TARASHA – Episode 37

® 18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

‘Stephanie,’ Tarasha called softly from behind.

She turned slowly and met Tarasha sitting up and staring back at her.

‘How often do you visit your mother at the care center?’

‘I go there frequently during my breaks, at least twice a week.’ Stephanie replied.

‘So, that means you should know of some of their operations.’ Tarasha said.

Stephanie raised her brows. She didn’t understand what Tarasha was referring to as their operations.

Tarasha sensed her confusion and decided to be more specific. ‘Do you know the schedule for their meals?’

‘Uhmn… Yes, I think I do know a little. They take breakfast by 7am, lunch by 1pm and dinner by 7pm.’

‘Are you sure of this schedule?’ Tarasha asked.

‘Yes, I’m very sure,’ Stephanie replied.

Tarasha paused for a minute to think. Her eyes met with Madam Henrietta who was now sitting in a slant position and looking at her. The woman turned her face back quickly.

Tarasha glanced at her wristwatch and bit her lips slightly.

‘Madam Henrietta,’ she called softly.

Fear gripped Madam Henrietta’s mind as she heard her name, she wondered if she had done something wrong or if she had gotten into trouble for being caught stealing glances at her. She slowly turned back in fear and her eyes trembled as she stared at Tarasha’s face.

‘You registered Mrs. Atinuke George’s at the care center right?’

‘Yes, I took her there.’

‘And are you allowed to take her anytime you want?’

‘Ermm… I think there has to be some few days notice before she is allowed to be taken away.’ Madam Henrietta answered.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 17 Part 7B
Tarasha glanced at the time again. Time was not on her side. She had not known that she would have to get to Lagos very early and so did not plan to leave Abuja early. They even eventually left an hour later than she planned because she had to go back to Madam Henrietta’s house with Stephanie to get some docvments there.

She calculated the most feasible time to get to Lagos before Rex would make an attempt on the woman’s life. She would be some minutes or an hour late to get to the venue and stop Rex from killing the woman, she had to devise a plan to delay Rex.

‘We have to get Mrs. Atinuke out of the place tonight,’ Tarasha said aloud. Stephanie gave Tara a sharp look. Tarasha continued to talk, facing Madam Henrietta, ‘Is there a way to reach them at the Care Center and demand for her release tonight?’

Madam Henrietta stared at Tarasha in confusion. ‘Why do we need to demand to take her tonight when we are not going to pick her?’

‘Who told you we aren’t going to pick her tonight? We are going straight there from here.’

‘Why?’ Stephanie asked in a loud tone, widening her eyes in surprise.

Tarasha flashed a look at her and then turned back to Madam Henrietta, ‘Can you reach them by phone?’

‘It’ll take sometime for me to get the moderator’s number.’ Madam Henrietta replied.

‘How long will it take you?’

Madam Henrietta sighed. She glanced at her phone’s screen to check the time. ‘The person I can call to ask for the moderator’s number would be at work now and would not be able to answer me. She would close in an hour time.’

‘An hour would be too late.’

‘But that’s the only option I have,’ Madam Henrietta replied. She was unwillingly to let Samantha Osman know anything about Atinuke. She believed the assassin was not to be trusted.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 15 Part 5
‘You have to find another option right away. Mrs. Atinuke would be killed an hour after dinner time.’

Stephanie let out a gasp, her eyes widened in shock and she began to pant.

7:12PM

‘Tobi, where the f*** are you guys?’ Rex’s angry voice sounded through the phone’s speaker.

‘Boss, I can’t find Stainless anywhere, I’ve been trying to reach him, he’s the cause of the delay.’

‘Forget about Stainless, get the car and start coming over right now,’ Rex said.

‘Okay boss, I’ll be there as soon as I can.’ Tobi said before ending the call. He heaved a sigh before pulling on his seatbelt. He was already in the car before Rex called, the only thing he was waiting for before moving was the call.

He sighed again as he pushed the start button. He didn’t want to betray Rex but there was nothing he could do. He had been forced to agree after Cole had ordered for his mother to be brought in again and for the other men to start torturing her. He agreed and made them return his mother to wherever they brought her from. At first he thought he would be able to fight Cole and the other men once the ropes on his hands and legs were taken away, and save his mum whom he thought would be in that same building with them. But to his surprise when he was released, he discovered that the building they were in consisted of only two rooms and his mother was not kept in the same building. Instead Cole showed him a video of another building on a tablet device where his mother was kept and heavily guarded by mean men.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 21 Part 12A
He checked his time. Rex would be waiting for him to arrive. He switched on the indicator and carefully turned into the road to begin the journey.

___

THE CARE CENTER, IKOYI LAGOS.

‘And why would you want to take her back now, after so many years?’ A woman putting on a white gown was talking on phone. She kept a frown on her face which made the eyeglasses which was supposed to be in front of her eyes now rest on her flat nose.

‘There’s an emergency that demands us to take her from there immediately,’ Madam Henrietta replied from the other end of the phone connection.

‘What kind of emergency is that? You should have given us two days notice at least,’ the woman replied.

‘It has to do with life and it’s about her daughter,’ Madam Henrietta said.

‘Is her daughter’s life in danger?’

‘Something like that, her daughter needs to make a quick decision and she has to be there.’

‘Madam, I will advise that you think about this very well before making a decision that would not be proper.’

‘I’ve thought about it already and I’m on my way there with her daughter, we would be there in fifteen minutes time. Make sure you don’t allow her go for the dinner, which would waste our time. We want to leave immediately.’

The woman sighed. ‘It’s okay, if that’s what you want, we can’t stop you.’

__

Rex glanced at his wristwatch, it was time. He got up from his seat and put the communication device close to his lips. ‘I’ll kill her at the exact time, be at the right position with the car.’ He said to Tobi.

8:05PM

Rex had taken his time to study the special care center before drawing out his plans. He knew how many people were being taken care of and how many staffs worked in the place. He also had specific details of the number of security men they had and all the exits and entrances into the place. And for his task that night, he knew the time the women were taken to bed and when the staffs providing care for them would be too occupied to notice strange movements.

He checked his wristwatch, it was exactly 8:05PM, the staffs would have led the women to their rooms. He stepped out of his car with his small brief case and proceeded straight to the gate. He pressed the bell and after sometime, a man showed up.

‘Good evening sir,’ Rex greeted first.

‘Evening sir, what can I do for you?’ the man asked him with suspicious eyes.

‘I’m here to see MrsFunsho,’ Rex said confidently.

‘MrsFunsho?’ the Man frowned. Mrs. Funsho was the head of staffs of the special care center, the same person Madam Henrietta had called to ask for the discharge of Atinuke. ‘Is she expecting you?’

‘Yes, she is. I was held back by traffic, I should have gotten here about an hour before this time.’Rex replied.

The man examined Rex from head to toe with his eyes, his gaze lingered on the small briefcase for a short while, then he placed his gaze on Rex’s face. Rex was dressed simple, in a sky blue long sleeve shirt and a navy blue plain trousers with black palm sandals. He looked more like a technician and his briefcase like his tool box. The main problem the security man had with the visit was the timing, Mrs. Funsho always discouraged late time visits, so it was strange to find her receiving a visitor at that time.

‘I have to go in to confirm first if she’s expecting you,’ the man said. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’ll also like to check what you have in your box.’

‘Oh! This?’Rex raised the briefcase up slightly. The man nodded. Rex went down on a knee and placed the briefcase on the ground, he turned the top to himself and opened the briefcase.

‘I can’t see what you have there,’ the security man said, looking at the briefcase which seemed to emit darkness from itself. He squatted to have a closer look but he was taken by surprise as Rex touched his chest with the mouth of a pistol. He lifted his hands in the air slowly in surrender.

‘Calm down man, I’m not here to hurt you,’ Rex said as they both rose up. ‘All I want right now is for you to move silently to the security room.’

___

‘Ma, we haven’t put Mrs. Atinuke to sleep yet.’ One of the nurses said to Mrs. Funsho.

Mrs. Funsho paused to check her wristwatch. She shook her head, ‘Allow me call her guardian again, they told me they would be here in fifteen minutes but this is more than one hour after.’

She picked up her phone and searched out for Madam Henrietta’s number, she dialed it and placed it close to her ear.

‘Madam, are you still coming?’ Mrs. Funsho asked, looking into the eyes of the nurse in front.

‘Yes, we’re still on the way please.’ Madam Henrietta replied from the other end.

‘How long would it take you to get here?’

‘We’re already in Ikoyi, we should be there in ten minutes time.’

‘Okay please, make sure you do not come later than that.’ Mrs. Funsho said and ended the call. She looked at the nurse’s face, ‘Let’s give them twenty minutes, once I leave, I’ll order for the gates to be closed and they won’t be attended to by anyone when they come.’

‘Okay ma,’ the nurse curtsied and was about to turn to leave when the lights suddenly went off.

‘What’s wrong?’ Mrs. Funsho asked aloud. ‘How can we have power outage?’ She picked her phone and put on the flashlight, ‘Please reach the security men immediately.’

__

Rex proceeded back into the room after disconnecting the lights of the building. He was now putting on the uniform of the security man whom he attacked in the security room and made unconscious. With the aid of tools in his briefcase, he had disconnected the building from it’s power source in such a way that it’ll take the security men or a technician more than thirty minutes to finish. One of the things he had learnt about the Care Center was that they had very little security protocols and that was because of the nature of the services they rendered there; they believed they were less prone to attacks because people had very little or nothing to get from old and sick women.

Rex unlocked his phone and stopped behind the door after he stepped into the corridor. He opened the note application on the phone to check the details of his movement again.

‘Atinuke George

Code Number – 628

Ward –D’

__

Two cars could be seen outside the compound, one at the left end of the fence and the other at the right end. Tobi was in the car at the left hand, waiting for Rex to finish and join him while Cole was in the car at the right side with two other men, waiting and monitoring Tobi. According to their plan, Tarasha should have arrived and gone in to stop Rex inside the place. Cole’s job was to trail when Rex came out of the place and joined Tobi.

‘Boss, the lights have gone off. I think Rex is up to something,’ Cole said into the phone.

‘Get into the place and stop him,’ Tarasha replied with a note of authority. ‘I’ll be there in five minutes.’

‘Okay boss,’ Cole said in reply. He was scared for a second but he remembered that he had two other people with him while Rex was alone. ‘We’ve got to go in,’ Cole said and stepped out of the car immediately. He arranged two pistols neatly into his pocket and took out a communication device from his pocket. He attached the mouthpiece on the collar of his shirt and plugged the earpiece into his left ear.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 7

He took out his phone and dialed Tarasha’s number again, ‘Boss, my device is on, please connect.’

The other two men were already waiting for him outside ready. They all turned back and began to proceed towards the gate hurriedly.

_____

Rex navigated through the building with the picture of the building map on his phone and his flashlight as a source of light. He got into Ward D after four minutes of walking from the power source. The ward was a moderate sized one, only three women slept in it, two old women and Mrs. Atinuke.

Rex shone his light into the dark ward. He could see three bed stands, two women were in the beds, one at the right and left side while the bed in the middle was empty.

Rex moved closer, the woman on the first bed was seating and resting her back against the headboard and staring directly at him. He knew she couldn’t see his face but had to stare at him because of the light and his movement in her direction. He shone the light to see her well, she was an old frail women. She placed her palm over her face to shield her eyes from the light.

Rex moved away from her and proceeded to the third bed, but as he got to the second one which was empty, he saw the tag on the bed which was labeled 62. He realized that the second bed was the one meant for Mrs. Atinuke but still proceeded to the third bed.Another old woman was lying in the third bed, already asleep.

‘F*** it!’ he cursed under his breath as he rushed back to the first old woman who was still seated, he checked the first bed and confirmed the tag number 61 on it. ‘Where is Madam Atinuke?’ he asked the old woman in harsh words.

The frail woman stared at him without giving a response. She didn’t even hear him, because she had partial deafness of the ear. She closed her eyes as he shone the flashlight on her face. She wasn’t trembling nor afraid of what Rex could do to her. She was a woman close to a hundred and ten years of age and had lost all her fears including that of death.

Rex stared at the woman angrily for some more seconds, she wasn’t making any move or saying anything, she looked like she hadn’t heard what he said to her or understood his language. He turned back immediately and proceeded out of the ward. He stopped outside the door to check the pictures gallery on his phone. He stared again for some minutes at Madam Atinuke’s picture. He heaved a sigh, Madam Atinuke was way younger than the women he saw in the ward. The empty bed with the tag numbered 62 had also proved that she wasn’t in.

He wondered if he had gotten the right information or if something else had gone wrong. If the instruction wasn’t to make the death look natural as possible, he would have searched the whole building for the woman and even attacked more staff members of the place and force them to bring out the woman.

He opened his messaging app and typed in a message to the Vice President.

‘Wrong info given to me by your assistant, Madam Atinuke wasn’t found in the ward at the time she was supposed to be.’ he proofread it before sending.

He had considered all other things that could have happened and he was left with only two options; the first was the possibility of him having been given the wrong information which he had sent a complaint message to the Vice President about. The second option was one which Rex really hoped wasn’t true; the possibility of stainless to have betrayed him. He recalled that Stainless had not been answering his calls for several hours and even Tobi had confirmed not to have seen him. As it was, he had to leave the place silently without fulfilling his mission. He heaved a sigh and proceeded further.

____

‘Boss, we are headed towards the waiting room now, we haven’t identified or located anyone, the place is terribly dark.’Cole’s voice sounded in Tarasha’s speaker.

‘Locate the woman immediately you get to the waiting room and make sure she is kept safe,’ Tarasha replied from the other end.

*

“This is the place,’ Stephanie said impatiently, pointing a finger at the gate of the care center from the other side of the road. Their vehicle still had to make a U-turn to getthe other side.

‘Find a place to park and wait,’ Tarasha ordered the driver who immediately pulled over to the front of a closed company.

Tarasha took off the wig from her head and pulled out a skin mask from her bag. ‘I want you guys to stay in here until I call you or send someone else to call you in, you’d get into trouble if you disobey and move an inch from here.’

She stepped out of the car after passing her warning strongly. Shewalked some distance away from the car, looking towards the care center, she located two cars and based on Cole’s description, she could tell which one was brought by Cole and the one that was brought by Tobi. She walked back into the shadow formed by the fence behind her and quickly put on her face mask. She positioned her revolvers well in her pocket and stepped back onto the road.

She turned the mouthpiece to her mouth as she looked right and left for cars before crossing the road.

‘I just got to the place and I’m coming in now,’ she said to Cole through the mouthpiece.

‘Boss, we’ve located the waiting room and found the woman, the security guards have been distracted because of the power outage but we may have a problem with them if we try to take the woman and she makes noise.’

‘We need to be careful, Rex is powerful in darkness, just stay hidden in a way you can keep watching the woman.’ Tarasha replied.

‘Boss, no one is in sight here for now. Should we make the woman sleep and get her out of place?’

‘Are you sure no one is listening to you right now?’ Tarasha asked, now trying to cross to the other side.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 21 Part 11

‘No one is, I’m outside the waiting room while the other two guys are inside.’

‘Make her sleep and…’Tarasha paused and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw someone walk out of the gate hurriedly. Her eyes followed him as he looked in direction of the vehicle Tobi was seated in and began to walk towards the place. ‘You can take the woman out, don’t kill but you can put anyone who tries to stop you into unconsciousness.’

She ended the connection and stepped down from the median to cross the road, the vehicles were moving fast and none of the drivers seemed to be patient enough to allow her cross. She watched Rex as he got to Tobi’s car and entered into the Passengers’ side. She focused on the road again and was able to cross after ten seconds.

Her eyes were on Tobi’s vehicle as she got to the front of the care center, she could see the backlight on which meant they were about leaving, she quickly ran to the spot Cole’s car was parked. She broke the window glass to the driver’s side and took out a tool from the pocket inside her jacket, she unlocked the lock mechanism of the door from inside and opened it. She entered into the car and punched in the codes to unlock the start system, then she pushed the start button. The car roared unto life.

‘Cole, connect me with the other guys waiting on the way,I’m following after Rex now,’she said into her mouthpiece.

‘Okay boss,’ Cole replied.

__

‘Stephanie, don’t you think it’s the right time toinvolve the police?’ Madam Henrietta said to Stephanie who was watching Tarasha through the transparent window glass.

Stephanie did not give any reply. She was more eager to get out of the car than Madam Henrietta was but she decided to trust Samantha Osman. She remembered having disobeyed her instruction the first time they met and she almost got into trouble for it.

‘Stephanie, don’t you think your mum’s life is in danger?’Madam Henrietta asked when she realized Stephanie wasn’t going to give her a response to the first question. She waited for a response and noticed that Stephanie wasn’t still going to reply, she decided to take her own steps independently. ‘I’m getting out of this place,’ she said and moved closer to the door, trying to open using the handle but it couldn’t be opened.

The driver of the vehicle who was still seated in his seat turned back and flashed a warning look at Madam Henrietta. Both Stephanie and Madam Henrietta stared at his face and they knew instantly that stepping out wasn’t an option. They realized that the driver wasn’t just a hired driver from a transport service company, he was working together with Samantha Osman.

Stephanie’s phone began to ring and she reached out to pick it, the caller was Samantha Osman.

__

‘You can move on,’Rex said to Tobi after pulling on his seatbelt. ‘

Tobi turned in the indicator and looked out for cars coming from behind, there was none. He drove into the road and joined the line of moving vehicles.

‘Have you heard from Stainless?’Rex asked.

Tobi shook his head slowly in response.

Rex stared at his face thinly for a moment, he had noticed the moodiness and knew something was wrong. He hoped it wasn’t that Tobi was the betrayal. His suspicion was increased when Tobi let out a deep sigh like someone who was deeply worried.

He was already thinking of the best way to force out what was troubling the mind of the robust guy when Tobi spoke.

‘Boss, did it go successfully?’Tobi asked in low tones.

‘I couldn’t find the woman in the ward, her bed was empty, I must have been given the wrong information.’Rex replied.

‘No boss, you weren’t given the wrong information.’Tobi said after letting out a gasp.

Rex gave him a sharp look. He raised his brows, ‘What do you mean?’

Tobi sighed again, ‘I…’

Rex’s phone began to ring and he signified for Tobi to stop for him to answer the call. ‘Hello Chief,’ he said into the phone.

‘Rex, I just confirmed from my assistant now. He is sure that the information you got was accurate, he verified it before sending to you.’

‘I missed the woman already, I’ll call you back in few minutes, I have to settle something first.’

‘Please, don’t forget to call me back. It’s important that we take this woman down, she knows some secrets that are too dangerous to be let out.’

‘I’ll call you back Chief, relax.’Rex reassured.

Tobi had increased his driving speed while Rex was making the call. He had seen the vehicle that he was being monitored from trailing them from behind.

After being forced to accept Cole’s deal. The plan they gave him was to lead Rex into a trap already set for him by Tarasha’s team. Out of the seven newly recruited assassins, Cole had taken two with him, one went to Abuja with Tarasha and was the same driver with Stephanie and Madam Henrietta in the Sienna Jeep, the other four had been given specific roles to take Rex down and Tobi’s ultimate job was to drive Rex into their hands. Cole and the two men were supposed to follow Tobi behind after taking Rex while Tarasha was the one who was supposed to do the job of bringing Madam Atinuke to safety, but because of the traffic Tarasha had faced on the route taken, she had to exchange roles with Cole and his team.

‘You said I had the right information,’Rex continued the discussion after ending the call.

Tobi did not reply immediately, he kept his eyes focused on the side mirror.

Rex noticed that the speed was now different, and with the way Tobi was looking, it seemed that they were being trailed.

‘Is someone following us?’Rex asked.

‘Boss, I have a confession to make.’Tobi said, flashing a glance at Rex’s face.

Rex squinted at him. He already knew what he was going to be told. ‘So you sold meout?’ he said in a thick relaxed voice, mentioning the words one after the other.

‘I can explain boss,’ Tobi said in a pleading tone, half focused on his driving and still trying to speak with Rex. Rex continued to stare at him in silence. ‘They have my mother with them and they would kill her if I don’t comply,’Tobi quickly added.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 21 Part 9

Rex bit his lips in regret. It was one of the dangers of working with untrained or not-properly-trained assassins, they could be easily taken down when someone related to them is taken down. But for an assassin like him, especially those trained in the Villary Clan, they had no relatives or family, the only people they were allowed to protect were people working with them on the same team at a particular moment, and once the person joins the opposite team, he or she becomes an enemy.

‘So who is that person following us?’ Rex asked.

Tobi looked into the side mirror again. ‘I can’t see clearly, it’s supposed to be three of them. I did not know they were still going to follow us,’ Tobi replied.

‘But aren’t they following?’

‘Yes,’Tobi answered with a confused look. ‘I saw them enter into the compound and never saw them come out.’

Rex turned to look back, he narrowed his eyes. The car Tobi claimed was trailing them was about ten metres behind and two other cars were in between it and theirs. It took sometime for Rex to have a clear view. He turned back and sat well on the chair. ‘There’s only one person in that car and it’s a lady.’

Tobi flashed a surprise look at his face. ‘No, it can’t be a lady, they did not come with any.’

‘I just saw a lady, she must have come to join them.’Rex insisted.’What’s their plan?’

‘They have men waiting for us at Rael Gate, I’m supposed to drive you into their hands there.’Tobi said.

‘And why aren’t you doing that?’Rex stared at him with Cole’s eyes.

‘I can’t,’Tobi said thoughtfully. ‘I can’t bow to Cole.’

‘Who compelled you? Samantha Osman herself?’

‘No, I didn’t see her, Cole her man did.’

‘Do you know Stainless’whereabouts?’

‘They have him too,they took him this morning.’

Rex paused for some minutes to think. He raised his head a minute later.

‘What should I do boss?’Tobi asked.

‘Drive me into their trap,’Rex replied.

_____

‘Mum!’Stephanie screamed as the men carried his mum into the car and placed her gently in the middle seat. When Tarasha called her earlier, it was to ask her to move to the backseat with Madam Henriettabecause some other people were coming to join them.She did as she was toldwithout asking questions. The driver also received a call and started the car afterwards, he drove and made a U-turn to the other side to wait beside the gate of the care center.

‘Take good care of them,’Cole said to Nicholas whom was going in the Sienna. ‘We would return with the boss later tonight.’

‘Okay man,’Nicholas said and shook Cole’s hand before joining the driver at the front seat.

Cole and the other man waited until the car drove off, then they walked closer to the road to get a cab.

‘What’s wrong with her?’Stephanie cried out, trying to shake her mum awake. ‘Mum, Mum!’ Stephanie shouted noisily into the unconscious woman’s ears.

‘She’s only asleep,’Nicholas shouted at her. ‘Stop making noise and don’t get us into trouble.’

