Tarasha The Brutal Assassin Part 2 Episode 8

The door suddenly flung open and a nurse barged in looking troubled.

‘Sir, the accident victim on ward 12B is nowhere to be found.’
‘What?’ The Doctor gave the nurse an angry look. Firstly, he was angry at how she barged into his office without knocking and he was also angry that she announced the news in the presence of visitors, worse still the people who brought in the patient. ‘What do you mean by that?’ The Doctor barked, trying to avoid the gaze from the officers.
‘We don’t know, we couldn’t just find him there anym…’ The nurse tried to explain.
‘Doctor,’ Dakolo cut in. ‘Are you saying there is no remedy for his case?’
‘Ermm… Please nurse, you may leave.’ The Doctor turned back to his guests, surprised that they were less moved about the disappearance of the second patient. ‘No known remedy for now. His brain cells are degenerating so fast.’
Dakolo heaved a sigh of frustration, Sylvester’s face was also covered with grief as he folded his arms with his chest up.
‘Please Gentlemen, you may have to excuse me now’ the Doctor said as he got up from his seat.
‘Wait Doc,’ Ken stopped him, blocking the way. ‘The lost patient in ward 12B, isn’t that the man we brought in the same day with Henry?’ Ken asked.
‘Oh!’ Dakolo exclaimed, his attention finally brought to what the nurse said.
‘No, I’m sure it’s a mix up. That’s what I need to go and clarify, I’m sure he’s somewhere around the premises.’ The Doctor replied and walked past as Ken allowed him. Ken stared at Dakolo who was still seated and was not ready to stand yet.
‘You can follow him,’ Dakolo permitted with a nod.
Ken turned immediately and followed after the Doctor. He joined the man on the stairs and they both marched down quietly and speedily.
Soon, they got to ward 12B and they met two nurses there, one was already cleaning up the ward while the other stood like she was monitoring.
‘What’s happening here? Where’s the patient?’ The Doctor asked.
A nurse turned back to the Doctor confidently. The uniform she wore indicated that she was one of the head nurses. ‘Doctor, Good evening.’ She greeted calmly.
‘Matron, Good evening.’ The Doctor replied calmly in respect for the matron who was also an elderly person.
‘I don’t think there’s any cause for alarm, he left willingly.’ The matron said.
‘What do you mean matron?’ The Doctor squinted.
‘I saw him and a lady drive out when I was returning from Jumat service. I was surprised and I stopped the car to ask why he was leaving when he was supposed to be discharged next week.
He said his sister wanted him to leave the Hospital to continue treatment somewhere else. I tried to convince him to stay but he didn’t agree.’ The woman ended her explanation with a shrug.
‘Are you sure it was his sister?’
‘Yes, he said she was his sister. Although she didn’t say anything, he doesn’t look forced to leave, his face was kind of filled with joy. I’m only surprised when I came upstairs and the nurses declared the patient missing, I thought his sister took him away with the hospital’s approval.’ The matron replied.
‘Matron, you should know we won’t approve such a patient’s departure, he was brought in by the police.’ The Doctor countered.
‘I wasn’t here when he was brought in, I only knew about his admission.’ She argued.
The Doctor heaved a sigh. He took a brief glance at Ken who was watching in silence, trying to communicate something with his eyes.
‘Doctor, you didn’t tell us he had a visitor.’ Ken spoke.
‘I was going to tell you, I wanted to tell you that a family member had come to identify him and also that the person who hit him has settled the bill but I had to first break the news which concerned the NSCC chairman, he has been waiting all day for your arrival.’ The Doctor explained.
‘But did the patient patient confirm that she was a member of her family?’ Ken questioned sternly.
‘Yes, he was surprised at first but was very happy to see her. He confirmed that she was his younger sister.’
‘Okay,’ Ken paused a bit and licked his lips. ‘But the security in your hospital must be so bad to have enabled them leave without your approval, does that mean the other victim is not safe here also.’
‘C’mon officer Ken, you know us too well, this has never happened here before. I’m sure there’s more to it and I’ll make sure I report to the authorities.’
‘Or was it because there was no officer attached to the accident victim?’
‘There was no reason for attaching an officer to the patient, he wasn’t a criminal or someone who needed protection from danger, he only had an accident.’
‘I’m just thinking,’ Ken licked his lips again. ‘I’m thinking we should add more officers to watch over the other patient?’
‘Why? The three officers watching over him are enough, even too much. He doesn’t even need someone to watch over him since it’s a case of self poisoning. He’s paralyzed and not mentally stable, he can’t even try to leave here.’ The Doctor retorted.
Ken gave a chuckle which later turned to a faint smile, he stared at the man like he just heard a kid chatter about a very important topic. ‘That guy needs protection, serious one.’ He said.
The Doctor paused and placed his hands on his waist, staring at Ken to give more explanation to why the protection was needed but Ken disappointed him and turned away, exiting through the door without saying any other thing.
~~~
**flashback; four hours ago**
‘Thanks,’ Tarasha waved at the cabman as he drove off. She turned to face the black old gate, she took a look at the neighboring houses, it was a perfect picture of the description she had been given. She proceeded further and pushed the smaller door, it opened and she stepped inside.
She stared at the house in the compound, it was a bungalow. She could see the entrance to a flat at the front view and another at the side view, she began to proceed towards the first entrance, confused as she had never seen the type of house setting.
A pregnant lady who had seen her approaching through the window came out of the front apartment before Tarasha got to the balcony. ‘Hello, what can I do for you?’ She asked with an unwelcoming face.
‘Good morning,’ Tarasha paused and greeted with a smile. ‘I came to check for someone here, he’s called Mallam Jefa.’
‘Mallam Jefa?’ She called out with a surprise note in her voice. ‘No one ever asks of that man!’ She exclaimed as she placed a hand on her waist tiredly and thrusted out her belly. ‘I don’t know if he’s around because I’ve not seen him for a long time now but you can check,’ she closed her door and began to walk down the balcony. Tarasha stepped away for her to pass. ‘He stays at the two room apartment at the back,’ she described the way for Tarasha with her hands.
‘Thank you,’ Tarasha appreciated and continued in the direction where she was pointed. In less than a minute, she got to the apartment described to her. She took a glance around the area before taking out her tool from the bag to open the door.
**Fast forward~~~~Inside the house**
She took out her torchlight from the bag and turned it on to brighten up the dark room, leaving the curtains closed so as not to arouse suspicion. She began to search round the walls, pointing the light to every corner to check if there were pictures. Only cobwebs were seen on the wall, no pictures, calendars or photograph. She proceeded to the centre table and bent down to check some books under. The first she picked out was an old one which looked familiar.
She got up with the torch stuck in her mouth and wiped the cover of the book with her hand. A picture fell off from it as she opened. She bent to pick the picture, it was an old photograph of a family. 
Tears formed in her eyes as she focused the torchlight on the picture and saw the faces of her parents and siblings once again.
**Fast Forward ~~~Two hours later **
Dressed in an Hausa native wear, Tarasha approached the reception at the hospital. The scarf on her head was neatly tied and the powder on her face moderate. A liittle tribal tattoo on her left hand and a big female bag to match the colour of her clothes.
‘Good afternoon nurses,’ she greeted pleasantly.
‘Good afternoon, how may we help you?’ A very slim nurse answered her.
‘I came to see my brother who had an accident on Wednesday, ‘ Tarasha replied.
‘What’s his name?’ The nurse asked, opening up a register.
‘Jeffery but he’s known as Mallam Jefa,’ Tarasha answered.
The nurse stared at another nurse who was also listening and they made faces at each other before she turned back to Tarasha. ‘What’s your name please?’
‘I’m Omotara’
‘Omotara?’ The nurses asked surprised that the name was a Yoruba name.
‘Yes,’ Tarasha smiled faintly, noticing the surprise in their faces. ‘I’m Yoruba, I was only born and bred in an Hausa land like Mallam Jefa.’
‘Okay,’ the slim nurse muttered, still unconvinced. She took out a file under the desk and stepped out from behind the reception. ‘You have to wait first, you may have your seat.’ She said pointing Tarasha to the empty seats behind.
‘Thanks,’ Tarasha replied and complied.
The nurse left and returned in five minutes time without the file, she stood by the walkway and signaled for Tarasha to come. Tarasha quickly got up and followed as the nurse led the way. She leveled up with the nurse on the stairs.
‘Sorry for the reception, but we had to be sure you were really his sister. He actually told us that he has no one who was going to come and ask of him.’ The nurse apologized.
‘No problem, I understand.’ Tarasha smiled.
‘Thanks and one more thing,’ the nurse glanced at her with a serious look on her face. ‘Are you guys in good terms?’
‘Of course, why do you ask?’
‘It was a shock to him when I said that you are here to see him,’ the nurse said.
Tarasha chuckled. ‘It’s been a long time we saw and we didn’t separate on a good note also,’ she replied with a smile.
‘Okay, he needs a lot of strength and more importantly rest now. We also found out that he’s been worrying a lot recently, so it would be better not to do something that’ll complicate his situation.’ The nurse advised.
‘Thanks, I’ll do everything possible to ensure he gets the care that he needs.’
The both of them remained in silence for the rest of the walk. Tarasha was taken away by her own thoughts.
Even with all the proofs she got from Mallam Jefa’s house, she had still not accepted that he was her brother. It could just be a trap for her. During her training, she had been taught how to recognize such traps. It was all wrapped around one thing, Emotions.
People tend to always give special care and attention to their families, especially in her own case where they had been separated by bad circumstances. The enemy is always aware of this and may try to come in through it. So she was prepared, she had her weapons all under her clothes, in the pockets of the underwears, she even had a small improvised explosive device in her car that’ll distract and disrupt the whole process in the hospital if this was a trap for her.
They got to ward 12B after walking for two minutes. The nurse opened the door for Tarasha to walk in first. Jefa was seated with his bare back turned to the door, a bandage was around his head and his right hand.
The nurse waited for some seconds to see if Jefa would react to their presence but he didn’t turn back or move. Tarasha also stood still in the middle of the way without saying any word. She realized there was tension between the two and decided it was best to leave them alone. She opened the door and quietly walked out.
After the nurse had gone, Tarasha began to take slow steps forward. Her body trembled and she paused as she heard her name.
‘Omotara,’ Jefa called in a soft voice. The voice did not sound familiar to Tarasha, she wasn’t even expecting to recognize his voice since the last time she heard it was when she was eight.
‘Who are you?’ Omotara replied, in a low but strict voice.
Jefa looked back, taken a bit aback by the question. He thought she had accepted that he was her brother and that was why she came to him but then he also knew she was intelligent and wouldn’t accept like a gullible person.
He stepped down from the bed slowly and turned his face to her. His eyes were full of tears.
Omotara was unmoved. There was no resemblance on his face to Jeffery, her elder brother. She took out the diary and picture from her bag and displayed it to him. ‘Where did you find…?’ She stopped abruptly, the look on his face was familiar.
He gave a brief smile with his weepy face as she twitched hers. ‘Omotara,’ he called again, he turned to the other side of the bed and sat in it. ‘You still have your childhood face and I believe you still have some of the behaviors,’ he began, with his smile broadening.
Omotara folded her arms and stared at him, waiting for him to flop so as to take the next step. She also ensured that she remained conscious of her environment.
‘The top you wore on Wednesday was like the cat woman’s and I also saw your black gloves,’ he paused and laughed briefly. ‘No one wears gloves during hot weathers except they’re obsessed with cat woman.’
His remembrance of her love for cat woman sent down some electric currents down her body, that secret was only known to her family members as it was only at home she did practice the dressing and moves of the character.
But another thought struck her mind and she felt like killing him that moment. He must have gotten the information from her mother’s diary which was found in his possession. He was definitely intelligent and wanted to play on her emotions. With her clenched fists and gritted teeth, she stared at him angrily like a lion waiting to pounce on it’s prey.
Jefa unaware of what was going through her mind, began to proceed towards her slowly, in pains as his whole body ached at every step he took.
Omotara dipped her hand into the improvised pocket of the dress, her hand touched the handle of the knife. She searched around with her eyes to see if there was anyone hiding around. She took the knife in between her fingers, ready to take out Jefa if he made an attempt to attack her. She dropped the bag from her other hand to the floor.
Jefa halted as he noticed something on the hand which she dipped into the pocket, he gave a bold smile and used his hand to wipe his forehead.
‘So you still love tattoos?’ He said with a broad smile, fixing his eyes on the point where the tattoo was. Omotara took a quick look at the tattoo and returned her gaze to his face, wondering what was amusing him. ‘Do you remember that Catwoman tattoo you drew with your blue Biro on your belly when you were seven?’ Jefa continued. ‘Mom would have flogged you if I didn’t keep my mouth shut but you never kept your side of the deal.’
That was it. Omotara’s knee trembled and gave way, she fell and sat on the ground. She was broken. Only Jeffery had seen that tattoo and had promised to keep his mouth shut on the condition that she’ll help him request for something from their father but like he accused, she never kept her part of the deal.
Her eyes were full of tears as her whole body trembled. She made sure no tear fall off her eyes by wiping off her face with part of the headscarf. She could see Jefa’s legs right in front of her. She looked up to his face.
Jefa stared into her eyes passionately, unknowingly transferring the pains which were in his eyes to hers. He tried to squat and touch her shoulder but winced in pain without success.
Omotara got up and picked her bag, she took out a polythene bag it. She avoided his gaze. ‘Please, change into these clothes.’ She handed over the bag to him and walked out of the room without taking another look at him.
Ten minutes later, she returned already changed into another set of clothes, this time a Yoruba native wear. The tattoo on the hand had also been cleaned off.
Omotara took a look at Jefa and realized he needed help in completing his dressing. He had only been able to change his trousers successfully but had not been able to put on the top because of his arm and head injury. She walked closer to him and took the top from him, she then helped him to carefully fix in the top.
Jefa kept mute and raised no questions, having faith in his sister’s instructions. He kept staring at her eyes as she helped him wear the top but he noticed she tried avoiding his eyes, he was only able to get glimpses occasionally.
‘We have to go now,’ Omotara said and helped him up from the bed. ‘We’ll take the other stair case down.’
Jefa obeyed without questions, he struggled to fix his legs into his sandals but she quickly bent down and helped him put it on.
‘Okay,’ Omotara said after successfully fixing the sandals. Her eyes met his as she raised up her head. He was staring at her lovingly. She took away her eyes and sniffed in, unable to describe her feeling at that particular moment.
As he took a step, she felt he was trusting her too much and she was taking it for granted. She needed to explain her actions to him.
‘I want to get you to another place,’ she finally spoke as she held his hand and he continued to take slow steps. ‘Somewhere where I’ll be able to watch over you myself.’
~~~
**Present**
Agent Dakolo and Mr Sylvester were still seated in the Doctor’s office quietly when the Doctor and Officer Ken returned. Sylvester was still in a very pensive mood. Dakolo, due to the nature of his job and experience had been able to shake a little off the impact the news had on him.
‘Where’s the patient?’ Dakolo asked the Doctor as the man returned to his seat.
‘He left with his sister,’ the Doctor replied, after settling into the swivel.
Dakolo glanced at Ken and Ken nodded in confirmation of the Doctor’s words, Dakolo did not bother to raise any other question.  ‘So about Henry’s case,’ Dakolo cleared his throat and continued, ‘is he going to remain like that for the rest of his life?’
‘Agent, like I said before, there’s no remedy yet. Some part of his body structures have been rendered useless and his brain is fast degenerating.’ The Doctor answered in a sad tone.
‘Degenerating? Is there nothing you can do to stop the degeneration?’ Dakolo asked.
‘We’re doing all we can and all we should but it doesn’t seem to be producing much results.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Dakolo stared at the Doctor with a confused look.
‘You see the mixture had gone a long way in circulating around his body with his blood, the liquid is what is responsible for the degeneration.’
‘Is there no way you can remove the liquid from his body?’
‘Except we remove his blood too. It has mixed with his blood and flows through the veins with the blood. There’s a way we can still purge it out and that’s why are conducting several tests on the remaining liquid, we could get another mixture that’ll be able to nullify the effects or help him excrete the poison.’
Dakolo hissed.
‘But let’s still thank God he didn’t receive the whole contents of the drip bag, that would have been the required quantity to initiate the full reaction. His brain degeneration wouldn’t have been slow like this and we would have faced more difficulties in getting the liquid as what we’ll have would have only been traces which we would get from his blood samples.’
Dakolo heaved another sigh of frustration. Several years ago, his thoughts would have been to fly Henry to another country for medical treatment but this was 2031, Nigeria was one of the countries with the best medical facilities and he also expected that the Doctor would have suggested it if there was need for Henry to be transferred.
‘Can we see him now?’ Dakolo asked, after some seconds of total silence.
‘Yes, of course. He should be awake.’ The Doctor replied and stood to his feet. He waited for the other men to get up and followed behind them as they walked out of his office. He locked the door.
‘This way,’ the Doctor said to Dakolo and turned who were facing the opposite direction. ‘He has been transferred to another ward.’
‘Okay,’ Dakolo, Ken and Sylvester turned and followed the Doctor.
Seven minutes later, they got to the new ward. Two officers were in the corridor while one was seated inside the ward. The three officers were the same ones asked to keep an eye on him at the house.
Henry’s clothes had been changed to white top and trousers, his eyes was open and liquid from a drip was running into his veins.
Henry’s face twitched as he saw the man staring above him. He made no other movement and had no expression on his face.
‘Henry,’ Dakolo called. Henry blinked his eyes and turned his gaze to the Doctor as if he didn’t hear anything.
‘He’s only conscious but his brain cannot really process things, especially communication.  The Doctor explained.
‘Is it that bad?’ Dakolo asked.
‘It happens,’ the Doctor replied, ‘to several mentally challenged patients.
The door opened and a younger Doctor came in. He proceeded towards the turned gazes of the men and greeted the elderly Doctor first.
‘Good afternoon Sir.’
‘Good afternoon,’ the elderly Doctor replied and then turned to Dakolo. ‘Meet Doctor Tobi, the new Doctor in charge of Henry. And here’s Agent Dakolo and Officer Ken,’ he said turning back to the Doctor. ‘Officers in charge of the patient. This is Mr Sylvester, the patient’s Boss at the NSCC.’
‘Good afternoon Sirs,’ Doctor Tobi greeted with a warm smile.
‘Good afternoon,’ his greeting was replied reluctantly.
‘You’ll be relating with Doctor Tobi directly from now on. As you can see, my office is quite some distance to this new ward.’
‘It’s okay Doctor,’ Dakolo said, examining the new Doctor with his eyes.
The elderly Doctor’s phone rang, he checked the screen and exclaimed, ‘Oh! Gentlemen, you have to excuse me now.’ He said before rushing out of the ward, leaving the officers and Sylvester with the new Doctor.
‘Sirs, I made an important discovery.’ Doctor Tobi stated, attracting attention to himself after several seconds of silence.
‘What’s that?’ Dakolo asked, less enthusiastic about knowing the discovery.
‘It’s possible that the patient did not place himself on drip,’ Doctor Tobi stated.
‘Huh?’ Dakolo and Ken’s eyes widened, they showed more interest now. Sylvester looked interested too on seeing the officers new interest in the Doctor’s conversation but he was lost on what they were talking about.
‘There were traces of some sedative gases in his blood, it’s possible that somebody drugged him first before placing him on drip.’ The Doctor explained.
Ken and Dakolo stared at each other in silence,  wondering how possible that was. There was nobody else in Henry’s house on that day they had checked and there was nothing that suggested that someone had being in the house with him. The officers who followed and monitored him also saw no one enter the compound with or after him.
~~~~~
Jefa laid on the bed wondering how Omotara had so much knowledge of medicine. She even had a room in her house that was well arranged with a bed for the purpose.
Omotara continued in silence to clean and redress his wounds which were exposed while they escaped from the hospital. She felt like saying soothing words anytime he groaned or made an uncomfortable noise but she decided against it, preferring to maintain the silence between them. She knew that he had so many questions running through his mind, so, breaking the silence and talking to him would only give room for the questions which she wanted to avoid.
Finally she was through with her redressing and cleaning, she packed up the tools and returned them to the shelf. Jefa was absent-minded and was still seated slantingly, thinking that the treatment was still going to continue. Omotara stared at him, unwilling to break her silence but she had to tell him to rest his back. One more thing that she had to do was to ask him what kind of food he would like.
‘You can lie down now,’ she finally said, walking towards him. ‘What kind of food would you like to take?’
Jefa smiled and sat upright. ‘What are you going to take too?’
‘Nothing,’ she lied, ‘I’m not ready to eat now.’
‘Okay, you bring me food when you’re ready to eat too’ Jefa said and rested his back in the bed.
‘Come on,’ Omotara moved closer to him and stared at his face which she had been avoiding all through. ‘You really need to eat something now for your medication to work.’
‘You really need to eat something too else you break down,’ Jefa countered.
She sighed. ‘I took something in the morning,’ she lied again.
‘I took something this morning too,’ he replied adamantly.
‘Okay,’ Omotara finally gave in. ‘What do you want to eat, so I can get it for the both of us.’
‘You can get anything for me to eat as far as you’re going to bring a chair and sit in front of me and we eat together.’
Omotara shook her head in frustration at the new condition. He stared at her, she knew he wasn’t going to change his mind. ‘Okay,’ she said and turned back immediately. She walked out of the room, closing the door softly.
The first thing she picked up in the sitting room was her phone. She clicked open the browser and began to type some words into the search engine. The search results displayed and she selected an option. Soon, a page which displayed a list of restaurants in the area popped up. She picked the car keys from the centre table and proceeded out of the house.
All through the drive to the restaurant, she was wondering was how her life would be now that she had a brother. She thought of calling one or two of her co-assassins to ask for suggestions but she discarded the thought, she already knew that their advice would be to kill him, except if he was also an assassin with a rigid heart, that way both of them may be able to work together without anyone bringing in emotions.
She returned with two plates of fried rice after thirty minutes. Jefa was still awake when she entered back into the room. He sat up on seeing her bring out the plates from the bag.
She dragged a chair closer to his bed and dropped the plates on it. She went out twice to get a small table and tray and also two bottles and cups of water. She finally settled to eat.
Jefa was the first to begin with the food. He had taken about three spoons already before noticing that she wasn’t eating. He paused and stared at him. She quickly began to eat to avoid queries from him.
They finished the meal in silence and Omotara began to pack the plates and cleaned the place. After taking out other plates and cleaning the place. She returned to pick the last bottle and cup of water that Jefa used.
‘Tara, we need to talk.’ Jefa finally broke the long silence.
