Tarasha The Brutal Assassin Story PART 2 Episode 5

 

**Monday morning**

5am

Tarasha was laying on the giant sized bed, the pillow under her arm as she stared into her tablet device, studying the information she had gathered the last night. She had gotten so much already about the targets, their jobs, investments and family, all that remained now was to plot  the best way to carry out their murder. This time she planned for it to be neater than the previous jobs.

She turned off the device and turned to face the ceiling, putting the pillow under her head. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

Nasiru Attahiru, the Senate president who was also a business tycoon had three major companies in Nigeria and several other branches in other African countries. He had a cement factory, a large cocoa plantation; the largest in the country and an Agro products factory. He had three children, Fatima, Aisha and Kamal who were all schooling in the United States. His wife was also a business woman who travels out of the country on regular intervals.

He had several houses; one in Abuja, three in his hometown, Katsina , one in Lagos and many others in different parts of the country and in Africa. He had a mother who he held in very high esteem. She recently celebrated her seventy fifth birthday and it was reported that he spent money lavishly in honouring his mother and entertaining all the guests that were in attendance. He had only one sibling, a younger brother who was also a businessman though not as successful as he was but was doing well enough to fend for himself and his family and also live comfortably.

Elvis Richards, the vice President was a greatly feared and at the same time loved in the nation. As a result of his great contribution towards curbing the crime rate in the nation and bringing the country’s security to a dependable level, he earned respect from several countries and world leaders. He was also known for his intelligence and wisdom; he was never outsmarted in anyway.

He had three children also, James, Nathaniel and Vivian. His first son James had gone into the police force like him and was gradually growing in rank while Nathaniel his second son was the director in an oil company. The only girl and last born Vivian, was a hip-hop artiste who had several hits across the nation and regions beyond. His wife was late, she died two years ago after suffering several years from breast cancer.

Elvis was brought up by a single mother in a poor home. His father who used to be a politician was thrown in prison before he was born, after several of his political enemies had come together and plotted against him for his unshaken honesty and incorruptibility. The man was subjected to serious hardship and labour in prison, he was later found dead after few weeks. His wife who was a foreigner and had forsaken her country and family to marry him was left to bring up the boy alone after all the father’s properties had been seized by the court.

He finished his primary education easily through scholarship that was provided by the government of his state but had to stop schooling for some years after primary six. But he was desperate to survive especially when he heard about how his father died and those who caused the death. He was also desperate to continue schooling and become successful. He left his mother’s home at a very tender age to live under the bridge, there he learnt the very harsh lifestyle. He started with hawking sachet water by the road and later graduated to selling beef roll and plastic bottled soft drinks. He also involved himself in petty thefts at times and was arrested by the police on several occasions; they always had to release him because of his age and because no one was coming for him.

From the little money he made, he was able to enroll himself for evening classes which he did for three years after which he wrote the university entrance exam and passed after the second attempt. Elvis’s strong will and determination to survive continued to push him forward. After he graduated from school, he joined the police force in determination to pursue and ensure that the perpetrators of the crime against his father. But he discovered that it wasn’t possible because of the rot in the system. He lost his desire and will to fight back. He was now influenced and corrupted by the system, since he couldn’t fight them, he began to live by their rules.

Tarasha got up from the bed and began to take off her night gown, it was time for morning exercise.

~~~

Henry stopped and turned to face the opposite side in front of the old gate before turning off the engine. He took off his seat belt and opened the door. He took out his phone and dialed Jefa’s phone number.

‘Hello sir’ he spoke as Jefa answered his call.

‘Are you there now?’ Jefa’s asked anxiously.

‘Yes but I’ve not gotten into the house. I’ll call you when I’m with her. Just pray that everything goes well’ Henry answered. He spoke for another few seconds before the call ended. Then he stepped out of the car and began to walk towards the gate.

He stopped in front of the gate, it was properly closed unlike the way it was the day before. He stared around for a while, it looked like something had changed. He didn’t know what it was.

He pushed the gate open and walked in, the compound seemed different, he couldn’t tell what was amiss. He shrugged and continued walking further, undisturbed.

Nothing was going to stop his excitement, the excitement of breaking the news of a new job to Omotara. He hoped that she would appreciate it and that he would be able to totally convince her to totally leave her job as a fraudster.

He also had plans for all her accomplices, with his reputation he could get a job for everyone of them no matter what qualification they held. He was positive that Omotara would accept his idea especially when she hears about the handsome pay attached to it.

He stepped on the balcony, that was when he realized what had changed in the compound. He turned back, the two vehicles he had met there the day before were no longer there, his heart skipped a beat. Does that mean that Omotara had left the house? He proceeded to the day immediately with curiosity. He began to knock. After knocking several times without getting an answer, he started to call out her name, he got no reply also. He touched the door knob and it opened, revealing that it wasn’t locked before. He walked into the living room, it was devoid of any living thing.

‘Omotara’ he called repeatedly as he walked towards the room section. He entered into the first room, it was empty apart from the furniture in it. Same as the second and third rooms, they only had the beds and wardrobes in them, it was obvious that Omotara had left the place with her team.

He ran his fingers into his hair, frustrated. He had lost her again. 

°°°°

Cole the pressed navigation button and gradually began to pull over to the small space left beside the buses parked in front of the motor park. He halted beside a white bus and killed the engine. He took off the seat belt and took a glance at Tarasha to get the next instruction.

‘Go into the park and make enquiries on what it takes to hire a good car to Katsina’ she said to him as she also took off her seat belt. He opened the door and stepped out at once. He paused and took a look at the big sign board again, Rasmag Transport.

He returned eight minutes later with a paper in his hands, he handed it over to Tarasha.

‘It’s fifty thousand naira to hire a fully air conditioned car’ he explained to her. ‘And we have to book at least five hours before the movement time so that the car can be prepared for us’

‘It’s okay’she replied as she folded the paper and tucked it into her front jacket pocket.

‘Boss’ Cole called as he put back on the seat belt. ‘Why don’t we book a flight instead? It’ll be less stressful and faster’ he suggested.

‘It’s not an emergency journey, so we don’t need to get there fast’ Tarasha answered him. ‘It’ll give us more stress trying to smuggle in weapons into the plane’

Cole nodded thoughtfully in agreement, he wasn’t thinking that the traveler would need weapons. He started the car engine and turned on the radio before reversing the car out of its parking space.

“…interested programmers and developers should send in their CVs to nscc@nomail.com’ a female presenter’s voice came up as they drove off. ‘I repeat once again, the NSCC has urgent vacancies to be occupied this week, interested programmers and developers should send in their CVs to nscc@mail.com, as soon as possible”

“You know Funke” a male’s voice joined in. ‘The vacancies are really urgent, considering the way the nation’s activities were brought to a stand still yesterday because the security cameras stopped working’

‘Yeah, but it wasn’t really because the security cameras failed, it was because of the fright that the notorious assassin group of Samantha Osman was believed to have initiated the failure’ the lady added.

‘Yes, that’s true. But no case of assassination by the group have been reported yet, it was just something like a false alarm. Maybe something happened wrong with the NSCC machines and procedure and they thought that it was being tampered with again by Samantha Osman’

‘Yeah… That just buttresses the fact that the NSCC needs more capable hands, they …’ On and on the presenters continued their talk.

~~~~

‘Mr Henry’ Sylvester called as Henry walked past the reception, heading for his office. Henry waited and turned to answer him. ‘How far with the person you went for?’ Sylvester asked, extending his hand to Henry for an handshake.

‘I didn’t meet her’ Henry replied and they began to walk together towards his office.

‘Don’t you have her phone number?’ Sylvester questioned.

‘I don’t have her contact’ Henry said as they walked into the corridor leading to his office.

Sylvester remained quiet for a while, wondering why Henry was looking so distraught and answering him lifelessly. ‘Who is this lady?’ Sylvester asked as Henry opened the door.

‘She’s a programmer’ Henry answered. He opened the door and allowed Sylvester in first after which he followed behind and shut the door. He turned on the air conditioner and light before going to sit down.

‘I mean who is the lady to you?’ Sylvester asked again after he was settled.

‘She’s a friend’ Henry replied in a very low voice. .

‘Then why don’t you have her phone number?’

‘You won’t understand’ Henry replied as he took out two laptops under his table.

Sylvester shrugged. ‘Well, we’ve gotten some CVs submitted already. The total CVs we have numbers up to nine already’

‘Have you checked them?’

‘Not all, but I forwarded them to your mail’

‘Okay.’ Henry busied himself with his laptop for few minutes while Sylvester also took the second laptop and began to work on it.

‘I’m downloading the first five attachments, you work on the remaining ones’ Henry said.

After fifteen minutes of proper scrutinization, three out of the nine were picked, two from Sylvester and one from Henry.

‘Send letters to these people immediately, invite them for an interview by three pm tomorrow’ Henry said, closing his laptop.

