Tarasha dropped the gun slowly and took a glance at the door and back at Cole. She turned and walked to the door, holding the gun in alertness. She peeped through the door hole and saw the person knocking, she clenched her left fist and gave an evil chuckle as she tightened her grip against the door. Part of her felt like opening the door and gunning him down immediately, the other part felt like opening the door to embrace him. She stood back and paused for a while.
‘Answer the door, you should know how to handle him. Return his phone to him. If he asks’ she said to Cole as she hurried back into her room. ‘Come with me’ she motioned Benny to follow pack the rest of the devices and follow her, leaving only Henry’s phone.
Cole heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He made a sign of the cross as he walked slowly to the door, whoever was at the door was his saviour. He peeped through the door hole but didn’t recognise the person at first. He opened halfway and tucked out his head.
‘Hello’ Henry said with a smile, trying to peep into the house.
‘Yes, what can I do for you?’ Cole answered. He searched the guy from head to toe with his eyes, then Henry’s face came into his remembrance. He stepped out.
Henry scrutinized Cole’s face for a while and remembered him clearly as the driver who drove them to the birthday party.
Henry cleared his throat and began. ‘Good morning, I’ve come to see Evelyn’
‘Evelyn?’ Cole pretended as if he didn’t hear properly. He would have loved to say, ‘please come in, she really needs you, that day she felt like dying after you left her.’ But he couldn’t try it, majorly because of the tensed atmosphere that the device he had taken in carelessly just caused and he was also sure that the Boss wouldn’t want to see Henry.
‘Yes, where is Evelyn? The lady I accompanied to that party’
‘What party?’ Cole feigned ignorance.
‘Come on, you drove us in a Rover to late Chief Jubril’s party and disappeared when the party ended in a disaster’ Henry defended himself in a strong tone.
‘That was business, she was my client and only hired me for that evening’ Cole answered back.
‘She’s only your client?’ Henry asked.
Cole shook his head in affirmation.
‘I need to see her’ Henry added immediately, unshaken.
‘I don’t know where she lives or where she is now. It was her first time of hiring me, so I don’t have much details about her’
Henry paused for a while and stared straight into Cole’s eyes. ‘You’re not saying the truth’ he slammed. ‘Just tell me where she is, I need to see her for something important’
Henry paused as someone opened the door and poked out her head. She looked to Cole and then to Henry’s face and back to Cole, her eyes expression asking for who Henry was.
‘I want to see Evelyn’ Henry quickly said. Aisha feigned ignorance and gave him a strange look. ‘Or you may know her as Tara’ Henry quickly added.
There was an expression of shock on both Aisha and Cole’s faces. They mistook the Tara he called to be a short form for Tarasha. But Cole could recognize that Henry’s intonation was different and the way he called it made it sound like a Yoruba name.
‘Tara or Evelyn, she doesn’t know her’ Cole replied, arguing for Aisha.
Henry shook his head in disbelief. He had caught the shocked expression on the faces and was more convinced now that they were lying. ‘Why are you guys hiding her? I need to see her for something important’, he repeated.
‘Mister, we don’t know her. I told you already that she only hired me for the party and that’s all’ Cole slammed. Aisha sighed and entered back into the house.
Henry shook his head and licked his lips, thinking of what else to say. ‘Okay, I’ve been on the road trying to locate this place for some hours now, can I at least come in to have a drink? Maybe a cup of water’ Henry pleaded.
‘I don’t allow strangers into my house’ Cole replied.
Henry gave a smile. ‘I’m not a stranger’ he retorted. ‘You know, I could be your client too and a very regular one at that’
‘Sorry sire, I’ve really got some other things to do’ Cole attempted to turn back.
‘Okay, can I have my property?’ Henry said, perceiving that Cole was going to remain adamant.
‘What property?’
‘My phone, the one I forgot in your car’ Henry asserted. Cole kept mute. ‘Don’t try to feign ignorance with that’ Henry warned. ‘It led me here and I know that it’s in this house’
Cole stared at him awkwardly for a while. He turned back and walked into the house locking the door immediately.
Henry quickly took out a bug from his pocket and attached to the top edge of one of the pillars in the balcony.
Cole returned a minute later with the phone, not noticing anything, he handed it over to Henry immediately.
‘Thanks’ Henry stared at his phone with a smile. ‘You work with her right?’ He asked another question that kept Cole dumbfounded for some seconds.
‘I think its time to leave sire, you’re taking too much time here’ Cole said with a serious tone.
‘It’s okay, I’ll leave’ Henry said, tossing his phone from one palm to another. ‘Tell her, I only came to pick her up for service today. I’ll be back some other time, we still have loads of stuffs to discuss’ Henry said and turned to take his leave.
‘Don’t return here else I’ll do something terrible to you’ Henry could hear Cole thr_@ten as he approached the old weak gate. He paused and stared at the compound. The place was neat but it looked very old, like a deserted place that was being renovated. There was a blue car in the compound and a mini van. There were also very old building bricks arranged in one corner. Henry wondered what a modern looking guy like Cole was doing in such an environment. Henry cleared his throat and walked on.
He got into his car which was parked by the road beside the house and settled in the driver’s seat, leaving the door opened. He took his tablet device from the back seat and unlocked it. He opened up an application to monitor the bug he just planted. After some loading, the streaming began, he could see Cole just turning back into the house. He dropped the tablet on the right seat and closed the door. He wasn’t sure Evelyn was in the house but he was sure that the driver and his wife or girlfriend knew her. But the bug he just placed there would help him confirm that.
He took in a deep breath and remained in silence for a while. He could hear some singing from around the corner, a church was having the Sunday service.
His previous plan was to pick Evelyn and convince her to follow him to his own church’s service but since he didn’t get to see her, he decided to attend a church nearby while he monitored the bug. He closed the door and started the engine.
~~
After waiting for sometime after Henry walked out of the gate, Cole opened the door slowly and entered back into the house. Tarasha was seated on the arm rest of the three seater sofa, her short gun was still in her hands, she stared straight at him. There was an awkward silence of over five minutes. Cole couldn’t move and Tarasha kept an undecided look on him.
‘Why did you take the phone?’ Tarasha finally asked.
Cole felt stupid. He knew he shouldn’t have taken the phone at all or he should have told her about it when she didn’t ask. But the reason he was so interested in it was the special technical qualities the phone seemed to have. Little did he know that the owner of the device was also a technical guru who was capable of delivering them to the police by just that simple mistake. Cole could not answer the question, words refused to come out of his mouth.
Tarasha narrowed his gaze at him sternly. But Cole still felt little bit relieved. At least, she wasn’t looking like she was still going to still ki|| him.
Tarasha stared back to the gun in her hand. She felt like punishing Cole for what he had done. A bullet into his right arm wouldn’t have been too cruel for his punishment but she considered the new tasks ahead and the fact that she might still be the one to treat the bullet wound. She offloaded the gun and dropped it on the chair, one of the two bullets rolled to the ground.
‘So it was Henry right?’
‘Yes’ Cole answered. Tarasha let out a breath and her shoulders fell. Henry could interpret the look on her face as a wish that she could see him. He felt the temptation to smile, but rebuked himself and stayed calm.
‘Can you check if he’s still anywhere around?’ She said to Cole as she got up and walked to the front window. Cole opened the door and walked into the compound. He stared around the compound for a little while before proceeding to the gate, he opened the unlockable gate and peeped outside. Except for some building workers walking around, he could only see tyre marks on the sand. He closed the gate and returned into the house.
‘He’s gone’ he said to Tarasha who had already come out to the balcony. She was searching everywhere with her eyes. ‘Where did he stand?’ She asked.
‘Here’ Cole answered, standing on the same spot Henry stood.
‘That guy is a crazy technician and developer, his knowledge of this place could mean danger for us. We need to leave here soon’
Tarasha kept looking around. She saw something at the top edge of balcony pillar, it was hidden behind the cobwebs. She felt stupid as she stared straight into the bug before discovering what it was. She detached it from the wall and dropped it on the floor, crushing it with her foot.
‘$h|t! He has seen my face’ she cursed. ‘Didn’t you see this?’ She barked angrily at Cole.
Cole stepped back in fear and gave way for her to walk back inside through the door. He followed after her. ‘We need to leave here immediately’ she said, walking hurriedly. ‘I don’t know how much time we have left’ she picked the gun and the bullet on the sofa. Cole was standing still, he didn’t understand why they had to leave but he couldn’t summon courage to ask like he would have done normally. As far as he was concerned, Henry was there only for her. They had covered all tracks on their last operation, so there was no way it could be traced to them. Henry had come to discuss his love issue with her and that was all.
‘Why are you standing there?’ Tarasha returned back and stared at him. She had taken off her top and had only her bra and pant on.
‘That guy’ Cole began, moving closer to her slowly, carefully choosing his words in his brain first so as not to infuriate her again. ‘He said he came to pick you for church service’
Tarasha stared at him awkwardly. Her anger was beginning to arise again.
‘He knows your name’ Cole quickly added.
‘What do you mean?’ She narrowed her gaze at him.
‘He called you Tara’
‘What??’ She exclaimed, more like a whisper, looking shocked. ‘Where the hell did he get that from?’
Cole stared at her in surprise, surprised that she was surprised. He thought she was the one who told him the name since he assumed they had begun a love affair.