The air in the hospital in everyway was disgusting to Don as he trudged up the stairs. He couldn’t wait for the cursed man to recuperate and give him time to go about his own business.
At first she was sure that he was a policeman until he mentioned her name. Then she became uncertain, she wasn’t expecting the police to have made so much progress in investigating her.
‘Tarasha,’ Don called and took a step forward. She took two steps backward without responding to his call.
Don paused to reason for a moment. The door behind her was opened, so it would be easy for her to get out and he didn’t want that to happen. ‘Tarasha, can we talk?’ He called again.
Tarasha bit her lips now and stared straight into his eyes. Now she knew he wasn’t a policeman because no other person knew her name except for her employees and Chief Gab, and maybe some of Chief Gab’s associates who he might have spoken to about her. Was he one of Chief Gab’s associates? She asked herself. Or could he be Don? Henry, Aisha and Cole’s former Boss. That was the other person who could know her name, due to his past relationship with Aisha. She shook her almost invisibly, unsure of what conclusion to make about him. She kept a straight face.
Don too was unsure of what to conclude. Was this Tarasha or someone else? The girl he was seeing looks so young and harmless to him. Her face even looks innocent and naive. Or maybe she was Alexandra Evelyn who he found out from the police case report could be the girlfriend of Henry. To make matters worse, she was not even replying or making any facial response. If she was Tarasha, there was a way he expected her face to respond when he called her name but if she wasn’t Tarasha, then she was supposed to be expressing fear which she wasn’t. But she was a trained Assassin like himself, his brain didn’t tell him that she could know all the tricks too.
‘Tarasha, let’s talk.’ Don tried his luck again.
‘Who are you?’ She finally spoke.
‘I’m a friend,’ he replied, still uncertain if she was Tarasha or not. ‘I won’t hurt you, I promise.’ He raised his two hands up to emphasize.
‘What do you want here?’ She asked, unmoved.
‘I’ve been looking for you,’ Don stated.
For the first time, Tarasha made a facial response as a thought struck her mind. Was it possible that some of her employees have betrayed her and given her out to the police? Or Chief Gab had released informations which he wasn’t supposed to have.
Don stood still, hoping she would take his offer to discuss with her. He saw her made a frown when he said he’s been looking for her and he got some information from that. He was about to make a conclusion when Tarasha’s voice sounded again, dismissing his information as false.
‘You don’t know me, why are you looking for me?’ She asked, intelligently confusing Don. Only criminals would not ask a question when someone states that he was looking for them, because they always expected the police to be in search of them. But now that she feigned surprise, he would think of her as someone innocent. But that would only work if he was unsure of who she was, and luckily for Tarasha, he really was.
‘Are you Tarasha?’ He foolishly asked.
‘Don, the police are here’ another guy appeared at Don’s back.
‘Oops!’ Don exclaimed, taking a quick glance at the back.
~~
‘Sir, I don’t think we should go in now till we have our men here.’ Ken suggested, taking out his phone.
‘Just call and ask for reinforcement now,’ Dakolo shouted his order.
Ken quickly complied with the order while Dakolo waited in front of the gate to get his response. He peeped through the small space by the wall to check if what the junior officer said was true.
‘They’re coming sir,’ Ken reported.
‘Okay, get the bluetooth communication devices out of the car for both of us.’ Dakolo instructed.
Ken turned back into the car and brought out the devices hurriedly. Dakolo had already come closer to the car. The both of them fixed the devices to their belts and ears.
‘You stay and wait for the boys while I go inside,’ Dakolo began, ‘you should storm the the place with some others if you hear no word from me in five minutes.’
~~~
Tarasha had no reason to wait anymore, she now knew that these men went officers. She fled through the opened door and was up on the fence in ten seconds. Don and his man followed outside, they saw her roll over to the other side.
‘Are you sure it was the police?’ Don turned back and asked impatiently, forgetting temporarily about Tarasha. He now needed no prophet to tell him that he was discussing with Tarasha, a usual girl couldn’t jump over the fence as easily as she just did, even he wouldn’t do it as swift as that.
He felt stupid for being deceived by her looks. Was he even expecting anyone else? But what if he wasn’t deceived, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to do anything. It is easier said or thought than executed. A strange kind of fear flashed through his heart at the thought of having being engaged in a fight or gun duel with her.
He didn’t come prepared to fight or kill her, he had only come to gather information that would lead him to her. He was hundred percent sure that she wasn’t a poor specimen and it wouldn’t have been easy to take her out, he remembered stories of his strong men whom she had previously dealt with singlehandedly. But there was another problem at hand now.
‘Yes, it was the police. We heard some sounds at the gate.’
‘Did you see them?’
‘I saw one, I left the living room immediately after you left and I was at the extensions when I heard the gate creak, I quickly opened the curtain and peeped out through the window and I saw an officer sneaking back outside.’ Stainless explained
‘Damn! We must get out of here.’
‘Yes, but not through that gate. The officers are there.’
‘We’ll take the same place Tarasha took,’ Don said, staring at the spot corner of the fence.
‘Tara…?’ Stainless frowned his face.
‘Sorry… Samantha Osman,’ Don corrected.
‘Samantha Osman?’ Stainless widened his eyes in horror.
‘C’mon, call the other guy and let’s get out of this place now.’
‘What about my two other boys?’
‘You’ll call them later,’ Don said and stepped down from the house to the interlocked floor.
~~~
Dakolo finally got close to the entrance door which was broken. He hid his back by the wall and peeped in, the bulbs that turned off by the police the last time were now on and that was another sign that someone or some people were in the house presently. He entered into the first extension but nothing was there. He proceeded into the living room. He could hear running footsteps and voices inside the house. He followed after the sound and passed through the corridor of the inner rooms to the backyard, he saw a man trying to roll over to the other side of the fence. He quickly pointed his gun and quickly took a shot, it entered into the man’s leg but he still managed to roll over to the other side.
Dakolo quickly followed, he jumped on the fence and peeped into the compound. He could see a man running out through the gate, another one following behind while the one he just shot was hopping after them in pains. He dropped off the fence and tucked his pistol into his pocket, he also ensured that all devices on his body were perfectly fixed. He took some steps backwards and ran towards the fence. He climbed and quickly rolled over. He took out his bluetooth device immediately he landed and connected with Ken.
‘Are the guys there now?’ He asked hurriedly.
‘Yes, they just arrived. I’m coming into the house now.’
‘No need to come into the house anymore,’ Dakolo said, bringing out his gun as he followed after the injured guy trying to escape. ‘Get some men with you and hurry to the street behind. The men in the house are already escaping through the paper company here.’
‘Right away sir.’
‘Make sure you remain connected.’ Dakolo took some more shots at the hopping man, but none met the target. He took a brief pause on seeing the security men lying on the floor. He squatted and removed the pin from the neck of the first one, the man coughed immediately and drifted  back to consciousness.
‘Don’t go anywhere,’ Dakolo commanded before getting up to continue following after the criminal. The man was already out of the gate before Dakolo got there but he had not gone far enough, his bad leg couldn’t carry him fast.
‘Halt or I shoot?’ Dakolo shouted his threat to the man. The man seemed not to listen but kept hopping around and was trying to cross the road.
Dakolo stopped and carefully aimed at the same leg, he knew that the man couldn’t go too far but he didn’t want the stress that the man could put him through if he mixes with people passing by. If the man had a gun, it was also possible that he could grab a passerby and hurt the person or decide to use the victim as an hostage. He took one shot and the man crashed to the ground. Dakolo looked around him before he proceeded to meet the fallen body. Pedestrians and motorists were already fixing their attention on the scene.
‘Did you see anybody else run this way?’ Dakolo asked a passing pedestrian.
‘Yes,’ the man answered. ‘I saw two guys, they were running that way.’ The man pointed to the direction where they took, that was the way to the roundabout.
‘Thank you,’ Dakolo felt like going after them but he knew it would be fruitless, he couldn’t pursue two men at once. It was better he focused on the one at hand.
He squatted beside the shot man and searched his body, he took out the gun and knife from his pockets and kept it on the ground. Then he connected to Ken again.
‘Damn it! Where are you guys?’ He shouted.
‘At the roundabout sir, there’s a little bit of traffic.’
‘What the hell are you talking about? Come on, clear the road and get here in the next five seconds.’ Dakolo ordered before disconnecting. He never liked to disobey traffic rules but when it ges to cases like this, he had to take extreme measures. Clearing the road would require them to order all other motorists to halt even if the traffic sign or official was commanding them to go.
Dakolo returned his gun into his pocket and got up, he glanced around. He could see people staring towards him from every direction and the motorists also taking some seconds to observe him and the lying body. He took a glance at the body, the man was losing a lot of blood and could die if he wasn’t taken to the hospital soon.
Ken and five other officers arrived in a police van one minute later.
‘This man needs to be rushed to the hospital,’ Dakolo said after the officers had jumped out of the van. Two officers rushed to the injured man and carried him into the van. Dakolo commanded them to drive to the hospital immediately while he was left alone with two other officers and Ken.
‘Two other guys got away,’ Dakolo said to Ken, finally keeping his gun back into the pocket. ‘What instructions did you give to the officers manning the gate?’
~~~
Tarasha could hear the sound of the gun shot twice from where she was in a traffic jam. She also saw the police van that passed, commanding every other vehicle including hers to halt while they passed. All the while, she was boiling with rage. She wished she could see Henry and strangle life out of him that moment. He was the cause for all these. He was the one that returned her emotions into her life. Now because of that, she had already began to make several mistakes that could cause bigger problems.
The road was finally cleaed and she heaved a deep sigh of relief as she drove off. She tried to get the recent encounter off her mind. Who ever was the man who called her by her name and the reason he wanted to speak with her, she would solve that later.
She still had one more mission that night, her team had a special dinner with the Senate President in his house that night and she was going to attend, as the fourth person in the team who had gone to Lagos for inspection but has now returned. Cole had also hinted her that the man had offered for them to stay over in his house that night. A phone call disrupted her thoughts.
‘Mr Sylvester,’ she said after answering.
‘Hello Kimberly, I’m sorry I’ve not called you since morning.’ Sylvester’s fatigued voice sounded. ‘I’ve been busy running around about Mr Henry’s case.’
‘It’s okay sir, I understand.’ Kimberly replied pleasantly.
‘How is your mum now?’
‘Ermm…’ She stammered for a moment, temporarily forgetting that her excuse for not being at work was her mother’s illness.
‘Is she better now?’ Sylvester added.
‘Yes,’ she finally remembered.
‘Do extend my greetings to her and tell me if there’s any way I can be of help.’ Sylvester offered.
‘Thank you so much sir, I appreciate.’
‘It’s okay, you can take tomorrow off also.’
‘Oh! Thanks sir.’
‘Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight sir.’ The call ended.
She returned back to her thoughts. She was sure that the Senate President’s life would be easier to take, now that there were lots of distractions and investigations for the police to handle, they wouldn’t expect the strike. Tarasha and her team had close to twelve hours to carry out the planning and execution. They were to get to his house for the dinner by eight pm and would leave before or by eight a.m the next morning.
What she only needed to do now was to find a nurse to take care of her brother, Jeffery.
~~~
‘Where do you bosses stay in this place?’ Ken asked the culprit as all the vehicles halted in front of a dark tanned coloured gate.
‘There are two buildings in the compound, the two are former ware houses. The one at the left is empty while the one at the right is not, we stay most times at the warehouse on the left.’
Ken took an Ak 47 and jumped out of the van. ‘Spread out boys, take positions.’ He shouted his orders. The remaining officers in the same van as Ken pushed out the handcuffed culprit and he led them to the gate.
The officers from the two other vans also spread out like they were asked to, only one officer was left in each van. By this time all motorists and pedestrians were already out of sight and the shops and stores around were closing up at the sight of the multitude of officers.
Soon, the officers broke into the compound and raided the whole place but to their disappointment, they were only able to come out with a few weapons as members of the gang had fled the place before their arrival.
‘I told you that you were only wasting your time,’ the culprit said in a mocking tone to Ken as they proceeded to the station in their vehicles. 
Ken gave him a searching look, restraining himself from landing him a slap. ‘We’ll get all of you,’ Ken replied back.
‘Most of our men aren’t even in town and you can never get the boss, Stainless. I’m sure he’s gone far already.’ The culprit continued in the same tone.
‘Stainless?’ The name sounded familiar to Ken. He nodded and remained quiet for sometime, trying to remember where he had heard the name before.
‘Yes, Stainless.’ The culprit replied confidently after thirty seconds.
‘Stainless is your boss?’
The culprit paused and chuckled, a smile appeared on his swollen face on seeing the change in Ken’s face and tone.
Ken now remembered who Stainless was, in fact, perfectly well. Stainless was a culprit who had once been nabbed by him but was set free on order from the Inspector General and replaced with another criminal. Stainless was also an assassin and a drug dealer, one whose name was mostly noised about for criminal activities during the election period.
‘But what were you people doing in that house? What was your mission there?’ Ken barked.
‘I told you I don’t know anything about it, I was only asked to stay where you met me.’ The culprit replied. He had already given up his hopes of not being imprisoned, he knew that there was no escaping for him in the case.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll confess when we treat you the right way.’ Ken threatened and got up from the seat, walking towards the entrance of the van as he held the handrails. He wondered what connection the Stainless team had with Samantha Osman, or could it be that Samantha Osman was part of Stainless’ gang? Several questions like this continued to pop up in his mind until his phone rang.
He took out his phone and answered immediately, ‘Agent sir’.
‘Officer, where are you guys now?’
‘We’re heading back to the office.’
‘What did you find?’
‘Nothing, all the men were gone before we got there.’ Ken answered.
‘Okay, I’ll meet you at the office then.’ Dakolo said and the call ended.
Ken turned back and stared at the culprit who was staring into the air absent-mindedly. He had to find a way to hide his part played in the previous case of stainless else he would be asked questions as to how Stainless was out in the streets still carrying out his criminal activities when he had already been sentenced to death by the court of law.
~~~
‘But Don, you didn’t tell me that we were going to meet with Samantha Osman.’ Stainless queried Don who was sitting on the couch comfortably and sipping from the wine glass.
Don took a glance at Stainless and then returned his focus to the television screen. He saw how furious Stainless was, pacing round the living room as he gulped down contents from the wine bottle occasionally.
‘…two of the men were seen to have escaped while two others were caught and one shot dead by the police officers.’ The reporter continued. ‘We’re yet to confirm what the culprits were searching for in Henry E.G’s apartment, who happens to be on admission in the hospital for an undisclosed condition. This is the first time suspected assassins from the deadly Samantha Osman group has been caught and we hope that by this, the police would be able to find quality information and lead to the head of the Assassin gang herself. The police officers have also raided the operation house of the gang and found nothing there except for some few weapons. It’s Jamiu Sado and I’m reporting for TVC.’ The reporter concluded. Videos of the raided operation house of the stainless gang was shown after the reporter stopped talking. Videos of Henry’s house, his neighbours and the paper company were also shown, then the breaking news transmission ended
‘They even think my boys are from Samantha Osman,’ Stainless complained bitterly, placing his hand on his forehead.
‘Isn’t that better than tracing it to you?’ Don said in a less concerned voice and stood up.
‘But they already traced it to me already, they were at my caban.’
‘But they didn’t find you or anything implicating,’ Don said harshly and sat down again.
‘My problem is you didn’t tell me that we were coming to meet Samantha Osman, you only told me that you wanted to ransack someone’s house.’
‘I didn’t know that she was going to be there, weren’t you there when I came to ask if you were hearing the strange sound.’
Stainless looked at Don for a moment and shook his head, Don wasn’t apologetic at all. He was still speaking to him with the same bossy attitude he always used when they were under the same masters. Although Don was far better than Stainless in his pattern of execution since their younger days, Stainless always wanted Don to treat him as an equal now that they both had their separate gangs and were doing quite well.
For Don, it was different. Stainless was the next after him when they were in the same gang, so he still saw Stainless as his junior every time. Even their works had quite differentiated them. Don had executed some high profile jobs and had never been behind the police bar for any while Stainless had been caught by the police on his first attempt on an high profile job.
‘Let me even tell you now, the reason why the Vice President got my number from you was to bring me down to tackle Samantha Osman.’ Don revealed and paused to stare at Stainless’s face.
The shock on Stainless’ face was obvious, he now understood the reason why the vice president kept on referring to Samantha Osman during his call and why he refused to reveal the reason he wanted to contact Don.
‘Or are you scared of her?’ Don asked with a crooked smile.
‘Scared?’ Stainless thought for a while before replying. ‘Why should I be scared of someone I have no business with.’
‘But you have a business with her now, she has seen your face.’ Don said with a tormenting smile.
Stainless body trembled at the thought of Samantha Osman coming for him. He had developed a fear for her since the day he got the news of her first operation. He first thought she worked with or for Don but later dismissed the thought when he heard about the connection of her operations with other assassinations outside the country and when he also got news that Don had left the country. The fear grew to the peak after he heard how she defeated Robin Hood without making mistakes.
‘That girl does not look like the Samantha,’ Stainless argued, remembering the face of harmless looking girl he saw at the entrance when he went to warn Don about the police.
‘Hehe,’ Don chuckled, ‘you’re judging by her appearance? Did you see the way she went off the fence, can you be as swift as that? That’s a well trained personnel.’ Don said, making a mocking face at him.
Stainless took in a breath and turned away from Don, he took another gulp from the bottle.
‘Now that she’s also after you,’ Don got up and walked to Stainless’ front. ‘You can join me to find her or stay back till she comes for you.’
Stainless continued to stare at Don, biting his lips with utter disgust written on his face. He wondered why he had allowed money becloud his sense of reasoning. He had at one time vowed not to join Don for any operation again when Don had cheated him and his boys with their pay but because he knew that the vice president was the one Don was running errands for in Abuja, he decided to go because he knew it would involve huge payments.
He opened his eyes widely as something came into his remembrance. He fixed his gaze on Don with an accusing look. ‘How did you know she is Samantha Osman? Are you friend with her? You were discussing with her before I came.’
‘Why shouldn’t I know?’ Don asked back, surprised at the question. ‘But I wasn’t discussing anything with her.’
‘Why didn’t you think it was someone else? Maybe another lady who’s an assassin.’ Stainless’ look turned into a suspicious one.
Don stared at him in disgust, trying to find a suitable answer for the question. ‘Of course, I’ve been on her case for sometime now, so you don’t expect me not to know how she looks.’
‘You’re a liar Don,’ Stainless accused, he took out his gun and pointed it at Don’s face.
‘Hey homey, what’s the matter with you?’ Don’s eyes widened in surprise, but he was still confident that Stainless could not shoot the gun. ‘We’re supposed to be planning together not quarreling.’
‘F**k you Don,’ you never make a good partnership.’ Stainless barked. ‘You are a deceptive dog.’
‘Be careful man, don’t insult me.’ Don warned.
‘Fool, you deceived me and you’re deceiving the Vice President. I’m gonna submit your damn a*s to him after I finish you off.’ Stainless threatened and cocked the gun.
‘Come on,’ Don shouted in a pleading manner on seeing the Stainless’ seriousness. ‘I’m not deceiving anyone.’
‘Then tell me how your girlfriend works with her, she’s on the wanted list of the police. When I saw her pictures on the news, I thought it was the Nanl Gang who carried out the attack but on a closer look, I concluded that the Samantha must be working with the Nanl Gang. It was after the assassination of Robin Hood that I started to doubt your involvement because I knew you ran away to Cameroon.’
‘Which girlfriend are you talking about?’ Don was lost for a moment.
‘Aisha! I think you still feel I’m joking with you.’ Stainless said and began to fasten his grip on the trigger.
‘No, don’t. I’ll tell you everything, just put down that gun homey.’ Don said in panic but still managed to keep a bold face on.
‘I’m not your homey dummy, I don’t roll with bas***ds like you anymore. Stop calling me that and start talking now.’
‘Okay, the truth is that I gave her some of my men including Aisha to cook for her.’ Don began. ‘Samantha is working for one of my clients and they paid heavily for them.’
‘So you and Samantha works for the same client?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I don’t believe you, you gave your girlfriend to another assassin?’
‘No, Aisha was supposed to be my spy there.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘Tarasha threatened her…’
‘Huh?’
‘Sorry, Samantha threatened her and she got afraid. She’s working faithfully for her now.’
‘Interesting, that means you were not able to manage your followers. You had traitors like you in your gang.’
Don was speechless, in his mind he had totally surrendered but he didn’t allow it show on his face. He knew Stainless had enough reasons to kill him, he had deceived and cheated him on numerous occasions but he always thought stainless would not have the boldness or will to do it but with the rage now showing on Stainless’ face, he knew anything was possible.
‘Let’s resolve this amicably, put down your gun.’ Don finally found his voice, he still continued to speak boldly.
‘Fool, go rot in hell.’ Stainless finally pulled the trigger.
~~~
Cole, Benny and Aisha, already dressed in their disguise form, listened to the news on TV silently, taking glances occasionally at their boss who was sitting behind and still making up. She was also paying attention to the news.
‘…this is the first time suspected assassins from the deadly Samantha Osman group has been caught and we hope that by this, the police would be able to find quality information and lead to the head of the Assassin gang. The police officers have raided the operation house of the gang and found nothing there except for some few weapons…’ Tarasha got up as this part of the news got her attention.
‘Hey, record that.’ She said to Cole who was holding the remote control as videos of the ransacked Gang house was shown. Cole followed the instruction and began to take a record of the rest of the news. ‘It’s okay,’ Tarasha said after the reporting ended.
Cole stopped and saved the video. He, Aisha and Benny stared at her waiting for the next instruction she would give concerning it but she just went back to her seat quietly and continued with her makeup.
‘After killing the Senate President, we still have a lot of work to do tomorrow morning.’ She began after five minutes of sitting quietly. She got up and began to walk towards them, brushing her hair backwards. ‘Cole would need to find out something in an hospital for me while Benny would locate the area that was shown in the news; the one I asked you to record and Aisha would…’ Tarasha paused for a while, staring at Aisha’s face, she smiled. ‘Aisha would stay and wait for instructions from me.’
‘Are we returning back to the house after tomorrow?’ Cole asked.
‘No,’ Tarasha replied sharply. They couldn’t return to the house yet, it wouldn’t be right for them to find out about her brother Jeffery. ‘You’ll remain here, I have some things to clear in the house.’
‘Okay,’Cole replied and got up from his seat. ‘Is it time for us to go now?’