‘Why three pm?’ Sylvester questioned.

‘I think one or two of them would be traveling, so we should give them enough time to travel’

‘It’s okay’

~~~

Dakolo sat quietly in his new office, studying the documents on his table. He had been able to confirm the claim of his colleagues about the good use of arms by the assassin gang through the doctors reports on the bodies of those that were killed in the event centre. He could also tell from the reports that an insider was involved in helping the gang. 

He looked up as a knock sounded on his door. ‘Come in’ he said into the megaphone.

Inspector Ken walked in briskly and took the visitor’s seat in front of the table. He dropped a document on the table. ‘Here’s the report from the ball test’ he said.

‘Which ball?’ Dakolo raised his eyebrows.

‘The one that was launched in to release the gas that made the people faint’

‘It was a ball?’ Dakolo questioned, taking the documents from Ken.

‘Yes, it was’

‘Do we have the pictures?’

‘Yes, it’s in there’ Ken took the document from him and opened to the page where the picture was.

‘This?’ Dakolo asked in surprise, staring at the picture.

‘Yes’

‘This is a grenade ball’ Dakolo stated boldly.

‘It looks like but it isn’t. The ball contains something else entirely, a strange gas’ Ken corrected. ‘Just read the report and see for yourself’

Dakolo let out a deep breath and began to read silently. Often times he would look up and stare into Ken’s face, whenever he read a surprising truth. He looked up finally after ten minutes.

‘Here’s a strong proof that Chief Jubril’s assassination was carried out by Samantha Osman’s group’ he said. ‘This unknown compound is always used by the gang, the ball also contains it. But the major constituents are tear gas elements’

‘Which unknown compound are you talking about?’

‘It’s an unknown compound which was discovered to be used in the previous two assassination. In the first one, it was used to put three police officers to sleep after which their car was hijacked, their uniforms were also stolen and the car was driven into the minister’s compound to carry out the killing. In the second assassination, it was also used to put to sleep some of the other people in the plane’

‘Now, it is here also?’

‘Yes, this analysis of the substance is the same we got from the forensic teams in Port Harcourt and Lagos’

‘Wow! Or is it the same with the substance found in the US investigation today?’ Ken asked with inquisitiveness in his eyes. ‘It’s sounds like they are the same’

‘Was there any substance found?’ Dakolo asked, bringing out his phone. Ken took out his phone too. ‘I saw the news of the assassination on the headlines today’ Dakolo continued, ‘but I’ve not been able to read it.’

‘Yes, there was’ Ken said and handed his phone to Dakolo to read the news. Dakolo dropped his own phone and took Ken’s.

‘The symptoms are the same’ Dakolo said after one minute of scanning through. ‘We need to contact the US authorities to see if we can link these cases ‘

‘But what’s the name of the gas?’

‘It’s unnamed yet but it was said to have no natural occurrence and has not been found to be legally produced anywhere’ Dakolo spoke, mentioning his words carefully, one after the other. ‘The only place signs and effects of these gases have been found are in these assassination cases’

‘Hmm…’ Ken cleared his throat. He looked into Dakolo’s face and Dakolo was also looking into his. ‘Agent sir, are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?’

‘I think so’ Dakolo smiled, his teeth showed slightly. ‘I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these assassinations are occurring at the same time in several countries. Although the intensity here in Nigeria is high because it involves top citizens’

‘Yes, the pattern here is different. The similarity is that there’s so much neatness in the way the job is being carried out’ Ken out in.

‘No Nigeria’s cases are a lot more accurate’ Dakolo disagreed. ‘Do you remember that Robin Kahn was able to stop an assassination attempt in his country before he came here?’

‘Yes, he did stop two assassination attempts. One in his country, US and one in South Africa before he handed the cases over to other people and traveled down to Nigeria’ Ken spoke. ‘But he wasn’t able to arrest the assassins, they always escaped with claims of receiving several wounds from Kahn and his men’

‘The cases in the other countries were different because the assassination attempts were not on heavily secured people, you can’t compare the way Jubril Lawal himself and the event centre were heavily secured and the assassins still penetrated neatly. Come to talk of the one that happened directly under my nose, the assassination of the Rivers state Governor. It is unexplainable how they got on board with the governor’

‘So are saying the assassinations are not connected now?’ Ken queried.

‘No’ Dakolo stressed, wiggling his head. ‘As a matter of fact,  I think they are connected but we just have to verify first. We can’t conclude that they are because our cases are somehow different from other countries’

‘It’s true’ Ken inhaled deeply and took a brief pause. ‘No government official or politician has been killed in other countries but that’s what we have here’

‘Yea, if Kahn couldn’t do anything here but instead got himself killed. Then we don’t have any strong evidence to connect them yet until we confirm first that the same substance was used by the assassins’

‘But… ‘Ken stammered, he paused and heaved a heavy sigh. ‘How the killer escaped from the event’s centre after killing Chief Jubril still baffles me.’

‘Yea, I was coming to that’ Dakolo adjusted himself on the seat. ‘Has everyone working there been thoroughly investigated?’

‘Yes all except one, who was very sick but now recovered. He has being invited to our custody and I believe he should be here very soon’ Ken glanced at his wristwatch. ‘In fact, he should be here already.’ Ken took his phone from the table and drew the pattern. He was about to open the dial pad when he saw a SMS notification on top of the screen. A junior officer had just sent him a message of the expected man’s arrival.

‘He’s here already’ Ken stated.

‘Yes, tell me. Who is this man? What is his job there?’

‘He was in charge of serving food that day’ Ken replied.

‘Okay, can we go and question him now?’ Dakolo said getting him from his seat.

~~

An middle aged man was seated behind the interrogation desk, he was staring at Dakolo who was seated at the other end of the desk, Ken was standing close to Dakolo with his arms folded.

‘Was there anybody you saw that day among your staffs who looked or was acting suspicious?’ Dakolo asked the fifth question.

‘No, everything was going perfect until we heard saw people who were at the entrance of the hall run outside. Most of them fainted before they could move too far. We didn’t quickly realize what was going on, everybody who entered into the Hall to check also inhaled the gas and experienced the effect. We thought that something had gone wrong with our machines inside’

‘How did you know what was happening?’

‘I came to monitor those serving the drinks and snacks then and I was returning when I saw people coming out of the hall and falling to the floor’

‘Yess…’ Ken interrupted with a clap, he just remembered something important. He made an eye signal to request permission from Dakolo, Dakolo authorised him to go ahead with a nod.

‘You mentioned earlier that there were ten people who served food and drinks’ Ken began.

‘Yes, ten’ the man confirmed.

‘Five guys and five ladies?’

‘Yes’

Ken lifted his head up as he inhaled abruptly, he looked back to the man. ‘We were only able to interrogate nine of them, I was thinking that you were the tenth person’

‘No, I’m the supervisor’ the man frowned. ‘Do you have the names of those interrogated?’

‘Yes, we have their names written somewhere. The list is in my office’ Ken said.

‘Go get it quickly’ Dakolo said to him. Ken obeyed immediately, he returned two minutes later with a file in his hands. He took out a paper from it.

‘Here, we have nine names. Five men and four ladies’ Ken placed the paper in front of Dakolo first. Dakolo transferred it to the man.

‘There’s a name missing here’ he said, slowly. ‘She’s a new girl, she just joined us two days before the event, one of our workers had an accident’

~~~~

12pm

‘Boss’ Cole called softly, taking a glance at Tarasha who was seated on the first black leather sofa. The whole team was in the living room, Cole and Aisha was seated on the tiled floor close to the plasma TV , busy with their pads playing the “Full Time Murder”, a bloody game created by Cole. Cole was seated on the three seater sofa working on his laptop and Tarasha was also doing the same where she was seated.

Tarasha stood up and dragged herself and her laptop to the three seater sofa. ‘They’ve responded to our e-mail’ Cole looked up as she approached him.

‘What’s in their reply?’ Tarasha asked and dropped her laptop on the left side as she sat close to him, her body resting on his. She rested her elbow on his lap as she bent forward to look into the laptop.

” Re: Donation of three hundred bags of rice to Atta’s foundation

With joy and gladness of heart did we receive your email, we’re glad that we have such passionate people like you who would extend an helping hand to promote a good course whose root isn’t even in their home country.

We’ll be glad to receive your representatives here at our head office in Katsina, Nigeria. And like you offered in your email, we would also be glad to work with you on other projects.

Thanks

Management

Atta’s Foundation “

Tarasha sat up and licked her lips softly. ‘One step accomplished. We’re going to need new fleet of cars and customized shirts for this new task. Benny would be in charge of that’ she said to Cole. She looked towards Aisha and Benny who were still engrossed with the game and turned back to Cole. ‘Three hundred bags of rice would cost about two million naira, Aisha would handle the buying of the rice. Please note this’ she said and glanced towards Aisha again.

