to see.
She noticed Dave James immediately she joined the men again. He was just as Cole described his appearance. She began to monitor his every movement to see what he was up to.
_____
Rex watched the event in silence from the corner where he sat under the fourth tent. Dressed as a medical student of Rael University and holding one of the invitation letters, he had been at that corner fifteen minutes before the program started and had been watching since then but had not seen any sign of Tarasha. He was however sure that she was there or was going to join sooner.
12:55PM
The time finally came for the Vice President to speak and lead the doctors to the ceremonial opening of the hospital. The different cameramen lined up at the provided position, covering every part of the Vice President’s speech.
The man finished with his speech and led the team of doctors and dignitaries to the main entrance of the hospital where a decorated ribbon line was used to block the entrance.
Five of the cameramen positioned themselves well beside the dignitaries in order not to miss any part of the ceremony. The security officials were not left out also, Cole was one of them. They left their positions to guard the dignitaries and the Vice President.
‘Boss,’ Tarasha heard the Cole’s voice from her earpiece.
‘Speak on,’ she mumbled carefully.
‘Dave James has left you guys, I think he’s looking for something else.’
‘Okay, have you found what he is looking for?’ she asked. She had also noticed that Dave James had stopped moving with the other camera men but decided to focus on her own assignment of attaching the piece to the Chief Security officer’s body. She had positioned herself where she was sure the officer would pass when it was time to follow the Vice President down the hospital.
‘I don’t know precisely, he’s just looking around. I think he’s expecting us to be around.’
‘Put an eye on him.’
___
13:20PM
Rex was up, standing with the other medical students and watching from behind where they were allowed to watch from. Like a monitoring camera, his eyes covered every single movement that happened close to the Vice President.
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Loud cheers erupted from the people as the Vice President cut the ribbon into two halves with the use of the scissors. After a minute of some other formalities, they proceeded in for a tour of the place. It was then Rex noticed a female camera woman press her body against the Chief Security Officer of the Vice President and stepped back. He noticed that her lips began to move slowly after she stepped back. He stared more intently and noticed the earpiece in her ear. He immediately knew it was Samantha Osman and that she was talking to someone with a communication device. He took out his phone and unlocked it hurriedly.
‘Something has been planted on your CSO’s body,’ he typed as a text message and sent it to Chief Elvis. He didn’t expect getting results from the text message because he knew it was likely that the message would get only read after the event and if there was luck, an assistant of the Vice President would read the message and get to warn the CSO. However, he knew it was his best time to get Samantha Osman. He stepped away from the other medical students. He needed to change his clothes quickly.
_
Police Agent, James sat there watching the event with very little interest. He was there only to see his father. Since the man had banned him temporarily from coming to his house, he had not been chanced to talk to the man or even ask about his health. He felt very bored with the whole activities but he was patient, he had decided that it was time to reconcile with his father and find a way to solve the challenges in a legal way.
__
Elvis Richards legs felt heavier with every step he took but he still tried to look as cheerful as possible. His body and eyes were hot but he still felt some kind of cold in his body. Even as the doctors who led the exhibition explained and showed items to the listeners, Elvis Richards heard none of their words, the only thing he was concerned about was the end of the exhibition so that he could return home and have a good rest.
He began to feel very weak as they approached the pediatric center. His knees and fingers were trembling and his vision blurry.
‘Are you okay sir?’ he heard his assistant’s voice behind him.
‘Arrggh! I think I need a break, I…’ he wasn’t able to complete the statement as his knees buckled at that moment and he collapsed. He would have landed on the floor but for those around him and his assistant who was alert.
‘Are you okay sir?’ one of the doctors asked after they made him sit on a chair.
There was no answer from the man, he had his eyes closed as he managed to breathe.
‘Stay clear guys,’ the doctor said to the crowd gathering around, directing them with his hands to create space for fresh air to get to the man.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ another doctor asked as he joined the other in the squatting position.
‘He’s been down for some time with severe malaria,’ the Vice President’s assistant answered them.
‘I think we need to pause the exhibition for a while,’ one of the doctors said. ‘Let everyone excuse us for some time.’
The security officers ordered everyone including the cameramen and few medical students with them to leave the place.
__
‘What’s wrong boss?’ Cole said into the mouthpiece on seeing Tarasha and the other camera guys approaching the entrance of the hospital from inside. He was standing at the entrance with some other security officers.
‘I don’t understand for now, the Vice President seems to be a little weak, the exhibition has been paused.’ Tarasha replied him as she walked out of the place. Even though he was behind her as she walked past him, she didn’t give him a look or act like she had seen him.
____
2:00PM
‘Please I need to go in, I want to see my father,’ Agent James said to the security officials standing at the entrance of the hospital. It had been fifteen minutes after he had seen the other guests come out of the facility talking about how the Vice President collapsed.
The security officials spoke amongst themselves for a while before letting him in.
Agent James walked in hurriedly and soon located the ward which his father was carried into. He met two of his father’s security officers and the Chief outside the ward, only the P.A was inside with the doctors.
‘What’s happening with my father?’ He asked as he proceeded to the bed.
‘Agent James,’ his father’s P.A saluted, extending his hand for a handshake.
‘Hello sir!’ James replied and took the handshake warmly.
‘I thought they said he was getting better already.’
‘Yes, he was. He only started complaining again recently,’ the P.A replied.
James stood beside the bed quietly. He realized his father was conscious and had been listening to him talk. An Intravenous fluid bag was hung on a stand and the fluid was being rushed into his body.
‘Please excuse me sir,’ one of the doctors who just entered said to Dave to give him way.
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James stepped back and stood beside the P.A. ‘I hope he’s not been going through a lot of stress recently.’
‘I don’t think so, it’s just been like normal work routine.’ The P.A replied.
‘Well, I think he needs a vacation. One needs to take a break from normal routine sometimes.’
‘Lets…’
‘Agent James Elvis,’ one of the doctors interrupted. Both of them turned to face the doctor.
‘Yes sir,’ James replied.
‘We need to run some tests on your father.’
‘That shouldn’t be a problem sir, as far as he gets better.’ James replied, feeling awkward a bit. He didn’t remember the last time he had a say over what concerned his father.
There was a long silence in the ward. James and the P.A kept their gaze on the Vice President’s face keenly. None of them ever thought the man would be the first patient in the hospital he had come to open officially.
_
Thirty minutes had gone and Rex was still watching Samantha Osman from the same position. He knew that the man’s sudden illness was what must have caused her inactiveness. He also couldn’t take any action because he didn’t want to cause a scene on the event ground. He just sat patiently, waiting for the right time – a time where Samantha would leave the ground to a secluded place around or decide to leave the place totally.
He had also noticed Agent Dave around the place but hadn’t seen him doing anything significant. He however kept his focus on Samantha Osman.
__
‘Tara, time is far spent, what is happening?’ Tarasha heard Henry’s voice through the earpiece. She got up from where she sat under the tent and walked to the back to reply.
‘Something happened here, the Vice President is down with a kind of illness.’
‘Oh! So what’s going to happen?’
‘I finished my task already, there may just be a little change in Cole’s part.’
‘So what do we do?’
‘We’d have to wait till the Vice President is ready to go,’ she replied.
‘Oh!’ Henry let out a sigh.
____
ABUJA
The sadness in Stephanie’s heart returned as her eyes opened. She sat up sluggishly and picked her phone. She opened the contact lists and began to scroll through. She felt in her heart the need to call someone and explain her plight to, but she couldn’t find anyone to call. She let out a deep sigh. It was one of those moments again when she felt like she still had contact with Samantha Osman. The other person who would be right to listen to her was Dave, but she had discovered that Dave was not trustworthy and had made up her mind not to involve him in her affairs anymore.
She dropped her phone back in frustration and ran her fingers into her hair. She got up slowly and walked to the window, and then she remembered someone else she could talk to, her mum. Her mum! Her eyes widened at the thought of it. Her mum would have the right words to tell her at that moment.
The excitement disappeared again after she realized that her mum could only comfort her but would not have the solution to her problem. The only option left was still Dave. She picked up the phone again and scrolled to his number.
_____
EVENTS GROUND, LAGOS
Tarasha continued pacing around slowly after she had answered the call. She tried to see if the previous strategy could still work. She had attached an electrocuting piece to the belt of the Chief Security Officer of the Vice President. The piece would be activated when the Vice President would be going back to his house and electric shock would surge through the security officer’s body, causing a distraction in the vehicle. This would force them to stop the car for a while, meaning the Vice President would have to be delayed since he and his Chief Security Officer would be in the same car. Then if Cole had success in gaining entrance into one of the escorts’ cars, he would take care of the other three men in his car while Tarasha would attack from behind and take care of the men in the third car, leaving only the Vice President’s driver with him.
She was still thinking when she heard a strange voice sound behind her. She paused to listen carefully and heard the words correctly.
‘Samantha Osman,’ the male voice called again.
She felt a strange kind of fear and felt frozen to the ground that she couldn’t turn back. The man walked closer and stood beside her. He was dressed on black all through, he also had a black face cap and a dark shades on. She knew the man wasn’t Dave James and he was no ordinary man, the only person it could be was Rex.
She realized that she had run into error. She hadn’t made plans for his coming; she had been too distracted with the news of her mother that it took her time and ability to think, she knew there was some trouble for her and the team, Rex must have planned for her.
Tarasha flashed a glance at his face and looked around as if to check if he was referring to someone else. She noticed his face was slightly disguised and that he also used his face cap to ensure that his eyes were not seen.
‘Excuse me, are you talking to me?’ she asked him with a frown.
Rex maintained his composure; he kept looking straight and didn’t turn to look at her face.
‘No Jokes Samantha, let’s have a talk.’
Tarasha stared at him for a while and then hissed. She turned back and tried to walk away but he held her by the arm. ‘You have few hours to comply before Chief Nonso is killed,’ he said in a threatening tone, mispronouncing the name ‘Nonso’ like he always did.
‘Come on, leave me alone. Who the hell are you?’ Tarasha screamed out loud and wriggled her hand off his grip.
Rex stood and watched as she walked away. He didn’t bother to follow because he knew that so many people were looking at him now and he didn’t want to cause a scene. He turned back and took out his phone. He opened the email application and located his previous conversation with her, the same one where he had notified her of Chief Nonso’s kidnap.
‘It’s less than ten hours to the death of Chief Nonso,’ he typed in and sent it to her as a reminder.
_____
Tarasha’s brain continued to work as she sat back on a seat far from where Rex had met her. She could still see him from there, behind the other seated guests under the canopy, still standing and looking in her direction. She had seen him when he took out his phone and used it, she didn’t know what he did with it but was sure it was something that had to do with her.
After forty five seconds of sitting, an idea struck her mind. She clicked her communication device button and switched the connection to Cole.
‘Hey Cole, Rex is here and he’s taken some steps already, we need to change plans.’ she said calmly into the mouthpiece.
There was a sigh from Cole’s end. ‘So boss, what’s the change in plan?”
‘I would have loved you to stay if he wouldn’t recognize you, but we both need to leave here now.’
‘So, should I exit this place?’
‘No, I think he’s got plans for me. He would be watching. We need to get him distracted first.’
‘How do we do that?’
‘He should have a gun with him right now, you’re a part of the security officials. Find a way to get the other men’s attention to him.’
_
Cole pondered for a while on Tarasha’s words. He looked around and located the positions of the other security officers.
‘Boss, where exactly is he now?’ Cole said into his mouthpiece after a short moment of silence.
‘He’s standing behind, under the canopy at the middle.’
He paused for a moment and looked towards the direction, he couldn’t see Rex yet because of the height of the place he was standing on. He began to move towards the stairs of the balcony to get a good view.
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‘Don’t!’ he stopped as he heard Tarasha say to him in a warning tone. ‘Step back, where are you going to?’
Cole took his time to step back carefully and looked around to see if none of the other security officers noticed his movements.
‘I want to take a walk down and locate his position,’ Cole answered Tarasha’s question.
‘Come on, you can’t do that now. He has his eyes on me and he’s watching out for what I’ll do, he’d identify you once he sees you walking by and looking at his direction. Just stay there and let me be your eyes.’
‘Okay boss…’ Cole sounded somewhat lost. ‘But I don’t really know what to do to get the other men’s attention to him.’
There was silence for more than half a minute, then Tarasha spoke again. ‘I’ll be moving towards the ladies, you’ll see him if he follows me, then you report him to the others for suspicious movement, also tell them that he tried to harass a lady under the former canopy he was standing.’
‘Okay boss,’ Cole said and relaxed in his standing position. He watched Tara as she stood up after some seconds and walked out of the gathering with her handbag.
____
Rex knew she was up to something. He had placed his gaze on her and noticed she was communicating to someone while sitting down and now that she had gotten up, he knew she had him in plans.
His eyes followed her as she walked towards the back of the building. He sprung into action quickly. He took out a device from his pocket and spoke some few words into it, instructing Stainless to join him at the back of the building.
He touched the gun attached to his belt, he had a silencer with him. An opportunity around the restroom area would be the best opportunity he would get to silence her forever.
He couldn’t find her when he turned to the back, he could only see other people walking out of the restroom. As expected, there were separate sections of restroom for ladies and for men. Rex stopped at the middle of both section to think for a while. He took out his communication device from his pocket again, ‘ Have you seen her yet?’
‘No, nobody with your description has come to the back yet.’
‘Remain alert,’ he said before ending the connection. He glanced at the back and his eyes met with the only security guard at the restroom area. He looked away and fixed his gaze on a woman coming towards the ladies. Another one stepped out from the restroom at that moment. He waited for the one coming to get to the entrance and then stepped up with her.
‘Hey! That’s for the ladies,’ the security man shouted and rushed in his way but Rex did not stop.
The man tried to stop him at the door but Rex grabbed his neck and twisted it sharply and let the body drop on the floor.
He was about to push the door open when he heard some voices far behind him. He glanced back and saw four security men already motioning towards him. He wondered what they were doing there at that moment and why they had to come after he had taken down one of the men.
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He thought of exiting the place and running from them but he changed his mind and proceeded into the ladies. He shut the door behind him and removed the key. The restroom contained three toilets and other facilities. One of the ladies who had come out of the toilet half unclad screamed on seeing him, attracting the attention of the other females.
Rex ignored her and proceeded further, taking his gun out as he moved. The woman screamed more on seeing the gun, she rushed to the door and tried to open it but Rex had taken the key with him. He walked past the first toilet where the screaming woman had come out from, he pointed his gun straight at the second one as he approached it. The door opened and a woman poked her head out to see what was going on that was making the third woman scream. The baffled look on her face changed to a look of terror as she saw Rex with the gun. He ignored her and moved to the third toilet. Since Samantha wasn’t in the first and second, the next place she could be was the third one. A gunshot sound and screams from the women behind distracted him but he wasn’t distracted for more than two seconds, he knew that the men outside were already trying to open the door and he had to act faster than they were. He kicked open the third door with his foot and met the place empty. His eyes moved up from the water closet and stopped at the window. He noticed that the glass there had been taken off and the bolts and nuts of the window were on the floor. He also saw a ladies bag on the floor and a cloth the same color of the top Samantha was putting on.
Phew! He whistled as he turned back angrily. She was gone so quick. She must have changed her disguise for Stainless not to have seen her. ‘Füçk Stainless!’ he cursed in his mind as he climbed up the water closet. As placed his hands carefully on apron of the destroyed window, he suddenly realized that he may have been the fooled person, maybe Samantha was the woman who came out of the restroom and walked past his side, after changing her disguise. He heard a second gunshot, he knew the door wouldn’t survive the third one. He supported his weight on his elbows and squeezed himself out through the window.
The officers rushed into the restroom with their guns and one of the women pointed the third toilet door to them. They allowed the women leave the place safely.
One of the officers proceeded into the third toilet and quickly noticed that the window had been destroyed. He climbed up the water closet and attempted to climb through the window but he screamed out in pain as he placed his hands on the window apron.
____
Henry kept looking around for signs of Cole a minute after Tarasha had entered back into the car silently. He knew they were not supposed to return without the Vice President according to their plan but he also knew that things didn’t work out as planned at the moment he saw Tarasha coming alone to the pick up point.
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‘Where are you Cole?’ Henry turned to look back as he heard Tara’s voice. She was speaking into the mouthpiece of the communication device.
‘I changed my clothes and I’m coming out already,’ Cole’s voice sounded in Tarasha’s earpiece.
‘Just cross and wait at the other side, we’d meet you on the way.’ Tarasha said and ended the connection.
‘Where are we going to pick him?’ Henry asked impatiently.
‘Make a U-turn to the other side, he’d come out to meet us.’
Henry pushed the start button of the car and drove away after putting on his seatbelt.
‘So Tara, what happened?’ Henry said inquisitively, looking at her face through the rear view mirror.
‘Plans have changed, the target fell sick and won’t be able to leave the hospital for now.’ she replied him.
‘How long is he staying in the hospital?: Henry asked.
‘I don’t have an idea.’
‘That means the illness must be serious, for it to caused the event to stop.’
‘I don’t know how serious it is, but I know we have to leave here now.’ Tarasha replied, deliberately avoiding talking about Rex appearance.
The reason for her inefficient planning returned to her mind. Suddenly, she felt the need to know her real mother again and to know whether she had siblings or not and even if possible to know who her father was.