____

‘Cole,’Tarasha called, speaking into the mouthpiece. ‘Cole,’ she called again.

‘Boss,sorry, I was busy, hijacking a cab.’ he finally replied.

‘Have you gotten the woman to safety?’

‘Yes, Nicholas is leading them back.’

‘I hope nobody was killed at the Care Center,’ Tarasha said.

‘We killed no one, but we met a guard lifeless at the security room, Rex must have killed him before we got in.’

‘Okay, how many people were hurt?’

‘Not up to five people, we had Benryl injected into three people’s body. And they haven’t been able to rectify the power problem when we left.’

‘Okay,’ Tarasha said and there was quietness for a while. ‘This guy leading Rex into our trap, are you sure we can trust him?’

‘I don’t trust him boss, but with his mother in our custody, he won’t try to fail us.’

‘I had a feeling that he was trying to escape me some few minutes ago, he increased his drivingspeed. But now, his speed is back to normal and that’s really suspicious.’

11:35PM

The roads were already been deserted, and Rael University Road which was usually a quiet place had been shut down of all commercial activities.

‘Their cars are parked at the gate of the university and they will block the road with the two carsonce they see our headlights,’Tobi said to Rex as theyjourneyed towards the place.

Rex turned and looked back. He could see the headlights of the car coming far behind them. He knew Tarasha was the one in the car. She had only given them space to make him not notice than she was trailing them. He had a plan in place already and he was sure it would work.

‘Slow down your speed, so that she can catch up with us well.’ Rex said to Tobi. He unlocked the tablet device in his hands, ‘I’ve showed you the sources oflight in this area already, do your part as you should and we would save your mother.’

The car trailing them was closer now, only a metres behind and they were very close to the university gate. Just as Tobi had explained to Rex, two vehicles which were parked in front of the gate had their engines on and were driven to block the road. But according to Rex’s plan, Tobi crashed their car straight into one the vehicles used to block them, destroying the plans he had with Cole. Only the bonnet of their car got destroyed. Tobi quickly stepped out of the car and with the gun given to him by Rex, he bent down in the corner formed by the car he drove and the one he crashed into, he targeted the lights at the front of the university gate and began to shoot them one after the other.

The purpose was to make the place dark, which would be an advantage to Rex and a disadvantage to Tarasha’s team.

In less than ninety seconds, Tobi had turned off the lights with twenty one bullets in total. He had shot off target a number of times and had to shoot two particular bulbs twice before they went off. He entered back into the car after that and shut the door.

Rex was still seated in, he hadn’t stepped out yet like he planned with Tobi to do. Tobi stared at his face for a second and then looked in the same direction Rex was looking, something was wrong. None of Samantha’s men had tried to shoot at Tobi while he was shooting at the lights; that was exactly when Rex was supposed to come in. Making matters worse, none of the men were seen in or outside their vehicles yet and even Samantha Osman was still seated in hers at the opposite side.

The place was still not dark even after the targeted bulbs had gone off. Rex knew that it wasn’t a matter of him not having calculated very well, someone must have done something to counter the results of his calculation. Someone had introduced other sources of light to the place which were not there before. He also noticed that the headlights of his attackers’ vehicles were left on and that majorly contributed to the lack of darkness, especially at the point where he was. Another thing that baffled him was that none of the men shot at Tobi or try to disturb him while he shot at the lights. That was opposite of their expectation and contrary to Samantha Osman’s gang initial plan which Tobi had told him about.

Tobi had told him how the men planned to block the road like they had just done, but they changed the manner. The two vehicles in front of them faced each other, instead of both facing the same direction, one had waited for the other to get to the road and turn before joining. Tobi had also told him that he was supposed to run out of the car immediately after they were blocked and the men who were in the cars which blocked the road were supposed to step out of the cars immediately and rain bullets on the blocked car where he (Rex) would be.

Rex looked around quickly, there had been no movement yet. He couldn’t still see the men in the cars right in front of them. He made a flashback and made some calculation from the time the men had blocked the road and the time it took for Tobi to crash into their car. He realized that the drivers of the cars had enough time to step out of the cars immediately after blocking the road and hide somewhere else behind, and if that was exactly what they did, it meant that he was wasting his time waiting for them to come out of the car and shoot at him.

Was Tobi told the wrong plan? Or did Tobi decide to give him the wrong information? He asked himself. He knew it was the former which was more possible. Then what made the attackers change their minds?

He shone his eyes widely as a thought struck his mind. He looked at Tobi.
‘Did they come near or inside this car?’ he asked.

Tobi stared at him silently for a second. ‘Yes, Cole and the two other men were inside with me before your call.’

Rex let out a short breath. He now had a better understanding of the situation which he was in. It was either a recorder had been placed in the car and all the plans he made with Tobi while he was being driven into the trap was being heard by Samantha Osman or Samantha Osman was deliberately keeping him and Tobi in the car for a particular reason – a bomb or any other explosive had been attached to the car.

He opened the door to his side but did not step out immediately. He turned his body towards the door and raised his two hands out of the car first. ‘I’ve got no guns with me, I only want to talk,’ he shouted out, knowing he was being watched. He wasn’t sure if his words would be heard but he knew his voice would be and they would know he was trying to talk to them. He placed his feet on the ground outside the car and shifted his bum closer to the edge of the seat. ‘Can I come outside?’ he shouted again.

He heard no response and he waited there for more than thirty seconds, watching vigilantly and listening. He knew he had the opportunity of buying more time with Samantha Osman. He had told her earlier through one of the emails that he was the only one who knew the location he hid Chief Nonso and he knew she wouldn’t want him dead at that moment for that reason. After a minute, he noticed that Samantha Osman had stepped out of her car and was now standing outside with her bum resting on the bonnet of the car which she parked six metres away from them. He couldn’t see her fully and didn’t know what she held in her hands. And even if he knew what she held, it would be foolhardy for him to try act smart, he didn’t know where the other men around were hiding and he couldn’t even locate them if he tried to look around because they had made sure all the lights which were now on pointed directly to him.

He stepped out of the car with his two hands still raised and proceeded to the back. He stopped behind the boot, standing directly opposite the lady. He couldn’t see her clearly because she was standing in between the bright headlights of the car which shone in his own direction. He could however see the gun in her hands and see her shoes which had spaces outside it in which tools could be hidden in. He was now sure that a recorder was in the car and his plan with Tobi had been heard all along, she knew he was planning to use the darkness against them and decided to put him in the middle of bright lights. However, the brightness still wasn’t a disadvantage to him, the only disadvantage he had was their trap which he had willingly entered by wrong calculation.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 6
‘Call your man out of the car,’ Samantha finally opened her mouth to talk.

Rex heaved a sigh. He h@tëd to admit to himself, but he knew he was now in Samantha Osman’s hands and he couldn’t get himself out unhurt easily except she makes a silly mistake and that was exactly what he was hoping and waiting for.

‘Tobi, come out.’ He shouted out to Tobi’s hearing.

Tobi got out of the car slowly with his hands raised just like Rex’s and began to proceed to the back to join Rex. His movement was cut short when a bullet ran into his chest from Tarasha’s gun, he fell to the ground.

Rex didn’t bother to look back to see Tobi’s body, he fixed his eyes on Tarasha without blinking. Tobi’s death was something inevitable, she had only helped him make it quicker. He fixed his eyes on Tarasha who was now pointing the gun straight at him. Even though he was struggling to see her clearly because of the lights, he strained his eyes enough to monitor the movements of her fingers on the pistol she was holding and was ready to move the moment a finger goes close to the trigger.

‘Where is Chief Nonso?’ Tarasha asked as she began to step closer to him slowly.

‘I’ve got him where I kept him, I gave my men instructions already on how and when to kill him.’ Rex replied, hoping she would stop coming closer. He wouldn’t be able to dodge her bullet if she shot at a very close range.

Tarasha stopped and stared at him, she lowered her gun. ‘You won’t kill him because it will be the greatest threat to your paymaster’s presidential bid, but even if he is killed, it doesn’t stop any of my work.’

Both assassins stared at each other’s face for a long while. It was the first time of Tarasha seeing his real face, what she had seen at the hospital opening ceremony was a disguised one. There was something strange about his face that made Tarasha want to stop and think but she decided not to give any chance for him to overpower her.

Rex was confused as he now have a clearer view of her face. It wasn’t the face he knew, and what he was seeing was something more than the works of makeup kits. The person standing before him was either a totally different person or Samantha Osman putting on a skin mask, but her voice was the same.

‘I don’t have time for games, tell me what exactly you want,’ Rex said boldly to her. His hands were still raised up in surrender and he was already feeling pains in them. He however did not want to sound weak, so he didn’t ask whether he could put down his hands. If he tried to put them down without asking, Samantha Osman could think he was trying to take out a weapon.

‘You can’t give me what I want,’ Tarasha said with a chuckle and let out an evil smile. ‘I want the head of Elvis Richards.’

‘You’re never going to have that,’ Rex said spitefully.

‘Of course, I would, after I kill you first.’ She said with another evil smile and focused the gun direction to his chest.

Rex watched her carefully as her hand moved, he began to let down his hands slowly so as to take out his gun too and release a shot after successfully dodging the one she would shoot at him. But even before he could see any other move of hers, there was a gunshot from behind and it hit Rex at the back.

He felt weak all over his body immediately and his knees buckled but he struggled to remain standing after the usual duration in which he should have fallen, but his struggles were not enough to keep his eyes open and his feet standing, his eyes closed forcefully and then he fell to the ground heavily.

Tarasha moved closer to his body, still holding her gun. She stared down at him and walked a circle around him. She was sure he was fully unconscious before she stopped walking around. She unÇOçked her gun and looked up. Her team men who were hiding behind flowers and raised pavements came out of their hiding places.

‘Who of you shot the gun?’ Tarasha asked as they walked towards her.

‘I did,’ one of the men coming from the left hand side raised his hand boldly.

‘Did you have the accurate dose?’ Tarasha asked him.

‘I used it as I was given by Cole, I didn’t change anything.’

Their attention was divided as they heard the sound of a vehicle and saw the lights, coming from the direction where Tarasha’s car was parked. The vehicle stopped behind Tarasha’s car and out came Cole and the other man with him.

Tarasha paused and stepped a bit aside, waiting for Cole to join them before she could continue.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 21 Part 12B
‘Boss,’ Cole said as he stopped by her side. A smile appeared on his face and he let out a sigh of relief on seeing Rex lie unconsciously on the floor.

Tarasha turned to the man who claimed to have shot Rex. ‘Get the other man,’ she said to him, nodding with her head towards the spot Tobi’s body was lying unconsciously. ‘He’s not dead yet, he’s unconscious too.’

‘Boss, what’s the plan?’ Cole asked Tarasha.

‘Have the men gotten to the base with Stephanie and the other women?’ Tarasha replied Cole, now turning to look at his face.

‘Yes, I was called about thirty minutes ago.’ He answered.

Tarasha remained mute for some seconds. She stared at Rex’s body thoughtfully. ‘We need to get Chief Nonso back before ending his life, and also kill the Vice President as soon as possible. We now have Rex, the only one who has stopped us from having Chief Elvis dead already.’

‘Boss, what do we do with him?’ a man asked Tarasha. He was carrying Tobi’s body by the legs and another one was carrying at the shoulder region.

‘Take him back to the base, we still need him alive. He would tell us more of the things we need as far as we’ve got his mother.’ Tarasha replied. Then she turned again to Cole after checking her wristwatch. ‘The police would soon be here in trace of the gunshots and the security men you put to sleep would be awake soon, let’s move Rex into my car and get him to the base also.’

She turned back and walked straight into the backseat of the car. Cole and the man he arrived with moved Rex’s body into the boot of the car Tarasha was seated in. The other men had also carried Tobi’s body into one of the cars they used to block the road. They moved the two cars to one side of the road and waited for Tarasha’s car to move first before they followed behind.

The Assassins left the Rael University Area with no blood spilled on the floor, with only two cars behind; the one Rex and Tobi came in and the one Cole and his partner had hijacked.

7:32AM

The room was a large one without any kind of furniture in it. The walls were sparkling white and even the ceiling was. The ground was made of sparkling marbles which felt cold on Rex’s body that morning.

He had opened his eyes to find himself on the floor in the neat white and empty room. The room was cold and the floor on which he laid made him feel colder. His both hands were tied with a strong rope which was also extended to tie the legs too and he had slept in that curved position. He didn’t know where he was and for a moment couldn’t remember what led him there until he managed to turn his curved body and he found two other people tied just like he was.

He could recognize Stainless and Tobi’s body from their back views. He was surprised that he wasn’t dead yet and more surprised that Tobi wasn’t too. He realized that they must have been shot strong sedative bullets instead of the usual bullets for killing. He struggled to turn and look around the room. He noticed that the building was a new unused one, which meant Samantha Osman team had just purchased or rented the place. Just as he was about to turn again to the other side, he heard the sound of a door opening and his eyes quickly located where the door was opened from.

He saw their legs first. The first two people that came in were men, the third person was a woman, he could see it from her heels and the way she walked.

He tried to raise his head to look at their faces as they walked straight to where he was but he couldn’t. He realized that the rope had been used to tie his neck also. He still felt very weak in his body and he knew it would take sometime for the effect of the poison to completely fade off.

Someone stopped right before his face and squatted. He turned his head up and saw her face. He let out a breath, it was still the same face of Samantha Osman he had seen the last night. He turned uncomfortably and stared keenly at her face, he was now sure that she was putting on a skin mask even though it was only her voice that suggested that she was the same person.

‘I see you’re awake already,’ Tarasha said, staring into his eyes with a mocking smile. ‘I hope you enjoyed your night,’ she said to taunt him. He looked away but she pulled his head and turned his face towards her. ‘You pay attention when I’m talking,’ she said in a cruel voice.

He stared at her without fear in his eyes but anger. He had made a big mistake by thinking he could turn her trap for him into one for her, he should have told Tobi to take another route but he was confident that he was going to get her, but here he was, at the mercy of a woman. He felt no pity for himself but anger, angry that he failed himself and angry that he let the Vilary Clan down.

Tarasha released his hair and got up from her squatting position. She looked at the other two men lying on the floor for some few seconds, she then turned to Cole and Nicholas. ‘I think we should start with Stainless, he should know more,’ she said to them.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 11
They both nodded in agreement, they seemed to understand what she said to them. They proceeded to the spot Stainless was lying and carried him up in their hands. Rex turned helplessly where he was and saw their legs as it moved to the door. The men got out first with Stainless in their hands and Tarasha followed after, slamming the door behind.

Stainless was awake by the time they got him into another room. They dropped him on the floor and untied him, after that they carried and dropped him on a big chair, they tied his hands to the arm of the chair and his legs to the chair legs firmly.

Stainless watched them helplessly as they handled him roughly. He had lost hope totally. The little gleam of hope he had left disappeared the moment he saw Rex and Tobi being carried into the white room unconsciously. He was totally confused and frustrated, he wasn’t aware that Tobi had been captured earlier, so he was bewildered when he saw the both of them being brought in.

He wasn’t comfortable on the chair and tried to adjust his hand but couldn’t, the ropes had been tied firmly as usual. He looked up and saw a lady in front of him, she was holding a syringe and an ampoule. She had just drawn the contents of the ampoule into the syringe. She dropped the ampoule on a table and moved closer to him, she cleaned a part on his hand with a small wet cotton wool to see his veins. Then she inserted the needle carefully into the selected vein and injected the liquid into his blood stream.

Stainless could feel something rushing into his head as the liquid entered into his blood stream. He felt a relief immediately she stopped.

Tarasha stepped back and handed the used syringe to Cole. ‘He would be mentally feeble in the next two hours, if the drugs doesn’t break him directly, we’d add more torture.’ she said before turning and walking out of the place.

___

9AM

Henry was standing outside and looking leisurely at the street when the car drove into the compound. His eyes followed the movement until the car halted. Tara and Cole stepped out and proceeded straight to the entrance of the house where he stood.

The building was a new one which they had just moved into the day before. Tarasha had acquired new facilities after employing more assassins.

‘Good morning Tara,’ Henry greeted with a faint smile.

‘Hi Henry,’ she replied him and stopped at his front. They both stared into each other’s eyes for a couple of seconds silently. Cole walked past after giving Henry a side hug.

‘How have you been?’ Henry asked. He hadn’t seen her since the day she travelled to Abuja with one of the new men. His own job had been reduced since the new assassins arrived. The only thing he had done in the three days apart from helping her track her movements in Abuja was to monitor the movement of the gang, excluding the new assassins and their property into the new facility. It was Tarasha’s first time of coming to the new place.

‘I’ve been fine, how about you?’ Tarasha replied.

‘Fine too,’ Henry replied with a forced smile. He had not been too happy with the distance between them and because she had killed people to get her mission fulfilled in Abuja even after she explained that she met something entirely different and had no choice than to kill. What he really h@tëd most was people seeing Samantha Osman has an evil person.

‘What about Doctor Ekwueme?’ Tara asked as she began to walk past him.

He turned and joined her to walk in, ‘He’s in, he and Tomi have been busy with the sick woman brought in last night.’

‘What about the two other ladies?’ Tarasha asked as they proceeded into the house.

‘Stephanie George has been crying about the sick woman since last night, we had to stop her from entering into the medical room. And Dr Ekwueme isn’t too sure that she would be well soon.’

‘I have to see the Doctor right away.’

Henry led Tarasha straight to the medical room. They met Doctor Ekwueme attending to Mrs. Atinuke when they got in. After few some few minutes, the doctor was able to talk to Tarasha.

‘Doc, I heard she’s been unconscious since yesterday.’ Tarasha said to him.

‘Yes, Samantha, she has been unconscious. The mixture used to make her unconscious was supposed to last for seven hours maximum when administered to a normal healthy person, but because of her ill health, it might have damaged some other things in her body.’ the doctor explained.

‘So can she be helped?’ Tarasha asked.

‘Yes, she can be helped. But we need to do some tests to check her first.’

‘So, what’s stopping the test?’

‘It can’t be done here, we have to take her to a hospital that has the facilities needed.’

‘No, that’s not possible,’ Tarasha frowned. ‘She can’t be taken to a hospital, she was already declared missing on the news this morning.’

‘There’s no way to carry out the test here,’ Dr Ekwueme replied sadly. ‘And we can’t keep her unconscious for long, if she doesn’t get the necessary treatment soon, we may lose her.’

Tarasha heaved a heavy sigh and looked for a chair to sit. Taking the woman out of that building wasn’t a choice, losing her would be bad also. She was confused and tired.

Elvis Richards felt his blood rush through his veins as he confirmed the story through the headline on the news section of the youngicee website. The headline was short but it captured the whole message he needed without having to read the full news. It read: ‘Hoodlums Attack Special Care Center And Escapes With A Patient’.

He stared for some seconds at the face of his assistant who was still standing in front of him, after that he returned his focus back to the tablet device on his laps, his finger hovered around the link for a while before he finally decided to click on it and read the full story.

It took less than ten seconds for the new web page to load. Elvis Richards quickly scanned through it and according to the article, a woman was taken from the Special Care Center after some hoodlums attacked and injured some of the security officers. It was also reported that the only registered family member of the kidnapped sick woman had called few hours before the accident requesting for the management of the care center to discharge the woman with immediate effect and telling them she was coming to pick her. The sick woman’s name was Atinuke George.

Out of frustration, the Vice President dropped the tablet device in his hands on the stool and took out his phone. He opened the call records and dialed Rex’s number again. It rang for several minutes without being answered. The same way it had been since he had been calling the number the last night.

Elvis Richards heaved a sigh of frustration. He should have allowed his assistant hand over the job to someone else, maybe it would have been successful and easier but he had asked the assistant to contact Rex instead,’ Chief Elvis thought. He stared at his assistant’s face for a while again with so many thoughts running through his mind.

‘Do you think they won’t trace the incident to us?’ Chief Elvis asked his assistant. ‘I hope you didn’t leave any trace behind at the Care Center when you went to make the investigations.’

‘Sir, we didn’t leave a single trace. No one can connect it to us except the guys that were sent to carry out the job are caught and they open up.’

‘And that’s why I’m bothered now, I don’t know what happened exactly. Rex called me yesterday to complain that you didn’t send him the accurate information.’

‘We gave him the accurate information,’ the assistant responded.

‘Maybe he was successful with the job then,’ Chief Elvis said. He stopped to think for a while and then a frown appeared on his face, ‘But he told me he was going to go in alone, the news reports that they were more than one.’

‘Maybe something went wrong and he had to involve more of his men,’ he assistant said.

Chief Elvis shook his head and heaved a sigh. He wondered what could have happened. Now, he had to make sure that the media doesn’t investigate the kidnap of the sick woman further to find out who she was. That was the reason he wanted the death of the woman to be as silent as possible.

Troubling him more was the news of Madam Henrietta’s death which hadn’t been announced. He had read on the news the last night that four dead bodies were found in the woman’s house while the woman and her daughter who were in the house that evening were nowhere to be found. It gave him serious headache as he couldn’t reach Stainless also, but it was evident from the news report that some men attacked Henrietta.

ABUJA

‘Are you back with the answer from the Housing Ministry?’ Inspector Dakolo said to his junior partner who stood beside him.

Inspector Dakolo was squatting on the field at the right side of the house. It was the second time he was coming there. Dead bodies had been found around the house at evening the day before and the neighbours and passersby had quickly informed the police. Inspector Dakolo led his team there that evening.

The house was in an unfenced compound and had some little grasses at the left side. Neighbours who rarely passed through or visit the compound had noticed the last evening that there was an unusual gathering of animals and flies in the compound.

When Dakolo and his men came there the day before, they first moved the dead bodies outside and inside the house carefully into the vehicles meant for carrying the dead. Then, they gathered evidences and pointers that could help them in their investigation of what happened. They also asked the neighbours about the inhabitants of the house and the most useful answer they got was that two ladies were seen there the day the incident happened, one was older and the other was a young woman.

‘Yes sir,’ the junior replied Dakolo, holding a flat file with him

Dakolo rose from his squatting position and looked around the house for some seconds. ‘Thomas,’ he called out loud to his team mate who was in the building, making his investigation.

‘What’s the name of the house’s owner and its history?’ Dakolo asked the junior while waiting for Thomas.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 6
‘The present owner’s name is Henrietta Williams, it was initially built by Elvis Richards but ownership was transferred to Henrietta Williams ten years ago. Then, it was renovated four years ago.’

‘Okay, have you traced which Henrietta Williams it is?’

‘We’re doing that already sir,’ the junior replied.

‘Inspector, I’m here.’ Thomas announced as he joined them at the side yard of the house through the kitchen door.

‘We now know that the house is owned by a certain Henrietta Williams,’ Inspector Dakolo said to Thomas. ‘I was also called from the office few minutes ago that some of the dead bodies have been identified and two family members have showed up. With that, we can make some progress on this case.’