Cole looked away from the laptop to Tarasha’s face and frowned. ‘Do we have enough money to run this operation?’

‘No, and I don’t think the Chief can provide up to thirty percent of the funds, we’re going to need almost a hundred million’

‘Yeah… That’s what I’m saying’

‘But it’s our strategy and we don’t have to get all the monies from the Chief. Waiting for him to raise the money would take a long time’ Tarasha spoke with a very careless tone that made Cole stare at her like he had seen someone fall from the Jupiter. Where were they supposed to get the monies from, if not from the client who gave them the job.

‘Then he has to wait then’ Cole asserted.

‘Yes, it should have been so but I can’t wait for finish the jobs’ Tarasha stated, mindful of the fact that she was in a hurry to complete the jobs and leave the country.

‘Then what do we do?’

‘Nasiru Attahiru would fund his death by himself’ she replied.

‘How?’ Cole widened his eyes in surprise.

‘That’s where you come in’ Tarasha placed her legs up the chair and positioned her self like an Hindu meditating, facing Cole directly. ‘Your job now is to search all his bank accounts and check how much we have there. I’m sure we can get a lot more than we need from his accounts’

Cole squeezed his face bitterly. ‘I can search his bank accounts but how do we take the money from there without being caught? The banking system is very secure…’

Tarasha interrupted him with a light slap on his cheeks. ‘How are we going to get caught?’

‘Erm…’ He stammered, touching his cheek with his hand. ‘They’ll be able to track our IP and even the bank account we’re transferring it to’

Tarasha frowned at him, disappointed with the way he was reasoning. ‘Did the Camera security system locate our IP?’

‘Oh!’ Cole pressed his palm against his forehead and exhaled. His brain had not told him that they could also hide their IP address like they did to the cameras system. He removed his palm from his forehead and stared at Tarasha. ‘But they’ll still be notified of the transaction and they may freeze the account we’re transferring the monies to’

Tarasha pouted her lips and stared at him for some seconds. ‘Then we ensure that they are unaware of the operation’

Cole stared at her, still confused, he had not done such a job before.

‘We’ll carry out the process on their own server; this will ensure that that don’t know that there’s an intruder. Then after hacking their server, we disable the notifications settings for his account and do our transfer, then we delete the records from their database immediately. We’ll repeat the same process for every bank account of his. That way, there’ll be no record of transaction, they’ll just discover later that money is missing in the account’ Tarasha explained but Cole still looked confused.

‘Okay, I’ll do it myself.’ Tarasha said after seeing that Cole wasn’t going to understand easily.

Cole gave a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks, I’ll learn it’

‘What you have to do now is to search all his bank accounts’ she said as she got up from her seat, she picked up her laptop and was about to leave to her former position. She remembered something and turned back.

‘Cole’ she called. He looked up from his laptop. ‘I noticed that most banks here in Nigeria uses the Wincorf Nixdorf to operate their automated system’

‘Wincall…’ Cole stared at her amusingly, he had never heard about whatever it was the bank was using.

Tarasha gave a gasp of astonishment. ‘You don’t know Wincorf Nixdorf?’ She exclaimed loudly in unbelief, placing her left hand on her waist. Aisha and Benny turned back to look at them. She rolled her eyes and exhaled before returning with her laptop in her right hand to sit on the sofa she was sitting before. She sat quietly and opened up the laptop, Aisha and Benny were still staring at her.

‘Boss’ Benny called softly, dropping his game pad on the floor. Tarasha looked away from her laptop to him. ‘You said you were going to explain to us the strategy and why we have to go to Katsina’

Tarasha’s shoulders dropped. ‘I would, when the right time comes. For now, some of the strategies are changing, if I find a better idea, we won’t have to travel to Katsina. But just keep in mind that Mrs Attahiru is the weakest link by which we can get to her son, the Senate President’ she explained and turned her face back to her laptop.

‘Okay, thanks’ Benny said and turned back to the TV slowly. He picked up the game pad and remained motionless for a while. He turned and glanced briefly at Tarasha again, wondering what kind of person she was. At times she could be so sweet and talk to them like a mother, explaining things calmly and she could become a tough boss in the next moment.

Tarasha looked up from her laptop after some minutes and began to look at everyone else in the living room. She took a minute to look at Cole who was busy with his laptop and another minute for Benny and Aisha who had returned to their game. She stared more at Aisha.