______
1 hour later
The search for Rex continued outside the hospital while the treatment of the Vice President continued inside. Rex was able to escape the men because he found the security officer’s clothes that Cole had abandoned and had worn it to disguise.
__In The Hospital__
‘Agent James, your father’s PCV is low. We’d need to put him on treatment to see if it’ll rise, but if it doesn’t, he’ll need blood transfusion.’ The doctor said, facing Agent James.
They were still in the hospital ward, Agent James was seated while the Doctor stood beside the bed.
‘What’s PCV?’ James asked the doctor.
‘PCV is the volume percentage of red blood cells in the body. It’s low for your Dad, I hope treatment works, so that he doesn’t need transfusion.’
‘Is there any problem with transfusion?’ James asked.
‘No, there’s no problem once we get someone’s blood that matches with his.’
‘My genotype is AA, I hope it’ll work.’
‘Well, it’s not about that alone. We’d have to run some tests first but let’s just hope the treatment for the PCV raises it.’
___
Dave was still seated with the other guests, his head was bowed and his face buried into his palms. He had been watching out for signs of Samantha Osman for hours and was already weary, he decided to rest a bit. Thoughts of Stephanie filled his mind, he wondered how she was going to go about the case now that she wanted to do it alone. He knew she would find it difficult even with all the evidences he had seen with her. He could only hope and pray that she loses none of the evidences and that she becomes able to keep the evidences in safety until she won the case.
Dr Ekwueme and Tomi watched keenly as Tarasha, Cole and Henry walked into the house tiredly. Tomi stared at the door keenly as the last of the latter group closed the door behind, wondering where the sixth person Tarasha had asked her to cook for was.
‘I’m hungry,’ Henry was the first to complain as he sank heavily into the sofa.
‘I’ve prepared food for everyone, I made for six.’ Tomi replied aloud, wanting Tarasha to hear her and hoping one of them would talk about the person they were supposed to kidnap but Tarasha walked straight to her room with her shoes after taking them off.
‘How was it?’ Dr Ekwueme asked Henry impatiently after Tarasha had walked out of sight, Cole had also followed her. Dr Ekwueme had been waiting for their arrival since they left. He had felt some excitement that morning after Tarasha explained the role he was supposed to play when they return with the Vice President. He was watching the television with Tomi when they heard of their arrival and had quickly lowered the volume in anticipation of their entrance into the house with the kidnapped Vice President.
Henry tried to sit up as he searched in his mind for simple words to summarize their ordeal to the doctor but he didn’t need to talk much when his gaze fell on the TV screen, the evening news was being broadcasted. ‘There, that explains why we came back with no one.’ Henry said, nodding towards the TV.
‘VICE PRESIDENT COLLAPSES DURING NEW GENERAL HOSPITAL OPENING,’ the headline of the news read.
Dr Ekwueme increased the TV volume and they all listened to the newscaster as she read out the details of the news.
‘Wow! That must have really disrupted the plans,’ Dr Ekwueme exclaimed, he and Tomi looking at Henry’s face and expecting more explanation
Henry shook his head in fatigue and sighed. ‘Please, can I get my meal now?’ He glared at Tomi.
‘Oh! Of course yes,’ Tomi smiled and hurried off to serve his food.
__
Cole squeezed his lips and covered his nostrils with the top lip to escape the stench from his socks as he took them off. He had been left with no choice other than to wear the smelly security guard’s shoes which were too tight for his feet for more than three hours.
He flung the pair of socks towards the wardrobe area and stood up from the edge of the bed to stretch his body and his feet. He was about sitting back when he heard the drowned sound of the ringing tone of one of his phones. As he proceeded towards the drawer where the sound was coming from, he realized that it was the phone he reserved for communicating with Patricia and he knew there could be no other caller except her. He opened the drawer and took out the phone. Her voice rang out with a sad melody as he answered the call.
‘Aww love, what have I done to you?’
‘What have you done to me?’ He repeated the question to himself with a frown appearing on his face.
‘Yes, what did I do to you? You refused to answer my calls since morning,’ Patricia replied from the other end.
‘No dear, it’s not as you think. I’ve been very busy and I’ve been without my phone. I just got into the house and haven’t even seen my phone until now.’
‘Oh! I thought you weren’t answering because you were angry with me.’
‘Come on, why should I be angry with you? I’ve just been so busy.’
‘I’ve missed you so much,’ she said in a touching voice.
‘I missed you too, more than you can imagine.’ Cole replied with a soft voice, smiling to himself. He turned and faced the other side, resting his bum on the top of the table.
‘When are we seeing again?’
‘Very soon, as soon as I return to Abuja.’
‘When are you returning?’
‘I’m not sure for now, but I’ll update you as time goes.’ He replied. Another phone which was on the pillow in the bed began to ring.
Patricia drew a deep sigh and remained in silence for a while.
‘It’s okay,’ she said, her voice sounding very low. ‘I’ll have to wait till you return.’
‘I promise it’ll be as soon as I can dear,’ Cole said as he proceeded to the bed. He was now in a hurry to end the call, the new call was from Tarasha. ‘I’ll call you later tonight.’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 4A
‘Okay, I’ll be expecting your call dear. Don’t…’
‘Later dear,’ Cole said and ended the call hurriedly without waiting to hear what she wanted to say next. He didn’t want the incoming call from Tarasha to end before he could answer it.
‘Boss,’ he said into the phone as he answered.
‘Come to my room,’ Tarasha’s voice sounded in an urgent tone and the line went dead immediately.
Two Minutes Later
‘Did you see Agent Dave James before we left the place?’ Tarasha asked Cole. She was seating on a chair behind a table with a laptop in front of her but staring thinly and thoughtfully at the wall. Cole stood behind her, he had put on a black sleeveless top and football shorts before coming there.
‘No, I didn’t. He was seated with some other guests the last time I saw him .’
‘So, we can’t tell if he did anything there.’
‘I didn’t see him do anything,’ Cole replied.
There was total silence for about a minute before Tarasha spoke again, ‘The Nanl Gang had its headquarters previously located in Lagos right?’
‘Yes, we were based in Lagos. Don Daniel operated from here with his major men but had some other agents in other states,’ Cole replied with a raised eyebrow, wondering why Tarasha was asking a question about the Nanl gang.
‘He had agents in all thirty six states?’ Tarasha asked.
‘Not in all, but in every major city in the country. In some, we had other related assassin gangs we work with, like that of Stainless that was in Abuja.’
‘These agents and other assassins you work with, how good were they?’
‘Not one of them was as good as Don Daniel, several of them were trained by him from the scratch or went through some form of training connected to him.’
‘Do you know if these agents also work for or with Stainless?’
‘No, they don’t. Stainless always saw Don Daniel as a threat and did not like to work with anyone who worked with Don.’ Cole replied. The frown on his face thickened and he became more eager to know the reason for her questions.
Tarasha remained quiet for a while. She tapped the laptop screen gently with a finger and it came on, she scrolled up and clicked on the desktop icon, then she opened the NSCC app. The video player was on and she had an ongoing video paused. She zoomed the picture and rested her back, she stared at the picture for a minute and began to ruminate on some thoughts.
Cole stared intently at the screen silently from behind. It was the security cameras footage of the hospital area that day during the opening ceremony. The particular scene she was at showed several security officers standing at specific places on the events ground, Cole could also locate himself. He counted and the security officers there numbered more than ten.
‘Rex is a high skilled assassin, he’s from the Tiger Clan.’ Tarasha suddenly began to talk again as she sprang up from her seat. She walked straight to the window side and Cole wondered if she was thinking aloud to herself or if she was talking to him. ‘He’s had so many advantages over us,’ she continued after opening the window blinds. She turned towards Cole and rested her palms behind her on the window apron. ‘We have to spend a lot of money to match up with him; else he’d always be ahead of us.’
She suddenly turned again and closed the window blinds, and then she returned to where she was seated previously. ‘Look here,’ she flashed a look at Cole as she zoomed out the video scene with her fingers. Cole quickly stepped forward, now realizing she was talking to him.
She was about to continue with her explanation when the door flung open and distracted both of them, Henry had come in. He stood at the door way and fanned himself with the shirt he took off while staring at both of them as they stared back at him like they saw a ghost. He was sweating profusely because of the hot meal he had just taken.
Tarasha turned back to the laptop but rested her back instead. She let out a sigh as Henry closed the door and proceeded towards them.
‘One major thing that’s weakening our team is the presence of emotions, ‘ she said to Cole in a sad tone before Henry got to them.
‘What are you guys up to?’ Henry asked.
‘Join us,’ Tarasha replied sharply and leaned forward again. ‘Rex works for the Vice President, therefore everyone working for the Vice President works with him, it doesn’t matter if they are aware or not. So we can say that all these security officers standing here works to the advantage of Rex,’ she said as she zoomed in the screen again. ‘This can be neglected when our enemies aren’t from a specialist clan like the Villary or when they’re ordinary security officers but it is an advantage for Rex, and it is enough to keep him ahead of us, that’s why we can’t ignore. We need to level up with him.’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 17 Part 10
She stopped talking and zoomed out the video, she used her finger to drag the duration pointer on the video player twenty minutes farther. She stopped and zoomed in again, it showed outside the hospital and the road leading there.
She took a quick glance at the faces of her listeners and she met Henry with a confused look staring at Cole who didn’t also look like he understood the last thing she said.
‘Boss, what do you mean by level up?’ Cole asked to clear his doubt.
Tarasha turned back and zoomed in the video, swiping slowly in different directions to show them the different points the security officers were located on the streets.
‘All these security officers work to protect the Vice President and that complements Rex’s work,’ she continued to explain. ‘We only went into the events venue as two men, Henry who is the third person was our backup. For us to have carried out the operation successfully if we wanted to kidnap Elvis Richards there, we would have had to deal with the security men in the venue and deal with those outside when trying to escape. This wouldn’t have been a problem except for Rex’s presence. He would have determined a way to defeat us while we were working on the security officers.’
‘Hmm…’ Cole made a humming sound, now making sense out of her explanation.
‘Now, we need to take care of the security officers and other defense options of the Vice President and Inspector General in another way while we face Rex and his team directly or we take care of Rex and face the other defense options squarely.’
‘I understand better boss, but how do we do this?’ Cole asked.
Tarasha got up and turned her seat around, she sat and faced Cole directly. ‘How many assassin agents can you reach in twenty four hours?’
Cole’s eyes wandered about the ceiling for a moment as he quickly searched through his mind.
‘I need you to reach at least five of them in the next twenty four hours and give them twenty four hours to report to a location here in Lagos. We’re going to work with them as substitutes and backups,’ she said without waiting to give him an answer and turned her chair back afterwards.
She minimized the NSCC application and opened the electronic mail app. She located the last message from Rex and clicked on reply.
She stopped for a second and turned to Cole. ‘When are you getting to work?’ she asked in a sharp tone, wondering why he was still standing behind her motionlessly.
‘Right away boss, I’ll just go take my food first.’ Cole said and quickly turned back. He flashed a look at Henry before proceeding towards the door.
‘Won’t you eat before you continue working?’ Henry asked Tara, a minute after Cole had gone out. He moved closer and stared at her activity on the screen, she was typing a message.
‘I will do that after sending this message,’ she replied and continued to type.
Henry carefully followed line by line as she typed.
‘You don’t need to kill Chief Nonso, I have a better deal for Elvis Richards. I need to meet him physically and have a chat with him. I understand he collapsed today and may not be able to attend to me right away but I’ll give him some few days to be fit enough and call for the meeting. All you have to do is make sure Chief Nonso is kept safe and sound.’
She proofread the message once before clicking on send.
‘What? Tara, you think they would agree for you to meet Chief Elvis Richards?’ Henry asked with his eyes widened in surprise.
‘I don’t think so, but I know that this message would buy us more time.’ She replied
‘Are you really sure about this?’ Henry asked with a doubtful tone.
She gave him no answer even as he stared at her curiously. She shut down her laptop and closed it up.
‘I have to do some work before we meet with Rex and the Vice president again,’ she said as she turned her seat.
‘What other work are you talking about?’ Henry asked.
Tarasha stared at his face for a while. She then closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. ‘I need to know if my mum is still alive and find her location if possible.’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 6
_____
9pm
‘I don’t think they’re planning to leave Lagos soon,’ Dave read the chat message from Lizzy.
‘I believe they’ll remain here as far as the Vice President still remains here,’ Dave typed and sent in reply.
‘I’ll keep in touch with him and notify you anytime he’s in a traceable location,’ another message from Lizzy entered.
‘Thanks Liz, I appreciate your efforts.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Dave finally closed the chat application. He stretched and yawned before lying in the bed. Just as he finished positioning his head on the pillow and pulling on the blanket, his mind got filled with thoughts of Stephanie. He heaved a deep sigh and reached for his phone again. He opened up the contact application and scrolled to her number.
_____
Stephanie lay in the bed sleeplessly. She couldn’t still get her mind off the fact that all the proofs she had against the Vice President had been turned to ashes. She was never going to forgive Madam Henrietta if the Vice President went unpunished.
As she turned and twitched restlessly around the bed, her elbow touched her phone where she had dropped it. She picked it up and unlocked it. She stared at the screen for a while, not knowing what to do with it but later opened her WhatsApp messenger to check the messages. She scrolled through the list of chats and found none that caught her interest. She minimized the app and opened the Facebook mobile application, she began to scroll through the news feed slowly. As she did, she came across the friends suggestions and found a Facebook user named David James.
A strange calmness overwhelmed her and the phone dropped from her hand as she remembered Dave and the little time she spent with him. She knew he would have been the right person to talk to in her situation, but what could she do if Dave could not be trusted? It was better to wait until she finds someone else who can help her than to work with someone that she couldn’t trust.
The phone began to ring at that same moment and she turned to look at it. Surprisingly to her, Dave was the caller. She stared at the screen without making any move to answer the call. The same person she was wishing she could speak to some seconds ago was now calling but she was too angry with him to answer the call.
The phone stopped ringing and began to ring for a second time, she still did not answer.
____
‘Boss, we have a new message.’
Rex could hear Stainless voice from behind the door. He was seated in a dark room and was smoking heavily. He had not been able to think straight since he escaped from the venue of the event.
‘Who sent the message?’ He asked with his thickened voice.
‘It’s from Samantha, it was sent about two hours ago.’ Stainless replied.
Rex turned his phone on and flashed a quick look at the time. He let out a deep breath. He was surprised that he had been in that room for more than two hours. He quickly got up and hurried towards the door.
In few minutes, he was seated behind his laptop in another room after washing himself. Samantha’s new message came as a surprise to him and he wondered why she wanted to have a meeting with the Vice President and what her plan was. He pondered on the whole situation for a couple of minutes and was unable to draw out any reasonable purpose for her wanting the physical meeting. It then occurred to him that it was possible she only wanted to delay the threat he made against Chief Nonso.
There was no way he was going to kill Chief Nonso even if she didn’t try to delay. If making the threat hadn’t compelled her to do their wish, then carrying out the threat would not make things better, it could only make her more stubborn.
He pondered for some more minutes before making a conclusion. He knew she would be expecting a negative reply from him so he decided to send her a positive one, so she wouldn’t have excuses to make more delays. If she really needed the meeting, he would fix one with the Vice President for her.
Next Morning
8:30AM
‘Good morning Cole, do we have any message yet?’ Tarasha asked as she walked into the living room with a mug containing warm tea in her right hand.
‘Morning boss, Yes, we have a reply already.’Cole replied. He stretched and yawned on the long sofa where he spent the night in. His phone dropped from the sofa to the floor and he quickly reached for it.
‘When did the reply come in?’ Tarasha asked as she gulped down the remaining contents of the cup.
‘Late last night, you were asleep already.’Cole replied. He already sat up and was trying to access the mail from his device.
‘Do you have it there?’ Tarasha asked as she dropped the cupnoisily on the centre table and joined him on the three seater sofa.
‘I’m trying to get it,’he replied her and adjusted himself to give her space on the seat.
It took Cole a minute to get the mail, he handed the phone to Tarasha and rested his back.
Tarasha read it through for a few seconds and looked up. ‘They accepted?’ she asked in surprise as she stared at Cole’s face.
Cole let out a breath and only stared back at her in reply. Tarasha rose to her feet and began to pace around slowly in thoughts. After some minutes, she stopped for a second beside the centre table and picked up the cup of tea she had dropped there, wanting to take a sip but she realized she had finished the tea before dropping the cup. She smashed the cup angrily on the floor.
‘Boss!’Cole stared at her in surprise, lifting his two legs up to avoid stepping on the broken cup.
‘Sorry about that,’ she flashed a look at him and apologized. ‘Please get Tomi to clean it up.’
Colereturned to the living room a minute after but sat at a different place. Tomi joined seconds later with a sweeper and something to pack the dirt.
‘How many of the assasinagents have you been able to reach?’Tarasha asked Cole some minutes later. She was now seated on the three seater as Tomi had finished cleaning the place.
‘I reached ten of them before two a.m, I got responses fromthree of them instantly and got two other responses this morning already,’he replied her.
‘Are they positive responses?’ she asked.
‘Yea…’Cole said with a note of confidence. Then his look changed again and he frowned. ‘Maybe,’ he answered again, this time with so much uncertainty in his voice.
Tarasha raised her brows at him, expecting more explanation.