11:10AM

LAGOS

‘Please, I beg you. Allow them take my mother to a hospital to save her life, please.’ Stephanie pleaded, kneeling before Tarasha.

‘Get up on your feet,’ Tarasha said in an unmoved voice. Tarasha was in the room Stephanie and Madam Henrietta were given to use in the house. She was standing beside the door and resting against the wall with her arms folded. Stephanie had a knee on the ground and her hands curled around Tarasha’s legs. Madam Henrietta sat at corner edge of the bed, watching quietly.

‘It’s a pity your mother is unconscious but I can’t do what you and the doctor are asking for, the best I can do is to bring the equipments they need here.’ Tarasha added in a cold voice. She was just talking to make Stephanie calm. She knew it was impossible to get the equipment the doctor needs to the house, the doctor had explained that it wasn’t something that could not be gotten easily or even stolen from a hospital.

‘When will you bring the equipment?’ Stephanie asked, still holding her legs.

Tarasha shook her head and sighed. ‘Stephanie, you’re wearing me out, get up.’ She said in a harsh tone.

Stephanie was forced to stand up, she stood in front of Tarasha and folded her arms.

‘I’ll get it as soon as I can, soon enough to save your mother. I need her alive too,’ Tarasha said.

‘Okay,’ Stephanie sighed. She remembered that Samantha had come into the place to speak to her before she changed the topic to her mother. ‘You wanted to tell me something else.’

‘Yes, I came in here to tell you that the work against the Vice President has continued. I just posted an article on my blog and I’m going to be uploading some shots of the docvments you have with you soon. There’s just one thing I need for you to do to make sure our plans do not fail,’ she said and paused to look at Madam Henrietta. ‘And you too.’

Stephanie flashed a glance at the woman behind and then looked back at Tarasha’s face, ‘What do you need us to do.’

‘It’s simple,’ Tarasha replied. She took a pause and drew in a short breath, she then narrowed her gaze at Stephanie’s face. ‘I want you to cut off all communication with anybody outside, you should not call or receive calls from anyone, send messages or receive from anyone or try to meet anyone outside this place.’

Stephanie paused to think for a while, she wondered if she could do as she was told to do. Her school had just resumed and she needed to be in contact with her course mates to be kept aBrë@št of what was happening in school. She also needed to communicate to members of her SWAD team and give them directions on how to go about the new semester’s meetings.

‘We don’t have the time for you to start considering all you would miss,’ Tarasha said, as if she could read her thoughts. ‘You have to make a quick decision.’

‘How long will this have to be?’ Stephanie asked.

‘Until it becomes safe for the both of you to make contact with others,’ Tarasha replied.

‘But can I make a call or send a message right now?’ Stephanie asked.

‘No, you cannot.’

Stephanie sighed. ‘Okay,’ she said and shrugged. ‘That means we have to turn off our phones?’

‘No, it means you have to hand over your phones to me and every communication device with you. I would return them when the right time comes.’

‘Wow!’ Stephanie opened her mouth in surprise.

‘We would provide other devices for you with which you can communicate with me and others who you are allowed to talk with. You can also surf the internet, but would not be able to use some sites, especially social networks.’

Stephanie heaved a sigh of relief. She turned back and walked straight to where her bag was to take out her phone. She collected Madam Henrietta’s phone also and submitted the both of them to Tarasha.

‘Thank you,’ Tarasha said before turning to walk out of the room.

‘Please don’t forget the equipment my mother needs,’ Stephanie said as Tarasha was about to step out through the door.

Tarasha nodded her head but gave no verbal response before walking out of the room.

She got back into the medical room and didn’t find Dr Ekwueme there. She proceeded to the bed where Mrs. Atinuke was laying. She stopped beside the woman and stared at the gentle face for a while until she got distracted by the sound of the door opening.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 20 Part 7
She turned and saw Dr Ekwueme coming towards. She noticed that the doctor had just shaved his beards and was looking younger than his age. She smiled as he approached her.

‘Doc, you’re looking younger and more handsome,’ she complimented.

‘Oh! Thanks,’ the doctor smiled back. It was his first time of hearing her make a compliment of someone and also his first time of hearing someone compliment him after a long time.

The smile on Tarasha’s face faded away quickly. ‘I’ve been thinking about the lack of the equipment needed to treat this woman, but an idea just came to my mind as I was looking at her.’

‘What’s the idea?’

‘First, I need to know how long you will need the equipment for.’

‘I can’t really tell, but not less than twenty four hours.’

Tarasha sighed.

The doctor raised a brow.

‘What if we make arrangements with a hospital, a private hospital?’ she asked.

‘There are very few private hospitals that have or know how to use this equipment and not even all government hospitals in the country has.’

‘You should be able to help us locate a private hospital that would have,’ Tarasha suggested.

‘That would be difficult, the doctors in charge of the few ones I know would not allow us, it would only work if we force them to.’

Tarasha closed her eyes for a minute to think, she knew it wasn’t advisable for them to apply force, especially because they needed to use the equipment for more than twenty four hours. Compelling them would only work for few hours.

She opened her eyes. ‘What about your hospital? Don’t you have it?’

Dr Ekwueme was quiet for a while. ‘Yes, I do but I’m the only doctor who handles it there.’

Tarasha shrugged. ‘That should be no problem, you’d handle it.’

‘But they’ve been searching for me for a long time, what happens when they see me?’

‘We would make sure nothing happens when they see you,’ Tarasha replied confidently.

‘I hope we can do that,’ the doctor said with a doubtful tone.

‘We would,’ Tarasha reassured. She glanced again at the face of Mrs. Atinuke as it was time to leave the place. ‘Now, I have to go check the reactions to my new blog post. I’ll need this woman conscious as soon as possible, I need to hear more secrets from her.’

Elvis Richards was trying to get some sleep in his room after taking the drugs that was supposed to be taken at 12pm but all his attempts were futile as he kept turning around restlessly in the bed. After ten minutes of restlessness, he reached for his phone and opened the call records. He was about to dial Rex’s number again when he heard a knock at the door. He locked the phone and kept it aside.

He sat up and stared at the door, waiting for the knock to sound again before responding.

There was no other knock, instead he heard the voice of his assistant, ‘Hello sir, are you sleeping already?’

He heaved a sigh. He wondered what the assistant had to tell him, but he was sure it was something important as he trusted his assistant not to call him for trivial matters.

‘Come in,’ he said on top of his voice.

The door opened gently and the assistant walked in. He was sweating, his shirt was soaked with sweat at the chest region.

‘Sir, we have a new problem.’ He said in a trembling voice.

‘What new problem?’

‘I just finished listening to the news at 12, I heard that Samantha Osman has released a new article about u… about you,’ the assistant answered, stammering as he got to the end.

‘What did she say?’ Chief Elvis Richards asked, really anxious to find out what new thing Samantha Osman had written about him.

‘Sir, I think it’s best you read it. I can’t explain it,’ he replied.

‘Get me my tab,’ Chief Elvis Richards said, pointing him to a table where the tablet device was.

The assistant hurried to the place to get the device, he handed it to the man and stood aside.

Chief Elvis unlocked the tab, he opened the browser and placed the cursor on the navigation bar. ‘What’s her website URL again?’

‘Samanthaosman.com.’

He typed it into the navigation bar and clicked send. It loaded in fifteen seconds. The first thing he saw was the featured blog post, the title read; ‘Nigeria’s Vice President kidnaps sick woman from Special Care Centre and kidnaps her family.’

Elvis Richards immediately began to sweat. His hands began to tremble but he managed to keep the tab in his hands. He clicked on the link and the page loaded.

‘A Special Centre for sick and old women in Ikoyi was reported to have been attacked last night by unknown hoodlums who injured four men and killed one security man and then left the place with a sick woman named Atinuke George.

The Samantha Osman team have made enough research and discovered that the Hoodlums are not unknown, in truth, the gang leader of the hoodlums is none other than Vice President Elvis Richards. Elvis Richards sent his men to take the woman from the place as she holds some of his very dirty secrets that he wants to hide.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 19 Part 1
Before kidnapping the woman, Elvis Richards first made sure that the only surviving family member of the sick woman, who is her daughter and popular SWAD National Leader Stephanie George and her guardian were first kidnapped from their residence in Abuja. He killed some men around the area to cover up the kidnap as a murder case. More details to prove this accusations would be released soon, subscribe to this blog.’

He heaved a sigh of frustration after reading, Samantha Osman was now playing his own games against him. Everything just seemed to be going wrong with him. He dropped the tab beside him and buried his face in his palms for some minutes.

‘I need to go on social media to refute these claims right now,’ he said as he raised up his head and picked the tab again.

‘Sir, why don’t you wait to hear from one of the advisers?’ his assistant suggested.

‘No, this has to be done quickly.’ Elvis Richards replied.

He logged on to his twitter account and typed in a tweet;

‘My attention was brought to a recent post made by Samantha Osman on her blog. It amazes me how low some enemies can go just to demean and spoil the name of others.

I know that this can only be the job of those who do not want the progress of Nigeria. They are trying by all means to make sure I do not get to the top and take the country forward.

I urge you all to be calm and disregard the post and other false messages that may be in circulation. They hold no water because they cannot be proven to be true. Please, avoid sharing these messages as they are false and ridiculous.’

He posted on twitter first in a series of tweets and then copied all together to post on Facebook and also on the youngicee social platform. He dropped his device after making all the posts and buried his face in his palms again. He felt his head ache, he could also feel his skin hot. The news seemed to have returned the sickness to his body. He managed to look up and reach for his phone. He flashed a glance at his assistant who was still standing before him.

‘Please leave me alone,’ he said, partially in anger and frustration.

‘Are you okay sir?’ the assistant asked, noticing his weak movements.

‘Just leave me, I would call you when I need you.’

The assistant bowed slightly and took his leave.

Chief Elvis opened his call register and dialed Rex’s number again.

It began to ring and shockingly this time, it was answered.

‘Rex, where are you and what is happening?’ he asked in a shaky voice.

The receiver of the call replied with a chuckle before speaking. ‘Hello Elvis Richards.’

He took the phone off his ears to see if he had dialed the wrong number, it was a lady’s voice he heard. He placed the phone close to his ears again after confirming that he didn’t dial the wrong number.

‘Who am I speaking with? I want to speak with Rex.’

‘You are speaking with Samantha Osman,’ the voice replied. ‘I have Rex with me, he’s been captured and he is undergoing torture.’

Her words hit Elvis Richards like a big hammer on the head. His heart began to beat abnormally fast and his bladder suddenly got full.

‘Arrange your home man, you have a few days to live. You’d die after the whole world knows your dirty secrets.’

He slowly and shakily took down the phone from his ears. His hands and lips continued to vibrate. He felt hot and weak all over. His fever seemed to have suddenly increased. He felt his eyes closing, he struggled to keep them open but he could not. His body felt too weak to remain sitting. He tried to open his mouth to call out for help but collapsed to the ground.

‘How many times has he called before?’ Tarasha asked one of the new assassins who had been given Rex’s phone to monitor.

‘He’s called about fourteen times today alone,’ the guy replied her.

Tarasha chuckled and handed the phone back to him. ‘He’s not going to call again, at least not so soon.’

She and Cole had returned to the other facility where Rex and their other prisoners were kept. Rex and Tobi were still tied and left without food in the white room while Stainless was still sleeping from the effect of the drug he was administered.

‘Boss,’ Cole called as he entered into the room Tarasha was in with the third man. Tarasha stared at his face. ‘Stainless isn’t awake yet, should we wake him up?’

‘No, let’s wait until he wakes up.’

‘Okay boss,’ Cole replied.

‘I read some minutes ago that Elvis Richards has denied the allegations.’

‘Yes boss, I read it too.’

‘I want you to download the NSCC footages which show that his assistant and some of his guards visited the Care Center few days ago.’

‘I’ll do that right away boss,’ Cole replied and turned to leave immediately.

LOCATION: OPIC ESTATE, AGBARA.

TIME: 12PM

‘Dad, Dad!’

Dr Francis heard himself being called from the living room in the most unusual way by his son. He got out from the kitchen and walked into the living room.

‘What’s the matter son?’ Dr Francis asked with a raised high brow.

‘Sorry, I’ve checked you in your room and I didn’t find you there.’

‘Yes, Esther went to the market to get some foodstuffs, so I had to fix something for myself since no one else is at home.’ Dr Francis replied.

‘When is Mum returning from Port Harcourt?’

‘She should return this week,’ Dr Francis replied. ‘So, what are you doing at home this afternoon and why were you calling me that way?’

‘I think we should get seated first,’ the son said and followed his dad to the seating area of the living room. They both settled on two different one seater sofas close to each other.

The doctor’s son took out his android phone, unlocked it and opened his browser. He opened one of the saved web pages and then handed the phone to his Dad. ‘Please go through that Dad.’

Dr Francis collected the phone but stared at his son’s face for some seconds, wondering why the boy could not just tell him why he was being called.

He finally looked at what he was given to read. The title of the news article was ‘Dr Ekwueme: Now Missing for more than Five weeks.’

Dr Francis was shocked at first. He took a quick glance at his son’s face who nodded at him, signaling for him to continue reading. Dr Francis shook his head before looking into the phone again, he considered in his mind that the Doctor being talked about could be another Dr Ekwueme but as he read on and saw the pictures attached to the article, he realized it was the same Dr Ekwueme who visited them few days ago.

‘But how is this possible?’ He asked with a frowned face. ‘Dr Ekwueme was here with a daughter of his some days ago.’

‘But reports says he’s been missing for weeks,’ the son countered. ‘He was led out of his house by a strange girl and he hasn’t been seen at home since then.’

The news article they read had explained how Dr Ekwueme’s estrange wife and kids have been looking for him around town. They claimed to have received phone calls from the doctor during the first three weeks and even had video chats with him more than once. Anytime he reached them he was always in a hurry like he was being timed by someone, but he always assured them that he was fine and asked them not to be worried about him. But for the last few weeks, no calls or messages have been gotten from the doctor and none had been able to reach him.

‘I think there’s a mix up somewhere,’ Dr Francis said thoughtfully. He quickly searched his pocket from his phone but couldn’t find it, he got up and hurried into his room and returned with his phone a minute later. ‘The number he gave me is not going through,’ he said as he sat back in the sofa, still dialing.

‘I don’t trust that girl he came with, she could just be the one who was seen taking him out of his house.’ The son said.

‘But Dr Ekwueme didn’t look like he was kidnapped that day or maltreated, he looked strong and healthy.’ Dr Francis said.

‘I don’t understand that too, but what I think is that she’s blackmailing him with a secret of his she knows. Dr Ekwueme could have done something bad in the past,’ the son suggested.

‘I don’t think that’s it, Dr Ekwueme is a good man.’

‘You never can tell Dad, he just might have done something very terrible in the past.’

‘I think I have to report to the police right away,’ Dr Francis said.

‘Yes, you do.’ His son supported.

__

AJANGBADI, LAGOS.

‘Popular Doctor, Dr Ekwueme has been missing for more than Five weeks.’

Dave saw the headline as he scrolled down the nairaland forum homepage. He paused and his finger hovered above the link for a while. The name rang a bell in his memory. He closed his eyes deeply to remember which Dr Ekwueme he knew. After some minutes of rigorous searching of his memory, he finally had a faint remembrance of the doctor he knew. He wasn’t too sure he recognized the man’s face anymore but he remembered the name very well. Dr Ekwueme was a man who had helped him in the past, several years ago. Even though he was a kid then, he could still remember how the man helped him. He finally clicked on the link and was redirected to the post page. He read the article and got details of how the man left home with a young woman. Then he got to the pictures and stopped to view carefully. The man looked like someone he had seen before, not the doctor that helped him long ago, but someone he had seen recently. He moved to the second picture of the man and he was more convinced that he had seen him before. He turned his head and stared at the wall blankly for some seconds, trying to recall where he had seen the man but he couldn’t. He scrolled back up to read the news article again and check the details which he could have overlooked when he read it for the first time. Then he noted the names of the man’s hospitals and his children’s names. He still couldn’t recall yet, so he went through the article the third time and just on the first line, he saw the exact word he needed to remember, ‘Anambra’.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 14 Part 11
He could now recall clearly that the man was the one he saw in the Chevrolet been driven by the lady on low cut who he admired. The doctor was one of the reasons he couldn’t stop to go and talk to the lady. The face of the young lady was still very clear in his memory.

He quickly scanned through the article again to check the day the doctor was seen leaving his house with a young lady. He noted the date and quickly opened his calendar to check which day he saw the low cut lady in the Chevrolet at the hotel in Anambra, it was the same day. He rushed back to check the time the man was taken and tried to remember the time he drove into the hotel that day.

He stared blankly at the wall for a moment with his mouth left agape. With all his deductions, it was obvious that the girl he admired that day was the same young lady who took the doctor from his home. He heaved a sigh and shook his head. He returned back to his browser and was about to click the back arrow to the nairaland front page but for some reasons, he felt he needed to know more about the doctor’s abduction.

‘I’ve got no business to do with this,’ he argued in his mind as his finger hovered above the screen. A thought suddenly popped up in his mind, he widened his eyes. He minimized his browser and opened his contact store. He scrolled to the contact saved as ‘mother’ and dialed the number. He placed the phone close to his ears to listen.

‘Hello David,’ the mother’s voice sounded calmly.

‘Mother,’ Dave replied with a bright smile. ‘How are you doing mother?’

‘I’m not fine David,’ the mother said in a troublesome tone. ‘All you do is send money home, you don’t call frequently or even try to visit home. Your younger ones are always asking about you, it’s your father that comforts them.’

‘Mother, I’m sorry, I would come home when I can, my job doesn’t give me time. But there shouldn’t be any problem, we chat often online.’

‘Is chatting online enough, you don’t even have time to do video calls with us.’

Dave felt guilty. ‘I’m sorry mother, I will change and I will come home very soon.’

‘That’s what you say all the time.’

‘I promise this time Mother, if I don’t come before the end of the year, I will spend the Christmas holiday with you people.’

‘Ah! Christmas! That’s too far.’

‘It’s not far mother, it’ll come very soon.’

The mother sighed.

‘Mother, I have a question for you.’ he said, changing his tone to a serious one.

‘Ehen David, hope there’s no problem.’

‘There’s no problem ma, I want to ask if you still remember Dr Ekwueme.’

‘Dr… Ekwueme…’ the woman stammered for a while. ‘Dr Ekwueme, yes, I remember him. What’s the problem?’

‘Mother, I told you there is no problem. Do you know where he is now and what he does?’

The mother was silent for a while. ‘I think he left Lagos for his hometown, I heard he has built big hospitals and he’s helping people in his state now.’

‘Mother, do you know which state he retired to?’

‘I’m not sure, but I’m sure it’s one of these eastern states.’

Dave sighed. ‘Okay, what if I send you his picture on whatsapp, can you recognize him?’

‘Yes, I can.’

‘Okay, I’ll send it to you right now. Please come online,’ Dave said before ending the call.

He returned to his phone browser and downloaded the images of the man, and then he forwarded them from his pictures gallery to his mother’s number on WhatsApp.

A reply came after two minutes, it read: ‘Yes, he’s the one.’

Dave’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He read the reply again and again to himself. He had seen the doctor who rescued his life when he was younger without taking any hospital fee from anyone. It was painful that he didn’t recognize the doctor when he saw him, maybe if he had, he would have tried to stop the car and get to rescue the man from the girl.

He couldn’t tell what got him so carried away by the girl that he didn’t pay much attention to the man. She was beautiful but he didn’t think it was her beauty that got his attention that much.

Another thought struck his mind and it totally change his direction of thoughts. Something was wrong but he couldn’t connect it. He had a feeling that the Chevrolet he pursued Samantha Osman with was the same one he saw Doctor Ekwueme in, then why did someone else come to claim ownership? He tried to recall the face of the woman who had come to claim the Chevrolet, he could remember the shape of her eyes clearly. He tried to compare it with the face of the low cut lady he saw in the Chevrolet with the doctor but couldn’t. He didn’t see the face of the low cut lady so close, so it was impossible to say for certain that she was the one who came to claim the car. He remembered that the complexions of the women were slightly different but he knew that that could be the work of makeups, he was also a pro in using makeups for disguising.

Something seemed fishy. Was it a coincidence that Samantha Osman was in the state the same day the Doctor was abducted from the house? He asked himself. Or did she have something to do with the doctor’s disappearance? Was it also a coincidence that the doctor’s abductor was a young lady too?

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 19 Part 5
He needed to find out, he thought to himself. And even if it happened that the doctor’s kidnap had nothing to do with Samantha Osman, he would just take it as a repayment to the doctor for saving his life years ago. He got up from his bed and headed for the table where his laptop was, he was going to book a flight to Anambra for the next morning, and at least take some days break from his worries and pursuit of Samantha Osman.

___

‘Hey boy! Look here,’ Cole said dragging Stainless by the ear.

Stainless stared up at him with his head still slightly bowed. He was very weak and unable to move his body. Even with his weakness and terrible hunger which they knew of, he was still tied firmly to the chair.

‘Look at me!’ Cole shouted again.

He tried to raise his head but it dropped again. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. Cole placed a finger under his jaw and raised his face.

‘I can see you’ve lost all your strength, sorry about that. Even though we were never friends, I still don’t feel too good seeing you like this but it’s a pity that I can’t help you until you give us all the information we need.’

‘I can’t give you any information,’ Stainless replied with a weak voice. ‘You…are…just wasting…your time.’

Cole chuckled and let his head dropped. He took a step back and suddenly sent an uppercut to Stainless’ face.

Stainless head swung backward and the chair he was seated staggered. Cole pulled his head back after some seconds, his lips were swelling already.

‘Now, are you going to tell me or not?’ Cole threatened, raising his hand tightening his fist for Stainless to see.

‘What do you want me to tell you?’ Stainless voiced out weakly. His head felt heavy and his vision was blurry.

‘Good,’ Cole let out a faint smile. It was the first time of hearing a positive response from Stainless since he had been held captive, it meant that the drug used on him was already working. ‘Tell me where Rex kept Chief Nonso Onwuli.’

Stainless stared at him for a second, he closed his eyes and then opened again to give a response that surprised and angered Cole. ‘I saw you people bring in Rex and Tobi last night, why can’t you ask him directly since you also have him captured too?’

Cole was infuriated and he felt like dishing out a heavier blow but he restrained himself. He smiled and looked into Stainless eyes, ‘Like I said before Stain, even though we’re not best of friends, I don’t feel too good seeing you this way. If it happens that you don’t cooperate with us, we might be asked to kill you by Samantha but if you cooperate, your life may be spared. That’s why I’m giving you this opportunity for you to save yourself.’