‘We need a clipper’ she said with a chuckle before she closed her laptop and got up from the seat.

~~~

3pm

‘Her lips are not that big’ the man corrected the artist who was making a sketch of his description. ‘Yes, perfect now’

The interrogation room was brightly lit up now, an artist had a standing drawing board erected before him while Ken was seated on a chair close to the interrogation desk and staring from there. They had gone to the man’s office to search for the credentials of the new employee but they couldn’t find it. They had to resort to making a sketch of her face from the man’s description.

‘Is this how she looks?’ Ken walked closer to the man and the artist.

‘Yes’ the man replied.

They all turned back as the door to the interrogation room opened, Dakolo walked in and closed the door, he had left briefly to pick up a file in his office.

‘Do we have the drawing now?’ Dakolo asked as he approached them.

‘Yes’ Ken answered.

Dakolo stopped when he got close to the artist and stared into the sketch.

‘Is this her?’ He asked the man under interrogation.

‘Yes, she looks like this’

Dakolo shook his head doubtfully, he opened the file that was with him and took out a picture containing Aisha Bello’s image. He tried to compare the drawing with the picture but there was no real resemblance except for some slight ones he was careful enough to notice.

‘Some of their facial features look alike’ he said as he handed the picture to Ken.

‘Aisha Bello’ Ken muttered as he stared at the picture and did his own comparison. ‘They don’t look alike in any way to me’

Dakolo collected the photo back and turned to the man. ‘I’m not satisfied with this yet’ he said, giving the man a stern look. ‘You couldn’t find the credentials in your office?’ He asked for the third time since the Man and Ken had returned.

‘Yes’ the man replied in a tired voice.

‘We searched everywhere in his office, her credentials were missing in the files’ Ken supported the man.

‘That further proves that she must be part of the assassin gang and your company would be in trouble if we don’t find her’ Dakolo asserted, making the man tremble in fear. Dakolo moved closer to the drawing board, the artist had finished packing his drawing materials into the bag and was about to leave. He removed the pins holding the drawing sheet to the board and handed over the sheet to Dakolo.

‘What’s her name again?’ Dakolo asked the man, staring at the drawing.

‘Khadijat is her first name, I don’t remember the last name’

‘Khadijat’ Dakolo muttered. He handed over the drawing sheet to Ken. ‘Let’s trace the name on the citizen’s directory and see whose picture matches it’

~~

**Three Days Later (Thursday)**

Now, all is set for the trip to Katsina on Saturday. Tarasha and the team would book two cars from the transport firm. As usual, Benny and Aisha would go in one while Cole and the boss in the other.

Tarasha came down from the car as she got to the gate of the house. She was about to walk in when someone greeted.

‘Hi’ a man who came out from the next compound greeted.

‘Hello’ Tarasha turned back to answer.

‘Yeah’ the guy smiled sheepishly. He had a somewhat fat body and a round head, his chubby cheeks and light skin colour made him look like a cartoon character. He wore a red tie on a white shirt which was properly tucked into his black trousers. He had the NSCC ID card hanging on his neck.  ‘I noticed that you guys just moved in and I thought I should say hello and welcome you to the estate’

‘Oh, thanks. That’s nice of you’ Tarasha smiled back at him.

‘You’re welcome. My name is Henry Paul’ he said, extending his hand to her for a handshake.

Henry’s picture flashed back into Tarasha’s mind as she took his hand in hers. This Henry Paul was a complete opposite of Henry; fat, chubby and light skinned and worst still, an ugly face round face. ‘I’ll call you Paul, you can call me Evelyn’ she replied.

‘Oh! Nice to meet you Evelyn. I hope to invite you over to my house for a meal one day’

‘Well, let’s see how it goes’ she smiled.

‘Okay, we’ll see later then’ he said to Tarasha and waved goodbye. She waved back before proceeding to enter the house and open the gate from behind.

She drove into the compound and parked the car beside the van. The space in the compound wasn’t a large one but it could take two to three cars. There was a short tree at the left side which provides a shade for them to sit outside during sunny hours.

Benny had come out on hearing the sound of her car driving in. He helped her to close the gate.

‘Thank you’ Tarasha said to Benny as she stepped out  of the car with a box of clipper in her hands. She looked over the fence to the compound by the left from which the chubby guy had come out from. It was a larger than theirs. In it was a one storey building of four flats.

‘Take this to Aisha’ she gave the clipper box to Benny.

Benny smiled as he took it from her and began to walk inside the house. He couldn’t stop smiling as he imagined how Aisha would look like on skin cut. That was part of the team’s conclusion on the best way to disguise her since her face and name was still on the police wanted list. She needed a different method of disguise apart from the makeup method she used for the last job. 

**NSCC Head Office, Abuja**

Except from the sounds made by the tap of the fingers on the keyboard, no other sound could be heard in the computer room as the three developers worked. Only one out of the three invited for the interview passed and was made to start the job immediately. A new house and an advance pay was given to him. Henry had to invite an additional person, his friend who was also a good developer and software engineer to join the team for a short while.

The three developers worked in silence, sitting on three different rows, they communicated with each other when necessary through chat messages.

The door flung open and Sylvester walked in, holding a file in his hands. He walked straight to where Henry was seated and placed the file on the table beside the system Henry was working on. Henry glanced up to him and returned his face to the screen immediately.

Sylvester released a breath. ‘We need to talk, you’ll be going with me to the  meeting tomorrow’

Henry turned up his face slowly to Sylvester. ‘Yes, you will’ Sylvester reiterated. ‘I spoke with the IG today and he insisted that you should be in the meeting when I told him of how I’ve been working with you’ Sylvester dropped the file and began to walk out.

‘What? What am I supposed to do in the meeting? We’ve not gotten a solution yet’ Henry murmured.

‘That’s the more reason the IG wants you there’ Sylvester paused after opening the door and turned to him, attracting the attention of the other other men working. ‘He believes that you’ll talk more convincingly to the President and others in the meeting’ Sylvester said and closed the door.

Henry picked up the file from the table and opened it. He stared into it for some seconds and muttered some words before getting up hurriedly. He held the file in his hands and hurried after Sylvester.

~~

**8pm**

‘Ouch!’ Aisha exclaimed as Tarasha defeated her the sixth time that day. She was surprised at the way Tarasha was handling the game even though it was her first time of playing it. She had thought it would be easy to defeat her like the Ludo game, not knowing that Tarasha was good at computer games especially the ones which involved bloodshed.

Cole and Benny were both seated on the three seater sofa smiling and staring into a laptop together. Cole took his eyes off the laptop for some seconds. He just couldn’t help but smile again, Benny looked at his face to see what was the cause of the smile and joined too as they both shook their heads funnily and stared at Aisha’s smooth and shining head, the lightening in the room made it reflect like a mirror. Her backhead had a round slightly protruded shape which made it look as if a mold of fufu was gummed to the back.

The gate bell receiver sounded, startling all of them. They stared at each other’s faces, the look on their eyes communicated the question in their hearts without them voicing it, they wanted to know which out of them was expecting a visitor.

Tarasha dropped the game pad and got up, she straightened her short Ankara gown. ‘I’ll get it’ she said and began to proceed out of the house.

She peeped through the hole before opening the gate. ‘Paul’ she said with a smile, standing in the middle of the smaller entrance.

‘Hi, Evelyn’ Paul greeted with a smile, wrapping the fingers of his both hands around each other.

‘Good evening Paul’ Tarasha replied, still standing in the middle of the way.

‘I came to check on you’ Paul said, trying to look into the compound. ‘We closed early at work today’

‘Oh! I see. Thanks’ Tarasha gave a forced smile.

‘Can…I’ Paul made the gesture with his hand, asking for Tarasha to let him in.

‘Okay’ Tarasha reluctantly gave way and he stepped in slowly. She closed the gate and pointed him in direction of the house. He delayed, taking time his time to feed his eyes on everything in the compound first.

‘Do you guys close so early at the NSCC office?’ She asked. He was still staring at the vehicles and the tree in the compound.

‘Huh?’ Surprise was clearly written on his face as he turned back to her. ‘How do you know I work in the NSCC?’

‘I saw the ID card on your neck this morning’ she answered.

‘Oh! And you could read what was in it within that short while?’

‘I’ve seen the ID card somewhere before, so I recognized it immediately I saw it hung on your neck’

‘Okay, although I work in the head office, I’m a regional staff. We work on shifts most times’ he responded and they began to walk leisurely towards the house entrance.

‘How about the urgent vacancies? Have you got people to occupy them?’ Tarasha asked.

‘Yes, we have two more people working with us now. The team is being led by Henry Ekene George? You know him?’ Paul paused and asked, staring into her face.

‘I’ve heard about him so many times, people say he’s a guru’ Tarasha replied.

‘Yes, they say he’s a guru but he has not been able to provide us a solution to the current problem’ Paul said as they stepped on the balcony.

‘What about you? Why didn’t you apply for the vacant position? I’m aware that the post is higher than the regional staff position you occupy now?’ Tarasha paused at the door, placing her hand on the knob.

Paul smiled. ‘I’m not a developer or programmer, I would have loved to. What I do is oversee and ensure that nothing strange is happening in my region. I make a report and summary of any crime or unusual occurrence that takes place during my working hours.’

‘Alright, but all the vacant positions are occupied already?’ Tarasha asked and was about to turn the knob.

‘Wait!’ Paul stopped her. ‘I didn’t ask you about your flatmates’ he said in whispers. ‘Are they your siblings or friends or…’

‘Why do you worry?’ Tarasha asked with a smile.

‘I’ve seen two guys come out of this place and I don’t know if one of them is your boyf…’

‘You have nothing to worry about’ Tarasha cut in and opened the door.

He walked in, following behind her like a timid child. Everyone in the living room looked towards their direction. The TV was still on but had been switched to the station airing the national news.

‘These are my friends’ Tarasha said as she ushered him to one of the one seater sofa by the left.

Paul waved and smiled at all of them before he sat down. Tarasha took the seat beside him and crossed her legs. ‘So what should I offer you?’

‘Anything nice’ Paul answered with a smile, staring at her thighs which were clearly revealed the way she sat.

‘Anything nice?’

‘Yes’ he shook his head like a frog in response.

‘Please Khadijat, could you help me get the juice called “anything nice” for our guest’ Tarasha joked, making everybody chuckle.

Aisha got up at once. ‘Okay, I’ll get him a good fruit juice’ she said before leaving.

Paul’s eyes followed Aisha as she stood up and began to walk away, her shining head was what got his attention.

‘Strange’ he muttered as Aisha walked out of sight.

‘Strange’ Tarasha chuckled, ‘but she loves it that way’

‘Oh… ‘

“An important meeting with the President have been scheduled for tomorrow morning to discuss the current security problems in the country. In respect to the growing assassin gang and assassination attacks that begun in the country sometime close to the climax of last year, representatives from all security bodies would be present to discuss the way forward with the President. We believe that a valid conclusion would be made tomorrow on this issue…’ The female newscaster’s voice was heard as Cole increased the volume with the remote control. Everybody in the room had turned to the TV. Aisha had also returned with a pack of cold fruit juice and a transparent glass cup on a tray,  she placed it on a stool and put it in front of the visitor.

‘Representatives from the NSCC would be there also, the chairman Mr Sylvester and Henry E.G would be there’ Paul began, talking in a manner as if he had been asked by Tarasha. Tarasha seemed less interested but he continued. ‘The vice president would be the one working closely with Henry E.G and the newly employed developers, due to his experience in that line and being the pioneer of the system in Nigeria’

‘Oh! The VP would be working with the new employees?’ Tarasha asked, now more interested in the topic.

‘Yes’ he said after taking a sip from the glass cup. ‘I overheard the chairman saying something like that’

Tarasha paused for a while and thought deeply while staring at the TV. ‘Is there still space to employ one more person?’

Paul was surprised by her question, the glass cup made noise as he dropped it on the stool. ‘I don’t know. Why do you ask?’

‘Ermm… Nothing really’ Tarasha covered up with a smile. ‘I just love your job, I wish I could work in the NSCC’

‘Oh! I’ll tell you when there is any vacancy available again’

‘Thanks’ Tarasha said with a light smile. ‘What time is the meeting tomorrow?’

’11am’

Tarasha nodded her head slowly and turned away from him, she ran her fingers through her hair. If Elvis Richards was going to work with the NSCC, then his murder would be easier if she could work with the NSCC. Certainly, their plans has got to change. Her eyes met with Cole’s who was also staring thoughtfully. He was thinking about the same thing. 

~~~

7pm

Henry was seated in his living room with Jefa, both of them in a kind of sober mood. Jefa had his palms covering his mouth, his elbows on his lap and his shoulders down.

‘I shouldn’t have showed up at all’ Jefa complained loudly. ‘I made her leave the place’

‘It’s not your fault sir’

‘It is, whose fault is it if not mine? I should have just left her to continue her life the way she was used to living it. Now, she may be gone forever’

‘No’ Henry objected. ‘I have this strong feeling that she would show up very soon, sooner that we expect’

‘Stop trying to console me’ Jefa shouted and got up from his seat.

‘I’m saying the truth, she would resurface soon’ Henry insisted, getting up from his seat too.

Jefa picked his nylon bag and began to walk towards the entrance. ‘Bye Henry, thanks for your help’

‘I’ll drop you off’ Henry quickly picked his car keys from the centre table and followed Jefa out.