‘Yes, we’ll leave in ten minutes time. Remember everything you see can be an instrument, don’t neglect any. And make sure that we maintain eye contact always, we’ll be doing most of our communication through the eyes especially when our hosts are there. Once we find the escape route and the best escape plan, we’ll take the man out and leave.’ Tarasha began to explain their plan. ‘Remember we’ll leave first in four different cars and park them at the four sides of the house. Then we’ll converge into the car where the weapons are and go into the house with that, I believe there’ll be no search on us but even if there is, we have our weaponry protected.’
Tarasha sat quietly in the backseat of the Carera Cabriolet Porsche streaming the video from the monitor cameras in the house. She was well disguised with makeups as a dark girl and a black wig on her head, she still looked quite beautiful though.
Soon, the door to the front seat was opened and someone stepped into the passenger’s side, Tarasha didn’t bother to look up but only glanced at her wristwatch and continued to look into the device.
Five minutes later, the door to the driver’s side and the other side of the back seat opened. Cole and Aisha stepped into the car quietly. Tarasha minimized the collection of footages she was watching and opened another collection with four options. She selected the options one after the other and each showed the area where the four different cars were.
‘We’re good to go, ” she finally announced and looked up. Cole started the engine at once and drove off.
They were allowed to enter into the compound of the Senate President’s mansion without going through any security protocols. No search was conducted on their vehicle neither was any individual searched.
The compound was a very large one with several gardens in it. The atmosphere there was different as the ornamental shrubs and trees helped to purify the tensed air. The wide parking space also had several exotic cars whose colours added to the beauty of the whole place. 
Their arrival was announced to the Senate President immediately they entered and he was out in front of the house to welcome them even before they parked their car.
‘Good evening sir,’ the team led by Mr Alfred greeted simultaneously. The men had only their handsets in their hands while the two ladies had small handbags with them.
‘Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,’ Nasiru greeted back with a smile. He extended his hand for a handshake to Mr Alfred first and then the rest of the team. ‘You were in Lagos when I met with your colleagues,’ Nasiru stated with a smile when he got to the new lady.
‘Yes sir.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘I’m Evelyn sir,’ Tarasha replied.
‘Oh! Nice to meet you Miss Evelyn, how was your research job and trip from Lagos?’
‘The research was fine sir and the journey was also splendid.’
‘Nice,’ Nasiru gave a broad smile.
‘Thanks,’ Tarasha bent her knees slightly in curtsy as he shook her hands again.
‘You’re welcome,’ Nasiru said and turned to the whole team. ‘I welcome you all to my home. I hope you’ll have a nice time with me.’ He said as he ushered them into the house. ‘Do you have any bag inside your car that you’ll like to get?’
‘Not for now sir,’ Mr Alfred replied.
Several guards were standing in different positions in the house but only one was following Nasiru from a distance, he was Nasiru’s personal bodyguard, huge and muscular. The guards and security officers were all dressed in the same uniforms except for the personal bodyguard who was dressed in casuals. The assassins continued to take note of their environment.
‘Meet my darling wife,’ Nasiru introduced them to his wife as they got into the main living room. The guard disappeared into the inner rooms when the guests were about to begin to exchange pleasantries with the wife, he would be called if he was needed.
‘Welcome ladies, welcome gentlemen.’ Mrs Nasiru got up from the leather sofa to greet the guests.
The living room was neatly furnished with comfortable sofas with colours and shapes of water bodies. Each chair and stool had its distinct shape which made the visitors wonder at the creativity of the designers.
‘Good evening ma,’ the visitors replied to her greeting in unison.
‘You’re welcome,’ she said once again with a broad smile. ‘We’re glad to host you to a special dinner tonight, my husband has told me a lot about you and your good works. I must commend you guys for the excellent job done in Katsina state with the Ata’s foundation and your innovative proposal also…’
‘Dearest,’ Nasiru cut in. ‘Why don’t you let them have their seats first?’
‘Oh! Pardon my manners,’ the woman apologized. ‘Please take your seats,’ she pointed them to the seats. Benny and Cole sat in the long sofa while Tarasha and Aisha took two different one seaters. ‘So we prepared both Nigerian and foreign dishes, I believe you guys would prefer the Nigerian?’ She asked with a smile.
‘Anyone you offer us ma, we’ll be pleased to take it.’ Mr Alfred replied.
‘Alright, let me prepare the table in five minutes, I’ll be back.’ Mrs Nasiru said and got up from the seat.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Nasiru began after his wife walked away. ‘I’ll like to show you some other things after the meal, I want to show you to my study…’
A young lady about Aisha’s age joined them in the living room as he was talking, she walked up to Nasiru and gave him a peck on his cheeks.
‘Dad, good evening sir.’ She curtsied.
‘Good evening Fatima,’ Nasiru greeted, looking playful into her face. He then turned to the visitors, ‘here’s my first daughter, she schools in the UK and would be graduating in two months time. She only came for a short break.’ He introduced proudly.
‘Good evening,’ Fatima sang in a playful tone.
‘Good evening Fatima,’ they replied back, the ladies singing back in the same tone.
‘These are representatives of our partners from Canada who work with the Ata’s foundation, they’ve come to join us for dinner tonight and would be spending the night with us.’ Nasiru said to Fatima.
‘That’s nice,’ she replied with another kind smile at the visitors.
‘You have to go change now and join us for dinner,’ Nasiru said to his daughter.
‘Yea, sure Dad.’ She said and scurried away.
‘You have a nice daughter,’ Evelyn was the first to comment after the girl was out of sight.
‘Thank you,’ the man replied with his face beaming with smiles.
‘What course is she studying in school?’ Evelyn continued.
‘She’s reading cinematography,’ Nasiru stated.
‘Cinematography?’ Evelyn asked, widening her eyes in surprise.
‘Yes.’
‘That’s what I studied too,’ Evelyn said.
‘You studied cinematography?’ It was Nasiru’s turn to be surprised.
‘Yes, I did that in Canada.’ She stated.
‘Oh! Then why are you not in the movie industry?’
‘Well…’ She shrugged. ‘Let’s say I got attracted to the pattern and passion of the charity organization.’
‘I see,’ Nasiru nodded his head slowly. He was beginning to like her, she sounded more jovial and easy to relate with than the others. ‘So you plan to work with the foundation all your life?’
‘Ermm… Yes but not as a full time staff though. At some point, I’ll have to leave them and work as a partner with them…’
‘Food is served,’ Mrs Nasiru finally returned singing and cleaning  her hands with a hand towel.
‘Well, gentlemen and ladies. I guess we can continue our discussion after the meal.’ He took a look at each one of the visitor’s face before standing up.
**Fast Forward ~~ After the meal**
‘Thank you so much for the sumptuous meal,’ Mr Alfred said as they proceeded out of the dining room.
‘Come on, you’ve said that enough already.’ Mrs Nasiru replied.
‘I want to show you to my study now,’ Nasiru said and began to lead the guests through the house while the wife went there opposite direction. They continued to walk until they got to the door. He took out his keys and opened the room, then he ushered them in first before entering after and closing the door. He hurried up to their front and began to lead them round the place.
The study was a medium sized one, it had neatly arranged books in shelves and a large table with a long stool and a short chair in the middle. The shelves were broken into three sections, one opposite the door wall, one on each of the sides while the door wall had no shelves.
Most of the books arranged on the shelves in the first section were books which contained business tips and ideas, also there were business magazines and leaflets.
‘At first,’ vice President Nasiru stopped walking and turned to them. ‘At first, I thought you guys were fraudsters when my mum first told me about you. Then I sent someone to make a research and I found out that your company was real, but I still had to find out if they sent you people. That I confirmed before allowing my mother deal with you.’
Apart from Tarasha and Cole who joined Tarasha to do all the planning processes,  how they got confirmed by he organization in Canada was something confusing to the other two. Only trust in the boss’ plan had made them go for the operation and carry out all her instructions without questions.
Tarasha had a link in the foundation at Canada who on Tarasha’s orders had diverted all calls from Africa to the company’s lines to another line that Tarasha would answer herself in Nigeria. It was a pity that Nasiru Attahiru could not know that the same person who he had been discussing with on telephone was in the same room with him.
‘I want to tell you the story of the Ata’s foundation and how it began,’ Nasiru began to move to the next section. ‘I always keep the keys to the study myself because of this section, I don’t like anyone using the books in my absence. It contains some personal information, even my wife doesn’t know some of the deep secrets stored in these books, especially those ones.’ He pointed to three leather cover books stacked on each other.
‘Onwuli,’ Tarasha read something to herself from the cover of the book on top as she stretched her neck to look. She knew she had heard something like that from somewhere else.
‘But we don’t have any business with those books, this is the one I want you to see…’ Nasiru continued but Tarasha’s mind was far from what he was saying. She had her mind on the three books he pointed at on which she saw the familiar word. Then she remembered where she heard something pronounced like that, it was from Chief Gab when he was trying to explain to her the reason he wanted to kill Chief Jubril and the rest of his targets.
She stylishly moved closer to the books to have a closer view, then she saw some other names which she recognized, Jubril, Gabriel, Elvis, Nasiru were on the back cover too. Then the name of the minister of health who was her first assassination target was also there and two other names she had not heard about. She developed interest in the book and began to look for a way to take it with her. She knew that Chief Gab was the one whose name was Gabriel and that the book would reveal more about Chief Gab’s deal with his targets which may also help her in taking out the last target.
‘Evelyn,’ Nasiru called her name suddenly, he had seen that her mind was far away from his discourse with the others. ‘What are you thinking about?’ He asked, focusing all interest on her.
‘Nothing sir,’ she lied and tried to cover up with a smile.
‘What’s nothing?’ Nasiru did not accept her reply as it was very obvious that she was listening to him.
‘Emm…I was just thinking as a cinematographer,’ she said with a forced smile. ‘I was thinking of what it would be like making films centered on the lives of people like you, it’ll really be inspiring to a lot of young people.’
‘Hmm,’ Nasiru swallowed the lie. ‘There might really be some horror part, you know.’ He said with a shrug, ‘some of us have gone through and done some funny things too. Well, I was saying…’
‘Emm…I was just thinking as a cinematographer,’ she said with a forced smile. ‘I was thinking of what it would be like making films centered on the lives of people like you, it’ll really be inspiring to a lot of young people.’
‘Hmm,’ Nasiru swallowed the lie. ‘There might really be some horror part, you know.’ He said with a shrug, ‘some of us have gone through and done some funny things too. Well, I was saying that for Nigeria to be the country we all want it to be, then every Nigerian has to think and act in a positive way. The Ata’s foundation was a brainchild of my late father, blessed be his memory.
He was so passionate about the children on the streets and under the bridges that every of his weekends were always spent visiting orphanages and motherless babies homes, some he used to visit kids in the slums and give foodstuffs to their families. But he didn’t have enough wealth or influence to come up with something like the Ata’s foundation then. I didn’t have the same passion like he had, the truth is…’ Nasiru stopped and turned to look at the faces of his listeners.
‘I never thought I would do something like this if not for my mother who insisted that I fulfill my father’s last wish. Now I have no regrets doing it, all my life. I’ve never been happier than I am now, seeing children and families given hope and life.’ He took a handkerchief and wiped his teary eyes. The visitors were surprised as they couldn’t figure out the reason for the tears.
‘I lived my younger days as a selfish person, I wasn’t really concerned with anybody else except gathering enough money and getting comfort for myself and my family.’ He began to confess. ‘I’ve hurt a lot of people in the past, a lot of families, a lot of children and even the whole nation. I wish I could erase everything but no matter how hard I try, I still…’ The remaining words were unheard as the tears covered them. The man wiped his face with the handkerchief again and cleaned his mouth. The visitors stared at his face in awe except for Tarasha who was indifferent about his emotional state. All she had in mind was how the man’s death was going to be executed and how the book was going to leave the shelf.
‘That’s why I am happy to see people like you,’ the man continued what seemed to Tarasha an epistle, ‘especially the younger ones.’ Nasiru paused and looked away from Mr Alfred to the three younger representatives. ‘I want to encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing, that’s the way to go.’ He said and handed a handshake to everyone except Mr Alfred who he gave a pat on the back. ‘I’ll edit and release this book for public readership soon, I believe it’ll inspire a lot of young folks like you.’ He said tapping the book which contained the Ata’s foundation history.
He moved away from that section and his visitors moved with him, only Tarasha still had her mind on the section as they moved to the next.
A knock on the door distracted all of them. ‘Who’s it?’ Nasiru spoke aloud.
‘May I come in sir? You do have a phone call.’ A gruff voice sounded.
‘Okay, come in’ Nasiru replied the gruff voice which he knew to be his personal guard’s.
‘Here,’ the muscular man hurried forward and handed over the phone to Nasiru.
Nasiru stared at the phone’s screen for a while, looking undecided as to whether or not to return the call immediately. He was still trying to decide when it began to ring again.
‘Sir,’ he answered the call and excused himself from his guests with an hand gesture. He began to walk with the bodyguard towards the door.
‘Was that Don Dan I saw on the news today?’ Nasiru asked in a shocked voice while still walking out of the study.
The Don Dan mentioned caught the attention of the rest of the team except for Tarasha. They looked at each other’s faces and made eye gestures, then Tarasha understood that the man must have said something with which they can relate. She took a quick glance around the top corners of the study to see if there was a camera in it, she found none.
‘Go and listen to him,’ she said to Benny who was disguised as Mr Alfred. ‘Carefully,’ she added with a warning look at him. Benny walked gently closer to the entrance where he could hear the man’s voice faintly. He folded his arm and began to stare at the pictures on the wall.
Tarasha took the opportunity to return to the previous section, she picked up the hardcover book which caught her attention. She noticed it was a very old book and it wasn’t complete, more than half of the pages had been detached from it. She flipped it open and the first thing she saw was ‘Arms Deal with Elvis Richards’. Before she could continue, she already saw Benny returning to the former position gently, she returned the book and also joined the rest at the new section.
‘I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, I just had to attend to that. It was from the vice president.’ Nasiru explained as he walked back into the study. ‘Now this section, like I believe you’ve noticed already, is where I can find everything thing concerning the house of Reps and law in Nigeria. It’s my work and that’s why it’s the largest section. From the beginning to the end of the rack, you’ll find books that’ll educate you more about the Constitution of the nation. You may not understand some since you’re aren’t a…’ The man continued to rattle on.
Tarasha was getting uncomfortable with the man’s unnecessary talks, she took out her phone secretly and began to set up some commands. After some few seconds, she dialed Nasiru’s number to distract him.
Soon enough the guard came back with the phone and Nasiru excused himself again.
‘It’s time to split guys,’ Tarasha said to the team immediately the man went out of earshot. ”We have to locate an escape route now. Do you have your communication devices with you?’
They all nodded in positive to her question. ‘Then remain connected alw…’ She stopped as Nasiru returned back into the place hurriedly.
‘I’m sorry guys, I thought the vice President was trying to get back to me but it was a wrong dial.’ Nasiru apologized again. ‘My phone is here now,’ he showed them his phone and then dipped it into his pocket.
‘Sir,’ Evelyn called in a faint voice.
‘Yes, Evelyn.’ The man answered.
‘Ermm… I’ll like to use the restroom sir’ she announced, receiving planned awkward stares from the rest of the team.
‘Okay,’ Nasiru replied and took out his phone again. He dialed a first number but the call wasn’t answered, he dialed another. ‘Hello Joe, get to Fatima for me and tell her I need her in the study right now. Get back to me immediately you relay my message.’ He said into the phone and nodded in response to the call receiver’s reply. He cut the call and glanced at Evelyn. ‘Fatima would be here to attend to you in the next one minute,’ he said to her.
‘Thank you sir,’ she curtsied. They all waited patiently for the arrival of Fatima and true to the man’s word, Fatima arrived in a minute time.
Evelyn was excused to go with Fatima while the rest remained in the study.
~~
‘Let’s go this way,’ Fatima said on seeing Tarasha facing the opposite direction as they got outside the study.
‘Please, I need to get something in my bag first.’ Tarasha replied.
‘What do you want to take there? I may have it in the house.’ Fatima said to her.
‘It’s a medicine I need.’
‘Ehen… Are you sure you can go there yourself or do I send a maid to get it for you?’ Fatima suggested, sounding concerned.
‘Let me get it myself please,’ Tarasha replied and kept moving in the same direction. Fatima followed her.
~~
‘Like I was saying before the interruption, everything concerning the laws, Constitution and work in the Senate are contained here.’ Nasiru continued his talk. Not long after, Cole clutched his hands to his stomach and began to let out air from his mouth through silent burps.
‘What’s wrong?’ Nasiru asked in a very serious tone and with a serious look on his face.
‘I’m feeling a little bit uneasy,’ Cole managed to say. ‘I think I too have to use the restroom.’
‘Restroom?’ Mr Alfred turned to the Senate President and stared at him in a kind of accusing manner.
‘Ermm… It’s just a little issue, maybe you took something earlier today that’s your system is reacting to.’ Nasiru said, looking visibly disturbed. ‘Come with me,’ he said with a hand gesture to Cole and began to proceed out of the place.
~~
**5 minutes later**
Immediately Tarasha entered into the toilet, she turned on the communication device whose receiver was at her back and fixed the earpiece in her left ear. Then she rolled up her flowing gown and removed some metal devices from some attached pockets to her thighs. She dropped them in the sink and climbed on the water closet to see through the window. After taking some minutes to observe, she stepped down and walked back to the sink. Her device beeped.
‘Boss,’ Cole’s voice came through.
‘Cole, have you separated yourself from the rest?’
‘Yes, I’m in the restroom now.’
‘Any clear route seen from there?’ She asked as she took out a bug and a sharp blade-like metal from the devices placed in the sink.
‘There’s only a small farmyard at this place, it’s the boundary between this house and Cole’s car.’
‘Are you in the upper floor?’
‘Yes.’
‘What side of the house are you in?’
‘I don’t know where.’
‘Don’t you have a compass with you?’ Tarasha asked.
‘I have.’
‘Then use it to determine the position in relation to where our car was parked outside.’
‘Okay, I’ll get back to you boss.’ Cole said and the connection was cut.
Tarasha climbed back on the water closet and tore off the net with the blade like metal. She clipped the bug to the wall behind the window.
Her device beeped again. ‘Cole’
‘I’m at the left side of the upper floor.’
‘Okay, who showed you to the toilet?’
‘Mr Nasiru asked his personal guard to bring me here.’
‘Okay, there’s a pin among your tools there, it’ll induce temporary tranquilization when stuck into the man’s neck. Use it to…’
~~
‘Hey! Hope all is well,’ Cole could hear the bodyguard shout from outside.
‘Hummp!’ Cole owled like someone struggling to let out faeces. He was sure the man heard him and was going to think he was having a hard time defecating.
‘What’s that?’ He could hear the Boss ask from the other side.
‘Nothing Boss, I’ll do as you instructed.’ He said in the usual low voice he had been using and cut the connection.
He got up from the water closet and dipped his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket. He was able to take out the pin Tarasha talked about in a nylon. He unsealed it and placed it between his fingers. Then he pressed the flush button on the Water closet.
He waited for another minute before he opened the door and stepped out.
‘Hope you’re feeling better now?’ The muscular guy asked.
‘Yes,’ Cole answered with a slight groan, still adjusting his trousers.
‘Okay, Alhaji Nasiru and the rest of your colleagues are waiting for you in the living room.’
‘Okay…’ Cole moved closer to the guy, half limping and half walking. He thought he could stick the pin into the man’s throat easily as he was sure the man wasn’t ready to defend any attack but he was wrong. The bodyguard grabbed him by the fist before the pin could get to his neck.
The fury on the guards eyes was bloody as if he had been waiting for a prey to pounce on.
~~
‘Where are you now?’ Tarasha typed into the chat box.
‘We are in the living room, waiting for your orders.’ Benny replied in less than twenty seconds.
‘Have your heard from Cole?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Okay, the next order would be from him. Now, where is the target? Is he close to you?’
‘Not too far, he’s some centimetres away, talking silently with his wife and some of his maids.’
‘Cole would call you soon, we won’t use a gun on the man but would silence him quietly with the poison. We’ll likely escape through the main gate also with his daughter as an hostage. Just wait for the next orders from Cole.’
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny typed in.
‘And, what did you hear the man discuss with the vice president on the phone?’
‘I think he and the vice president are involved in some shady deals, it’s like one of their boys sent on an errand had been caught earlier today.’
‘And who is Don Dan? You, Cole and Aisha seemed to have heard the name before.’
The reply this time took more than the usual time but Benny finally typed it. ‘He’s our former boss, I think it’s one of his other men that was caught in the errand they sent him.’
‘Okay, then.’
Tarasha turned off the phone’s screen and dipped into her inner pocket. She got up from the water closet, thinking. It was surely Don that she met ealier that day. That was why he could mention her name. But why and what does the Vice and Senate President have to do in Henry’s apartment? She asked herself.
She began to return the tools she put in the sink. A knock sounded on the door.
‘Evelyn,’ she heard Fatima call outside.
‘I’m coming,’ she answered in a singing tone.
‘Please, take your time. I just wanted to find out if you’re okay.’
She began to return the tools she put in the sink. A knock sounded on the door.
‘Evelyn,’ she heard Fatima call outside.
‘I’m coming,’ she answered in a singing tone.
‘Please, take your time. I just wanted to find out if you’re okay.’
‘Thanks,’ Tarasha answered. She waited for sometime until she noticed a stop in the sounds of moving footsteps outside. She picked the two remaining metals in the sink and hid them back under her gown.
She wanted to start proceeding out into the room when she remembered that she still had an instruction to give Cole.
She searched the back of her gown for the receiver and speed dialed Cole. It took sometime for the connection to be accepted.
~~~
‘What are you trying to do?’ The muscular guard asked in a terrifying voice. He continued to squeeze Cole’s fist in his big hands and pushing him backwards. Cole struggled to resist and open his palms so he could get the pin out else he’ll be the receiver of the contents. Tarasha had emphasized that he stuck it into the man’s neck but that doesn’t mean it would have any effect when it enters through another part of the body. The only difference was that the former would cause the tranquilization to happen immediately.
Cole managed to hit the man’s the man’s arm with the other fist but that made no effect on the man. The guy pushed him backwards swiftly and dished him a heavy blow on his face. Cole’s body spun thrice in a fast motion before he fell to the ground. The pin had fallen already, where it dropped was not known to the both of them.
Cole began to see stars as his left cheek hit the floor. The device attached to his belt beeped twice. He managed to turn and accept the connection. The attacker also heard the beeping and bent to search Cole’s body.
