TARASHA – Episode 8

20/12/2030
*5am*
The name Samantha Osman was spread all over the country as the name of a criminal. The police had no choice than to declare an unknown person wanted. It was not even known if Samantha Osman was the culprit’s real name, all that they knew was that it was the name she used in carrying out her atrocities.
Ordinarily it sounds funny that a name without a face should be declared wanted and the Nigerian Government were furious when the news first broke out to the world. But to their surprise, other countries like USA, Russia, Korea and England began to come forth with their own confessions of the same cases. The only difference was that theirs did not involve really high profile citizens.
The Nigerian police had also linked up the Health minister’s and the Rivers State governor’s murder cases. Evidences available proved that it was the same person who carried out the job; the reason for the ki||ings nor the person behind them was yet unknown.
The evidences which linked up the cases included the name ‘Samantha Osman’ and traces of an unknown substance found in the survivors’ bodies used to induce sleep and unconsciousness in them.
‘You guys did the River State Job?’ Don looked into Aisha’s face as he asked. Both of them laid on the bed stark naked except for the blanket which covered their bodies.
Don caressed Aisha’s face, wiping her hair off her eyes as he waited for an answer. ‘You’ve asked that before’ she answered him bluntly.
‘You didn’t answer me’ Don said again.
‘I did’ she retorted
‘You didn’t tell me the truth honey’ he said softly.
‘What other truth do you want me to tell you?’ she questioned
‘Okay, if you didn’t do that job. Where were you throughout the whole period of the incident?’
‘I told you before that the Boss does not allow us go out at will’ she spoke angrily and got up from the bed, she walked to the wardrobe and brought out a towel which she wrapped around her body and headed for the bathroom.
‘Did she also tell you to switch off your phones?’ Don continued adamantly as he sat up.
Aisha paused and turned back, giving him a cold stare. ‘What exactly is the matter? Why are you questioning me like a police officer?’
He stood up from the bed and walked towards her. He stopped in front of her and stared right into her eyes as he spoke, ‘when did you start lying to me? I thought we were lovers’
‘What do you want me to tell you? Frame up stories to please you?’ The argument was already turning to a heated one.
‘You’re already framing up stories, have you forgotten that I have your phone connected to my computer? Your location as at last week was Rivers State, so stop lying’ he gave her a cold stare.
That got her easily, she gave up her angry look and changed her look into one of someone that had been caught red-handed. ‘What exactly do you need all these information for?’ her voice was calmer now
‘I don’t need them for anything’ he said as he walked away angrily from her. ‘I just need you to be honest with me’
‘I’m sorry’ she pleaded and followed after him. ‘Its just that I don’t want any troubles with the Boss’
‘Troubles? For telling me the truth? Did you do the job or not?’ he asked again, his back still turned against her.
‘Yes we did’ she confessed. ‘We were in Rivers State all through last week’
‘Then why were you lying to me?’ His tone was softer.
‘I’m sorry’ she said and wrapped her hands round his neck. He turned and pulled of the towel from her body, he pushed her to the bed and they went another round of segz.
+++++++++++
*9am*
‘Good morning Cole’ Tarasha’s voice came through as Cole picked the call.
‘Good morning Boss’ Cole replied. It was his first time of hearing her voice since they returned to Lagos. She sounded rejuvenated to him.
‘How are you doing Cole?’ She asked.
‘Fine Boss, you?’
‘Good, how about your colleagues?’
‘They’re fine also’
‘Hope you guys have been enjoying your short break, we may have to do another job very soon?’
‘Of course yes, we are well rested’
‘Alright Cole, don’t you think that you need better security in the office?’
‘Huh’ Cole didn’t understand the question.
‘You might soon start to get unwanted visitors there, you might need to secure the office more’ Tarasha expatiated
‘Unwanted visitors?’ Cole argued, ‘I don’t think anyone would try us here’
‘But you guys are already inviting them’ Tarasha retorted
‘How?’ Cole seemed confused
‘Haven’t you been going out?’
Yes, we have but…’
Tarasha cuts in, ‘Yes, none of you has brought anyone there but you’ve drawn attention to the office unknowingly. Tell the others that you need more security and get them prepared for anything’
‘Okay’ Cole’s voice sounded a little bit scared, he was confused as to why Tarasha was advising them to get ready for any attack. Maybe she had seen something dangerous.
‘Benny’ Cole called as he dropped the phone call, he headed for Benny’s room. Aisha was on the way bringing a tray with plates of spaghetti and chicken. ‘We need to talk,wait for us in the sitting room’ Cole said to Aisha before going ahead to get Benny.
‘What’s it about?’ Aisha asked impatiently as Benny and Cole walked back into the siting room.
Cole made sure everyone was seated before he began to talk, ‘which of us here has brought anyone into this house?’ he asked question that got a reply of surprise stares.
‘The Boss called today, that’s why I’m asking’ he added when they remained mute.
Benny and Aisha looked at each other’s face, ‘No one knows this place through me’ Benny said
‘Neither through me also’ Aisha added
‘Are you sure that nobody has ever traced you here without you knowing?’ Cole asked again
‘Yes , no one’ was the reply he got
‘The boss says we need more security here’ Cole squinted as he talked. ‘We need to be careful from henceforth, she hinted that we may be attacked soon’
‘How? No one knows here’ Benny put in.
Cole raised his brow and gave him a suspicious look, ‘are you sure that you never brought any of your girls in here while we were away?’
The question didn’t meet Benny well, he got up angrily. ‘Are you crazy? How can you say that?’
‘Why shouldn’t I say so?’ Cole replied him in the same tone. ‘Everybody here knows that you’re so fond of girls and they can make you do anything
‘You’re a dog’ Benny cursed and brought out his gun angrily, he pointed it at Cole.
‘Hey guys!’ Aisha stepped in. ‘Don’t do this please’ she said, motioning Benny to drop his gun. ‘We don’t need to fight over this, let’s just take the Boss’s advice and be more careful’
Benny returned the gun into his pocket and stormed out of the house, leaving Cole and Aisha to stare at themselves silently.