‘Most of them were anxious to know about the pay, and except for two of them, they really wanted to know the reason you needed them.’Cole added.
‘Did you tell them it’s for a special mission?’
‘Yes, I did. But as it is, they’re anxious to know what the special mission is.’
‘Have they agreed to meet with you?’
‘Three have, andI agreed to cover their flight expenses. I should get the responses from all others before twelve noon today.’
‘And where did you choose to meet with them?’
‘I’ve not gotten a specific venue yet, I’ve only made arrangements for their hotel rooms. I will decide the venue when I get enough responses.’
‘Please ensure you do, you canmake use of my personal account for the money transfers when you’re ready.’she said as she got up on her feet to leave.
‘Okay boss,’Cole said, nodding his head gently. He watched her walk away slowly before moving back to the three seater sofa to continue his sleep.
______
**New General Hospital, Gbagad@
‘Good morning Dad, I hope you’re feeling better now.’James greeted his Dad as he settled on the seat beside the bed.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 15 Part 7
‘James, Good morning. Yes, I am feeling better.’ Chief Elvis Richards replied in a thick baritone voice. ‘I saw you here when I woke at midnight.’
‘Yes,I had to make use of the chair overnight.’
‘And you allowed them sleep comfortably in other rooms?’ the man questioned, referring to his guard and his assistant. One was standing close to the door while the other was seating some distance behind.
‘Well, I just felt like being the one to watch over you.’
‘Nice of you, but you should still have left them, that’s what they’re paid to do. I’m sure you’re here in Lagos for something important and you’d need to rest.’
‘It’s no issue Dad, I really wanted to be the one to stay here.’
‘Well, how did you get to know so quick I was sick?The news couldn’t have gone so far when you got here yesterday.’
‘I was actually here when it happened, I was part of the event.’ James answered.
‘You mean you were part of the hospital opening?’
‘Yes, I was but I didn’t come in for the exhibition.’
‘Okay, that’s strange. I’m not aware that you’re a fan of functions like this.’
‘Yes Dad, I actually wanted to see you and have a talk with you. I’ve not been able to do that since the last time I met with you at your house.’
‘Yes, we’ve not spoken since then.’ the man said in a low voice, stretching his body gently in the bed. ‘I really do hope this conversation you want with me would not end the way the last one ended.’
‘No, it won’t.’ James replied, letting out a smile. ‘But we can’t talk now, and I think I’m talking too much with you already, you should be resting.’
‘I’m talking with my mouth James, that isn’t where the sickness is.’
James smiled, ‘I saw the doctor after freshening up, he told me you were awake and asked me not to bother you with talks.’
The Vice President sighed and looked away, wondering in his mind what James had to talk to him about and why James was sounding so friendly. Maybe it was only because he was on the sick bed and James was having pity for him in the condition.
He turned back and looked at his assistant. ‘Where’s my phone? Do I have missed calls or messages?’
‘Yes, you do.’ the assistant replied and proceeded towards the Vice President after taking out the phone from his pocket.
‘Not now Dad,’ James snatched the phone from the assistant’s hand. ‘You just had breakfast and your mediations, the doctor asked that you rest well. Your assistant would continue attending to the messages for you.’
_____
11:25AM
Dr Ekwuemesat quietly in his bedroom , reflecting on what his life had turned to. He wasn’t feeling unhappy or depressed, but he still felt things were not the way they ought to be. Actually, he had been more relaxed and been with less trouble in his mind since he had been with Samantha Osman. He couldn’t tell if she was like a protective covering of some sort but that was what she appeared to have been for him. His nightmares and premonition of evil had ceased since he started leaving with her and his heart had been filled with strange feelings of fulfilment knowing that he was in a team of people who were determined to punish the bad eggs in the country. He was also happy that he would have the opportunity of proving to his beloved ex wife that he could still make things right.
Strangely, he had stopped missing his family and the hospitalbut he didn’t wish to return to them if the Samantha Osman team did not succeed with their assignment. He only hoped that all would be well with his family and the hospital before everything ended.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 16 Part 2
A gentle knock at the door disrupted his thoughts and he looked up. The knock sounded again.
‘Please come in,’ he said after adjusting himself on the bed.
The door opened slowly and Tarasha walked in. She closed the door and stared at him for a few seconds before proceeding to the bed. She sat beside him and looked blankly into his eyes.
He stared back at her without saying anything, wondering what she had come to do in the room. He had seen her in the living room when he went for his breakfast and they had spoken casually, she hadn’t given a hint that she was coming to see him.
‘Doc, I have some questions to ask and I hope you do give me answers.’ Tarasha finally began to speak after leaving the man to wander in his thoughts for more than two minutes.
‘Of course,I will give you answers as long as I have them.’ the doctor replied.
‘It appears that you were very close to Dr Danjuma’s family before their death.’ she said.
‘Yes, they were like family friends to my family.’
‘So, that means you know much about their personal lives, and their kids.’
‘Yes, I think I do.’ the doctor replied. ‘But I’m not sure what you really want and why you’re asking about them.’
‘I only need to connect some things, the Danjuma family was one of those families destroyed by Chief Elvis Richards. We cannot ignore them if we want to bring down the Vice President.’
‘Okay, I’ll give you answers to your questions as long as I have them.’
‘Thank you, I gotta start now.’she paused for some seconds before she continued. ‘What happened to the Danjuma’s case against Chief Elvis Richards after their death?’
‘It was swept off, there was no one to continue. But even while they were alive, Chief Elvis won against them, Danjuma only threatened to take up the case again.’
‘So the whole of the Danjuma family was killed?Were there no relatives?’
‘The relatives of Dr Danjuma who I knew didn’t stay in Lagos and since Danjuma died, I never heard from them or about them.’
‘Is there a possibility that any member of the Danjuma’s family survived the assassination?’
‘I don’t think so, I know that they wanted to wipe the whole family out, I don’t think they changed that wish.’
There was silence for a moment.
‘What about the girl child of the Danjuma’s? You mentioned that she wasn’t their child.’
‘Yes, she wasn’t. They only saved and helped the mother and baby.’
‘Do you know who the mother of the girl is?’
‘I think I met the mother once or twice, she was a young lady then.’
‘How old was the girl child when you met the mother?’
‘I can’t remember that.’
‘Did you know when she was born?’
‘No, I don’t. I only knew after the birth when Lydia Danjuma assumed the role of the mother.’
Tarasha felt her heart ache at the sound of his last words but she held herself in and refused to make any outward expression.
‘So, can we find this girl’s mother?’
‘Huh?’ the doctor’s face thickened with a frown. ‘Find the girl’s mother? I’m not sure. What do you need her for?’
‘I do think she must be very close to the Danjuma’s family for Mrs Lydia to agree to cater for her baby and if she really was close, then I can get some information from her.’
‘No, I thought I told you before that they only found the young girl in a bush with the baby. They never knew her before then.’
‘Oh! So Lydia Danjuma found the mother and baby in a bush and decided to take home the baby?’
‘No, I think the mother needed help. And Lydia didn’t find them alone, she was with her husband when they found them together.’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 8
‘Oh! What a nice couple they must have been.’
‘Yea, they were nice people.’ Dr Ekwueme said in a sad voice. ‘Its sad that the world is cruel and it doesn’t matter if you’re nice or not, evil happens to anyone.’
‘Why should evil happen to everyone?’Tarasha asked with a sad expression on her face. ‘My parents believed in a God they always prayed to and they believed he would help them avert evil. Alas! That God was only a figment of their imagination, he never existed.’
Dr Ekwueme flashed a quick look at her face, surprised to hear her talk like that. ‘Are you an atheist?’
‘What does that mean?’ she let out a chuckle. ‘Let’s go back to our discussion, is there anyway to find Dr Danjuma or Mrs Lydia’s relatives?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Dr Danjuma paused to think. After a while, he heaved a sigh and looked into her eyes. ‘I know a particular family that used to visit them often, I’m not sure who was related to who but I’m sure they were family.’
‘How well do you know this family?’
‘Not too well, we only met a couple of times at social functions.’
‘Do you know the family name?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know where they stay?’
‘No.’
Tarasha sighed tiredly. ‘That means there’s no way to find them since you know nothing about them.’
‘I know that the man was an estate agent at a time, he showed us some houses he was in charge of and tried to encourage us to buy them.’
‘Do you still remember the location of those houses?’ she asked, raising her eyebrows hopefully.
‘Yes, I think I do.’
‘Great, prepare now. We’d leave the house in the next one hour.’ she said and sprang up to her feet.
____
**General Hospital**
12:23PM
‘Sir, you’ve had four missed calls from a particular number. He asked to speak with you directly.’ the Vice President’s assistant said to him.
‘Who’s the person?’the Vice President asked, letting out a yawn.
‘He said his name was Rex.’
‘Rex?’ his eyebrows raised. The assistant and some of the Vice President’s close guards had met Rex but they didn’t know his name or the full details of what he did with the Vice President. He tried to sit up and was assisted by his assistant to rest his back against the headboard. ‘Dial the number and give the phone to me.’
The assistant carried out the instruction and gave the phone to the Vice President.
‘Hello Rex,’ the Vice President said into the phone.
‘Vice President, I just fixed a meeting with Tarasha for you, when would you be fit enough to meet with her.’
‘You did what? How could you do that without asking from me?’ the Vice President flared up.
‘Relax your Excellency, I have a plan.’ Rex said confidently from the other end.
‘This your plan shouldn’t involve me, I won’t have the time to meet her.’
‘You would man, I would fix it in a good way. All you need to do is tell me when you’re leaving the hospital.’
‘I’m not in support of this Rex,’ the Vice President said tiredly.
‘When are you getting out of there?’ Rex replied adamantly.
‘I’m leaving today,’ he replied reluctantly.
‘Good, I’ll fix the meeting for next tomorrow.’ Asked
‘No Rex…’ Chief Elvis tried to argue but Rex had already ended the call.
He heaved a sigh and shook his head. Then he passed the phone back to his assistant and closed his eyes to think.
____
4:30pm
Opic Estate, Ogun State
‘Who is there?’ a man’s voice sounded from behind the gate after the second time of pressing the bell.
Tarasha and the doctor kept mute and waited on hearing the footsteps of a man walking towards the gate.
‘Yes? Good evening, how may I help you?’ a young man said to them through a small space opened at the gate. They could only see his face partially.
‘Good evening sir,’ Tarasha replied. ‘Please, we would like to see those that stay here.’
‘Those that stay here?’ the young man’s brows gathered together. ‘What for please?’
‘I’m a journalist from Desert Reporters and I’m carrying out a survey. I would like to ask the owners of this house some questions.’ Tarasha answered, displaying her identity card for him to see.
The young man scanned through the identity card and stared at the two people for a while, scrutinizing their faces as if he could know if they were saying the truth or not by mere looking at them.
‘Please, wait for me, I’ll be back in few seconds.’ The young man said and walked back into the house. Two minutes later, he returned with an elderly man who opened the gate to see the guests.
‘Good evening sir,’ Tarasha greeted the elderly man first before he could talk.
‘Good evening young woman, how may I help you?’ the elderly man asked, standing in between the opened gate. He noticed the man standing behind her but couldn’t see the face as the man had his back turned to them and was looking at the road.
‘I’m Evelyn Alex sir, from Desert Reporters. I’m here on a survey and I’ll like to ask you some few questions about this apartment.’ Tarasha introduced herself. The gate was opened wider now, but still not wide enough for those outside to see the compound as both men were blocking the open space. Tarasha noticed the resemblance between the elderly man and the young man, she needed no one to make it known that the elderly man was the younger one’s father.
Dr Ekwueme finally turned back to join them in the conversation. He was about to greet the man when he noticed that he was someone he knew. The man also looked at his face at the same time and both stared at each other with their mouths agape in surprise as they tried to remember each other perfectly.
‘Dr Ekwueme,’ the other man was the first to speak out.
‘Dr Francis,’ Dr Ekwueme replied happily and both men moved closer to shake each other’s hands and hug briefly. ‘How have you been doc?’ Dr Ekwueme asked excitedly, patting the man on his back.
Tarasha sighed and shook her head. They had come for a different mission but the doctor seemed to have turned it to a reunion with his friend.
‘I’ve been fine, how about you and your family?’
‘We’ve been doing well too, thanks to God.’ Dr Ekwueme replied.
‘That’s nice to know, please come in.’ Dr Francis said and opened the gate wide enough for them to come in.
Tarasha allowed Dr Ekwueme walk in first and then followed after. She sighed again as she walked behind the doctors who continued chatting even as Dr Francis led them into the house. She wished she had not come to the place with Dr Ekwueme. But she still saw it as an advantage on the other hand because Dr Francis would be more willing to give them an answer to the question they had and even helped them where he could.
‘Your son has grown so big!’ Dr Ekwueme commented, staring at the man’s son who had stayed back to lock the gate and was just catching up with them.
The young man smiled and bowed slightly in respect, also mumbling some words in greeting.
‘Yes, he recently finished studying from the U.K while his younger sister is still in the U.K trying to obtain her masters.’
‘That’s good, I’m sure they are giving you the happiness you used to long for.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Dr Francis replied with a bright smile, remembering several years ago when he and his wife did not get their first child until after ten years of marriage. They got to the front of the big house and climbed up the short steps to the large balcony. ‘Can we sit here and talk?’ the man said, ushering Dr Ekwueme forward.
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There were about three sets of tables and chairs arranged at spaced interval in the balcony. They settled at the closest one and Dr Francis asked his son to get refreshments for his guests.
‘So who is this pretty lady we have here? Your daughter I guess,’ Dr Francis said smiling, staring at Dr Ekwueme’s face.
‘Oh! Yea, you can call her my daughter. She’s like one to me,’ Dr Ekwueme replied, flashing a look at Tarasha who was seated beside him. Dr Ekwueme was sitting opposite them at the other side of the table.
Tarasha glanced back at Dr Ekwueme and chuckled at his words but tried her best to conceal it.
‘What have you been up to lately?’ Dr Ekwueme asked his friend.
‘Nothing really since I retired, you know I had interests in some business, so I invested in them after the retirement.’ Dr Francis replied cheerfully. ‘But the investments have been yielding slowly and there’s been nothing really big,’ he paused again and smiled. ‘I know it’s different for you, your hospital is one of the bests in the east.’
‘Come on, that’s what people say.’
‘They say it because it’s true.’
Dr Francis’ son soon returned with a maid and served them fruit juice.
‘Now, let’s get to the reason you are here. We can continue catching up with old times later on.’ Dr Francis said after giving his guests some minutes to have a taste of the juice. He kept changing his look from Tarasha to Dr Ekwueme’s face, wondering who would continue the talking.
Dr Ekwueme flashed a look at Tarasha’s face, expecting her to proceed with the discussion but he met her already staring at him and it was obvious she was expecting him to do the talking. He cleared his throat and fixed his gaze on Dr Francis face.
‘Dr Francis, my daughter here is a journalist who’s on a research. I actually brought her here because this estate is one which I know very well. She selected some few houses with unique designs and your house was selected among them. Incidentally, yours is the first we are visiting. What she actually needs it to know the builders or the civil engineers that constructed the house. They are the ones that would have more answers to give us.’
‘Hmmm,’ Dr Francis tightened his face. ‘Well, I don’t really know the builders of this house, I bought it after it was built.’
‘Oh!’ Dr Ekwueme exclaimed and rested his back like someone that felt disappointed.
‘Sir, isn’t there a way of finding out who did?’ Tarasha put in.
‘Well, there should be a way, but I don’t know that way.’
‘What about those that sold the house to you? Do you still have their contacts?’
‘Hmm,’ Dr Francis squeezed his face more. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to recall. ‘Well, I think I still have the agent’s contacts saved somewhere.’
‘Oh! The agent’s contact information would be nice too.’ Dr Ekwueme said.
‘But I have it written in a contact book somewhere not close by,’ Dr Francis said.
‘Somewhere not close by? How far is this place?’ Dr Ekwueme asked.
Dr Francis smiled. ‘Not far sir, it’s actually in this house but I kept them somewhere very uneasy to reach.’
‘Wow! So, what do we do now?’
‘I’ll just help you search for it,’ Dr Francis offered.
‘Oh! That’ll be nice of you, I appreciate.’ Dr Ekwueme thanked him.
‘Thank you sir,’ Tarasha joined with a smile. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket at that moment and she took it out.
‘It’s Okay,’ Dr Francis replied. He took out his phone to check the time before rising up to his feet. ‘I think you should come in now and wait while I search for it.’
Dr Ekwueme flashed a quick look at Tarasha, as if to ask for her permission on what to do. From the look on her eyes, he was able to tell that she preferred to remain outside. ‘Well, we wouldn’t mind staying here except you’ll stay in for long.’
‘I don’t think I’ll spend much time, it’s only that you may feel alone.’
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‘No, we’d be okay Dr Francis, please go in and check for us.’
Tarasha watched until the man walked into the house before she dialed back the number calling her phone.
‘Cole,’ she said into the mouthpiece as the call was answered.
‘Boss, we have another message from Rex.’
‘What is the message all about?’
‘He has already fixed a time for us to meet with the Vice President.’
Tarasha’s mouth was left agape in surprise, but only for a short moment. ‘What day and time did he fix?’
‘Next tomorrow, 2pm. But he says he would send us the venue and time later.’