~~
Tarasha could hear Cole heavily panting at the other side, she knew at once that something had gone wrong.
‘Cole,’ she called and got no reply, except for his continued panting and then a gruff voice. She knew Cole was listening , so she gave him another instruction. ‘Cole, if you’re in trouble with the man, try to stay conscious and keep him busy and with the lowest possible noise. I’ll come for you if I can.’
She sat back on the water closet and brought out her phone hurriedly. She opened the tracking application and Cole’s tracker. In less than ten seconds it displayed his direction and point in the house. Tarasha stood up and pushed the flush button, it was time to get out of the toilet and act fast. The only problem she would have now navigating through the house especially as she was a total stranger in the house, she’ll be easily stopped by any of the guards or workers. She raised up her gown and brought out a small flat purse of the same colour with her gown, from the inner pocket, she had plenty of the tranquilizing pins in the purse. She clipped it to her cloth at the belly side and proceeded outside into the room.
Waiting for her outside was what and who she needed, Fatima was still seated on a stool, engrossed with her phone. Another young girl in a maid’s uniform had just entered into the room.
Fatima gaze was placed on Evelyn as she stepped out from the toilet. She slowly got up from the stool and began to walk towards Evelyn. ‘Hello, are you okay now?’ Fatima asked Evelyn.
‘Ermm… A little better,’ Tarasha answered, squeezing her face like someone in pains.
The maid got to where Fatima was previously seated and paused. Tarasha gave her a searching look, more interested in her uniform than anything else.
‘Do you need anything? That’s why I called the maid,’ Fatima said, seeing Evelyn’s interest in the maid.
‘Ermm… Maybe I need some water, but first…’ Tarasha continued talking and walked past Fatima who was coming to her. In a tired manner she walked, like a pregnant woman who was going in for labour.
She got close to the maid and paused. Then she turned back and made a smile at Fatima which got Fatima staring at her in confusion. Then she placed her hand on the maids shoulder and then moved her hand to the maid’s neck. The maid fell down.
Fatima eyes widened in shock as she saw the maid fall but she couldn’t tell what really happened. Too shocked to speak or make any sound, she stared at Evelyn in horror.
Tarasha turned and placed her eyes on Fatima’s face making funny looks at her to confuse her more. She knew better than to walk close to her, Fatima could scream and alert others in the house. She carefully opened the purse attached to her belly side and took out one of the pins. Then she tightened it in between the tip of her thumb and his the nail of the index finger. She raised it up and launched it straight to Fatima.
~~
Cole still felt a little bit relieved after Tarasha spoke to him. There was still hope of Tarasha coming to help and join hands with him to defeat the man even though she emphasized during their preparation that one of the reasons for the separate cars they had all came in was to give room for everyone to escape if there was any mistake by a party. She also stated strongly that anyone who made an error in carrying out their tasks would be made to face the consequences alone.
At the same time he was still not was sure how possible or quick it would be for Tarasha to locate him by the tracker because the house was not a familiar place to them. It would take someone who was familiar with all the rooms in the house to locate him fast and easily.
The guard had underrated Cole in someway, he was searching Cole’s body without protecting himself from attack. Cole could see the man’s chest and face unprotected from attack. He mustered up strength and stamped his feet on the man’s face.  The man staggered back and held on to his eyes with a soft groan. Cole managed to get up and tried to follow up with a kick on the side of the man’s belly but it had very little effect as Cole’s kick weighed very little.
Soon, his opponent had recovered and they were both facing each other, the man had an evil smirk on his face while Cole had a serious and disturbing face. The man rolled his neck in the right and left direction, making a cracking sound, then he raised his head up and his fists in readiness to take out Cole.
Cole though was feeling pains in his body joints and bones summoned courage and decided not to give up without a good fight. He raised up his fists too and began to bounce. The man’s evil smile deepen at his gesture but that didn’t disturb Cole, even if the man was going to break his bones, he wouldn’t make it an easy task for him.
An idea crept into his mind, he remembered some of Tarasha’s words to them during one of their preparation. ‘No matter how big and tough an opponent looks, even if his body seems too hard to be weakened, there would always be a soft spot. It only takes the right value of the right strike at the right place on his body to take him down.’ She had said. Although she was speaking to Benny that day, he knew could apply it in this situation. The only problem now was to find that right place and the right value of the right strike to apply, that was even if he had enough strength in his arms and legs for the intensity of the strike required.
~~~
Fatima collapsed within seconds and became unconscious of her environment. Tarasha quickly took out her phone again and switched on the screen, the tracking application was still running. Cole was being located to be at the left side of the house. Of course there was no door at the left where she was, she had to start looking for the way to the place.
She ran her hands into her hair in utter disgust about the situation, it was the reason she hated working with half baked assassins who made mistakes at simple tasks.
She quickly bent down and began to remove the clothes from the body of the maid.
~~~
While Cole was still looking for the perfect place to attack on the man’s body, a jab landed on his face. He yelled as he staggered back and his head hit the door of the toilet. The door opened and he fell down inside the toilet.
The guard stood still with his legs wide apart and fixed an evil stare at Cole. He dipped his hand into his pocket and took out a phone, he began to dial a number.
Cole’s eyes widened as he saw the man take the phone to his ear, he couldn’t imagine what would be the result of the man’s call if it was successful. If the other guards and occupants of the whole house were alerted, that would mean failure for the whole operation. He tried to get up but his strength would not let him be as fast as he wanted to. He held on to the door as a support and then quickly removed his shoe.
‘Jamiu…’ The guard was talking into the phone when the shoe hit his face. He squeezed his face and gritted his teeth angrily adding a threatening look and growl at Cole. Cole ignored his look and projected himself forward with his head to the belly of the man, both of them crash to the floor, Cole being the one more affected by the crash. The phone fell off from the man’s hand and scattered on the floor.
The man angrily with a feet on Cole’s chest pushed Cole away. Cole found himself far inside the toilet again. The guard got up immediately and charged towards Cole.
Cole turned his head up and jn a trancelike way could see the man coming towards him, he could hear the heavy thuds made by the man’s feet on the floor. Cole closed his eyes in anticipation of another kick or blow that would take him out finally, he began to say his last prayers silently.
The kick did not come but he felt a cold hand on his neck. The man dragged him up and raised him up with his neck, his legs sprawling far above the ground. Cole managed to open his eyes and stared at the man’s face. There was so much fury in the guard’s eyes.
Cole’s leg continued to dangle, he felt something hit his stomach gently and heard a soft sound of a metal hitting another. It was then he remembered that he still had some small knives and tools in the inner pocket of his jacket.
The man began to tighten his grip on Cole’s neck, squeezing out life gradually. Cole tried to dip his hand into his inner pocket but was too weak to move the hand. He closed his eyes again in anticipation of death.
~~
Tarasha was still walking around the house in the maid’s uniform helplessly. The tight skirt of the uniform was not helping matters, the curves of the pockets attached to her thighs were clearly revealed underneath and she could not walk very fast also.
She couldn’t find a good way to the location the tracker was identifying and had been brought back to the same place she left the two unconscious bodies. The only place that she could have linked her to the location was the sitting room where Nasiru and others were in. But even if she decides to take the risk, she would be noticed before she gets to the sitting room because she wouldn’t be able to cover her face and walk quickly and she still needed to walk past guards and maids before getting there.
She closed the door to the room and rested her back to the wall, then she tried to connect with Cole again but the connection wasn’t accepted this time. That could mean Cole was engaged in a fight or had already been totally overpowered.
She took out her phone and opened the chat box with Benny. ‘Cole just messed up, if you don’t get any instruction from me in the next five minutes, take an excuse to go outside the house and into the car with Aisha. There’s a bomb detonator where I sat, set it up to detonate in ten minutes time while you and Aisha make your way out of the compound following the direction of your escape cars. There’s a farmyard before your own car , so it’s better you both opt for Aisha’s.’ She typed in and closed the app immediately the message was marked delivered.
Failing the mission wasn’t an option to Tarasha, Nasiru had to die that day. She even had an extra explosive she could couple together in case Benny failed in his task or had already been implicated by Cole already.
Cole had failed already, so he would have to bear the consequences of his failure even if it was death. For her, all she needed to get outside the house and get to the extra car on her body.
The roads were clear on this perfect sunny afternoon. The traffic jam and rush on the street was at the lowest minimum. Henry was driving while Omotara was seated with him at the front seat. They seemed to be involved in a deep heart talk with each other as both of them smiled occasionally. After driving for some few minutes, they halted the car in front of a drinks store and Henry pushed the horn twice. In one minute time, Jefa came out of the store and proceeded towards the car. He entered into the backseat and the couple greeted him warmly. Then they continued the ride.
‘I’ve got something for you two,’ Jefa spoke from the back seat and handed a small white polythene bag to Omotara.
‘Oh, ice cream!’ Omotara flashed her teeth as she opened the polythene bag to see the contents. Henry also peeped and smiled.
‘Thank you, Uncle Jefa.’ Henry said in appreciation.
‘It’s nothing,’ Jefa replied.
Omotara took her own ice cream cup and took off the seal. She took a spoonful and widened her eyes in excitement as she fell in love with the taste. She turned to look at Jefa who was smiling at the back. ‘I never knew you had such a good taste too,’ she joked.
‘Come on, I’ve got a better taste than you two.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know so.’
‘Hehe, no problem if it makes you feel better anyway.’ She said and added a short laugh. Jefa gave her a playful punch on the shoulder.
‘Better leave Uncle Jeffery,’ Henry joined playfully. ‘He’s a gentleman and gentlemen always make a good choice of things like this.’
‘You can say that again if it will make both of you sleep better tonight,’ Omotara said with another round of laughter. ‘I feel like taking beef roll too.’ She added, to Henry.
‘Beef roll and ice cream?’ Henry questioned.
‘Well, it’s none of your business what I combine.’Omotara answered playfully.
‘Okay Boss,’ Henry saluted in the same playful manner, ‘just mention when you see any store where it is sold, so we can stop by and you’ll drop to get it yourself.’
‘Huh?’ Omotara queried, pouting her lips and staring straight into his eyes.
Henry sighed, trying his best to focus on the road.  ‘So I should be the one to get it for you?’ He asked with a raise eyebrow.
‘Yes, or you want me to lecture you on what it means to be a gentleman again?’ She spread out her hands to emphasize her point.
‘Gentlemanliness is not defined that way,’ Jefa cut in from the back, ‘he’s been a gentleman enough to agree that we stop by a store to get one for you when you’re only a few metres to the house.’
‘Hahaha, Uncle Jeffery is an ancient Gentleman. Well, enough of the talks.’ Omotara raised up her two hands girlishly to halt the conversation. ‘Stop, there’s a store over there.’ She said, pointing to a small neat kiosk at the other side of the road.
Henry took his time to pull over and then glanced at the direction she was pointing at, he took a glance back at her.
‘You know my favorite,’ she winked at him.
He sighed and pulled off his seatbelt. He opened the door and stepped out.
‘You just want to trouble this guy,’ Jefa said to her as they watched him look out for vehicles before crossing the road.
‘No, I’m just helping his destiny come quicker.’ Omotara replied in a stern voice. She turned back to look at Jefa, her happy face had changed into something different, she now had a smirk on.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Jefa questioned with a raised eyebrow.
‘Just watch and see,’ Omotara answered and then looked towards Henry’s direction. He had already gotten the beef roll and was waiting to cross the road with a nylon bag. He was seen dipping his hand into his pocket, his phone was taken out, he answered a call and placed it on his ear. Just then, he stepped into the road and started walking back. Suddenly, a sand carrying tipper truck appeared from nowhere and was rushing towards him.
Jefa finally jerked off from his dream, sweating profusely in the cold air conditioned room. He rolled out of the blanket and turned on the blue light. He wiped off the sweat from his forehead after sitting up.
What manner of dream was this? He asked himself. This was the third nightmare he had had within a very brief period of days and there seemed to be a connection between the three. In the first dream, Omotara was the one who was attacked. In the second dream, he, Jefa was pointed a gun and in this third dream, a vehicle was rushing towards Henry. In the first and the third dream, it wasn’t clear if Omotara or Henry was killed but it was obvious that their lives were in great danger but in the second dream, the bullet of the gun clearly pierced into Jefa’s head.
Jefa buried in face in his palms in frustration, his wounds suddenly began to ache him again. He had never been a clairvoyant person but with the way the nightmares are coming, he believed that God was giving him premonitions of something about to happen very soon.
Jefa rolled out of the bed and turned on the white bulb. He took a glance at the wall clock, it was already close to eleven pm. Then he stared around the room to see where his clothes were kept for him by Omotara, he had to start packing immediately. He would leave by the next day since it was obvious that the reuniting with each other would cause tragedy, the nightmares alone already spells doom for them, he didn’t want to wait until the physical manifestations begin.
He proceeded to the wardrobe when he couldn’t see any of his clothes or bags around, he tried to open it but it didn’t open. He looked around to see if there was any keyhole hidden somewhere but he found none, it seemed that the wardrobe lock was electrical.
He struggled to bent down and search under the bed but there was no pin under the bed, under the bed looked recently swept and mopped. He gave up searching for his clothes and returned to sleep in the bed. He would make sure he leaves the house the next day after Omotara returns in the morning. He will try his best to explain his decision to her before parting finally.
~~~
Don and Stainless were now in one of the underground rooms of Stainless’ caban. The room which was a long abandoned old arsenal looked like a mud house that was about to collapse, sands dropped on their heads occasionally. The arms and ammunitions were all cover in sand and dust. A fully charged lamp by the top left corner of the room served as the source of light in the room. Stainless had inherited the whole place from their former Master and Boss, Scot whom Don murdered after a disagreement.
Don kept staring at Stainless from time to time, partially in anger and then in thankfulness. He was angry that Stainless could theaten him so much with a gun which had no bullets in it when he himself had a gun which was fully loaded in his pocket. And he was thankful because he wasn’t dead, until now he never believed that he could be so scared of death.
‘Here,’ Stainless passed an old hard cover book to him from his bag.
‘What’s this?’ Don asked, taking a close look at the book.
‘Some of my old deals with Elvis Richards are in there,’ Stainless answered.
‘I don’t think we should be searching about Elvis’ old deals now, I think we should be more focused on who sent Tara… Samantha.’
‘Tara…?’ Stainless raised an eyebrow with a questioning look. ‘You’ve been mentioning that since, are you still hiding something from me?’
‘I told you I was going to tell you more after the meal,’ Don answered.
‘And now we’ve finished the meal and we’ve even left the house.’
‘Yes, I’ll tell you. Let’s take it one after the other.’
‘I still think we need to find out Chief Elvis’s connection with Samantha Osman also, it may help us in getting her.’ Stainless suggested.
‘I don’t really think there’s a connection between them until now, Elvis Richards is scared that she’ll be coming for his life soon, that’s why he’s hunting her. She doesn’t even know that he’s after her. And who knows, he may not be part of her targets.’
‘But what’s the purpose for his fear?’
‘He mentioned to me once that all the people that Tara… Samantha has brought down were once involved in a deal with him, except for the Rivers State Governor.’
Stainless closed the bag he was searching in and got up, he folded his arms and stared at Don. ‘Now you’ve got to tell me the connection between Tara and Samantha Osman, you’ve made the mistake of calling Tara almost more than half of the times you wanted to refer to Samantha.’
‘Tarasha is her real name,’ Don finally said, ‘she was exported down to Nigeria, I don’t know which country she was exported from but report says that she looks like an African.’
‘Tarasha,’ Stainless mumbled under his breath, wondering what African country and language the name could be from. ‘Have you met with her before?’
‘No, except for today when we both met her for the first time.’Don answered reluctantly, wondering if Stainless was deaf and didn’t hear the answer when he had told him earlier that day.
‘How do you know so much about her?’
‘She works for Chief Gab,’ Don stated.
‘Chief Gab!’ Stainless exclaimed, ‘where the hell is that man?’
‘He’s kicking, he’s in Nigeria.’
‘Wow! I never knew he’s done with his jail term.’
‘He was released some years ago.’
‘Okay, I think I remember when the media reported it but since then we’ve not heard anything else about him.’ Stainless said before bending down to bring out a long gun. It was covered with dust.
‘He’s not been making public comments, so the media may be quiet about him.’
‘Interesting! But where’s he getting the money he’s using to send Samantha…I mean Tarasha these errands?’
‘That’s best known to him,’ Don remarked with less concern.
‘So it’s Chief Gab who is behind all these killings?’
Don gave no reply but kept gathering the bullets he was picking. There was silence for a while before Don spoke again. ‘If we can get Chief Gab’s list of targets, we can know all her moves.’
‘That’s true but how do we do that?’
‘We have to travel to Lagos, I can easily break into Chief Gab’s apartments.’
‘Then let’s travel tomorrow, or can you send your people from your Nanl Gang to do it?’
‘We can’t travel tomorrow when we already know her immediate next move. Let’s tackle that first.’
‘Huh? How do you know her next move?’ Stainless turned to stare at him in surprise.
Don shook his head as he saw Stainless’ surprise. He had thought by Stainless’ action that day, Stainless had become wiser but he was just proved wrong. ‘Don’t you know her next move?’ He stared back at Stainless in surprise.
‘Ermm…I don’t know.’ Stainless scratched his head.
Don gave a chuckle, he felt like taking out a gun to blow off Stainless’ dumb brain immediately but he restrained himself, he still needed to keep Stainless to finish off Tarasha’s execution. Don was sure that Stainless was also keeping him alive because he was interested in conquering Samantha Osman. After that goal was achieved, he knew that only one of them would be left alive as the fastest between the both of them would kill the other immediately.
‘Her next move would be to look for us,’ Don stated and returned to what he was doing.
‘Look for us? Why?’ Stainless Asked another set of questions.
Don was obviously irritated by the question. He was now sure that Stainless’ dumbness was the reason Elvis Richards did not entrust the job to him.
‘She saw both of us in Henry’s house, I’m sure she came there to get something. She’ll want to find out what we were doing there and who are, especially I that called her by her name.’
‘Hmmm… True,’ Stainless could not but nod in agreement. He wondered why he had not thought about it that way, the only people he was expecting to be after him was the police. Now, he could understand the reason why Don excelled better than him at the job. ‘Then we’ve got to prepare in case she comes here for us but I don’t think she’ll be coming soon now that they police are keeping an eye on the place.’
‘Don’t talk like that, she’s super intelligent, she always has her way of getting past the police.’ Don cautioned.
‘Does that mean that she’ll come immediately?’
‘Most likely, I believe she was looking for something in Henry E.G’s house. Maybe something she forgot the last time. If she doesn’t find it there, she may think that we have whatever it is. That gives her more reasons to look for us.’
‘Great! Then we don’t need to struggle since we are expecting her. We’ll just wait for her here. I would call back some of my men.’ Stainless said, with a note of confidence in his voice.
‘We’ll get many boys to join us but what we need more importantly is the brain to match hers. If we act stupidly, we’ll end up putting ourselves in trouble.’ Don cautioned again. ‘Remember Robin Kahn,’ he quickly added to emphasize his point.
‘That’s true, so what do you suggest we do?’
‘We’ll use a method I learnt from her,’ Don paused and turned to Stainless with a crooked smile. ‘The same method she used for Robin Kahn. She knew that Robin was coming, so she set him up to come to a place which she knew better than him, then she set traps there for him. We have a better situation.’ Don paused to clear his throat. ‘We know she’s coming here and we also know she’ll be coming during the night time cos she can’t enter during the day when she’ll not be able to hide herself from the police monitoring. We’ll set enough traps for her and I’m sure she’ll walk into it.’
Tarasha made her way out of the room again carefully, this time she went in direction of the study. After walking for one minute, she was able to locate the study, it was locked and there was need for an access card to unlock it. She quickly rolled up the tight skirts and took out two  screwdriver- like metals, she began to unscrew the access panel.
~~
Three minutes had passed and Benny had not gotten any message from Tarasha. His heart began to fear at the thought of leaving Cole in the explosion that was about to rock the house. He began to think of anyway possible to reach Cole and help him out. He took out his connection device and punched in Cole’s code. He fixed the earpiece in his left ear, just as it was about connecting, the Senate President returned to the living room.
‘Your friends have not still returned?’ Mr Nasiru asked with a worried look on his face.
‘Sir, I’m not very happy with what is happening.’ Mr Alfred replied in a sad tone.
‘I’m really sorry sir,’ Nasiru tried to calm him, ‘but do you know of any substance that the both of them may have an allergy for?’
‘I’m not aware of anything,’ Mr Alfred said angrily, he took a glance at his wristwatch, four minutes was gone already. ‘They’ve been eating well since we got to Nigeria and they’ve not been selective of anything.’
‘Ermm… Maybe I need to check out on them.’ Nasiru said and was turning back.
‘No sir,’ Mr Alfred stopped him. ‘I think I have to call the office first.’
‘No please, don’t do that.’ Nasiru pleaded, ‘it’s just a little thing that we can sort out.’
‘No, I’m not calling to report you, I’m calling the medical unit to find out if they had any previous case or records like this.’
‘But are you sure that’s the right thing to do?’ Nasiru asked in fear, not wanting for his relationship with their foundation to be destroyed.
‘Yes, don’t worry. They’ll be no problems.’ Mr Alfred said and got up. ‘I need to get to the car and take my second phone. Please can you show me the way?’
~~~~
The guard flung Cole out of the toilet to the floor outside mercilessly, he stepped out of the toilet and closed the door.
Cole felt his body weaken more as he landed on the floor, his head almost hitting the wall. For some seconds he left his eyes closed and opened it again when he didn’t hear sounds of the man’s movement. He saw the guard standing in front of the toilet’s door, staring at him. Cole took his gaze away and turned his neck to another side and there he saw the tranquilizing pin he had wanted to use earlier. It was not out of his hand reach but he felt too weak at the moment to stretch forth his hand and he wouldn’t even want to do it while the man was staring at him.
The guard started taking slow steps closer to him, Cole tried to turn but couldn’t, he felt the metals in his pockets again. Then he saw something, something which he could use. He remembered his boss’ saying that anything could be a weapon. Some hope returned to him and he managed to dipped his hand into his inner pocket, acting as if he was grabbing his stomach in pains so that the man wouldn’t suspect anything.  He gave a very faint smile on seeing the man’s shoe lace carelessly loose and dragging on the floor.
The guard kept marching to him with slow steps. He stopped right in front of Cole face, close to the wall and squatted, staring straight at Cole’s face. ‘Who sent you?’ He barked.
Cole turned his face away but the man turned it back to himself and added a slap. ‘I said who sent you?’ He barked again.