**45 minutes later**

Jefa was back in his house, tears had formed in his eyes as he stared at his mother’s diary which was before him on the table. He wondered how his mother would have felt in heaven at the thought of him reuniting with his sister to live happily again. But no, he had blown the opportunity and she was gone again, maybe forever this time.

Was their mother’s spirit even in heaven? No, she couldn’t be. Neither could his father’s. Their spirits could not be at rest yet when their murderers were still roaming the country as free men and living as Kings. Their parent’s spirit would never be at rest, he thought, until their murderers had all died.

He flipped open the front page of the diary, he felt an urge to open to the place he stopped at the last time but on remembering Omotara. He paused and tried to recall her birth date. May 27, 2006. He traced and opened to the page.

“Today, we returned to Erin forest to mark our wedding anniversary. We found something we weren’t expecting, a teenager with a newly delivered girl child alone in the bush. The only words she said before fainting was ‘I named her Omotara’. I and my husband quickly rushed her to the clinic in the village, we hope and pray she stays alive.”

Jefa closed the book as a sharp pain pierced his heart. He could remember that day when his parents brought a new baby to the house in Lagos, he was eight years old then.

He was surprised when their mother walked into the house carrying the baby in her hands happily and he didn’t see the mother of the baby following behind. It was more surprising when their father announced the next day to him and his only younger brother as at then that the baby was their new sister.

‘How could it be?’ He had asked himself. ‘Mom wasn’t pregnant with child before, or is it possible to conceive and give birth the same day?’

Several years went by and they got so used to her, even Jefa totally forgot how she had come into the family. The baby grew up to be an intelligent young child and was loved by everybody, she even became the favorite of Danjuma, their father.

No mention of her real parents was ever made by his parents to them, he had only overheard them talking about her mother when the baby was just a month old, and from their mood that day, he could guess that they were mourning her.

~~~~

**10pm**

Benny, Aisha and Cole sat on the three seater sofa, facing them closely was Tarasha seated on a stool. They were changing the strategies. Cole, Aisha and Benny were to travel to Katsina while Tarasha would remain in Abuja and push for the NSCC job. She had explained all they needed to do to them. All was also set to extract monies from Nasiru Attahiru’s bank accounts.

Tarasha was ready for anything, she was going to storm the NSCC office prepared, prepared to face Henry and if need be the police. After checking and certifying that they had covered every track in the previous jobs, she was sure that even with all the background details Henry may have provided the police about her, they would never get any proof to link her to the assassinations.

‘You’ll be made to pay severely for any of your mistakes and I won’t step in to help you’ she warned. ‘So for anyone of you who carelessly  picks up anything that looks attractive, you gotta use your brain and don’t leave any trace behind’ 

 

~~~~

**Friday Morning**

01:00 am

‘No Omotara, No’ Jefa was shouting as his eyes popped open. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He used his palm to wipe off the sweat on his face and stretched on the chair. He realized that he had slept off while reading the diary. His dream was consistent with his situation but it somehow made him scared. He had seen seven year old Omotara playing with some kids in his dream, in the large compound of their house in Lagos as at then. She was playing happily with the rest of the kids until he walked in through the gate. She stood up from their midst where she was and stared at him, looking terrified.  He wasn’t planning to flog or scold her, so he couldn’t understand why she was terrified. She began to step back slowly without turning back, towards the building of the house. Her friends gradually disappeared into thin air.

‘Come Omotara, come. I’m not flogging you’ he said in the dream. She refused and continued to step back, looking more terrified with the steps she took.

‘Why are you running away? Come and play with your friends’ he repeated but she was adamant. A tall man appeared from behind her, looking deadly with a blood stained dagger in his hands.

‘Omotara stop’ he cautioned, himself terrified also but she didn’t listen. It was already late when she turned back, the strange man was only one step behind her. He was shouting her name as he woke up.

Jefa made a quick but deep prayer for Omotara’s safety and ended it with the cross sign. The chair creaked as he relaxed back, the diary was still open on his lap, on the same page he read before dozing off. He flipped to the next page.

“Today, we transferred Adunni to the General Hospital where we work. I carried the baby to see Adunni, Adunni fed her baby with her breast milk for the first time. She was glad to do it. But we couldn’t live her baby with her, she’ll be sleeping most of the times and won’t be able to look after the baby.”

He scrolled to the next day, it was longer than usual.

“Adunni is gradually getting better and would be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. She spoke with us today, revealing to us the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy and childbirth. Adunni who is just eighteen year old was brought up by her single sickly mother. She finished her secondary school education last year. Being a bright and promising young girl, her village decided to send her as their first female child who would get a university education. She was sent to see a son of the land who is a lecturer in the State university and discuss about her admission process with him. She went to his home in the village and met him. He promised to help her secure the admission, asking her to come see him in his office at the state’s capital where the university was. She travelled to the capital the third day after. He welcomed her warmly into his office and closed the doors to have a quiet talk and career advice session with her. All was going well until the man got up from his seat and turned round the table to seat in front of her. His first move was to encourage her to unbutton the upper part of her shirt since the place was hot and the power holding corporation had seized electricity flow. To cut short the matter, she was r*ped and forced to leave the office immediately. He threatened her not to tell anyone, else that would be the end of her dreams of the university education. She made up her mind to keep the ordeal to herself and take it as a sacrifice for her greatness. But he didn’t keep to his own part of the agreement. She was surprised when she got back to the village that day and he had already called and lied to the village King and Chiefs that she tried to seduce him.

They believed his story against hers and decided that it was useless to help an immoral person. The whole village turned against her and her mother for trying to spoil the image of the most successful son of the land. Few weeks after, Adunni discovered that she was with child. All these resulted to her mother’s depression state and she died two months after. Adunni was left alone with no one to help her. She became sick at the ninth month of her pregnancy and began to treat herself with local herbs. She was gathering firewood in the bush when her time for delivery came “

Jefa placed a finger on the page where he stopped and closed the book. He let out a deep breath and got up, he took the picture under the table and placed it between the pages of the diary where he stopped reading.

~~~

8am

‘Good morning Mr Sylvester’ Henry greeted as he walked into the control room.

‘Good morning Mr Henry’ Sylvester replied, raising his eyes to look at Henry from behind the computer where he was seated. He was looking smart in his black suit and blue inner shirt, Henry was also dressed in the same way.

‘Are you ready for the meeting?’

‘Of course, I am’ Henry answered, taking his seat behind a computer on the row before Sylvester’s.

‘We got another application last night’ Sylvester announced.

‘Application for what?’

‘Application for the job’

‘Well…’ Henry seemed interested. ‘Does it qualify for an interview?’

‘Yes, this CV is particularly interesting. Come take a look at it’ Sylvester invited.

‘No need for that’ Henry declined, putting his focus on what he was doing. ‘Just keep it, we may review it later’

‘It’s okay’ Sylvester answered and got up from his seat. ‘We’ll be leaving by 9am’

~~

‘Agent James Elvis!!’ hailed the deputy commissioner of police, Kwara State. ‘Welcome once again to the state of harmony’

‘Thank your sir’ agent James replied, smiling back to the DCP. They were both seated in the extension of DCP’s office, which had comfortable sofas to relax in.

‘I believe you’ll have no problems in this state especially as it is your state of origin’ the DCP continued. ‘How’s his Excellency, your father?’

‘He’s fine, I believe’

‘What was his response when he heard that you’ve been transferred to this state?’

‘I don’t know, he didn’t say anything. You know he has never been in support of my work in the force’ James answered, taking a sip from the cup of juice on the table.

‘That’s strange, considering his effort in tightening the security of the nation. One would think he would even compel his children to join the force’

‘He thinks it’s too dangerous and that I’m not strong enough’ James answered.

‘Well, that aside. Back to your job here.’ The DCP sat up. ‘We want to strengthen our anti assassination and terrorism squads and we believe that you can make it work. That’s why you were sent here, your job would begin fully on Monday. Now you’ll be taken to the house and allowed to rest. You’ll find every information you require for your job in your office when you resume on Monday’

~~~

Officer Dakolo was in his office, gathering the files he would be taking along for the meeting. He was dressed in his special agent’s uniform for the occasion.

His doorbell rang. ‘Come in’ he said without paying much attention’

‘Good morning sir’ officer Ken saluted after closing the door.

‘Good morning officer Ken’ Dakolo replied, without looking up. ‘You may have your seat’ he offered and waited for Ken to sit before he continued. ‘Are you prepared for the meeting?’

‘Yes sir, I am’ Ken smiled. ‘ I actually came to ask if we’ll be moving together’

‘Yes, of course. No need to go separately’ Dakolo answered, taking a glance at Ken’s face. ‘What’s the time now?’

‘It’s 8.15am’ Ken replied after taking a brief look at his wristwatch.