‘Okay then,’ Tarasha said, letting out a deep breath. ‘We would have to start preparing for the meeting. How many of your assassin agents have arrived?’
‘Four of them are in Lagos already, I’m expecting three more today.’
‘Okay, tell me once the remaining three arrives. I believe the seven of them would be okay for now.’
‘Okay boss.’
42 minutes later**
Dr Francis had returned to the balcony with the house docvments which contained the Agent’s name and the previous property owners. The doctor engaged Dr Ekwueme in a conversation while Tarasha went through the docvments.
‘I think I even met the Agent through you, or didn’t I?’ Dr Francis said to Dr Ekwueme.
‘Hmm, I don’t think so.’ Dr Ekwueme replied.
‘Yes, I knew him through you.’ Dr Francis replied with more confidence. ‘He came along with you to the Birthday party I celebrated at Beno Hotels.’
‘Oh!’ Dr Ekwueme feigned remembrance. ‘I think I remember that birthday party, the person you’re talking about must be Danjuma’s relative.’
‘Humn… I think he was,’ Dr Francis hummed for a little while, trying to recall. ‘You’re right, he was.’
‘Here, thanks sir.’ Tarasha cut into their conversation, returning the file containing the docvments back to Dr Francis.
‘Have you gotten all you need from it?’ Dr Ekwueme asked Tarasha and Dr Francis stared at her face to get the response.
‘Yes, I have written down all details that I needed to write. Thank you sir,’ she ended with a smile.
‘Thank you so much Dr Francis, we’re so grateful.’ Dr Ekwueme put in.
‘It’s my pleasure Doc, it’s nice seeing you again after such a long time.’
‘Yea, I think we do have to exchange numbers so that we can communicate more.’ Dr Ekwueme suggested.
The men exchanged phone numbers and Dr Francis saw the visitors off to their car which was parked outside the compound.
‘What exactly did you pick from the docvments?’ Dr Ekwueme asked Tarasha few minutes after they had driven off. Tarasha was driving with the man seated by the right hand side, both had their seat belts on.
Tarasha glanced at the man, she had been expecting him to ask questions.
‘I got the names of the house agent and the name of the Estate Agency.’
‘Don’t I need to see the name of the Agent to confirm if he was really Danjuma’s relative?’
‘His name is Lewis A.G,’ Tarasha replied.
‘Lewis A.G?’ Dr Ekwueme frowned. Tarasha nodded affirmatively. ‘What’s the full for the initials?’
‘I think I saw it somewhere as Andrew George.’
‘Andrew George,’ the man muttered under his breath. ‘The name sounds familiar but I’m not really sure I remember though.’
‘Aren’t you sure anymore that the man was the agent of the house we just left?’
‘I’m sure, he brought the pictures of the houses in that area to me several years ago and told me their prices and location.’
‘Then we only have to find him through the Estate Agency. Even if he has retired or resigned, we should still be able to trace him.’
‘I hope so.’
_____________
LAGOS
‘James, are you spending the night at the quarters with me?’ Chief Elvis Richards asked his son. Both of them were seated at the back seat of a jeep while a security officer was at the front seat with the driver.
‘If you wouldn’t mind sir,’ James replied.
‘Of course, I wouldn’t. I just thought you would like to return this night to where you landed in Lagos.’
‘I don’t mind staying at the quarters if I’m allowed to, the hotel I lodged is far, in Ikeja.’
‘Okay, so what exactly did you say you wanted to discuss with me?’ Chief Elvis asked, repositioning himself on the seat as he stared at his son’s face.
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James drew in a breath and also turned slightly sideward to face his Dad.
‘Dad, I know we’ve not really been on good terms and that we quarrel often ever since the day I refused to study medicine in school which you wanted me to. But I’ve got to realize that even though we might have been at constant disagreement with each other, I’ve never been able to stop caring about you.’
James paused to look into his father’s eyes. Chief Elvis also stared him back in the eye, he wondered if he was supposed to feel touched by his son’s surprisingly strange but kind words to him that night.
‘I realized that it is a waste of time to always be at loggerheads with you,’ James continued. ‘I’m saying this all in respect of the developing Samantha Osman’s case against you.’
Chief Elvis heaved a sigh. He knew that his boy could not have changed easily, what the boy needed was just to extract information from him(the father).
‘Dad, it’s not what you’re thinking.’ James said, shaking his head as he realized that his father must already be thinking that he was being self centered. ‘I’m not about to ask you again whether the accusations were true or not, I only want to let you know that I’ll stand by you, no matter what the case turns out to be.’
Chief Elvis could not believe his ears after James finished with the last words. He believed James was never going to agree to be on his side, so he still had doubts.
______
DAVE JAMES HOTEL ROOM
‘No significant progress today Dave,’ the WhatsApp message from Lizzy popped up on Dave’s phone screen.
He picked up the phone and swiped it open. ‘Were you able to speak or chat with him today?’
‘Yes, I did but only briefly. We talked more via chats, he had time to chat for a long time with me today.’
‘And you didn’t get any useful information from the chats?’
‘No, I got none. He kept on answering my questions with lies.’
‘Please keep me updated.’
‘You’ve got no problem.’
He closed the chat and fell into the bed. He sniffed in the smell of the pillow as he buried his face in it. Then he remembered Stephanie again who liked to play with pillows. An idea struck his mind, he quickly got up and reached for his second phone. He searched out Stephanie’s number and dialed it.
_______
9:48PM
Tarasha walked into the house to meet the rest of the Gang seated in the living room. All their eyes turned to her as she walked into the living room and settled on a sofa. She let out a deep breath and took off the hair wig on her head.
All of them fixed their eyes on her face like they had never seen her before, under the wig she just took off was a new haircut, she had shaved every strand of hair off her head totally. Her face looked funny and got the rest of the assassin gang team laughing, even though they tried to conceal their laughs. She however seemed not to be bothered by them.
‘Hey! Why the skin cut?’ Henry was the only one bold enough to ask and he did in a reprimanding manner.
Tarasha glanced at him and smiled but she said nothing and turned to Cole. ‘Fix a meeting for all seven assassins tomorrow morning by 9AM.’
‘Okay boss,’ Cole said and sprang up to his feet.
‘Make sure you’re back on time to join us for the news time,’ Tarasha said to him before he walked away.
‘You didn’t answer me yet, Omotara.’ Henry spoke again stubbornly.
‘Hey man! Is there anything you need to achieve with the answer I’ll give you to the question?’
‘No, I just want to know. Why did you decide to make yourself look like a big doll?’
Tomi and Dr Ekwueme tried their bests to conceal their laughter at Henry’s description of her but they couldn’t hide it enough, even Tarasha laughed briefly.
‘You will know the reason tomorrow morning, if you’re observant,’ Tarasha replied and turned her focus back to the TV.
You didn’t answer me yet, Omotara.’ Henry spoke again stubbornly.
‘Hey man! Is there anything you need to achieve with the answer I’ll give you to the question?’
‘No, I just want to know. Why did you decide to make yourself look like a big doll?’
Tomi and Dr Ekwueme tried their bests to conceal their laughter at Henry’s description of her but they couldn’t hide it enough, even Tarasha laughed briefly.
‘You will know the reason tomorrow morning, if you’re observant,’ Tarasha replied and turned her focus back to the TV.
There was silence in the room for the next few minutes as they waited for the evening news to begin. Dr Ekwueme replayed the day’s event in his mind and then something struck his mind as he remembered Henry calling Samantha a big doll. Henry had called Samantha Osman a different name which sounded like Omotara but the doctor wasn’t sure of what he heard. He glanced at Henry’s face and at the faces of everyone else in the living room, he knew it wasn’t the right time to ask Henry the question.
_____
6:30AM
ABUJA
Stephanie felt a bit of relief after her morning devotion and her hopes were renewed. For some reason, she believed that everything could still work out for her favour.
She reached for her phone and unlocked it. She swiped down the notification bar and found three missed calls. She wondered how she had slept so deep that she didn’t hear when the phone was ringing the night before. She dialed back the unknown number.
‘Hello,’ she said into the phone.
Silence greeted her from the other end.
‘Hello,’ she repeated again. There was no answer. She brought the phone down to look at the screen, the call was still on. ‘Hello,’ she said for the third time.
‘Good morning Steph,’ a masculine voice finally replied.
‘Good morning,’ she replied.
‘How are you doing this morning?’
‘I’m fine, what about you?’
‘Fine too.’
‘Okay… Please, who am I speaking with?’ she asked, trying to figure out whose voice it was.
There was a sigh, and before there was a response she already knew who it was.
‘Dave James?’
‘Yes, its Dave.’ he answered.
She sighed.
‘Steph, I’m really sorry for betraying your trust, I wish we could see again and talk, I’ll be able to make you understand.’
She also wished they could see and talk, she had a lot of things she wished to tell him but she still wasn’t ready to give up her stand.
‘I don’t think there’ll be need for that,’ she replied. ‘I don’t think we can work together.’
‘Steph, why are you being adamant?’ Dave asked boldly. ‘I need you and you also need me to work with you.’
‘What in the world gives you the impression that I need you?’ she asked angrily, annoyed at the fact that he thought himself so important. ‘I’ve done so many things on my own and this would be one of them.’
She ended the call immediately and flung the phone to the bed. She sat at the edge of the bed and covered her face with her palms. The phone began to ring but she ignored it, being sure that Dave was the one calling back.
She heaved a sigh as she pondered deeply. She wondered if she hadn’t taken it too far. He was truly right when he said she needed him but it also didn’t mean he was irreplaceable. She had made the choice not to work with him because of his unreliability and it meant she had to find a replacement for him.
Who could the replacement be? The question bothered her mind so much. And then she thought of Samantha Osman. There seemed to be some fear in her mind for a while but she managed to ease off her mind. She recalled that Dave had sent Samantha emails while they worked together. She racked her brain for a while and finally remembered the email address.
She sprang up from the bed and proceeded to the table where her laptop was. She was going to contact Samantha Osman directly.
9:30AM
In a fully air conditioned room, fairly lit by a short fluorescent bulb at the center, a table long enough to accommodate four people on each sides and one each at both ends of the center stood under the bulb with the chairs arranged around neatly. Both sides of the table were occupied by four men each, all of them neatly dressed in fancy black suits and black shoes. A ninth person was in the room and it was lady, seated at the front end center of the table, addressing the men while they listened carefully to her.
Cole was seated at the first seat at the right hand side of the lady and would speak occasionally when she asked him to. The lady was Samantha Osman, in a different form. She was disguised as a totally different person with no inkling of resemblance to her real self. The skin mask worn on her face matched perfectly with the colour of her skin and except one be told and showed convincing proofs, one would not believe he wasn’t seeing the speaker’s real face.
‘Excuse me Samantha,’ one of the men interrupted and raised a hand up slightly.
Everyone looked in his direction and so did Tarasha. She stopped talking to hear what he had to say.
‘How do we know if all you’re saying is true?’ the man asked. He was one of those assassins still trying hard to believe that the slender lady in front of them was the Samantha Osman he had been hearing about. The only thing that had kept him in the meeting was the money that was offered to be paid to them.
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‘It’s not your business if my personal stories are true or not, your business is to carry out the instructions and get paid.’ Tarasha answered, shutting him up with her words. She took note of his face.
The guy bit his lips slightly and swallowed in.
‘You all would get details soon on your individual movements, until then, remain alert and ready.’ She concluded and got up to her feet. ‘Good day Gentlemen,’ she said before proceeding out of the meeting room.
Cole also got up after her and flashed a look at all the men’s faces before he proceeded out of the meeting venue.
Back at the base, Henry and Dr Ekwueme were having breakfast at the dining table, exchanging silent looks at each other. Both of them had questions in their minds for each other but were waiting for the first person to start the conversation.
After finishing his own meal, Dr Ekwueme manned up and began the conversation.
‘Don’t you think today’s meal is different?’ he asked as he made use of the toothpick gently.
Henry lifted up his gaze to the man’s face. ‘Well, it doesn’t taste anyhow unique to me.’ he said with a shrug.
‘I know but it isn’t the normal meal for today in the time table,’ the doctor replied.
Henry still had some food left in his plate and was trying to take the rest with his spoon but the conversation and what he had in his mind did not make him concentrate. He dropped the spoon into the plate and faced the man, placing his elbows on the table and his chin on his two palms.
‘Maybe we just have to do with it because of this new environment,’ he shrugged. ‘Or do you have a problem with it?’
‘Yes, my health.’ The doctor replied. ‘I shouldn’t be taking much of these kinds.’
‘Oh!’ Henry released a breath. ‘We could talk to Tomi to make the required change then.’
‘I think the person we do need to talk to is Tare,’ Dr Ekwueme said.
‘Why her? She isn’t the one who decides what meals we have.’ Henry raised a brow.
‘But I think Tomi would take Tare’s instructions seriously,’ the doctor said, deliberately mispronouncing Tara for the second time and hoping Henry would try to correct him.
‘There’s no need to bother, Tomi isn’t that hard, I’ll talk to her, but it’s left for you to come up with the right time table.’
‘I still think we should talk to Taree…’ the doctor paused for a minute and closed his eyes like he was trying to recall something. ‘Is Tare the Yoruba name you call her?’
‘Tare?’ Henry raised a brow. Then he relaxed his shoulders and rested his back on the chair, he folded his hands and stared at the man suspiciously. ‘Does she have a Yoruba name?’
‘I used to hear you call her a particular name,’ the doctor said.
‘Her real name is Tarasha, is that what you hear me call her?’ Henry asked, trying to be careful enough. His stay for a while with the assassin team had enabled him to be able to detect when someone is asking a question to fish out information deliberately and not just for sake of knowledge.
‘No, Cole calls her that more often. The name you call her sounds like a Yoruba name.’
‘Her name is Tarasha, I call her Tara which sounds like the Yoruba version of Omotara, so sometimes, I call her Omotara too.’
‘Oh! But what kind of name is Tarasha?’
‘I don’t know what tribe it’s gotten from, but it’s definitely not Nigerian.’ Henry replied.
The man remained quiet for some seconds to ponder on the answers Henry gave him while Henry just continued to stare at him.
‘Why did you ask?’ Henry asked, leaning forward again.
‘Well, to me, she doesn’t sound like Yoruba, her accent is foreign, but she looks African. So I was kind of inquisitive when I heard you call her Omotara yesterday. And even though I have heard you called her that several times while we were at Abuja, it only caught my attention yesterday.’
‘Well, I just choose to call her that. Her name is Tarasha and her official name in Nigeria is Samantha Osman.’
‘I see…’ the doctor pondered, nodding his head gently.
Henry let out a breath and stared at the man for a while, he realized that it was the best time for him to chip in his own question too. ‘So, where did you guys go yesterday?’
‘You mean me and Samantha?’ the Doctor asked.
‘Yes.’
‘To check out some houses, she’s trying to get a link to one of the Vice President’s dead victim’s relative.’
‘Was that victim an important person?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘I don’t know who to classify as important or non-important to her.’
‘That’s true,’ Henry gapped. He rested his back again and folded his arms. ‘I have been worried because she’s been acting strangely for the past few days, even though she tries to put on a different outward show. She’s been reading a lot. I think part of what she’s been reading is one of the books you gave her.’
‘I don’t understand,’ the doctor narrowed his gaze. ‘How is that supposed to be a problem? I believe she’s only trying to gather enough information and make plans.’
‘Seeing her read is not the problem, the strange thing is that for the last two days, she puts too much of her emotion into it. I can barely get her attention when she’s reading and I can clearly read signs of sorrow or pain on her face.’ Henry said in a sad tone.
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‘I don’t know the cause for that, I just think she has a soft heart and she’s trying to make the best out of the books she’s reading.’
‘You really think she has a soft heart?’ Henry asked with a wry smile.
‘Yes, I do think so.’ The doctor replied thoughtfully. ‘Behind the assassin she is, is a soft hearted person who is easily hurt and who craves for love and attention.’
‘Hmm…’ Henry cleared his throat and then let out a breath. Maybe she was really soft hearted, Henry thought. At least, he knew that she wasn’t the same person she used to be when he first discovered she was an assassin. He knew her to be a ruthless killer at first, but in the recent times, he had seen her show pity and concern where he didn’t expect her to.’
‘I have to use the restroom now,’ Dr Ekwueme said as he got up to his feet hurriedly.
‘Okay,’ Henry nodded at him with a smile.
He stared at the remnant of his food for a while, he had totally lost appetite. He picked up the plates on the table and took them to the kitchen for Tomi.
As he walked back from the kitchen to the living room, he could hear the voices of Cole and Tarasha returning. He kept his gaze at the door even as he walked to the sofa in the living room. The door opened and Cole entered first.
‘Hey!’ Cole greeted Henry as he joined in the living room.
‘Welcome,’ Henry greeted back. He turned back towards the door as it opened for a second time. He was surprised on seeing the face of the lady who entered, he took a quick glance at Cole. ‘Cole, you came with someone?’ he asked in whispers.
‘Hi Henry,’ Cole was yet to answer him when Tarasha greeted.
Henry was more shocked and he stared at the new lady’s face who was walking towards the living room. Her voice sounded exactly like Tarasha’s voice and her walking steps were exactly the same. ‘Is this some kind of joke or something?’ he stared at Cole.
Cole gave no reply but fixed his eyes on the android phone he was using. Tarasha stopped and sat beside Cole on the long sofa.