Stainless looked into Cole’s eyes keenly, his jaw now resting on Cole’s finger again. He could see no sincerity in Cole’s eyes and knew all Cole was saying were just to get him to speak. He forced in a breath before speaking up again, ‘Go to hell Cole, I’m not telling you any…’

He was yet to land when another blow hit on his face. This time, he felt as if his nose had shifted from the normal position. His head became too heavy for his neck and his nose began to run with blood. He began to see visions of himself in the sky putting on a white robe and floating in the air. He got to a place and met a man putting on a shining white garment, the man looked was an Angel. The man stared at his face for a while and then tore off the white robe on his body, leaving a black robe that was under. Then the Angel pointed him to another direction where he saw Don Daniel also putting on black and gesturing for him to come. He was about to start moving when he heard Cole’s voice again.

Cole was pulling his head again but this time by the hair, Cole couldn’t put his finger to support the jaw again because of the bleeding from Stainless’ nose.

Stainless managed to open his eyes and stared at Cole’s cold face. He could now clearly remember the words of his father who was a Christian, reminding him that he would go to hell if he continued with his bad ways. His hallucination had brought him close to hell and it felt to him as if it was real for the first time, Don was in hell and was calling him to join. He decided that he must stay alive even if it was to repent before dying.

‘Chief Nonso Onwuli was first taken to Igbede, he was moved when Rex found out that Samantha was coming. I don’t know where exactly Rex has moved him to now, but there are only three facilities I know Rex procured in Lagos. The one in Igbede, one at Ikeja and one at Ipaja.’ Stainless finally gave in.

Cole smiled now. He took out his phone and opened the notepad, ‘Can you tell me the specific addresses of each location?’

Stainless described the location of the three places and Cole wrote them on his phone.

‘Clean him up, give him some food to eat and let him rest after that ,’ Cole said to the other man standing behind him in the room. He proceeded out and went straight to meet Tarasha who was in the computer room.

‘Cole, Elvis Richards is back to the hospital. We need to check which one he was taken to?’ Tarasha spoke first before Cole could.

‘Did it just happen?’ Cole asked.

‘Yes, it’s on the news. He was rushed out of the presidential quarters after being found unconscious in his room.’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 6
‘I hope that man doesn’t die before we get to him,’ Cole said.

‘I hope so too, I want him to admit all his sins to the world before he dies.’ Tarasha replied. She paused for a minute to concentrate on the blog which she was updating. Cole found a seat and sat beside her.

‘Boss, Stainless has spoken. He gave the addresses of three different places where Rex could have taken Chief Nonso to.’

‘Do you know the three places?’

‘Yes, I do.’ Cole answered.

‘Then, we have to check them all this afternoon. After Chief Nonso is safe, we would go for the Vice President immediately,’ Tarasha said.

Her phone was already ringing before she finished talking. She looked at the screen, Henry was the caller.

‘What’s up man?’ she said into the phone.

‘Tara, the Inspector General’s secret flight to Netherlands is tomorrow by twelve noon,’ Henry said to her.

‘Oh!’ Tarasha let out a breath. ‘Thanks, I’ll get back to you soon.’

She turned to look at Cole who was also staring at her. ‘Our plan has changed.’

Cole already expected that, after seeing the way she responded to Henry.

‘You would have to go with one or two other men to look for Chief Nonso, I will take a flight to Abuja tomorrow with Henry.’ She explained.

‘What’s happening in Abuja?’ Cole asked.

‘The Inspector General secret flight to Netherlands is tomorrow,’ she replied. Her phone began to ring again and she picked it up, Dr Ekwueme was the new caller.

‘Samantha, where are you?’ Dr Ekwueme voice sounded with a note of emergency.

‘What’s wrong doc?’ Tarasha asked.

‘I need to see you right away, it’s urgent.’

‘Can’t you say what it is over the phone?’

‘I need you to see things for yourself.’

Tarasha sighed, she knew it must be something about Mrs. Atinuke. ‘I’ll be there in thirty minutes time,’ she said and ended the call. She got up from the seat and turned to Cole, ‘You can shut down the systems, I have to go meet the doctor now.’

43 Minutes later.

Tarasha was walking hurriedly to the medical room while the doctor was following behind as fast as his strength and weak bones could carry him. She opened the door and stormed into the place, she proceeded straight to the place the woman was laying. The doctor walked in after her and pushed the door slightly, leaving it partially opened.

Tarasha stared at the screen of the machine behind the headboard of the bed where Mrs. Atinuke laid. She could confirm what the doctor said from the reading on the screen. The woman needed help urgently.

‘She needs to be under the machine in less than twenty four hours,’ Dr Ekwueme said to Tarasha who was staring at the woman silently.

Tarasha heaved a sigh. She turned a bit from the woman and stared at the wall. She wondered if fighting for Mrs. Atinuke’s life was worth it, after all it was easier for her to kill the Vice President now that Rex was in captivity.

‘What would happen if we don’t get her under the machine in twenty four hours?’ Tarasha turned to the doctor and asked.

‘I don’t think she can survive it,’ the doctor replied in a sad tone.

Tarasha was yet undecided when she began to hear some faint sounds. She turned her ear in direction of the sound and looked towards the door, she saw that it was partially open.

‘Stephanie,’ she called out loud. She had heard the ‘silent’ sobs of the girl eavesdropping and hiding behind the wall.

The doctor looked towards the door and glanced back at Tarasha with his eyebrows gathered together. He wondered why she was calling Stephanie from there, was she expecting the girl to hear the name from her room.

He was awestruck when the girl appeared at the door with her face full of tears.

‘Come in,’ Tarasha said and then turned back to the sick woman.

The doctor stared at Tarasha in awe, wondering how she knew that Stephanie was outside. Maybe she had some diabolical powers, he thought to himself.

Stephanie walked in slowly and Tarasha waited for her to get to them before she continued speaking.

‘Can we take her to Anambra by land?’ Tarasha asked the doctor.

‘Ermm…yes, most of our roads are good now, flight is only better because of time but I knowit isn’t an option because of what is involved.’ Dr Ekwueme replied. He stopped to check his time, ‘But it means we would get there at midnight.’

‘Yes, that should even make it easier for us to use your hospital.’ Tarasha said. She wasn’t ready to travel to Anambra yet but she had no choice than to. Seeing Stephanie cry had made her make the decision quick.

‘How many of us are travelling?’ the doctor asked.

‘Just the two of us and the driver,’ Tarasha replied.

‘Please can I come with you?’ Stephanie quickly cut in with her teary voice.

Tarasha flashed a quick look at her. She wanted to refuse but couldn’t. ‘You’d have to follow every of my instructions.’

‘Yes, I would.’ Stephanie said, quickly wiping her eyes.

Tarasha stared at the sick woman for some more seconds before turning away. She took out her phone and dialed Cole’s number.

‘Cancel your plans to go look for Chief Nonso tomorrow, you would now go to Abuja with Henry to stop the Inspector General from travelling.’ She said into the phone.

‘Boss, what has come up again?’

‘Something urgent,’ Tarasha replied. ‘I need to arrange for an ambulance to drive us to Abuja right now.’

00:50AM

ANAMBRA

‘What part of the hospital do you have the equipment set up?’ Tarasha asked Dr Ekwueme who was already dozing off inside the ambulance.‘Doc!’

Mrs. Atinuke was laying on the bed still unconscious. The Doctor was sitting at the corner of the ambulance with his head resting against the wall of the vehicle. He jerked awake on hearing Tarasha call on him.

‘Are we ready?’ He asked as he rubbed his eyes and stretched.

‘Yes, we are,’ Tarasha replied.

The Doctor staggered up to his feet, supporting himself with the walls. ‘Let’s tell the driver to take us there now,’ he said in his sleepy voice as he managed to stand up.

‘Relax Doc, I think you should take your seat.’ Tarasha said and moved closer to him. She rested her bum against the bed the patient was lying in. ‘We need to plan before going in,’ she said and waited for the doctor to be seated before she continued. ‘How many of your security officials work overnight?’

‘We usually have up to six security guards on duty at night,’ the doctor answered.

‘How many exits and entrances do you have?’

‘Only three main entrances are allowed for most people and staffs but there are more than five exits.’

‘Secret or emergency exits?’

‘We have three main emergency exits,’ the doctor replied.

‘Which of the exits would be easy for you to lead us through?’ Tarasha asked.

The doctor pondered for a minute, ‘Well,’ he began in an unsure tone. ‘Maybe the first one,’ he paused again and heaved a sigh. ‘I’m not sure this is going to be easy.’

‘Whether it is or not, we still have to do it anyway,’ Tarasha said. She got up and returned to her former position, she picked her bag and walked back to the doctor’s front with the bag.

She dropped the bag on the floor and picked out her makeup kits bag. ‘We need to change your look before getting in,’ she said as she arranged the brush and tools to use. ‘It won’t be a difficult task if you cooperate with me, Dr Brian is expecting is already us.’

Dr Ekwueme frowned. He stared at Tarasha’s face with a questioning look, wondering how she knew Dr Brian who was the head of operations in his hospital. ‘How did you reach Doctor Brian and what did you tell him?’

‘He’s expecting a certain Dr Harry from LandMine Hospital in Lagos and that’s why I’m about to turn you into Dr Harry,’ Tarasha replied.

Doctor Ekwueme was more confused. She raised a tool to start applying on his face but he stopped her, ‘I don’t understand what is going on yet.’

‘Allow me work Doc, I’ll explain as I work.’ Tarasha said staring deeply into his eyes.

He released her hand and she began to explain as she continued cleaning his face. ‘I called your hospital immediately we decided to embark on this trip and I was able to connect to the head of operations, I introduced myself as Veronica calling from Land Mine Hospital on behalf of Dr Harry, I explained the condition of our patient and told them we’re on the way.’

‘But didn’t they ask for any certificate of proof from you?’ Dr Ekwueme cut in, getting more confused and his heart filled with more questions.

‘They did, and I already sent it to them,’ she said and continued with the making up. ‘I do think your questions are not necessary, the only important thing is achieving our goal here and if you’d allow me talk without interrupting, I’ll explain how we would go about it.’

The Doctor sighed and shrugged.

1:40AM

‘Good morning Dr Brian,’ Dr Harry greeted, extending his hand for a shake.

‘Morning sir,’ Dr Brian replied and took his handshake. ‘I stayed back because of you.’

‘Yea, I know. Thanks, I do appreciate.’

‘So, what’s the situation of your patient?’

‘It’s crucial now and she needs to go under the machine immediately,’ Dr Harry replied.

‘Has the patient been moved to the theatre?’

‘Yes, I handed her over to your matron.’

‘Okay, but…’Dr Brian paused and looked into Dr Harry’s face. ‘I need to see the docvments where the patient’s family members have signed for the operation to be carried out.’

‘That’s no trouble at all, Nurse Veronica that came with me has all of them with her, I’ll call her to join us right away,’ Dr Harry said as he took out his phone.

Dr Brian waited for Dr Harry to finish with the phone call before he continued, ‘Well, I’ve been slightly confused, I don’t understand why you choose to bring her this late.’ He stopped to check his time, ‘This is almost two o’clock.’

Dr Harry smiled. He had been explained to that Dr Brian was made to believe that the ambulance was coming from Enugu State.

‘We had to stay back and allow the traffic reduce, we couldn’t subject the patient to the bad traffic condition.’

‘Oh! I see…’ Dr Brian shrugged. The landline on his table rang and he excused himself to answer the call. ‘Ermm…Okay, let her come in.’ he said and dropped the call. ‘Your nurse is here.’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 18 Part 10

9AM

The flight had just taken off and Dave was restless in the seat where he was. It was after he booked the flight to Anambra the day before that he read the new articles released by Samantha Osman. Since then, he had not been able to take his mind off Stephanie. He wondered if she was kidnapped because she had tried to go ahead with probing the Vice President all by herself. He had warned her before that it would be dangerous to do it without him and the protection he could offer.

Before he slept the last night, he tried all he could to connect all the details he had but couldn’t. He confirmed the ill health of the Vice President but wasn’t able to confirm whether Stephanie had tried to report him to the police or not. He then decided to cool off his mind and continue with his trip to Anambra, carrying all the docvments he had stolen from Stephanie to hide them safely and hoping to release them on his own news blog once the need arises; which he believed was when the Vice President tried to deny the allegations Samantha Osman made against him (the vice president).

As he pondered on the whole situation, he decided in his mind that he was going to release a new article that night with pictures of the docvments he stole uploaded, so as to get everybody’s eyes on the Vice President and also to draw the attention of international bodies. That way, the Vice President would make sure that Stephanie doesn’t die because if she died, the nation and international bodies’ wraths would be directed to him.

ANAMBRA

‘Good morning sir,’ Dr Brian greeted as he walked into the room assigned to Dr Harry and Dr Brian to rest in while monitoring their patient at the ward from time to time.

‘Dr Brian,’ Dr Harry yawned as he managed to stand up from his seat. He was previously seated behind a table where he placed his forehead on and slept off. The nurse was also seated behind another tableand had her head resting on it, she seemed to be unaware of the conversation between the two doctors.

‘I checked your patient few minutes ago, I can see she’s coming up already,’ Dr Brian said.

‘Yes, she is , slowly though.’

‘Well, I believe that she would regain fully by the end of the therapy.’

‘I hope so too.’

‘I was told that you’ve made the full payment already, thanks for that.’ Dr Brian said with a smile.

‘You’re welcome Dr Brian,’ Dr Harry replied.

Dr Brian paused for a moment and stared deeply into Dr Harry’s eyes with a frown on his face.

‘Dr Brian,’ Dr Harry called, waving his hand at the other Doctor’s face. ‘Is there any problem?’

‘No…’ Dr Brian stammered, shaking his head. ‘There’s no problem, there’s just this striking resemblance about you and Dr Ekwueme, I noticed it earlier but it just seems stronger now.’

‘Hehe…’ Dr Harry let out a forced smile. He could feel Samantha’s eyes piercing through his body from the back. He had slept off and forgotten her instructions on how to speak in such a way that his voice wouldn’t be easily recognized. ‘I’ve heard of Doctor Ekwueme very well, he’s as old as me, if not older,’ Dr Harry said with a smile. ‘And you know old people talk almost the same way.’

‘Well,’ Dr Brian shrugged. He wasn’t convinced by the man’s explanation but he was confused about hearing Dr Ekwueme’s voice from a totally different person. He had to conclude in his mind that the voice he heard was only in his head and not real. ‘I’m about to leave now and I decided to check on you first.’

‘Oh! Thanks,’ Dr Harry smiled, stretching out his hand to take the younger doctor’s hand.

‘You’re welcome sir,’ Dr Brian replied, shaking the man’s hand respectfully.

Just as Dr Brian turned to leave, someone knocked on the door. He stopped and glanced back at Dr Harry, Dr Harry raised his head slowly.

‘Don’t worry sir, let me check who it is.’ Dr Brian said and continued towards the door.

He opened the door to meet one of the nurses standing there.

‘Nurse, what do you want?’ he asked.

‘Sir, I’ve checked in your office for you. There’s a man outside who wants to see you, he claims that he could know the whereabouts of Dr Ekwueme.’ The nurse replied.

‘Oh! I’m coming with you right away,’ Dr Brian said and stepped out of the room immediately, he closed the door and followed the nurse.

Tarasha sprang up to her feet immediately Dr Brian closed the door. Dr Harry also looked in her direction. ‘Did you tell anybody you were coming here?’

‘No, how could I have? I didn’t,’ Dr Harry replied.

She proceeded straight to the door and turned the knob, ‘Just remain here, I’ll be back.’

She opened the door and stepped out. She looked at both sides of the corridor and took the left direction after contemplating for some seconds.

_______

ABUJA

10:30AM

‘Sweetheart, I am in Abuja now,’ Cole said happily into the phone as he climbed up the stairs.

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‘Oh! Are you serious?’ Patricia replied, almost screaming in excitement.

‘Yes dear, I arrived some few minutes ago but I have some few things to do first, I’ll call you once I’m through.’

‘Oh! I can’t wait to see you, please call me fast.’

‘I will, as soon as I finish.’

Cole ended the call and returned the phone into his pocket.

‘You know, you’ve not told me about this girl yet.’ Henry teased as he joined him in the balcony.

‘Have you ever asked?’ Cole replied and headed for the door.

‘Several times man, several times.’ Henry replied as he joined him inside the house. He shut the door and walked to the sitting area.

‘That means I’ll tell you at the appropriate time,’ Cole replied, hoping to end the conversation with that. ‘Now, let’s go to business,’ he said as he positioned himself on the chair.

‘What’s the plan?’ Henry asked and also settled in the seat close to Cole.

‘We bring him here first,’ Cole replied. ‘After that, we make arrangements and ask the boss if we’re to take him along with us to Lagos.’

‘Bring him?’ Henry stared at Cole with a serious look on his face. ‘Omotara didn’t say anything like taking the man, he only asked that we make sure he misses his flight and remains in the country.’

‘Come on Henry, she doesn’t have to say it before we know it’s the right thing to do,’ Cole chided him. ‘She left us alone and trusted us to come up with a plan to execute the job ourselves, let’s show her that we can do better than she thinks.’

Henry heaved a sigh, he wasn’t too comfortable with the idea, ‘I hope we won’t hurt or kill anyone.’

‘Stop talking like a sissy bro, how long are you going to remain at this level? You are an assassin, assassins kill and hurt people,’ Cole said with a look of disgust on his face.

‘I’m not an assassin!’ Henry corrected in a strong tone.

‘Oh!’ Cole raised his brows and stared at him. ‘If you’re not one, you work with one and you are in love with her.’

‘Omotara is not an assassin,’ Henry argued.

Cole’s mouth was left slightly agape. He stared at Henry for some seconds with a disbelieving look and shook his head. ‘You’re living in self denial, I’ll leave you to enjoy it while it lasts. We don’t have time to argue now, let’s go back to business.’ Cole said. ‘We don’t plan to kill anyone, but we may have no option when it comes to hurting them.’

Henry let out a breath. ‘But, what do we plan to do with him after bringing him here?’

‘We tell the boss, she’s the one who has something to do to him.’

‘And don’t you think we’re abducting so many people? I know you guys have some of Elvis Richards’ assassins.’

‘We’ve taken care of them already and our newly recruited guys are watching over them, Rex himself has been given a high dose of drugs, it’ll wear his body out for a long time.’

‘Okay… Why do we really trust those new guys that much? And why didn’t you allow the guy that came with us to Abuja join in this conversation?’

‘I think you’ve answered your questions already. We don’t trust them, that’s why for example, I excluded Basit from this meeting of ours, I’ll only tell him the role he ought when the time comes. He and all the other guys are being closely monitored,’ Cole replied. He stopped to check his time. ‘Oops!’ he exclaimed. ‘Time is far spent already, we need to move faster.’

‘How do we abduct the Inspector General, would it be that easy?’

‘Yes, it would be easy.’ Cole said in an assuring tone. ‘According to the information you gave us, the Inspector General is travelling secretly. That means he won’t be going with so many of his people around him. He would be going to the airport with only one or two persons, which gives us the advantage to get him easily. All we need to do is take down the men around him. The news wouldn’t even go round quickly because he would be dressed differently; no one would know it’s the Inspector General that was taken.’

‘And do we bring him here straight?’

‘No, we would need to change our car, that’s where you come in, you make sure the NSCC records for that duration is cleared while I and Basit would make sure no one knows we’re moving the Inspector General.’

ANAMBRA

‘Hello Gentleman,’ Dr Brian greeted as he approached Dave who was seated at the reception.

‘Good morning sir,’ Dave stood up to reply the greeting.

‘Good morning, I heard you wanted to see me and you know something about where Dr Ekwueme is,’ Dr Brian said.

‘That’s correct, I do need to see you.’

‘Ermm…’ the doctor looked around quickly, trying to do think about the right thing to do. ‘His eldest son is still in town, I think I need to call him to join us.’

‘No, don’t, not now.’ Dave warned. ‘This has to be between us first, I need to ask some questions from you before I can affirm that what I have is authentic.’

The doctor looked around again, he seemed to be trembling as he thought of what to do.

Tarasha was staring at them from afar, hiding behind a wall at the corridor by the left side of the hospital which led to the reception. She strained her ears but could only hear few of the words they were saying but was not able to make sense out of any. However, she was able to read Dave’s lips who was facing towards her direction and from the doctor’s body movement, she expected he would invite Dave to his office. She turned back and quickly made her way to his office. She almost bumped into a nurse coming from behind but she smiled and apologized quickly and continued on her way. The nurse stopped and stared at her behind as she walked, wondering what she was peeping at from behind the wall.

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‘Okay, should we inform the police?’ Dr Brian asked.

‘Not yet, I need to talk to you first. We would know whether to call the police or not,’ Dave replied.

‘Ermm… Okay, can we go to my office? It’s not far away from here.’

‘Samantha, who is the person and what’s happening?’ Dr Ekwueme asked as he saw Tarasha walk back in, hoping that they had not been busted.

‘That guy is Dave James, a dangerous guy.’ She replied him.

‘Does he know we are here?’

‘I don’t have an idea,’ she replied.

‘Hope he isn’t going to get us into trouble?’

‘I can’t tell, I wanted to put a recorder in Dr Brian’s office to listen to their conversation but I couldn’t go in. There’s so much activity and so many people around the place.’

‘Yes, it’s not easy to go into anyone’s office like that at this time of the day.’ Dr Ekwueme confirmed. ‘What are we going to do now?’

She stared blankly for a moment and let out a deep breath, then she took out her phone and quickly opened the dialer. She searched for the number of the guy who drove them in the ambulance to Anambra and dialed it. It rang and wasn’t answered. She dialed a second time and it wasn’t still answered. After dialing the third time and getting no answer, she decided to call Stephanie’s number. Stephanie answered at the first ring.

‘Hello how is my mum?’ Stephanie voice rang in through the phone’s speaker.

‘Your mum is doing fine, she’d be awake very soon.’ Tarasha replied.

‘Can I come and see her?’

‘No, you can’t come here. Someone may recognize you,’ Tarasha said. She could hear Stephanie let out a sigh of disappointment. Nevertheless, she proceeded to her reason for calling. ‘Are you in your hotel room?’

‘Yes, I am there.’

‘Did you guys book the rooms according to my instructions?’

Yes.’

‘That’s means he took the room directly opposite or beside you?’

‘Yes.’

‘I want you to check him in his room and ask him to call me back right now.’

‘Okay, I’ll do that right away.’

Stephanie put on her slippers and proceeded out of the hotel room at once. She stopped in front of the man’s room and knocked the door. She waited for some seconds but continued to knock when she got no response. She then turned the knob and the door opened. She pushed the door in slowly and peeped before entering.