‘Wh@ťěver, we need to leave here now’ Tarasha said and moved closer to the sofa, she picked the bullet on the floor.
‘I think you’re in love with him’ Cole mustered enough courage to say as she turned back. He held his breath anticipating what could befall him.
‘What??’ Tarasha turned back angrily, it was as if Cole just stirred the devil in her. Cole could see her anger in her eyes and he began to tremble immediately. He began to step back slowly as she proceeded towards him. There was no gun in her hands and the door was still opened for Cole to run outside but he knew his attempt would be fruitless. So he knelt down in an attempt to plead.
A knock sounded on the door.
‘Evelyn, come on, I know you are in there’ Henry’s voice rang in.
Dakolo posed in front of the mirror to check his dressing and make sure that nothing was out of place. His well fitted black suit made him look smart as usual, he was wearing a white shirt under and a dark blue tie. He took a small comb from his box which he had already arranged and combed his medium height hair forward. He returned the comb and straightened up his jacket, he looked into the mirror once more before picking up his box and phone. His phone rang just in time.
‘Agent Dakolo, are you at the Rivers’ airport already?’ Officer Ken’s voice came through.
‘No officer’ Dakolo smiled, ‘I’m already in Abuja, I’ll be in the headquarters in few minutes time’
‘In Abuja already?’ Officer Ken exclaimed in a surprise tone. ‘Are you at the Abuja airport then?’
‘No, I’m not. Don’t bother about me’ Dakolo smiled. ‘I know my way around, I’ll meet you in the office. Is the IG there already?’
‘No, he isn’t but he’ll be with us in few minutes also’ Officer Ken answered.
‘Okay, until we see then’ Dakolo ended the call and opened the dial pad for a new call. He dialed the cabman, Clement’s number.
‘Where are you now?’ He asked.
‘I just drove in’ Clement answered.
~~Twenty five minutes later ~~
Dakolo and the cab man drove into the large compound of the police headquarters after thorough searching at the gate. Dakolo was seated in front with him and they chatted all through the journey like friends until they got to their destination.
The cab man who was surprised when Dakolo asked him to turn into the police headquarters was more surprised on seeing several high ranked police officials stop to greet Dakolo as they drove into the gate. It was his first time of entering the place but his surprise robbed him of the chance to notice the other beautiful sites in the compound. He began to stare at Dakolo’s face suspiciously.
Dakolo smiled on seeing his confused look. ‘Sorry, I didn’t tell you I’m a member of the police force’
The cab man glanced at him, the look on his face expressed his demand for more explanation.
‘My younger brother is the contractor really, it was his business card I gave you’ Dakolo explained further. ‘My promise to get jobs for you when you go back to your carpentry work is still on. I’ll ensure that my brother works with you’
The cab man stared at him more awkwardly without saying any word. He drove as he was being directed by a police officer into the garage. After about two minutes, they finally parked the car.
‘Thanks’ Dakolo said, bringing out his wallet from his jacket’s inner pocket. He began to count. ‘Since you know everywhere around, I’ll be calling you often, hope you’ll be available’
‘I’ll try’ Clement answered less enthusiastically. His focus was more on the cash Dakolo was counting. Dakolo finally counted triple of the fare and handed it over to him.
‘Oh! Thanks’ Clement received the money joyfully. ‘Just call me anytime, I’ll be available to take you anywhere’ he said.
Dakolo smiled and got out of the car. A crowd of highly ranked officers had come to welcome him, the IG was also there. A junior officer took out his box from the back seat.
‘Agent Dakolo’ the IG saluted on seeing him. Dakolo saluted back and received the man’s handshake with his two hands to show curtsy. ‘Welcome’
‘Thank you sir’ Dakolo replied with a smile, also responding to the greetings from other officers.
The Inspector General, Rikau Waziri was dressed in dark suit too, he also had a white shirt under but was without a tie. Aged 51, Rikau was of average height and a very dark complexion. He had a bald head, his face had scars on it, a result of several fights he had engaged in when he was younger. The rest of the officers were dressed in their uniforms.
‘Why didn’t you tell us the exact time you were coming? We were making arrangements to come for you at the airport’
‘I had to come earlier to do something sir’ Dakolo said briefly. He took a back glance at the cab man who was just driving off and smiled.
‘It’s okay’ the IG said and they began to proceed into the main building. ‘Hope your journey wasn’t stressful’
‘Not at all sir, it was stress free’
‘Good’ the IG smiled as they climbed up the short stairs into the building. Dakolo looked around, surprised at the number of officers who were present at the office on a Sunday morning. Officer Ken noticed his surprise.
‘They all have to be here because of the security issues we’re having right now’ Ken explained with a smile.
Dakolo nodded and smiled. The crowd of officers began to decrease gradually as they walked past the several offices and sections. They finally got to a room with the tag “H 4”. Ken brought out an access card and opened the door. It was a room where top officials held their meetings. The remaining three officers and the IG entered the room with Dakolo.
The room which was painted white all through was not too large but conducive enough for a meeting. There was a rectangular table in the middle and ten chairs were round the table. Light refreshments had been served on the table already. The IG took the seat at the front corner which was the short side of the table while the four others took two seats each at the left and the right. Inspector Ken and Agent Dakolo took the seats closer to the IG. The meeting began.
‘So what’s the way forward now?’ The IG asked after a short recap of the situation.
‘I’m thinking we need the help of some agents’ Dakolo said. Everyone stared at him for more explanation. ‘I mean a secret agent’ Dakolo stated further.
‘Does that mean you think you can’t handle it?’ The IG asked. ‘Cos that’s the reason we brought you here’
‘I’m not saying I can’t handle it, in fact I would have loved to but we need someone who wouldn’t need much struggle to disguise as an assassin ‘ Dakolo explained more but his listeners still did not understand except for Ken who was shaking his head thoughtfully.
‘I think I get his point’ Ken put in, redirecting all stares to himself. ‘Agent Dakolo’s face is already known in the country for nabbing top criminals and assassins, it would require extra work and would need a lot of disguise techniques for him to act as a secret agent, his face is known already’
The IG shook his head slowly and thoughtfully in agreement. ‘So what do you think we should do now? I really wish Dakolo is still a young man we could send as an undercover like we used to do’ he said smiling at Dakolo. Dakolo smiled back. ‘Well, we have some of our officers we could still send’
Dakolo gave a slight hiss which expressed his disagreement, ‘our boys have not been trained enough to handle this kind of cases. They’ll definitely cause more troubles for us. Even myself wouldn’t have been able to carry out this kind of job if it had come when I was still a secret agent. I have more experience now, both on the field and technically’
‘So what do you suggest now?’ The IG asked. ‘Can Ken?’ The IG turned to look at Ken. ‘Or any of these two?’
Ken shook his head slightly in disagreement. ‘Do you think it would work like that?’
‘Why not?’ Dakolo and the IG asked in unison.
‘We’ve been actively involved in this assassination case. I mean the three of us’ he said looking at the other two seated. ‘We’ve been involved in the chasing and interrogations, do you think it can still work with us?’ Ken said in a bold voice, dismissing every perception that he was afraid to take the task.
‘You’ve spoken the truth’ Dakolo said after thoughtfully considering his reply. ‘This assassin group members are intelligent and dangerous. I’m sure they’ll just play along even if they recognize anyone sent as the undercover and it would turn out as a disaster for us’
‘So we don’t have enough strong and trained men in the force that can handle this?’ The IG joined, getting irritated that they were making the matter sound so big.
‘Sir, it’s not about being strong here’ Dakolo said calmly. ‘Of course, strength is important but what we really need is an intelligent personnel. Very intelligent one who would match the intelligence of this assassin group. You know I can’t really talk about the manpower of the group but I know they are intelligent. Most of their strategies have been technical; they disrupt all our technical security facilities, keep us in darkness and then carry our their assassination, that’s what they’ve been doing’
There was silence for a while. ‘So you think that the assassin group is not really tough in physical strength?’ The IG broke the silence.
‘Yes but I may be wrong. But one thing I’m sure of is that their technical and developing abilities and intelligence is where they’re stronger’
‘No’ Ken disagreed gently. ‘Except the assassin group that ki||ed Chief Jubril USA different from the one who that carried out the other two but if we are saying they might be the same, which is really likely, it would be wrong to say they are weak physically’
Dakolo turned and stared at Ken, so did everyone else.
‘Yes sir, he’s right’ one of the two other officers finally broke his silence. ‘The group that carried out Chief Jubril’s assassination was definitely not weak physically. Their knowledge of the usage and control of guns is mind blowing, this is evident in the number of security officials and police officers found dead in the events centre’
‘Thank you’ Ken supported. ‘None of their bullets were wasted’ Ken added, looking at the two officers faces for support. ‘Their bullets got into their targets at delicate parts of the body and most of the victims did not receive more than one bullet. This shows that the group is a specially trained one and they’ve mastered the art of the use of guns. I believe only intelligence wouldn’t fight them, they’re complete, we need to be complete more than that to defeat them’
There was another awkward silence. Dakolo now remembered James telling him about his gun battle with the suspected lady who had blocked them on the road while they were on their way to save Robin Kahn.
‘You’re right’ Dakolo began again in low tones. ‘How could I have even thought that they had no physical strength, considering how they finished off Robin Kahn and his men?’ Dakolo paused and swallowed. ‘I also visited the warehouse where Robin and his men were misled to when I was in Lagos. You need to see the way their apparatuses were set up professionally’
‘You see, those guys are experts’ Ken put in briefly.