‘Do we have any message?’ Tarasha asked, ignoring the confused look on Henry’s face.
Henry stared in shock for few more seconds before he was able to recover himself. Then he remembered he had seen the face before in the underground room of one of their previous operational base. He felt stupid for having not realized that what she was putting on was a skin mask. But he could still justify his stupidity because he had never observed anyone else using it apart from what he had seen in movies.
‘Tara, you’re putting on a mask?’ he asked, now feeling more relaxed. He remembered her answer to him when he had asked why she had a haircut the previous night and he realized it was so that she could use the mask.
Tarasha didn’t give a reply to his question but she repeated the one she asked him before. ‘Do we have any new message?’
‘Yes, two new messages.’ Henry replied. ‘One from Rex and another from Stephanie George.’
‘Stephanie George?’ Tarasha frowned. ‘What does the girl want?’ she asked herself.
‘Yes, Stephanie George. She said she has some information about a particular person and would like to meet with you.’
Tarasha chuckled. She was amazed at the audacity of Stephanie to ask for a meeting with her. ‘What was Rex’s message?’
‘He sent the venue for a meeting with the Vice President,’ Henry replied.
‘What’s the venue?’
‘Online.’
‘Online?’ Tarasha frowned.
‘Yes, he wants you to have a video chat with the man.’
‘What the f***!’ Tarasha flared up. ‘The motherf****** thinks we’re joking here.’
She got up from the seat and began to walk away from the living room.
‘And there’s another important information I got,’ Henry quickly added with a loud voice to stop her. He got up from his seat and turned to her.
‘What important information?’
‘The Inspector General is trying to sneak out of the country.’
‘When?’
‘A day has not been chosen yet, I’ll let you know when it has.’
Presidential Quarters, Lagos.
‘Vice President, she rejected the idea of the video chat.’ Chief Elvis heard Rex’s voice from the phone speaker.
‘What do we do then?’
‘We have three options; insist on the video chat, fix a physical meeting or renew our threat on Chief Nonso’s life.’ Rex replied.
‘I think it will be dangerous to agree for a physical meeting.’
‘You’re scared man,’ Rex said with a chuckle.
‘No, I’m just being careful.’
‘No, you’re scared.’
‘Wh@tëver you say Rex, what matters is the step to take next right now.’
‘We don’t have to be in a hurry, you only have to make sure you’re protected and safe at all times.’
‘I’m trying my best to be safe always but how do we know when she’s trying to launch an attack?’
‘I do not think she wants to kill you anymore, except what is has against you is a personal vendetta. But if she truly works with a sponsor or this Chief we have in our custody who you claim to be the sponsor, their purpose would be to get something from you.’ Rex answered.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 7
‘But I don’t have anything they could be interested in, except wanting to tarnish my image so that I fail in my presidency bid,’ Chief Elvis said.
‘That could just be it…’
‘But…’ Chief Elvis interrupted. ‘The assassination attempts started before I declared that I would be contesting.’
‘You should know better Chief, they already knew you were one of the most likely candidates.’
‘You’re right, so what is your plan?’
There was silence for a minute.
‘When are you planning to leave Lagos?’ Rex asked.
‘As soon as I’m fit enough to fly.’
‘Don’t you have an idea when that would be?’
‘A few days time, I believe. Two days at most.’
‘Okay, that’s fair enough. I would fix a meeting for us in few days time.’
‘Where and when would the meeting take place, so that it doesn’t clash with my activities?’
‘I’ll consider your schedule while fixing it,’ Rex replied.
‘Okay.’
______
The next day
12PM
Tarasha scrolled down slowly through the citizen’s profile portal. It was until she got to the sixteenth ‘Lewis Andrew George’ option that she found the profile which matched the one she was looking for. She clicked on the more details link and was directed to the page showing the full profile. She began to read it carefully, she scrolled down to check his current address when she saw it clearly stated that the man was dead. She scrolled back up to see who the man’s spouse was and found the name Atinuke George, she clicked on the name and waited till the full profile loaded. She was disappointed to scroll down and find it stated that the wife was also dead.
She heaved a sigh of frustration and fell back into the chair tiredly. A beep sounded on her phone. She slowly reached for the phone to check the message. It was an email from Rex, she clicked on the notification and the message read:
‘New Date for physical meeting fixed
June 26, the venue would be communicated later. ‘
She minimized the email application and opened the calendar to check how many days they had before the stipulated date. She returned to the email application and closed the message. She scrolled down the inbox to read the other messages which had been attended to by Cole and Henry. She saw the message from Stephanie George and skipped it at first, thinking it will be a waste of time to read it. After scanning through the other messages, she scrolled back up and incidentally stopped at Stephanie George’s message again. She finally decided to open it after giving it much thought. She began to read and the message almost seemed like an informal letter to her, with so many unnecessary details and words of thanks to her for saving her life and saving her from R@PE by the kidnappers. She got tired and yawned twice already but as she was about to close the message, her eyes caught a line that made her stop.
‘I have some information concerning the murder of Mr. Lewis Andrew George and I think it may interest you because the Vice President commanded their murder.’
_____
2PM
Presidential Quarters, Lagos.
‘Here sir, your drugs.’ The Vice President’s assistant said to him as he put the pack of drugs in front of the man on the dining table. A maid had just cleared the plates of food from the table.
‘Thank you,’ Chief Elvis said as he began to take the tablets out one after the other and use them according to the prescription.
The assistant arranged them back neatly and was about to leave when Chief called him back.
‘Hey! What about the errand I sent you on the night before the Hospital opening? You’ve not given me a response yet,’ Chief Elvis said.
The assistant seemed to be confused for a while and narrowed his gaze until he was able to recall.
‘Sir, I have the information we need already but I was hoping to tell you when you get better.’ The assistant replied.
‘No, tell me now, I’m ready to listen.’
‘We found Atinuke George’s location, she’s in a special care centre. She has a condition which makes her go wild occasionally and her memory isn’t fully intact.’
‘So, she goes wild only occasionally?’ Chief Elvis questioned.
‘Yes sir.’
‘That means she is calm most of the times,’ Chief Elvis said and heaved a sigh. He thought for a while, and then he nodded his head and began to speak. ‘Now that Samantha Osman is digging out everything against me, I do not want to leave any trace.’ He stopped and drew in a deep breath. He pondered for another couple of seconds. ‘I don’t want a situation where her memory would return, so I want you to take her out. Try make the death look as natural as possible so that the care center would not make noise about it, Atinuke has already been confirmed dead in records. Her daughter Stephanie George poses no threat to me because she doesn’t have the slightest idea of what happened to her parents, so we can leave her alive.’
‘When do you want her taken out?’
‘As soon as possible,’ Chief Elvis snapped, giving the man a sharp look. ‘But before her, I want you to take out Henrietta first. She could also become a threat to us later.’
The next day.
8PM
ABUJA
‘Good evening mom,’ Stephanie greeted as she walked into the living room from the entrance door and proceeded straight towards her room without taking another glance at the woman.
‘Steph!’ Madam Henrietta called, making Stephanie stop abruptly.
She froze on that spot and didn’t turn back to look at the woman who called her. She had been avoiding the woman since the last two days when she burnt her highly prized docvments.
‘Stephanie, why have you been avoiding me?’ Madam Henrietta asked in a sad tone.
Stephanie remained glued to her position, she closed her eyes and wondered what kind of response she was supposed to give the woman. She had truly been avoiding the woman because she had no choice. Or who would like to keep seeing the face of the woman who burnt the docvments proving the injustice done to one’s family? The only mistake Stephanie believed she had made was remaining in the house and not going out to lodge in a hotel or stay somewhere else.
‘Stephanie, would you talk to me?’ Madam Henrietta continued. She had gotten up from her seat and was walking slowly towards Stephanie, only about a meter far from her now.
Stephanie remained frozen until Madam Henrietta’s hand touched her elbow. She twitched but still didn’t turn.
‘I’m sorry if I hurt you in anyway but you have to believe me when I say that everything I did is for your good and safety,’ Madam Henrietta said, trying to pacify Stephanie.
‘For my good and safety?’ Stephanie turned to her sharply with her eyes opened widely in disbelief. ‘How can you say burning docvments that proves the guilt of my family’s killer is for my good?’
‘Stephanie, those docvments do not prove anything. If they did, your father would have won the case years ago. The lawyer even advised me to do away with them after he gave them to me,’ Madam Henrietta replied.
‘Those docvments prove their guilt mum, I know what I’m saying,’ Stephanie insisted in a loud voice.
‘Then why was the case never won?’ Madam Henrietta snapped.
‘It was not won because there were some other missing proofs,’ Stephanie replied back.
‘And the proofs remain missing because they never existed.’
‘No, you’re wrong mum, they exist. As a matter of fact I’ve found a lot of them.’
‘You’ve found what?’ Madam Henrietta asked with her brows raised and her voice now low.
Stephanie sighed and shook her head. She closed her eyes briefly, realizing that she should not have talked about finding more proofs.
‘Stephanie, have you really been investigating the same case that led your father to his death?’
Stephanie raised her brows and stared at the woman sharply. ‘How did it lead to my father’s death?’
‘It was this same case he was running up and down about when he had the fatal accident that almost wiped off the whole of the family.’
‘And have you ever thought that that accident could have been a planned one?’ Stephanie asked.
Madam Henrietta frowned, she was confused. She didn’t know what Stephanie meant by the accident being a planned one. ‘So you think your father planned the accident and deliberately wanted to kill himself and his family?’
‘No, I know certainly that the accident was planned by someone who wanted to destroy my family, the accident was arranged so that the deaths could be blamed on it.’
‘I don’t understand you, what are you talking about?’ Madam Henrietta said with a deeply frowned face.
‘My mum told me about the accident, she said Dad was feeling strangely unwell that day. They suspected he had been poisoned and decided to visit the hospital but it was unfortunate that the effect became stronger and uncontrollable while he was driving on the road and then the car also got crushed by a trailer whose driver had lost control.’
Madam Henrietta sighed and looked away. She wasn’t going to take anything said by Tinuke serious. Why should one accept words from a mentally unstable person?
‘I’m sorry for how this may sound, but I just have to say it,’ she started with a frank face. She held the girl’s arms at the two sides, right above the elbows and stared into her eyes directly. ‘Stephanie, you really need to stop listening to Tinuke, and even if you do, you shouldn’t be taking her words seriously.’
‘How won’t I take my mother’s words seriously?’ Stephanie said angrily, wriggling the woman’s grip off her body. ‘I know all of you think she’s crazy and that she says crazy things but to me she’s very sane and her words mean so much to me. There’s always truth in what she says.’
‘Stephanie,’ Madam Henrietta dragged in a long breath. ‘I know it may be difficult to convince you, but I’ll still tell you the truth anyways, if it’s Tinuke’s words you’re acting upon, then you are wasting your time. And then, it is also a waste of time to fight against Chief Elvis Richards, he’s the Vice President now, which means he’s more powerful than he was when your father fought him.’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 3
Stephanie was angry and sad but the woman’s words still hit her down to the marrow. She stood on the same spot for a while, she tried to speak but no words could come out, her fingers and lips kept vibrating. She finally turned and walked straight to her room, leaving Madam Henrietta standing there.
The older woman watched her leave and hoped the girl would come back to her senses and realize that what she had embarked on was just a waste of time. She walked back slowly to her seat and sat back deep in thoughts.
Stephanie fell face flat into the bed as she got into the room. She was frustrated, confused and tired. She didn’t know whether to believe and accept Madam Henrietta’s words or just stick to believing her mum. Madam Henrietta could be right, she always got to the care center to get reports of the insane things her mother does but apart from the occasional outbursts which her mother seldom had in her presence, everything the woman says to her always made sense and happened to be true.
Was it also a waste of time to fight the Vice President? Did she really need to stop? She asked herself these questions. Was she doing something stupid? And who else would have the temerity to fight the Vice President?
She got an answer to her last question as she was about moving to the next. Samantha Osman. Samantha Osman was the other person she knew that was fighting against the President. She remembered the email she sent, she had monitored it and confirmed that it was delivered and read but it was almost forty hours after and no reply had come in yet.
She got up and sat in the middle of the bed. She picked her phone and quickly opened her email application, some new messages were there but she still refreshed it manually to check for other new messages which probably didn’t load automatically. The app was refreshed but there were no other new messages and no reply from Samantha Osman yet. She closed the app sadly and dropped the phone.
She felt pity for herself. It seemed she too was also going crazy, just like her mother. Nobody seemed to make sense from her words, even the lawyer which she had visited that evening had advised her to stop pursuing shadows. The only person who listened to her was Dave, and he wasn’t trustworthy.
Her phone rang and it brought her out of her frustrated state temporarily. She glanced at the screen, it was one of her coursemates and member of her SWAD team. She answered the call and spoke with the person for up to four minutes.
After the call, she got up and proceeded out of her room to get a cup of water and fruits from the kitchen. She walked through a passage which led to the kitchen and also branched to the living room. She looked through the opening which led to the living room as she got there, she was shocked at what she saw. The door of the living room was widely open. Two men in black were standing before Madam Henrietta in the living room, one was pointing a gun at Madam Henrietta while the other one was taking out an handkerchief from his pocket.
She froze on the spot in fear and watched them with terror in her eyes. The man with the handkerchief unfolded it and raised it to cover Madam Henrietta’s nose with it. Stephanie screamed out in fear.
‘F*** it! Some has seen us,’ the man with the gun cursed as both of them looked towards Stephanie’s direction. ‘Take care of this woman while I take care of her,’ he said as he pursued after Stephanie who had ran into the kitchen. ‘We need two others inside,’ he said into a communication device as he hurried.
‘Be fast with it,’ the second man said and watched his friend go. He dipped his hand into his pocket as he turned back to Madam Henrietta. He was trying to take out his gun so that he could put Madam Henrietta under control while he suffocated her with the gas in the handkerchief. Madam Henrietta however had her survival instincts come to play, she took advantage of his distraction and pushed him away with all her strength, but it was only enough to make him stagger back a little.
She got up and tried to run away but he launched forward and grabbed her back, he pushed her violently back to the sofa she was seated on. She tried to struggle with him but he quickly launched two blows on her face. She still held tightly to his chest and he dealt her more blows in her stomach and head until she was weak and unable to struggle anymore. He took out the handkerchief and quickly covered her nose with it even as she still struggled to set herself free.
The first thing Stephanie did when she got to the kitchen was to take out two knives from the cutleries store as weapons of defense in case any of the men come after her. She quickly proceeded to the door of the kitchen which led to the left side of the house and opened it. She could hear the footsteps of the man coming after her already. She pressed the two bulb switches beside the door to turn off the bulb in the kitchen and the one outside. She hurried out through the door. She wished to escape from there but couldn’t as leaving Madam Henrietta to the cold hands of death troubled her. She quickly hid herself in the darkness behind a faulty washing machine which was placed outside the kitchen door and waited for the man to step out.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 17 Part 2
Soon, she saw the image of the man in the darkness. He had rushed out and was staring to the front and back, wondering which she had taken and how she was gone so quick.
‘We found a girl here, man the front and make sure a girl does not escape, I’ll search through the backyard,’ the man said into a communication device and began to hurry towards the backyard.
Stephanie jumped out of her hiding place and attacked the man immediately, stabbing him at the back of his neck and in the left side of his belly.
The man dropped to his knees weakly and his body trembled before he dropped to the floor. Stephanie stood still on the same spot, her body trembling in panic of just murdering someone. However, she remembered that Madam Henrietta was still in danger and her guilt left her temporarily. She took the knife on the floor and removed the one by the side of the man’s belly. She turned back towards the house, hoping to be able to do something to save Madam Henrietta, that was if she wasn’t dead yet. She decided to enter through the front door because the man wouldn’t expect her to enter through there.
Just as she was turning into the front yard, she saw two other men already in front of the house. Another man was at the front of the door which she didn’t see. Unluckily for her, the two men heard sounds from her direction and spotted her as she tried to run back, they followed after her immediately.
The man in front of the door proceeded inside the house and stopped in the living room. He looked around but couldn’t find anyone except one of their colleagues lying lifelessly on the floor with the poisoned handkerchief beside his head. He pointed the gun around, there was no one else in sight. He proceeded forward slowly and carefully.
Stephanie ran as fast as she could towards the backyard of the house, ignoring the shouts of the men for her to stop. It was difficult for her to see in the dark as she charged forward, she was almost turning into the backyard when her leg hit an obstacle, she tripped and fell.
The fall was heavy. She tried to get up on her feet but she wasn’t as fast as she wanted. One of the knives she also held with her had cut into the skin covering her thumb as she fell and she was bleeding.
Before she knew it, the two men were standing around her and pointing the gun to her face. She sighed resignedly and stared at their faces in the darkness. She closed her eyes as she heard the ÇOçk of the gun. She quickly made a silent prayer for God to receive her soul in heaven as she expected the bullet to run into her forehead which the gun was pointed at.
No gun sounded like she expected, what she heard was a loud cry of a man. She opened her eyes to see that a third person had joined them. She couldn’t see clearly the image of the third person but could only see the two men that came after her wrestling with the new one.