Cole’s fingers by this time already touched the metals he needed, a tiny rope clip and a short knife. He stretched his free hand and placed it on the guard’s left shoe. The guard glanced at the movement but took it for granted as he believed that Cole was too weak to do anything dangerous to him.
‘You won’t talk?’ He shouted once again.
‘She sent us,’ Cole finally answered, still doing his work on the man’s shoe. He had gotten a hold of the lace and held it softly. Then he noticed something else on the man’s left shoulder, there was kind of swelling which wasn’t on the other side. To Cole, it looked like the man had a dressed wound there.
‘Who is she?’ The man asked in low tones, mentioning the words one after the other.
Cole stared at his face and gave a smile, bringing confusion to the man. ‘Even if you kill me, you can’t cause our mission to be aborted. She never fails and won’t fail this either,’ Cole said, with the hope of buying more time.
‘Who the hell is she?’ The man slammed and stood to his feet to take out something from his pocket. With that Cole removed his hand from the inner pocket and clipped the man’s shoe with the metal clip, he mustered enough strength to get up and drag the clip, making the man fall to the ground with a thud.
Immediately, Cole followed up by driving the knife into the man’s shoulder where he noticed the swelling. The man responded with a loud groan that echoed round the room. Then Cole turned to search for the pin where it was, he located it and carefully picked it up. He drove it into the man’s neck at once.
~~
Tarasha had just picked the book and was about proceeding out of the place when she heard some voices approaching. With what they were discussing, they had seen the door left ajar.
‘The study is not locked?’ A coarse voice expressed the owner’s surprise.
‘How come? The man never leaves it open.’ The accompanying voice said. Tarasha quickly hid herself beside the door.
Someone pushed the door open a little and closed it back. ‘What may have happened to the access panel?’
‘Maybe the man is trying to change it,’ the accompanying voice replied.
‘Whatever,’ the hand drew the door close again but it still went ajar. Tarasha waited until she heard their voices and footsteps no more. She quickly opened the door and peeped, there was no one else in the corridor. She stepped out and looked left and right, it was time to set up the other bomb and leave the place. She started following the route where she had come from. Her connection device beeped.
‘Cole,’ she called.
‘Boss,’ Cole spoke in a low voice.
‘Speak up Cole, have you gotten away from the man?’
‘Yes, he’s down. Cole tried to raise his voice.
‘Ermm…’ Tarasha delayed the reply as she thought of the best step to take now that Cole was free.
‘Boss…’ Cole called when he heard nothing again from the other end.
‘Cole, find another security guard whose clothes you can use and take the clothes.’
‘Huh?’ Cole sounded surprised, he wasn’t expecting such an order now that he just had a hard time defeating one guard.
‘Cole,’ Tarasha chuckled, noticing his surprise. ‘If you could defeat the the man’s personal security official, you can take out anyone else.’ She added to encourage him.
‘Sh*t! One is here already.’ Tarasha heard Cole mention before the connection was cut.
She took out her phone and dialed Benny. ‘Where are you now?’
~~~~
‘I just finished timing the bomb and I’m about to leave with Aisha. The Senate President is walking at the front of his house. I’m waiting for Aisha so that we could both take the escape route.’ Benny replied Tarasha, watching the Senate President and his wife standing in front of the house while Aisha was coming towards the car from the house.
‘How many minutes has it run for already?’
‘Just one,’ Benny answered after glancing at where the bomb was placed in the car.
‘So that means it took you nine minutes to go out of the house?’ Tarasha questioned, in something more like a scolding manner. Benny was quiet. ‘Set the time to thirty minutes now and return into the house, I’ll send something into your phone for you to show the man.’ She ordered and the call ended.
Benny stepped back into the car and picked up the detonator, he entered in the password and stopped the reading, then he set it afresh for thirty minutes.
‘What’s happening?’ Aisha asked as she got near the car. She had been in darkness all the while since it was only Benny the boss was communicating with, the only thing she knew was that Benny gave her the signal to follow him when he was going out to the car.
‘Nothing,’ Benny smiled and stepped out, then he closed the door. ‘I’m just following the boss’ instruction.’
‘But you’re not telling me anything.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.’ Benny said and grabbed her by the arm and they both returned into the house.
~~
Cole rose up to face the new guard who just entered. The slim guard was staring around the room with great awe of the disarray in the place. He took a glance at the Chief’s personal bodyguard laying lifeless, his face clearly showed his shock on seeing the man down. He raised up his head and stared at Cole with a frowned face.
Cole rushed to the guard as the man’s hand made way into his pocket. He landed a kick on the man’s belly and the man staggered backwards, his body closing back the door.
~~
Nasiru and his wife began to walk back slowly into the house with their guests, there was an unvoiced tension and unusual silenced amongst them. Benny took out his phone and unlocked it, he clicked on the chat application and opened the conversation box with Tarasha. She was already typing in a message.
‘Show the pictures I send you to the man,’ the message entered as they stepped into the living room.
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny replied and proceeded with Aisha to the three seater sofa to sit.
Another message came in shortly, ‘is his wife still with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Make sure that she and her husband does not leave there but show only the husband the message.’
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny answered and the messages paused for a minute.
‘I think I need to go check your colleagues now,’ The Senate President said after he saw that the guests were seated  for a while. His wife was seated at the opposite sofa to them.
‘No need sir, I have a message for you.’ Mr Alfred said and got up.
‘What message is that?’ Nasiru answered reluctantly and walked back to Mr Alfred who was also walking towards him.
‘Here,’ Mr Alfred clicked on the loading picture. An blurry image first appeared and it became clearer in few seconds.
‘What?’ Nasiru screamed out loud on seeing the photo. There was his daughter Fatima tied to the bed, with an explosive device around her body. Aisha and Mrs Nasiru got up immediately in shock as they heard the man’s scream. Two of the guards also came into the living room from different directions.
‘Calm down mister,’ Mr Alfred said to the man in a low voice, ‘we don’t want to harm her if you’ll cooperate with us.’
‘Yes, I would cooperate.’ The man said nodded his head in agreement, almost in tears already.
‘Now tell your guards to return, assure them that there’s no problem.’ Benny said to his ears.
‘Go back everyone, everything is fine.’ Nasiru ordered immediately.
‘Correct,’ Benny smiled. He checked his phone again, there was another text message and more pictures. ‘Tell the man to sit with you as if nothing happened and wait till I come.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Mrs Nasiru stood at her husband’s front and asked.
‘Nothing o, nothing.’ Mr Nasiru sang back like a terrified child, his body trembling all over.
~~
Tarasha climbed down the bed after attaching the bomb to Fatima’s body, then she started to pull off the maid’s uniform. After a minute, she had stripped to her underwear and was proceeding to pick her previous clothes, her connection device beeped.
‘Cole,’ she called as she answered.
‘Boss, I’m in the security guards uniform now.’
‘Do you have a cap with you?’
‘Ermm… I will take the cap now.’
‘Better, meet us in the living room. Connect me if any one confronts you. And if you get there before me, ensure that the target and his wife does not leave there.’
‘Okay boss,’ Benny said and the connection was closed.
Tarasha began to put on the clothes hurriedly, she turned back to Fatima who was staring at her, tied to the bed with the bomb attached to her body. She was too terrified to scream or move as Tarasha had threatened that the bomb would go off it unnecessary movements were made or if there was any attempt made to detach it.
‘Sorry baby,’ Tarasha said with a smirk, ‘sometimes, the children partakes from the Father’s sins.’
~~
‘What do you want from me?’ Nasiru asked from Mr Alfred, now seated but still trembling.
‘Calm down mister, you’ll find out soon.’
‘I said what is the matter?’ Mrs Nasiru shouted at her husband in an angry manner.
Benny gave the man a threatening look to warn his wife. ‘Will you sit down woman,’ Nasiru shouted back at her.
‘Something is clearly wrong, I’ll alert the security’ She said and began to hurry away. Aisha followed after immediately to stop her.
‘No madam, you can’t do that.’ A man dressed in the security’s uniform walked in from the corridor of the inner rooms and stopped at her front.
‘Cole!’ Aisha exclaimed as she saw the security man’s face.
‘Yea baby, I’m with you.’ Cole winked at Aisha and took out something from his pocket.
‘Who the hell are you and what authority do you think you have to stop me?’ Mrs Nasiru tried to push Cole away and proceed on but Cole pushed in a pin into the side of her neck. She felt dizzy immediately and collapsed into Cole’s hands, he carefully placed her on the floor.
‘Please don’t hurt her,’ Mr Nasiru screamed and stood up.
‘Get seated man,’ Cole took out a gun and pointed at the man, ‘she’s not dead, she’s only taking a nap.’
Up to five security officials rushed into the scene at once, two from the same place Cole came from and pointed the guns at Cole.
Then Benny got up and held the man neck, he pointed his gun to the man’s head. ‘Tell them to drop their arms or you and your daughter would be killed.’
All the men directed their gun focus to Benny now.
‘Drop your guns,’ Nasiru said to the men. They slowly began to comply.
‘Hello Senate President,’ Tarasha came in from behind the guards. She walked to the man’s front and stood. Then she took a quick glance at her men, Cole, Benny and Aisha before returning her gaze to the man. ‘Come on Benny, treat the Senate President with respect.’ She said in a tone of mockery. Benny slowly took off the gun from the man’s head.
Cole bent down and began to pack the guns of the security men. Tarasha took out her phone from the bag she had carried with her upstairs. She turned on the screen to check the time. ‘We only have fifteen minutes to get out of this house,’ she announced loudly. She took out a timer from her bag and showed it to the man, it was at thirty minutes and twenty three seconds, counting down. ‘The bomb on your daughter’s body would be going off when this time counts down to the end. The place where the control point of the bomb will require fifteen minutes drive from here.’ She said, staring at the man’s face squarely. ‘Well, fifteen minutes if there’s no traffic.’
‘Who are you?’ The man managed to mutter, squeezing his face bitterly.
‘Hahaha, you’re asking questions?’ Tarasha laughed out loud. ‘I will do you the honour of replying.’ She cleared her throat and folded her arms. ‘Your people call me Samantha Osman.’
The man’s face fell, a tear dropped from his eyes. ‘I’ve been expecting you, but please spare my daughter and my wife.’
‘Only you can do that now, just follow us quietly and tell your security officials to remain calm until you return.’ She ordered.
Cole, Benny and Aisha kept staring at their boss in surprise. This was not their initial plan, what she was doing was far from their plan but they had complete trust in her.
.........to be continued.
.
x
x
He just got to the landing when he heard someone trying to stop him. He turned back to see a nurse running after him.
‘How may I help you nurse?’ He asked impatiently.
‘Sir, I’ve been trying to stop you from the reception. The patient has left with his sister.’ She said, still gasping for breath.
‘He’s gone?’ Don eyes widened in surprise.
‘Yes,’ the nurse replied.
‘Oh! Thank goodness he left by himself.’ Don heaved a sigh of relief.
‘Yeah, but you need to see the Doctor.’
‘Of course, is he in his office?’
‘Yes, he should be by now. The officers just left him.’
Thanks, what do I do with this?’ Don asked stretching forth the polythene bag containing food which he brought.
‘Ermm… You can give it to someone else.’
‘You can help me do that,’ he quickly handed it over to the nurse and walked away.
He had to see the Doctor immediately and then go on with his plan for the day. He needed to check Henry’s house for traces, or any material which could lead him to Samantha Osman.
‘Tara, we need to talk.’ Jefa repeated again when he got no response the first time.
Omotara paused and turned back tiredly. ‘You can’t have a discussion now, you need to rest.’
‘I know I’m feeling sleepy already, I just thought I should mention it you.’
‘It’s okay, we’ll talk later.’ She said she walked out of the room.
She got to her room and walked straight to the wardrobe. She took off her top and shorts, leaving her black bra and pant on. She took off a black strip clothing material that was fastened to her thigh, it had a knife in it and also had space for a pistol. She wanted to draw out a towel from the hanger but her eyes met with the black bag which she took to Henry’s place. She took it out and threw it on the bed. It had been unopened since the last day she used it.
She opened the bag and emptied the contents on the floor. A pistol, two short knives, an extra drip bag and so many other medical materials fell off. She separated the gun and knives and placed them on a stool, then she drew out a brief case from under the bed and opened it. She began to arrange the medical materials into it.
After two minutes of carefully arranging all medicals except the drip bag, there was still a space left on the brief case. She paused as she tried to remember what was supposed to be there. After trying for some seconds without remembering, she was about to close back the briefcase before the missing item flashed back into her mind.
‘Damn!’ She cursed and stood up immediately. The ampoule. The tube shaped bottle which she used in lessening the effects of the tranquilizer she first used on Henry.
That was another sh*tty effect of emotions, she had forgotten to pick the bottle when her eyes met with his and she saw the disappointment in his face. If there wasn’t any emotion between them, she wouldn’t have reacted the way she did. The bottle may have been seen by the police where she kept it but she still had to check if they didn’t pick it up, she had to return to his house.
Dakolo was already tired when he returned back to his office. It had not been so much an hectic day but the knowledge of Henry’s illness and new condition was what brought about his tiredness.
He had barely settled down when a knock sounded on his door. He shook his head in frustration and stared at the door. He didn’t feel like answering anybody but it would be unprofessional of him not to.
 ‘Yes, come in.’ He said hesitatingly.
A young female Officer from the forensics department walked in and closed the door behind. She saluted before proceeding towards the table with a file.
‘Here’s the result of the test sir,’ she said and handed over the file to him.
He took it without saying anything and brought out the papers in the file. He began to go through them. The first set of the papers were written in science and medical languages, so he had a hard time getting the meaning of the document but the last paper had the results written in layman’s terms.
‘Thanks, you may leave.’ He said to the officer and she curtsied before turning to walk away.
It was the result of the the small bottle found in Henry’s house close to the sofa where he was receiving the drip. The one which Tarasha had forgotten to pick up when her eyes met with Henry’s. The result clearly stated that the mixture was used to ameliorate a previous situation induced by another mixture.
It was not making sense to him any longer. Doctor Tobi had said that it was possible that someone had drugged Henry first before placing him on drip but now the mixture found in the house was a mixture to reduce the effect of a mixture. Does it mean that someone drugged him and then wanted to reduce the effects of the drug again? Maybe there was someone with him who had to flee when the police arrived, he thought.
He arranged back the papers into the file, he concluded that the Doctor would have a better explanation about the mixture.
A thought suddenly struck his mind. He picked up his phone and dialed Ken.
‘Round up your office work, we’re going to visit Henry’s house now to confirm the Doctor’s opinion that Henry could have been placed on drip by someone else. We need to check thoroughly this time if there’s any hidden entrance in the house and any signs of breaking in.’
Don was the first to get to Henry’s house. He stared at the gate from where his car was parked, trying to come up with a plan of getting inside. This time, there was nobody watching over the house but he still couldn’t enter through the gate or jump over the fence since it was still day. And he didn’t want to come back at night as he had gotten information from the vice president and the inspector General that the house was being watched during night time.
The only possible way he saw that wouldn’t raise suspicion from passers-by and attract the police was entering into the next compound and jumping over the separating fence but there was no way he was going to do that som alone and without hurting those in the compound. He took out his phone.
‘Hello Stainless, join me at Ordoz palace road with three other rigid boys in ten minutes time.’ He said into the phone.
Three guys joined him in ten minutes time like he asked and they got into the building next to Henry’s house.
~~
‘We’ve closed,’ a voice shouted from inside the compound as Tarasha continued to bang on the gate. ‘I said we’ve closed,’ the voice shouted again, this time coming nearer.
The small door hole was opened and Tarasha could see someone’s eyeball there. She shifted back and positioned herself in a way that the man would see her exposed cleavage. There was silence for a while, then the gate was opened.
‘Young lady,’ the aged security man spoke in a softer voice. He was one of the men on duty on the day which Tarasha had entered into Henry’s building through the compound of the paper company. But all the men attacked that day could remember nothing at all. The Benryl which she had passed into their bodies took every memory of the encounter away.
‘May I come in sir,’ Tarasha smiled and posed in a seductive way.
The security man’s body trembled, he feasted his eyes on her exposed thighs showing below the tip of the mini gown. ‘Come in…’ He stammered and opened the gate for her.
‘Audu, na who be that?’ Another security man who was seated at the far end of the compound shouted. They were two seated together, their shirts were flown open and they had bottles of beer in front of them. Like the last time Tarasha had come, none of them had guns by their sides, they always kept it in the security room since it was barely used.
‘I dey come,’ the man with Tarasha shouted back. ‘Fine girl, what do you …’ He turned to ask Tarasha but couldn’t complete the question as she stuck a pin into his neck that moment. He fell to the ground.
The other security picked up their rods and began to charge towards Tarasha. She motioned towards them without fear.
The first one made his strike but she dodged it and gave him a jab in his belly, he groaned and staggered backwards hitting the back of his head against the face of the other one rushing forward. Tarasha quickly followed up with a flying kick to his head. The first man fell to the ground while the second man staggered backwards.
Tarasha rushed towards him, bounced on the first man’s body and sent her two legs to the other man’s face. She rolled and landed on the right leg while the man still struggled to keep his feet on the ground. She charged towards him again. He swiped his rod but it was a lazy swipe, she dodged it and gave him a heavy punch on his nose. He staggered like a drunk man and fell on the side fence, he began to see stars. Tarasha turned back to see the other man already up and trudging towards the security post. She raised up her gown and took out a gun, she fired it and a pin was projected into the man’s back. He fell down immediately. She turned again to the other man and sent the pin into his neck. He fell to the floor also.
She returned the gun to where she took it from and rolled down her gown.
Don and two of his men finally succeeded in getting into Henry’s house first. The other two men were in the duplex in the next compound, watching over the inhabitants of the house to keep them in silence.
They broke in through the first door and Don began to search the whole house while the other guys watched as they had no knowledge of what he was searching for. Don left the living room and proceeded to the inner rooms, he entered into the first room in the corridor. It was a small library with large windows. He turned on the light and began to search around the place. His main prayer in the library was for him to see a diary that would detail Henry’s day to day activities. He hoped that Henry was someone who kept one.
He was still searching when he began to hear some strange sounds. He stopped to listen but couldn’t make out what it was. He returned to the living room to see if the sound was being made by his men.
The men stared at Don questioningly as he fixed his eyes on them. They were comfortably seated on two different sofas in living room.
‘Are you hearing that?’ Don asked in low tones. The sound was quite low in the living room. The men had to listen carefully.
‘What’s that?’ One of the men asked.
‘Shh…’ Don hushed him, raising his hand up. He paused to listen again. ‘It’s coming from the back.’
One of the guys got up and walked to where Don was standing to listen. ‘There’s a paper company at the back of this place.’ He said to Don.
So are you saying the sound may be coming from there?’
 
‘Where else? It doesn’t sound like a person or animal’s movement.’
 
Don felt relaxed for a moment until he checked his wristwatch. ‘This is four thirty, aren’t firms around here mandated to close by four o’clock?’
 
‘How many firms would follow that order?’ The guy asked with a loud mocking smile. ‘Come on, get back to work and let’s leave this place.’ He said and returned to his seat.
 
Don stood still for a while to listen again but the sound had stopped. He walked back towards the library to continue his search.
 
The door finally gave way and Tarasha walked in carefully. She didn’t bother to close the door but proceeded forward through the corridor in between the rooms. The bulb in the corridor was on. It was expected, since the police had visited the place, they would most likely leave without remembering to turn off the lights.
 
She got halfway the corridor and noticed that the door to the first room was slightly opened. She paused and then heard a laugh.
 
‘Shi*t!’ She cursed silently. The police were around, she thought. Without turning, she began to step back slowly, trying her possible best not to make any noise.
 
She was close to the door when a figure appeared at the other end of the corridor.
‘Let’s try everything we can to confirm if someone else was in the house that day or not, we have to establish that fact so that we can move on with our investigation.’ Dakolo said as Ken halted the car in front of the gate.
 
‘Here,’ Ken handed over Henry’s gate keys to the junior officer seated at the back. The junior officer stepped out and proceeded towards the gate to open it. ‘How come his cameras aren’t even working?’ Ken said aloud after the junior officer had left. ‘If the cameras he planted inside his house were working, we would have had a video recording of what transpired. Or did he just place them there for fun because I wonder how he was planning to get other cameras to work while his wasn’t.’
 
‘I believe those cameras were working,’ Dakolo said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe we have to invite an NSCC official to check what went wrong with it.’
 
The junior officer opened the small gate and entered into the compound to open the larger passage for their car but then he came out immediately and closed the gate gently without making any sound. He hurried back towards the car.
 Sir, the front door is wide open’ he said to Dakolo. ‘Looks like someone is inside.’
 Dakolo’s gaze widened as he heard those words. He took a glance at Ken. ‘Call the office for reinforcement, twenty more men should be enough.’ He ordered Ken before stepping out of his car. He took out his revolver.
 Tarasha paused to stare at the man in front of her. He stood at ease and narrowed his gaze at her, twitching his lips. She could see the gun curves showing at the pocket side of his trousers.
‘I told them to watch and make sure nobody escapes through the gate,’ Ken replied Dakolo’s question.
‘Let’s go…’ Dakolo was saying but got interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. He turned back to his men. ‘Did you hear that?’
‘Doesn’t sound close,’ Ken commented.
‘Doesn’t sound too far also,’ Dakolo said with an eye gesture. Ken knew what he was being asked to do and he took out his phone immediately.
‘Hello officer, was the gun shot from your end?’ Ken said into the phone. He listened for a reply while staring into Dakolo’s face. Then he cut the call and slowly dropped the phone. ‘They found some men in the neighboring compound.’ Ken said to Dakolo.
‘Let’s go,’ Dakolo said and without wasting any more time began to march forward, facing the direction of the runabout which was still almost one kilometre away.
He stopped again suddenly as he remembered something. All the men following behind him halted. ‘You,’ he said pointing to one of the junior officers.
‘Sir.’
‘Follow me,’ he ordered, ‘go back to the gate Ken. I’ll still have some business there.’ He said pointing to the paper company gate.
‘Okay sir,’ Ken said and began to walk on in the same direction with the rest of the men.
Dakolo and the junior officer walked into the compound of the paper company. The guard from whose body Dakolo had removed the pin from was kneeling beside another and trying to wake him. Dakolo stopped beside the one fallen at the gate and took out the pin from the body.
‘Look for a clean container or anywhere i can keep this,’ he ordered the junior officer before proceeding forward. He squatted beside the kneeling man and removed the pin from the neck of the unconscious security guard.