‘James also told me of how a single lady of the group also engaged he and the rest of the rescue team on their way to help Robin. She took out almost all the men and even escaped with their own vehicle’
‘So that means we need a stronger and complete team to match them else we would just be going round in circles and keep losing our men’ Ken added.
‘No matter what it is, we have no option than to stop the group’ the IG said in a determined voice. ‘And it would be nice if we capture their boss alive’
‘Yesss’ Dakolo stressed the word, as it he had just remembered something. ‘Talking about the boss. It is widely believed that the group is headed by a lady named Aisha Bello who disguises as Samantha Osman but with the latest assassination, the report says a man carried out the job’ Dakolo paused to look at their faces
Inspector Ken coughed and joined. ‘As far as I’m concerned, this assassin group we are dealing with is a large one, I believe they should have up to twenty or thirty in the group. It’s surely a large cooperation. So we can’t be sure that Samantha Osman is the boss, she might just be one of their major hitmen. The real boss could be in their headquarters and just be giving the orders from there’
Everyone paused to reason with Ken. Dakolo took in a breath and shook his head. ‘I agree that Samantha Osman might not be the real boss but I don’t think the group is a large one. We should have able to get one or two of them if the group was so large’
‘Now, we need concrete details’ the IG said in a tone which expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the meeting was going. ‘All what we’ve been talking about since are our opinions about them, no one has concrete details’
‘And Agent Dakolo’ The IG faced Dakolo squarely. ‘You said we need secret agents and undercovers, does that mean that you have suspects in mind already’
‘N…no…’ Dakolo stammered as he tried to answer. ‘There’s no group or real person we suspect yet’
‘Then why do we need an undercover if there’s no suspect?’ The IG slammed.
‘We might locate a suspect group very soon’
‘Then we should be focused first on locating the suspected group, then we can come back to finding a secret agent to do the work’
‘We are working on that already. There’s a NSCC agent who’s tracking them already. I’m also thinking that we could recruit him as a secret agent’
The IG gave a chuckle. ‘How do even you think that would work?’
‘The agent is extra intelligent and we’re also going to provide strong backups for him’
‘Who’s this person?’
‘Same guru we all know. Henry Ekene George’
‘Evelyn’ Henry called again when he got no response the first time. He placed his own palm against the door and noticed it was slightly opened. He pushed it gently and poked in his head first before stepping in.
Cole was still standing, not knowing if he should run or still continue to plead or if there was no need for the both anymore. Tarasha was standing also, she was mute, the bullet she picked on the floor was still held loosely. It was until she caught Henry’s eyes searching round her body that she covered the bullet in her palm.
‘I’m sorry for intruding’ Henry broke the silence apologetically on seeing Evelyn half unclad, ‘I’ll just wait outside for you’
‘You can wait inside’ Tarasha said with a stern voice. ‘Sit here’ she pointed at the sofa by the wall side and turned to walk into her room.
Henry and Cole stared at each other for some seconds. Cole let out a breath and made a strange eye movement at Cole before walking away, following the same direction Tarasha took. Henry moved forward and took the seat, staring around the house.
Tarasha inserted back the bullet into the gun and tapped her nose with it. She was undecided yet as to what to do with Henry, it was either she ki||ed him that moment or fall for the strange feeling that she was having again. The feeling that returned that moment he entered and she saw his eyes again. There was this calmness that drove out from her heart it’s previous occupier, anger.
She finally dropped the gun on the bed and turned to the wardrobe. She took out a jacket from the hanger and remove two short knives from it.
**Few minutes later**
The silence between the duo was really awkward as Henry drove them in his car to the church. They drove into the church garage and parked. The Pastor’s message was already on and could be heard from the speakers placed outside for the security and Marshalls. Henry got out of the car first and turned to the other side to open the door for Evelyn. She didn’t come out immediately but was staring at the whole place. She stopped and stared at Henry’s face, he gave her a reassuring look and she stepped out slowly, in her shredded blue Jean trousers and black top.
++++
‘Henry Ekene George’ the IG shook his head thoughtfully. ‘The chap is an intelligent one really, but I don’t think he can do this’
‘I believe he can’ Dakolo insisted. ‘He’s determined to nab this assassin group, it shows in the way he’s been dedicated to stopping their manipulation of the camera system’
‘Well, I think we should have a concrete detail of the assassin gang first before we can continue with the undercover plan’ the IG said, waving his hand to signal that the undercover case was closed for the time being. He placed his arms on the table and rested his chin on his palms. ‘We would have a meeting with the President this coming Friday and we have to be ready to give him detailed plans. So we just have two days to fix the game plan, so we’ll be meeting again tomorrow. Let’s go back now and work, think and make researches and personal investigations, tomorrow we would return to pour out our ideas and fix the plan’ he said in conclusion.
****
Jefa stretched and turned to his left side on the bed, forgetting the injury he had sustained on his belly that side. He winced in pain and scowled, he sat up in the bed After yawning several times, his eyes was opened enough to see. The pounding headache brought to his remembrance the fight that occurred the last night. It was so violent that nobody in his shop including himself escaped unhurt.
He closed his eyes and groaned as he stood up, he walked to the cotton and rolled it up thereby allowing the entrance is sunlight into the room. He scratched his bare back and returned to sit in the bed. His spoilt phone was on the stool in front of him. He picked it from the stool and tried to power it on but his attempt was fruitless. He dropped it back; his promise to call Henry that morning had failed. The business card given to him was also lost in the struggle, which meant that the only way he could see Henry now was to go to his house.
~~~~
10.45am
Henry started the car engine and began to drove out of the church premises. He glanced at Evelyn’s face but she didn’t glance back, she had been mute all through the service,even when they were being attended to as first timers by the church officials. Henry had answered almost every question for her, making her look like a deaf and dumb person. She didn’t even stretch her hand to take the Bible gift they handed to her, Henry collected it for her.
Henry was not too surprised by her reaction to the activities in church, knowing that she wasn’t someone who believed in God nor wanted to hear the name mentioned.
‘Did you learn anything new today?’ Henry finally broke the silence after driving out of the church’s gate.
‘I’ve never heard such hogwash in my life’ she replied bluntly.
Henry felt bad at her reply but he smiled. ‘Thats no hogwash but reality’ he said.
Evelyn remained quiet. ‘Those things you heard were real, though they may sound impossible to the natural ears’ Henry added.
Tarasha glanced at him. ‘So you believed a god died for you?’ She asked, smacking her lips together.
‘Yes, I believe’
‘Do we still have st*pid people who could die for someone else?’ She asked mockingly
‘Come on, don’t talk like that’ he scolded her.
‘Hehe’ she made a brief laugh. ‘It’s pathetic that intelligent people could believe such tales by moonlight. When we were kids, we were forced to believe those stories but now everyone should be less stupid. I used to think people get wiser as they progress in age’
‘Evelyn!’ Henry called, she kept quiet. ‘Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is not a tale, it happened for real, on this earth were you live’
‘Yes, haha’ she scoffed. ‘The stubborn Jewish Messiah was ki||ed by his people for disturbing their peace, that’s what we should do to those men we see on those platforms now who wants their followers to live by what somebody else wrote thousands of years ago’
Henry shook his head, struggling in his mind to figure out what to say. ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish fooli…’ He tried to quote a scripture but she interrupted.
‘Foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. First Corinthians one verse eighteen’ she completed the verse for him.
Henry was dazed, he stared at her with his mouth agape. ‘Where did you learn that from?’ He asked in amazement. ‘I’m sure you didn’t learn it when you were still a kid.’
She gave no answer. ‘That means you must have left Christianity not too long ago, for you to quote a “not so popular” verse’ Henry added.
She still gave no response. If only he knew the amount of Bible, Qur’an and other religious books scriptures she had in her head, he would keep quiet and stop talking about God to her. She thought. Studying religion and religious patterns were also part of what she learnt during her training in the Nefary Clan.
‘Why did you leave God? Did you feel frustrated about a particular situation and you thought he could not help you out?’
Tarasha chuckled. Henry was sounding more like a joker to her now. ‘God loves you and fee always wants the best for you’ he continued.
‘Oh! Shut up’ she burst out angrily. ‘I guess that’s why he also ki||s those who do not serve him. And he even sends his servants to murder the ones who still serve him faithfully anytime he’s really blood thirsty’
‘God is not a murderer’
‘But I’ve seen him murder a lot of people and he’s still good at ki||ing today.’
‘No Evelyn, God does not ki||. You didn’t see him murder anyone; he didn’t ki|| your parents’
‘Oh Yes, he didn’t murder them himself. He sent his faithful followers to do it’
‘Those people lied, God did not send them. He loves us so much and wants the best for us’ Henry was talking with so much passion that he almost ran down a pedestrian crossing the narrow untarred road. He quickly recovered and they continued the journey in silence. Now few metres away from Tarasha’s Lodge.
‘Why did you come to look for me?’ Tarasha asked and stared into Henry’s face. The look on her eyes was cruel, immediately the atmosphere changed.
‘Can we stop to talk somewhere or do you think we can talk in your house?’ Henry replied calmly.
‘That’s not the answer to my question’ Tarasha slammed.