One of the men tried to shoot at Tarasha but she grabbed him by the wrist before he could pull the trigger and twisted his arm. The first man which she had stopped with a jab rushed towards her but she pulled the man whose wrist was in her hand by his belt and made the rushing man slam into his partner. Both of them fell to the floor. She quickly picked the knife on the floor beside the dazzled Stephanie and proceeded to the first man on the floor, she dealt him a blow on the face before slicing the knife into his neck. The second man seeing what had happened to his friend tried to get up immediately, but she returned him to the floor back with a kick on his head. She then ran the knife into his chest.
‘Get up,’ she said to Stephanie, lending her a hand.
Stephanie gladly took her hand and got up. ‘Thank you for…’ she was saying when Tarasha grabbed her and quickly dragged her to the back of the house.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 15 Part 9
‘My mum, she’s still in…’ Stephanie was saying to Tarasha when she was interrupted.
‘Steph,’ Madam Henrietta called from behind. ‘Are you okay?’ the woman asked in concern.
‘’Mum, you’re alive!’ Stephanie exclaimed in surprise and rushed to hug the woman.
The both of them engaged each other in a warm and passionate embrace, forgetting totally the differences between them.
‘Shh…’ Tarasha hushed both of them, placing a finger on her lip. She stood at the edge of the back wall of the house and peeped. She saw a man coming towards the backyard with a gun in his hands.
Madam Henrietta and Stephanie stared at Tarasha with bewildered eyes, both breathing heavily. Tarasha bent down carefully and without turning back, she picked a big stone on the floor with her right hand.
She watched until the man walking forward with the gun got closer to the dead bodies, he was shocked and stopped to look at them. He quickly tried to take a phone out from his pocket but Tarasha took him by surprise and smashed the stone on his head. The gun in his hand dropped as he fell to the floor, Tarasha picked up the stone again and hit him once more on the forehead.
She returned quickly to the backyard to meet Stephanie and Madam Henrietta eagerly waiting for her.
‘You guys have to go now,’ Tarasha said to them. ‘You should wait for me at Goodluck Street.’
‘Why do we have to leave without you?’ Stephanie argued
Tarasha stared blankly at her. She felt like slapping her for questioning her instruction but she resisted the urge. ‘They still have some men, waiting outside at the front, I have to get them.’ Tarasha replied. She touched Stephanie on the shoulder and looked into her eyes. ‘I’ll be with you at the Goodluck street junction in thirty minutes, make sure I find you there.’
Before Stephanie could say anything, Tarasha had left them. She turned back to her mum and stared at her. ‘She says we should wait at Goodluck Street, let’s go.’
‘No!’ Madam Henrietta opposed, widening her eyes in fright. ‘We have to go to the police.’
‘We better not mum,’ Stephanie warned with her eyes widened back at the woman. ‘Let’s follow her instruction and wait for her.’
‘What?’ the woman was surprised at Stephanie’s reply. ‘Why should we follow a stranger’s instruction?’
‘She’s not a stranger mum,’ Stephanie answered.
‘Do you know her?’
‘Yes, I do. She’s…’ Stephanie stopped on a second thought. She had wanted to tell the woman that the lady was Samantha Osman but she thought again that it could increase the woman’s fear. ‘She’s a police officer,’ she lied.
‘Police officer?’ Madam Henrietta squinted, finding it hard to believe.
‘Let’s go to Goodluck Street Mum.’ She said and grabbed the woman’s hand.
Three other men sat in the Toyota bus quietly, waiting for their colleagues’ call or return. One was seated at the driver’s seat, another was seated with the driver at the front and the third was at the seat beside the driver’s.
Tarasha walked quietly closer to the bus. She stopped beside the driver’s side and stopped to talk to him.
‘Hey Honey! Would you love a smooth ride tonight?’ she said, using her fingers to separate the linen covering her cleavage.
‘Get lost whore!’ the driver replied, thinking that she was a sëx worker like she presented herself to be. The driver was impatient for their other colleagues to return, he had been checking his time from time to time.
Tarasha didn’t move, she stood still and stared at the driver with a seductive look. ‘Honey, it doesn’t cost much, I can give you at a subsidized rate.’
‘Get lost, didn’t you hear me?’ The driver shouted in a loud voice, attracting the attention of the others.
‘Who’s she?’ the man beside the driver asked, looking towards the direction.
‘A slu*t!’ the driver replied.
Tarasha licked her lips seductively and bit the lower lip slightly as her eyes met with the second man. The third man at the seat behind the driver’s had also moved close to the window to see what was getting the driver angry.
‘I can fix the three of you tonight, I bet you all can’t match my strength,’ she boasted and eyed seductively.
‘Boss, I’ll kill this girl.’ The driver said angrily, turning to the man beside him.
That was all Tarasha wanted. She needed a person alive amongst them and needed to make her choice, the driver had helped her.
In a twinkle of an eye, she stretched her left hand into the driver’s side and her right hand into the back side. She pulled the two men by their shirt and dragged their heads out through the windows and smashed them against each other. The both men were caught by surprise and didn’t prepare to defend themselves. She drew out the knife from her back and slid it into the throat of the man behind the front seat. Then she quickly opened the driver’s door, making the man’s head hit the top of the bus and tilt backwards…
In a twinkle of an eye, she stretched her left hand into the driver’s side and her right hand into the back side. She pulled the two men by their shirts and dragged their heads out through the windows and smashed them against each other. The both men were caught by surprise and didn’t prepare to defend themselves. She drew out the knife from her back and slid it into the throat of the man behind the front seat. Then she quickly opened the driver’s door, making the man’s head hit the top of the bus and tilt backwards.
__
‘Mum, I’m bleeding.’ Stephanie screamed aloud as she noticed the blood on her hand.
‘Oh Dear! This is much,’ Madam Henrietta exclaimed.
They just got into a taxi, heading for the Goodluck junction where Tarasha had instructed that they wait for her. Stephanie had not realized she had been cut by the knife due to her anxiety and the darkness around the house did not help matters. She only noticed when she became calmer and observed the fluid on her hand. She was only lucky that the cut had not been too deep, but she had already lost a lot of blood and was weak already.
The taxi driver turned to look at them, he made a frown when he saw the bleeding, not happy because his seats could have gotten stained by the blood.
‘There’s a pharmacy right in front, I’ll just stop you there.’ The driver said.
He stopped them beside the pharmacy and the women stepped out of the vehicle to get first aid treatment for Stephanie.
_____
The man whom the driver referred to as boss was quick to pull out his gun but Tarasha was faster, she jacked up the driver by his neck and threw him on the man’s body, making him lose control of the gun. She gripped the both sides of the door and used it as a support as she jumped first on the driver’s seat and then sent a kick with her two legs simultaneously at the men. She turned sharply and placed her feet on the ground, she pulled the driver away from the boss and pushed him out through the window at the right side.
The man referred to as boss managed to open his eyes and stare at her. He looked confused beyond words. He wondered how the little whore had managed to take out two of his men in a brief moment already. He tried to reach for his gun but he realized it was far away.
He stared at her face again and opened his mouth to talk, ‘ Who are..’
She interrupted him with a blow on his face, then she picked his gun which had fallen to the floor in the bus. She opened the door and pulled the man out, then pushed him to the ground. She turned to the driver whom she had first pushed to the ground, she thought of shooting him but she changed her mind. She took out another short knife and slit in into his throat.
She turned back and faced the boss, he was yet to recover. She placed a knee on the ground beside the man and pulled him up by the neck, staring him in the face directly.
‘Hey Man, Get up. We got some talks to do,’ She said as she dragged him up to his feet. She pushed him, making his back lean against the bus and placed the knife beside his throat. ‘Who sent you here?’
The man growled, unwilling to give an answer.
‘I won’t ask you for a third time,’ she said, putting the knife deeper into his skin.
‘Stainless,’ the man managed to say.
‘He asked you to kill both ladies?’
‘No, he sent us to the old woman only but he told us to waste anyone that stands in the…’
Tarasha did not let him finish before she took him out with the butt of her gun.
_____
30 Minutes later.
Madam Henrietta and Stephanie arrived at Goodluck junction and began to look around for signs of Tarasha.
‘We’re ten minutes late,’ Stephanie said to Madam Henrietta.
‘She asked us to wait for her here, couldn’t she have waited when she didn’t see us?’ Madam Henrietta complained, looking around in confusion.
They stayed for five more minutes at the junction without seeing any sign of her and both of them were getting frustrated already when they heard a strange voice behind them.
‘Why did it take you guys so long to get here?’ Tarasha asked from behind, startling them.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 8
Stephanie turned back sharply and ran into her arms. Tarasha was taken by surprise at the warm embrace but she didn’t resist. It felt odd at first but she heaved a sigh and decided to release her frozen body. She put her arms around the girl’s body and drew her closer.
‘Can we leave now?’ Tarasha said after breaking free from the hug, looking at Madam Henrietta who was staring at them strangely.
‘Where are we going to?’ the woman questioned in low tones.
‘Just follow me,’ Tarasha replied and began to lead them across the road.
Stephanie gave Madam Henrietta a reassuring look before holding her hand and pulling her along with them. Madam Henrietta had no choice than to follow, she somehow felt indebted to the strange lady for saving her from death.
She was already struggling for breath when the miracle happened. The man who was trying to suffocate her with the handkerchief suddenly fell to the floor after giving out a loud cry. It took her sometime to regain her breath and open her eyes and when she did , she saw the face of a young woman dressed in all black standing before her.
Stephanie got into the front seat of the car with Tarasha while Madam Henrietta sat at the back seat.
Tarasha took in a deep breath after putting on the seatbelt. She took off the wig on her clean shaven head and folded it neatly into a bag beside her. Stephanie stared at her with her lips widely parted.
‘Why did you cut your hair?’ Stephanie asked in amazement, trying to remember whether Tarasha was shaven the first time they met. She recalled, and couldn’t find any image of her been shaven in her memory. She remembered that there was a neatly plaited hair on her head that day and it didn’t look like a wig.
‘Wrong question at a wrong time,’ Tarasha replied coldly. She turned to look at Stephanie’s face and stared into her eyes for a while, it was obvious Stephanie still recognized her from the night she saved her from the rapist. She recalled that the makeup she disguised with was already fading at that time of the night when they first met and agreed it was easy for Stephanie to still recognize her. But she narrowed her gaze as she remembered something else, ‘I thought they said you lost your memory.’
Stephanie remained quiet for a while, she was uncomfortable with the question because of Madam Henrietta’s presence in the car. The old woman also did not know that she could recall everything that happened when she was kidnapped.
Tarasha could see the discomfort in her eyes and sensed it she didn’t want to talk about it in Madam Henrietta’s presence. She changed the subject, ‘Those men that attacked you, where do you know them from?’ she asked and turned to look at Madam Henrietta.
‘I don’t know any of them and I don’t know where they’re from,’ Madam Henrietta answered.
Tarasha turned to Stephanie.
‘I’ve never seen them either,’ Stephanie said.
Tarasha turned back to Madam Stephanie. ‘You were their target, who do you suspect?’
Madam Henrietta let of a gasp. She suddenly became afraid again. ‘Who?’ She began to pant. ‘I’ve not done anything for anyone to want me dead.’
Tarasha glanced back at Stephanie again before facing front. She stared blankly for a moment, thinking about how things would have turned out if she hadn’t been in Abuja that moment. She had tracked Stephanie’s address through the IP from which the email message was sent from and only planned to pay a surprise visit that night to force out some information but her plans changed when she got there. She realized that another group had gotten there before her. She arrived incidentally at the same time their bus arrived and noticed them first. She took some time to observe them and suspected their mission from viewing their body language. She followed after the three men when they went in but didn’t pass through the main entrance and it was why it took her more time to get in after they had.
She heaved a sigh before she pushed the start button to turn on the car engine, she also turned on the indicator and looked into the side mirror to view the cars coming from behind.
It took them extra thirty minutes to get to their destination. It was a house in Gwagalada. They had stopped on the way at a restaurant to get dinner for the three of them. Tarasha led them into the house and locked the door. She ushered them to the dining table and made Stephanie served the food for the three of them.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 20 Part 3
They finished the food in silence, with Madam Henrietta and Stephanie exchanging glances occasionally and also stealing glances at Tarasha’s face and expecting her to talk. Tarasha knew they expected her to begin a conversation but she remained silent and focused on the meal without returning any of their looks. Only when she finished the meal did she stand up, she took in a deep breath and took quick glances at the faces of the two ladies
‘You two would not try to move out of this place until I return, is that clear?’ Tarasha said calmly, but still maintained the authority in her voice.
‘We won’t,’ Stephanie was the one who replied, she had no problem with the instruction.
Madam Henrietta was also forced to nod in agreement when Tarasha placed her gaze on her face.
‘Good.’ Tarasha got up from the dining table and walked into the living room. She took out her wig from the bag and put it on again. She made it tight at the back to ensure that it wouldn’t fall.
Without another word, she walked out of the house and walked back straight to the car.
‘I thought you said she is a police officer,’ Madam Henrietta questioned, staring at Stephanie’s face for explanation.
‘Yes, I said so.’ Stephanie answered and got up to her feet. She proceeded towards the window and opened the curtains slightly to see what Tarasha was up to.
‘Are you sure she is?’ Madam Henrietta asked, also walking into the living room. ‘Have you seen her on uniform?’
‘No, I haven’t. But other police officers said she was also a police officer on national TV.’ Stephanie turned back before answering the woman. She opened the curtain again to look.
Tarasha was at the back of the car now, standing behind the opened boot. She pulled something up and dragged it to the floor. Stephanie opened her mouth in shock. It was a man. The man was tied up and locked in the boot of the car in which they all came in and she and Madam Henrietta did not notice. The man legs and hands were tied, his mouth was also covered with a tape.
Tarasha took off the tape from the man’s mouth and bent down to speak to him, Stephanie couldn’t hear what was being said. After a minute, she closed the boot of the car and dragged the man in his tied state into the car. She dropped him at the backseat and entered into the driver’s side.
‘What are you looking at?’ Madam Henrietta asked curiously, walking towards Stephanie to also have a look.
‘Nothing,’ Stephanie replied and closed the curtain.
Madam Henrietta stopped behind and stared at her for a while. ‘Are you sure you know who this woman is?’
‘Yes, I know her. She’d be back soon, we’re safe here.’ Stephanie replied and walked back to sit in the living room.
Madam Henrietta proceeded to the window and opened the curtain. The only thing she saw was the car driving out. She proceeded to the door of the living room and tried to open it by turning the knob.
‘The door is locked from outside,’ She said to Stephanie with panic written all over her face.
‘We’re not planning to leave, are we?’ Stephanie replied confidently. She crossed her legs and rested her back.
Madam Henrietta stared at her for a couple of seconds. She was baffled about Stephanie’s confidence and attitude, she concluded that Stephanie must know about and have a hand in what was going on.
‘Steph, you have to tell me what’s happening here,’ she said and proceeded straight to the girl, determined to make her explain everything to her.
___
‘Hey dude! Now you’ve gotta talk plainly to me,’ Tarasha said after dragging the tied man into a dark room. The only source of light in the room was her phone’s flashlight which was placed in her trousers front pocket.
She pulled him up by the collar and made him rest his back against the wall.
‘I can’t tell do what you’re asking to do, I would be hunted till he finds and kill me.’ the man voiced out, looking away from Tarasha’s face as she squatted right in front of him.
Tarasha placed a knee on the ground. She pulled his hair and made him look her straight into her eyes. ‘Who’s going to kill you? I can kill him before he gets the news that you told me,’ Tarasha offered.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 5
‘Who are you?’ the man underrated her in his mind. ‘A lady like you can’t kill him.’
‘I’m Samantha Osman, who is he and why can’t I kill him?’ she replied.
The man widened his eyes in shock. His lips trembled and he swallowed hard in fear. He didn’t know whether to believe her or not. The lady in front of him did not look like Samantha Osman but considering her strength and actions, it could mean she truly was who she claimed to be.
‘Stainless gave me the job,’ the man finally voiced out, taking his chance.
‘The same one who worked with Don Dan?’ she asked the question she did not ask at the first time he mention Stainless’ name.
‘Yes, he’s number one in Nigeria now apart from you, the visitor, Samantha Osman.’
‘He isn’t number one,’ Tarasha said and got up to her feet. She thought for some seconds and knelt again. ‘What if you work with me?’ she offered temptingly. ‘It could save you from Don and help you secure your future.’
The man only stared at her for minutes without coming to a decision.
She finally rose up when he wasn’t saying anything. ‘I still need Stainless alive, so I won’t be taking him out soon. That gives him enough time to know that you’ve betrayed him and hunt for you. Since you have made a choice not to work with me, I’ll have to leave you to face his wrath. I’ll kill him when it’s time. Goodbye,’ she said and began to proceed towards the door.
‘I will work with you,’ the man let out a muffled sound.
Tarasha turned back and made a crooked smile at him. ‘Good,’ she proceeded back towards him. She took off the ropes from his hands and feet, ‘I’ll let you leave and work with me. But you should understand that you now owe your allegiance to me, you sign not only your death warrant the day you betray me, you also sign your entire family’s death.’
The man trembled in fear.
‘I was already making moves for your family,’ she said, taking out a phone from her back pocket. ‘I sent the picture of you I took to my team member and they got your profile already,’ she stopped and unlocked the phone. She opened an app and displayed it to him. It showed his full profile and passport, his address, his legal occupation, his wife and kids and some of his family members’ name.