‘Okay. Hope you’ve got all files ready?’

‘Yes sir and there’s something new’ Ken answered, sounding serious.

‘Something new?’ Dakolo turned his eye focus to Ken.

‘Yes sir and I think it’s important we look into it’

‘Now?’ Dakolo frowned. Ken nodded in affirmation. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It’s the reply from the US headquarters. It just came in this morning’ Ken removed a paper from the file in his hands and handed it to Dakolo.

Dakolo read for two minutes. ‘Have you sent the substance sample they sent to the forensics?’

‘Not yet sir, I wanted to tell you before I do’ Ken replied.

‘You should send it immediately.’ He said and stared at the paper again. ‘It would have been nice if we got this earlier. With what it states, the assassin team in Nigeria here is related to the one in the United States. They function with the same instruments and similar strategies. ‘

He handed back the paper to Ken, ‘let’s handle the meeting with what we have gotten before, we’ll come back to this’

~~~

**Saturday Morning**

The meeting with the President went well. All attendees left there fired up and determined to stop the assassination menace at every cost. The Vice President had during the meeting warned the security officials to be careful and always remain optimistic. ‘The assassinations have not yet began, they are still doing their test run’ he had said. ‘I believe this group have a more dangerous motive and what they’ve done so far is a ploy to weaken the security by making the concerned bodies give up their hopes of capturing them. Once this is achieved, they would launch more attacks and aim for more government officials.’

The vice president also promised to work closely with them as an experienced officer that he once was and see to it that every useful knowledge he has would be provided to them.

Amidst several other things he said, the President, Emeka Vincent finally ended the meeting encouraging the bodies to put in more effort and ensure that their purpose was achieved in two months.

Sylvester had arrived into his office not long ago and settled down when he received a call from the reception that someone was waiting to see him.

‘But you know I don’t see anyone on Monday early mornings’ he answered the caller.

‘She insisted that you asked her to come’ the secretary replied in low tones.

‘I did?’ Sylvester asked, trying to remember if he really fixed an appointment with someone.

‘Yes, that’s what she said’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Kimberly Alexander’

‘Huh?’ Sylvester squinted, trying to remember where he had seen or heard the name before. He remembered, in the new CV. Could it be that he had mistakenly sent her an invite?

‘Let her come in’ he finally said and ended the call. He hurriedly logged on to the company’s mail to confirm if he sent her an invite.

His doorbell rang. He minimized the mail window and opened the app to check the monitor cameras outside his office. He saw the person at the door, a lady dressed in black suit carrying a small black bag. ‘Come in’ he said, unlocking the door with the remote control on his table.

She opened the door and walked in gently. ‘Good morning sir’ she bent her knees slightly after closing the door.

‘Please come in’ he repeated and she walked forward briskly and stood beside the visitor’s seat. ‘Have your seat’

‘Thank you sir’ she sat down and placed the bag on her lap.

‘What may I do for you?’

‘Sir’ Tarasha began. ‘I’m Kimberly Alexander, I read about the urgent vacancies and I decided to check here’

‘I’ve gotten your mail already, why didn’t you wait for a reply?’ Sylvester frowned.

‘Sir, since it was announced as an urgent vacancy and I didn’t get a reply immediately. I decided to show in person in case my mail wasn’t delivered.’

‘It was delivered, you should have been patient. In fact, your mail came late’ Sylvester intensified his crown. ‘And how come you were referred here directly? Someone else was supposed to attend to you before sending you to me’ he said with slight anger in his voice. He picked the landline and began to punch the keys.

‘I asked directly for you’ she said softly. ‘I demanded to see Mr Sylvester’

‘What?’ He stopped dialing. ‘How did you know my name?’

‘I read about the corporation and I knew you would be the one to attend to me’

‘Well…’ His doorbell chimed. Sylvester paused and checked the computer again to see who was at the door, Henry was the one. He unlocked the door.

Henry walked in slowly staring into a tab and reading something. ‘Oh! You have a guest’ be exclaimed on seeing the lady seated on the visitor’s seat facing Sylvester.

‘Yes’

‘Okay, let me drop this with you and go’ Henry said and began to step forward slowly.

‘You may need to see her, she’s the lady who sent in the last CV’ Sylvester explained. 

~~~~

‘You may need to see her, she’s the lady who sent in the last CV’ Sylvester explained.

Tarasha turned her face down, patiently waiting for Henry to turn to her front and probably take a look at her face. He wondered what his expression would be, but whatever his would be, she was ready for him, she already kept a straight face for him.

‘Oh!’ Henry paused. ‘You invited her for an interview already?’ He gave Sylvester a look of disappointment.

‘No’ Sylvester objected. ‘I didn’t invite her’ he tried to explain but Henry turned back already.

‘No need to disturb your interview, I’ll come back later’ Henry said as he opened the door and stepped out.

‘I didn’t…’ Sylvester got up from his seat to explain better but Henry did not wait to listen. Sylvester felt deeply angry with Kimberly, she had got Henry to believe that he invited her for the interview after which they had planned together to work with those available first and not employ for the main time.

He heaved a sigh and turned his gaze to her, the expression on her face showed that she was sorry for the misunderstanding caused.

‘Just get out’ Sylvester said calmly, his anger reduced a little by the remorse shown on her face.

‘I’m sorry sir’ she pleaded. ‘I didn’t mean to…’

‘Leave please’ he insisted, his voice sounding harsher.

‘I’m…’

‘Leave’ he slammed angrily, trying his best not to raise his voice.

Tarasha picked her bag and got up hurriedly, she proceeded to the door. Sylvester sat back into the seat and began to shut down the computer system.

‘When should I return sir?’ Her voice came softly again after he thought she had left.

He looked up and heaved a sigh of frustration, staring at her face coldly. She stepped stepped out and closed the door.

Sylvester got up after the computer was completely shut down. He noticed a file on the table and picked it up.  ‘Kimberly Alexander ‘ the title read. He hissed and dropped it.

++++

Dakolo was silently reading to himself the result of the test by the forensics team, Ken was seated in the visitor’s seat behind the table. The  test report proved their claim positive, the substance used by the assassin group in the USA was the same used by Samantha Osman’s group. Other details apart from the substance sample was also sent. The other details included the report from the CCTV camera system control point and medical reports on the bodies of victims.

‘It’s confirmed. A deadly group of assassins have been unleashed into the world. Only God knows where they are from’ Dakolo said after he was through reading it. Ken only glanced at his face and sighed in response. ‘Make you do send every detail we have also to them’ Dakolo said to Ken, handing over the paper back to him.

He took out his phone and dialed the NSCC office. ‘Hello Mr Sylvester, I’ll be in your office in the afternoon time, I need to get a copy of the reports on all you’ve done on rectifying the breach problem.’

He ended the call and stared at Ken’s face. ‘Let’s go see Mr Debo’ he said and got up from his seat. Ken also got up immediately.

Mr Debo was the personal assistant to Chief Jubril Lawal, the one who was sent to the NSCC to rectify if the Canadian number was original. He had been invited for questioning by the police.

Debo was ushered in to meet the agent and Ken in the interrogation room. He was dressed casually, looking somehow distressed.

‘Good morning sir’ Dakolo greeted cheerfully after the man was seated comfortably.

‘Good morning Officer’ Debo replied, sniffing in. He used his handkerchief to wipe his face and his nose. He looked at Dakolo in the face, they were about the same age so he felt no need to be timid.

‘Thanks for honouring our invitation’

‘You’re welcome’

‘Okay, let’s go straight to the point.’ Dakolo adjusted his seat in readiness for the real business. ‘I’m hundred percent sure that you are aware that investigation on the death of Chief Jubril, your late boss is still ongoing’

‘Yes’

‘I know you’ve been questioned before but I also know it was a brief one and it only happened on the day of the assassination at the events centre’ Dakolo paused to look at his face for a confirmation. He continued talking after getting one. ‘We’ll like to get more details from you since you were there on that day. We are also aware that you were his personal assistant and that means you were very close to him.’ Debo nodded slowly to confirm Dakolo’s assertion as there was a pause again. Dakolo continued. ‘I’ll like you to work with us by answering all questions we would ask you. We may be repeating some questions we’ve asked you before, please answer them again like you haven’t heard them before. The reason is that we want some clear cut answers that you may not have been able to give us that day, probably because of the panic caused by the whole disaster’

Debo shrugged, signaling for them to begin with the questions. Dakolo looked him in the face, he folded his arms and relaxed his back. Ken clicked open the audio recording icon on his device.

‘In the past few months, has there been any suspicious movement Chief Jubril was involved in? Did he make new friends? Or get involved with a strange friend you’ve but being seeing him with?’ Dakolo posed the first set of questions.

‘No’ Debo frowned as he pondered on the question. ‘He didn’t make any new friends, even those invited for the party were all old friends and associates which I’ve always known him to be friends with’

‘Do you know all of these old friends that were present in the party?’