‘Yes, I’ll tell you. Let’s just go somewhere and talk’
‘We don’t have anything to discuss about’
‘We have a lot to talk about’ Henry retorted. He parked beside the gate of the house. ‘We have to talk about you’
Tarasha who had been feeling irritated by his discussion of God during the ride was getting more impatient. She began to prepare in her heart slowly to use the knives tied round her legs under the shredded Jean. Her heart began to beat faster, something that had not happened in years even when she had to ki|| tougher people. But she had to end it all that day, else Henry would be her downfall, what she wanted now was to get some information from him.
‘How did you get to know that my name is also Tara?’ She enquired, expecting a simple answer. She was thinking that he had seen it somewhere around her when they stayed in the NSCC house together.
‘I’ll come to that’ Henry answered.
She crossed her legs and rubbed her palm on the left foot, her fingers touched the two knives hidden in an inner pocket under the shredded Jean. ‘Let’s drive into the compound please’ she said to Henry. He agreed and started the engine. Her plan was to lure him inside and force out truths from him since she was anticipating that he may be stubborn.
‘There’s no gateman here and the gate does not open automatically’ Tarasha said to Henry when be began to push the horn for someone to open the gate.
Henry got out of car and went to open the gate. Tarasha felt like bringing out her knives, in readiness to inflict pains on him but her mood changed again as he returned to the car and stared at her face for some seconds, there was this fire in his eyes that always seemed to calm her down.
He drove the car into the compound and stopped it beside the van.
‘Why did you come to see me?’ Tarasha asked again.
‘Calm down Evelyn, I’ve been searching for you since we parted last week’
‘I know’ Tarasha cut in impatiently. ‘So go straight to the point, why have you been searching for me?’
Henry took off the seat belt with a frown on his face, he didn’t like the way the conversation was going. ‘I was worried about you. I did not know if you were in safe hands’
‘Alright, I guess you can now see that I’m in safe hands’ she said and opened the door. Henry held her arm.
‘I love you Evelyn’ he said, looking straight into her eyes. She took her eyes off immediately, trying to avoid sparking off more emotions. Her heartbeat was increasing. That moment was the best to strike him dead according to the training she had got but she couldn’t just get herself to do it.
‘Thanks for loving me’ she said and tried to step out again. Henry gripped her more firmly.
‘Evelyn, we need to talk about you, us, your future and mine’
‘You don’t know me Henry, you want to plan my future for me?’
‘I know you’
‘You don’t, if you do you’ll leave here right now before I change my mind and do something bad to you’
‘I know what you can do. I saw that bullet in your hand, so I was expecting that you may come out with a gun’ Henry said without fear in his voice.
She paused and stared at the floor, thinking of what to do. ‘Get out of here immediately’ she stepped out of the car forcefully and began to walk towards the building.
Henry opened the door by his side and placed a leg outside, he stood from his seat and rested his arm on the top of the car. ‘I know you well Tara, I know who you are and what you do’
She paused at the balcony and turned to stare at him. ‘Who is Tara?’ She asked, trying to pretend.
‘You are’ he insisted.
It was getting out of hand now and she was getting more infuriated. It seemed he wasn’t going to leave. She bent and took out the knives from her trouser. She turned and began to proceed towards him, she was going to drain out every drop of liquid in his body.
‘Omotara Danjuma’ he called softly making her freeze in shock, the knife in her left hand cut through the skin on her palm.
Her eyes widened, she was convinced now that he was sure of his claims.
‘I met your elder brother, Jeffrey’ he added.
~~~
Jefa walked back into his two room apartment after visiting the phone repairer’s shop. He took off his sandals and dusted his feet on the foot mat at the door before proceeding to sit down. His living room was not too large and beautifully decorated but it was arranged in a neat manner despite the old furniture used. The TV was also a very old one, it was neat too and free from dust even though Jefa rarely used it. His eyes met with something as it wandered around, the diary and the photo on the centre table. He got up and went to pick it up.
He stared at the photo for a while, a brief smile formed on his face. He wiped off the small particles of dust on the photo and dropped it back on the table. He took the diary and returned to his seat. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, he was about doing something that he had never done. Their mum had told them during her lifetime that the diary contains secrets that they were not matured enough to handle. He flipped it open.
Tarasha stood transfixed, temporarily unable to utter any word or move from the spot. The knife in her left hand fell off and blood began to drip down to the floor.
‘Omotara’ Henry called softly as he proceeded forward. ‘We need to talk’
His phone rang out, disrupting the moment. He quickly took it out and silenced it without checking the caller’s ID.
‘Jeffery’ Tarasha’s lips moved repeatedly. The colours in her eyes were changing, it looked like she wanted to cry but there was no tears formed in the eyes. ‘Where did you see him?’ Tarasha asked calmly. She released the knife in her right hand to the ground.
Henry’s gaze moved away from her. He took a quick glance at the window at the balcony of the house, someone was opening the curtain to peep. ‘Let’s sit somewhere and talk’
Tarasha inhaled deeply and walked back to the car , she entered back into the front seat she was before. Henry followed her slowly. His phone rang again, he checked the screen this time, it was Agent Dakolo calling. He silenced it again and dipped it into his pocket. He entered and sat in the driver’s seat.
He looked at Tarasha’s face, she seemed not to have noticed that he was now in the car with her. Her face had turned pale, her body was right there with him but her mind had journeyed far.
~~FLASHBACK~~
** May 27, 2014 **
Omotara sat on the floor of the bus which was covered with a dirty rug. Still crying, she was feeling so uneasy and dirty in her blood stained clothes. She wiped the tears off her face from time to time but it was still uncontrollable, it kept flowing down like a river. No one could have imagined that such a calamity could befall a happy family like hers, especially on her day of joy. Her parents and two of brothers were brutally murdered, her virginity was stolen in the most gruesome way and now she and the rest of her siblings were being carried to an unknown place, only God knew where they were taking them to and what they wanted to use them for.
The bus vibrated on getting to a rough side of the road after which the motion was slowed down and finally brought to a stop. Some of their captors went out of the bus and returned two minutes later. They began to lead the youngest group of which Jerry was among, outside. It was very dark, so Omotara could not see where they were being led to.
‘Ahhh!’ She heard a loud groan which she recognized. Her elder brother, Jeffery had fallen to the floor where he was in the bus, a man who was holding a gun was standing over him and looking at him with mean eyes. It seemed as if Jeffery had tried to peep through the window and the man had hit him on the head with the butt of the gun. Her eyes met with her brother’s own , his lips were vibrating, he was trying to say something to her but he was inaudible. His eyes closed slowly and gradually. Omotara’s cry increased, she couldn’t tell if he died or fainted.
‘When we get out of this bus, I’ll make sure his head is cut off’ the man who hit Jeffery said in a warning tone to others. Omotara he felt like getting up to do something like hitting the man furiously until he ki||s her too but she couldn’t, her bones were so weak that she couldn’t even lift her legs without vibrating. It wasn’t easy to be forced on several segz rounds with the evil man whose body weight was four times hers.
The main aim of the rapist was actually to molest her till death, but she somehow survived. He had to give up after he had gone several rounds with the innocent girl and she wasn’t showing any signs of dying soon.
Jeffery was still laying down unconsciously when the bus stopped again, that was after another hour of traveling. Some of their captors went out again and returned few minutes later to transfer another group of kids to another bus. Omotara was part of the new group to be transferred. Her peers began to get up and follow the directions given by the men to move out of the bus. Omotara was too weak to get up, she tried to, but her legs failed her. She was still there with her back rested on the bus wall as she struggled to get up, she noticed a pair of boots stop in front of her, she looked up to see the person. It was the same man who led the group into her house and molested her, she could recognise his mask and color of clothes. He took off his mask gradually, revealing his mean face. He snarled and stared at her wickedly.
‘Didn’t you see your mates going out?’ He barked and landed a thunderous slap on her face. She rolled on the floor with crying aloud. The intensity of her headache increased, her vision was becoming blur. She stared into his face, still weeping before she blacked out.
It was until the next morning she opened her eyes, very hungry she was. She found herself in a forest, laying on grass, clad only in her pant. Her stomach grumbled as she tried to sit up, she could see her peers passing by her side and carrying several logs of wood on their heads, all dressed only in pants also.
Something landed on her head softly, a loaf of bread. She picked it up hurriedly and started devouring it like an hungry lion without trying to find the source. A man came to stand in front of her, she looked up at his face. He didn’t look like a Nigerian, but he was African.
‘Eat quickly. You can get water at the river over there’ the man said, pointing in direction of the river. His intonation and pronunciation further confirmed his non Nigerian citizenship. ‘Join your mates immediately you finish, there’s lot of work to do’ he concluded and walked away.
She paused a little while and turned around to look, it seemed that the work had begun a long time, all the girls were sweating heavily. Her headache began again.
~~PRESENT~~
‘Omotara’ Henry called. She blinked her eyes and turned slowly to him, her eyes looked heavy but there was still no tears in it.
‘Jeffery is dead. How do you claim to have seen him?’ She asked in a thr_@tening voice.
‘He’s not dead, I saw him, he came to me and we spoke. He told me exactly the same story of how your parents were ki||ed, his account was in no way different from yours…’ Henry’s phone interrupted again. He took it out and silenced it after taking a look at the screen, Mr Sylvester was the one calling now. He silenced it permanently and returned it into his pocket.