The man opened his mouth in shock. His heart began to beat faster and his body trembled more.
‘Forget that you saw that,’ Tarasha said with a smile and returned her phone. She took out another from the second pocket and handed it to him, ‘Here’s the phone I took from your pocket. Do you have Stainless’ number there?’
The man nodded in affirmation.
‘When is he expecting a reply from you?’
‘He asked me to get back to him as soon as the woman got killed,’ he replied in low tones.
‘Now, call him and tell him that your mission has not been successful yet, but you got the woman under watch.’ Tarasha said. ‘Place it on loud speakers,’ she quickly added as he began to use the phone. She took out her own phone again and unlocked it, she opened the tracking application and clicked on the man’s phone details which she had already stored on it.
The phone began to ring and the call was answered in less than a minute.
‘Alex, what’s up man?’ Stainless voice sounded through the loud speakers.
‘Stain, the woman wasn’t found at the expected place, but we still have her under watch and we will drop her as soon as we get the best opportunity to make it look natural.’ Alex replied.
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Stainless replied angrily. ‘You can’t drop a harmless woman in one night.’
‘I’m sorry Stain, we should have dropped her if we weren’t following your instructions to make it look natural.’
‘You’re sick in the head, when are you going to get it done?’
Alex quickly glanced at Tarasha.
‘Tomorrow,’ she whispered to him.
‘Tomorrow,’ Alex said into the phone.
‘Get it done tomorrow man, we have someone else to drop here but that must be done first. So don’t delay my job, you get me?’
‘Yes, Stain.’
Tarasha copied the location gotten from the tracker and pasted into the text message box.
‘Locate this place and start a survey,’ she typed under the location and sent the message to Cole.
‘What’s Tarasha up to?’ Henry asked Cole. They were both seated in the dark room where a few laptops were set up. Henry had been the one who fished out the details of Alex when she sent them the picture.
‘I’m not sure,’ Cole replied coolly. ‘But I know we are about to do some a*ss kicking at this location she just sent.’
Henry watched as Cole extracted the required details from Tarasha’s text message and typed it into the request box displayed on the map software. Cole tapped the enter button and the request began processing.
‘I think she’s up to something with Stephanie George,’ Henry hinted, staring thoughtfully. ‘I saw Stephanie George in some of the footages while clearing the NSCC records you asked me to.’
‘And what sort of information would Stephanie have that would interest the boss so much?’Cole asked.
‘We can’t tell, she didn’t sound interested when I told her that day that the lady sent a mail but I believe she reconsidered the message after seeing it.’
‘Wh@tëver it is, the boss would let us know when it’s time,’Cole said. He looked at the laptop screen, the request had finished processing. He zoomed the result displayed and clicked one of the options he found there.
____
Location: Gwagalada, Abuja.
11:15pm
Tarasha stepped into the living room and closed the door gently. The two ladies she left there had slept off already and had no idea that she had come in.
She stopped beside the centre table and stared at both ladies’ faces for a moment. Stephanie was laying on the three seater while Madam Henrietta was in one of the one seater couches.
‘Hello Ladies,’ Tarasha began after clearing her throat. ‘Hello!’ she called again.
Stephanie was the first to stir awake and turn. Tarasha noticed again the bandage on Stephanie’s left hand as she sat up, she remembered having seen the bandage when Stephanie was serving the food but resisted the urge to ask what happened to her in order not to send a message that she cared about the girl. She wanted them to see her as a deadly assassin and not a weak lady who could be moved by emotions, but she couldn’t resist the urge to ask anymore, it felt like the injury was on her own hand. ‘How did you get that wound?’
Stephanie took a glance at her palm where Tarasha’s eyes were fixed and let out a smile. ‘I had a knife cut when I fell earlier tonight,’ she answered.
‘Okay,’ Tarasha muttered under her breath. She h@tëd the happy smile Stephanie gave even though it calmed her mind. She moved her gaze to Madam Henrietta who was still asleep. ‘Wake her up,’ she flashed a look at Stephanie.
‘Mum,’ Stephanie called, getting up her seat to Madam Henrietta’s seat.
‘I’ll be back in two minutes,’ Tarasha said and proceeded into the inner rooms.
She returned two minutes later and met both Stephanie and Madam Henrietta wide awake and waiting for her.
‘Sorry, I had to disturb your sleep, I needed to tell you that we would be travelling tomorrow morning. You have some hours to prepare, you don’t need to worry about clothes or other similar items, I’ll cover that up for you.’ Tarasha said. ‘I’m telling you now because I want no resistance when it’s time to leave tomorrow.’
‘But why are we travelling? Where are you taking us to? I don’t even know who you are,’ Madam Henrietta opposed. She was confused and tired of listening to Tarasha’s orders. ‘We are supposed to report the attempt on our lives to the police immediately, but here we are; you locked us somewhere we don’t know and you’re giving us orders without explanation.’
Tarasha let out a devilish chuckle and kept a frowned face. She h@tëd being questioned and her mind boiled with anger at the audacity the woman had. She narrowed her gaze at the woman’s body and stared at her face for a brief moment. She thought about leaving the Madam behind and going only with Stephanie who she came for but she also thought that the woman may have more to offer than Stephanie had. Since Stainless was the person who sent assassins to them, there could be a possibility that the Vice President also had a hand in it.
She suddenly remembered something and stared more intently at Madam Henrietta’s face. She could now tell why the face looked familiar at first. She recalled that Madam Henrietta was the lady seen beside the Vice President as he walked down the airplane on his arrival to Lagos. She realized that Madam Henrietta could be a good asset to her if treated well.
Her rage left her and she let out a forced smile. ‘I’m sorry I may not be able to explain that to you right now. But the choice is yours, you may come with me and be safe or you may chose the police and get handed back to those who tried to kill you.’
Madam Henrietta stared cluelessly at her and was troubled greatly in her mind. The strange lady whom Stephanie called a police woman spoke so boldly and didn’t look harmless, but it was still difficult to trust a lady who took out several men singlehandedly.
‘There are three rooms in this apartment, you can sleep in any room of your choice.’ Tarasha said before sitting on one of the sofas.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 16 Part 8
‘Can we talk first before I go to bed?’ Stephanie asked carefully.
‘We would talk when I say it’s time to talk,’ Tarasha replied without looking at her.
6AM
Still deep in sleep, Madam Henrietta could feel someone’s warn hands grip her left palm. The person gently shook the hand and a soft voice followed. ‘Please wake up, we need to talk.’
She managed to open her eyes but her retina struggled for some seconds to accommodate the bright light in the room. She yawned and stretched and only remembered where she was when her eyes opened fully. She sat up quickly, resting her back against the headboard as she stared at Tarasha.
‘Don’t panic ma’am, I got some few questions to ask before I allow you make the choice of travelling with me or not.’ Tarasha began, looking deeply into the woman’s eyes. ‘I want you to tell me nothing but the truth, would you do that for me?’
‘I have no reason to lie to you,’ the woman replied.
‘What’s your relationship with the Vice President?’ Tarasha asked sharply, even before the madam finished talking.
She was shocked by the question and couldn’t hide it in her facial expression. She stared at Tarasha for a while, with her lips slightly apart.
‘Chief Elvis is my friend, we met several years before he became the Vice President.’ She finally replied.
‘What kind of friends are you? How close are you? How and when did you meet him?’
‘I can’t really say what led to our friendship but I’ll say we met how other friends do meet. I think we first saw each other at an event and we exchanged numbers.’
‘How close are you to him?’
‘I used to be close to him at some point but he got married and as he grew higher in politics, we began to talk and see less.’
‘So you are no longer close?’
‘Yes, we aren’t.’
‘When last did you meet him?’
Madam Henrietta took sometime to think before answering. She wondered why the questions were being asked and what the purpose was. She decided not to open up, as she still wanted to hide her relationship with the Vice President from Stephanie. ‘I can’t remember, it’s been a while.’
Tarasha paused for a second, she narrowed her gaze and stared thinly at the woman. ‘You just broke the only promise I asked you to make, you just lied.’
Madam Henrietta raised a brow.
‘I’ll give another opportunity for you to help yourself, when last did you meet him?’
Madam Henrietta thought for some more few seconds, she decided that she wouldn’t be intimidated by Tarasha’s tactful acts and would maintain her stand. ‘I’ve not seen him for…’
‘What the hell were you doing with him in the Presidential flight to Lagos?’ she slammed.
Her heart missed a beat and then began to beat faster than usual. The look on Tarasha’s face had changed totally and Madam Henrietta knew it would be dangerous to keep lying to her.
Her lips trembled for a while. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath.
‘What were you doing with him in Lagos?’ Tarasha asked again, this time in a calmer voice. She got up from the bed and began to pace about the bed length slowly.
‘He needed to ask me something about the past and we settled it that day,’ she replied.
Tarasha stared blankly at the wall. ‘How do I know you’re not lying to me about that?’
Madam Henrietta remained in silence, trying not to be quick to answer. Another thought struck her mind. Maybe this Lady was Stephanie’s friend and she probably was the one who had seen her with the Vice President in Lagos and told Stephanie about it which made Stephanie accuse her.
‘I helped him organize a party during his term as the deputy governor of Lagos State and he wanted to find out some things about those I worked with,’ she replied.
‘Is that all you did together?’
‘Yes, nothing else.’
Tarasha let out a threatening chuckle and stared at her face thinly. Madam Henrietta looked away. ‘He didn’t discuss anything about his past sins with you?’
Madam Henrietta looked at her sharply. ‘His past sins?’ she frowned.
‘Yes, his past sins.’
She was getting more confused and she didn’t know whether to continue hiding the truth from her or tell the truth. But she still didn’t want to lose Stephanie’s trust and she wasn’t sure that Stephanie would not hear it from Tarasha if she let it out.
Tarasha took out her phone, she punched in some numbers and dialed. She turned back to Madam Henrietta and walked closer, she fixed her eyes on her face and stared narrowly into her eyes, ‘What do you know about his past sins?’
‘His past sins?’ the woman answered shakily, the look on Tarasha’s face was now terrifying. ‘He didn’t tell me anything about his sins,’ she replied.
Tarasha returned the phone into her pocket. She placed her left foot at the edge of the bed close to Madam Henrietta and placed her left elbow on it, resting her jaw in her palm. She squinted at Madam Henrietta’s face, ‘What about you? What are the past sins and secrets that you know from your association with him?’
‘I’ve not discovered any of his secrets yet, he keeps them carefully,’ she replied in shaky voice.
A knock sounded at the door and it startled Madam Henrietta. Tarasha took a quick glance at the door and spoke, ‘Come in.’ She turned back to Madam Henrietta, ‘Which of his secrets are you covering for him?’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 8
Madam Henrietta’s eyes met with Stephanie’s as the latter moved closer to them. She looked again at Tarasha’s face. The fear in her mind increased, her heart began to pump faster.
‘I’m not covering any secret for him,’ she answered, this time sincerely.
‘Then why did you burn up the docvments that prove his guilt?’ Tarasha asked in a loud threatening voice. She glanced at Stephanie who had just entered and didn’t know what was going on. Tarasha had come into her own room earlier to discuss with her but never told her that she was going to discuss with Madam Henrietta too. What Tarasha had told her was that when she saw her call, she should go into Madam Henrietta’s room and try to convince the older lady to travel with them.
Flashback—12.30AM
Stephanie was already asleep and didn’t know when the door to her room was opened. She only she felt the reflection of light from the bulb on her eyes when the light was turned on.
‘Stephanie,’ she heard her name called softly as she opened her eyes and she saw Samantha Osman walking towards her.
She stretched and managed to sit up. ‘Good morning,’ she greeted as she yawned and rubbed her eyes.
‘Good morning,’ Tarasha replied. She sat at the edge of the bed close to Stephanie. ‘I’m sorry to disturb your sleep again. We’d be leaving here in few hours time, but I need to ask you some important questions before we move.’
Stephanie readjusted her seating position to pay more attention.
‘You said you had information concerning the murder of Lewis Andrew George,’ Tarasha said and waited for her to confirm. Stephanie nodded. ‘What information do you have?’
‘The Vice President ordered his death,’ Stephanie replied.
Tarasha frowned, ‘That’s a serious allegation girl. How sure are you?’
‘I’m very sure, my mother told me.’
‘Your mother? What does she know about the murder of Lewis George?’
‘Andrew Lewis George was my father,’ Stephanie declared.
The last statement came to Tarasha as a surprise but she made sure it wasn’t expressed. ‘Madam Henrietta was Mr. George’s wife?’
‘No,’ Stephanie replied, shaking her head. ‘Madam Henrietta is not my biological mother, she only took charge of me after the arranged accident.’
‘And who is your biological mother?’ Tarasha asked.
‘Mrs. Atinuke George.’
‘Atinuke George,’ Tarasha repeated under her breath. She remembered vividly that Atinuke George was the same person listed as the spouse for Lewis Andrew. She also had no cause to doubt Stephanie, her surname being George added more credence to her words.
‘She told me how my Dad was poisoned before the accident, they knew the poison was already going to kill him but still went ahead to arrange an accident to make the accident sound as the sole cause of the death.’ Stephanie.
‘When did your mum tell you this?’
‘Some few weeks ago,’ Stephanie replied.
Tarasha raised her brows. ‘Few weeks ago? Is your mother alive?’
‘Yes, she’s alive.’
Tarasha’s eyes widened in shock. She tried to do a quick flashback and remember what she saw on the citizen’s profile, she remembered clearly that it was stated that the woman was dead. ‘Your mum is alive? Where is she?’
‘She got terminally ill from the accident and she’s in a care center in Lagos,’ Stephanie replied.
‘The records shows that she died in the accident,’ Tarasha said.
‘Yes, the records say so but my mother is alive.’
Tarasha drew in a deep breath. She looked away and took some time to think. ‘But how do we prove your mother’s claim? Are there docvments that show that your Dad was poisoned?’
‘Yes, Mum says he was supposed to survive the accident. He didn’t suffer enough injuries from the accident to kill him, the doctors knew this, so they were surprised when he gave up the ghost, they carried out postmortem and discovered that he was given a death poison.’
‘Do you have the post mortem’s docvments?’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘But how did your mother know that the poisoning was carried out by Chief Elvis Richards?’
‘My Dad was supposed to have a peace talk with Chief Elvis and the lawyers that day but it did not end well, he was poisoned at the place.’
‘Does the autopsy report carry the time of the poisoning?’
‘Yes, it does carry every detail that we need to prove the poisoning,’ she replied.
Tarasha pondered on the matter for some more seconds. She looked at Stephanie again, ‘How would you prove that there was a peace talk between them that day?’
Stephanie frowned and a sorrowful look covered her face, ‘There were pictures but that’s where the problem lies. My foster mum, Madam Henrietta burned all the pictures and docvments few days ago.’
‘Why did she burn them up?’
‘I don’t know, she keeps telling me she is trying to protect me…’
PRESENT
‘Those docvments do not prove his guilt, Mr. Lewis was losing case before he died and even his lawyer encouraged me to do away with the docvments.’ Madam Henrietta defended herself shakily.
‘That isn’t the answer to the question I asked you,’ Tarasha said with a thin stare. She put her feet down and took out a knife from her back pocket. She took off the blade case from the knife and proceeded towards Madam Henrietta. ‘Now, I ask again. Why did you burn the docvments and the pictures?’
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 3
Madam Henrietta shook in fear, trembling at the sight of the sharp blade of the knife. Her eyes met with Stephanie who was also looking very terrified.
‘There was no need to keep the docvments anymore, I had to take them away somehow.’ She answered shakily.
‘You’re still not giving me the right answer,’ Tarasha said, she climbed with her two legs unto the bed and squatted before the woman, she put the knife close to her neck.
‘Please don’t hurt her,’ Stephanie said with a trembling voice from behind.
Tarasha gave her a brief side look but did not take the knife away from the woman’s neck. She stared back into the woman’s eyes. ‘Now, tell me why you burnt the docvments and pictures.’
‘I wanted to keep Stephanie safe from trouble,’ she replied.
‘How do the docvments make her unsafe?’
‘I remembered Stephanie called me few days before I arrived in Nigeria to ask about the same docvments, I knew she must have laid her hands on them. When Chief Elvis asked about the whereabouts of the docvments, I didn’t want to tell him that Stephanie asked about them and may have taken them, so I told him I had burnt them already. He threatened to punish me severely if the docvments were found to still exist. That’s why I had to burn them when I returned to Abuja.’
Tarasha withdrew the knife slowly and placed a knee on the bed. ‘What does he need the docvments for?’
‘I don’t have an idea what he needs them for.’
‘How did he know they were with you?’
‘He said he already sent men to check the late Lawyer’s files and they saw it recorded in the files that the docvments have been handed over to me.’
‘I see.’ Tarasha stepped down slowly from the bed and cased the knife blade before returning it into her back pocket. ‘If Chief Elvis wants the docvments, it means that they really prove his guilt. And he also sent men to kill you yesterday, that means he’s trying to make sure all his tracks are covered.’
She paced around the room for some minutes before stopping at the previous position in between the two ladies. ‘Elvis Richards is up to something and he needs to move you out of the way before he proceeds, we need to find out what that is today.’ She paused to check the time. ‘The vehicle taking us to Abuja would be here to pick us in one hour time, be ready,’ she said and proceeded straight to the door.