**Port Harcourt, Rivers State**

The next day after the Governor’s death, a curfew that lasted for three days was declared by the acting government. John Obiano recuperated quickly and was able to speak with Officer Dakolo the next morning. He told the police of how Desert Reporters’ representative, Samantha Osman had interviewed him about two weeks before the assassination and also promised to be at the airdrome on the event day.
Other questions were also thrown to John which he gave clear and precise answers to, not withholding any important point from the police.
‘What did the attacker look like?’ Was one of the questions Dakolo asked
‘I can’t really picture her face anymore but she was nothing less of a monster’ John didn’t hesitate to give answers. ‘I think she painted her face with some substances to make her unrecognizable’
The answer of the Assassin’s look he gave was no different from what the other surviving victims gave; the surviving air attendant had also described the assailant as a monster with different skin colours, the minister of aviation also gave a similar description. Only Jude had a different description; but it was an obvious fact that the description given by Jude was only a detail of the disguised form of the criminal.
Dakolo was also able to fathom how she escaped; the criminal must have switched her uniform with the second air attendant’s own. Then she tied the dead body of the Governor and the attendant together after which she released their bodies from the plane and allowed them to freely fall.
Another visit to Onne revealed more details; one of the village’s young girls was found by some policemen after the Dakolo left on the fateful day of the assassination. She was tied half naked to a tree in the bush, an air attendant’s uniform was also found on the floor beside her. The victim was confused as to how she got there when asked, that was after she had been given medical attention. The medical personnel that treated her confirmed this; he said that there was a sign of a tiny piercing on the lady’s neck, meaning that she was injected with an unknown substance, most likely a sedative.
Dakolo proceeded at once to visit the Desert Reporters’ Rivers head office with some of his men, in a bid to arrest Samantha Osman but the management of the news media vehemently denied having any journalist in Rivers state who bore the name Samantha Osman. They also denied having any interview with John, they said he didn’t honour their invitation and even showed the police their twitter messages as a proof.
‘You mean you invite people for interview using twitter?’ Dakolo had asked.
‘No,we requested for his number but he refused to share it’ The manager replied him.
‘But how then do you explain this ID card that was found in the plane?’ Dakolo demanded, bringing out the card from his pocket.
The manager seemed speechless for a while as he stared at the ID card, he looked at his own card and all the features present on his were present on the strange ID card also. There was also no difference in the materials that were used to make it, the ink used on each line were of the same colour, the dimensions of the fonts of each word and the card as a whole were the same.
‘We don’t have any one here who bears this name?’ The manager mumbled to himself, giving Dakolo difficulty in hearing. ‘Where’s the passport photograph on it?’ He asked the officer.
‘We found it like this, the picture had been broken’ Dakolo replied.
‘I believe this is fake’ the man said bluntly.
‘Fake? But there’s no difference between it and the one you’re putting on’ Dakolo retorted.
‘The culprit must have produced it’ the man bounced back. ‘I told you that John did not accept our invitation, so how could we have sent someone to interview him?’
Dakolo got up from the seat, he bent over as he looked at the man sternly. ‘If we ever find out that you’re helping a criminal, your organization would be brought down’ he thr_@tened before walking out with his assistant.
They returned to John Obiano to get more answers from him but the answers they got only spurred more questions. John had also presented a proof of the twitter messages. He showed them how he sent them his mobile number but they decided to continue communicating with him on Twitter. He also showed them how they fixed the interview for a specific and at a particular cafeteria.
This situation made the police invite the both parties for questioning at the same time and that is how they found out that they had been both played by an internet trickster; their messages had been interjected and changed before it got to the receiver.
All efforts made to get help from the twitter administration proved abortive as they insisted that nothing of such happened on their platform. They stood on the ground that the users of the accounts must have sent it themselves or revealed the passwords to the culprit unknowingly.
Dakolo’s loud ringtone interrupted his thoughts, he took a quick glance at the vibrating phone, the caller was the Chief superintendent of police.
‘Good morning sir’ Dakolo saluted
‘Good morning Inspector Dakolo’ the man replied, ‘how far have you gone with this Governor’s murder case?’
‘Nothing new sir’ Dakolo replied, he wondered what the man was expecting him to say since they met the day before and spoke extensively on the matter.
‘Okay, I just received information that Robin Kahn is coming to assist in Nigeria before these cases become rampant’
‘Robin Kahn?’ Dakolo was surprised, ‘is that really necessary?’
‘The United Nations think it is’ the superintendent continued, ‘they believe it’s better to attack these murderers quick and with full force before it grows out of hand’
‘It’s just something tha…’
‘Cases of the same nature has been reported in seventeen other countries’ the superintendent put in. ‘We need to attack it fast’
‘Well, its okay sir’
‘Yea, that means you have to prepare a report on how far you’ve gone with the case; your successes and the challenges. The man would be here before the end of the year. That’ll be all for now’ the superintendent concluded and cut the call.
Agent Robin Kahn was a special antiterrorism agent who had helped his country in solving several top rated assassinations and also in preventing these attacks. He also led a delegation to a help a certain African country solve the murder case of their President and they nabbed the criminals in just two weeks.
Dakolo wondered if it was really necessary for Robin Kahn to come help in Nigeria, the Nigerian officers were on the top of their games already. He believed that the US did not send the man for their love for Nigeria but they sent the man because they also had the same cases in their country. Or why wouldn’t you remove the dirt in your eyes first before you help another person do it? Dakolo was sure that the man was only coming to study the correlation between the cases in his country and Nigeria so that it could help his own country overcome.
+++++++++++++++++
22/12/2030
‘Come open the gate’ Tarasha’s voice sounded as he picked the call. He got up from his bed immediately, he took a yellow shirt and hurried out at once.
The gate was opened by Cole and Tarasha drove in with a mini van, she stepped out of the car after parking and waited for Cole to join her before proceeding into the house, or office as she called it.
‘Where’s Benny and Aisha?’ She asked, but needed no answer as the duo appeared from the partition before she sat down on one of the sofas.
‘Good morning Boss’ Benny and Aisha greeted in unison. They stood some distance before her anticipating her answer and order for them to seat.
‘Good morning’ she gave a smile. ‘You can have you seats’
Benny and Aisha took the seats opposite hers while Cole sat on the sofa perpendicular to Tarasha’s seat.
‘We are having a visitor soon and we need to make preparations to welcome him’ Tarasha began, ‘in fact, we’ll be having two set of visitors; one from this country and one from the US’
There was an awkward silence in the house as they listened to her. It was he first time of coming there after their last operation. When they saw her enter unannounced, they knew she had come for some serious business.
‘I don’t know if the visitors would come at the same time but time would reveal more to us’ she continued, turning her gaze to Cole. ‘I told you about the Nigerian visitors already’
She paused and looked at Cole for confirmation, he gave her a perplexed stare. ‘I told you that the Nigerian police would be coming after us soon’ she continued when Cole seemed unable to recollect. ‘Cole is going to be incharge of the Nigerian visitors’
Cole heaved a sigh of frustration as he remembered their conversation that night in Orogbum; his partying after the whole operation had almost wiped it off his memory.
‘Benny would take care of our foreign visitors’ she siad, staring straight at Benny.
‘Who’s it?’ Benny asked calmly. Unlike Cole, he was less scared of dealing with the police, he had always been in the operation front while Cole was most times at the background. He was also prepared for any task since the day Cole had told him about the discussion with Tarasha that night.
‘Robin Kahn’ she announced, ‘Robin Kahn is coming to Nigeria with his team’
Fear gripped Benny’s heart at the moment the name was pronounced, it was not what he had envisaged. How on earth did Tarasha expect him to deal with Robin Kahn who was trained to tame Assassins?
Cole and Benny began to have the same thoughts, they wondered why Tarasha had left something on the operation field that the police could trace them with. When they worked with Don who carried out jess sophisticated jobs, they made sure everything that could implicate was erased. Even if it had to do with them secretly eliminating one or two of their team members that was involved in the job.
‘We always have to leave something for them to trace us’ Tarasha said as if she read their minds, distributing her stares between the two. ‘Except you don’t have intelligent officers in your country. Any officer intelligent enough to locate our trace and use it properly would be intelligent enough to make a trace if we don’t leave one. So we leave the trace to lure them into our trap’
Benny and Cole heaved a sigh at the same time, it looked as if they previously rehearsed it. Tarasha was making a mistake, Benny thought. Nigeria does not have intelligent officers that could trace her. Maybe she war likening it to Russia where she came from. The trace she had left would only make things easy for Robin Kahn.
Tarasha stared at them for some few seconds to see their reactions before turning to Aisha.
‘Aisha’ Tarasha called. Aisha looked up in fear; scared to hear that there was a task for her also. ‘You’re not supposed to be involved in this but you invited some people here already, you have to take care of them’
Tarasha said and removed a gun from her jacket, a Beretta pistol. She stood up and placed it in Aisha’s hand and return to her seat.
‘But I didn’t invite anyone here’ Aisha argued, looking bewildered with the revolver in her hand.
‘You did’ Tarasha insisted, ‘they’ve been here since 7am’
Cole and Benny forgot their worries for a moment and stared at Aisha. Tarasha got up from the seat and headed towards the computer room. ‘Follow me’ she ordered Aisha. Aisha followed immediately while Cole and Benny walked after them slowly.
The master computer was already booted when Cole and Benny got to the room. Tarasha clicked open the security camera application, the gate of the house was shown and the surrounding. She selected another icon which showed another view of immediate surrounding of the house. A blue corolla was seen parked at some distance to the gate. The video was zoomed and it showed three men in the car, doing nothing specifically but looking towards the gate.
Aisha recognised that car, it was one of the cars she saw at Don’s caban the last time she went there. Anger welled up in her heart against Don, it meant that he had been following her and located the house through her.
‘I believe you know what I’m talking about now’ Tarasha cut in through her thoughts.
She looked guilty and remained quiet. Tarasha stood up from the seat, turning to Benny and Cole. ‘Benny, we need to transfer all the ammunitions in the arsenal into that van I came with’
‘Why?’ Benny asked, taken aback by the request. Their boss was just too full of surprises. He looked at Tarasha’s face as he waited for her reply; it was then it came to his senses that he might have just pushed a button by questioning her authority. ‘I…’
‘You’ll know later’ she cut in calmly, disappointing him. He had expected a harsh tone scolding him for questioning her but she knew his expectation and wasn’t ready to meet it, hence her calm response.
Benny turned out and proceeded to the store room without delay, Cole joined him and they transferred everything in the room without delay. Tarasha also joined in moving the arms while Aisha returned to the kitchen, they were done in less than twenty minutes.
‘No one should assist Aisha, she must do it alone’ Tarasha warned before she drove out of the office in the van. Tarasha knew Aisha was no match for the guys lurking outside but they had been previously warned about bringing intruders in or around the place, so Aisha had to face wh@ťěver consequence that her action spurred.