‘Where did you see him?’ Tarasha asked.
‘He came to look for you and found me’ Henry answered.
Tarasha blinked her eyes, she was doubting his answer.
‘You’ve also seen him before’ he quickly added. ‘The man who I saw you with in the Catholic Church premises’
Tarasha paused to think. Jefa’s picture flashed back into her mind. She tried to connect his face with Jeffery’s but she couldn’t find any connection. The man was way older than Jeffery should be. She shook her head in disagreement, mumbling some words to herself.
‘He told me your story, your full name and even showed me one of your childhood pictures.
Tarasha shook her head in disbelief, she opened the door and stepped out. She couldn’t take all what he was saying, it couldn’t be true. Jeffery was dead, the man who hit him with the butt of the gun had promised to take off his head.
Henry stepped out of the car and turned to join her at the other side.
‘Where is he now?’ She asked him.
‘He’s in town, I have his phone number’ Henry said excitedly, he took out his phone and began to search through his contact details. He dialed Jeffrey immediately he saw it. Unfortunately, the line was switched off.
‘His phone is switched off now’ Henry announced, looking disappointed.
‘Henry, please leave’ Tarasha said with a strict tone and began to walk into the building without looking back.
‘Tara, we still need to talk’ Henry pleaded for her to wait stop but to no avail. She was done with him already.
~~~
Jefa continued to flip through the pages of the diary. The writings on each day increased as he progressed. He realised that the events of older days were actually recopied into the diary, they were transferred from the previous ones and compiled into that one, it could be seen from the writing and ink of pen used. Their mother must have summarised and removed somethings she considered irrelevances from the older ones because she had about five to ten older days on a page while she had the days which were closer to her death more detailed. Precisely, two months before May 27, 2014 more detailed; each days within that period took at least half a page. But the ones were before that period were very brief, the most brief ones were the ones of the early 2000s, each day contained only a line or even half a line.
His mother could not have recopied it alll by herself, she must have paid someone to do it for her. The detailed ones were the only ones written by her, it was evident from the handwriting and neatness of pages. The total writings ended at the third quarter of the book. He finally stopped at some pages after the middle page. March 27, 2014. He began to read.
“Today, my family finally moved from our comfortable duplex in Victoria Island, Lagos state to an hideout in Gwaskara, Borno state. That was the only place we could think of running to since my husband is an indigene of the state. The conspiracy and thr_@ts of our enemies had become more serious and it looked like the police could do nothing about it. Even the Inspector’s advice was for us to hide for the main time until they were less angry with us. The house is not that bad, it just doesn’t look as comfortable as our home is. It also needs thorough cleaning and washing. Thank God schools have not resumed yet, I would do the cleaning together with my kids tomorrow.”
Jefa placed a finger on the page and closed the diary. He raised up his head, deep in thoughts. He remembered that Sunday several years ago, a mini van had arrived into their compound as early as 3am, their parents woke them up and asked them to start arranging their clothes and books into bags. Jeffery did not understand what was going on then, all his efforts to get an explanation from his parents failed as they gave him no response. His mother even shouted at him angrily to shut him up, only for her to apologize two days later in the new house and promise to tell him the reason for the movement when he comes of age. He never got that explanation till his parents were sent forcefully out of the land of the living.
Who could those enemies be? He thought. Who were those who sent his family out of Lagos to a place of unrest and unsettled security .
Except for an instance where he saw his parents discussing with so much tension, he had never heard, seen or suspected that his parents had enemies. He used to think they were loved by everybody due to their generous attitude and their selflessness in carrying out their medical profession.
He opened the diary again and began to flip backwards, scanning through each page briefly. He stopped at February 24, 2014
“Today, the thr_@ts against us increased. The Chief once again asked Danjuma to approve the deal but Danjuma refused. The Chief went ahead to give us a deadline of one month to consider it. He promised to take our lives if we do not comply and sign the deal. I’ve never been so confused in my life. My husband is confused too.
We’ve reported the situation to the police but no step has been taken to act on our case, I strongly believe that these Chiefs have a very strong backup in the force. May God help us and save us from this terrible thing that is about to befall us”
Jefa closed the diary again, he was more determined now to find out who the Chiefs were. He opened and began to flip backwards. A knock sounded on his door. He paused, looked up and kept quiet to listen well. The knock came again. He quickly got up and returned the diary to its former position. He straightened his clothes and went to the door. The police had come for him as expected, he had explanations to make about the trouble that ensued in his store the last night.
Tarasha walked into the house without taking another look at Henry. No one was in the living room when she stepped in, she knew that they were all peeping before and had all run into their rooms when they saw her coming. She saw the widow curtain which was slightly opened. She walked closer to the window and peeped from it. Henry was still standing and bfacing the house, he saw her peeping. She rolled down curtains immediately after their eyes met and turned back to lock the entrance door carefully. She began to proceeded to the rooms section.
‘Cole, Benny, Aisha’ she called in a loud but gentle voice as she stopped in front of Aisha’s room. One after the other, they all came out to meet her.
‘Start packing everything that’s important, we are leaving here in the next one hour’
‘Cole’ she called and turned to him. ‘Hack into the security cameras system and stop all transmissions from this area and several kilometres surrounding it. I believe we are being monitored, so we have to be careful’ she said and began to proceed into her own room. She stopped at the entrance and turned back. Cole, Aisha and Benny were still standing on the same spots they were, staring at her in awe. They wondered if what you said about them being monitored was true. Then that means that their Waterloo was near.
She walked past them to the living room again and went to the window to check. Henry had just opened the gate and was returning to his car. He stopped before entering the driver’s seat and glanced around the house again. Tarasha quickly closed the curtain to hide herself. He fixed his gaze on the window for a second, he knew someone was looking at him through the window but he couldn’t tell who it was. He opened the door and entered into the car. He kicked off the engine and reversed out of the compound. He came out of his car again to close back the gate before driving off.
Tarasha left the window and walked back to her room. Benny and the others had already entered their rooms. She got inside her room and locked the door. She sat on the bed, buried her face on her palms and let out a deep breath. She had underestimated the Nigerian police, she began to think. She thought that all her tracks had been covered, not knowing that someone, Henry was on her trail. She was sure in her heart that he was an undercover cop sent to bring her down. That was the reason for all he had been doing.
She thought of how he bumped into her at the computer shop when she first came into Abuja, it all began to make sense to her now. She had been too careless to note that his constant running into her was not by mistake but was planned. She was being monitored.
Ahe now understood his romance tactics with her, it was very common for undercover cops to have a romantic relationship with their targets, it always worked for them. Now the common saying “Feelings are for fools” taught to them by the Nefary clan was making complete sense. The day an assassin begins to have affections is the day the assassin’s death warrant is signed.
How did Henry find out all he did about her? Her real name, the name of her brother and what she did. Of course, he hadn’t seen her brother Jeffrey, he died a long time ago. Or how could her brother even have recognised her after so many years? Henry was an expert agent, she was very sure.
She came up with a clue of how her bloodline was traced and how Henry found out that the name of her brother, Jeffrey. Henry must have taken something from her during their time of staying together, likely a strand of her hair when she foolishly agreed to stay in the cameras commission house with him. They must have gotten the strand from her comb when she went out. With that they would have been able to trace her background and find out all about her origin in Nigeria.
She got up from the bed and flung open the wardrobe. She began to take out her guns and ammunitions first, she arranged them into their bags neatly.
~~
Henry had driven for thirty minutes before he remembered to check his phone. He had just left the village where he went to visit Tarasha and had gotten into town. He pulled up close to the area where commercial cabs were parked. He took out his phone and drew the security pattern, he clicked on the call logs icon. He dialed Sylvester’s number first.
‘Hello sir’ he spoke immediately the call was answered.
‘Hello, Mr Henry. We’ve been trying to reach you for a long time. What happened? Were you in church?’ Sylvester’s voice came through impatiently.
‘Yes, I was in church today and my phone was on silence mode’ Henry gave the expected excuse.
‘Oh! I never knew you were a religious type’ Sylvester exclaimed.
‘I’m not religious, I’m a Christian’ Henry corrected.
‘Anyways, have you spoken with Agent Dakolo? He’s the one who urgently needs to reach you.’
‘No, but I’ll call him right away’
‘Please do’
‘Okay’ Henry ended the call and dialed Dakolo immediately.
‘Good afternoon sir’ Henry greeted first.
‘Good afternoon Henry, how are you doing?’
‘Fine sir, what about you?’
‘I’m good. We need to see urgently’
‘Where do you want us to meet sir?’ Henry asked.
‘We can meet in your house or any place of your choice’ Dakolo said.
‘In my house?’ Henry sounded uncomfortable with the idea.
‘Anywhere you want. In a restaurant or wherever but not in the office’
‘I think I should come and meet you in Elymax, we can discuss in the restaurant there’
‘Okay, I’ll be expecting you in the next thirty minutes’
‘Yeah sure’ Henry ended the call.
He threw his phone to the backseat and let out a deep breath as rested his head. He closed his eyes and his thoughts once again drifted back to Omotara. He wondered what the best way to help her was. Now that she wasn’t acting like someone who was going to easily cooperate with him. The picture of the bullet which he saw with her flashed back into his mind, he also remembered the knife which cut her hand. He wasn’t surprised because he expected that her work as a fraudster would also require her to keep weapons and guns.