‘What happened here?’ Dakolo asked the conscious guard, standing up to his feet.
‘I don’t know,’ the guard stood up to face Dakolo, looking confused. A look at the signature on Dakolo’s shirt reveal to the guard that he was an agent.
‘You don’t remember how you got into this state?’
‘No.’
‘Okay, what’s the last thing you can recall?’ Dakolo asked.
‘Ermm…’ The guard stammered. He paused and stared at the formerly unconscious guard who was now coughing.
‘Ehn?’ Dakolo tapped the guard on his shoulder. ‘Leave that guy and answer me first.’
‘The last thing I remember was when we were about to end the activities for the day, that was three thirty pm.’ The guy answered with a confused look.
‘Is there still anyone inside there?’ Dakolo asked pointing to the main building.
‘Ermm…what’s the time?’ The man asked.
Dakolo took a glance at his wristwatch, ‘It’s past six’.
‘Everyone should have left already. We close by 4pm and all of the workers leave before 5pm.’
The junior officer returned and stretched a plain paper towards Dakolo. Dakolo dropped the pins there and the officer folded the paper.
‘You don’t remember the men who came here to attack you?’ Dakolo asked the guard.
The other guard by this time had gotten up and was dusting his body. The one who was by the gate was also approaching them.
‘O boy, you remember anything wey happen?’ The guard talking to Dakolo asked his colleagues. He got no response, the one coming from the gate was grabbing his head and staggering forward. The guard turned back to Dakolo. ‘I don’t remember any men and I don’t think they remember either.’
‘Sir,’ Dakolo changed his tone to a more serious one and began to walk in a circle around the two security guards closer. ”Has something like this ever happened before?’ Dakolo paused to ask.
The talking guard paused to think, his face twitched in discomfort and he scratched his bum. ‘No sir,’ the man said shakily. It was obvious that he was hiding something from the look on his face and the time he took to answer.
‘Don’t play with me,’ Dakolo shouted angrily and took out his gun.
‘It has,’ the man finally confessed. ‘But it was different from this.’
‘How was it different?’
‘We found ourselves in our office that early morning, all asleep. The only similarity with this is that we don’t remember how we all fell asleep on duty at the same time and at strange positions even without  locking the gate.’
‘When was that?’
‘Saturday morning last week,’ the guard answered.
‘That means you fell asleep on Friday afternoon.’
‘No, Friday night. I could remember that we already bought what to eat by 6.30pm that day.’
Dakolo gave a mischievious smile and nodded his head slowly. It could only mean that the place had being used to access Henry’s house on the day he was poisoned. ‘And why didn’t you report it?’
‘We were not sure of what happened, we thought we all slept off due to the drink we had earlier that evening.’
‘Is that how you drink on duty?’ Dakolo asked with serious tone.
‘No o, it wasn’t an alcoholic drink. It was an herbal concoction and that wasn’t the first time we were taking something like that.’
‘I see… Well you guys would have to come to our station first thing tomorrow and repeat all you’ve said here. Failure to comply would bring more problems for you. You also need to go for medical checkup,’ Dakolo said with a note of finality and made a signal to the junior officer.
~~~
6.15pm
‘I need you to give him special attention and care, and I also don’t want it mentioned to anybody.’ Tarasha said to the lady beside her as they both marched from the car towards the house.
‘No problem, as far as you’ve got everything in the house like you’ve said.’ The lady replied. She was a dark, tall and slim lady, a little bit taller than Tarasha was.
‘I believe what I have should be all you need, but in case you need to get any other thing, please call me first before leaving the house.’ Tarasha said before they both entered into the house.
‘Sure madam,’ the lady nodded in acceptance.
‘Good evening brother,’ Tarasha greeted as her eyes met with Jefa’s immediately they walked into the living room.
‘Omotara,’ Jefa replied with a bright smile. He woke up feeling quite better,  better than he ever felt in the hospital. He had gotten up from his bed and called out her name but got no response, then he found a note close to his bedside she wrote for him. It read, ‘I’ve gone to make some arrangements for your treatment, I’ll be back very soon.’
After reading the note, he found his way to the living room and sat alone in silence.
‘You didn’t sleep for long,’ Omotara said as she got to the sofa he was seated in. She sat on the arm and looked into his eyes for a short moment, she couldn’t stay for long as another string of emotion was being pulled.
‘I think I slept enough,’ Jefa replied. ‘I’m feeling very much better.’
‘Okay,’ Omotara got up and turned to where the nurse was standing. She took out a chip from the pocket of her short gown. ‘This lady would be here to take care of you,’ she said to Jefa, rubbing her hand on the nurse’s shoulder, she clipped the chip to the collar.
The nurse gave Jefa a smile but he frowned back. ‘Do I really need a nurse, I feel strong already and I think you’re doing a better job than any nurse could do. The injections and drugs you gave me worked like…’ Jefa was saying but Omotara cut him short with an eye signal.
‘I thought you said you’ve not administered any home treatment to him?’ The nurse turned to Omotara and questioned.
‘Ermm… He was asleep, so he wasn’t aware of who administered the medications to him.’ Omotara said with a shy smile.
The nurse turned back to look at Jefa’s face and he nodded in confirmation.
‘I’m on night duty today and I’ll be going to work soon.’ Omotara said as she came to stand in front of him. ‘Please come, let me show you the room you’ll stay.’
‘Do have your seat nurse,’ Tarasha said with a glance at the nurse. ‘Excuse us for a moment.’
Jefa stood up and followed her immediately, as fast as his strength could carry. She wasn’t walking fast either, so she made it easier for him.
‘I don’t want anyone to be aware that I administered drugs to you myself,’ Omotara said as they got out of earshots of the nurse. ‘Neither do I want anyone else to be aware that I have a laboratory in the house.’
She stopped in front of the door to the laboratory. She opened it and peeped inside. She closed it back again and locked it with the keys.
‘I thought you were a Doctor or nurse,’ Jefa said as they continued to proceed further.
Omotara smiled. ‘None of such,’ she replied. ‘That’s why I don’t want anyone to find out. When she asks of the drugs you’ve been using, you tell her you didn’t bring any from the hospital.’
‘What about the ones you gave me?’
‘She shouldn’t find out about that,’ Omotara replied. It was really important that her lab and medicines were kept secret as the contents of the lab and constituents of the medicine could raise suspicion if seen by a medical person.
‘But how come you know so much about medicine?’ Jefa questioned anxiously.
Omotara ignored the question and opened the door to her room. ‘This is my room,’ she said as she walked in with him. She proceeded towards the bed to pick some of the clothes she left there. ‘You’ll be using here, I’ll make sure I clean the whole place before I leave for work.’she said as she proceeded towards the wardrobe and threw the clothes in.
‘Ermm…’ Jefa was about to say something.
‘Don’t ask about the other rooms, I share this flat with three other people and they’ll be coming back soon.’ She cut in.
‘No, I was about to say I don’t need to come here. I could stay in the living room.’
‘I can’t allow you stay there, you need to stay somewhere suitable enough for your treatment.’ She argued. ‘You’ll stay here. I’ll come with some clothes for you when I return tomorrow morning. Let’s go back to the nurse now.’ Omotara said and began to proceed towards the door.
‘Wait,’ Jefa stopped her. ‘I’ve been wanting to ask you how you got the diary you brought and the clothes you brought for me at the hospital. I left those things in my house.’
‘Oh!’ Omotara exclaimed, remembering something. She ignored his question and walked back to the wardrobe. She opened it and took out a phone.
‘Here’s your phone,’ she walked back to Jefa and handed it over to him.
Jefa stared at the phone, it was exactly the same type of his phone but the old case and screen had been changed to new ones. The police had told him that the phone must have been damaged to pieces as they couldn’t find anything like this at the accident scene.
‘I saw it fly away from you when you had the accident, so I picked it up.’ Omotara explained.
‘Thanks,’ Jefa smiled.
‘Okay, we have to return to the living room now.’ Omotara said, taking a glance at her wristwatch. Time was far spent and and she still had lots of things to do; like cleaning up her room for Jefa’s use and also hiding carefully any tool or material that could suggest to him the kind of job she did. She also had to meet with her team before eight pm for them to move together to the Senate President’s house for the operation that night.
~~
‘Where are the rest of your men?’ Ken shouted at the criminal, accompanying his shout with a thunderous slap.
The lanky guy vibrated violently and almost fell off from the seat in the police van. His mouth was already dripping of blood.
‘Oga, I swear they went into the next compound while we were asked to wait in that house and keep the people from making noise.’ The criminal replied.
‘Boys, get into the vehicles, he’s gonna lead us to their base’ Ken ordered. ‘Leave a space there for me.’ He said as he jumped down from the van and the other officers entered into the vehicles.
‘Agent Dakolo Sir,’ he called through the Bluetooth device, pressing the earphone against his ear to stop entrance of noise from the environment.
‘Officer Ken,’ Dakolo’s reply came after ten seconds.
‘We found two of the criminals here, one was shot dead while he tried to engage some of our boys in a shootout while the other is with us and he’s taking us to their base.’
‘You going there? Are you sure you have enough men?’
‘Yes, I still have about twenty men here with me. Four of them are going to be staying behind to take care of the incident here while I lead the boys to their base.’
‘Good, are you going to pass through the roundabout? So that I’ll join you people.’
Ken turned around and stared at the criminal inside, ‘is it this way or here?’ He asked, pointing at the two opposite directions.
‘This way,’ the reply came slowly.
Ken turned back. ‘We’re taking the opposite way sir.’
‘Okay, start moving immediately. I’ve called the office and they are sending me another car, I’ll join you there.’ Dakolo said and the connection was cut.
Ken entered into the van after giving the directions for the officers to stay and the vehicles sped off immediately. He sat right in front of the culprit.
‘Una just dey waste una time o, everybody go don run comot for base o.’ The culprit continued his rant few minutes into the journey.
‘Shut up!’ Ken slammed. ‘You’re going to take us to your leader, Samantha Osman.’
‘I say we were not sent by Samantha Osman, I don’t even know her.’ The culprit spoke in a shouting voice.
Ken took out his pistol and cocked it, he placed it on the guy’s neck. ‘Shut up and take us to your main base.’
In Ken’s mind, they were being led to Samantha Osman’s main base, not knowing that they were going somewhere else entirely.
Where do you bosses stay in this place?’ Ken asked the culprit as all the vehicles halted in front of a dark tanned coloured gate.
‘There are two buildings in the compound, the two are former ware houses. The one at the left is empty while the one at the right is not, we stay most times at the warehouse on the left.’
Ken took an Ak 47 and jumped out of the van. ‘Spread out boys, take positions.’ He shouted his orders. The remaining officers in the same van as Ken pushed out the handcuffed culprit and he led them to the gate.
The officers from the two other vans also spread out like they were asked to, only one officer was left in each van. By this time all motorists and pedestrians were already out of sight and the shops and stores around were closing up at the sight of the multitude of officers.
Soon, the officers broke into the compound and raided the whole place but to their disappointment, they were only able to come out with a few weapons as members of the gang had fled the place before their arrival.
‘I told you that you were only wasting your time,’ the culprit said in a mocking tone to Ken as they proceeded to the station in their vehicles. 
Ken gave him a searching look, restraining himself from landing him a slap. ‘We’ll get all of you,’ Ken replied back.
‘Most of our men aren’t even in town and you can never get the boss, Stainless. I’m sure he’s gone far already.’ The culprit continued in the same tone.
‘Stainless?’ The name sounded familiar to Ken. He nodded and remained quiet for sometime, trying to remember where he had heard the name before.
‘Yes, Stainless.’ The culprit replied confidently after thirty seconds.
‘Stainless is your boss?’
The culprit paused and chuckled, a smile appeared on his swollen face on seeing the change in Ken’s face and tone.
Ken now remembered who Stainless was, in fact, perfectly well. Stainless was a culprit who had once been nabbed by him but was set free on order from the Inspector General and replaced with another criminal. Stainless was also an assassin and a drug dealer, one whose name was mostly noised about for criminal activities during the election period.
‘But what were you people doing in that house? What was your mission there?’ Ken barked.
‘I told you I don’t know anything about it, I was only asked to stay where you met me.’ The culprit replied. He had already given up his hopes of not being imprisoned, he knew that there was no escaping for him in the case.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll confess when we treat you the right way.’ Ken threatened and got up from the seat, walking towards the entrance of the van as he held the handrails. He wondered what connection the Stainless team had with Samantha Osman, or could it be that Samantha Osman was part of Stainless’ gang? Several questions like this continued to pop up in his mind until his phone rang.
He took out his phone and answered immediately, ‘Agent sir’.
‘Officer, where are you guys now?’
‘We’re heading back to the office.’
‘What did you find?’
‘Nothing, all the men were gone before we got there.’ Ken answered.
‘Okay, I’ll meet you at the office then.’ Dakolo said and the call ended.
Ken turned back and stared at the culprit who was staring into the air absent-mindedly. He had to find a way to hide his part played in the previous case of stainless else he would be asked questions as to how Stainless was out in the streets still carrying out his criminal activities when he had already been sentenced to death by the court of law.
~~~
‘But Don, you didn’t tell me that we were going to meet with Samantha Osman.’ Stainless queried Don who was sitting on the couch comfortably and sipping from the wine glass.
Don took a glance at Stainless and then returned his focus to the television screen. He saw how furious Stainless was, pacing round the living room as he gulped down contents from the wine bottle occasionally.
‘…two of the men were seen to have escaped while two others were caught and one shot dead by the police officers.’ The reporter continued. ‘We’re yet to confirm what the culprits were searching for in Henry E.G’s apartment, who happens to be on admission in the hospital for an undisclosed condition. This is the first time suspected assassins from the deadly Samantha Osman group has been caught and we hope that by this, the police would be able to find quality information and lead to the head of the Assassin gang herself. The police officers have also raided the operation house of the gang and found nothing there except for some few weapons. It’s Jamiu Sado and I’m reporting for TVC.’ The reporter concluded. Videos of the raided operation house of the stainless gang was shown after the reporter stopped talking. Videos of Henry’s house, his neighbours and the paper company were also shown, then the breaking news transmission ended
‘They even think my boys are from Samantha Osman,’ Stainless complained bitterly, placing his hand on his forehead.
‘Isn’t that better than tracing it to you?’ Don said in a less concerned voice and stood up.
‘But they already traced it to me already, they were at my caban.’
‘But they didn’t find you or anything implicating,’ Don said harshly and sat down again.
‘My problem is you didn’t tell me that we were coming to meet Samantha Osman, you only told me that you wanted to ransack someone’s house.’
‘I didn’t know that she was going to be there, weren’t you there when I came to ask if you were hearing the strange sound.’
Stainless looked at Don for a moment and shook his head, Don wasn’t apologetic at all. He was still speaking to him with the same bossy attitude he always used when they were under the same masters. Although Don was far better than Stainless in his pattern of execution since their younger days, Stainless always wanted Don to treat him as an equal now that they both had their separate gangs and were doing quite well.
For Don, it was different. Stainless was the next after him when they were in the same gang, so he still saw Stainless as his junior every time. Even their works had quite differentiated them. Don had executed some high profile jobs and had never been behind the police bar for any while Stainless had been caught by the police on his first attempt on an high profile job.
‘Let me even tell you now, the reason why the Vice President got my number from you was to bring me down to tackle Samantha Osman.’ Don revealed and paused to stare at Stainless’s face.
The shock on Stainless’ face was obvious, he now understood the reason why the vice president kept on referring to Samantha Osman during his call and why he refused to reveal the reason he wanted to contact Don.
‘Or are you scared of her?’ Don asked with a crooked smile.
‘Scared?’ Stainless thought for a while before replying. ‘Why should I be scared of someone I have no business with.’
‘But you have a business with her now, she has seen your face.’ Don said with a tormenting smile.
Stainless body trembled at the thought of Samantha Osman coming for him. He had developed a fear for her since the day he got the news of her first operation. He first thought she worked with or for Don but later dismissed the thought when he heard about the connection of her operations with other assassinations outside the country and when he also got news that Don had left the country. The fear grew to the peak after he heard how she defeated Robin Hood without making mistakes.
‘That girl does not look like the Samantha,’ Stainless argued, remembering the face of harmless looking girl he saw at the entrance when he went to warn Don about the police.
‘Hehe,’ Don chuckled, ‘you’re judging by her appearance? Did you see the way she went off the fence, can you be as swift as that? That’s a well trained personnel.’ Don said, making a mocking face at him.
Stainless took in a breath and turned away from Don, he took another gulp from the bottle.
‘Now that she’s also after you,’ Don got up and walked to Stainless’ front. ‘You can join me to find her or stay back till she comes for you.’
Stainless continued to stare at Don, biting his lips with utter disgust written on his face. He wondered why he had allowed money becloud his sense of reasoning. He had at one time vowed not to join Don for any operation again when Don had cheated him and his boys with their pay but because he knew that the vice president was the one Don was running errands for in Abuja, he decided to go because he knew it would involve huge payments.
He opened his eyes widely as something came into his remembrance. He fixed his gaze on Don with an accusing look. ‘How did you know she is Samantha Osman? Are you friend with her? You were discussing with her before I came.’
‘Why shouldn’t I know?’ Don asked back, surprised at the question. ‘But I wasn’t discussing anything with her.’
‘Why didn’t you think it was someone else? Maybe another lady who’s an assassin.’ Stainless’ look turned into a suspicious one.
Don stared at him in disgust, trying to find a suitable answer for the question. ‘Of course, I’ve been on her case for sometime now, so you don’t expect me not to know how she looks.’
‘You’re a liar Don,’ Stainless accused, he took out his gun and pointed it at Don’s face.
‘Hey homey, what’s the matter with you?’ Don’s eyes widened in surprise, but he was still confident that Stainless could not shoot the gun. ‘We’re supposed to be planning together not quarreling.’
‘F**k you Don,’ you never make a good partnership.’ Stainless barked. ‘You are a deceptive dog.’
‘Be careful man, don’t insult me.’ Don warned.
‘Fool, you deceived me and you’re deceiving the Vice President. I’m gonna submit your damn a*s to him after I finish you off.’ Stainless threatened and cocked the gun.
‘Come on,’ Don shouted in a pleading manner on seeing the Stainless’ seriousness. ‘I’m not deceiving anyone.’
‘Then tell me how your girlfriend works with her, she’s on the wanted list of the police. When I saw her pictures on the news, I thought it was the Nanl Gang who carried out the attack but on a closer look, I concluded that the Samantha must be working with the Nanl Gang. It was after the assassination of Robin Hood that I started to doubt your involvement because I knew you ran away to Cameroon.’
‘Which girlfriend are you talking about?’ Don was lost for a moment.
‘Aisha! I think you still feel I’m joking with you.’ Stainless said and began to fasten his grip on the trigger.
‘No, don’t. I’ll tell you everything, just put down that gun homey.’ Don said in panic but still managed to keep a bold face on.
‘I’m not your homey dummy, I don’t roll with bas***ds like you anymore. Stop calling me that and start talking now.’
‘Okay, the truth is that I gave her some of my men including Aisha to cook for her.’ Don began. ‘Samantha is working for one of my clients and they paid heavily for them.’
‘So you and Samantha works for the same client?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I don’t believe you, you gave your girlfriend to another assassin?’
‘No, Aisha was supposed to be my spy there.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘Tarasha threatened her…’
‘Huh?’
‘Sorry, Samantha threatened her and she got afraid. She’s working faithfully for her now.’
‘Interesting, that means you were not able to manage your followers. You had traitors like you in your gang.’
Don was speechless, in his mind he had totally surrendered but he didn’t allow it show on his face. He knew Stainless had enough reasons to kill him, he had deceived and cheated him on numerous occasions but he always thought stainless would not have the boldness or will to do it but with the rage now showing on Stainless’ face, he knew anything was possible.
‘Let’s resolve this amicably, put down your gun.’ Don finally found his voice, he still continued to speak boldly.
‘Fool, go rot in hell.’ Stainless finally pulled the trigger.
~~~
Cole, Benny and Aisha, already dressed in their disguise form, listened to the news on TV silently, taking glances occasionally at their boss who was sitting behind and still making up. She was also paying attention to the news.
‘…this is the first time suspected assassins from the deadly Samantha Osman group has been caught and we hope that by this, the police would be able to find quality information and lead to the head of the Assassin gang. The police officers have raided the operation house of the gang and found nothing there except for some few weapons…’ Tarasha got up as this part of the news got her attention.
‘Hey, record that.’ She said to Cole who was holding the remote control as videos of the ransacked Gang house was shown. Cole followed the instruction and began to take a record of the rest of the news. ‘It’s okay,’ Tarasha said after the reporting ended.
Cole stopped and saved the video. He, Aisha and Benny stared at her waiting for the next instruction she would give concerning it but she just went back to her seat quietly and continued with her makeup.
‘After killing the Senate President, we still have a lot of work to do tomorrow morning.’ She began after five minutes of sitting quietly. She got up and began to walk towards them, brushing her hair backwards. ‘Cole would need to find out something in an hospital for me while Benny would locate the area that was shown in the news; the one I asked you to record and Aisha would…’ Tarasha paused for a while, staring at Aisha’s face, she smiled. ‘Aisha would stay and wait for instructions from me.’
‘Are we returning back to the house after tomorrow?’ Cole asked.
‘No,’ Tarasha replied sharply. They couldn’t return to the house yet, it wouldn’t be right for them to find out about her brother Jeffery. ‘You’ll remain here, I have some things to clear in the house.’
‘Okay,’Cole replied and got up from his seat. ‘Is it time for us to go now?’
‘Yes, we’ll leave in ten minutes time. Remember everything you see can be an instrument, don’t neglect any. And make sure that we maintain eye contact always, we’ll be doing most of our communication through the eyes especially when our hosts are there. Once we find the escape route and the best escape plan, we’ll take the man out and leave.’ Tarasha began to explain their plan. ‘Remember we’ll leave first in four different cars and park them at the four sides of the house. Then we’ll converge into the car where the weapons are and go into the house with that,I believe there’ll be no search on us but even if there is, we have our weaponry protected.’
Tarasha sat quietly in the backseat of the Carera Cabriolet Porsche streaming the video from the monitor cameras in the house. She was well disguised with makeups as a dark girl and a black wig on her head, she still looked quite beautiful though.
Soon, the door to the front seat was opened and someone stepped into the passenger’s side, Tarasha didn’t bother to look up but only glanced at her wristwatch and continued to look into the device.