‘Yes, I was in charge of sending the invitation letters to the guests’ Debo replied. ‘I have a list of all the guests we were expecting that day’

‘Okay, was it only these expected guests that graced the party?’

‘No, some came with friends. Their friends were also notable people though. Some came with their aides. We had to prepare extra gate passes’

‘No suspicious attendee was noticed?’

‘None.’

‘Was there a video coverage of the event or how do you know if an unexpected guest came?’

‘No, the Chief did not want the press in his party, they were locked out. The only coverage that could have seen any unexpected person was the security cameras installed in the hall but there was tight security at the entrance, so the person that carried out the assassination couldn’t have been our guest’

‘Are you saying that you’re sure that your guests are innocent?’

‘No, I’m not saying they are innocent but I’m saying that the killer didn’t come in through the entrance meant for the guests because their was a proper system installed to search and detect any dangerous materials or weapons’

Dakolo paused for a while, still staring straight at the man’s face. ‘Was the Chief involved in any fight or argument close to that day?’

‘No, none that I’m aware of’

‘Did he start a business deal with a new person, group of people or company?’ 

‘Ermm… Yes, there was this young lady that wanted to start a deal with the Chief, she was from Canada’

‘A young lady?’ Dakolo asked, Debo nodded in affirmation. ‘Only the young lady? Which company was she sent from?’

‘Yes, it was only that young lady recently. She was sent from her father’s company in Canada’

‘Have you had any previous deal with this company?’

‘No, it was the first time we had anyone from Canada who wanted to partner with us’

‘Okay, but did you have anyone else who wanted to or struck a deal with your company recently?’ Dakolo asked, his tone showing that he disregarded the young girl’s option.

‘No, that was the only one’

‘Okay, let’s move to…’

‘That girl was suspicious’ Debo put in quickly, a very serious look appeared on his face. ‘Chief Jubril did not totally trust her. He asked me to make an investigation on veracity of her contacts in Canada’

‘Hmm…’ Dakolo seemed more interested now. He bent forward and placed his hands on the table. ‘Did you make the investigation?’

‘Yes, I started it. It wasn’t completed before the Chief was murdered’

‘What investigations did you start with?’

‘I tried to confirm if the number calling from Canada was really from Canada and also trace it to the company there’

‘So?’

‘I was supposed to get a reply on it the day after the Chief’s birthday’

‘And you’ve not gotten the reply till now?’

‘Yes, I didn’t ask for it since then’

‘How were you working on verifying the contacts? Did you come to the police?’ Dakolo asked with a frown.

‘No, the Chief sent me to his friend at the NSCC, Mr Sylvester. I was later referred to Henry E.G who was the only one who could do the job. He…’

‘Henry Ekene George?’ Dakolo cut in to confirm, wondering why Henry had never mentioned to him that he once worked with the late Chief Jubril.

‘Yes, he was working on it and promised that he’ll be ready…’ Debo stopped as he remembered something.

‘The report was supposed to be ready in three days but when I went to the NSCC’s office on that day, Henry wasn’t there. Mr Sylvester mentioned that he had gone to the police station to make a report on his kidnap’ he continued.

‘Kidnap?’

‘Yes, he was kidnapped with his girlfriend then, I don’t know for how long they were with the kidnappers’

‘True’ Ken joined the conversation to confirm Debo’s words. Dakolo turned to look at him as he began to explain. ‘I’m in charge of that case. He was kidnapped with a friend but they didn’t stay up to a day in abduction’

‘The police stepped in?’ Dakolo questioned.

‘They actually escaped before the police stepped in. The kidnappers had a disagreement’ Ken answered.

‘So, have the kidnappers been arrested?’

‘No sir, we couldn’t arrest them that day. They escaped before we got to the place. The place is locked up till date’

‘Okay, what is being done on that case?’

‘We…’

‘Sorry’ Dakolo cut in to add another question. ‘Have the files of the kidnap case also been submitted to me?’

‘Yes sir’ Ken answered, Dakolo nodded for him to continue. ‘I made thorough investigations with my team last week and the people suspected to own the place are dead.’

‘Dead?’

‘Yes sir, they are dead but we’ve been able to verify how they died or the cause of their death but while checking the citizen’s details on the forum, their names have been marked as dead’

Dakolo took in a breath and turned back to Debo. ‘What’s the name of the lady and which company from Canada was she from?’

‘Her name is Alexander Evelyn from AA, Alexander Amaechi Ltd’ Debo answered.

‘Can you recognise her if you see her?’

‘Ermm… No’ Debo stated. ‘I didn’t see her face properly, I don’t even have an idea of how she looks’

‘Huh ho! How is that possible?’ Dakolo sounded with a note of disbelief.

‘She was brought in by Chief Jubril’s son, so she didn’t have to interact with me. She had direct access to the man himself’ Debo explained. ‘And her hairstyle always made it difficult to see her face from the side view’

‘Hmm… I see. And the son is late also’ Dakolo said loudly, to no one in particular. Ken and the interrogatee remained silent

‘We have to reach Henry E.G and find out what his result on the investigation was’ Dakolo continued. ‘Now, let’s move to the party day’ Dakolo relaxed back into the seat again. Debo adjusted himself also. ‘You were seated on the table next to Chief Jubril’s’

‘Yes’ Debo confirmed.

‘Did you notice anything that was going on with him?’

‘I… Didn’t notice anything strange while I was seated. I wasn’t seated for most of the duration. Chief was always sending me on errands’

‘Were you there when the murderer walked into the Hall?’

‘Yes, I was but I didn’t see anything. I was under the effect of the gas released. I only opened my eyes after the antidote was sprayed and found the Chief in his pool of blood’ Debo began to sound emotional.

‘Hmm…’ Dakolo gave another brief pause, trying to decide if he should stop the interrogation for the time being since the man’s mood was already changing. He sat up and decided to ask few more questions. ‘Do you suspect anyone?’

‘None, except for the lady from Canada. It’s just beginning to make sense to me now. She must have been a party to the kidnap of Henry E.G, maybe in an attempt to stop him from destroying their plans. I think she was a fraudster’

‘Yes, but the crime we are talking about here is not fraud, it’s assassination’ Dakolo said, he stared straight into the man’s eyes and asked, ‘do you think that lady could be Samantha Osman, whom the police are in search of?’

There was a twitch on Debo’s face, he stared up and down again, wondering if he had really come across the infamous and notorious assassin.

+++

Sylvester dropped the landline receiver after speaking with Agent Dakolo, he sat back into his seat, trying to decide whether to attend to the Agent’s request first or to follow after Henry. He chose the latter and got up from his seat. He picked up his phone from the table and proceeded out of the office.

Two minutes later, he was seated in the visitor’s seat behind Henry’s table. Henry wasn’t paying much attention to him but was focused on his work on the laptop.

‘Here’s what I wanted to show you’ Henry quickly handed a paper to Sylvester and turned back to his laptop. ‘How was the interview? What position did she apply for?’ Henry asked.

‘There was no interview’ Sylvester answered without taking a look at the paper he was handed. ‘She only came to submit her credentials in person’

‘I see’ Henry said in a low voice, acting less interested.

‘You thought I invited her over for an interview?’

‘Yes, of course. You are the Boss here and you don’t need my permission to interview anybody’ Henry answered with a slight chuckle.

‘But we already agreed to work with those available and not to take in anyone else for now. I wouldn’t go against our agreement’

Henry paused and looked up, he fastened his eyes on Sylvester’s face. ‘I didn’t suggest that in anyway’ He said and turned his face back to the laptop. ‘Oh! You thought that was the reason I didn’t agree to see her?’

‘What else could be the reason?’

‘I wasn’t aware of the interview before, neither do I know the position the interview is for so I didn’t think I had any business to do with her’ Henry answered, keeping a light smile on his face.

Sylvester remained quiet for a while, staring at Henry’s face. He had thought Henry was angry but Henry’s demeanor and words have proved him wrong.

‘So what do you …’ Henry paused on seeing that Sylvester had not checked the paper given to him. ‘Come on, read what’s there’

Sylvester picked the paper and scanned briefly through it. ‘When did you start working on this?’

‘It wasn’t my work, Dayo did it’ Henry replied. Dayo was the new employee that was taken in the week before.

‘It looks good but we have to find how crackable these codes are’ Sylvester commented.

‘That’s why I was in your office then, I wanted to check through your history log but I’ve been able to check it from here’

‘So, are they crackable?’

‘Yes, it’s even made up of very easy combinations’

‘Does that make it usable or not?’

‘It’s not usable. It would be easily cracked by the opposition’

Sylvester folded the paper and dropped it on the table. ‘Agent Dakolo called some minutes ago, he’ll be here in the afternoon to get a report on all that we’ve been doing concerning the breach we’ve been experiencing’

‘Okay, I’ve been expecting him to ask for it. I prepared a report already and he doesn’t even need to come here, we could mail it to him’ Henry said.