A thought flashed through his mind, scaring him to death. Could Omotara be Samantha Osman, the mastermind of the assassinations? He shook his head in disagreement with himself, the thought of the possibility alone frightened him extremely. He chose to believe otherwise, Omotara was just an unlucky girl who had found her way to be a fraudster. She couldn’t be the dangerous assassin. He kicked off the engine and drove away to meet Dakolo.
**35 minutes later**
Henry had no issues spotting Dakolo where he was seated immediately he walked into the restaurant. Dakolo was seated close to the entrance. Several other customers were eating and discussing in the restaurant.
‘Good afternoon sir’ Henry greeted as he approached the table.
‘Good afternoon’ Dakolo stood up to shake hands with him before sitting down. There were soft drinks on the table already which had been ordered by Dakolo.
‘You can change your drink if you don’t like it’ Dakolo said on seeing the way Henry stared at the table.
‘No, it’s okay’ Henry smiled. ‘I was just wondering what the reason could be for the urgent meeting’
‘Nothing new’ Dakolo adjusted his seating position. ‘Still the same case, just that we’ve been mandated to take more drastic steps. We need to make an headway on the case this week. I’ll be having a meeting with the president this week and also some of the top security ministers and we need substantial progress reports’
‘Okay’ Henry fixed his gaze on Dakolo, listening attentively.
‘You told me yesterday when we discussed that we can’t trace the source of the past cameras disruption, we can only wait till there’s another attempt on it’
‘Yes, I did. Any attempt to trace it now may lead us to a trap’ Henry reconfirmed.
‘Okay, but what happens if Chief Jubril’s assassination was the last of the attacks?’
Henry narrowed his eyes thoughtfully without saying any word. ‘Does it mean that they go scot-free with what they’ve done already?’ Dakolo continued. ‘The way it looks now, we are helpless and with little or no clue to lead us to this assassin group. Only the picture of the suspected lady Samantha Osman is what we have’
Henry’s heart skipped a beat as he remembered his suspicion of Omotara being the Samantha again. ‘Can I see the picture please?’
‘Of course sure, you may have seen the person somewhere before’ Dakolo bent to pick a small briefcase which was in between the legs of his chair. He placed it on his lap and opened it. He brought out an iPad, closed back the briefcase and returned it to the former position. He turned on the iPad and waited patiently for it to boot. After some seconds of searching, he handed the iPad to Henry. ‘That’s her passport, it’s not recent one though. According to our investigations, her real name is Aisha Bello. We believe she’s the one who disguises herself as Samantha Osman. All our efforts to trace her has proved futile’
Henry stared at the passport keenly. His mind was greatly relieved as the person in it did not in anyway look like Omotara. He heaved a sigh of relief and handed the iPad back to Dakolo. ‘I’ve not seen that face anywhere before’
‘Do you want to see more of her recent pictures?’ Dakolo asked as he took back the iPad, opening a picture which showed the grown Aisha.
‘No’ Henry refused politely. ‘I don’t know that person, I’ve never seen her before’
‘Okay’ Dakolo switched off the iPad and returned it into the briefcase. ‘So, we need to work. We can’t wait and hope until there’s another attempt made’
‘Sir, I think the NSCC has done what needs to be done already. The footages which were never stored with us cannot be recovered in any way. We’ve done what we can do to prevent a reoccurrence’
Dakolo bent forward and stared into Henry’s eyes. ‘I know, but the police needs your help now more than ever before. We need you to work with us’
‘How?’ Henry asked, he frowned slightly.
Dakolo rested back into his chair again, he folded his arms. ‘First, you were here when the last attack happened and it even happened in this same state’
‘Yes sir’ Henry answered. A thought came into his mind. He hope that Dakolo would not ask him questions that would reveal that he was also an attendee at the party.
‘Is there any group or individual to suspect personally?’
‘Huh?’ Henry was visibly shaken by the question.
‘Do you have anyone you suspect?’ Dakolo asked again, this time in a calmer tone. He stared into Henry’s eyes as he waited for an answer.
~~~~
Cole was seated on the three seater sofa, already dressed up in a black top and black Jean trouser while the others were still in the rooms, gathering their loads. He opened his bag which was on the sofa and brought out his laptop. He placed it on his lap and opened it up to boot. After a minute, the computer was on. He began the assignment given to him to hack the cameras system.
After some minutes of following normal procedure, strange commands and notifications began to pop up on the laptop screen. The one which got him more worried was a pop-up window which displayed, “Real Address to be revealed, continue? Yes/No”
He closed the whole process and started from the scratch again, taking extra care in following each step. At the end of the whole process, he received the same pop-up window. He clicked on No and the process was aborted. He frowned and thought for a while, something was definitely wrong.
He cleared the software cache and history and even restored it back to the default settings. He now had to log in again and make some settings which would require a longer time to complete.
‘Have you stopped the transmission?’ Tarasha asked as she appeared behind him, trying to wear a bag to her back. She was dressed in the same manner as Cole, the same color of clothes but she had black gloves on which Cole didn’t. She was dragging a traveling box along.
‘No’ Cole looked up as Tarasha got to his front.
‘What’s delaying it?’ She asked and sat on the one seater sofa by the Cole’s left.
‘There’s a strange pop-up showing at the end of the process’ Cole answered with a frown.
‘What pop-up?’
‘I’m almost there. I’ll show you if it comes up again’ Cole replied. After two minutes of continuous typing and clicking, Cole heaved a sigh of frustration. ‘It’s here again’ he said and sank back into the sofa like he had given up.
Tarasha got up and sat beside him. She squinted on seeing the message of the pop-up window.
‘Should I click yes?’ Cole asked, looking into Tarasha’s face. She replied him with a warning look and he kept mute.
‘If you click yes, they won’t only be able to find this location but would also be able to recover the stream’ she said as she got up, she bit her lips and stared into the air for some seconds.
~~~
‘Yesss’ Henry replied, stressing the word. He knew better than to say no because he was sure that Dakolo would catch him easily especially when he had not been able to hide his shock at the question.
‘ I’m thinking that we could have an in-house member of the gang in the NSCC, I’m suspecting those working in the headquarters especially’ Henry quickly added a well thought up lie.
‘Does this include Mr Sylvester?’ Dakolo asked.
‘Hum… Not really. Mr Sylvester seems to naive to be involved in that. But still, everyone is a suspect’
‘Including you?’ Dakolo suggested with a smile.
‘Yes, including me’ Henry replied with a brief laugh.
‘Then, how do we go about this? How do we investigate your office?’ Dakolo asked, putting back on his serious look.
Henry’s phone beeped. A warning notification alarm rang out. His call ringing tone began to sound at the same time. He brought out the phone and checked the caller.
‘Mr Sylvester’ he whispered to Dakolo.
‘Go ahead, answer, hear what he has to say’
Henry answered the call. ‘Mr Henry, the whole office is ringing with the alarms, someone is trying to hack our systems again’
‘Huh?’
‘Yes, I can see it on my computer here’
‘Okay, just wait for me. I’ll be in the office in few minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on it , record every change in direction that occurs’ Henry said and ended the call. He confirmed the Sylvester’s report by the alarm on his phone.
From the look on Henry’s face, Dakolo could perceive that something bad was happening. ‘The gang is trying to disrupt our system again’ Henry said to Dakolo’s waiting ears.
‘Wow’
Henry got up quickly and picked his car keys from the table. ‘I have to go now’
‘Yes sure’ Dakolo permitted. He got up also and took out his phone. He dialed the headquarters as Henry left him and walked away.
‘Send enough men to every entry and exit to the major roads in town. There seem to be another security breach right now, something dangerous may happen’ he said into the phone.
Tarasha removed the bag on her back and returned to the sofa. She took out her own laptop and turned it on. She looked into Cole’s laptop again as she waited for hers to complete the booting process. She smiled lightly. Whoever had helped tightened the cameras security system had done a good job but still had more work to do. Her laptop was on, she clicked on the start button and selected the “run” process. The “run window” came up. She typed in a code. “Nef-Tar-diag-falc.” After some seconds of loading, the whole computer system display changed and another window popped up, requesting for a password. She typed in the password and the window closed. In just few minutes, she had swapped from the windows operating system to a personal operating system created by herself.
‘Go get the rest of the team, get the bags into the car’ Tarasha said to Cole who was staring into the screen in awe. Cole closed his laptop and got up immediately. ‘You guys should also get your guns ready, we’ll take out anyone that tries to stop or monitor us, even if it’s someone we only suspect’ she added before Cole began to move.
‘That includes Henry’ she added again. Cole paused and turned to look at her. ‘ki|| him if he ever comes your way again’ she stared into his eyes and reiterated. Cole turned and proceeded to the rooms.
Tarasha continued with her work on the laptop. In two minutes time, Aisha and Benny came out with their luggages. Cole also followed behind, he picked the Boss’ box and carried it with him outside the building.
~~~
Henry walked in hurriedly into the NSCC head office, he headed straight for Mr Sylvester’s office without waiting to greet or respond to anybody’s greeting. He entered the office without knocking. Sylvester was looking into the a computer with another technician. Henry sat on the visitors seat and turned the second computer which was on Mr Sylvester’s table to himself. He clicked open the software to check the status.
‘Let’s go to the control room’ he said and got up from the seat. Sylvester and the other technician followed him. They proceeded out of the office and headed for the control room.