+++
Benny sauntered into the kitchen after waiting patiently for over thirty minutes Tarasha left. He wondered what Aisha was cooking that was taking so long to be ready. He was amazed when he entered the kitchen and found her doing nothing, he looked over to the cookers to see if anything was being prepared but there was nothing on the cookers and electric stove.
He wanted to slam on Aisha but was repelled by the worried look on her face. He needed not to ask what was wrong with her, Cole had been in the same sober mood since Tarasha left. He had worries too but his desire for food was stronger that moment. He pitied Aisha more; she was definitely going to get ki||ed by the men outside, Tarasha had warned that she shouldn’t be assisted in any way.
‘I’ll prepare something now, it should be done in the next twenty minutes’ Aisha finally said something to calm his nerves. She walked towards the refrigerator and brought out some containers of frozen food.
‘How are you going to do it?’ He asked with a tone of concern.
She shrugged, ‘I’ll call Don and plead with him to withdraw his boys’
‘But the boss wants you to drop them’ Benny said. He wondered in his heart why she hadn’t break up the relationship with Don. He had known since the day Don had released her; one of his favorite segz machines to work with Tarasha, Don had other plans.
‘How can I drop those guys?’ She looked Benny in the face in a confused manner. ‘They are trained guys, I’m just an ordinary cook who knows how to use guns’
‘You’re not an ordinary cook, we’ve received a lot of tutoring in few days that we worked with Tarasha’ Benny tried to encourage, ‘if you could handle the pilot’s sister very well, I think you can do this also’
‘Maybe she doesn’t have to worry about it anymore’ Cole’s voice cut in, he walked into the kitchen to meet their stares. ‘The guys left already’
‘Huh?’
‘Yea’ Cole continued, ‘I’m suspecting that they followed after the Boss’
‘Does the Boss know about that?’ Benny looked alarmed.
‘I believe she does’ Cole replied indifferently, ‘I tried to call her but she didn’t answer the call’
‘That might be dangerous, what if she doesn’t know’ Benny continued frightfully.
‘I’m sure she knows and she won’t let them go scot free’ Cole said with a note of confidence. ‘Aisha is lucky’
++++++++
After driving for almost an hour without being able to get rid of her trailers, Tarasha began to think of an alternative way. She could have finished them off if not for the broad daylight. The option left was to escape their trail or make them lose sight of her.
She knew that they were aware that she had also seen them, so she drove on carefully, always trying to take note if any other person or group had joined them.
At last she got the chance required, they got to a busy roundabout and the traffic light ordered for them to halt but Tarasha defiled the order. She crazily sped off, swerving to escape being hit by a coming trailer. The blue car driver followed after foolishly but couldn’t avoid colliding with the trailer and causing a catastrophe.
The trailer’s driver who had already gotten confused by the way Tarasha drive recklessly tried to bring it to a quick halt to avoid an accident but the blue car that followed the mini van tan impatiently under the trailer. The car and its occupants were crushed under the big vehicle.
+++
Tarasha got to her residence five hours later. It took her so long because she couldn’t drive back straight; she was sure that the police were tracing her van with the security cameras, so she had to go and pass through an undeveloped community where the cameras were not functioning and change the van.
Even the new van could not be traced to her residence because all cameras several kilometres to her place had been deactivated by her.
Her gate opened automatically when the van got in front. A thought struck her mind as she parked the van, she needed another place for Cole, Benny and Aisha to stay.
Maybe it wasn’t Aisha’s fault after all, she thought. She recalled that she didn’t ki|| the first two guys that were brought by Chief Gab to work with her. They obviously still knew the place, so the place was never hidden before.
Trailing her also proved the fact that the spies came for her and were not really interested in what was happening in the house.
‘They have to move from there’ she said to herself as she got out of the car
+++++++++++++
30/12/2015
**11am
Several police Hyundai sonata vehicles drove out of the Muritala Mohammed airport escorting the newly arrived Robin Kahn and his two team members. Robin Khan sat in the black jeep with the Inspector General while his two men were seated with the commissioner of police in the other car following behind the jeep.
Inspector James and his team were also in one of the Hyundai Sonatas. Inspector James had shook hands with the man, welcoming him to Nigeria. The man looked strict and disciplined to James, he hoped in his mind that the man would be an easy person to work with.
Benny was also at airport, he came to book a flight. Of course, he was traveling to no where; he had only come to checkout his target but he was only able to catch a glimpse of the man. That was enough though, the view he got sent shivers down his spine. The man was a tall man of about 6ft, heavily built and muscular.
Benny quietly made his way to return to the office, thinking of two options in his heart; either to run away from Lagos to a far village where Tarasha and no one else would be able to locate him or come up with a game plan that help him fulfill his task. If he wanted to go by the latter, then he had to come up with something very intelligent.
He thought of Aisha’s luck as he drove in the old model Mercedes Benz. Tarasha had helped her settle the problem she caused with her hands and said she no longer had a task to worry about except if another set of spies return.
His phone rang out loud at he drove back to the house, he checked the screen and found out that it was his boss calling. He quickly looked for a space and parked to call her back.
‘Boss’ he said as his call was answered.
‘Where are you Benny?’Tarasha’s voice came through.
‘Ikeja’
”Okay, drive straight to Relix Guesthouse , Plot 343 Adefile Street Lagos’ she said in a rush.
‘Eh?’ He couldn’t make out what she said.
‘Relix guesthouse, Plot 343 Adefile street, Lekki’ Cole’s voice sounded, correcting Tarasha’s wrong pronunciation of the Nigerian words. ‘Call my number when you’re almost there’
‘Okay’ the call ended. Benny started the car engine at once and drove off.
+++++++++++++++++
**12pm**
Robin Kahn was a man who wasted no time, he settled immediately into the office provided for him in the Police headquarters and already began to ask for reports on the cases. His team members were also given different offices at his left and right sides, they could see and easily get in touch with each other very well as only transparent glass walls demarcated their office rooms.
James secretly gave the man a searching look as his report was been scrutinized. He wasn’t expecting that the progress report would be called for so soon as the IG had told him earlier that nothing much would be done that week since what was left was a day to the end of the year.
Robin had declined the IG’s offer to take him to a place of relaxation for the day, so that he could be well rested before the new year when the investigations would start properly.
‘The new year celebration may hinder our work, let’s begin properly immediately every celebration is over’ the IG had hinted.
Robin was a focused man and would have none of that, he refused the advice and decided to start work immediately. The IG did not push further, not wanting to be seen as a lazy bone, he agreed that the work should begin immediately.
‘Where’s the Doctor that met with the Samantha ?’ Robin raised his hardened face as he looked at James for answers.
‘He’s in his residence under close watch by the EFCC, he has a case with them’ James answered.
‘The EFCC, that is Economic Financial…’
‘Economic financial crimes commission’ James completed it for him.
‘Okay’ the man said as he returned his focus back to the computer. There was silence for another one minute. ‘Where’s the video recording device you found in the pharmacy?’
‘It’s with the computer team’ James replied, he wondered if the Man would ever stop asking questions which answers have been provided already in the report.
‘I need see it now’ He demanded
‘I can get it now’ James replied him, getting up from his seat.
‘Wait!’ Robin stopped him, raising his hand. He punched some buttons on his wristwatch and spoke into it, staring through the transparent goes wall at his junior in the office by his left.
James could not make out what the man said but he looked towards the direction the man was looking and saw the junior agent get up from his seat, looking at their direction as he walked out of the office.
The junior agent, a black american, Greg by name joined them in the office in few seconds. He greeted James with a nod and focused his gaze at his boss, waiting for order.
‘Follow this inspector’ the order came, ‘get r bug from him and find out where it directs to’
++++++++++++++
‘Over here’ Cole waved his hand at Benny who was approaching in the Benz. He stood at the front of a black gate of a big duplex. Cole entered the compound and opened the gate for Benny to drive in.
Benny came out of the car immediately after parking and approached Cole, he had lot of questions in his heart.
‘We’re staying here for a while’ Cole said before Benny could speak.
‘What happened to…’