Five minutes later, the door to the driver’s side and the other side of the back seat opened. Cole and Aisha stepped into the car quietly. Tarasha minimized the collection of footages she was watching and opened another collection with four options. She selected the options one after the other and each showed the area where the four different cars were.
‘We’re good to go, ” she finally announced and looked up. Cole started the engine at once and drove off.
They were allowed to enter into the compound of the Senate President’s mansion without going through any security protocols. No search was conducted on their vehicle neither was any individual searched.
The compound was a very large one with several gardens in it. The atmosphere there was different as the ornamental shrubs and trees helped to purify the tensed air. The wide parking space also had several exotic cars whose colours added to the beauty of the whole place. 
Their arrival was announced to the Senate President immediately they entered and he was out in front of the house to welcome them even before they parked their car.
‘Good evening sir,’ the team led by Mr Alfred greeted simultaneously. The men had only their handsets in their hands while the two ladies had small handbags with them.
‘Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,’ Nasiru greeted back with a smile. He extended his hand for a handshake to Mr Alfred first and then the rest of the team. ‘You were in Lagos when I met with your colleagues,’ Nasiru stated with a smile when he got to the new lady.
‘Yes sir.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘I’m Evelyn sir,’ Tarasha replied.
‘Oh! Nice to meet you Miss Evelyn, how was your research job and trip from Lagos?’
‘The research was fine sir and the journey was also splendid.’
‘Nice,’ Nasiru gave a broad smile.
‘Thanks,’ Tarasha bent her knees slightly in curtsy as he shook her hands again.
‘You’re welcome,’ Nasiru said and turned to the whole team. ‘I welcome you all to my home. I hope you’ll have a nice time with me.’ He said as he ushered them into the house. ‘Do you have any bag inside your car that you’ll like to get?’
‘Not for now sir,’ Mr Alfred replied.
Several guards were standing in different positions in the house but only one was following Nasiru from a distance, he was Nasiru’s personal bodyguard, huge and muscular. The guards and security officers were all dressed in the same uniforms except for the personal bodyguard who was dressed in casuals. The assassins continued to take note of their environment.
‘Meet my darling wife,’ Nasiru introduced them to his wife as they got into the main living room. The guard disappeared into the inner rooms when the guests were about to begin to exchange pleasantries with the wife, he would be called if he was needed.
‘Welcome ladies, welcome gentlemen.’ Mrs Nasiru got up from the leather sofa to greet the guests.
The living room was neatly furnished with comfortable sofas with colours and shapes of water bodies. Each chair and stool had its distinct shape which made the visitors wonder at the creativity of the designers.
‘Good evening ma,’ the visitors replied to her greeting in unison.
‘You’re welcome,’ she said once again with a broad smile. ‘We’re glad to host you to a special dinner tonight, my husband has told me a lot about you and your good works. I must commend you guys for the excellent job done in Katsina state with the Ata’s foundation and your innovative proposal also…’
‘Dearest,’ Nasiru cut in. ‘Why don’t you let them have their seats first?’
‘Oh! Pardon my manners,’ the woman apologized. ‘Please take your seats,’ she pointed them to the seats. Benny and Cole sat in the long sofa while Tarasha and Aisha took two different one seaters. ‘So we prepared both Nigerian and foreign dishes, I believe you guys would prefer the Nigerian?’ She asked with a smile.
‘Anyone you offer us ma, we’ll be pleased to take it.’ Mr Alfred replied.
‘Alright, let me prepare the table in five minutes, I’ll be back.’ Mrs Nasiru said and got up from the seat.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Nasiru began after his wife walked away. ‘I’ll like to show you some other things after the meal, I want to show you to my study…’
A young lady about Aisha’s age joined them in the living room as he was talking, she walked up to Nasiru and gave him a peck on his cheeks.
‘Dad, good evening sir.’ She curtsied.
‘Good evening Fatima,’ Nasiru greeted, looking playful into her face. He then turned to the visitors, ‘here’s my first daughter, she schools in the UK and would be graduating in two months time. She only came for a short break.’ He introduced proudly.
‘Good evening,’ Fatima sang in a playful tone.
‘Good evening Fatima,’ they replied back, the ladies singing back in the same tone.
‘These are representatives of our partners from Canada who work with the Ata’s foundation, they’ve come to join us for dinner tonight and would be spending the night with us.’ Nasiru said to Fatima.
‘That’s nice,’ she replied with another kind smile at the visitors.
‘You have to go change now and join us for dinner,’ Nasiru said to his daughter.
‘Yea, sure Dad.’ She said and scurried away.
‘You have a nice daughter,’ Evelyn was the first to comment after the girl was out of sight.
‘Thank you,’ the man replied with his face beaming with smiles.
‘What course is she studying in school?’ Evelyn continued.
‘She’s reading cinematography,’ Nasiru stated.
‘Cinematography?’ Evelyn asked, widening her eyes in surprise.
‘Yes.’
‘That’s what I studied too,’ Evelyn said.
‘You studied cinematography?’ It was Nasiru’s turn to be surprised.
‘Yes, I did that in Canada.’ She stated.
‘Oh! Then why are you not in the movie industry?’
‘Well…’ She shrugged. ‘Let’s say I got attracted to the pattern and passion of the charity organization.’
‘I see,’ Nasiru nodded his head slowly. He was beginning to like her, she sounded more jovial and easy to relate with than the others. ‘So you plan to work with the foundation all your life?’
‘Ermm… Yes but not as a full time staff though. At some point, I’ll have to leave them and work as a partner with them…’
‘Food is served,’ Mrs Nasiru finally returned singing and cleaning  her hands with a hand towel.
‘Well, gentlemen and ladies. I guess we can continue our discussion after the meal.’ He took a look at each one of the visitor’s face before standing up.
**Fast Forward ~~ After the meal**
‘Thank you so much for the sumptuous meal,’ Mr Alfred said as they proceeded out of the dining room.
‘Come on, you’ve said that enough already.’ Mrs Nasiru replied.
‘I want to show you to my study now,’ Nasiru said and began to lead the guests through the house while the wife went there opposite direction. They continued to walk until they got to the door. He took out his keys and opened the room, then he ushered them in first before entering after and closing the door. He hurried up to their front and began to lead them round the place.
The study was a medium sized one, it had neatly arranged books in shelves and a large table with a long stool and a short chair in the middle. The shelves were broken into three sections, one opposite the door wall, one on each of the sides while the door wall had no shelves.
Most of the books arranged on the shelves in the first section were books which contained business tips and ideas, also there were business magazines and leaflets.
‘At first,’ vice President Nasiru stopped walking and turned to them. ‘At first, I thought you guys were fraudsters when my mum first told me about you. Then I sent someone to make a research and I found out that your company was real, but I still had to find out if they sent you people. That I confirmed before allowing my mother deal with you.’
Apart from Tarasha and Cole who joined Tarasha to do all the planning processes,  how they got confirmed by he organization in Canada was something confusing to the other two. Only trust in the boss’ plan had made them go for the operation and carry out all her instructions without questions.
Tarasha had a link in the foundation at Canada who on Tarasha’s orders had diverted all calls from Africa to the company’s lines to another line that Tarasha would answer herself in Nigeria. It was a pity that Nasiru Attahiru could not know that the same person who he had been discussing with on telephone was in the same room with him.
‘I want to tell you the story of the Ata’s foundation and how it began,’ Nasiru began to move to the next section. ‘I always keep the keys to the study myself because of this section, I don’t like anyone using the books in my absence. It contains some personal information, even my wife doesn’t know some of the deep secrets stored in these books, especially those ones.’ He pointed to three leather cover books stacked on each other.
‘Onwuli,’ Tarasha read something to herself from the cover of the book on top as she stretched her neck to look. She knew she had heard something like that from somewhere else.
‘But we don’t have any business with those books, this is the one I want you to see…’ Nasiru continued but Tarasha’s mind was far from what he was saying. She had her mind on the three books he pointed at on which she saw the familiar word. Then she remembered where she heard something pronounced like that, it was from Chief Gab when he was trying to explain to her the reason he wanted to kill Chief Jubril and the rest of his targets.
She stylishly moved closer to the books to have a closer view, then she saw some other names which she recognized, Jubril, Gabriel, Elvis, Nasiru were on the back cover too. Then the name of the minister of health who was her first assassination target was also there and two other names she had not heard about. She developed interest in the book and began to look for a way to take it with her. She knew that Chief Gab was the one whose name was Gabriel and that the book would reveal more about Chief Gab’s deal with his targets which may also help her in taking out the last target.
‘Evelyn,’ Nasiru called her name suddenly, he had seen that her mind was far away from his discourse with the others. ‘What are you thinking about?’ He asked, focusing all interest on her.
‘Nothing sir,’ she lied and tried to cover up with a smile.
‘What’s nothing?’ Nasiru did not accept her reply as it was very obvious that she was listening to him.
‘Emm…I was just thinking as a cinematographer,’ she said with a forced smile. ‘I was thinking of what it would be like making films centered on the lives of people like you, it’ll really be inspiring to a lot of young people.’
‘Hmm,’ Nasiru swallowed the lie. ‘There might really be some horror part, you know.’ He said with a shrug, ‘some of us have gone through and done some funny things too. Well, I was saying…’
‘Emm…I was just thinking as a cinematographer,’ she said with a forced smile. ‘I was thinking of what it would be like making films centered on the lives of people like you, it’ll really be inspiring to a lot of young people.’
‘Hmm,’ Nasiru swallowed the lie. ‘There might really be some horror part, you know.’ He said with a shrug, ‘some of us have gone through and done some funny things too. Well, I was saying that for Nigeria to be the country we all want it to be, then every Nigerian has to think and act in a positive way. The Ata’s foundation was a brainchild of my late father, blessed be his memory.
He was so passionate about the children on the streets and under the bridges that every of his weekends were always spent visiting orphanages and motherless babies homes, some he used to visit kids in the slums and give foodstuffs to their families. But he didn’t have enough wealth or influence to come up with something like the Ata’s foundation then. I didn’t have the same passion like he had, the truth is…’ Nasiru stopped and turned to look at the faces of his listeners.
‘I never thought I would do something like this if not for my mother who insisted that I fulfill my father’s last wish. Now I have no regrets doing it, all my life. I’ve never been happier than I am now, seeing children and families given hope and life.’ He took a handkerchief and wiped his teary eyes. The visitors were surprised as they couldn’t figure out the reason for the tears.
‘I lived my younger days as a selfish person, I wasn’t really concerned with anybody else except gathering enough money and getting comfort for myself and my family.’ He began to confess. ‘I’ve hurt a lot of people in the past, a lot of families, a lot of children and even the whole nation. I wish I could erase everything but no matter how hard I try, I still…’ The remaining words were unheard as the tears covered them. The man wiped his face with the handkerchief again and cleaned his mouth. The visitors stared at his face in awe except for Tarasha who was indifferent about his emotional state. All she had in mind was how the man’s death was going to be executed and how the book was going to leave the shelf.
‘That’s why I am happy to see people like you,’ the man continued what seemed to Tarasha an epistle, ‘especially the younger ones.’ Nasiru paused and looked away from Mr Alfred to the three younger representatives. ‘I want to encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing, that’s the way to go.’ He said and handed a handshake to everyone except Mr Alfred who he gave a pat on the back. ‘I’ll edit and release this book for public readership soon, I believe it’ll inspire a lot of young folks like you.’ He said tapping the book which contained the Ata’s foundation history.
He moved away from that section and his visitors moved with him, only Tarasha still had her mind on the section as they moved to the next.
A knock on the door distracted all of them. ‘Who’s it?’ Nasiru spoke aloud.
‘May I come in sir? You do have a phone call.’ A gruff voice sounded.
‘Okay, come in’ Nasiru replied the gruff voice which he knew to be his personal guard’s.
‘Here,’ the muscular man hurried forward and handed over the phone to Nasiru.
Nasiru stared at the phone’s screen for a while, looking undecided as to whether or not to return the call immediately. He was still trying to decide when it began to ring again.
‘Sir,’ he answered the call and excused himself from his guests with an hand gesture. He began to walk with the bodyguard towards the door.
‘Was that Don Dan I saw on the news today?’ Nasiru asked in a shocked voice while still walking out of the study.
The Don Dan mentioned caught the attention of the rest of the team except for Tarasha. They looked at each other’s faces and made eye gestures, then Tarasha understood that the man must have said something with which they can relate. She took a quick glance around the top corners of the study to see if there was a camera in it, she found none.
‘Go and listen to him,’ she said to Benny who was disguised as Mr Alfred. ‘Carefully,’ she added with a warning look at him. Benny walked gently closer to the entrance where he could hear the man’s voice faintly. He folded his arm and began to stare at the pictures on the wall.
Tarasha took the opportunity to return to the previous section, she picked up the hardcover book which caught her attention. She noticed it was a very old book and it wasn’t complete, more than half of the pages had been detached from it. She flipped it open and the first thing she saw was ‘Arms Deal with Elvis Richards’. Before she could continue, she already saw Benny returning to the former position gently, she returned the book and also joined the rest at the new section.
‘I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, I just had to attend to that. It was from the vice president.’ Nasiru explained as he walked back into the study. ‘Now this section, like I believe you’ve noticed already, is where I can find everything thing concerning the house of Reps and law in Nigeria. It’s my work and that’s why it’s the largest section. From the beginning to the end of the rack, you’ll find books that’ll educate you more about the Constitution of the nation. You may not understand some since you’re aren’t a…’ The man continued to rattle on.
Tarasha was getting uncomfortable with the man’s unnecessary talks, she took out her phone secretly and began to set up some commands. After some few seconds, she dialed Nasiru’s number to distract him.
Soon enough the guard came back with the phone and Nasiru excused himself again.
‘It’s time to split guys,’ Tarasha said to the team immediately the man went out of earshot. ”We have to locate an escape route now. Do you have your communication devices with you?’
They all nodded in positive to her question. ‘Then remain connected alw…’ She stopped as Nasiru returned back into the place hurriedly.
‘I’m sorry guys, I thought the vice President was trying to get back to me but it was a wrong dial.’ Nasiru apologized again. ‘My phone is here now,’ he showed them his phone and then dipped it into his pocket.
‘Sir,’ Evelyn called in a faint voice.
‘Yes, Evelyn.’ The man answered.
‘Ermm… I’ll like to use the restroom sir’ she announced, receiving planned awkward stares from the rest of the team.
‘Okay,’ Nasiru replied and took out his phone again. He dialed a first number but the call wasn’t answered, he dialed another. ‘Hello Joe, get to Fatima for me and tell her I need her in the study right now. Get back to me immediately you relay my message.’ He said into the phone and nodded in response to the call receiver’s reply. He cut the call and glanced at Evelyn. ‘Fatima would be here to attend to you in the next one minute,’ he said to her.
‘Thank you sir,’ she curtsied. They all waited patiently for the arrival of Fatima and true to the man’s word, Fatima arrived in a minute time.
Evelyn was excused to go with Fatima while the rest remained in the study.
~~
‘Let’s go this way,’ Fatima said on seeing Tarasha facing the opposite direction as they got outside the study.
‘Please, I need to get something in my bag first.’ Tarasha replied.
‘What do you want to take there? I may have it in the house.’ Fatima said to her.
‘It’s a medicine I need.’
‘Ehen… Are you sure you can go there yourself or do I send a maid to get it for you?’ Fatima suggested, sounding concerned.
‘Let me get it myself please,’ Tarasha replied and kept moving in the same direction. Fatima followed her.
~~
‘Like I was saying before the interruption, everything concerning the laws, Constitution and work in the Senate are contained here.’ Nasiru continued his talk. Not long after, Cole clutched his hands to his stomach and began to let out air from his mouth through silent burps.
‘What’s wrong?’ Nasiru asked in a very serious tone and with a serious look on his face.
‘I’m feeling a little bit uneasy,’ Cole managed to say. ‘I think I too have to use the restroom.’
‘Restroom?’ Mr Alfred turned to the Senate President and stared at him in a kind of accusing manner.
‘Ermm… It’s just a little issue, maybe you took something earlier today that’s your system is reacting to.’ Nasiru said, looking visibly disturbed. ‘Come with me,’ he said with a hand gesture to Cole and began to proceed out of the place.
~~
**5 minutes later**
Immediately Tarasha entered into the toilet, she turned on the communication device whose receiver was at her back and fixed the earpiece in her left ear. Then she rolled up her flowing gown and removed some metal devices from some attached pockets to her thighs. She dropped them in the sink and climbed on the water closet to see through the window. After taking some minutes to observe, she stepped down and walked back to the sink. Her device beeped.
‘Boss,’ Cole’s voice came through.
‘Cole, have you separated yourself from the rest?’
‘Yes, I’m in the restroom now.’
‘Any clear route seen from there?’ She asked as she took out a bug and a sharp blade-like metal from the devices placed in the sink.
‘There’s only a small farmyard at this place, it’s the boundary between this house and Cole’s car.’
‘Are you in the upper floor?’
‘Yes.’
‘What side of the house are you in?’
‘I don’t know where.’
‘Don’t you have a compass with you?’ Tarasha asked.
‘I have.’
‘Then use it to determine the position in relation to where our car was parked outside.’
‘Okay, I’ll get back to you boss.’ Cole said and the connection was cut.
Tarasha climbed back on the water closet and tore off the net with the blade like metal. She clipped the bug to the wall behind the window.
Her device beeped again. ‘Cole’
‘I’m at the left side of the upper floor.’
‘Okay, who showed you to the toilet?’
‘Mr Nasiru asked his personal guard to bring me here.’
‘Okay, there’s a pin among your tools there, it’ll induce temporary tranquilization when stuck into the man’s neck. Use it to…’
~~
‘Hey! Hope all is well,’ Cole could hear the bodyguard shout from outside.
‘Hummp!’ Cole owled like someone struggling to let out faeces. He was sure the man heard him and was going to think he was having a hard time defecating.
‘What’s that?’ He could hear the Boss ask from the other side.
‘Nothing Boss, I’ll do as you instructed.’ He said in the usual low voice he had been using and cut the connection.
He got up from the water closet and dipped his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket. He was able to take out the pin Tarasha talked about in a nylon. He unsealed it and placed it between his fingers. Then he pressed the flush button on the Water closet.
He waited for another minute before he opened the door and stepped out.
‘Hope you’re feeling better now?’ The muscular guy asked.
‘Yes,’ Cole answered with a slight groan, still adjusting his trousers.
‘Okay, Alhaji Nasiru and the rest of your colleagues are waiting for you in the living room.’
‘Okay…’ Cole moved closer to the guy, half limping and half walking. He thought he could stick the pin into the man’s throat easily as he was sure the man wasn’t ready to defend any attack but he was wrong. The bodyguard grabbed him by the fist before the pin could get to his neck.
The fury on the guards eyes was bloody as if he had been waiting for a prey to pounce on.
~~
‘Where are you now?’ Tarasha typed into the chat box.
‘We are in the living room, waiting for your orders.’ Benny replied in less than twenty seconds.
‘Have your heard from Cole?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Okay, the next order would be from him. Now, where is the target? Is he close to you?’
‘Not too far, he’s some centimetres away, talking silently with his wife and some of his maids.’
‘Cole would call you soon, we won’t use a gun on the man but would silence him quietly with the poison. We’ll likely escape through the main gate also with his daughter as an hostage. Just wait for the next orders from Cole.’
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny typed in.
‘And, what did you hear the man discuss with the vice president on the phone?’
‘I think he and the vice president are involved in some shady deals, it’s like one of their boys sent on an errand had been caught earlier today.’
‘And who is Don Dan? You, Cole and Aisha seemed to have heard the name before.’
The reply this time took more than the usual time but Benny finally typed it. ‘He’s our former boss, I think it’s one of his other men that was caught in the errand they sent him.’
‘Okay, then.’
Tarasha turned off the phone’s screen and dipped into her inner pocket. She got up from the water closet, thinking. It was surely Don that she met ealier that day. That was why he could mention her name. But why and what does the Vice and Senate President have to do in Henry’s apartment? She asked herself.
She began to return the tools she put in the sink. A knock sounded on the door.
‘Evelyn,’ she heard Fatima call outside.
‘I’m coming,’ she answered in a singing tone.
‘Please, take your time. I just wanted to find out if you’re okay.’
The roads were clear on this perfect sunny afternoon. The traffic jam and rush on the street was at the lowest minimum. Henry was driving while Omotara was seated with him at the front seat. They seemed to be involved in a deep heart talk with each other as both of them smiled occasionally. After driving for some few minutes, they halted the car in front of a drinks store and Henry pushed the horn twice. In one minute time, Jefa came out of the store and proceeded towards the car. He entered into the backseat and the couple greeted him warmly. Then they continued the ride.
‘I’ve got something for you two,’ Jefa spoke from the back seat and handed a small white polythene bag to Omotara.
‘Oh, ice cream!’ Omotara flashed her teeth as she opened the polythene bag to see the contents. Henry also peeped and smiled.
‘Thank you, Uncle Jefa.’ Henry said in appreciation.
‘It’s nothing,’ Jefa replied.
Omotara took her own ice cream cup and took off the seal. She took a spoonful and widened her eyes in excitement as she fell in love with the taste. She turned to look at Jefa who was smiling at the back. ‘I never knew you had such a good taste too,’ she joked.
‘Come on, I’ve got a better taste than you two.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know so.’
‘Hehe, no problem if it makes you feel better anyway.’ She said and added a short laugh. Jefa gave her a playful punch on the shoulder.
‘Better leave Uncle Jeffery,’ Henry joined playfully. ‘He’s a gentleman and gentlemen always make a good choice of things like this.’
‘You can say that again if it will make both of you sleep better tonight,’ Omotara said with another round of laughter. ‘I feel like taking beef roll too.’ She added, to Henry.
‘Beef roll and ice cream?’ Henry questioned.
‘Well, it’s none of your business what I combine.’Omotara answered playfully.
‘Okay Boss,’ Henry saluted in the same playful manner, ‘just mention when you see any store where it is sold, so we can stop by and you’ll drop to get it yourself.’
‘Huh?’ Omotara queried, pouting her lips and staring straight into his eyes.
Henry sighed, trying his best to focus on the road.  ‘So I should be the one to get it for you?’ He asked with a raise eyebrow.
‘Yes, or you want me to lecture you on what it means to be a gentleman again?’ She spread out her hands to emphasize her point.
‘Gentlemanliness is not defined that way,’ Jefa cut in from the back, ‘he’s been a gentleman enough to agree that we stop by a store to get one for you when you’re only a few metres to the house.’