‘When exactly was the attempt made?’ Henry asked as he opened the door to the control room. The control room was brightened up with yellow bulbs, there were twelve desktops neatly arranged on three rows. An operator sat on the third row behind the main control system, he got up on sighting Henry and Sylvester coming towards him.
‘The first attempt was by 12.46pm, three other attempts have been made after that’ Sylvester replied. Henry gave Sylvester an eye signal to send out the two our technicians.
‘You can wait outside’ Sylvester said to the technicians and they left reluctantly.
Henry sat behind the main system and began to type on the keyboard hurriedly. ‘So what locations were spotted?’ Henry asked. Sylvester stood by his side with a hand placed on the table as he looked into the screen.
‘No location was spotted’ Sylvester replied. ‘It didn’t not show any point, direction or even distance’
Henry looked into his face, surprised. ‘What do you mean?’ He questioned with a frown and turned back to the screen slowly. Sylvester gave no reply since Henry was almost finding out himself.
‘No, this can’t be’ Henry shook his head in disbelief and frustration. He was disappointed with the result displayed by the software. ‘This can’t be’
‘What?’ Sylvester asked softly.
‘Who else apart from the both of us is aware of this new software?’
‘None, except for Agent Dakolo’
Henry hurriedly brought out his phone. Dakolo’s call was coming in at the right time. ‘Hello sir’
‘Hello Henry, have you been able to determine the location and source?’ Dakolo questioned.
‘No’ Henry said flatly. ‘There was an attempt but they did not break in.’ Dakolo gave no response, his intake of breath from the other side was heard by Henry.
‘Sir, did you tell anyone about the new software I made yesterday?’ Henry added another question.
‘No, why?’
‘They didn’t fall into the trap. It’s like the person behind the security attack somehow knew that his location would be revealed and did not complete the last step’
‘But you guys got the alarm?’
‘Yes. Sir’
‘So what do you think it is?’
‘I…’ The warning alarm tone began to ring out again from all the computer systems in the room. ‘$h|t! I’ll call you back sir’
‘I’m coming over’ Dakolo said before Henry ended the call.
A new attempt had been made again. Sylvester turned to silence the alarms on the other computers while Henry got himself busy with the tracking. Sylvester returned three minutes later to meet Henry staring into the computer in an agitated manner.
‘What’s wrong?’ Sylvester asked. ‘Did we get their location’
Henry looked up into his face and shook his head in a pitiful manner. ‘This time, not only the transmission to the branch and regional offices was stopped, the transmission to this head office and the country’s main control point has been redirected.
Sylvester became dumb instantly, his legs began to shake, he dragged a seat from the front of another computer and sat on it before his legs failed him. His lips began to tremble. Henry could perceive from his lips movement that the man was complaining about his job. Henry hissed and got up from his seat. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath through his mouth, he stared up to the ceiling.
His mind began to wander around as he sympathised with himself for his failure, the first major failure he would encounter in his job as a software technician and hacker. He wondered who could be brainbox in the assassin team, pictures of his friends and top colleagues in the same job began to roll into his mind, every of them was now a suspect.
‘What do we do now? I don’t want to lose my job’ Sylvester manager m lamented, looking up at Henry.
Henry hissed and returned back to the seat behind the computer, Sylvester’s eyes following him around. ‘Do you think of anything else other than your job?’ Henry slammed. ‘I mean, someone is in danger of being ki||ed now and you’re complaining about your job’
Sylvester took his gaze away shamefully. He got up slowly and began to pace around. Henry picked his phone from the table and dialed Dakolo.
~~~
‘Henry, I’m on my way to your office’ Dakolo said into the phone as he hurried out of the police office building.
‘Sir, we couldn’t get the location or source and we lost transmission too. The assassins must be on their way to carry out their job’
‘d@mn!’ Dakolo exclaimed, stamping his feet on the ground. He turned back and climbed back the stairs into the building. ‘You mean, even your head office has no signal from the street cameras?’
‘No’ Henry replied in a very low tone.
‘Thanks’ Dakolo was about to cut the call.
‘Sir, I didn’t tell you before… ‘ Henry’s voice came up suddenly again.
‘What?’ Dakolo said, heading for the computer room in the building.
‘We don’t know if the attempt was made from Abuja, there’s ninety five percent possibility that it could be in another state’
‘$h|t!’ Dakolo cursed as he opened the door to a large open office, he stopped at the entrance. ‘And what do we do now?’
‘Sir, I’ll get back to you when I get a solution’
Dakolo ended the call and walked in, closing the transparent glass door behind. The open office which serves over ten police officials had only two people in it now, Ken and a computer operator. Majority did not come to the office on Sunday and the few ones that came had gone out to man the major entries and exits of the town. Ken’s eyes followed Dakolo from the doorway until he got close to them.
‘You’re not going again?’ Ken asked.
Dakolo shook his head in negative. He got to the table and picked up a phone which he dropped before leaving.
‘Officer, call more officers from their homes to join you, even the ones on leave and make sure that every team is led by a senior officer. Let no sergeants or recruits head a team’ Dakolo said into the phone.
‘We still have no signal from the NSCC’ Ken said to Dakolo after the call was ended.
‘Forget that’ Dakolo dismissed it with a wave of the hand. ‘Even their head offices have no signal not clue of what is happening on the streets’/
Dakolo dialed the IG’s number. ‘Sir… Yes sir, we are on it’ he replied to a question.
‘Sir, we need to give directives for officials to be deployed in other states like we’ve done here, there’s no assurance that the assassin group is attacking someone in Abuja’ Dakolo said, he kept quiet for some seconds to listen to the reply before he continued. ‘There’s also need for announcement to be made on all media platforms. We should warn the public, so that they can report anything suspicious immediately. Thank you sir’
Dakolo detached the gun from his belt side where it was. ‘We have to join the team now’ he said to Ken who nodded in agreement.
‘Make a warning post on Twitter and Facebook’ Dakolo said to the computer operator before walking away with Ken.
+++++
‘Boss, where are we heading for?’ Cole asked for the fifth time after receiving no answers to his previous attempts. He was driving with Tarasha in the blue Toyota Camry while Benny and Aisha were in the other vehicle, the mini van.
‘Pull over’ Tarasha said calmly in somewhat like a baritone voice. He obeyed and halted the car after driving away from the tarred portion to the untarred area which was close to the bush. Benny and Aisha joined and halted the van few centimetres behind them.
Tarasha came out of the car after the engine was turned off. The bright sunlight made her squint as she looked around the area, she placed her palm above her eyes to reduce the sun rays getting into it. After a brief eye survey of the place, she bent to look inside the car. ‘Where are we?’ She asked Cole.
‘Ermm… Let me check’ he replied and took out his phone, he released the seat belt and opened the door.
Tarasha continued her eye survey of the place. The heavy breeze made her unzipped black hip-hop jacket and air fly backwards. The sun intensity reduced as a brief cloud covered it. Tarasha turned back to car and climbed the bonnet to look over the thick bushes, she could see a village hidden behind it. She came down and took out her phone from her skinny black jeans. She dialed Chief Gab’s number.
‘Good afternoon Chief’ she greeted.
‘Good afternoon’ Chief Gab answered, his voice sounded like he had just woken up from sleep.
‘Chief, we need new accommodation urgently’ she broke the news straight away.
‘Okay’ he said with a loud yawn. ‘I’ll call you back tomorrow morning’
‘No Chief…’ She was saying when the call was cut. She called back. ‘Chief, it’s urgent. We need the new accommodation arranged in a matter of minutes’ she said, half-shouting into the phone.
‘But why are you just telling me now?’
‘It’s urgent, we need the new accommodation urgently’
‘Where are you now?’ The Chief asked, sounding readier to help.
‘Where are we?’ She took the phone off her ear and whispered to Cole who was outside the car now and leaning on the bonnet.
‘We are close to Baske village’ Cole replied.
‘Baske village’ Tarasha said into the phone.
‘Humm… Give me sometime, let me check what I can do’ Chief Gab replied. His tone reflected very little hope.
‘What next boss?’ Benny asked approaching them from the back. Tarasha looked at him but replied with silence.
‘We can’t go any further, I’m sure we’ll soon come by a police post if we continue’ she finally said after some minutes of silence. Cole and Benny were already standing in front of her where she sat on the boot.
Vehicles and fuel tankers drove by the road occasionally as they waited in silence. Tarasha was still seated on the boot, Aisha remained in the passenger’s seat of the van while Cole and Benny walked around the place, sightseeing and discussing among themselves. Tarasha’s phone rang after seven minutes.
‘Did you drop anyone today?’ Chief Gab’s voice rang in impatiently.
‘No, why?’ Tarasha was taken aback by the question.
‘The police are on the lookout for an assassin gang that’s disrupted the cameras security system’ he replied.
‘I know, that’s why we need a new accommodation urgently’
‘I’ll call you back’ the call ended again.
Tarasha came down from the boot. Cole and Benny had come closer to hear the result of the conversation. ‘We can’t sit idly like this, we’re going to be suspected soon’ she said to them
‘Yes, we were about to also tell you that. Travellers have been staring at us and we don’t think that it is safe especially as you said that we’re being monitored’
‘Why don’t you bring out some tools and act like we are repairing the car’ Tarasha suggested, tapping the boot. Benny and Cole nodded in agreement. Cole walked to the driver’s side of the car to take the Boot’s key.