‘Don’t worry man, it’s not time for questions’ Cole cut in, tapping Benny on the shoulder. ‘We have lot of work to do together now’
‘Like?’ Benny followed slowly behind Cole into the duplex.
‘I spotted you at the airport today’ Cole said.
‘How?’
‘I was monitoring the officer in charge of the health minister’s case’
‘How does that concern the airport?’
‘The same officer is going to work with Robin’ Cole answered, he paused and turned to face Benny. ‘Our targets are working together, we can also work together to fight them’
Benny stared at Cole for a little while, considering his suggestion. He used an handkerchief to clean his face. Cole was still waiting for his response.
‘What’s the plan?’ Benny asked.
++++++++++++
Jubril Lawal, well known man in the country for his great fight against terrorism and crime during 2016 – 2020 when he served as the inspector general of the nation under the government of Retired General Mubarak Baruwa was njow a retired man enjoying his rest in the country’s capital, Abuja.
He did lots of charity works in the country which made him earn the respect of everyone in the country and even country leaders in and outside of Africa. His fight against corruption during his tenure also helped in giving him a good image, he was on the good book of everyone in the country except for Chief Gab.
‘How long will it take you to take him down for me?’ Chief Gab asked Tarasha who was having a live video chat with him.
‘I don’t know who the man is yet, I can’t say for now’ Tarasha replied him, she was print on a black mask to hide her face from the Chief.
‘Well, I hope to meet you in person before you commence this job’ Chief Gab requested.
‘Why do you want to meet me?’ Tarasha inquired.
‘Is there anything wrong with meeting you?’ The man asked with a frustrated tone. ‘How can I not know who is working for me, are you planning to ki|| me one day?’
Tarasha have a hysterical laugh, ‘so you’re scared of death?’ She asked mockingly. He remained quiet. ‘I don’t just ki|| people Chief, I ki|| people only when I’m sent or its necessary that I do’
‘Then let’s meet, or are you scared?’
Tarasha laughed out again, ‘you’re the one that should be scared Chief, seeing my face would only expose you to more danger’
‘What danger?’
‘Okay Chief, time up!’ Tarasha said, reaching for the mouse with her hand. ‘I don’t do chit chatting’
‘I…’ The video chat was ended before the Chief could say another word. She removed the mask from her face and placed in on the table.
‘Jubril Lawal’ she typed into her search engine.

01/01/2031
*10am*
‘Happy new year!’ The president said on top of voice as he ended his new year speech on national TV. Benny switched off the TV at once.
‘Why?’ Cole asked him, referring to his sharp flinging away of remote control.
‘Why not?’ Benny said as he got up from his seat. He walked to Cole who was laying down on the sofa and stretched his hand for a handshake.
Cole sat up and took the surprising handshake, looking to Benny for explanation.
‘Happy new year’ Benny finally said, ‘we’ve been to busy monitoring and plotting how to drop Robin and James that we’ve forgotten to congratulate ourselves on the new year’
Cole laughed out loud, ‘happy new year man’ he stood up and engaged Benny in a brief hug.’You know Robin is working tirelessly too’ he said as he sat back smiling, it felt good to get emotional once in a while.
‘Yea, I know but I think we have the advantage’ Benny sat close to him. ‘He thinks that his presence in Nigeria is only known to the police force’
‘That’s true’ Cole commented. He put up a serious face as something went through his mind. ‘But how did boss get the information? Am not aware we have any informant in the police force’
‘Hmm’ Benny hummed almost silently.
‘Happy new year guys’ Aisha announced loudly, interrupting their discourse as she walked in with a tray of wine and glass cups.
She wore a sleeveless black top and a white mini skirt. She dropped the tray on a short stool in front of Benny, sorting out the cups and pouring the drink into them.
Benny felt blood rush through his body faster as he watched Aisha’s mini skirt lift up at the back, revealing her pant view. This was the only year he hadn’t celebrated the new year with a girl on his bed, so he felt like grabbing her from the back to have a quick one. His eyes met Cole’s who gave a short laughter, he quickly took his gaze away.
‘Is someone planning to get us high very early in this new year?’ Cole joked as Aisha turned back handing the glasses to them.
‘This won’t get you high, I’m not aware that one cup of alcohol gets men drunk’ she replied and dropped into the sofa they sat on, sitting in their middle.
‘d@mn!’ Benny cursed under his breath as a bulge formed in his trousers on seeing Aisha’s exposed laps. He quickly repositioned himself to avoid embarrassment, Cole who knew his plight gave out a slight smile. Benny wondered why Aisha was having an effect on him, he had seen her expose her body more than she did now without feeling a thing, maybe it was because of his recent longtime suppression of his urge for segz.
Something beeped loudly interrupting the jolly mood of the three, Cole knew at once where the sound came from. He dropped his glass and headed towards the new computer room, Benny and Aisha followed him with their glasses still in their hands.
The new computer room was a big one but almost empty as it was only set up temporarily, all two computers were in it. Cole wished that they could continue to use that house as their office but the boss has said that it was only for a short while.
‘What’s that?’ Benny impatiently asked Cole who was in control of the computer.
‘Someone is trying to trap us’ Cole smiled as he said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘They’re trying to locate us’ Cole specified. He turned and faced Benny, ‘we need to go out today and find somewhere we can receive our visitors.’
+++++++++++
‘The command has been sent’ Greg announced.
‘Are you sure they would accept it?’ Robin who was sitting beside him asked.
James stood up from the chair he was seated and moved closer to the computer. He took care as he walked not to collide with anything on the way. The room was poorly lit; the bulbs were switched off and only the reflection from the computer desktops screens provided the faint lightning.
‘The command I sent would look harmless to them, I used the same proxy as they used so they would not suspect anything’ Greg explained. ‘They’ll only think that their system is malfunctioning’
‘How soon are we expecting their reply?’ Tony, the third man on Robin’s team asked. He was the tallest in the team, he had a baby face which made people take him for granted not knowing that he was a specialist in nabbing ki||ers.
‘It has delivered already, I believe they would reply whenever they get the message’ Greg answered.
James had doubts in his mind as he thought about their new discoveries. It wasn’t that they didn’t have a good computer team in the Nigerian police, in fact their team had been ranked among the top five in the world. So he wondered how Greg could have hopes of locating where the bug directed signals to in just two days, something that the Nigerian police had worked on for weeks. He secretly prayed and hoped that it was not a trap set by the assassins.
Robin Kahn on his own was confident, his team had never failed in handing assassination cases, he trusted Greg to do the right thing. He also couldn’t but praise the Nigerian team secretly in his heart, the progress his team had made so far was based on the work the Nigerian officers led by James had started. The US officers had not even made much progress like the Nigerians had done in the investigation. The only thing he believed Nigeria needed was a better Information technology and networking team.
‘It’s time to prepare our guys, we would need to attack very soon’ Robin said getting up from his seat. He turned to James, ‘prepare ten of your besst men’ Robin said, stressing the word ‘best’ to lay emphasis.
+++++++
Tarasha loved this game, it was her favorite. She was going to see some policemen ki||ed very soon by Cole and Benny. She loved the way guys were handling the situation.
Cole had called her earlier on to report their progress, how that they were planning to lure the police team by redirecting them to somewhere else where an attack would be launched on them.
She also been busy searching for information about the new target too. She discovered that the man being a former IG had a lot of officers guarding him. They had two options; either to deceive the man and bring him out of his protection or go through his heavy security and ki|| him. Anyway it was, what she knew was that she and her team would be moving to Abuja once the Robin’s matter is taken care of. Now she had someone to pay a surprise visit to.
She looked into the mirror to see if her makeup was properly done, she released the band holding her plaited hair together and allowed it fall freely and cover her face. She stood up from the bed to get a full view of herself; she was dressed in a tomboy collared shirt and Jean trousers, she added a black face cap to match with her black boots. She paused for a while after which she took out a small mask which only covered her mouth and jaw region and also added a dark eyeglasses.
She didn’t forget to take ‘her baby’ – the Walther PPK – before driving out of the house five minutes later. She headed for Gravl avenue.
‘Tell your guards to open the gate once they spot a black Range Rover coming, I don’t like waiting outside’ she said into the phone.