‘Sir…’ she called as she moved closer to the bed. At first, her mind was gripped with fear with what she saw. The man was sprawled on the floor beside the bed and he looked like a dead person. As she drew nearer, she realized he was only drunk. He had several bottles of alcohol on the floor. She didn’t know it would get that bad when he told her he wanted to join the club in the hotel premises when they arrived that midnight. She only knew he returned around five o’clock that morning with two girls from the club and several bottles of drinks, and she only knew that because he drunkenly came to her room first thinking it was his and knocked until she opened the door and had to point his to him.

She began to hear sounds of a phone ringing and she quickly located it where it was. She picked it up and checked the screen, Samantha Osman was the caller. She answered the call.

‘Hello.’

‘Stephanie, where is he?’

‘He’s drunk and deeply asleep,’ Stephanie answered.

‘Oops!’ Tarasha gasped from the other end. After some seconds she spoke again, I need the vehicle urgently, can you drive?’

‘Yes, I can.’

‘Please, drive now to the hospital and tell me when you get in.’

‘d@mn it! The f****** boy needs discipline,’ Tarasha cursed as she ended the call.

‘What do we need to do?’

‘We have to relax first, you’re safe, if anyone discovers you, they won’t hurt you, they’ll only want to come for me.’

‘That means you are not safe.’

‘I can escape this place easily, you told me all the exits and entry points already and I’ve asked Stephanie to bring the vehicle in in case I need a vehicle to escape.’ She replied. ‘The disadvantage I have now is that people discovering you here would jeopardize all my other plans and it would also mean that all of guys at Lagos are not safe too.’

The doctor heaved a sigh of frustration.

‘I’m going kill Dave James today once I get the opportunity,’ Tarasha voiced out angrily.

‘I can escape this place easily, you told me all the exits and entry points already and I’ve asked Stephanie to bring the vehicle in case I need a vehicle to escape.’ She replied. ‘The disadvantage I have now is that people discovering you here would jeopardize all my other plans and it would also mean that all of guys at Lagos are not safe too.’

The doctor heaved a sigh of frustration.

‘I’m going kill Dave James today once I get the opportunity,’ Tarasha voiced out angrily, staring blankly at the wall.

‘Who is this Dave James?’

‘A dangerous guy you don’t know,’ Tarasha replied and then turned to look at his face. The look on her face softened and she moved closer to the doctor, staring into his eyes. ‘You need sleep Doc, I think you should take time to rest now.’

‘Are you sure I can do that now that there’s danger?’

‘The danger does not affect you Doc, and I’m going to take care of it in some minutes.’ She replied him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and sat on the table before him, ‘You’re an old man, I need you to sleep now and reserve your strength.’

‘Okay,’ the man sighed. ‘I’ll try to rest, but I need to check the woman again.’

‘Well, you can.’ Tarasha shrugged and stood up. She walked back to the table she was previously seated, dialing a number on her phone. ‘Cole,’ she called with a gasp as her call was answered. ‘Who else knows about my trip to Anambra?’

‘None, except for your team, me and Henry.’ Cole’s voice sounded through the phones speaker.

‘I just saw Dave James here, in the Dr Ekwueme’s hospital and he is claiming to have information about the doctor’s whereabouts.’

‘That’s crazy boss, I don’t know how he could have gotten that.’

‘We need to do a thorough check man, and ensure that there is no mole amongst the new men.’ Tarasha warned.

‘Yes boss, I’ll be extra careful.’

30 Minutes later.

Doctor Ekwueme was back into the room and was asleep in his seat with his forehead placed on the table. Tarasha’s seat was empty, she had gone to check if Dave was still around while waiting for Stephanie’s arrival.

She entered back into the room and walked straight to her table. She picked a bag from the ground and placed it on the table, she then opened the zip of the large space. With her face turned to the wall and her back against the door, she rolled up the white nurse gown she was putting on, she was putting on a tight black underwear which had slim pockets at the front. She took out two short blade cases from the pockets and placed them on the table. She then brought out a revolver from her bag and put it in a case, she placed it on the table. She rolled the gown up above her abdomen and folded it to stay, she then put the gun in the side pocket of the underneath tight. She rolled down the gown to the normal position and picked up the two blade cases, she placed each in both side outer pockets of her nurse gown.

Her phone began to ring. She picked it up and answered the call.

‘Hello, I just drove in now.’ Stephanie voice sounded through the phone’s speakers.

‘Where did you park the vehicle?’ Tarasha asked.

‘The Car park at the left side,’ Stephanie replied.

‘Okay, step out of the vehicle. There’s a open mini restaurant where snacks and soft drinks are sold at the right hand side of the hospital, go there and get something to eat until I give another instruction. Avoid getting into unnecessary discussion with anybody,’ Tarasha instructed.

‘Okay, should I leave the vehicle unlocked?’

‘No, drop the key beside the front right tyre.’

___

Doctor Brian’s Office.

‘So Mr. Dave, are you assuring me that the police would get all these information I’ve shared with you?’ Dr Brian asked.

Dave smiled faintly, ‘Haven’t you been visited by the police before? They should have asked you the same questions I asked.’

‘Police officers have visited here recently but they never asked of any young woman who came to cause trouble in the hospital, they only asked to know who his recent patients were and if he had any argument or secret business with anyone.’ Dr Brian replied.

‘You said Dr Ekwueme’s son was here that day and he saw the girl, he should have told them about her.’

Dr Brian shook his head, ‘I wasn’t here at that time, I was only told of it after Dr Ekwueme went missing.’

‘Okay sir, thanks for answering my questions,’ Dave said as he got up.

The doctor also stood up and offered him a handshake, ‘I hope you and your media house would be able to gather enough information that’ll lead us to Dr Ekwueme.’

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‘Thank you sir,’ Dave smiled as the man squeezed his palm in his warmly.

__

Tarasha spotted Dave James as he walked out of Dr Brian’s office. She got up from the seat where she was seated with some patients waiting to see the doctor and others waiting for their family members whom had come to receive treatment. She waited until he walked out of the compartment before she got up from her seat and followed him. She followed him at a reasonable distance until he got to the reception. He stopped to greet and acknowledge some of the nurses at the desk and she walked past him and proceeded straight out of the hospital.

She walked to the garage at the left side and located the ambulance. She picked the key from the ground where she asked Stephanie to drop it and entered into the vehicle, she sat in the driver’s side and adjusted the side mirror to enable her view the entrance of the hospital. Soon, she saw Dave step out of hospital and begin to proceed towards the garage at the other side. She continued to turn the side mirror as he came closer until she no longer had to view him using the mirror. She saw him stop beside a blue range rover. He was about to open the door to the driver’s side when he looked up and saw something which caught his attention.

As Dave’s eyes caught the show glass of snacks and cakes, in front of a open area covered with decorated fronds. He remembered that he had not taken anything for breakfast, he locked the door back and put the remote control button into his pocket. He then proceeded towards the mini restaurant to get some snacks and a drink.

‘Hello, who’s here?’ He stopped at the front of the show glass and called. He looked through the various types of snacks available and made a choice of the ones he would love to get. ‘Hello,’ he called again and stepped forward onto the paved part of the shed and looked around. There were only four tables on the pavement and four chairs around each table. ‘I want to buy some snacks,’ he said as he saw a lady putting on an apron coming close to him. He was about moving his face back to the show glass when his eyes met with someone who was staring at him. She quickly looked away but it was too late, he had seen her already.

Dave couldn’t close his mouth, he was shocked beyond words and his body remained stiff for a while. She looked at him again and their eyes met. She quickly began to pack her bag as she realized that he had seen her already but Dave quickly proceeded towards her, ignoring the sales girl who was now trying to attend to him.

‘Hey! Steph,’ he called and ran after her as she tried to leave through the other side. He finally caught up with her as she was about to go down the short stairs and he held her by the arm from behind. ‘Stephanie,’ he called again.

Her body seemed frozen to the spot. She felt a current of electricity run through her as his fingers touched her elbow from behind.

‘Stephanie, we need to talk,’ Dave said in a pleading voice.

She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. She was confused on what decision to make. Dave had seen her already and she knew he wasn’t going to let her go if she didn’t give him attention. At the same time, she didn’t know how Tarasha would feel seeing her with him. Stephanie had warned her not to get involved in any unnecessary discussions and she didn’t know how she was going to explain that her would be discussion with Dave was necessary without telling her who he(Dave) was. She had no idea that Samantha recognized Dave’s face, so she still felt obligated to protect Dave by not exposing his true identity to anyone else, also sticking to the promise she made to him that way. For the same reason, she had skipped telling Samantha about Dave’s involvement with her.

Tarasha watched from afar. She stared at her phone’s screen, the call dialer had opened but it was late already. She had seen Dave move in that direction but didn’t think he was going to that exact place, rather she thought he was going to use the restroom at that side. She decided to use the opportunity to quickly place a tracker on his car and it was after she did successfully she looked up and saw that Dave was at the same eatery she had asked Stephanie to stay. She tried to reach Stephanie on phone quickly but before she could even dial the number, Dave had seen and was going after her.

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Tarasha stared at them for some more minutes and began to walk back to the ambulance when she saw Dave and Stephanie turn back into the eatery to sit.

‘Stephanie, what are you doing here?’ Dave asked, almost in whispers. They had attracted quite some attention from other people there while he was trying to get her back to the seat and he noticed it was part of the reason she eventually gave in to him.

Stephanie heaved a sigh and looked away. She wasn’t sure of what answer to give him and didn’t want to make any mistakes that would cause trouble for the Samantha Osman team.

‘Why are you not talking?’ Dave asked, looking keenly into her face. He looked in the direction which she was looking at and saw nothing. ‘Stephanie, talk to me.’

She looked at his face briefly again and only sighed and shook her head.

‘Who are you here with?’ Dave asked, looking around to see if there were signs of anybody waiting for her.

‘With nobody,’ Stephanie interjected. She looked around also to see what Dave was looking around for.

‘Come on Stephanie, talk to me. What are you doing here? At this hospital and at this time?’ Dave said, staring at her inquisitively.

‘And why do you think I should answer all your questions?’ Stephanie asked.

Dave stared at her with the side eye for a moment, he shook his head and then looked straight into her eyes. ‘I don’t want to believe meeting you here is a coincidence, there’s a lot of explanation you need to make.’

‘Explanation? To who? You?’ Stephanie looked at him with mockery in her eyes.

Dave drew in a breath and relaxed his back, he folded his arms and kept his stare on her face.

‘I don’t owe anyone an explanation for my movements,’ Stephanie continued. ‘I can be anywhere I want to be at anytime.’

‘Who are you here with?’ Dave asked again.

‘And what has that got to do with you?’

The more she spoke, the more Dave got convinced that she had come there with someone else who was watching them from afar.

‘Do you know that you have been declared missing by Samantha Osman?’ Dave asked, still in his relaxed position.

‘I don’t care,’ she replied.

‘I do,’ Dave said and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. ‘And the government does too. Samantha Osman accused the Vice President of kidnapping you, the government would be happy if I can present you to them because it will prove that you were not kidnapped.’

‘This is none of your business Dave,’ Stephanie slammed.

‘It is my business Steph, I’m a citizen of this nation who works for the government. I owe them the responsibility of reporting cases like this,’ Dave slammed back.

Stephanie shook her head. Dave was making things more difficult than she thought it would be. She looked around, she was confused.

‘Dave, I’m not going to allow you threaten me to tell you anything,’ she said, trying to sound confident.

‘Then I’m going to have to report you to the police,’ Dave threatened.

‘You won’t do that!’ Stephanie replied in a strong tone.

Dave stared at her for a moment. He could see the zeal and passion with which she was answering him. He knew there must be something behind it. He looked into her eyes more intensely and a thought suddenly struck his mind. He opened his mouth in disbelief, ‘Did you contact Samantha Osman?’

‘I think it’s high time I leave,’ Stephanie said and tried to get up from the seat but Dave held her hand.

‘You ain’t going anywhere,’ he said. It was getting noisy and people were staring at them but Dave didn’t care anymore. He knew Stephanie would be scared of getting people’s attention to herself.

‘Dave, I have to leave,’ Stephanie said in a louder tone, sounding more like a plea now.

‘You can’t leave Stephanie,’ he pulled her back, with his grip still firm on her wrist. She was frustrated and was staring at him with a helpless look. He looked back into her eyes and whispered softly, ‘If you are leaving here, we are going together to the police.’

‘Of course, she leaving right now,’ a feminine voice sounded behind Dave and a heavy blow hit his face as he tried to turn back. He lost his grip on Stephanie’s hand.

‘Go,’ Tarasha said to Stephanie immediately, nodding her head towards the gate to signify which direction she ought to take. She pulled Dave up by the collar and sent another blow to his face. He staggered backwards, almost falling on the table.

She grabbed him by the neck and pushed him on the table, making his back lay flat on it. She sent him two more heavy blows on his face and left him to fall to the ground.

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‘You don’t just harass girls anywhere and anytime,’ she said as she walked away, leaving the people to stare at her in amazement.

Nobody touched or questioned her as she walked away, instead some looked at eyes with commendation in their eyes and hailing her for beating up a man.

She quickly hurried towards the gate to join Stephanie. Stephanie had already crossed to the other side and had just stopped a cab. Tarasha waved for her to hold on. She quickly crossed to the other side and they both entered into the cab.

Dave was sure of one thing as he managed to get up to his feet with the whelming feeling of embarrassment; he was attacked by no ordinary girl, the girl had to be none other than Samantha Osman. He was more convinced now that Stephanie had contacted Samantha and that Samantha also had a hand in the disappearance of Dr Ekwueme.

He could hear the silent chuckles and see the smiles on peoples’ faces as he tried to straighten his cloth. He picked up his phone and wallet from the floor and hurried away.

‘Where did you know him from?’ Tarasha asked Stephanie as they journeyed in the cab, both of them sitting at the backseat.

‘From the City Hospital, he helped me after you rescued me from the kidnappers.’ She replied.

‘How did he help you?’

‘He changed the drug that was supposed to induce loss of memory into another.’

‘So, that’s what made you retain your memory and that’s why you remember me?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you didn’t know him before then?’

‘No, I did not.’

‘What reasons did he give for helping you?’

‘He told me he was a journalist on investigation and he got to find out the plan of the police.’

‘And he never asked anything from you?’

‘He never asked for material things, he only asked that I should reach him if you ever try to contact me again.’

Tarasha let out a faint smile, she wanted to ask if Stephanie was the one who called Dave to tell him about her but she decided to skip the question. ‘And since then, how often have you been seeing him?’

‘I never saw him again, until I got to Abuja. I called him because I thought I would need his help in fighting against the Vice President.’

‘And did he agree to help you?’

‘Yes,’ Stephanie replied in a stressed tone. She was getting uncomfortable with the questions because she was sure she would have to reveal Dave’s true identity if it continued that way.

‘What are you hiding from me?’ Tarasha asked, noticing the look on her face.

Stephanie quickly looked away on seeing that Tarasha’s eyes were fixed on her face.

‘Why didn’t you tell me about him?’ Tarasha asked.

Stephanie was unable to answer. Tears began to form in her eyes.

Tarasha was irritated and wanted to turn hard on her, she held herself back on realizing that they were still in a taxi. She took out her phone and unlocked it, she opened the tracking application.

‘So, you were with him when he sent me the message informing me about Chief Nonso’s whereabouts?’ Tarasha asked while waiting for the tracking application to load.

Stephanie nodded affirmatively without saying any word.

Tarasha remained mute for the rest of the trip. All on her mind was how to get a knife into Dave’s heart as soon as she could.

____

ABUJA

‘We have one minute now, you have to increase the speed.’ Henry said from the backseat of the car where he was seated. He was holding a tablet device in his hands and monitoring the movement of a vehicle in respect to theirs on a road map. Cole and the third man were seated in front, Cole was driving while the other man had a pistol ready in his right hand.

Cole increased the speed just as Henry increased. They were heading towards a round about and their target vehicle was also heading towards the same round about from the opposite and other side of the road. Their target vehicle was going to turn into the road which would be theirs immediate right turn and there they would cross the vehicle and kidnap their target.

‘They’re turning already, add a little more speed.’ Henry said.

‘How many more kilometres per metre?’ Cole asked, even as he increased his speed. They sped past the vehicles in front of them and were directly in front of the roundabout. Their targeted vehicle came into view.

‘d@mn! Reduce your speed, it’s too much.’ Henry warned but it was late. Cole tried but their vehicle crashed into the targeted vehicle and smashed it against the highland.

‘They’re turning already, add a little more speed.’ Henry said.

‘How many more kilometres per metre?’ Cole asked, even as he increased his speed. They sped past the vehicles in front of them and were directly in front of the roundabout. Their targeted vehicle came into view.

‘d@mn! Reduce your speed, it’s too much.’ Henry warned but it was late. Cole tried but their vehicle crashed into the targeted vehicle and smashed it against the traffic island.

There seemed to be a little tension at first. Henry was panting heavily out of fright. The crash wasn’t so fatal, the target vehicle was to damaged and there were still signs of life in it.

‘We go ahead with the plan,’ Cole said in a loud voice as he reversed the car a metre backward. He then stopped the vehicle and put on a mask which covered his face partially. He opened the door and picked his gun from the dashboard before stepping out of the car.

Basit stepped out with him immediately after putting on his mask which he already attached to his neck. He looked around and shot twice in the air.

Henry was the last to recover from the shock of the crash and had almost forgotten that he had a role to play. He quickly dropped the device in his hand and pulled out his gun, he opened the door and also stepped out of the vehicle. With the door of the vehicle still opened, he rested his back against the vehicle, using his right hand on the top of the car to support himself . He looked around and shot twice in the air to scare onlookers.

Cole proceeded straight to the back seat of the vehicle where the inspector General was seated while Basit proceeded to the front area and shot multiple times at the two men seating there who had been able to recover from the suddenness of the accident. The bullets shattered the front glass and pierced the bodies of the man seated there.

Chief Rikau was sweating and shaking terribly in fright as Cole opened the door. The General had realized that what he thought was an accident was actually planned. He was about thanking God for saving his life after the crash especially when the car that hit them reversed backward. But his joy did not last for more than five seconds after he heard the gunshots sounds and looked out, he saw masked men coming towards the car.

‘Get the f*** out man,’ Cole shouted, pointing a gun at him.

The man quickly hurried out like a scared lady that was about to wee in her pants. Cole motioned him towards the backseat with the gun.

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Now, all the cars coming from behind couldn’t not pass as they blocked the road, the ones who could change direction had immediately done so at the sound of the first gunshot. Only one car was unable to change direction immediately, that was the car following the assassin’s targeted car directly, but after struggling for some seconds , the driver was able to move the car to the other lane which linked to the roundabout.

Henry dragged and pushed the man inside and entered with him immediately.

Cole only took a cursory gaze at the crushed bonnet of their vehicle before entering into the car, Basit was already in.

Cole took off the mask and started the car immediately. He threw something to Henry at the back before turning the car and driving away.

Henry picked up the syringe throw to him, he removed the needle case and inserted it into Chief Rikau’s hand. The Inspector General slept off immediately. He picked up his device back and opened the NSCC app.

____

Dave sank into the driver’s seat and heaved a tired sigh. He leaned his head backward and took in a deep breath. He tried to picture the face of the lady who attacked him but he couldn’t. Her blows were so quick, and so heavy that after each hit, he felt like his head had been taken off and his brain restored to default settings. It even took him a lot of strength to get to his car safely as he was seeing double while he staggered back to the car park.

He tried to relax himself a bit but discovered that he couldn’t. The hunger he felt which had led him initially to the restaurant had contributed majorly to the impact of her blows on him, and the impact was still very felt, he knew the only thing that could help him was to get something into his belly, if possible, an energy drink first.

After resting for few more minutes, he stepped out of the car again and made his way back to the restaurant. He decided to talk boldly and act with confident, even though he was embarrassed at the same place few minutes ago.

He was served an energy drink and two meat pies and he consumed them very fast, but still tried to eat moderately as he could because he was sure people were looking at him.

He felt better after finishing the snacks and drinks. He decided to look around the place before leaving. His eyes wandered to the table he and Stephanie had sat earlier and a quick flashback of Samantha’s blows on his faces ran through his mind.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 17 Part 7C
‘Sh|t!’ he cursed under his breath as he stared down, with his elbows resting on the table. ‘That girl is strong.’

He relaxed his back for a minute and stretched his arms and legs. An idea came to him, it was something he should have done immediately Samantha and Stephanie left but couldn’t because of the embarrassment. He beckoned on one of the waitress.

‘Excuse me miss,’ he cleared his throat as he began. ‘You watched what here some minutes ago. Those ladies, do you know where they came from?’

The young waitress gave him a thin stare, ‘No, I don’t know them. The lady you were talking to only came here to eat just like you.’

‘Hmmm, Okay. Do you know if they came from the hospital?’

‘Ermm… It should be from the hospital, ninety nine percent of the people who patronize us here are those returning from a visit to the hospital or those who need to eat something before taking medications.’ She replied him.

Dave brought out and ID card and displayed it to her. ‘I’m Dan Willis, a personal investigator. Those ladies that left here minutes ago could be very dangerous criminals.’

The waitress stared at him with a funny look, wondering why he was making such stories against the ladies just because he was beaten up. ‘Sir, I do think they’re just regular customers like you.’

‘I know what I’m saying lady, I trailed them here.’ Dave replied.

The waitress sighed and shrugged.

‘Is this your first time of seeing the both of them here?’ Dave asked.

‘I don’t know the both of them, we receive different types of customers everyday, so I don’t remember if I’ve seen them here or not.’

Okay, thanks.’ Dave said and turned back to the table. He gulped down the remaining contents of the drink and dropped the bottle noisily on the table. He got up from his seat and left the place.

____

12:14PM

‘That’s crazy,’ Tarasha said into the phone in reply to the caller’s speech. ‘Did you make sure that your traces are covered?’

‘Yes, we did. ‘ Cole’s voice sounded from the other end.

ABUJA

Dord Motors

‘Good afternoon, who is in charge of your security here?’ Agent Tim asked as he stepped into the security building.

He looked around at the wide expense of the land and the different kind of exotic cars parked around for sale. A well built averaged height man stepped out through the door to attend to him.

‘Good afternoon sir, I heard you asked for me.’

Agent Tim turned him, ‘Good afternoon,’ he replied the greeting, and also offered a handshake. ‘I’m Tim, special police agent,’ he said, displaying his Identity card.

‘Yes sir, I was told. How can I help you?’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 3
‘There’s a vehicle parked outside here, it’s crushed at the bonnet.’

‘Yes, we’ve seen it already, it’s been there for almost an hour now.’

‘Do you know how it got there?’

‘I was told that someone came in it to get a car and hasn’t taken it back since then,’ the man replied.

‘Do you know the person who came to get the car?’ Agent Tim asked.

‘No, I don’t have an idea who the person is.’