‘Hahaha, Uncle Jeffery is an ancient Gentleman. Well, enough of the talks.’ Omotara raised up her two hands girlishly to halt the conversation. ‘Stop, there’s a store over there.’ She said, pointing to a small neat kiosk at the other side of the road.
Henry took his time to pull over and then glanced at the direction she was pointing at, he took a glance back at her.
‘You know my favorite,’ she winked at him.
He sighed and pulled off his seatbelt. He opened the door and stepped out.
‘You just want to trouble this guy,’ Jefa said to her as they watched him look out for vehicles before crossing the road.
‘No, I’m just helping his destiny come quicker.’ Omotara replied in a stern voice. She turned back to look at Jefa, her happy face had changed into something different, she now had a smirk on.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Jefa questioned with a raised eyebrow.
‘Just watch and see,’ Omotara answered and then looked towards Henry’s direction. He had already gotten the beef roll and was waiting to cross the road with a nylon bag. He was seen dipping his hand into his pocket, his phone was taken out, he answered a call and placed it on his ear. Just then, he stepped into the road and started walking back. Suddenly, a sand carrying tipper truck appeared from nowhere and was rushing towards him.
Jefa finally jerked off from his dream, sweating profusely in the cold air conditioned room. He rolled out of the blanket and turned on the blue light. He wiped off the sweat from his forehead after sitting up.
What manner of dream was this? He asked himself. This was the third nightmare he had had within a very brief period of days and there seemed to be a connection between the three. In the first dream, Omotara was the one who was attacked. In the second dream, he, Jefa was pointed a gun and in this third dream, a vehicle was rushing towards Henry. In the first and the third dream, it wasn’t clear if Omotara or Henry was killed but it was obvious that their lives were in great danger but in the second dream, the bullet of the gun clearly pierced into Jefa’s head.
Jefa buried in face in his palms in frustration, his wounds suddenly began to ache him again. He had never been a clairvoyant person but with the way the nightmares are coming, he believed that God was giving him premonitions of something about to happen very soon.
Jefa rolled out of the bed and turned on the white bulb. He took a glance at the wall clock, it was already close to eleven pm. Then he stared around the room to see where his clothes were kept for him by Omotara, he had to start packing immediately. He would leave by the next day since it was obvious that the reuniting with each other would cause tragedy, the nightmares alone already spells doom for them, he didn’t want to wait until the physical manifestations begin.
He proceeded to the wardrobe when he couldn’t see any of his clothes or bags around, he tried to open it but it didn’t open. He looked around to see if there was any keyhole hidden somewhere but he found none, it seemed that the wardrobe lock was electrical.
He struggled to bent down and search under the bed but there was no pin under the bed, under the bed looked recently swept and mopped. He gave up searching for his clothes and returned to sleep in the bed. He would make sure he leaves the house the next day after Omotara returns in the morning. He will try his best to explain his decision to her before parting finally.
~~~
Don and Stainless were now in one of the underground rooms of Stainless’ caban. The room which was a long abandoned old arsenal looked like a mud house that was about to collapse, sands dropped on their heads occasionally. The arms and ammunitions were all cover in sand and dust. A fully charged lamp by the top left corner of the room served as the source of light in the room. Stainless had inherited the whole place from their former Master and Boss, Scot whom Don murdered after a disagreement.
Don kept staring at Stainless from time to time, partially in anger and then in thankfulness. He was angry that Stainless could theaten him so much with a gun which had no bullets in it when he himself had a gun which was fully loaded in his pocket. And he was thankful because he wasn’t dead, until now he never believed that he could be so scared of death.
‘Here,’ Stainless passed an old hard cover book to him from his bag.
‘What’s this?’ Don asked, taking a close look at the book.
‘Some of my old deals with Elvis Richards are in there,’ Stainless answered.
‘I don’t think we should be searching about Elvis’ old deals now, I think we should be more focused on who sent Tara… Samantha.’
‘Tara…?’ Stainless raised an eyebrow with a questioning look. ‘You’ve been mentioning that since, are you still hiding something from me?’
‘I told you I was going to tell you more after the meal,’ Don answered.
‘And now we’ve finished the meal and we’ve even left the house.’
‘Yes, I’ll tell you. Let’s take it one after the other.’
‘I still think we need to find out Chief Elvis’s connection with Samantha Osman also, it may help us in getting her.’ Stainless suggested.
‘I don’t really think there’s a connection between them until now, Elvis Richards is scared that she’ll be coming for his life soon, that’s why he’s hunting her. She doesn’t even know that he’s after her. And who knows, he may not be part of her targets.’
‘But what’s the purpose for his fear?’
‘He mentioned to me once that all the people that Tara… Samantha has brought down were once involved in a deal with him, except for the Rivers State Governor.’
Stainless closed the bag he was searching in and got up, he folded his arms and stared at Don. ‘Now you’ve got to tell me the connection between Tara and Samantha Osman, you’ve made the mistake of calling Tara almost more than half of the times you wanted to refer to Samantha.’
‘Tarasha is her real name,’ Don finally said, ‘she was exported down to Nigeria, I don’t know which country she was exported from but report says that she looks like an African.’
‘Tarasha,’ Stainless mumbled under his breath, wondering what African country and language the name could be from. ‘Have you met with her before?’
‘No, except for today when we both met her for the first time.’Don answered reluctantly, wondering if Stainless was deaf and didn’t hear the answer when he had told him earlier that day.
‘How do you know so much about her?’
‘She works for Chief Gab,’ Don stated.
‘Chief Gab!’ Stainless exclaimed, ‘where the hell is that man?’
‘He’s kicking, he’s in Nigeria.’
‘Wow! I never knew he’s done with his jail term.’
‘He was released some years ago.’
‘Okay, I think I remember when the media reported it but since then we’ve not heard anything else about him.’ Stainless said before bending down to bring out a long gun. It was covered with dust.
‘He’s not been making public comments, so the media may be quiet about him.’
‘Interesting! But where’s he getting the money he’s using to send Samantha…I mean Tarasha these errands?’
‘That’s best known to him,’ Don remarked with less concern.
‘So it’s Chief Gab who is behind all these killings?’
Don gave no reply but kept gathering the bullets he was picking. There was silence for a while before Don spoke again. ‘If we can get Chief Gab’s list of targets, we can know all her moves.’
‘That’s true but how do we do that?’
‘We have to travel to Lagos, I can easily break into Chief Gab’s apartments.’
‘Then let’s travel tomorrow, or can you send your people from your Nanl Gang to do it?’
‘We can’t travel tomorrow when we already know her immediate next move. Let’s tackle that first.’
‘Huh? How do you know her next move?’ Stainless turned to stare at him in surprise.
Don shook his head as he saw Stainless’ surprise. He had thought by Stainless’ action that day, Stainless had become wiser but he was just proved wrong. ‘Don’t you know her next move?’ He stared back at Stainless in surprise.
‘Ermm…I don’t know.’ Stainless scratched his head.
Don gave a chuckle, he felt like taking out a gun to blow off Stainless’ dumb brain immediately but he restrained himself, he still needed to keep Stainless to finish off Tarasha’s execution. Don was sure that Stainless was also keeping him alive because he was interested in conquering Samantha Osman. After that goal was achieved, he knew that only one of them would be left alive as the fastest between the both of them would kill the other immediately.
‘Her next move would be to look for us,’ Don stated and returned to what he was doing.
‘Look for us? Why?’ Stainless Asked another set of questions.
Don was obviously irritated by the question. He was now sure that Stainless’ dumbness was the reason Elvis Richards did not entrust the job to him.
‘She saw both of us in Henry’s house, I’m sure she came there to get something. She’ll want to find out what we were doing there and who are, especially I that called her by her name.’
‘Hmmm… True,’ Stainless could not but nod in agreement. He wondered why he had not thought about it that way, the only people he was expecting to be after him was the police. Now, he could understand the reason why Don excelled better than him at the job. ‘Then we’ve got to prepare in case she comes here for us but I don’t think she’ll be coming soon now that they police are keeping an eye on the place.’
‘Don’t talk like that, she’s super intelligent, she always has her way of getting past the police.’ Don cautioned.
‘Does that mean that she’ll come immediately?’
‘Most likely, I believe she was looking for something in Henry E.G’s house. Maybe something she forgot the last time. If she doesn’t find it there, she may think that we have whatever it is. That gives her more reasons to look for us.’
‘Great! Then we don’t need to struggle since we are expecting her. We’ll just wait for her here. I would call back some of my men.’ Stainless said, with a note of confidence in his voice.
‘We’ll get many boys to join us but what we need more importantly is the brain to match hers. If we act stupidly, we’ll end up putting ourselves in trouble.’ Don cautioned again. ‘Remember Robin Kahn,’ he quickly added to emphasize his point.
‘That’s true, so what do you suggest we do?’
‘We’ll use a method I learnt from her,’ Don paused and turned to Stainless with a crooked smile. ‘The same method she used for Robin Kahn. She knew that Robin was coming, so she set him up to come to a place which she knew better than him, then she set traps there for him. We have a better situation.’ Don paused to clear his throat. ‘We know she’s coming here and we also know she’ll be coming during the night time cos she can’t enter during the day when she’ll not be able to hide herself from the police monitoring. We’ll set enough traps for her and I’m sure she’ll walk into it.’
Tarasha made her way out of the room again carefully, this time she went in direction of the study. After walking for one minute, she was able to locate the study, it was locked and there was need for an access card to unlock it. She quickly rolled up the tight skirts and took out two  screwdriver- like metals, she began to unscrew the access panel.
~~
Three minutes had passed and Benny had not gotten any message from Tarasha. His heart began to fear at the thought of leaving Cole in the explosion that was about to rock the house. He began to think of anyway possible to reach Cole and help him out. He took out his connection device and punched in Cole’s code. He fixed the earpiece in his left ear, just as it was about connecting, the Senate President returned to the living room.
‘Your friends have not still returned?’ Mr Nasiru asked with a worried look on his face.
‘Sir, I’m not very happy with what is happening.’ Mr Alfred replied in a sad tone.
‘I’m really sorry sir,’ Nasiru tried to calm him, ‘but do you know of any substance that the both of them may have an allergy for?’
‘I’m not aware of anything,’ Mr Alfred said angrily, he took a glance at his wristwatch, four minutes was gone already. ‘They’ve been eating well since we got to Nigeria and they’ve not been selective of anything.’
‘Ermm… Maybe I need to check out on them.’ Nasiru said and was turning back.
‘No sir,’ Mr Alfred stopped him. ‘I think I have to call the office first.’
‘No please, don’t do that.’ Nasiru pleaded, ‘it’s just a little thing that we can sort out.’
‘No, I’m not calling to report you, I’m calling the medical unit to find out if they had any previous case or records like this.’
‘But are you sure that’s the right thing to do?’ Nasiru asked in fear, not wanting for his relationship with their foundation to be destroyed.
‘Yes, don’t worry. They’ll be no problems.’ Mr Alfred said and got up. ‘I need to get to the car and take my second phone. Please can you show me the way?’
~~~~
The guard flung Cole out of the toilet to the floor outside mercilessly, he stepped out of the toilet and closed the door.
Cole felt his body weaken more as he landed on the floor, his head almost hitting the wall. For some seconds he left his eyes closed and opened it again when he didn’t hear sounds of the man’s movement. He saw the guard standing in front of the toilet’s door, staring at him. Cole took his gaze away and turned his neck to another side and there he saw the tranquilizing pin he had wanted to use earlier. It was not out of his hand reach but he felt too weak at the moment to stretch forth his hand and he wouldn’t even want to do it while the man was staring at him.
The guard started taking slow steps closer to him, Cole tried to turn but couldn’t, he felt the metals in his pockets again. Then he saw something, something which he could use. He remembered his boss’ saying that anything could be a weapon. Some hope returned to him and he managed to dipped his hand into his inner pocket, acting as if he was grabbing his stomach in pains so that the man wouldn’t suspect anything.  He gave a very faint smile on seeing the man’s shoe lace carelessly loose and dragging on the floor.
The guard kept marching to him with slow steps. He stopped right in front of Cole face, close to the wall and squatted, staring straight at Cole’s face. ‘Who sent you?’ He barked.
Cole turned his face away but the man turned it back to himself and added a slap. ‘I said who sent you?’ He barked again.
Cole’s fingers by this time already touched the metals he needed, a tiny rope clip and a short knife. He stretched his free hand and placed it on the guard’s left shoe. The guard glanced at the movement but took it for granted as he believed that Cole was too weak to do anything dangerous to him.
‘You won’t talk?’ He shouted once again.
‘She sent us,’ Cole finally answered, still doing his work on the man’s shoe. He had gotten a hold of the lace and held it softly. Then he noticed something else on the man’s left shoulder, there was kind of swelling which wasn’t on the other side. To Cole, it looked like the man had a dressed wound there.
‘Who is she?’ The man asked in low tones, mentioning the words one after the other.
Cole stared at his face and gave a smile, bringing confusion to the man. ‘Even if you kill me, you can’t cause our mission to be aborted. She never fails and won’t fail this either,’ Cole said, with the hope of buying more time.
‘Who the hell is she?’ The man slammed and stood to his feet to take out something from his pocket. With that Cole removed his hand from the inner pocket and clipped the man’s shoe with the metal clip, he mustered enough strength to get up and drag the clip, making the man fall to the ground with a thud.
Immediately, Cole followed up by driving the knife into the man’s shoulder where he noticed the swelling. The man responded with a loud groan that echoed round the room. Then Cole turned to search for the pin where it was, he located it and carefully picked it up. He drove it into the man’s neck at once.
~~
Tarasha had just picked the book and was about proceeding out of the place when she heard some voices approaching. With what they were discussing, they had seen the door left ajar.
‘The study is not locked?’ A coarse voice expressed the owner’s surprise.
‘How come? The man never leaves it open.’ The accompanying voice said. Tarasha quickly hid herself beside the door.
Someone pushed the door open a little and closed it back. ‘What may have happened to the access panel?’
‘Maybe the man is trying to change it,’ the accompanying voice replied.
‘Whatever,’ the hand drew the door close again but it still went ajar. Tarasha waited until she heard their voices and footsteps no more. She quickly opened the door and peeped, there was no one else in the corridor. She stepped out and looked left and right, it was time to set up the other bomb and leave the place. She started following the route where she had come from. Her connection device beeped.
‘Cole,’ she called.
‘Boss,’ Cole spoke in a low voice.
‘Speak up Cole, have you gotten away from the man?’
‘Yes, he’s down. Cole tried to raise his voice.
‘Ermm…’ Tarasha delayed the reply as she thought of the best step to take now that Cole was free.
‘Boss…’ Cole called when he heard nothing again from the other end.
‘Cole, find another security guard whose clothes you can use and take the clothes.’
‘Huh?’ Cole sounded surprised, he wasn’t expecting such an order now that he just had a hard time defeating one guard.
‘Cole,’ Tarasha chuckled, noticing his surprise. ‘If you could defeat the the man’s personal security official, you can take out anyone else.’ She added to encourage him.
‘Sh*t! One is here already.’ Tarasha heard Cole mention before the connection was cut.
She took out her phone and dialed Benny. ‘Where are you now?’
~~~~
‘I just finished timing the bomb and I’m about to leave with Aisha. The Senate President is walking at the front of his house. I’m waiting for Aisha so that we could both take the escape route.’ Benny replied Tarasha, watching the Senate President and his wife standing in front of the house while Aisha was coming towards the car from the house.
‘How many minutes has it run for already?’
‘Just one,’ Benny answered after glancing at where the bomb was placed in the car.
‘So that means it took you nine minutes to go out of the house?’ Tarasha questioned, in something more like a scolding manner. Benny was quiet. ‘Set the time to thirty minutes now and return into the house, I’ll send something into your phone for you to show the man.’ She ordered and the call ended.
Benny stepped back into the car and picked up the detonator, he entered in the password and stopped the reading, then he set it afresh for thirty minutes.
‘What’s happening?’ Aisha asked as she got near the car. She had been in darkness all the while since it was only Benny the boss was communicating with, the only thing she knew was that Benny gave her the signal to follow him when he was going out to the car.
‘Nothing,’ Benny smiled and stepped out, then he closed the door. ‘I’m just following the boss’ instruction.’
‘But you’re not telling me anything.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.’ Benny said and grabbed her by the arm and they both returned into the house.
~~
Cole rose up to face the new guard who just entered. The slim guard was staring around the room with great awe of the disarray in the place. He took a glance at the Chief’s personal bodyguard laying lifeless, his face clearly showed his shock on seeing the man down. He raised up his head and stared at Cole with a frowned face.
Cole rushed to the guard as the man’s hand made way into his pocket. He landed a kick on the man’s belly and the man staggered backwards, his body closing back the door.
~~
Nasiru and his wife began to walk back slowly into the house with their guests, there was an unvoiced tension and unusual silenced amongst them. Benny took out his phone and unlocked it, he clicked on the chat application and opened the conversation box with Tarasha. She was already typing in a message.
‘Show the pictures I send you to the man,’ the message entered as they stepped into the living room.
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny replied and proceeded with Aisha to the three seater sofa to sit.
Another message came in shortly, ‘is his wife still with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Make sure that she and her husband does not leave there but show only the husband the message.’
‘Okay Boss,’ Benny answered and the messages paused for a minute.
‘I think I need to go check your colleagues now,’ The Senate President said after he saw that the guests were seated  for a while. His wife was seated at the opposite sofa to them.
‘No need sir, I have a message for you.’ Mr Alfred said and got up.
‘What message is that?’ Nasiru answered reluctantly and walked back to Mr Alfred who was also walking towards him.
‘Here,’ Mr Alfred clicked on the loading picture. An blurry image first appeared and it became clearer in few seconds.
‘What?’ Nasiru screamed out loud on seeing the photo. There was his daughter Fatima tied to the bed, with an explosive device around her body. Aisha and Mrs Nasiru got up immediately in shock as they heard the man’s scream. Two of the guards also came into the living room from different directions.
‘Calm down mister,’ Mr Alfred said to the man in a low voice, ‘we don’t want to harm her if you’ll cooperate with us.’
‘Yes, I would cooperate.’ The man said nodded his head in agreement, almost in tears already.
‘Now tell your guards to return, assure them that there’s no problem.’ Benny said to his ears.
‘Go back everyone, everything is fine.’ Nasiru ordered immediately.
‘Correct,’ Benny smiled. He checked his phone again, there was another text message and more pictures. ‘Tell the man to sit with you as if nothing happened and wait till I come.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Mrs Nasiru stood at her husband’s front and asked.
‘Nothing o, nothing.’ Mr Nasiru sang back like a terrified child, his body trembling all over.
~~
Tarasha climbed down the bed after attaching the bomb to Fatima’s body, then she started to pull off the maid’s uniform. After a minute, she had stripped to her underwear and was proceeding to pick her previous clothes, her connection device beeped.
‘Cole,’ she called as she answered.
‘Boss, I’m in the security guards uniform now.’
‘Do you have a cap with you?’
‘Ermm… I will take the cap now.’
‘Better, meet us in the living room. Connect me if any one confronts you. And if you get there before me, ensure that the target and his wife does not leave there.’
‘Okay boss,’ Benny said and the connection was closed.
Tarasha began to put on the clothes hurriedly, she turned back to Fatima who was staring at her, tied to the bed with the bomb attached to her body. She was too terrified to scream or move as Tarasha had threatened that the bomb would go off it unnecessary movements were made or if there was any attempt made to detach it.
‘Sorry baby,’ Tarasha said with a smirk, ‘sometimes, the children partakes from the Father’s sins.’
~~
‘What do you want from me?’ Nasiru asked from Mr Alfred, now seated but still trembling.
‘Calm down mister, you’ll find out soon.’
‘I said what is the matter?’ Mrs Nasiru shouted at her husband in an angry manner.
Benny gave the man a threatening look to warn his wife. ‘Will you sit down woman,’ Nasiru shouted back at her.
‘Something is clearly wrong, I’ll alert the security’ She said and began to hurry away. Aisha followed after immediately to stop her.
‘No madam, you can’t do that.’ A man dressed in the security’s uniform walked in from the corridor of the inner rooms and stopped at her front.
‘Cole!’ Aisha exclaimed as she saw the security man’s face.
‘Yea baby, I’m with you.’ Cole winked at Aisha and took out something from his pocket.
‘Who the hell are you and what authority do you think you have to stop me?’ Mrs Nasiru tried to push Cole away and proceed on but Cole pushed in a pin into the side of her neck. She felt dizzy immediately and collapsed into Cole’s hands, he carefully placed her on the floor.
‘Please don’t hurt her,’ Mr Nasiru screamed and stood up.
‘Get seated man,’ Cole took out a gun and pointed at the man, ‘she’s not dead, she’s only taking a nap.’
Up to five security officials rushed into the scene at once, two from the same place Cole came from and pointed the guns at Cole.
Then Benny got up and held the man neck, he pointed his gun to the man’s head. ‘Tell them to drop their arms or you and your daughter would be killed.’
All the men directed their gun focus to Benny now.
‘Drop your guns,’ Nasiru said to the men. They slowly began to comply.
‘Hello Senate President,’ Tarasha came in from behind the guards. She walked to the man’s front and stood. Then she took a quick glance at her men, Cole, Benny and Aisha before returning her gaze to the man. ‘Come on Benny, treat the Senate President with respect.’ She said in a tone of mockery. Benny slowly took off the gun from the man’s head.
Cole bent down and began to pack the guns of the security men. Tarasha took out her phone from the bag she had carried with her upstairs. She turned on the screen to check the time. ‘We only have fifteen minutes to get out of this house,’ she announced loudly. She took out a timer from her bag and showed it to the man, it was at thirty minutes and twenty three seconds, counting down. ‘The bomb on your daughter’s body would be going off when this time counts down to the end. The place where the control point of the bomb will require fifteen minutes drive from here.’ She said, staring at the man’s face squarely. ‘Well, fifteen minutes if there’s no traffic.’
‘Who are you?’ The man managed to mutter, squeezing his face bitterly.
‘Hahaha, you’re asking questions?’ Tarasha laughed out loud. ‘I will do you the honour of replying.’ She cleared her throat and folded her arms. ‘Your people call me Samantha Osman.’
The man’s face fell, a tear dropped from his eyes. ‘I’ve been expecting you, but please spare my daughter and my wife.’
‘Only you can do that now, just follow us quietly and tell your security officials to remain calm until you return.’ She ordered.
Cole, Benny and Aisha kept staring at their boss in surprise. This was not their initial plan, what she was doing was far from their plan but they had complete trust in her.
.....to be continued.