+++++++++
Chief Gab got up from his seat at once, he didn’t know what to expect, she didn’t even allow him talk before she ended the call. He waved off his bodyguard who was moving close to him thinking he needed something.
He picked his smaller phone from the centre table and proceeded out of the living room to speak with the security men outside.
He returned five minutes later after giving them orders and headed to the computer room. Edet was surprised on seeing the man walk into the room.
‘Good morning sir’ Edet stood up to greet.
‘Good morning Edet’ Chief Gab replied, taking his seat beside the young man’s chair. ‘Let’s see the entrance, I’m expecting a visitor’
Edet quickly responded to the instruction and the computer displayed the happenings outside. Nothing was going on except for the usual passage of vehicles in the estate.
It was after twelve minutes that Chief Gab spotted a black range Rover driving from the left towards the gate.
‘Tell them to open the gate’ he said to Edet who picked up a landline and quickly dialed the men at the gate.
The car was driven in in few seconds. The driver, a lady whose face was not visible due to her mode of dressing came out of the car, she had a bag strapped to her back. She was led into the house by two men as Chief had ordered them earlier.
They led her to the large sitting room and took their leave. Chief watched her as she stood in the middle of the living room and brought out a tablet device from her bag, she begin to put in some commands. Chief decided it was time to meet her, he cleared his throat and adjusted his Agbada before walking out of the computer room with his personal guard.
Tarasha already brought out a gun by the time he entered the living room with his guard. His guard who was proactive brought out his own gun and pointed at Tarasha. Her facial expression was not clearly seen but the Chief could hear a chuckle, he motioned his bodyguard to drop the gun.
Tarasha released four quick shots to the four edges of the rectangular room, destroying the planted cameras. She returned the gun into her pocket and faced the Chief.
‘Good morning Chief’ she greeted in a cheerful voice, ‘Happy new year’
‘Good morning Tarasha, same to you’ he answered, both of them still standing. He signaled to the bodyguard to leave the place and the guy quickly obliged. ‘Please have your seat’ he motioned Tarasha to one of the thick leather sofas. She removed and dark glasses on her face as she sat down but still left the mask which covered the lower part of her face and the face cap which covered her forehead.
Nevertheless, Chief Gab could still see her eyes, she wasn’t what he was expecting, she looked too young to be a professional assassin. He could place her between the ages of twenty to twenty five, she was in the same age range with his first daughter. He felt a pinch of guilt as he sat on the sofa facing her. He needed not to ask her what led her to becoming an assassin, he knew how it happened.
‘What can I offer you?’ He asked.
‘The truth’ she answered sharply.
‘What?’
‘The truth’ she repeated.
‘I mean something to drink or eat’ he said with a smile.
‘I want you to tell me the truth only’ she reiterated.
‘Well…’ He became speechless, he wondered what kind of conversation she came for.
‘Why are you ki||ing all these people?’
He was taken aback by the question and he stammered, trying to find his voice. He thought Vladislav had told him that she ki||ed without asking questions, she was bred to be like that.
‘I mean you don’t tell me what you have against these people you send me to’ She added, ‘most of them are loved by the people of your country’
‘I don’t think I am obliged to answer you’ he answered, getting up from his seat.
That was true, he wasn’t mandated to answer her. She herself was to ask questions, she came to Nigeria to ki|| and wasn’t supposed to have pity for anyone that she was sent to or anyone that tried to stop her.
She thought she had lost all emotion until recently when she ki||ed the Rivers State Governor. She remembered the look on his face, it was the look on the face of her first loved one that she ki||ed. Her fifth assignment during her training, when she was just fourteen years old.
***FLASHBACK ***
– April 9, 2020 –
The innocent looking fourteen year old girl stood only clothed with a black bra and very short black skirt in the extremely cold weather. That’s how they were being brought up; to be able withstand any kind of weather, sometimes they were fully clothed in very hot weather. Her body shook as a mean looking man placed something into her hands.
She looked around her and found gazes of young girls of the same age as hers, some a little bit older. They were up to four hundred in number, young but had all lost their virginities to men who were old enough to be their fathers. All dressed in the same way, most were shivering in the cold while the others who were adapting quickly to the treatment stood still as they watched.
They all looked pale waiting for their colleague to go through her test, some of them had already gone and passed through the test while a lot were still waiting in line but one thing was sure they could not escape it.
She stared at the dagger for a couple of seconds before making her way into the fighting cage. She could see her reflection on the shining metal, it was so sharp that it could cut through the body of any animal just by falling on it. That was the same dagger that she had been asked to use on a man who she had grown to love over the years.
Loving was a crime in the clan; that’s what she had just been taught in her last lecture. The hardened Roy had spoken to the girls in her class that loving or having affection for someone was wrong. Affection and love were only for the weak minded people. He also informed them that the topic he taught that day had practicals. The day was Tarasha’s practical day, she had to ki|| Stanley who had been like a father to her and other girls who stayed in their block.
Stanley Bob was a citizen of America, aged fifty eight. He was brought to the Nefary Clan ten years ago. He was kidnapped during one of his political campaigns when he vied for the post of the Senate President n his nation. Being known for good in the country, he was sure to win the election. His enemies had then contacted the Nefary clan to get rid of him. He was lucky not to have being ki||ed but brought to their headquarters in Russia to work as one of the cooks for the assassins trainee and trainers.
He didn’t know where in the world he was but he still nurtured the hope of getting out some day and returning to help his country but it seemed he has team out of luck already as the inevitable death stared at him in the face.
The cage was locked from outside immediately Tarasha got in. She looked at him from afar, he bent his neck and stared at her like the zombie that he had made, gnashing his teeth as saliva dripped down his lips. The man had already been injected with substances that made him lost his will; all he could see Tarasha whom he used to love as was an animal to devour.
Tears flowed out in drops from Tarasha’s eyes, she remembered how the man had cared for her at a time she was sick, ignoring the death punishment he would get if caught. He had taken her to his room secretly and made a mixture that healed her and saved her room the child hands of death.
The zombie approached her violently with a rod in his hands. He struck the rod against her but she dodged, swerving to the right as the rod landed on the floor. She moved farther away from him but he surged forward against her with the rod, she kept moving backwards until her back touched the wall of the cage. He struck the rod once again, this time she bent down and it missed her head. She escaped by passing below his arm and ran to the other side of the cage.
The monster was relentless in his quest to devour the girl, he picked up his rod and charged towards her again.
‘ki|| him Tarasha, what the hell is wrong with you?’ She heard Vlasdismir shout. She looked backwards to look at the angry man, she looked at the faces of her colleagues too as if to receive permission to ki|| Stanley. She couldn’t make out what they wanted from the look in their faces, they all stared at her like mourners.
The rod hit her face as she turned neck back to focus on her attacker, she fell down on the floor heavily, blood gushed out of her nose as the dagger fell off her hands. The zombie raised up the rod again to land it on her head the second time but she had quickly recovered. She opened her eyes just in time and rolled away quickly.
She touched her bleeding nose as she got up, her head was banging already. It was then she gave up and decided to end the man’s life, he was going to ki|| her if she didn’t ki|| him first.
The man charged towards her again, she bent and gave him a kick behind his knee to take him down. The man only staggered as the kick from her tiny leg could not have much effect on him. He turned back and watched as she picked up her dagger.
He widened his eyes and let out a loud growl as he ran towards her again. She slid and passed beside his legs, he almost fell as he missed his hit, before he could turn back to her, she had pierced the dagger into his side.
‘Don’t just ki|| him, I want his neck’ somebody shouted from outside the cage.
Blood rushed down the left side of the zombie’s stomach as he fell on one knee, his rod fell off his hands. He turned back to attempt a last attack on Tarasha but she ran the dagger into his neck, his blood spilled on her face and into her mouth as she removed the dagger and the man fell down lifeless, his blood gushing out profusely.
Her eyes was full of pity and remorse as Stanley fell, his head sidewards with his tongue out. But it wasn’t over yet, she still had to cut off his neck and take it out to the boss. She trembled as she knelt down to disjoin the head from the neck.
Tears had stopped dropping from her eyes by the time she was carrying the head out of the cage, she had lost every pity for the man already. She couldn’t have pity anymore, she wasn’t created to be with emotions.

*PRESENT **

‘It’s okay Chief, I don’t really need to know ‘ Tarasha said, getting up from the seat.

Chief Gab turned to face her, he began with so much aggression. ‘All of them are cheats and betrayals, they turned against me and stabbed me at the back’

Tarasha shook her head in a way as if to signify that she was unconcerned anymore but the man continued.

‘Several years ago, I and Jubril used to do business together with some other top citizens of the country. The truth is that most of our businesses were illegal’

The man paused and coughed, he fixed his gaze on Tarasha before he continued. ‘Everything changed when Retired Gen Mubarak Baruwa was about to come into government fifteen years ago, everybody was scared of him because of his relentless fight against corruption. Luckily for Jubril and some other of my associates, they got close to their new President and became his close workers. We held a crucial meeting immediately after the President was sworn in and we concluded that we needed to stop our illegal deals, but there was still one hanging; we had a fake drugs consignment that we needed to clear’

Chief Gab’s loud ringtone disrupted the conversation, he quickly ended the call and switched off the phone.

‘I was told to handle the last deal’ Chief went on, ‘but unknown to me and Onwuli my friend who was also not close to the new President like me. The others had planned to implicate us in order to gain favour from the President. All the deal’s document were released by them to the police force, I was caught and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Onwuli was murdered with the whole of his family when he tried to fight for me’

‘I came out of prison ten years later and found out that these people are now well celebrated in the country, I tried to fight back legally but I discovered that all documents that could implicate them had been hidden. I thr_@tened to speak with the press but I had to shut up as they caused me more pain, my wife and first son were murdered the next day’ Tears began to drop off the man’s eyes, he returned to where he was previously seated and cleaned his face with an handkerchief. He waited for Tarasha to also sit before he went on.

‘Only Chief Nonso came to my rescue, he was one of the beneficiaries of Onwuli’s wealth, so he helped me when I was in prison and even more when I came out. He made me to understand that Onwuli had made him promise before his death that he would help him fight if anything happens to him’

‘I can’t rest until I see these evil men reap the harvest of their deeds. Since the law can’t do it, then I have to do it my way’ he concluded and stared at Tarasha as he cleaned off his again.

She didn’t say a word, she only picked her glasses and put them on before walking out of his presence. If the man was hoping to evoke pity in her, then he had failed. She wasn’t moved by his tears, she only had to do her job; the only thing she was bred for, ki||ing.

++++++

**9pm**

Cole and Benny came out of the car after parking it in front of a shop just before getting to the T-junction. They both stared at the abandoned warehouse some metres before them. That was the warehouse Don had sent them to after Tarasha had attacked and collected a particular package from two of the Nanl Gang members that had been sent on an assignment. The warehouse was abandoned after the sudden attack which involved them ki||ing all the workers.