‘But do you allow cars remain there for so long?’

‘No, we do not usually allow but I guess this person has gone round town in his new car to test it, he should soon be back.’

Agent Tim chuckled, ‘I don’t think they would return.’

‘Why?’ the man’s eyebrows gathered together.

‘Because they are criminals,’ Agent Tim said spitefully. ‘Was it only one man that was seen in it?’

‘I don’t know how many people were in the car but only one of them came inside here.’

‘You need to ask all your security officers and let’s get someone who knows how many people were in the car,’ Agent Tim suggested, even though his tone sounded more like a command. ‘That vehicle was used to kidnap someone at a major roundabout some hours ago.’

‘Oh!’ The man gapped out in exclamation.

‘Yea, get your men and ask them questions.’ Agent Tim said. The head security personnel turned immediately and began to call on the other security officers using Nigerian pidgin English.

‘Agent sir,’ someone called Agent Tim from behind.

He turned back and saw one of the junior officers he had come with to the place. The junior officer was holding a tab in his hands and coming towards him from the gate.

‘Yea, Inspector. What’s new?’

‘Sir, I was just called from the office and told that the Inspector General was the man in the car, they sent me details of the investigation here.’ He said, showing the tab to the man.

Agent Tim already knew that the Inspector General was the kidnapped man and that was why he decided to be involved directly in the case.

The investigation recorded showed details of how the family members of the dead men found in the car were located. The bodies of the men were identified and it was discovered that they were driving the Inspector General to the airport.

He returned the tab to the junior officer. The head security man was back with two of his men.

‘Sir, these men were around when the car parked there.’

Agent Tim turned to them, ‘Okay, so did you guys see the car when it parked or before it did.’

‘I was standing behind the gate then,’ one of the men answered.

The fence and the gate of the place were made of twisted steel rods placed diagonally across each other and evenly spaced, giving enough space for people outside to see the vehicles inside and for those inside to also see outside. Very few cars were also arranged for display outside the fence.

‘How many of them were in the car?’ Agent Tim asked.

‘I saw three people, two at the front and one behind.’

‘How many of them came in to get the car?’

‘Just one and he didn’t spend up to two minutes,’ the man replied.

‘He didn’t spend up to two minutes to purchase a car?’ Agent Tim asked in a surprised tone.

‘Sir,’ the second man came in. ‘Those guys visited this place earlier this morning in that same car, the only difference was that it wasn’t crushed at the bonnet at that time. They all came in then to check our vehicles, I think that was when they selected the car they wanted. So when they returned, it was only to pay for and take the selected car.’

‘Oh! That makes more sense,’ Agent Tim said, nodding thoughtfully. He turned to the first man, ‘And was there nothing suspicious about them when they were leaving?’

The first man thought for a while, his mind flashed back to the moment. He could recall how one of them drove the car outside and parked it beside the damaged car they brought and how the second one at the front seat helped the man at the back seat to get into the new car. ‘Sir, I noticed something when they were going, it seemed the third man in the backseat was a bit weak, the second guy had to support him into the new car.’

‘And you guys didn’t find it suspicious?’ Agent Tim barked.

‘Well…’ the first man tried to find an excuse. ‘There was really nothing to suspect them for.’

‘We need to track the one who paid for the car,’ Agent Tim said and turned immediately. He glanced back briefly again, ‘Please take me to the person who sold the car.’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 19 Part 6

____

ANAMBRA

‘So you bought two cars and dumped one on the road,’ Tarasha said with the phone held close to her ear, using the fingers of her other hand on the laptop in front of her.

She was in the hotel room with Stephanie and was sitting on the sofa with her laptop placed in front of her on a short table. Stephanie was sitting in the bed at the far end, with her back resting against the headboard.

‘Yes boss,’Cole replied from the other end.

‘Okay, make your plans and move the man to Lagos as soon as you can, we would also be returning tomorrow.’

She dropped the call and focused on the laptop in front of her. The tracking software was on and a location had been detected, a small green circle was on the exact point on the map.

Tarasha opened the notepad application on her phone and typed in the address of the location found.

___

NNEWI, ANAMBRA STATE

Martin Ekwueme Jnr was seated in the one seated sofa with his legs crossed and his eyes stared sternly at Dave’s face. He had a glass cup of wine in his hand which was suspended in the air with the elbow placed on the raised knee of his crossed leg.

Dave remained seated comfortably in his seat. He was slightly disguised to look older. He had a new moustache and a gold tinted hair by the left, his face also appeared slightly lighter than it was supposed to be.

He had his phone in his hand which he was busy with. He had just finished reading an action and romance thriller on the youngicee website when he decided to switch to the news section of the website. He scanned through the new page and only glanced briefly at the news headlines until he got to a particular one which was related to his purpose in Anambra.

‘Doctor Francis Onuoha claims to have seen Dr Martin Ekwueme in Ogun State,’ the headline read. He quickly clicked on the link and the full page loaded in four seconds.

‘Retired Gynaecologist and former colleague of Dr Martin Ekwueme has reported to the police that he had an encounter with the missing doctor some few days ago in his residence at Opic Estate in Ogun State.

According to Dr Francis statement at the police office, Dr Ekwueme was said to have visited his residence unannounced with a young lady he referred to as his daughter. Dr Ekwueme was said to have been surprised when he saw Dr Francis and they both exchanged pleasantries and shared in the joy of pleasant memories. Having taken few minutes to catch up on old times, Dr Ekwueme stated that the reason he was there with “his daughter” was to make researches on a particular project she had embarked on from school.

Dr Francis stated that they asked questions about the construction process of the house and were particularly interested in knowing the agent who sold the house to him(Dr Francis). Dr Francis however could not provide all the information they required of him but claimed to have searched for the house docvments and showed them one which docvments the agency of the house and the purchase details.

The two doctors exchanged numbers before the visitors left but since that day, the number given to Dr Francis by Dr Ekwueme had been unreachable. All efforts made by the police to track the number and find its owner and location have proved futile as there seems to be no records of the number in the Network provider’s data base.

The Agency have been contacted and asked if any contact was made by anyone with them asking about the agent who sold the house but they denied anything of such. They claimed that two years after the death of the agent Lewis George, they had concluded all transactions which had to do with him and his name.’

Dave squinted at his phone’s screen for few more minutes after reading the article. Different thoughts flooded his mind. He double-tapped the phone’s screen to turn it on and he checked through the last paragraph again.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 16 Part 12
‘Lewis George,’ he muttered to himself. The name sounded familiar.

He didn’t need to think for so long before he recalled where he had seen the name before. It was the same as Stephanie’s father’s name and he also remembered that the man worked as a housing agent.

He grinded his teeth together for a moment as a totally different set of thoughts struck his mind. Could it be possible that Dr Ekwueme was working willingly with Samantha Osman? And did it also mean that Stephanie had contacted Samantha Osman immediately after they had the argument and had given her all the details about the crime the Vice President committed against her father?

He felt bitter in his heart against Stephanie for a moment. If she had been so quick to contact Samantha Osman, then it meant that she must have also told the assassin about him and revealed his true identity to her.

The sofa he was seated in became uncomfortable, his legs began to vibrate as he boiled in anger but his eyes met with Martin jnr and he quickly tried to compose himself. He remained in silence, angry at Stephanie and angry at himself more for being so stupid to reveal his true identity to her. He never believed that she would sell him out so easily. He was blinded by his feelings towards her.

Martin Junior raised his head up as he saw a figure walk into the living room from the main entrance. ‘Mum,’ he called and stood up immediately. He placed the cup of wine on the stool beside his sofa.

‘Martin,’ Miss Adaeze called back as she proceeded towards him, her eyes were fixed on the stranger who was seated in the living room with her son.

‘Good afternoon ma,’ Dave got up to greet with a bow immediately.

‘Good afternoon,’ Miss Adaeze greeted back and stopped beside her son.

‘Mum, this is the guy I told you about on phone. He’s a special investigator who was brought here by the officer in charge of Dad’s case, and he claims to have a lot of information that may help us find my Dad.’

‘Okay,’ Miss Adaeze said and stared at Dave with a doubtful look. ‘Let’s hear what he has to say,’ she said and settled in the sofa beside her son. The son also sat before Dave sat.

‘Actually ma, I really do not plan to say anything, I actually have more questions to ask than things to say.’

‘Questions? I hope you’re not about to ask the same questions police officers have asked us severally,’ Miss Adaeze said.

‘No ma, I have a totally different set of questions.’ Dave replied confidently. He truly had a totally different set of questions. Better put, his initial questions were changed to a totally different set immediately after he read the news article concerning the doctor being seen at Ogun State.

‘Okay, let’s hear your questions. We have the rights to answer or to keep quiet.’

‘Yea, sure man. You can always tell me if you are not comfortable with any question.’ Dave said reassuringly. He turned on the screen of his phone and began with his questions, ‘Firstly, have you heard that Dr Francis claimed to have seen Dr Ekwueme few days ago?’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 17 Part 8
‘Yes, the police contacted early this morning to ask some questions.’ Martin answered.

‘Oh! Please, may I know the questions they asked?’ Dave said in a pleading tone.

‘What they really wanted to know was the lady Dr Francis claimed to see him with, but with the descriptions we were given, we don’t think we have such girl in our family.’

‘But you really do believe that Dr Francis saw them?’

‘Yes, we believe.’ Martin said with a sigh. He actually did not believe the story but his mother had spoken to him and gave him reasons why Dr Francis could not lie.

‘Do you know Dr Francis so well and trust him that much?’ Dave asked.

Martin glanced at his mum. The woman adjusted her seating position, ‘Yes, Dr Francis is an honest and intelligent person, he couldn’t have made the claims if it didn’t happen.’

‘And who do you think that girl could be?’ Dave asked, directing the question to Martin.

‘I don’t know,’ Martin replied, shrugging up his shoulders. ‘None of us have the slightest idea.’

‘I think you should know,’ Dave said, looking keenly at Martin’s face.

Martin frowned at him. It sounded more like an accusation than an ordinary statement. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked.

‘I mean you have seen the girl before,’ Dave replied.

Martin raised his brows, ‘ What are you talking about?’

‘On the day of the kidnap, you visited your Dad at the hospital, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, I did.’ Martin replied, wondering where he was driving at.

‘There was a girl you addressed that day,’ Dave continued. Martin frowned harder. ‘She was insisting on seeing your Dad and didn’t want to see any other doctor.’

Martin released his facial muscles slowly as he remembered until his frown totally disappeared.

‘I can see you remember now,’ Dave smiled faintly. ‘That girl! Haven’t you thought that she could be the one who was seen going out with your father from his house that day and she could also be the same person that was seen with your Dad by Dr Francis?’

Martin opened his mouth. He had totally forgotten the incident and didn’t think that the stubborn girl he addressed at the hospital that day could be involved in his father’s disappearance.

‘Are you saying that she came to kidnap my father?’

‘I’ve not said that yet,’ Dave replied.

‘Then what are you saying?’

‘I’m not sure yet. I’ve been on that girl’s trail for a while, she’s a hardened criminal and if she really is the same person, your father’s may be in serious danger.’

There was tension in the living room now. Dave could see the panic on their faces, and that was what he wanted, to get them to a state where they would be willing to fully cooperate with him.

‘But you don’t need to panic,’ he said. ‘If you provide me with all necessary details that I need, your father would get out of danger unhurt.’

Martin heaved a sigh of relief. He stretched his hand to draw his mother closer to him in a side embrace.

Dave stared at their faces, he had them where he wanted now, but he knew deep inside his mind that the chances of getting out Dr Ekwueme without him being hurt were very slim.

Martin heaved a sigh of relief. He stretched his hand to draw his mother closer to him.

Dave stared at their faces, he had them where he wanted now, but he knew deep inside his mind that the chances of getting out Dr Ekwueme without him being hurt were very slim.

‘Apart from being former colleagues, do you know if your Dad has other businesses with Dr Francis?’ Dave continued with his questions.

Martin Ekwueme looked at his mother’s face. She released herself from his embrace and sat up. ‘I don’t think so. They weren’t even that close.’

‘Okay, the news reported that Dr Ekwueme and the lady asked about the house Agent that sold the house to Dr Francis. The agent’s name was Lewis George, do you know anyone by that name?’

‘Lewis George? No,’ Miss Adaeze answered in a frank tone.

‘Okay,’ Dave took a brief pause to write some few words on his device notepad. He looked up and stared at the woman’s face silently for some seconds. ‘Ma, I would have to ask some sensitive questions now and I’ll appreciate if you do answer every one without trying to hide any details.’

Miss Adaeze stared at him blankly. She didn’t know what kind of questions he was going to ask and didn’t know whether to agree that she would answer all without hiding anything.

Dave took her silence as consent and continued after a thirty seconds pause.

‘Is there anything Dr Ekwueme has done in secret?’ Dave asked in a calm voice, mentioning his words carefully and one after the other. ‘I mean is there a crime he’s committed in a secret with someone powerful which you think they may come after him for?’

Miss Adaeze heaved a heavy sigh. The tension in her heart increased and tears began to form in her eyes.

Martin knew at a glance at her that there was something secret his mother was hiding. He always knew there was a secret but he never thought it could be a crime. His wildest guess about the secret behind his parent’s divorce had been that his mum caught his dad as a serious serial cheat but it was obvious that he was wrong, it had to do with something probably more serious.

The woman suddenly began to sob, surprising Dave and her son.

‘Mum,’ Martin called softly and drew her close to himself.

Dave remained quiet and unruffled. He balanced himself well on the seat and placed a narrow look at the woman.

She managed to wipe off the tears in her eyes with a napkin she took out of her purse. She sniffed in gently before she began to talk, ‘I have sworn that I would not tell anybody about this and that my children would never hear it from me.’

Dave repositioned himself. Martin slowly disengaged himself from the embrace and balanced on his seat.

‘But you have to tell me now, if you don’t want us to lose him,’ Dave said, flashing a glance at Martin’s face.

The woman sniffed in again. Martin leaned towards her and drew her closer to himself again. He then turned to look at Dave’s face, ‘I’ll excuse you, and I don’t really need to hear what she has to say.’

LAGOS

NEW GENERAL HOPITAL, GBAGADA

Agent James was seated on the plastic chair beside the bed where his father laid in the hospital ward. His legs were crossed and he had his phone in his hands which he was using to surf the internet. A nurse was standing beside his father, changing the drip bag hung on the top of a stand.

James waited for the nurse to finish and walk out of the ward before he moved his chair close to his father.

‘Dad,’ he called softly.

The man turned his face from the wall to his son.

‘Dad, have you heard about Chief Rikau?’

‘No,’ the man shook his head. He wondered what James heard, he knew that Chief Rikau was supposed to be in a plane in the air at the moment, far away from Nigeria.

‘I just read on the news now that the Inspector General was attacked on the way earlier today and was kidnapped by some unknown assailants.’

The Vice President could not hide the shock on his face. He felt like he was going to pass out that moment but somehow, he still managed to stay alive.

‘Where…did you…read that?’ he stammered in a weak voice.

‘On the youngicee website,’ James replied.

‘Ah!’ the man heaved a heavy sigh.

‘Agent Tim is working directly on the case and I believe we would get results as soon as possible, I just hope that this kidnap isn’t by Samantha Osman again.’

‘James, I have something to tell you,’ the Vice President said resignedly. He knew there was no need hiding who he was from his son anymore even if the boy h@tëd him for it. He had no one else to listen to him or by his side, Rex was gone; already taken by Samantha Osman, the Inspector General was now gone too.

‘Is there a problem Dad?’ James asked, noticing the look on his father’s face.

‘There has always been a problem,’ Elvis Richards replied with a sigh. ‘I know you may h@të me for what I’m about to tell you, but it’s time I do.’

‘I’m listening Dad,’ James readjusted himself to a good listening position.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 12
‘I am guilty of everything Samantha Osman accused me of in those docvments she sent to you,’ the Vice President stated. ‘I did them long ago, it started when I was still young and I had to survive.’

The Vice President’s confession came as a shock to Dave, even though he always doubted the man’s innocence. He stood up from his seat and walked to a window which was just by the side, only a meter away from where he sat. He rested his arm against the top frame of the window and rested his head on the arm.

‘I did them long ago,’ the Vice President continued. ‘I was hungry for success, I was hungry to come out of poverty and live a good life. I wanted to have a say in the society and a name for myself, I wanted to keep riches for my family and myself. I have never regretted these things until today, I never thought that I would regret them.’ The man stopped to sneeze and then continued immediately. ‘I have tried to fight nemesis but it doesn’t look like I’m going to be successful with it.’

‘But, Dad why?’ Why? James said in teary eyes as he turned back. He dropped into his seat and placed his forehead on the bed beside his Dad’s hand where the hypodermic needle was inserted. ‘Why did you do so much evil to the nation? So many people died as a result of those actions and many are still suffering from the aftermath.’

The Vice President wasn’t teary at all, neither did his voice show regret, only his words did. ‘I was a young man, I didn’t start out evil. My only undoing was that I was desperate to make success and I followed anybody who suggested that they were ready to help.’

James raised up his head and looked at his father’s face. ‘What about the recent accusations she made against you, did you kidnap Stephanie George and Madam Henrietta?’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘But she released some proofs that you had a case with late Stephanie George’s father.’

‘Yes, that’s true. And the pictures of me with Madam Henrietta at the airdrome were also very real but I didn’t send men to kidnap them and I don’t know their whereabouts.’ Chief Elvis said.

There was silence for a minute. James did not know whether to believe that his father was innocent about Stephanie’s disappearance or not, but he also didn’t see any reason his father should hide the truth from him again after confessing that he did the other crimes Samantha Osman accused him of.

‘But Dad, what led you into all these even as a police officer?’ James asked thoughtfully.

The man let out a deep breath, he closed his eyes and swallowed gently. Then he opened them again and stared blankly at the ceiling. ‘I wasn’t always like that, even as a young police officer, there was a time I was dedicated to serving the country with all my might.’

‘Then, what happened?’ James asked impatiently.

‘The bosses I had in the police force made me believe that there was no way one would rise to the top without being dirty, they showed me several examples of people who talked and thought like me and how they ended badly, but I didn’t see and wasn’t showed those who ended well. I wanted success and I desperately wanted it, so I had to be obedient and follow the cunning ways of those who led me. As I grew, I became more useful in their hands and several politicians got to know me. Then, I met Chief.’ He paused to take a breath in. He tried to adjust the pillow under his head, James got up quickly and helped him with it. ‘Chief was a nice man, a very nice man. He was ready and willing to help me rise far above where I thought I could get to, and he also had special interest in me and in my personal affairs. I remember when I had issues with my wife, your mother, he intervened and introduced me to someone who could provide the solution. His life was glowing and is still glowing, so I followed and served him with all loyalty because I wished to be like him. And he helped me greatly, because unlike others who worked with him, I was intelligent and always had solutions to every issue that came up. So he’s behind my success till date, there’s really nothing I can say I achieved without his support.’

James listened to his father keenly, his eyes fixed on the man’s face. ‘Sir, who is this Chief you are referring to? I know so many Chiefs with you,’ James interrupted, wondering who the chief was and hoping that it wasn’t Chief Rikau.

Chief Elvis was about to answer when the door flung open and a doctor walked in with the nurse who had been there previously. The doctor had the patient’s file in his hands and a stethoscope hung around his neck.

‘Mr. James,’ the doctor muttered as he got closer to the bed. He extended his hand towards James for a handshake and the latter stood to his feet received it warmly.

James moved his chair backward for the doctor to have enough space to attend to the patient.

‘How are you feeling sir?’ the doctor asked with a smile.

‘I don’t know, I don’t feel any different.’ Chief Elvis replied.

The doctor took some seconds to check his pulse and eyeballs. Then he turned slantly to James, in a way that his face could be seen by the Vice president also. ‘Another doctor would be taking over from me now,’ the doctor said, scribbling something in the file with his pen.

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 9
‘I hope there’s no problem,’ James said.

‘His PCV is still low, he’s would require blood transfusion,’ the doctor answered. He closed the file after putting a full stop to what he was writing. He fixed his eyes on James’ face, ‘Would you please come with me, so that you can meet the new doctor?’

‘Oh! Sure,’ James replied and got up from his seat immediately. He flashed a look at his father and gave a reassuring nod.

20 minutes later.

James returned into the ward with another doctor, an elderly doctor this time around, probably in his early sixties.

‘It’s nice that you want your blood to be used for your father but we still have to test if you are fit to donate your blood and if your blood matches with your father’s, else we would have to opt for the blood bank.’ The doctor said to James as they both walked in, the vice president’s assistant was following behind them, two nurses also followed behind.

‘I’m ready for wh@tëver test you want to do,’ James said.

The doctor stopped beside the bed and stared at the patient’s face with a smile. ‘Chief Elvis,’ he said in a calm tone.

‘You, Dr Reuben,’ Elvis Richards called back in a surprised tone.

‘Yes, it’s me. We meet again,’ Dr Reuben said with a smile. ‘I was glad when I saw your case file been transferred to me.’

Chief Elvis smiled back, but in contempt. He remembered Dr Reuben very well. It was the same Doctor who had diagnosed him of low sperm count several years ago before he and his wife gave birth to James. After the birth of James, he had an accident and the same doctor gave the bad news that he wouldn’t be able to have children again. But contrary to what the doctor said, he had two other kids after James.

‘You’re supposed to have retired,’ Vice President Elvis said.

‘I’m retiring this year,’ the doctor replied. ‘I was transferred to use the remaining few months here.’

After some checks, the doctor turned to the nurses. ‘Prepare to check him,’ he said before turning to James. ‘Please, go with them when they come to call you.’

ANAMBRA

‘I’m sorry Mister, I can’t tell you what you asked me to,’ Miss Adaeze said after taking some time to think about Dave’s request.

‘Why?’ Dave asked. There was disappointment written all over his face. He had expected that Miss Adaeze would begin to reveal all the doctor’s secrets to him after Martin left but he was surprised when she announced her complete change of mind.

‘Because I can’t trust you,’ the woman replied. ‘I don’t know what you need this information for, you could cause greater harm to him and our children.’

Dave took in a deep breath. The woman was intelligent and thoughtful, he had to admit. He could be a bigger threat to Dr Ekwueme truly. He decided to still push further, but to go about it in a different way.

He smiled and shifted forward on his seat, sitting at the tip. ‘I know so much about his secrets already, I only want to hear your own views so that I can help him out easily.’

The woman stared at him with her eyes unblinking, it was obvious she wasn’t convinced about what he was saying.

Dave smiled again, he decided to take a wild guess and make a suggestion to her and see if she would fall for it. ‘I know a lot about Dr Ekwueme, I know all he did with the Vice President and other politicians but I’ve kept it for a long time, after I saw that he now helps in his country.’