‘I think he’ll also like to get some explanations, that’s why he wants to come physically’ Sylvester put in.

‘No problem, we’ll be ready for him’

‘So what do we do now with Mr Dayo’s piece?’ Sylvester asked as he got up from the chair, ready to leave for his office.

‘We’ll just keep it and keep working, we need something deeper’ Henry tapped the enter key on her laptop keyboard in a loud manner and then relaxed into his seat, signifying that he was through with what he was doing. He stared up at Sylvester’s face. ‘You know we are trying to entrap this group, so we have to be wiser than they are. We cannot afford to use simple keys and scripts in tackling them, that’ll be making mockery of ourselves’

‘Alright then’ Sylvester shrugged and turned to leave.

~~~

**Kabakawa,  Batagarawa Katsina, Katsina State. **

After lodging in an hotel for two days, the team finally moved into the rented apartment for which they had paid the rent fee for a year. The house wasn’t too expensive but it was big enough to contain all of them. It was already furnished to their taste before they moved in.

They had chosen a flat with three bedrooms in the two story building house with a total of six flats. Theirs was located by the left side on the middle floor. Tarasha had carefully chosen an apartment for them in an open area this time, it would reduce the rate of unnecessary suspicions. But they also had to be extra careful and watchful.

It was Monday morning and work had begun already. Cole was seated behind a table, composing an email on his laptop to inform the Ata’s foundation of their team’s arrival into the country. Benny was in one of the rooms where he and Cole had chosen for themselves, arranging the new arms and ammunitions into the wardrobe. He neatly arranged the various sizes of bullets and sealed explosives in a section. He arranged the pistols in another section and long guns in another. The last section was used to store his clothes and Cole’s.

Aisha was also in her room, setting the place in the order she wanted. She hissed on seeing the little bag of clothes which she brought to the place. Although the bag  was actually the biggest bag amongst all bags of clothes the team had brought, she still thought it to be small. Their kind of job would not satisfy her desire to always take her best clothes around town.

She hissed again as she saw herself in the mirror on bending to arrange the makeup kits placed in front of the mirror. What did she even need the clothes for now that her hair was gone? She looked like a man, she thought. She gave a brief mockery laugh at herself as she rubbed her palms on the head. She then turned back to pick a small case which contained more makeup kits. That wasn’t for her but for the team, the team would frequently need to change their appearances on this operation. Another small bag was lying beside the case, it contained camouflage materials like artificial beards, masks, wigs and even skinlike gloves.

Benny walked into the living room after he was done with arranging the tools, he met Cole already closing his laptop.

‘Have you finished typing the email?’ He asked as he moved to sit on the couch.

‘Yes, we’ll see it when we come back from the boutique’ Cole answered, standing up with his closed laptop in his hand.

‘You want us to go now?’ Benny seemed not too comfortable with the idea.

‘Yes, what else should we do now?’

‘Why don’t you send the email now and let’s see their reply, they may probably engage you in a chat’ Benny tried to convince Cole.

‘I’ve sent the mail to the Boss first for vetting, until she replies us we cannot forward it to the foundation’ Cole responded with a wry look on his face. ‘Dust your lazy ass and let’s go out to get the clothes now. I’ll go get Aisha.’ With that Cole walked away, leaving Benny who remained on the seat tiredly. For Benny, it was always fun to get new clothes but this one was different, the clothes would have to be disposed off at the end of the operation.

~~~

**Abuja**

2pm

‘You went this far?’ Dakolo stared Henry in the face as he read the report provided to him. ‘Even the US CCTV officials have not discovered up to this, nice job’ he commended cheerfully jamming his palms together.

‘Thank you sir’ Henry smiled.

‘The only thing that looks similar in this their report is…’ Dakolo began but stopped abruptly. He bent to bring out the report from the US CCTV from his small brief case which was placed by the leg of the chair he was seated. He placed the binded four pages report on Henry’s table. Sylvester was the first to pick up the report and open it.

Dakolo opened back Henry’s report which was still in his hands. He began to flip the pages until he got to the last. ‘Here’ he said, pointing a particular area on the page. ‘This code looks similar to theirs’

Henry bent forward to look at where Dakolo was pointing. Dakolo handed it over to him to have a better view.

” BN 10354

‘ Encrypt XL

<< — t.a.r– n.e.f — >>

Run script = enter ‘ 

>>”

That was one of the most mysterious encryption code Henry had ever come across. He had never seen the key words anywhere else before and since he discovered the script, he not been able to decrypt it.

Dakolo collected the report Sylvester was holding and opened to the second page. ‘Here ‘ he pointed another area to for Henry to look at. The encryption script Henry saw in the US report was similar to the one in his report.

“BN 20679

‘Encrypt XL

<< — s.e.r— n.e.f — >>

Run script = enter ‘

>>” 

‘What??’ Henry’s lips vibrated as he fixed his eyes on the code, looking slightly baffled. He took his eyes off to Dakolo face. ‘The assassin group is larger than we thought, it’s a worldwide organization’

Dakolo licked his lips slowly and silently as he watched Henry fix his eyes again to the report.

‘Can I…’ Sylvester who was anxious to see the correlation stretched forth his hand impatiently to collect the reports from Henry.

‘So now that we know that we are dealing with a worldwide assassin group, we have to up our game’ Dakolo finally spoke. ‘Your engineers have to be informed about what they are dealing with. And I think the corporation has to establish a strong connection with the US corporation’

‘Wow! I wasn’t aware that there have been breaches in the CCTV operations in the US too’ Henry spoke in low tones, relaxing his back in the seat.

‘There have been’ Dakolo replied him, tapping a finger on the table as he stared into the air and inhaled. ‘The breaks always comes during the period of assassinations just like ours’

‘Hmm… Same strategies, same codes’ Henry said thoughtfully.

Dakolo stared at Henry’s face for a moment. ‘Henry E.G, I need to ask you some questions’ Dakolo stated after a brief moment of silence.

Henry sat upright and adjusted himself to pay attention, surprised at the Agent’s sudden change of tone. ‘What questions sir?’

‘You were kidnapped recently’ Dakolo paused and stared at Henry’s face, noticing a change. It was obvious to him that Henry wasn’t comfortable with the new subject.

‘Yes sir’ Henry confirmed reluctantly.

‘It happened after you got a job from the late Chief Jubril Lawal?’ Dakolo continued, making sure he maintained eye contact with Henry. Henry noticed this and decided to try as much as possible to hide his expressions, else the Agent would extract every information from him even if he tried to lie.

‘Yes, I don’t know if the job was for Chief Jubril but it was brought to us by one of his workers’ Henry answered.

‘Chief Jubril sent him’ Sylvester quickly put in.

Dakolo took a glance at Sylvester and fixed his eyes back to Henry’s face. ‘Let’s talk about your abduction first. It lasted for less than a day. How did you escape?’

‘I was told that they left us to go after they had a disagreement amongst themselves’ Henry replied.

‘You were told?’

‘Yes, I was knocked out. I only opened my eyes after we’ve moved far away from there’

‘You and your girlfriend?’

‘No, but a very close lady friend’

‘Well, I don’t need to go into details of how you were abducted that day. I know that you have been questioned about that already.’ Dakolo adjusted to a more comfortable seating position and placed his chin on his right fist. ‘You mentioned during your interrogation with the police that your suspect was Dare, Chief Jubril’s son?’

‘Yes’ Henry confirmed with a nod.

‘But you didn’t mention to me that you’ve seen him recently’ Dakolo frowned.

‘Sir, we’ve not really been able to discuss personal matters since you came into town’

‘That’s true.’ Dakolo paused and turned to Sylvester who was already clearing his throat to announce his desire to leave since he felt he wasn’t concerned with the questioning.

‘Mr Sylvester’ Dakolo called with a chuckle.  ‘You have to wait, I also have some questions for you too.’ Sylvester nodded in reply and comported himself. Dakolo turned back to Henry.

‘Let’s push the personal matters aside for now’ Dakolo continued with Henry. ‘Did you ever think that the kidnap could be related to the job brought by the late Chief’s PA?’

‘No’ Henry replied sharply after narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

‘You don’t think so?’

‘Yes, I don’t’ Henry shook his head in negative to emphasize. He thought again briefly. Omotara was the suspect behind the number he was investigating, so was it really possible that she had planned their kidnap.

‘So you insist that it could have only been Dare Lawal?’ Dakolo pressed. ‘Wait’ he cut in before Henry could speak. ‘What was the result of your investigation?’

Henry’s heartbeat increased thrice in speed. The question he was scared of have been finally asked. Was he now going to turn Omotara in? Knowing fully well that Agent Dakolo would not stop until he fishes out who Alexander Evelyn really was and probably even associate her with the Chief’s assassination which Henry believed Omotara was innocent about. 

.....to be continued.