‘Let’s get closer and look for a way to get in’ Cole said, looking around to see if anyone was watching them.

‘We have to come back or wait till it’s midnight’ Benny replied, stopping Cole by placing a hand on his shoulder. ‘it’s not advisable we go in now’

‘We’ll wait’ Cole said, ‘I’m sure that it will be a very good place. It’s very big’

‘We need to find out what they do in the neighbouring compounds too’ Benny said, ‘and I think we’ll need use of that hotel by the side’ he pointed to a multiple storeyed building that was only separated from the warehouse by a building in the middle.

‘If we can get a room at this side’ Cole explained with his hands, referring to the rooms by the right side of the hotel whose windows would give them a good view of the ware house.

‘No wasting of time anymore, let’s go back home and get our tools ready’

+++++++++++++++++

2/01/2031

**8am**

‘They accepted it few minutes ago’ Greg said as Robin joined him in the computer room.

‘So have you gotten their location?’ He asked.

‘Yes, they’re in a ware house’ Greg answered, looking into his computer. ‘We have to get James to lead is there’

Robin brought out his phone and dialed James, he ordered him to come and meet him in the room immediately.

‘Did you get any view of the warehouse?’ Robin asked as they waited for James.

‘No, but I’m sure that’s where they are’ Greg insisted, showing Robin a thick spot on the screen which indicates the location where the bug directs its signal

‘Okay’ Robin took a seat beside Greg, ‘we are all going together, call Tony to come here now’

James came in when Greg was making the call. He looked smart and ready for action in his uniform which he only wears occasionally.

‘Are you ready?’ Robin asked him.

‘Ready sir, my men are also prepared’ James replied.

‘Good, we just got their location and you’ll be leading us there’ Tony came in as Robin was explaining.

‘Where sir?’ James inquired.

‘Here’ Robin motioned him forward, to view at the location on the computer screen, the address of the place was underneath the point.

‘Tan beverage warehouse’ James muttered with a frown. ‘This warehouse has been abandoned, nobody has been using it for more than a month now’

‘Huh?’ Robin raised a brow.

Inspector Segun dressed in his uniform came into the room at that moment, he was in a rushing mood. ‘Sorry for disturbing’ he apologized when he noticed that he interrupted their conversation.

‘Segun, when last did anyone use the Tan Beverage warehouse?’ James asked him.

Segun was surprised at the question, he cleared his throat before talking. ‘We went to that area about three weeks ago and I’m sure that it hasn’t been used since the incident in November last year’

‘Did you guys check inside thoroughly?’ Robin asked.

‘No, we didn’t’ Segun gave a short reply.

‘Well, it seems that the Assassins have been hiding there and using it as their quarters for operation’ Robin added.

James was silent as he thought of the possibility of the assassins being in the warehouse truly. It was really possible that it was the same people that had carried out the ki||ings that took place in the warehouse before it was abandoned, they could now be using the place as a point of operation. Where James still had mixed feelings was the fact that Greg had discovered the place easily, he hoped that they were not in for a surprise.

‘What incident happened there in November?’ Robin asked, directing the question to James.

‘The workers in the warehouse were attacked and ki||ed by unknown gunmen, there was only one survivor’ James explained, ‘we later discovered that the manager had a kind of deal with the unknown gunmen but something went wrong between them ‘

‘So nobody has been found associated with that case?’

‘No one sir’

‘Well, we have to plan our attack now’ Robin paused and looked at Segun. ‘What did you come in for?’

‘I…I came to enquire about the arms we need’ Segun answered.

Robin returned his gaze to James who took out a piece of paper from his pocket and stretched it out to Segun.

‘We surround the place and then announce to them from outside to peacefully surrender’ Robin continued after Segun had left. ‘If they refuse to come out, we may need to launch in tear gas to take the out first. Remember, it’s our target to capture them alive so we should try our possible best to do that’

++++++
+++++++++++
Knock! Knock! A male attendant with a cap covering his face knocked on the door of room 108. A man opened the door slightly, bringing out only his head.
‘What?’ He barked angrily at the attendant for disturbing him.
‘Sorry, I need to check your bathroom. We got an alarm, it seems the plumbing system is faulty’ the attendant replied.
‘Everything is okay here’ the man said and tried to close the door. The attendant stopped the door from closing with his legs.
‘I still need to check it to be sure’ the hotel staff said to the furious man.
‘What the hell is wrong with you? I said nothing is wro…’ Benny did not allow him continue, he looked around the corridor to check if anyone was coming as he pushed the man inside with the door, he closed back the door with his feet. The man who was only clad in his boxers fell down inside the room. Benny brought out a gun and pointed it at the man after closing the door.
He placed a finger on his lips to order the man to keep shut after which he brought out an handkerchief and covered the man’s nose with it.
Benny proceeded straight to the window with his bag strapped to his bag, he took off the bag after confirming that the window gave him a perfect view and offloaded his tools. He rolled down the curtains and quickly set up the sniper and the grenade launcher. He wasn’t sure of the one that would be needed.
‘I’m set Cole, are they anywhere close?’ Benny spoke into his Bluetooth device.
‘You’re just in time, they arrived a minute ago’ the reply came immediately.
Benny opened the curtains but couldn’t see anyone inside the warehouse compound. He couldn’t see outside the gate from the window until he climbed the bed, he could see police buses and some people’s heads outside the gate.
He got down the bed and used the telescope attached to his sniper to continue the viewing.
All he needed was for the officers to enter into the warehouse compound or the building, they had set up automatic guns in several points in the building that would be triggered when a bullet hit a point in the main control of the set up. Benny only hoped that his main targets, Robin Kahn and inspector James would lead the entourage in so that they wouldn’t be able to escape their deaths.
Well, one thing was sure; they would not escape that scene without any injury and even if they escaped their deaths there, they would not escape death in the second stage of the plan.
He reset his sniper and focused it on the red spot of the automatic guns control point on the roof of the warehouse.
+++++++++
Robin decided that it was time to go in after several minutes of shouting in orders without getting any response. They had launched in several volleys of tear gases and still couldn’t find anyone coming forth.
He organised the men with inspector Segun and Tony by his side, twelve police officers set in to enter the building at once. James who was double minded had to agree hesitatingly with Robin’s plan as he didn’t want to be labeled as rebellious, he was lucky as he was ordered to stay with Greg with the other officers outside the compound.
‘1, 2, 3 go’ Robin shouted and the lineup officers released several gunshots at the gate, bringing it down. The twelve entered into the building the compound at once, spreading out as they had planned.
Tony led the way to the entrance of the warehouse, he broke the lock of the wide metal door with two bullets from his gun, inside of the warehouse was very dark.
‘What can you see?’ Robin shouted, moving closer to join Tony.
‘Nothing, its dark’ Tony replied, ‘I believe no one is here, the tear gas would have sent them out’
‘We have to go in and check, where are the torchli…’ A gunshot sound startled them. It came from the left from they couldn’t figure out where it was from or where it hit.
A sound like that of a whirlwind dominated the surrounding, the police officers began to shout and tried to scamper for safety as metallic guns implanted in walls began to spring out.
A rain of bullets filled the compound and several police officers dropped immediately. Others who had been hit at one place or the other dragged themselves behind walls and sections where the automatic guns couldn’t spread their reach to.
++++++++
Benny laughed loudly as he watched the police men round around helplessly in confusion. It looked like Inspector Robin had also been hit, he was seen holding his belly as he hid behind the opened metallic door of warehouse. He brought another gun from his pocket as the one he held before had fallen off his hands during the struggle, he began to aim at the several locations where the automatic guns were.
Benny left the window with a crooked smile on his lips and returned the snipper and other arms into their bags. He arranged his ruffled uniform properly and cleaned off sweat from his face, ready to walk out of the hotel as he had fulfilled the first part of the plan.
He heard a noise coming from the angle of the room where the toilet was as he opened the door to go out, he turned back to check but stopped again when he heard another voice approaching, some of the hotel officers were coming that way. He walked out and closed the door gently, taking the opposite direction, he made sure not to look back until he was out of sight. Cole must have been waiting for him in the ambulance, it was time to execute the second and final part of the plan.
+++++++++++
**30 minutes later**
‘Hmm…’ Don laughed somehow bitterly, tapping his feet on the ground as he faced the TV screen reporting a breaking news. The overrated Robin Kahn had just led his men into disaster. Seven police officers including Segun and the foreigner Tony had been confirmed dead already. Segun was unlucky to have one of the first set of bullet spray right into his stomach, another one hit his forehead as he dropped on one kneel from the impact of the one that entered his stomach, he died instantly. Tony who was at the opened entrance could not escape death also, not less than four bullets pierced his body in three seconds.
The others were hit by bullets in several parts of the body. Robin Kahn had also been lucky, he was hit by two bullets. The first one went into his laps while the second only scratched the left side of his belly. He escaped death but was badly injured.
Reporters claimed that the officers had run into a bait of Samantha Osman. They thought they had found her location, only to be deceived by her and lured to a place where guns had been set up from them.
That was the first time those kind of guns would be used in Nigeria, no one including the government was even aware that the machine gun was in the country. The only places the brand had been used were in Russia where it was made, China and USA. No wonder Robin did not plan for something like that.
‘She almost ki||ed Robin Kahn’ Don muttered under his breath angrily. He used the remote control to switch off the TV after which he smashed it on the ground. He got up from his bed and put on his shirt.
Tarasha was already taking away his business, he had to stop her, she had already taken Chief Nonso who was his major client. Some of his other clients had also began to ask him if he knew the Samantha Osman, she would take all his clients soon if he does not take any drastic step. So he thought.
He turned back to the TV on a second thought, he had already smashed the remote so he proceeded to the place it was hung to switch it on. The news was still on, medical practitioners were seen carrying bodies on stretchers into emergency ambulances. He hissed and was about to switch off the TV again when he saw something unusual.
There was Cole and Benny, lifting a body in a stretcher into an ambulance. His mouth was left agape. These guys had become something else in just few weeks that they started working with Tarasha, how on earth were they able to disguise as medical officials without the police taking note.
He h@ťěd them more, they had betrayed him. They changed their lines and cut off all communication with him after they started working for Tarasha, they even avoided him when they coincidentally visited the same clubhouse.
An idea struck his mind, he quickly walked to the bed and brought out a laptop from a black bag. He sat on the bed and started typing into it hurriedly. The stubble device locator was connecting fast, collecting data from Aisha’s phone’
++++++++++
James was feeling greatly agitated as he reflected on all that had happened, his spirit had told him that it was a trap all along. ‘Who on earth was behind this?’ He asked himself. If the criminal could entrap Robin, then his life was not safe anymore. He thought of resigning as fear beclouded his heart but he discarded the thought with great grief in his heart. He remembered when he was a boy and used to dream of being a superhero, protecting people’s life and getting the bad guys. His father who was also a police officer before he died told him that joining the police force was the only way he could protect and save people if he did not want to be a medical doctor. He being an action loving person decided that the life of a medical doctor was not for him, he choose to enroll in the police academy.
A tear dropped off his eyes on looking up again to see the ambulance that was in front of their car. The ambulances were moving at a faster pace and ignoring traffic signs because they had to get the victims to the hospital quickly. He remembered Segun, a young man with a bright future in the police force, his life has just been truncated due to carelessness of a so called international special agent.
He wiped off his face with an handkerchief and tried to stay calm, the junior officer seated by his side at the back seat was already looking at him pitifully, he was a man and wasn’t supposed to be caught crying.
From almost giving up, his mind changed. He was more determined now to nail the culprit as he remembered the sight of Segun’s dead body before it was carried into the ambulance. He decided in his heart that even if it would take his last breath, he would ki|| the assassin first.
A phone call delivered him from his disturbing thoughts. He checked the screen, officer Dakolo was the caller.
‘Hello …’ He answered at the car shook, trying to obey the traffic warder’s sign.
‘Hello James, are you okay?’ Dakolo voice carried a note of deep concern.
‘I’m fine’ James gave a short reply, inhaling deeply.
‘I heard all that happened’ Dakolo continued, ‘I was supposed to join you guys next week for the operation, why didn’t you wait’
‘The Oyinbo man was impatient o’ James replied, referring to Robin as “Oyinbo”, a Nigerian pidgin word for foreign or white.
‘I would have loved us to do this together, I know we can but the authorities have decided to leave everything to the foreigner’ Dakolo continued sadly. ‘I’ve been transferred to Abuja already, I’m only coming drop my report in Lagos next week’
‘No problem sir, I will do it’ James said in a determined tone. ‘I will get the culprit’
‘I’m with you, you can reach me if you need any assistance. Just be careful and stay safe’ Dakolo said before ending the call.
James stared at the phone’s screen for several seconds after the call before deciding to return it into his pocket. He was about to when it vibrated, he had a message from an unknown number.
“The criminals are still with you, in ambulance 2 with Robin Kahn” the message read.
James eyes widened on seeing the message but he decided to act carefully not to fall into any trap again. He quickly dialed another number.
‘Where is ambulance 2? Can you see it?’ James said into the phone.
‘Ermm… It’s out of sight sir’ the reply came.
‘Are you not the one supposed to be monitoring them?’ James barked.
‘Sir… I believe they had to hurry up to save Inspector Robin’s life’
‘Idiot’ James cursed. ‘You’re not even sure, locate the ambulance and get back to me in one minute’
Another message had entered before James ended the call. It read “The bomb in your car explodes in 90 secs”
‘Hey! Stop’ he commanded the driver. ‘Everyone get out of the car
‘I can’t stop here, it could cause an accident’ the confused driver replied panicking James. ‘We can stop when we get under the bridge’
‘Park here’ James said pointing at a space of some metres distance from a mall where signboards of no parking were placed. ‘We can’t go that far’
‘There’s…’ The driver tried to argue again.
‘The bomb in this car would explode in 50 secs’ James said glancing at his wristwatch.
The driver quickly obeyed on hearing the last statement. The three officers in the car jumped out immediately and tried to stop other cars and passersby from coming close.
They stared at the car in awe for the next two minutes, nothing happened. Other cars coming behind had passed already, some turned back to run while some waited at far distance from the car. The security officials of the mall had also come outside to see but they maintained a reasonable distance.
‘Sir, nothing is here’ the office driving the car said as he walked closer to the car, angry that James had raised a false alarm. ‘Let me che…’ He was saying when the explosion came, his body was flung away violently, the car went up in flames. People around the area scampered for safety as several body parts of the car flew in different directions.
James heart was beating faster under the bridge where he stood, this was the second time he escaped death that day. His phone vibrated again and in came another SMS. He ignored the SMS first and dialed the number, he got a response from the network service that the number does not exist.
The text message read this time, “I’m sending you an HTML file of a device locator now, it would give you the Assassin’s location”
James quickly dialed the head office to make a report of the happenings. After that he dialed another person in the ICT team to inform him of the expected information.
A call came in immediately he ended his. ‘Ambulance 2 is nowhere to be found, it’s not at the Force hospital’ the voice said and the call ended immediately.
“Hey!” He shouted as he tapped a bike man who was under the bridge also watching the incident beside him.
‘Sir’ the man replied the officer with respect.
‘I need your bike’ James pushed the man off the bike and climbed it, he threw a paper at him before driving off’
++++++++++
‘Cole hurriedly drove in the ambulance into the former office which they had abandoned. The program he used to deactivate the street surveillance cameras would crash soon, so they had just twenty minutes to finish off the operation.
Benny who was the one that opened the gate came back to the ambulance to join them as Cole parked the vehicle. Aisha also came out of ambulance interior leaving the door ajar
The trio discussed something between themselves in low tones, placing glances on the sleeping Robin in the vehicle. The came to a conclusion for Aisha to do the job.
She brought out a syringe from her doctor’s coat pocket and removed the nylon seal. She brought out a tube and drew in the liquid content from it into the syringe. She took a glance at Robin once again before climbing into the vehicle.
She rolled up his sleeve to find a good point to inject the man. She was about to place in the needle when a blow landed on her face. Robin was awake and conscious of his environment.