She stopped and turned again as her fingers touched the knob of the door. ‘You may want to know why we aren’t travelling by air; the flights can be easily monitored, the Vice President would get to know about your entrance into the state not later thirty minutes after the flight gets there.’
She turned the knob and proceeded out of the room.
There was an awkward silence for the first few minutes after Tarasha left the room. Madam Henrietta was the first to break the silence.
‘Who is she?’
Stephanie held her breath for a moment. She glanced at the woman and turned to stare at the wall. ‘She saved you from the Vice President’s attempt on your life. Her name is Samantha Osman.’
________
7AM
Location: Rael University Area, Lagos.
Cole and three other men were seated at a table in a restaurant. The other men were part of the newly employed assassins. There were drinks on the table before them but none of the bottles were touched. The men seemed to be more concerned with their discussion.
After some minutes, Cole handed a phone to one of the men named Nicholas after dialing a number. Nicholas put the phone close to his ears and waited for the call to be answered as the other men watched him in silence patiently.
‘Hey Stain, what’s up man?’ Nicholas said into the phone, putting on a smile and hoping it would be felt at the other end.
‘Cool n!gg@! Who are you?’ Stainless replied coldly from the other end.
‘Nicholas man, remember me?’
‘Which f****** Nicholas are you? The last Nicholas I saw died in a septic tank,’ Stainless replied more coldly, he seemed to be having a bad day.
‘Nicholas of the X-Gang, the one you met in Markurdi six years ago.’
‘You? You’re a crazy n!gg@, what do you want from me?’
‘I need to see you man, I heard you are in Lagos. I’m around your base in Rael University Area, can I come over?’
‘Who the hell told you I’m in Lagos? And what the f*** you wanna see me about?’
‘It’s complicated man, I tell you, but it involves a lot of money. Are you in your base?’
‘No, the f***** base was raided months ago when your stupid friend Don Dan met with Samantha Osman.’
‘So where can I meet you?’
‘I’m in Rael Area, meet me at BT Close. I hope what you bring really involves a lot of money.’
‘Okay, I’ll be there in few minutes and I’ll give you a call.’
Nicholas ended the call and stretched his hand to return the phone.
‘Hold the phone,’ Cole said to him. He looked at the other men’s faces, ‘It’s time, we’ll watch where he comes out from. Take him as a hostage first and then attack the base if we still find it necessary.’
I’ve found him,’ Nicholas said into the mouthpiece attached to his chest, looking from the driver’s side where he sat.
Stainless had just gotten to the BT close junction and was looking around for signs of Nicholas. He spotted a red car at the other road carriageway and stared at it for a couple of seconds. Then he took out his phone and was about to redial the number that called him last but he saw someone step out from the driver’s side of the car. He exited the dial pad and returned the phone into the pocket.
He stared in wonder at Nicholas who was now watching the road so as to cross and meet him. He wondered if the car Nicholas had come out from was his or was borrowed. If it was his, then it meant that Nicholas had hit the jackpot and was now making more money. The Nicholas Stainless used to know was a local assassin who used to carry out petty jobs most of the times and was only involved in bigger jobs when Don Dan needed his services.
‘Stain,’ Nicholas stopped beside him and greeted with a crooked smile.
‘Nicholas,’ Stainless replied and extended his hand for a handshake. He was still staring at the car, not because it was bigger than what he could afford but he was surprised as to how Nicholas got the money for the vehicle, did it mean Nicholas was now handling bigger jobs?
‘Where do we talk?’Nicholas asked him, looking around.
‘Do we plan to talk for a long time?’Stainless asked, considering leading Nicholas to where he came out from.
‘No, it’s a brief talk but we need to be comfortable.’
Stainless looked around one more time. ‘I was in a Game House with my guys, would you come there with me?’
‘A Game House?’ Nicholas looked around briefly again, his eyes lingered on his car for a longer time. ‘Can I pick my car and park somewhere here and we can talk inside?’
Stainless stared at his face for a while, he wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of staying in Nicholas’ car to talk but it was still a better option than the noisy Game House. He hesitated for a while but finally agreed, ‘Let’s just cross and get in.’
They crossed to the other side of the road and stopped beside the bed. Nicholas opened the driver’s seat in order to unlock the other doors.
‘You have something on that seat,’ Stainless said as he turned to the passenger’s side.
Nicholas eyes fell on the bag at the passenger’s side, he hissed and stared for a second. ‘Please, can we use the back seat?’ he said as he released the doors to the backseat, acting as if he didn’t want to move the load on the front passenger’s seat away.
Both of them entered into the backseat and settled in. Nicholas turned on the air conditioner of the car and they began to talk.
‘I have a simple deal for you, it only requires you to give me few words.’ Nicholas began, having Stainless listening to him attentively. ‘It should not take more than ten minutes for us to complete this whole deal and I’ll pay you five hundred thousand naira right here.’
Stainless squinted at Nicholas’ face. He wondered what Nicholas wanted from him that he was willing to pay half a million naira for in ten minutes and how Nicholas even had that kind of money. ‘What deal could you want to make with me?’ he asked in low tones.
‘It’s simple,’ Stainless drew in a short breath. ‘You’ve been working for the Vice President recently, and you sent Alex to kill a particular Madam Henrietta yesterday but he couldn’t…’ Nicholas paused to look at Stainless’ face, he noticed the surprise and continued. ‘I want to know why you want to kill her and what you are planning to do after that.’
Stainless was shocked beyond words. His mouth was left agape and his eyes opened wide. He wondered where Nicholas got the information from and what the intention was. He was more bothered at Nicholas’ audacity to even ask him. He realized that he was in a dangerous position; in the car of someone who knows something that should be his secret. He tried to open the door but as he turned to the other side, someone was already standing beside the door. He placed his fingers on the inner door handle but the door was opened by the man outside before he could open it. The man entered into the car holding a gun, he pushed Stainless into the middle of the seat.
Two other men entered the car, one into the driver’s side and the other the passenger’s side.
Stainless knew he had gotten into a trap. He blamed himself for being so stupid and not suspecting that Nicholas was up to something. He stared at Nicholas’ face with a mean look, wishing he could lay his hands on his neck that moment but there was a gun in Nicholas’ hand now and the gun touching his belly placed by the man at the other side stopped him from making stupid moves.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 15 Part 7
Nicholas had a crooked smile on his face and stared back straight into Stainless’ eyes unblinking.
‘Stainless,’ one of the men seated at the front seat called.
Stainless turned slowly to the front, he looked at the man at the passenger’s side whom the voice had come from. He squinted as he stared at the side view of the man. The voice sounded like one which he had heard before but he couldn’t recognize the face from the side.
‘Stainless, you haven’t given an answer to Nicholas’ request,’ Cole said, looking at Stainless’ face through the rearview mirror.
Stainless’ eyes fell on the rearview mirror and his eyes met with that of Cole. Their eyes locked for a moment before he looked away.
‘Cole, what do you want from me?’ Stainless asked, still keeping a mean look and trying to act like a boss.
‘Exactly what Nicholas requested from you,’ Cole replied, still staring at him through the rear view mirror. ‘You tell us the truth without struggles and you go with the five hundred thousand naira, but if you make us force it out of you, you get nothing but we’d still get what we want. Either ways, we win.’
‘And what makes you think I will give in to you or that you can force it out from me?’ Stainless questioned.
Cole closed his eyes for a moment, he stared at the mirror again and let out a short chuckle. ‘I’ll give you the last opportunity to take the five hundred thousand naira offer, and if you refuse, we’d go by it the hard way.’
‘F*** you Cole, I ain’t taking any offer.’ Stainless slammed.
‘Then, we’d do it the hard way,’ Cole said and turned to look back for the first time since he entered the vehicle. He smiled evilly at Stainless and then winked at the guy beside Stainless. The man took out a syringe from his body and drove the needle into Stainless’ shoulder. Stainless eyes closed and he fell into an unconscious state immediately.
‘Nice job Nicholas,’ Cole commended and then turned to the driver. ‘You’ll take him to the base and we’d meet you guys there.’
With that Cole and the third man at the back seat stepped out of the car. They waited at the roadside and only proceeded after the car drove off.
‘Get the other car to the opposite side, and meet me in the Game House.’
12:30PM
Madam Henrietta’s could not put her mind to rest for the few hours they had used on the journey. She could not seem to comprehend the reality that she was travelling in the same vehicle with the deadly assassin. Her greatest confusion was still the fact that Stephanie was comfortable with it.
It was a Toyota sienna jeep, Tarasha was alone at the backseat while Madam Henrietta and her daughter at the middle seat and the driver alone at the front.
Tarasha lay with her body partially on the seat and her legs raised up and leaning by the side of the window glasses. She held an android phone with her two hands across her chest and her fingers were working on the keypad. The phone beeped, signifying the entrance of a new message. She swiped down the notification bar and clicked on the WhatsApp notification.
‘Stainless hasn’t budged yet,’ she read the message from Cole.
‘We shouldn’t expect him to budge easily but have you found out anything else?’ Tarasha typed and sent in the reply.
‘We haven’t been able to connect any part yet, the other guys with him do not know the full plan. All we know is that they’re waiting for the death of Madam Henrietta to drop someone else. We have one other person who is also close to Rex as hostage but I’m not sure he knows the plan too.’
‘You’ve got no idea of the person they want to drop after Madam Henrietta?’
‘Yes, we have no idea. Stainless seems to be the only one who has, I’m not too sure of the other hostage.’
‘Keep trying to break the both of them and also track down anyone that tries to contact them.’
1:30PM
‘Cole, his phone is ringing,’ Nicholas said to Cole as he entered into the dark room.
Cole was seated there alone with his laptop and a cigarette in his hand. He turned to look at Alex who was walking towards him. ‘What’s the caller’s ID?’
‘Rex,’ Nicholas answered.
Cole’s eyes widened and he took in a deep breath at the sound of the name. Alex got to him and handed the phone to him. Cole stared at the screen for a while, the phone was ringing again. He couldn’t answer and only waited until the call ended.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 16 Part 3
‘Have you tried to track the location of the caller?’
‘Strangely, the call has no source.’ Nicholas replied.
Cole nodded, he wasn’t expecting Rex to be trackable.
‘What about the guys that went to get Tobi’s mother?’ He asked Nicholas. Tobi was Stainless’ close partner. Cole and his partner who waited to go into the Game House had tricked him out of the place and brought him with them as the second hostage. Tobi didn’t seem to have the information they needed but they found out that he had also had personal contact with Rex and planned to use him get information from Rex.
‘I called them few minutes ago, they should be here in fifteen minutes time,’ Nicholas answered, after taking a glance at his wristwatch.
‘We’ll wait till they arrive,’ Cole said to Nicholas. He silenced Stainless’ phone which was just given to him and dropped it on his table. Then he nodded at Nicholas as a sign of dismissal. He put the cigarette in his mouth and took a deep drag.
25 Minutes later
Tobi could hear the footsteps sounds coming towards the direction of the room where he was tied. He wondered if the men were coming to torture him more or they were coming to release him, after all, he had told them he didn’t have the information they needed and he was not going to give them no matter what they did to him. He had already sustained so many injuries on his face and body as they tortured him but he was determined not to give in.
Tobi was a short heavily built man with strong muscles. He led a pack of touts in Lagos and worked hand in hand with Stainless whenever the latter had a job in the state. The only cases where Stainless would not work with him were when the job at hand was not given directly to Stainless.
The door opened some seconds later and Cole came in first, leaving the door open. He stopped in front of Tobi, giving two metres space between them.
‘I have a surprise for you boy,’ Cole said to Tobi with an evil smile.
Tobi gnarled at him. He had known Cole for a long time and knew him as he grew in rank with Don Dan. They had never been at peace even though they had known each other for a long time, reason being that Cole was Don Dan’s man while Tobi was on Stainless’ side. Cole wasn’t a match for him when it comes to physical strength and combat but Cole was far better with guns and cars.
Tobi felt like pouncing on Cole but he was handicapped by the strong ropes used to tie him to the chair. He felt foolish for having been deceived by Cole. They had lured him with money just like they had done with Stainless and he foolishly got into the car with them where they forced a syringe needle into his arm.
Tobi could hear sounds of more footsteps coming towards the place but he still fixed his eyes on Cole’s face until Cole turned sideways to the door and spread his hands wide as if to usher someone in from the door.
Tobi looked at the door and was shocked on seeing the person who entered first, his mother flanged on both sides by two men, her hands and legs tied and her mouth also covered with a tape. He squirmed and trembled on the chair and struggled to set himself free but the ropes were too strong for him, and the liquid that was injected into his body also made him weak.
‘Save your strength dude, you’re going to need it later.’ Cole said in a mean voice. He walked closer to Tobi and stopped in front of him.
Tobi only glanced briefly at Cole’s face, his focus was on his mother. He could see the shock on her face and knew she would have wished to say something if the tape wasn’t covering her mouth.
‘What exactly do you want from me?’ Tobi turned to Cole and asked in a determined voice. He didn’t know Cole would go as far as to get his mother. He was now willing to tell them all they needed to free his mother.
‘I have an offer for you,’ Cole began. ‘We can help your mother forget everything that happens here if you’d tell us what we want but if you don’t , we would help you take off her head and serve you her blood to drink.’
‘F*** you Cole, what the hell do you want? I told you I don’t know what the plan is already.’
‘And I don’t believe you. But if you truly do not know what Stainless is up to, we’d give you your phone to call Rex and ask him some questions that we’d tell you,’ Cole said, handing Tobi’s phone back to him.
Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 16 part 7
‘Rex isn’t directly involved in the first murder, he gave Stainless the orders already and left him to carry it out.’ Tobi voiced out.
‘Oh! So you know about the plan for the first and you don’t know the second?’ Cole gave a crooked smile as he returned the phone into his pocket since Tobi wasn’t collecting it. ‘What’s the second plan? I’m sure you know it,’ Cole said in a mean voice.
Tobi shot a narrow gaze at Cole. He took in a deep breath and glanced at his mother’s face again. ‘Promise me you’d let her go if I tell you.’
‘You have my word Tobi, you know I may be anything else but I always keep my word.’ Cole replied.
‘There’s a sick woman that Madam Henrietta kept in a special care center at Ikoyi, we’re to drop her after Madam Henrietta is dropped.’ Tobi said.
‘Which woman are you talking about? What’s her name?’ Cole asked.
‘I don’t know her name offhand, I have the details written somewhere which isn’t here,’ Tobi replied.
‘So, until Madam Henrietta dies first before you can kill her?’
‘Rex is around the care center already, waiting for us to call and inform him that the first woman has been dropped, but whether she dies or not, the deadline is to kill the sick woman tonight.’
‘So you and Stainless have no role in killing the second woman?’
‘We do have, even though not major roles but we are supposed to join them there at seven pm.’
‘Tell me, what’s your own role?’ Cole asked and then squatted. He seemed not to be ready to end the questioning yet.
Tobi heaved a sigh of frustration and shook his head, he glanced at his mother again. He was already giving out too much information and he knew he couldn’t escape trouble from Rex and his men even if he did save himself and his mother from the present one.
‘I see you’re scared of what Rex could do to you but you should also consider your mother’s life before you make the decision to lie to me.’
‘I won’t lie to you,’ Tobi voiced out in frustration.
‘Good, now continue telling the truth. Tell me what your role is.’
Tobi heaved another sigh. He stared intently at Cole’s face and began to explain in details. It took him two minutes to finish the explanation.
Immediately he finished, Cole took out his phone from his pocket. He unlocked it and stopped the recording which was ongoing, he saved the file and renamed it.
He turned back to the men who brought in Tobi’s mother. ‘Take her away, make sure you treat her nicely.’ he said to them. He began to proceed towards the door slowly.
‘What the hell is this?’ Tobi shouted. ‘This isn’t our agreement.’
Cole stopped and turned, ‘I haven’t broken the agreement yet, your mother is under good care, she would be allowed to go once I find out that all you’ve told me is true.’
With that Cole walked out of the room and slammed the door shut. He selected the renamed recording file and forwarded it to Tarasha on WhatsApp.
He received a reply from her twenty minutes later and returned back to meet Tobi in the room and carry out Tarasha’s new instruction.
‘When are you letting my mother go?’ Tobi asked as he spotted Cole walking in.
‘Tobi, your mother is safe and would not be hurt as far as you don’t mess up.’ Cole replied as he walked towards him. ‘I have a new deal for you,’ he squatted before Tobi and said with a smile.
‘F*** you Cole! Let my mother go first,’ Tobi said angrily.
‘Relax your nerves man,’ Cole said and paused for a while to allow him calm down. ‘We would not only let your mother go but let you go too if you work with us.’
Tobi squinted, wondering what Cole was trying to offer.
‘I work for Samantha Osman,’ Cole continued. ‘She pays very well and can also guarantee you security from Stainless and Rex even if they find out that you gave them out.’
‘Samantha Osman,’ Tobi muttered under his breath with a thoughtful look. It seemed to him like a nice offer to with a well feared assassin but he wasn’t known as a betrayal and wasn’t ready to be labeled as one.
‘But there’s a warning,’ Cole continued while Tobi was still considering the offer. ‘Your mother is still with us and would be hurt if you ever try to play smart.’
Tobi considered the offer for some more minutes. He then looked up and gave Cole a thin stare.
‘Go to hell man!’