The woman twitched and her facial expression changed, Dave noticed. He particularly saw the expression on her face when he mentioned the Vice President.

She was still quiet and her lips were not moving, but Dave needed to get her to talk.

‘You’re making some thoughts pop up in my mind ma,’ He said as he narrowed his gaze at her. ‘Is it possible that you were also involved? Were you his accomplice?’

The woman gave him a sudden and shocked look. ‘God forbid!’ she exclaimed.

‘I do think you were involved in the crime and that’s why you are quiet about the matter, and even if you weren’t involved, you’ve become an accomplice since you decided to hide his heinous crimes.’

‘No, how can I be involved in such wicked and murderous acts? I have only been quiet because I loved him so much and more because I didn’t want the news to affect our children.’

‘Then you have to tell me all you know, I may get some facts from you that’ll help us rescue him.’ Dave said.

The woman stared thoughtfully without giving any response.

‘Ma,’ Dave continued. ‘You should have read in the news about several ongoing kidnaps, Chief Elvis Richards, the current vice president have been accused of kidnapping several people recently and I understand he’s doing this to cover up his past sins. Your ex husband must have been taken by him. I think that the Vice President is blackmailing your ex husband and would be using him to commit more crimes. Take for example, your husband was seen at Ogun State, asking about Lewis George and then days after, the surviving child of that Lewis George was kidnapped and the Vice President has been accused.’

Also read – Tarasha 2 – Chapter 22 Part 13A
The woman heaved a deep sigh. Dave stared at her in anticipation. He had her where he wanted now, and he knew she was going to talk. He already had the idea that the crimes Dr Ekwueme committed with the vice President were serious ones which included murder but he needed to get more details.

‘While we were still married, I was searching the house one day when…’

Tarasha stared at the gate of the house from the driver’s side of her car. She checked her wristwatch from time to time. She had made her findings and knew that the house Dave had gone into was owned by Madam Adaeze, the ex wife of Dr Ekwueme. She wondered what he had gone to do in there, but she knew for her certain that she needed to end his life that day.

She closed her eyes for a minute and her mind flashed back to her conversation with Stephanie before leaving the hotel room.

FLASHBACK

‘Have you heard of the place Ne we?’ Tarasha asked, turning to Stephanie who was still seated on the bed.

‘Ne we?’ Stephanie squinted. Tarasha had gotten the pronunciation of the name wrong.

‘Come here,’ Tarasha beckoned on her to come closer to view the laptop screen.

Stephanie stood up immediately and joined her in front of the laptop. The browser was opened and the Google search engine had come up with results for the search “Nnewi”.

‘Nnewi?’ Stephanie called, looking at Tarasha’s face.

‘Is that what it is called?’

‘Yes,’ Stephanie replied.

‘Repeat it, I need to know the correct pronunciation so that I don’t miss my way as I go there now.’

‘Nnewi,’ Stephanie said again and repeated severally as Tarasha recited after her until the pronunciation was gotten. ‘Why are you going there?’ Stephanie asked. She had been thinking of all possible reasons why Tarasha would have to go there, it wasn’t connected to her mother who was their main reason for being in Anambra.

‘I have some business to finish there,’ Tarasha replied her as she shut down her laptop.

‘Business?’ Stephanie muttered with a trembling voice. She feared that Tarasha was going after Dave and didn’t know what would be the outcome if it was true. ‘Are you going to meet Dave James?’

Tarasha only glanced at her and looked away without replying. She packed the laptop into the bag and got up from the seat. ‘Where’s my bag?’ she asked, looking at Stephanie. ‘Did you bring it from the vehicle?’

‘Yes, it’s in the wardrobe,’ Stephanie answered, looking towards the wardrobe.

Tarasha walked there quietly and took out a new set of clothes from the wardrobe. She arranged them neatly on the bed before taking off her clothes. She pulled out a towel and walked into the bathroom.

Five minutes later, she was out of the bathroom. She put on the new set of clothes and arranged the necessary weapons in her pockets. She took out a small hand bag and put in some makeup kits into it, she also put in a face mask. She proceeded to the door after making certain that she wasn’t without anything that she needed to be with.

‘Please don’t hurt him,’ she heard a tiny voice as she put her hand on the knob.

She didn’t look back but only glanced sideways, but she was still able to see Stephanie with the side eye. She turned the knob and stepped out of the room.

PRESENT

Twenty minutes later, she saw the person she had been waiting for come out through the gate. He walked straight to the car parked by the left side and entered into it. Few seconds later, he drove off.

Tarasha didn’t drive after him immediately, she still had the tracker on his car, so there was no way she could lose him.

65 Minutes Later

Mandil Hotel, Off Ngozika Estate.

Dave laid in the bed tiredly after taking another meal. He had taken off his clothes and had only his briefs on. Thoughts of the day’s activities filled his mind. He never knew his visit to Anambra or his quest to find Dr Ekwueme would be connected with Samantha Osman. Everything and everybody just seemed connected to the assassin. And now that he knew the business Dr Ekwueme had with the Vice President, he was more than a hundred percent convinced that Samantha Osman had Dr Ekwueme with her. And since Samantha Osman was in Anambra and was even found at the hospital, it also meant that the Doctor could be somewhere around. Maybe they had come to do something in the doctor’s hospital, he thought.

He made up his mind to find out, but his problem was how he was going to go about it. He had no backup because his mission there wasn’t official and it would be difficult for him to face Samantha Osman alone, especially now that she knew of his presence.

He was startled by a knock at the door. He quickly sat up and stared at the door, wondering who or what could be at the door.

ABUJA

Mõ@ns and groans of pleasure filled the atmosphere as the two adults’ bodies grinded against each other, the man on top and the woman below with her legs widely spread and knees raised up. The moment of pleasure continued until both partners finally came to a climax.

Victor rolled away from her body and laid beside her, both taking in breaths slowly as possible. The room was now silent, the Mõ@ning and groaning sounds had completely seized like they never existed. Both of them stared blankly at the ceiling without uttering any words to each other.

For Victor, he had just had a memorable moment he had been longing for for weeks. His love for her had grown and he wished that he could just get married to her immediately and have this moments of pleasure whenever he wanted.

For Patricia, her feelings were mixed. She enjoyed every bit of the sëx, but she wasn’t sure if she enjoyed it because it was boisterous and she had not had it for a long time or if it was because it was with Cole.

‘Pat,’ Cole called, almost in whispers.

‘Victor,’ Patricia called back in a soft voice.

‘I don’t feel like leaving here tonight,’ Victor said and turned sideways to her.

She also turned and began to rub his head with her hand. ‘If you decide to stay, I’m all yours tonight.’

Victor shook his head with his eyes closed, ‘I have some work to do.’

She took her hands off him and turned away. ‘You still have work to do after being away for so long,’ she said in a pained voice.

‘I’m sorry dear, but I promise to make it up to you.’ Victor replied, turning her body back to him.

‘It’s okay, I’ve heard you,’ she said without meaning it from her heart.

‘Are you sure it’s okay?’ Victor asked.

‘Yes, it is.’ She replied. She put her hand on his head again, ‘Tell me more about your work and your trip to Lagos.’

Victor’s heart skipped a beat. His mind was too occupied with thoughts and the excitement of meeting her that he forgot to think about what to tell her if she asked the question.

He forced on a smile, ‘I went to Lagos to clear some goods from the port and we had some troubles with the custom officers which is yet to be resolved.’

‘What kind of goods if I may ask?’ Patricia asked.

‘Cars,’ Victor replied.

‘So you deal in cars too?’

‘Yes, that’s what I major in.’ Victor replied with pride.

‘Your specialization?’ Patricia said in a questioning tone. She sat up and rested her back against the headboard, Victor joined her. ‘I thought you said you deal in electronics and electrical products.’

‘Oh!’ Cole exclaimed, his mouth was left agape for some seconds. ‘I thought I told you I dealt with cars too.’

‘No, you never mentioned cars. You said you dealt strictly with electronics,’ she said with her eyebrows raised.

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Cole sighed, he shook his head and closed his eyes. ‘Maybe it skipped my mind, but I truly thought I told you.’

‘Well, it’s okay.’ Patricia shrugged. ‘How long have you started the importation of cars?’

‘Its actually an arm of AA’s group of companies which I was given charge of. It’s one of the main reasons I moved in with Kimberly Alex.’

‘For how long have you been in charge?’

‘About two years now.’

‘That means you started electronics before it?’

‘Yes, I did. The reason I called cars and vehicles importation my specialization is because I get more money there, you know that vehicles are being produced in Nigeria now, so if one has to deal with importation, one has to import the scarce ones here. So that’s what I do, the vehicles I bring in are usually very expensive ones.’

‘Hmmm…’ Patricia shrugged, she didn’t know what question to ask next. ‘So you still would be returning to Lagos tomorrow?’

‘Yes, I would.’

Patricia sighed.

‘Don’t worry dear, I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘Yes, I know you’d be back as soon as you can but your soon is always a long time.’

‘Come on Pat, I’m trying my best. You know I just have to sort out business.’ Victor said in a pleading tone, pulling her close to himself.

‘I know but I’ve been so lonely since you left. And to think that this would keep happening every time you have a delivery in the country, it breaks my heart.’

‘No, it won’t always be like this.’ Victor said as he turned her face to him. ‘It’s not every time we do have problems clearing the goods, and I won’t always be directly in charge, I plan on employing someone to oversee things for me and reduce the workload.’

He pulled her closer and made her rest her head on his chest. ‘Don’t worry, we would always have time to be together.’

They remained in silence for a while, both of them enjoying the comfort of each other’s embrace and warmth.

Victor got lost in thoughts. He had told so many lies to her that he even hadn’t even been able to keep tracks on the lies. If he planned to spend his future with her, then he had to find a way to purify himself of the lies. The other option was to confess to her about the previous lies and lie about something else which he make true in future. But for him to purify himself of the already told lies, he would need to truly go into the importation of electronics and cars. The big problem he had was his identity, how could he change his real name to Victor and even if he did, the authorities would still be able to trace his source, there was no way he could own or run a legal entity with the records he had, he thought.

There was a way! An idea struck his mind. He could find and go into the criminal and crime records of him which the security authorities had and erase everything and even put a clean record for him. But that was an almost impossible task because he didn’t even know where to start from and he didn’t know how many security bodies had his records and how he could find them.

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____________

ANAMBRA

The knock sounded again and Dave just stood there and stared at the door. He wondered who it could be. He had told the attendant who brought in his dinner that he wanted to rest after she took out the plates and wasn’t expecting her to return soon.

It suddenly occurred to him that he could have been traced. But how? He asked himself. It was more than an hour ago since he got into the room and no one had come looking for him immediately. He tried to recall if there were signs of anyone following him while he drove to the hotel but he couldn’t see anything.

The knock sounded the third time and Dave knew he had to do something quick. He walked noiselessly as he could to the door and stood behind it to look through the peephole, he saw a lady dressed in the cleaners’ uniform. Instead of feeling relieved, he felt more afraid and he himself couldn’t believe that he was so scared.

In most of the hotels he had patronized, he cleaners did not come during the day, they only came early in the mornings and in some few ones during the evening. He stepped back and stood beside the table. He opened his bag and took out a gun, he put it in his back pocket and proceeded back to the door.

Before he got to the door, there was another knock. He still didn’t reply, he stood behind the door and looked into the peephole. He tried to see if he knew the face of the lady standing outside but she didn’t look like someone he knew. After some seconds, the cleaner stepped back and was about to move on. He could see some cleaning materials in her hands.

He opened the door and stepped out, she was already walking away.

‘Yes, what can I do for you?’ he asked as he closed the door.

She turned back. ‘Good evening sir, I’m supposed to be cleaning your room this evening.’

‘The room is not dirty,’ Dave replied.

‘Okay, what about the toilet sir?’

‘It’s clean too.’

‘Okay then, I’ll be on my way to the next room.’ The cleaner said and turned away.

Dave walked back into the room and shut the door. He let out a deep breath as he walked back to the table and placed his gun on the table, he pulled out the chair and sank into it tiredly. After a few minutes of sitting idly and staring blankly at the ceiling, he finally took out his laptop and tapped the boot button.

He connected the laptop to the internet and opened the browser immediately after the booting process was completed. Soon, he logged into his blog admin portal and began to write a new post. He titled it ‘Vice President Elvis Richards kidnapped Dr Ekwueme’.

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He wrote only a few words in the main post on how the Vice President had worked with Dr Ekwueme in time past and had a lot of secrets in the doctor’s hands. He wrote that the Vice President must have kidnapped the Doctor out of fear knowing that the doctor could provide proofs to some of the accusations Samantha Osman made against him. He wrote it in a suggestive tone, hoping that the Vice President would come out with a statement of denial and also reveal more details to him unconsciously.

After composing the new post, he scheduled it for 8am the next morning. He decided to go through the content of the post once again and edit the places he needed to.

All the bulbs in his room suddenly began to go off one after the other, the air conditioner also stopped working. He turned and looked around to see what was going on, he turned to the window which curtain was opened and saw that the lights outside the building had gone off too. It appeared that the hotel had run out of power. Dave chuckled as it brought back memories of some years past to him when the country had epileptic power supply.

He continued proofreading his draft, hoping that the hotel would rectify the power outage in few minutes. Just as he finished proofreading and clicked on ‘Save changes’, he began to hear some noises from the door side. He stared towards the place but couldn’t tell what was going on. Before he could get up, the door opened and something was thrown in. He turned quickly to get his gun on the table but as he held the gun and attempted to proceed to the door. His eyes began to feel peppery and his knees weak, a gas had filled the room.

The lights came back on and the room brightened immediately. Dave was already on the floor and the gun had fallen from his hand. His whole body had suddenly become paralyzed except for his head. He heard the sound of the door closing and he raised his gaze. The Lady cleaner he had seen earlier was already in his room. She had rolled a big container in which looked more like a big waste bin but was used for moving clothes which hotel clients had asked to be taken to the laundry. This time, she had gloves worn to cover her fingers and a nose cover protecting her nose from the poisonous gas. She rolled the container closer and stopped beside him.

She squatted in front of him and stared into his eyes. She let out a wicked smile before getting up. She took out a syringe from her pocket which contained the poisonous liquid meant to kill Dave. She moved two steps and squatted again, she turned his body around and then held up his right hand, looking for the right vein to insert the syringe into.

ABUJA

‘Are your parents at home? I don’t mind hopping in to see them when I drop you off at home,’ Victor said as the both of them stepped out of the house already dressed.

Patricia stepped down the balcony while Victor was still locking the door. She stopped on the ground below the stairs and turned to answer his question. ‘Yes, they are but I won’t be going straight home, I need to get to the grocery store first. We can go home together from there.’

‘Oh! Sorry dear, I won’t be able to do the shopping with you,’ Victor said in a sad tone as he stepped down the balcony.

‘I’m not buying so many things, just few foodstuffs,’ Patricia said in a pleading tone.

‘I’m sorry babe, I already explained to you how I’m already late,’ Victor replied. He stood in front of her and stared directly into her eyes with a sorry face. ‘I was just thinking it will be odd for me to drop you off at home without entering the house to greet your parents if they are at home.’

‘It’s okay, you can just drop me off at the junction, I’ll find my way from there.’ Patricia said as she entered into the car and closed the door.

Victor sighed. He turned to the other side of the car and got into the driver’s seat.

____

Just as she found a good blood vessel to insert the needle, a sound distracted her. She turned and looked up, the sound of the ringing phone was coming from the table. She glanced at him one more time before she got up to her feet and proceeded to the table. She picked the phone and stared at the screen, Elizabeth was the name displayed as the caller ID. She swiped the green icon to the right to answer the call and placed it close to her ears without saying anything.

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She sat on the chair behind the table and tapped the laptop on as she listened to the caller.

‘Dave, what’s up? I just left Victor now and I placed a tracker on his car, should I provide the tracking info to the Agency?’ the female voice said.

Tarasha let out a breath and put the phone down, what she heard had nothing to do with her and wasn’t useful to her. She put her finger on the top arrow of the laptop keyboard and scrolled up the webpage opened in the browser. The title of the scheduled post got her attention. She read quickly through the whole post content. It got her a bit confused and she turned to stare at Dave for a moment. She knew it wasn’t possible for Dave to truly think that Dr Ekwueme was kidnapped by the Vice President after their encounter at the hospital. She scrolled up again to check the time the scheduled post was created and the last time it was edited. She discovered they happened only few minutes ago.

She paused to think. What could Dave be trying to achieve with the news article? She asked herself. She couldn’t get any answer in her mind. She stared at Dave again for a while. Then she got up from the seat and began to check around the room. She got to the wardrobe and located Dave’s traveling box. It wasn’t locked and it looked like clothes had just been taken from it. She found a part of the bag where some docvments were kept, she took out all the docvments and placed them on the bed.

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She sat at the corner edge of the bed and began to open the docvments one after the other. There, she discovered all the missing docvments that Stephanie needed to prove the Vice President’s guilt of the crime. Stephanie had told her that they had been burnt up by Madam Henrietta and even the elderly woman had confirmed that they were truly burnt. So she wondered how Dave got a hold of the docvments.

She stared back at him again, wishing she could ask him questions but the effects of the gas he inhaled would remain for more than six hours.

She got up and checked the bag in the wardrobe for more useful materials. After searching for about a minute, she closed back the wardrobe and proceeded back to the table with the docvments. She sat back on the seat behind the laptop and tapped it on. She navigated to the browser’s history but found nothing there except for the current page. She hibernated the laptop and closed it up, then she placed her docvments on it and carried it with her to where Dave was lying.

She stared at Dave for a moment. He was looking back at her but was motionless and unable to talk.

__

In the hotel room.

Stephanie sat in the room, patiently waiting for the arrival of Samantha Osman. She could not but pray silently from time to time for Dave’s life to be pardoned. She had seen the anger in Samantha’s eyes when she beat up Dave at the hospital restaurant, it was furious and it scared her but it was quite different from what she the anger she saw in her eyes when she beat up and killed the cultist that tried to R@PE her. The anger she saw that day was deadly and determined. That gave her a little bit of assurance that Dave’s life might be saved.

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Her phone rang and it caught her attention immediately, she quickly rushed to pick it up. Her face brightened a bit when she saw that Samantha Osman was the caller. She answered it fearfully, not knowing what to expect.

‘Stephanie, I want you to drive the ambulance to the junction before Ngozika estate and wait there for me.’

____

ABUJA

‘He arrived in town this morning and the Inspector General was also kidnapped this morning, I believe he has everything to do with it.’ A lady’s voice sounded in the dark room.

‘Is there any way we can get him?’ a male voice responded.

‘Yes, a tracker was attached to his car and he has no idea,’ the lady replied.

‘Do you know if Agent Dave James knows about this?’

‘I’m not sure about that.’

‘We need to do something real quick.’

___

‘Thank God you’re finally back,’ Henry said with a gasp as Cole entered into the living room.

‘Did I stay that long?’ Cole asked amusingly, glancing at his wristwatch.

‘Yes, can’t you see it’s late already.’ Henry answered with a frown.

‘I’m sorry,’ Cole apologized, seeing that Henry wasn’t happy about the situation.

‘I still need to go out, I hacked into the police records and I’m very sure my mum is still in this town.’ Henry said and got up from his seat.

‘You have to be very careful,’ Cole cautioned.

‘Yea, I know, thanks.’ Henry replied nonchalantly, still angry with Cole for returning late.

4AM NEXT MORNING

ABUJA

In a white singlet and red boxers, Cole walked silently through the passage between the rooms. He skipped the first two rooms and entered into the third room which door was directly facing the fourth one. He closed the door behind him and proceeded further to the bed.

The Inspector General was still asleep in a corner of the bed, his hands and his legs still chained and restricting his movement. A leftover food was covered in the tray on the stool beside the bed and a bottle of water was beside it. Cole opened the plate to see how much the man had eaten the provided meal. He remembered that the night before he slept, the man had refused to eat the food in his presence. He had left Basit alone in the room with the man to go and have his night rest in his own room.

The food was finished halfway, so it was obvious that Basit had been able to convince the man to eat or that the man was more comfortable eating in Cole’s absence. Cole covered the food back and proceeded out of the room. He went to the first room by the left and knocked gently on the door. He paused to listen for a response. He turned the knob and entered the room.

He couldn’t see anyone, he looked around and noticed that some clothes were on the bed. ‘Basit,’ he called, now facing the bathroom.

‘Cole,’ a muffled voice called back and then the bathroom door opened slightly after. Basit poked out his head, his hair was covered with soap lather.

‘Good, you’re having your bath already.’ Cole said. ‘I came here to wake you, we should be leaving here before five o’clock.’

‘Okay boss,’ Basit answered.

Cole nodded and then turned back. He got out of the room and walked to the one directly opposite it. He knocked on the door and listened for a response, he got none. He repeated the process three more times and then opened the door and stepped in.

Henry was on the bed, still fast asleep. Cole walked to the bed and stopped at the side.

‘Henry,’ he called, staring down at the sleeping one’s face.

Henry did not answer but only changed his position in the bed and turned his face to the other side.

‘Henry,’ Cole called again, this time in a louder voice.

Henry turned and stretched, he managed to open his eyes and let out a loud yawn. Then he kept a sleepy stare at Cole’s face still lying down.

‘Good morning Henry, it’s time to move, you need to get dressed.’ Cole said. He got no visible response from Henry but he believed his message was gotten clearly. He turned back towards the door and proceeded there.

‘Can’t you guys go without me? I’ll come to Lagos when I’m ready.’

Cole stopped in shock. He wondered if it was really Henry’s voice he heard or someone else’s. Or maybe Henry was not yet fully awake because his voice still sounded very sleepy. He turned and walked back to the bedside.

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‘What do you mean Henry? I don’t think I got you clearly,’ Cole said.

‘I think I expressed myself clear enough,’ Henry said, trying to sit up. He balanced himself and rested his back against the headboard. ‘I’ll meet you people in Lagos when I’m ready.’

‘You got to be kidding me Henry, how would we leave without you?’ Cole asked, slightly angry. He was sure now that Henry knew what he was saying, there were no signs of drunkenness or odour of alcohol, so Henry was very sober.

‘I don’t think I can go now,’ Henry said. ‘I have unfinished business here.’

Cole stood still, stupefied, he was speechless and even out of thoughts.

Henry returned to his sleeping position in the bed and closed his eyes.

‘Henry, don’t delay us, Tarasha is expecting us all to meet in Lagos tonight.’ Cole said out of anger.

‘Tell her I said I will meet you there when I’m done,’ Henry replied, without opening his eyes.

Cole shook his head and proceeded out of the room in anger.

4:00AM

Ngozika Estate, ANAMBRA

‘We’re leaving right away,’ Tarasha whispered to the doctor as they rolled the patient in the bed into the ambulance.