‘Aisha Temitope Bello’ The computer operator read out the name from the computer. ‘ She’s a student of Lagos state Polytechnic’
‘A student?’ James echoed.
‘A student…’ The computer operator paused and read some words under his breath. ‘ the data here does not show her graduating date, she’s been a student since 2023’
‘That’s over seven years already’
‘Yes it is’
‘ Find her location, that’s what we need now. Inspector Robin might be in great danger’ the embattled Greg put in. ‘The location is more important than who she is ‘
‘The search for the location is on already, we should get it before the next five minutes’ the operator replied, taking a quick glance at Greg.
An awkward silence took over as the three stared into the computer. The software revealed the location in lesser time than the operator speculated. James quickly scribbled it on a sheet of paper.
‘Can we access the security cameras there? Let’s see what’s happening around’ James enquired.
‘Sir…’ The operator began as he rolled the swivel to another computer set. ‘The cameras have not been transmitting for about two hours now, I think somebody is playing with our systems again’
‘Wasn’t that the same thing that happened during the health minister’s assassination?’ James asked, raising a brow.
‘Yes, it…’
‘We gotta go now’ James said to Greg. He tightened his fist as he turned once more to the operator. ‘Please inform us immediately there’s any change in location’ he said to the operator before hurrying out of the room with Greg.
+++++++++
After watching them do the task on their own for more than an hour, Tarasha decided that it was time to step in. Things were already getting out of their control, they had used a wrong dose of the sedative on Robin and that couldn’t keep Robin as long as they needed.
That wasn’t even her main concern, there was very little that Robin could do. Her main concern was their location that had been gotten by the police server, she had a monitor over the operating devices of Cole, Benny and Aisha’s phones, so she knew when something was up with their devices.
She started the car engine and wind up the windows. She began loading her guns, sticking them one after the other into her kevlar made costume. She stuck two revolvers at the side of her boots, two in the square pockets of her tight trousers and one in her top.
+++++++++
Aisha let out a scream as she staggered backwards in pain and hit her head against the left wall side of the ambulance. Robin had rolled off the stretcher to escape a quick shot from Cole. He pushed out a small first aid box with his right leg which hit Benny on the knee.
Luckily for Robin, he still had a revolver in the inner pocket of his jacket. He released two shots out towards Cole and Benny who quickly dodged and hid from his eyesight.
Robin could not do much with his injured leg, he only had the other leg to stand on and he wasn’t sure he would be able to take out the two guys. But even if he had to die, he wouldn’t give up without a fight.
He dragged himself up on the right leg and pointed a gun at Aisha who was just recovering from the impact of the blow. He hopped closer and placed the gun on her head motioning her to lift up her hands.
Benny appeared at the entrance again, pointing a gun at Robin. The man gave a smirk and spat out through the entrance not minding that Benny was there. The look on his eyes was that of a dying man who was ready to take several others with him.
‘Do I look like someone who cares if you shoor her?’ Aisha’s body trembled in disappointment as Benny spoke.
‘Oh well! I don’t want to know if you care but I’m ki||ing all of you and not just her alone’ Robin replied as he Ç0çƙed the gun.
Benny felt afraid as he heard the gun Ç0çƙ, he was alone trying to sound confident to Robin not that he didn’t care if Aisha was shot. He braced up and still continued, ‘you won’t ki|| anyone here’
Robin smiled, he knew he had got Benny, he was a professional so he recognized the look in Benny’s eyes, ‘I’ll…’ Aisha tried to move as Robin began but he pulled her back to himself, sending in a bullet to her left foot.
Benny tried to use the opportunity to send a bullet into Robin’s body but Robin was fast, he swerved quickly to the other side before the gun was shot and released a quick bullet which pierced through Benny’s arm. Benny winced in pain as he hid away from the entrance.
++++++++
‘d@mn’ James cursed as the driver of his car blared the car horn. A red Range Rover was blocking the road just a few metres before their destination.
The car had made a careless u-turn and almost caused an accident, they expected that it would drive off as soon as it turns but the driver halted in the middle of the road, obstructing cars from passing on the lanes. What had saved her from the wrath of the police was a “L” tag behind the car.
‘How can someone park a car on the road like that?’ Greg barked angrily. ‘Are there no road safety officials in this estate?’
‘There are’ James answered him, ‘but they stay at specific points and moreover the driver is a learner’
‘A learner should not hit a busy road’ Greg barked on.
‘This place is not a busy road, we are in an estate, there’s only one car beside us’ James said staring at the Lexus Jeep beside them. The driver was a middle aged man dressed in Yoruba native attire, Agbada.
Two uniformed officers jumped down from the police van which followed the car and hurried forward to clear the road.
The officers hit their guns on the car to get the attention of the driver, the windows were all winded up, two road safety officials in their yellow and black uniforms also came to join them.
The driver was bowed down, her head was on her laps. One of the police officers tried to force open the door to the driver’s seat but it was hard and not opening. The driver made no movement still.
‘Get out of the way’ Greg surged towards them angrily. He tried to force open the door but couldn’t so shifted backwards and stood in a parallel line to the door. He aimed at the door lock carefully and shot at it, the door gave way finally. He rushed towards the driver with an intention of pulling her out and driving the car out of the way.
The sole of the shoe on the lady’s right leg hit his face as he moved to touch her, Greg fell to the floor with his face bleeding. She removed two guns from the both sides as she came out of the car, her face was covered with a mask.
+++++++++
The bullet which had missed Robin’s body got into Aisha’s stomach, she was bleeding and losing strength rapidly. Robin only noticed it when she began to slowly drop from his hands. He tried to pick her up but her legs couldn’t stand anymore, he began to lose hope gradually, his plan of escape to use her as an hostage was failing already. His legs were also becoming weaker, he had to place his right knee on the ground.
He ran out of luck when Cole finally appeared at the entrance, pointing a gun at him. Cole did not waste time in releasing two bullets, one which entered into his chest and the other into his head. He fell flat and rolled out of the ambulance with a thud.
Cole quickly rushed towards Aisha and picked her up, he carried her and dropped her on the ground, close to the car. He brought out a shirt from the car and tore it into pieces , trying to use the pieces to hold Aisha’s wound from bleeding.
‘She’s going to die if we don’t get out of here quickly’ Cole shouted at Benny who was dragging himself towards them.
Benny rushed to open the gate quickly and Cole drove the car out of the compound.
‘Where are we going to get treatment now? We can’t go to the hospital’ Benny commented as he joined Aisha at the back seat of the car.
‘If we can’t go to the hospital, a doctor can come to us’ Cole answered him, he took a glance at the clock in the car. ‘The street cameras would be alive in one minute’
Sounds of several gunshots from the back startled them. Cole and Benny stared backwards to see a lady in gun battle with the police.
++++++++++++++
A bullet entered into Greg’s head, keeping him on the floor permanently. Bullets were also sent into the bodies of other officers who were at that side of the car.
Tarasha bent to escape the bullets coming from the back. She entered back into the car and pulled it back, she didn’t need to start the engine again because it was never switched off.
She took a quick turn and rushed in direction of the police cars, sending out bullets to them from the front mirror.
Inspector James was out of the car already, he was hiding behind and sending bullets to the attacker. He watched as bullets were sprayed out from the range Rover as it approached them, eighty percent of his men, most of those who came out of the police van were down already.
He jumped and landed on the car’s boot before the range Rover hit the car, he had a clear view of the lady and quickly sent two bullets her way.
She rolled out of the car before the bullet was delivered. James moved forward, climbing the top of the car as he released more bullets from the gun. The lady was out of sight already.
Tarasha rolled carefully but with speed under the Hyundai sonata police vehicle and came out from behind, she first dealt with the remnant of the officers that came out of the police van before turning to the officer who was on the car. A bullet hit her back as she turned.
+++++++
‘More backup is needed at Gravl estate’ Sandra relayed James’ request to the superintendent.
‘Handle that’ the man replied her in a gruff voice without bothering to take a look at her. He had too many problems of his own and wasn’t ready to be troubled this afternoon by any state problem. Moreover, he had decided to wash his hands off this “Samantha’s case”, since the country did not trust him enough to handle it and had to allow a foreigner do the job.
‘Thank you sir’ she said as she walked out of his office. She almost bumped into the computer operator who was about to enter the superintendent’s office.
‘Sorry’ the operator apologized with a brief smile.
‘It’s okay’ she said and made her way to leave.
‘Are you going to join inspector James?’ He asked
‘Yes’ she answered and turned back impatiently, wanting to hear if he had any information that may be useful.
‘The cameras are up already, I think you need to see something before leaving’ He said and pushed her arm gently, trying to motion her towards the computer room.
‘No’ she refused, ‘Inspector James wants the backup immediately and I’m going there now’
‘I’ve given commands for more backup already and they are on their way’ the operator continued. ‘I need someone working on this case with the inspector to monitor with me because the cameras are not working fine yet’
‘You can communicate with me if there’s anything I need to know’ she said as she walked away hurriedly. ‘I’m going there now’
‘Okay, good luck’ he said as he watched her leave. The cameras were not working properly yet and he wasn’t sure that the videos would be stored in their database, that was why he wanted her to monitor with him.
‘Sir, the location has changed’ his Junior’s voice startled him.
‘Huh? For how long?’ He questioned.
‘About ten minutes ago’
‘Ten minutes ago?’
‘Yes sir’
‘Are you crazy? Why are you just reporting now?’ He blasted as he followed behind the junior.
++++++++
Another bullet hit Tarasha’s back as she made her way to enter the police van. She threw a grenade in James’ direction to distract him before starting the engine.
The van was driven off as James jumped down from the sonata and it blazed off in flames.
He felt as if his legs were broken as he landed in pains, he still managed to turn back to see the direction that Tarasha was taking. He laid flat on the floor as sounds of police sirens drew closer. His phone rang.
‘The direction has changed, they’re on the way to Lekki’ a voice came through.
James was to weak to respond, he closed his eyes and turned his head to the left to spit out first. He opened his eyes a minute later to find Sandra standing by his side.
‘Are you okay sir?’ She asked with concern in her voice.
‘Yes’ he said, only audible to himself. Other officers came down from their vehicles to check the injured ones. A call ordering for ambulances was made to the headquarters.
‘That way, she went that way’ James managed to say, pointing in the direction Tarasha took.
‘Call the fire service’ Sandra ordered a junior officer, as she stared at two cars in flames. The driver of the car that was beside the police vehicles had fled when he heard the first gunshot and he couldn’t reverse the car because of other cars who were coming to join them. His Lexus was also affected by the explosion from the grenade.
Sandra walked back into the car and led the police vans in pursuit of Tarasha after making sure that James was being taken care of. She maintained contact with the computer operators and they gave her directions to where Aisha Bello was.
+++++++
Cole’s phone rang just when they were few centimetres away from the gate of the house. He glanced at the screen and saw the caller ID. He quickly parked at one side and answered the call.
‘Boss’
‘Where are you?’ Tarasha’s voice came through
‘At home, we’re about driving in’ Cole replied.
‘Don’t drive in, meet me at Obalende. I’ll give you more directions later’
‘Boss’ Cole said in a pleading manner. ‘I’m not sure we can get there, Benny has a bullet in his arm and Aisha is also badly injured. We’ll get into trouble with the police’
‘Okay’ Tarasha said after letting out an audible sigh, ‘Just keep driving, drive to anywhere you think is safe. I’ll meet you there, don’t just stay at the house’
‘Okay Boss’
‘And one more thing’ Tarasha said in a sudden manner, ‘throw away Aisha’s phone. Now.’
‘Okay’ Cole responded, his eyes widened as he nodded his head in agreement.
‘Take out Aisha’s phone’ He said to Benny who was already waiting for him to relay the details of the call.
Benny obeyed without any argument, he searched through Aisha’s bleeding body and brought out the phone. ‘Throw it outside the car’ Cole said to him.
Benny flung it out at once without asking the questions in his mind. Cole drove off from that point and continued in a forward direction, Benny was forced to speak up now.
‘Where are we going to?’ Benny asked in a loud voice.
‘Boss says we should not stop here’ Cole answered
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know, but I think she sees danger coming’
‘Does she know I’m injured and that Aisha needs treatment immediately?’ Benny questioned furiously, he was feeling great pains in his arms. He took a glance at Aisha who was unconscious already and spoke again. ‘I don’t think Aisha is going to make it’
Cole looked back to check Aisha too, ‘there’s still hope’ he says.
‘I don’t just understand all these’ Benny complained bitterly.
‘You don’t understand what? Don’t you know that Boss might be saving us from great danger?’
‘What great danger? Ain’t we done with the task already? What we need now is treatment’ benny argued.
‘Benny’ Cole mentioned softly.
‘Yes’ He replied in a harsh tone.
‘Did you see the gun battle with the police immediately we drove out of the compound in Gravl estate?’
‘Yeeess?’ he stressed the word in a questioning manner.
‘Who do you think that lady was?’ Cole asked and paused, he glanced back at Benny who couldn’t give a reply. ‘That was Boss saving our asses from the police’
‘How are you sure it was her?’ Benny questioned, his voice was softer now.
‘Don’t you recognize her structure? Didn’t you see the lady?’
‘I’m injured, I didn’t take a good look’
‘I think Robin had a tracker on him and the police was already on our trail before the Boss distracted them on the way’ Cole continued. ‘We need to follow her instructions, I think we’ll be safer that way’
++++++++++
***Twenty Minutes later ***
‘Yes, you are at the right place’ the voice answered Sandra’s question.
Sandra looked around the place, there was nothing suspicious there. She came out of the car and ordered the officers in the other two vans to come out.
‘Check around here, the criminal is around here’ she spoke aloud.
There were three houses close to where their vehicles were parked. The officers splited into three groups and invaded the houses.
‘Yeah?’ Sandra said as she answered her call.
‘We just some videos of that place now, they left already. They’re not there anymore’
‘What?’
‘Yes, they left but dropped the phone we were using to track them. I think they realized that we were on their trail, we must have one of their informant in the force’
‘Who the hell could the informant be?’
‘I don’t know but I’m sure someone must have informed them that we were tracking them with the phone. They paused a little at that point before throwing the phone outside’
‘Where are they now?’
‘We are still trying to track them’
‘You have to be careful with your men henceforth, don’t let any more information spread to anybody except the both of us’
‘When would I get a response on their location?’
‘In few minutes ma’
‘Please hurry up before they get away’
‘Okay ma. I…’ the caller stammered for some seconds.
‘You …?’
‘I think they’re a group’ he finally said. ‘Part of the group disguised as doctors and abducted Agent Robin while another one who I think is the Boss stopped Inspector James and his men from passing through’
‘Yes, of course they’re working together’ Sandra mumbled.
‘I don’t know how many of them were in the car because the windows were winded up but it’s a blue corex 2027. I believe that they still have Inspector Robin with them in the car’
‘Then hurry up and give us the information we need’ Sandra spoke in a rather harsh manner. ‘Once you get their locations, do make sure you also get in touch with the station in the district’
‘Okay, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible’ the call was ended
Sandra’s phone rang again before she could keep it.
‘Have you caught her?’ James asked immediately she answered.
‘No, she’s out of sight totally’
‘d@mn! She couldn’t have gone that far’ James started in an angry tone, he paused and continued when he got no response. ‘I shot her twice at the back so she would still be lurking somewhere around. I wonder how she was able to even drive the car’
‘We’ll wor…’ Sandra stuttered
‘I’m going after her myself’ James said and cut the call.