He returned with a slight frown on his face. ‘This method ain’t gonna work for long, it would be suspicious if people still see us here after several minutes’ he said before opening the boot.
Tarasha nodded in agreement with him. ‘Just take out the tools and start working’ she said. Her phone rang again.
‘Chief Gab’
‘Tarasha, the only place close to you where I have another house is Asokoro’ Chief Gab said.
‘We’ll encounter the police if we are to drive back there’ she complained. Chief Gab was silent.
‘Okay’ Tarasha finally gave up. ‘Send the address and how you want us to get into the house’ she ended the call.
She walked to Cole and Benny who were about to take out a tyre. ‘Guys, we’re going to Asokoro’ she called, they looked up. ‘You’ll remove the tyre and fix it back immediately. That would give me enough time to prepare
‘I and Aisha would leave here in this car while two of you would take the van. Before you follow us, you’ll get to the village at the back of this bush and fill the space in the van’s boot with firewood, that will hide our bags. There’ll be a tracker on the car that’ll lead you to us’ she gave the order and left them to continue working. She went to the boot of the van and pulled out a bag, she took out some makeup kits from the bag and entered into the driver’s seat of the van.
Aisha was seated by the passenger’s side, sweating as a result of the heat. ‘Dry your face and neck, you need to disguise now’ she said to Aisha who was staring at her anxiously.
Minutes later, Aisha face had changed into someone else’s. Tarasha also added makeups, they took out female handbags from the boot and they both looked like they were coming from a party.
Tarasha and Aisha entered into the car after the men were done fixing the tyre. They drove off and left the men to carry their own cross.
5pm, same day
Dakolo, Henry and Sylvester stood in a large room, staring into a screen on the wall in silence. Except for their three chairs which they had abandoned behind to stand closer to the screen, the white painted room was empty of any other materials or furniture.
The large screen of 100cm by 150cm was inbuilt into the wall, it was displaying a DVD selection menu of fifty options, each showing the captured sections and parts of the streets. From time to time, Sylvester would swipe up the screen, revealing another different DVD selection menu and they would look into it again. Occasionally, they would see a violent or deadly scene as a part of the options and select it, only for them to find out that the police were already aware and in charge of such situations.
They were beginning to get fed up but they remained quiet in hope that they would find something useful. After twenty five minutes of constant swiping and changing, Henry was first to express his dissatisfaction.
He gave a slight hiss and returned to his seat, Sylvester and Dakolo took a glance at him and turned back to face the screen.
‘Don’t you think it’s a waste of time?’ Henry finally spoke, making them turn their gazes at him. ‘There are still hundreds of thousands options to see. How do you think we won’t get weary watching all of them? Is it even possible to watch all? It’s not! We can’t watch up to a quarter of it.’
Dakolo moved back and sat on the seat beside Henry, still looking at the screen.
‘They took off the signals for three hours and returned it on their own will, it means that they must have finished wh@ťěver they wanted to do’ Henry continued, he took out an handkerchief and cleaned the water formed in his eyes as a result of tiredness and several yawnings.
The day had been a bad one for Henry, it was the first time he would experience such failure and defeat. Well, it wasn’t really a failure, the program be created did not fail, it had done the job he built it for only that those he wanted to trap with it used an higher method.
‘I think you’re right’ Sylvester joined in, turning back against the screen. ‘It’s better we leave it for the regional, city and streets offices to monitor’
Sylvester faced the screen again and turned it off, he picked a white board from the floor and covered the screen with it, concealing it in a way that someone else wouldn’t know that there was a screen there. He turned and joined Dakolo and Henry, he sat on the third seat.
After some minutes of silence, Dakolo’s phone rang. He answered the call and spoke with the caller for about two minutes.
‘Another murder case has been reported, this time in Benue state’ Dakolo said as he returned the phone into his pocket. ‘But none of these murders have involves a top profile person. Samantha Osman’s group always goes for top citizens’
Henry and Sylvester listened without giving any response. Dakolo turned his chair to face the both of them and looked to their faces one after the other. ‘Tell me’ he finally said, staring at Henry calmly. ‘What happened today? I thought we had it in control already’
Henry wiped his face with his hand and licked his lips heaving a sigh. He began to speak reluctantly, ‘we thought we had it in control but they outsmarted us’
‘How?’ Dakolo asked, squeezing his face.
‘The ware I developed was meant to locate them when they intercept our transmission again and to be able to retrieve the transmission’ Henry began to explain. ‘But they did not intercept our transmission this time, they stopped at trying and did something else’
Dakolo narrowed his gaze. ‘What did they do?’
‘They halted the whole system operations’ Henry stated. ‘Previously, they would only redirect the transmission of the area under attack from our server but what they did today was different. They crashed the whole process. All the street security cameras in the nation did not work for three hours’
Dakolo’s mouth was left agape as he let out a deep breath and shook his head. ‘Unbelievable, an assassin group is terrorizing a whole nation’ he exclaimed.
‘We underestimated the technical power of this assassin group. They are very intelligent and always ready. I believe they have several alternatives, so when we block a way, another way is opened immediately’ Henry lamented.
‘I didn’t underestimate them’ Dakolo spoke slowly after some brief seconds of silence. ‘I always knew they were technical giants. I once asserted in a meeting that their technical ability was far greater than their physical abilities and artillery. But nevertheless, something has to be done to stop this deadly group.
‘We still need to do more work. And I mean more serious work. The assassin group is far ahead of our team’
Dakolo narrowed his gaze at Henry. He didn’t believe that there could be someone who was ahead of Henry in respect to hacking and software engineering in Nigeria. He smiled briefly. ‘So you mean someone can be ahead of you in hacking?’
Henry stared at him for a while. ‘Yes, there are lots of people that could be ahead of me, they’ve not just been given a voice like I’ve been. They’ve not been discovered. And by the way, I just started work in the NSCC few weeks ago’
‘It’s okay’ Dakolo cleaned his face with an handkerchief. ‘So what’s the way forward now? The NSCC plays a major role in the nation’s security’
‘What we need to do is to be ahead of the group. We need to block all their possible ways’
‘How do you intend to do that?’
‘We need more hands’ Henry stated.
‘More hands?’
‘Yes, we need more programmers to join us. More ideas from experts are needed. I believe a combination of several expert ethical hackers and programmers would form a formidable team against the assassin group’ Henry expatiated.
‘Huh?’ Sylvester who had been listening in silence joined in.
‘Yes Mr Sylvester. The NSCC needs to hire more hands.’
‘But…’Sylvester stammered. ‘We hired you because of this, we are expected to have produced results’
‘We’ve produced results sir’ Henry retorted, turning his focus to Sylvester, it was Dakolo’s turn to be silent now. ‘We’ve produced results, but the assassin group’s result seems to be far greater than ours’
‘d@mn! There’s no way we can hire more people now, the government is not releasing enough funds to us’
‘Then you have to convince them to release more to you because we need more hands to make this work’ Henry continued with confidence. ‘You can’t employ me as one man and expect me to tackle a group, an expert assassin group at that. And furthermore, we need to be on the attacking side and not defence. We need to develop bugs to attack their operations. If all we do is keep making ways to defend their attacks, they’ll keep changing their mode of attack.’
Sylvester’s phone interrupted with its loud ring tone. He took out his phone hurriedly to end the call but had to calm down when he saw the caller’s ID.
‘It’s Sir Rikau’ he whispered to Henry and Dakolo, gasping lightly. He stood up from his seat and walked closer to the door to answer the call. He returned to the seat a minute later. His countenance had changed.
‘So who are those you want us to hire? Can you give us names of experts? We need to contact them by tomorrow’ Sylvester cut into their discussion.
Henry and Dakolo were surprised at his sudden change of heart. It looked like the phone call had done a miracle.
‘You want to get in touch with them as soon as tomorrow?’ Henry asked again to be sure of what he heard.
‘Yes, is that not what you suggested?’ Sylvester answered with a rhetorical question. ‘See, the IG just called now and he told me that I’ll be having a meeting with the President and other security staffs this Friday. I need to present tangible results, else I may lose my job’
Henry could not hold his laughter at Sylvester’s mention of ‘job’ again. ‘So it’s about losing your job again?’
‘No o, we just have to find a solution to this problem’
Henry shook his head, unconvinced by Sylvester’s words. He began to think of expert hackers who could be called on immediately, those who were creative enough. His mind suddenly drifted to Omotara again, he remembered how she cloned the Canadian number; that was something that he himself could not do perfectly, that means she or the person who did it for her was a sort of a good hacker, although unethical.
He hoped that it was Omotara who cloned the number by herself, that would also give him the opportunity to help her get her decent job and make her be of more use to the nation.
~~~
8pm
There was nothing much to do in the new Lodge in Asokoro. Although it was a flat with three rooms like the previous one, it was moderner, finer, more comfortable and neater. It hadn’t been deserted for long also, the rooms were also larger and air conditioned. All they did was to remove the cobwebs from the walls, sweep and mop the tiled floors, Tarasha and Aisha took care of the cleaning while Benny and Cole went to dispose off the firewoods they had bought to escape.
After all was done, Tarasha sat in the living room on the three seater black leather sofa, her both legs placed on the chair while her back rested on the right armrest. Her laptop was on her laps, she was gathering information about their new targets.
… To be continued