‘I know,’ Doctor Ekwueme replied. ‘But we’d have to stop on the way when we get into town to get some provisions in case she wakes up during the trip.’

Tarasha and the man who drove them to Anambra came out of the ambulance after rolling the bed in and making it stable.

Doctor Ekwueme and Stephanie were standing behind the ambulance and Stephanie watched them in sadness. She had expected her mother to become conscious immediately after the therapy the doctor put her through but the doctor had instead come up with an explanation that it wasn’t expected for the patient to regain consciousness immediately, most of the patients regain consciousness after few hours and in some cases, the patients could remain unconscious for two to three days and then the patient would go into vegetative state if consciousness wasn’t regained on the third day. However, the doctor assured her that the reading on the machine before he took her out proved that she would respond positively to the therapy.

‘You should remind me once you see a good pharmacy in town,’ Tarasha said to Dr Ekwueme. ‘You can go in now.’

‘Thank you,’ the doctor replied. He stepped into the ambulance and located his adjustable seat at the corner, he adjusted it into a comfortable sleeping position before lying on it. The door was closed by Tarasha from outside.

‘Let’s get inside the vehicle,’ Tarasha said to Stephanie and held her by the shoulder as they both walked to the front and got into the right side, Stephanie sitting in the middle. The driver was already in his seat, he started the engine at once and they drove towards the gate of the hospital.

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The gate was opened after the security officers performed some checks and they were allowed to drive out. Few minutes into the drive, Stephanie dozed off and the doctor at the back also slept off in his chair.

After about fifty minutes of driving, Stephanie woke up on noticing that the vehicle stopped moving. She saw Tarasha stepping down from beside her. She looked around, they were on an expressway, the day was still dark and there were very few vehicles on the road.

Tarasha closed the door and walked to the back of the vehicle, there was a car parked behind the ambulance. A man was seated at the driver’s side, sleeping in the adjusted seat and one of his legs placed on the dashboard.

‘I arrived here thirty minutes ago,’ the driver said to Tarasha as she stopped to talk to him through the window of the passenger’s side.

‘Thank you for arriving early,’ she said as she dipped her hand into her back pocket and took out some naira notes. She dropped them on the seat and proceeded to the back of the car. ‘Open your boot,’ she said in a loud voice.

The boot was opened and she saw her package in it. She lifted it with her two hands and began to proceed towards the ambulance, this time passing by the left side of the vehicle.

She stopped beside the driver and dropped what she was carrying in her hands on the paved floor. The driver who was counting the money stared at her, she dipped her hand into her front pocket and took out something. Before he could see what it was she already inserted the needle by the side of his neck. He slept off immediately. She threw away the syringe and carried the body bag on the floor. She got to the back of the ambulance and opened it, then she lifted the body bag into it and climbed up. She pulled it gently under the bed which Madam Atinuke laid. Doctor Ekwueme was staring at her.

She moved to the left side and placed a knee beside the body. ‘This is the journalist giving us problems,’ she said to the doctor. ‘He’s still alive, I need to keep him alive for now, but powerless, I’ve drugged him already.’

The doctor stared at her without replying. He watched as she opened the zip of the body bag and saw a young man lying still in the bag. She took him out of the bag totally and folded it.

‘When the day is brighter, we need to check his temperature and see if he’s safe,’ she said to the doctor before getting up to her feet.

She stepped out and returned to the front seat with Stephanie. Stephanie stared at her in awe, wondering what she went to do. She had overheard Samantha talking with the doctor behind but couldn’t make out what was being said, but she was somehow sure that Samantha had just brought in something new into the vehicle. She had watched how Samantha went to the boot of the car parked behind the ambulance but her mind didn’t even think it could be Dave.

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When Samantha had returned the day before without saying anything about Dave, she had concluded that it was either Dave had been killed or he had been forgiven and warned.

The driver of the ambulance continued driving immediately after seeing Tarasha settle down. Stephanie soon laid her head on Tarasha’s shoulder and slept off.

Another fifteen minutes after they continued the journey, Tarasha received a call from Cole.

‘Hey Cole,’ she said into the phone as she answered.

‘Boss, Henry is giving us some problems here.’ Cole voice sounded angrily from the other end.

Tarasha’s response to him was delayed, she had to think for a moment. It sounded strange to her that Henry could give them any problem. She wondered what Cole meant and hoped that Henry was fine and safe. ‘What’s the problem with Henry?’ She asked.

‘He says he doesn’t want to go yet,’ Cole said.

There was silence for some seconds. ‘He doesn’t want to go?’

‘Yes, I tried to wake him up now to get ready but he refused and asked that we leave without him.’

‘That’s impossible,’ Tarasha said in low tones, almost under her breath. ‘What happened yesterday?’

‘Nothing really significant after we took Chief Rikau,’ Cole replied hesitatingly, not wanting to mention that they went out. He believed Tarasha might scold them for moving around instead of staying safe and focusing on the reason for their trip.

‘And what’s the insignificant thing that happened?’

Cole sighed, he had to answer and answer truthfully. ‘I went out to see my girlfriend and returned in the evening. He also went out when I returned and he came back late at midnight.’

‘Do you have an idea of what happened to him?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Okay, did he tell you where he went to?’

‘I don’t really know, but it was something about his mother.’

Tarasha knew something was amiss. Henry was not the kind of person that would go out and return at midnight. She remained in silence for a while.

‘What should I do?’ Cole asked.

‘Let me speak with him,’ Tarasha replied.

‘Okay, give me a minute to get to his room.’

It took Cole less than a minute to get to Henry’s room and Tarasha could hear the exchange between both of them; how Cole spoke to Henry that she wanted to speak with him and Henry’s harsh refusal tone.

‘Boss, he’s not ready to take the phone from me.’ Cole replied.

‘Put it on loud speakers for him to hear my voice,’ Tarasha said.

Cole obeyed.

‘Henry, Henry,’ Tarasha called without getting any response. ‘Please, talk to me, what’s wrong?’

There was still no response.

‘Cole, let me talk to you.’ Tarasha said.

‘Yes boss, I’m listening.’

‘Give me some time to think, I’ll get back to you.’

Henry watched as Cole walked out of the room. He let out a deep breath. He didn’t wish to cause troubles for the team but it was now something he could not avoid doing at the moment.

FLASHBACK

Time: 7pm, the day before.

Location: Gwagalada, Abuja.

The rain had begun to drizzle by the time Henry got to Gwagalada. He found a place to park his car, from there he also studied the location on the map again. He took his tablet device from the backseat and placed it on his raised knees. He unlocked it and navigated quickly to the app, it took it a total of a minute to load and restore the previous session. He zoomed the map until he was able to see the particular street and building address, he then clicked on the location. A window popped up and began to process, after a minute a picture of the building appeared. He zoomed it in and studied the picture for a while. Then he returned to the previous view, he studied for a while again before switching to the road map view. There he studied the routes leading to the place.

He started the car and was about to drive into the road when he saw someone appear right in front of the car. He was startled at first and then he was scared, he quickly reached for the gun under the seat of his vehicle and pulled it out. Before he raised his hand up, the man was no longer at the front, they were now two and were standing at both sides of the vehicle. The man beside the driver’s side had his two hands raised in the air in a peaceful manner.

‘Henry E.G,’ the man beside the driver’s side called in a loud voice. ‘We’ve not come to fight you, we just want to talk.’

Henry stared at them in silence, but did not put down the gun.

‘We just need to have a word with you,’ the man said again.

‘Who are you?’ Henry asked the man by his side.

‘A fan of yours, who you don’t know about,’ the man replied.

Henry remained in silence for some more seconds. He knew it would be dangerous to try outsmart them by starting the car and attempting to drive away.

He looked at the man by the driver’s side. ‘Both of you should move to the front of the car,’ he said in a command tone.

The men walked slowly to the front of the car and stood just before the bonnet.

‘Move back,’ Henry shouted at them. He watched as they took two steps back. He opened the door and stepped out of the car with his gun still pointed at them. ‘Move back,’ he shouted again and the men moved more steps backwards.

He glanced back carefully as he moved forward, he stopped in front of the bonnet and rested his bum on it. He looked back again and looked around to ensure that there was no other person around, he couldn’t see anyone except for the passersby and the cars plying the route.

‘Relax man, we are not here to hurt you, we are here to help you.’ The man who had been quiet said to him.

‘I don’t need your help; just tell me why you are here.’

‘We came to warn you to stop here and turn back, you’re going into a trap, and your mum isn’t where you are going to.’

Henry’s heart skipped a beat as he heard about his mother. He squinted at the man before him, ‘How do you know where my mother is?’

‘I don’t really have information about her whereabouts but I knew the moment you started trying to verify her location tonight, I can boldly tell you that what you have is the wrong location and you have people there waiting for your arrival.’

Henry was speechless and confused. His hands became weaker and he began to lower his gun slowly.

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‘Henry E.G, we are here to help you if you would only listen to us.’ The man said, now lowering his hands which were raised above his head before.

‘Put your hands in the air,’ Henry warned, raising his gun at them again.

They quickly put their hands above their head again.

‘Where is my mother now?’

‘She’s not in Gwagalada, and not even close by.’

‘Where is she?’ Henry barked.

‘I don’t know,’ the man replied. ‘But the Vice President knows, and Samantha Osman knows.’

Henry was silent for a while, pondering on the answer he was given. He looked at the man’s face again and squinted. ‘What do you really mean?’

‘Samantha Osman knows where your mum is, she has a deal with the Vice President concerning her,’ the man replied. ‘If you would allow us, we would show you proofs.’

Henry was getting more confused. His hands were trembling and his knees were getting weaker.

‘Tell me more…’

PRESENT

The door flung open and Cole walked in again. He proceeded straight to Henry and sent him a blow on the face. Henry was yet to recover from the shock when Cole drove a pin into his neck.

___

8:05AM

Lagos State

‘Good morning Doctor Reuben,’ Chief Elvis greeted as he watched the doctor walk into the ward. The doctor stopped beside the drip stand to check the level of liquid in the drip bag.

‘Vice President sir, Good morning.’ Doctor Reuben replied. ‘Hope you slept well.’

‘Yes, I did and I also feel very much better.’

‘Thank God.’

‘Yeah, thank God I have a son who could donate his blood for me.’ Chief Elvis said in a bid to taunt the doctor.

The doctor smiled instead, not moved by the Vice President attempt. ‘Yea, thank God you have a son. But his blood did not match with yours, we had to get from the blood bank.’

Chief Elvis was taken aback, he found it hard to believe. He had heard James discussing with the doctor the day before and had also seen James when he returned after the blood sample had been taken.

Coincidentally, the door opened and James walked in that moment. The two men turned their faces towards him.

‘Good morning sir,’ Officer James greeted the doctor first before proceeding to his father. ‘Good morning Father.’

The Vice President replied his greeting in an unusual way and James sensed that something was wrong.

‘Is there anything happening?’ James asked, looking at the doctor’s face.

‘Nothing really, I was just telling your Dad that your blood could not be used.’

‘Yes Dad, we had to take from the blood bank.’ James replied.

The Vice President heaved a sigh. A look of worry formed on his face and he turned towards the doctor. He closed his eyes for a moment and remembered two occasions where his two other kids needed blood transfusion and his own blood did not match with theirs. He wondered if it was possible medically for his blood not to match with any out of three of his kids.

‘It’s okay Chief Elvis, you’d be fine in a matter of days. The nurses would be coming to administer some drugs to you very soon,’ Doctor Reuben said and turned to leave.

‘No doctor wait,’ Chief Elvis said and began to struggle to sit up. James helped him sit.

‘Is there any problem sir?’ the doctor asked, noticing the look on his face.

‘Ermm… I want to know how possible it is for none of my three children’s blood to match with mine.’

‘Sir… I don’t get you,’ Doctor Reuben frowned.

‘My blood does not match with the blood of my three children, is it medically possible?’

‘Well…’ Doctor Reuben seemed to hesitate for a while. ‘I don’t think that should be the question, what two other children are you talking about?’

The Vice President’s mouth was left agape, ‘Don’t you know of my two other children, I mentioned it yesterday when you first came in.’

‘Well, I thought you got those two by adoption.’ Doctor Reuben said without much thinking.

‘Adopttion? Are you okay Doctor Reuben?’

‘Yes, I am okay. I thought they were adopted because I don’t know how you could have had children after that accident.’

The Vice President was now getting angry. His hands were itchy and he wished he could pounce on the doctor.

‘Sir, with all due respect, I think you should check the paternity of those children.’

‘Are you crazy Doc?’ The Vice President shouted in anger.

‘Doctor Reuben, please you need to be careful,’ James warned, talking in whispers as he faced the doctor and signaling for him to leave.

‘It’s the bitter truth, I carried out that test on you several times and I am sure of the results. Except if there was a miracle, there was no way you could have another child after that accident.’

___

ABUJA

2PM

‘He left with them,’ a female voice sounded from the other end of the phone. The phone was on loudspeakers, two men were seated and facing each other in a living room, both involved in the phone conversation.

‘And did they leave the tracked car?’ one of the men said.

‘Yes, they left it at the same location.’

The man who spoke last sighed. He sat back and relaxed himself on the sofa. The man holding the phone also rested his back.

‘Do you know their destination?’ the man with the phone asked.

‘It’s Lagos, but I don’t know where in Lagos.’

The man with the phone sighed. ‘It’s okay for now; we’d get back to you.’

‘I told you we should have taken time to rescue the Inspector General first,’ the other man said.

‘We really do not have any business with the Inspector General, remember that Chief said we should focus on what he sent us.’ His partner replied.

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There was silence for a moment.

‘Well, I’m still wondering why Henry E.G still left with them, I thought we had been able to convince him that Samantha gives no d@mn about him and was only using him to achieve her purposes.’ The first man spoke after some seconds.

‘I thought we had been able to convince him too, I was surprised that he didn’t call us by 12 noon which we asked him to call.’

‘He could have been taken with them forcefully, maybe he said some of the things we warned him not to say out and they realized he was toeing a dangerous direction.’

‘She didn’t mention that he was taken forcefully,’ the second man noted out.

‘And she also did mention that he followed them willingly,’ the first man said.

‘Well,’ the second man squinted briefly. ‘She never really talked about him, she only said his device which she tracked has changed locations.’

‘Hmm… Does that mean Henry E.G might still be around, only that his device is what is gone?’

‘I don’t think so, I think he left with them. Remember, we told him not to leave the house today at all but she disclosed that the gates of the place have been tightly locked, he can’t be in, he must have gone with them.’

‘Let’s still hope, he might change his mind and call us.’

‘Why do we have to hope on him? He just happened to be a coincidence, we were not really planning to use him.’

‘But I think he’s good bait, better than Cole. He isn’t too hardened and is easier to convince.’

‘I think so too, but if passing through him does not work, we would have no choice than to continue through Cole who was our first choice.’

‘Yes, we don’t have so many choices and we have little time. The Chief is complaining that we are delaying him from using his experts.’

__

LAGOS

7:30PM

‘Zoom it,’ Tarasha said to Cole who was seated behind the desktop.

They were in the control room, the place was only fairly lit, just enough for them to use the computer without difficulty.

Cole obeyed her instruction and zoomed the already paused video. Two men were standing in front of the car and Henry was sitting partially on the bonnet, pointing a gun at them.

‘That’s okay,’ Tarasha said to Cole after he took two screenshots. Cole returned the video to the normal view and played it. They watched as the men spoke to Henry until he began to drop his gun slowly. He raised it back at a particular time but brought it totally down after some more talks with him. The men came closer to him and had more talks, and then one of them brought out an Ipad from his bag and began to show Henry something.

Cole paused the video. He took a quick glance at Tarasha’s face to see if she also wanted to see the video paused at that point.

‘Let’s see what they have there,’ Tarasha said, supporting his action.

He zoomed the video again, to have a bigger view of the Ipad screen. Unfortunately for them, what was being displayed on the Ipad screen was only seen as blur in the zoomed video.

‘Can you try to locate another footage captured by a camera that is closer to them?’ Tarasha asked, hoping to get a better view of the Ipad screen.

‘No boss, that’s the closest camera. In Gwagalada, there are no sufficient security cameras yet, remember that’s one of the reasons we choose to put a base there.’ Cole replied.

‘Let’s continue with the videos,’ Tarasha said.

They continued watching the footages and saw how after some minutes, the men entered into the car with Henry and continued their discussion. From there, Cole and Tarasha couldn’t see what was going on again until the men came out of the car and walked away and Henry returned to the driver’s side. Thereafter, he drove to a restaurant and stayed in there for more than two hours, and when he stepped out, he was again with the two men that he spoke with in the car. They got into different cars and drove away, to somewhere the security cameras weren’t available.

Tarasha and Cole took in deep breaths simultaneously. They stared at each other for a while and then Cole minimized the NSCC software and opened the screenshots he took of the men’s faces. Both of the squinted at the computer screen, trying hard to see if they could recognize the men.

‘Have you ever seen these people?’ Tarasha asked.

‘No, I have never seen them.’

‘We have to know who they are.’

Cole sighed. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have injected Henry with the liquid; it is possible that he would have discussed what they said to him with you with much persuasion.

‘But he would have delayed you there, and that I think is one of the plans those guys had.’ Tarasha replied.

A phone began to ring. It was Cole’s phone, he reached for it behind the monitor and silenced it, Patricia was the caller.

9PM

Henry woke up with a headache. He looked around, trying to recognize where he was. It was the medical room of the base in Lagos. He couldn’t remember what landed him there, all he remembered was getting instructions from Tarasha to travel to Abuja with Cole.

He heard some footsteps and looked leftwards, he saw Tomi walking towards him from the door.

‘You’re awake now,’ she said with a smile as she approached.

‘Yea, what happened to me?’ Henry said and managed to sit up.

‘Just a brief illness,’ Tomi replied him.

‘What about the trip to Abuja, are we still going today?’ Henry asked.

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Tomi smiled, she knew the memory cleanser which they injected him had done it’s work. ‘Don’t worry, Cole has gone there alone and returned already.’

Henry frowned. ‘How could he do that? Tarasha just told me today that we are supposed to travel.’

‘Henry, you’ve been out for two days.’ Tomi said.

‘Two days?’ Henry shone his eyes wide.

‘Yes, two days.’

‘And you call that brief illness?’

‘Yes, it’s brief, you just needed to rest well.’

‘Two days? I can’t remember anything that happened,’ Henry said, still looking baffled.

Tomi smiled again. ‘Like I said, you need a lot of rest, if you get enough rest, you will remember all that happened.’

Tarasha entered the room at that moment and Cole followed behind.

‘He doesn’t remember anything,’ Tomi said to them as they approached.

Tarasha walked straight to Henry.

‘Henry, are you okay now?’ she asked.

‘No, I’m not okay until someone explains what happened to me.’ Henry said. He moved his gaze from Tarasha’s face to Cole’s. Cole looked away.

‘You suddenly collapsed, I was told.’ Tarasha replied.

Henry stared at her blankly, then he glanced at Cole’s face again. This time Cole stared back into his eyes. Henry knew Tarasha wasn’t telling him the truth, he wasn’t feeling sick before so he knew he couldn’t have just fainted like that and the fact that he was finding it difficult to remember how he fainted made him surer that Tarasha wasn’t saying the truth.

‘I don’t believe you,’ Henry said to Tarasha.

‘That’s the truth Henry,’ she replied in a stern voice, not caring whether he believed or not. She knew that it would be difficult for Henry to accept any kind of lie, so she decided not to bother trying to make him believe.

Henry continued to stare at her blankly, wondering what could have really happened that was making Tarasha hide the truth from him.

‘I hope you’re feeling strong now,’ Tarasha said.

‘Apart from the headache, I don’t think I’m feeling weak in any way.’ Henry replied and got out of the bed at once. ‘I think I should get back to work at once, what task do you have for me?’

‘No task yet,’ Tarasha said.

‘You need to rest,’ Tomi put in. ‘Don’t let the little energy you’re feeling deceive you.’

Henry stared at her blankly, and then he narrowed his gaze and turned to Tarasha. ‘By the way, where is Dr Ekwueme?’ He asked, hoping that all things were right with the doctor.

‘Dr Ekwueme is resting in his room,’ Tarasha replied.

Henry raised his brows and shrugged. ‘I don’t like the smell in here, I need to get out.’ He said and proceeded straight to the door.

The three others stood and watched him in silence, until he closed the door after stepping out.

9:15PM.

NEW GENERAL HOSPITAL, GBAGADA, LAGOS.

Elvis Richards looked towards the door as it opened. He saw his son walking towards him and quickly sat up.

‘Good evening Dad,’ James greeted.

‘Good evening James,’ Elvis Richards replied. ‘Where have you been?’

‘I went to work, they are so many things that needs to be unraveled.’ James answered as he sat on the chair beside his father’s bed.

‘You have a new case?’

‘None that isn’t connected to the current one.’

‘Have you been making any progress?’

‘I can’t say, if there has been any progress, it is very invisible.’

Elvis Richards smiled on seeing the frustration on his son’s face. It made him remember when he was a police officer and had difficult cases to solve.

‘Dad,’ James called, looking into the man’s eyes keenly.

‘Yes,’ the man stared back at him.

‘I need to know some other things from you, it may help my work against Samantha Osman. I want us to finish her up and forget about her once and for all.’ James said.

‘What do you need to know son?’

‘I want you to tell me all the steps you’ve taken to secure yourself from Samantha Osman.’

The Vice President closed his eyes for a moment, he took in a deep breath and opened them. ‘Our armed forces have not been able to really secure me, I had to hire a specialist assassin named Rex, he’s been the one stopping her every move.’

‘An assassin?’ James frowned.

‘Yes,’ the man replied. He already made up his mind not to hide anything from his son anymore. ‘I hired him and make sure he receives information from the police and the SSS.’

James heaved a sigh. He now understood all of Agent Tim’s pranks and actions. He wondered how long his father had been manipulating government bodies and armed forces to carry out and protect his evil deeds.

‘On what occasions has the assassin helped you?’

‘On several occasions, an example is the General Hospital Opening Ceremony. She planned to attack that day, but he stopped her.’ the man replied. ‘Samantha always outsmart the forces, he appears to be the only one who matches her intelligence. That’s why I’m scared being here without having him around.’

‘Okay, where is he now?’

The Vice President remained silent for a while. The look on his face turned to a sad one.

‘He was taken, just before the Inspector General.’

‘Taken by whom?’

‘By Samantha Osman.’

James heaved a sigh. They remained in silence for a couple of minutes.

‘The doctor said you would be free to go home tomorrow,’ James broke the silence.

‘Yes,’ the Vice President gapped, a serious look appeared on his face. ‘But I want you to do something.’

‘What’s that Dad?’

‘I want you to call your younger ones, we need to conduct a DNA test.’

James opened his mouth, shocked that his father also doubted his kids’ paternity.