*8pm*
Cole could not hide his astonishment at the excellency of Tarasha’s edifice. Things in the house were either controlled by Tarasha’s voice or just a simple touch from her. From the gate of the house to the car park and the doors, they all responded to a simple whistle or a word.
Her medical lab was also well equipped with
equipments, someone who did not know her would mistake her for a real medical doctor but a closer look at the equipments and drugs nearly arranged on the shelves suggested that the lab was only meant for treating injuries, both simple and deadly ones.
‘Help me get that cylinder’ Tarasha’s voice jolted him. He turned back to see her pointing to a cylinder on the retort stand. ‘There’s a napkin there for you to hold it’
Cole picked up the hot cylinder with the napkin on his hand and proceeded towards Tarasha to hand it over. Aisha laid on the bed unclad except for her pant and bra as Tarasha cleaned the bullets wounds and applied antibiotics to prevent possible infections. An intravenous fluid bag was hung at the other side and the fluid passed through the IV lines slowly into her veins.
‘Is she going to make it?’ Benny said as he came closer to them. His wound had been treated and his arm was already bandaged.
‘We can make her live again but not without complications’ Tarasha replied in a tone that sounded like a professional Doctor’s. ‘The bullet touched some organs in the body and some liquids have been spilled’
Cole heaved a sigh.He felt a pang of guilt. Aisha was not supposed to be involved in the operation, she had only come to assist him and Benny after he pleaded with her. Now she had a bullet stuck in her stomach which would result into complications that won’t allow her enjoy life anymore.
‘Has the bullets been removed?’ Benny asked another question.
‘No, removing the bullet might cause more harm for now’ she replied. She took time to dress the wound on Aisha’s body after which she covered her with a piece of white cloth.
She led them out of the medical lab to a large room afterwards. The place looked empty until Tarasha brought out a remote control device and tapped in some commands. The opposite wall to them split open and furnitures making up a living room slid out of it towards them with a plane rug underneath.
Benny and Cole could not hide their surprise, it was well written on their face as they stood and watched it like a miracle, they had only seen such happen in Hollywood films. They stood fixed to a point and didn’t notice when Tarasha went to the wall behind them and touched a switch on it which brought out a flat screen TV and other sitting room ornaments from the wall.
‘Are you going to remain standing?’ She startled the two guys.
They sank into the seats in a weary manner and Tarasha took a seat opposite them. There was an awkward silence for about five minutes.
‘Are you hungry?’ She said to the both of them.
‘No, not yet’ Cole spoke up after looking at Benny’s face for a go ahead. ‘The snacks we took earlier is enough for now’
‘Okay, I got some food when I went out. Just tell me when you are ready to eat’ she said and relaxed back into her seat.
‘Thanks’ Benny and Cole said in unison.
Tarasha gave a brief smile, she brushed her hair with her hand and stared at the two for a while. Both of them hid their eyes from hers, wondering why she fixed her gaze on them.
A lot of things were on Benny’s mind. One was the hope within his heart that there was no more task Tarasha had for them, this first one almost took their lives. It had never been this tough when he worked with Don. Well, they never had taken operations as hard as the ones they did now.
A confrontation with someone like Robin Kahn would have been termed as impossible when he worked with Don. Not that Don’s group – the Nanl gang – was not good enough. In fact, they were arguably the best assassin group in the nation before Tarasha came in, but what had incapacitated them was the belief that the Nigerian security system was much stronger than the old times and some crimes could not be perpetuated without being caught.
Maybe it wasn’t just a belief of theirs, it was reality. Although the level of technology in the gang was high, no one had the knowledge of how to deactivate the security cameras or how to hack into the Nigerian security backup files, they all had come to accept that the security was unbreakable.
‘We only took one of our targets’ Tarasha’s voice came up again. Benny and Cole fixed their eyes on her at once, they had been expecting her to talk about it. ‘The Nigerian inspector is still well and sound’
‘No, he couldn’t have escaped’ Cole argued. ‘We attached a bomb to the car that was supposed to take him back to their station’
‘He survived, someone told him about the bomb’
‘Huh?’ Benny’s eyes widened, ‘No one could have noticed with the way we did it’
‘Who planted it ?’ Tarasha questioned.
‘I … and Aisha’ Benny answered.
‘You spoke to her about it on phone?’ She asked another question
‘Yes, we were not together all through. I had to communicate with her and Cole through phone calls’
‘I think the call was intercepted or maybe recorded’ Tarasha stated, she paused for a while and bit her lips. ‘Someone else has access to Aisha’s phone files and location, that’s how the police got to know where you were’
Benny and Cole exchanged glances, they couldn’t really figure out what Tarasha was trying to explain.
‘I had to come in and stop the police, they were on their way to meet you where you took Robin’ Tarasha continued. ‘Someone was tracking Aisha through the phone and providing them with information’
‘How could that be?’ Benny muttered. It was clear to him now that Tarasha was the one they saw in a gun duel with the police after driving out of the gate.
‘We still need to handle that Nigerian Inspector, he seems a little bit competent’ Tarasha stood up from her seat and slowly walked to the nearest window. ‘He could give you problems later’ she said, placing a stress on the “you”
Benny grumbled under his breath, afraid that Tarasha would ask them to complete the task with their injuries. Still backing them and looking out through the window, Tarasha sensed the fright mood of the two.
‘Don’t worry, you don’t need to go back to him now. You can ki|| him anytime you want to’ she said as she turned to face them. ‘He’s not that hard, he couldn’t pick a good place to fire at me, his two bullets hit my back’
‘Huh?’ Cole did not know when he stood up in surprise . ‘Two bullets hit you?’
Tarasha smiled, ‘the bullets got stuck in the kevlar’
‘Oh!’ Cole exclaimed softly and sat back.
Tarasha’s smiling face turned serious as she begun an impromptu lecture. ‘As a good gunman, two of your bullets should not get wasted. Even if the first one does not penetrate, you should know where to fix in the second. He should have noticed that the first bullet did not get into my body, he shouldn’t have shot the same place twice. He should have left an impact even if he didn’t ki|| me’ she paused and glanced at her wristwatch like someone rushing somewhere.
‘He didn’t try to $h00t my head, although that wouldn’t have ki||ed me because I had a Kevlar wig on too but it would have been a better shot’ she paused again to see get impact on them. ‘You should be able to use your eyes like a machine, it should scan through the body of your target like the eyes of a robot’ she said before walking back to her seat. She moved her gaze in a slow manner from Benny to Cole and back to Benny.
‘You two would handle the surviving Inspector when we return, we are traveling next week for our new operation’
++++++++
James saw several officers gathered outside as he drove into the station. He spotted Sandra talking to a group of officers on the left field beside the main building.
After parking the car, he relaxed back into the seat to rest , contrary to his plan of entering the office to take his bag and return straight home, he spent sometime to mediate in the car.
Though the day had been a fruitless one, he still had good reasons to thank God for saving his life. Two of the foreigners were dead already and their main Boss, Robin, who was supposed to be the superhero was nowhere to be found. He wondered how the news headlines would be next day. “Robin Kahn fails to lead his men and the Nigerian force to victory” or “Robin Kahn leads men into Samantha’s Osman’s trap”. It may even be ” Special Agent Robin is kidnapped – after leading several policemen in an operation that wasted their lives”. It would surely shock the outside world.
How Samantha Osman or whoever the Lady on the mask was escaped still baffled him. He was sure that two bullets hit her at the back, he wondered how she managed to drive away so fast that Sandra couldn’t catch up with her and even himself couldn’t find her in the places he searched. Or was she wearing a proof? No, it didn’t look like she was.
‘Sir’ Someone called, knocking on the car window. It was the computer operator, Sandra was standing at his back. They had seen his car when he drove in.
James hesitated before winding down the window. He had been through so much and didn’t want to continue until the next day. He even defiled medical advice still went after Samantha, now his body was really aching him and all he needed was rest.
‘Yinka’ he managed to call the computer operator’s name.
‘Sir, did you find anything useful?’ Sandra quickly put in.
‘No, you?’ James directed the question back to her.
‘No’ Sandra answered in a low tone.
‘I think we should just leave everything till tomorrow’ James said as he came out of the car.
‘No we won’t leave anything till tomorrow’ someone objected loudly, approaching them from behind. ‘We’ll do everything we can do today’
James looked back to see the superintendent, he felt like someone hit a hammer on his head.
The who seemed less concerned before had just received orders from his superior, thr_@tening him to look into the case urgently or loose his job.
‘Do you know the magnitude of what happened today?’ The man continued, staring into James’ face. ‘Three special agents from the US have been brought down in one day’
‘Two’ James corrected boldly, leaving Sandra and Yinka to wonder where he got such confidence to correct his superior in that manner. Of course, it was from his fatigue the desperation to have a good rest. ‘Two, Agent Robin may still be alive’
The man bit his lips in anger but refrained from taking it out on James because he wasn’t sure he had a better officer to handle the case if he argued with James.
‘Two’ the man stuttered. ‘But agent Robin is nowhere to be found. That wouldn’t be good news if it hit the headlines tomorrow. We have to do something to prove that we’re working and not in cooperation with the criminals’
‘That’s true’ James said calmly, finally reasoning with the man. There was silence for a moment.
‘I think we have a better picture of who Samantha Osman is now’ James spoke to the waiting ears of the officers. ‘Aisha Bello might just be the real criminal’
‘Yes!’ Yinka exclaimed excitedly. ‘I was about to say that too. I believe Aisha Temitope Bello is real name of the assassin who is the leader of the group and not Samantha Osman’
There was silence for some seconds again before Sandra spoke. ‘So does it means if we find that Aisha, we may have nabbed the whole group?’
‘Yes’ James agreed, nodding his head slowly. ‘We just have to be careful this time, not to run into another trap’ James concluded.
+++++
03/01/2031
Aisha Bello was declared wanted by the superintendent himself on national TV very early in the morning. Before seven thirty a.m , postals and handbills carrying her picture and details had been spread around the nation, a price tag for anyone with useful information was also placed on the bills.
News of Robin’s defeat and abduction had also been dispersed within and outside the nation. Everyone was on the look for Aisha Bello, who was possibly the same person as Samantha Osman.
The US authority did not believe when rumours of Robin’s defeat first got to them the day before. Various news medium in the US had carried it but there was no reliable source yet. They immediately made contact the Nigerian force but the news was denied until that morning when the superintendent confirmed it in an interview with the press.
‘I don’t think the Boss has heard this’ Cole said to Benny as they listened to the morning news, sipping the warm tea slowly.
‘You never can tell, she’s unpredictable’ Benny replied calmly.
‘I feel sorry for Aisha’ Cole said sadly.
‘She’ll survive’ Benny says nonchalantly.
‘Yes, she will but she wouldn’t have gotten injured at all if I didn’t ask her to come. It was our task.’ Cole continued, ‘she was still in pains when I spoke with her this morning, Boss has gone to get more medicines for her’
‘Well, that’s true. She’s in pain because she helped us’ Benny replied thoughtfully as he got up from the sofa. ‘I need to see her too’
‘She’s asleep now’ Cole returned him with a wave of the hand.
Benny returned to his seat and they watched the rest of the thirty minutes news in silence.
Cole began again after the news ended. ‘You know I’ve been trying to figure out how the police could have gotten access to Aisha’s phone. Do you think Aisha could have been careless enough not to know when she ran into an undercover?’
‘That baffles me also, I tell you’ Benny replied.
‘She was sold out by her boyfriend’ Tarasha’s voice came up. She had walked into the house without them taking note. ‘The same boyfriend who followed her to the former office’
‘Don?’ Benny and Cole exclaimed in shock.
‘I don’t know what his name is’ Tarasha replied, dropping a white nylon bag which contained the medicine she went to buy on the glass centre table. ‘Is she awake?’
‘No, I checked her few minutes ago’ Cole replied.
‘I heard she’s wanted now by the police’ Tarasha said with a wicked smile, taking out a pistol from her jeans jacket.
‘Yes, her pictures are everywhere’ Benny replied sadly.
Tarasha fixed in a bullet into the gun, making them wonder what she wanted to do. She walked up to Benny and handed the gun to him .
‘Aisha would cause problems for us if she lives, plant that bullet into her skull’ she ordered Benny. ‘Right now!’

… to be continued